CINCINNATI, Ohio—In the opening match of a weekend road trip against BIG EAST foes Villanova (2-10) tallied wins at No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles in a 6-1 loss to Xavier (10-5) at the Eastern Hills Indoor Tennis Club on Friday afternoon. The lone point for the Wildcats came from sophomore Ryan Nguyen (Oakton, Va.) who came from behind to win his singles match in a tiebreaker.
 
Nguyen improved to 14-11 on the season and tallied his third dual victory of the year against Caden Kammerer in the sixth spot of the lineup. The first two sets ended in similar 6-4 scores, with Kammerer taking the early lead in the match and Nguyen rallying to win the second set. He eventually won a tiebreaker, 10-5, to secure the victory.
 
Earlier in the day the doubles duo of sophomores Josh Robinson (Potomac, Md.) and Noah Winton (Columbia, Mo.) posted a 6-1 win over Charlie Temming and Shashank Reddy in the No. 3 doubles match. That was the first match to conclude, but the host Musketeers clinched the doubles point with eventual wins by identical 6-3 scores in the top two matches. Senior Matthew Jones (Dallas, Texas) and junior Justin Suarez (Manila, Philippines) took on Diego Nava and Ryan Cahill at No. 1 doubles, while freshman Trey Fourticq (Los Angeles, Calif.) and sophomore Anthony Prokurat (Manalapan, N.J.) fell to Brett Winters and Cambell Nakayama in the No. 2 match.
 
The second half of the weekend sees the Wildcats travel to Butler for a Saturday afternoon matchup.