XU coach, player, team garner HBCU Awards nominations

2012-13 XU GOLD NUGGETS TENNIS TEAM

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana has received four nominations, three in athletics, for the third annual HBCU Awards.
    
Christabell Hamilton (women's volleyball) was nominated for female coach of the year. SiMon Franklin (women's basketball) was nominated for female athlete of the year. XU women's tennis was nominated for female team of the year. Also nominated was XU's College of Pharmacy for best STEM program (science, technology, engineering, mathematics).    
     

Christabell Hamilton

Hamilton, who resigned after the 2012 season and two years at Xavier, coached the Gold Nuggets to records of 22-8 overall and 10-0 in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference. For the second consecutive year her team won GCAC regular-season and tournament championships and qualified for NAIA National Championship. The Nuggets produced a school-record 11 consecutive road victories and won a regular-season tournament championship for the first time in the program's five-year history.
    
A native of Pago Pago, American Samoa, and a graduate of Eastern New Mexico University, Hamilton departed Xavier with a 45-15 career record. Her teams never lost a GCAC match — 20 in the regular season, eight in tournaments.
    
Franklin, a 5-foot-7 guard from Baton Rouge, La., and a graduate of St. Joseph's Academy, earned honorable mention on the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball All-America Team. She was All-GCAC for the second consecutive year. Franklin led Xavier with 10.7 points, 2.4 steals and 24.9 minutes per game this past season and also averaged three rebounds and two assists. A four-year starter, Franklin is one of nine Gold Nuggets to reach 1,000 points, 300 rebounds and 200 steals in a career and is 17th all-time at Xavier with 1,136 points. She will receive her bachelor's degree from the university on Saturday.
    

SiMon Franklin

The Xavier women's tennis team, coached by Alan Green and led by nationally ranked singles players Kourtney Howell, Brion Flowers and Amanda Materre, will enter next week's NAIA National Championship as the top seed. When the Gold Nuggets were voted No. 1 in the April 16 coaches poll, it was the first time a Xavier team in any sport had been ranked first in the NAIA. The XU women are 17-7 overall and 10-0 against ranked NAIA opponents. The Gold Nuggets have three victories against NCAA Division I opponents.
    
The nominees for male alumnus of the year include Lane College and Super Bowl XLVII standout Jacoby Jones. His mother, Emily London-Jones, is Xavier's director of student financial aid.
    
The Center for HBCU Media Advocacy Inc. sponsors the awards, which also will be presented for arts and community engagement.
    
Xavier is one of 38 U.S. colleges listed as a "Best Buy School" in the 2013 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges.

By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XULAATHLETICS
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA