XU achieves highest pre-Christmas rank of Browder era

NEW ORLEANS — For the second consecutive week, Xavier University of Louisiana climbed one spot in the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll. The Gold Nuggets are ninth, their highest pre-Christmas ranking in Bo Browder's 14 seasons as head coach.
    
This is the third poll of 2012-13 and the second of the regular season. The next poll will be announced Jan. 8.
    
The Gold Nuggets (7-1) defeated city rival Loyola 54-44 at the Convocation Center on Wednesday in their only game between polls. Xavier's next game will start at 6 p.m. Friday at William Carey, where the Nuggets lost each of the last two seasons.
    
Xavier is in the top 25 for the 34th consecutive time dating to January 2010. That matches the longest streak of the Browder era. The back-to-back top-10 appearances are the first since the Nuggets did it in five consecutive polls from Jan. 11-Feb. 8, 2005.
    
William Carey will be Xavier's final opponent before Christmas. Then the Nuggets will play Dec. 28 against Belhaven and Dec. 29 against 24th-ranked Faulkner in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at Montgomery, Ala. The Nuggets' next home opponent will be No. 12 Bethel (Tenn.), starting at 2 p.m. on Jan. 2 in the new Convocation Center.

NAIA Division I Women's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll (first-place votes in parentheses — records through Sunday, Dec. 9) Rank Team Record Points Last 1 Lubbock Christian (10) 12-0 281 1 2 Freed-Hardeman (1) 11-0 272 2 3 Vanguard 5-0 263 3 4 Westmont 7-1 254 5 5 Westminster (Utah) 8-2 245 4 6 Lee (Tenn.) 8-1 233 6 7 Cumberland 9-0 227 7 8 Oklahoma City 5-2 221 8 9 Xavier 7-1 209 10 10 Campbellsville 8-2 195 11 11 MidAmerica Nazarene 10-1 188 9 12 Bethel (Tenn.) 10-1 187 13 13 The Master's 7-0 175 14 14 Rogers State 9-2 161 15 15 Shawnee State 8-3 156 12 16 Cumberlands 8-2 148 16 17 LSU-Shreveport 8-1 138 17 18 William Woods 7-1 121 19 19 Our Lady of the Lake 9-0 114 tie-20 20 Auburn Montgomery 10-1 101 tie-20 21 Georgetown (Ky.) 4-3 93 18 22 Benedictine (Kan.) 11-1 90 RV 23 Lyon 7-1 88 23 24 Faulkner 9-2 72 25 25 Central Methodist (Mo.) 11-1 67 RV Others receiving votes: Carroll (Mont.) 52, Southern Poly 39, Oklahoma Baptist 35, Biola 33, Wiley 23, Robert Morris (Chicago) 7, Columbia (Mo.) 3, San Diego Christian 3.

By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director

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