It'll be a busy Saturday for 5 XU teams, 3 in postseason

XU will play its first homecoming games in the new Convocation Center.

NEW ORLEANS — For the second consecutive year, there will be five Xavier University of Louisiana teams competing on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Three teams will compete in NAIA National Championships, with one trying to extend its season.

Both XU basketball teams will play their first homecoming games in the new Convocation Center, which opened to the public two weeks ago and seats 3,937.
The day's schedule:
• Women's Basketball — The Gold Nuggets, 2-0 and ranked 11th in NAIA Division I, will play Westminster (Utah), 3-1 and ranked fifth, at noon. It's the first of three consecutive XU games against ranked opponents, and all three will be at home. It's the first time in at least 13 seasons that a top-5 team visits the Nuggets.

• Men's Basketball — The Gold Rush, 5-0 and ranked 19th, will play Wiley, unranked but 4-0, at 2 p.m.. It's the fourth time in five seasons that XU plays the Wildcats in an XU student or alumni homecoming game. The Gold Rush won five of the previous six meetings at XU by four points or less. This is the first XU-Wiley matchup of unbeaten teams since 2007. A victory would make the Rush 6-0 for the fourth time in six seasons. Senior guard Wanto Joseph leads the Rush with 17.4 points per game. Since the start of the 2003-04 season, that's the best average by an XU player in the first five games.
    
• Women's Cross Country — The Gold Nuggets will compete at nationals for the fourth time in five years. The women will run 5,000 meters at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Vancouver, Wash. Starting time will be 10:30 a.m. PST (12:30 p.m. New Orleans time). Sophomore Zahri Jackson, a two-time Gulf Coast Athletic Conference individual champion, makes no secret of her goal to finish in the top 30 and become the Nuggets' first All-America distance runner. If Jackson reaches her goal, she'll receive her All-America honor in a live online video of the awards ceremony staring at 4 p.m. New Orleans time. (Click "Live Events" on the left-side link, then click "Cross Country Championship Awards Ceremony" on the right.)
    
• Men's Cross Country — The Gold Rush, led by two-time GCAC champion Matt Pieri and 2011 champion Kwame Jackson (Zahri's brother), also will conclude the season at nationals at the same site as the women. The men's 8,000-meter race will begin at 11:45 a.m. PST (1:45 p.m. New Orleans time). The XU men are at nationals for the fourth time in five seasons.
    
• Women's Volleyball — The Gold Nuggets (22-7) will play 13th-ranked Georgetown (33-4) at 7:30 p.m. EST (6:30 New Orleans time) at Davis-Reid Alumni Gym in Georgetown, Ky., in an NAIA opening-round match. The winner will advance to the NAIA National Championship Final Site presented by CNOS Nov. 27-Dec. 1 at the Tyson Events Center/Gateway Arena in Sioux City, Iowa. Live video and live statistics are available for the XU-Georgetown match. Xavier, in its fifth year of intercollegiate volleyball, qualified for nationals for the second consecutive year.

 

By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director

XULAATHLETICS

XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA

READ RELATED ARTICLES
11/17/2012: Live video of XU at Georgetown volleyball, 6:30 p.m. CST
11/17/2012: Live stats of Wiley at XU men's basketball, 2 p.m.
11/17/2012: Live stats of Westminster at XU women's basketball, noon