No. 14 Gold Nuggets to play 3 ranked teams in a row

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana, 14th Tuesday in the third NAIA Women's Tennis Coaches' Top 25 Poll of the season, will have a challenging next three days.
    
The Gold Nuggets (4-3) will play No. 6 William Carey at noon Friday in Hattiesburg, Miss., then return home to play No. 18 LSU-Alexandria at 1 p.m. Saturday and No. 23 William Woods at 11 a.m. Sunday at XU Tennis Center.
    
Xavier already has lost this season to William Carey (6-3 at home Feb. 6) and LSUA (6-3 Feb. 13 on the road).
    
Xavier is in the top 25 for the 33rd consecutive time and the 78th time in the last 88 polls. The Gold Nuggets are among the top 15 for the 30th straight time.
    
Defending champion Auburn Montgomery received 12-of-13 first-place votes and remained No. 1. The top seven teams are the same as they were in the previous poll Feb. 16. William Woods is one of three newcomers in this week's top 25.
    
Admission is free to all matches at XU Tennis Center.
    
SCHEDULE NOTES:  XU coach Alan Green said the Friday dual against William Carey was moved up three hours and to the Crusaders' campus courts . . . The start time against LSUA was pushed back two hours . . . A March 10 home dual against Western Kentucky was canceled . . . Added were road duals March 22 at St. Thomas (Fla.) and March 23 at Keiser. Both will start at 2 p.m. EDT.

NAIA Women's Tennis Coaches' Top 25 Poll (first-place votes in parentheses — records through Feb. 28) Rank Team Record Points Last 1 Auburn Montgomery (12) 6-1 343 1 2 Georgia Gwinnett (1) 2-1 332 2 3 Lindsey Wilson 3-3 317 3 4 SCAD Savannah 6-1 311 4 5 Cardinal Stritch 2-1 295 5 6 William Carey 5-4 291 6 7 Brenau 3-2 280 7 8 Arizona Christian 7-0 258 9 9 Keiser 2-5 250 8 10 Westmont 3-2 240 10 11 Northwestern Ohio 4-4 234 11 12 Middle Georgia 5-4 222 RV 13 Cumberland 1-2 201 12 14 Xavier 4-3 194 tie-13 15-tie Indiana Wesleyan 17-0 179 16 15-tie Olivet Nazarene 1-2 179 15 17 Lewis-Clark State 2-10 171 tie-13 18 LSU-Alexandria 4-3 154 22 19 Davenport 4-3 153 17 20 McPherson 0-0 133 18 21 Southeastern (Fla.) 4-1 127 19 22 SCAD Atlanta 3-1 116 21 23 William Woods 1-0 85 RV 24 Mobile 6-0 82 NR 25 Marian (Ind.) 9-2 81 24        Dropped from rankings:  No. 20 Coastal Georgia, No. 23 Evangel, No. 25 Campbellsville      Others receiving votes:  Campbellsville 66, St. Thomas (Fla.) 32, Reinhardt 30, Ottawa 28, Coastal Georgia 26, Evangel 21, Georgetown (Ky.) 16, San Diego Christian 16, Warner 8, Milligan 6, Texas Wesleyan 3, Aquinas 3, Huntington 3 Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director XULAgold.com XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA  twitter.com/xulagold www.facebook.com/xulagold