The courts will give the Gold Rush and Gold Nuggets, both nationally ranked in the NAIA, the opportunity to practice and play home matches on campus. Since XU revived its tennis program in the mid-1990s, the teams used City Park and the University of New Orleans as home venues.
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| The new Xavier Tennis Center consists of six lighted hard courts and will play host to XU dual matches during the spring semester. |
Xavier intercollegiate teams have not played outdoors regularly on their campus since football and men's track and field competed at Xavier Stadium in 1959-60. That facility no longer exists. In recent years two campus tennis courts, which the Rush and Nuggets used for practices, were razed to make room for a College of Pharmacy building expansion.
"This is an exciting time for XU tennis," 10th-year coach Alan Green said. "We are thrilled and grateful to be back home and to be able to showcase our teams in this great new facility."
Green added that the tennis courts will be available to the XU community, the public and for youth clinics.
The facility cost approximately $2.5 million. Construction began in April. Manning Architects designed the facility, and Gibbs Construction built it. Streets bordering the courts are Stroelitz to the north, Palm to the south, Pine to the west and Broadway to the east.
The tennis courts are approximately two blocks east of Xavier's Convocation Center and Convocation Center annex, both of which will open next week. The Convocation Center will be the new home of XU men's and women's basketball and women's volleyball.
By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
VISIT: XULAATHLETICS
The Xavier Gold Rush and Gold Nuggets compete in Division I of the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) as a member of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC). Xavier fields men's teams in basketball, cross country, tennis and track and field and women's teams in basketball, cross country, tennis, track and field and volleyball.
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