Nuggets remain 15th in NAIA; Alcorn visits Thursday

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana is one of 14 teams whose ranking in Tuesday's NAIA Women's Tennis Coaches' Top 25 Poll is the same as two weeks ago.
     
The Gold Nuggets (8-11) remained 15th. It's their 36th consecutive appearance in the top 25 and their 81st in the last 91 polls dating to Feb. 25, 2004.
     
Xavier will play its final home dual of the season at noon Thursday at XU Tennis Center against NCAA Division I's Alcorn State. Honored in a prematch ceremony will be seniors Vashni Balleste, Brion Flowers and Jana van der Walt.
     
Alcorn will be the Gold Nuggets' seventh NCAA DI opponent this season.
     
The national rankings are the NAIA's sixth of the season. Defending national champion Auburn Montgomery received 8-of-14 first-place votes and remained No. 1. Two points behind AUM is Georgia Gwinnett, which received the remainder of the first-place votes. The top six teams are the same as the previous poll.

NAIA Women's Tennis Coaches' Top 25 Poll (first-place votes in parentheses — records through April 10) Rank Team Record Points Last 1 Auburn Montgomery (8) 16-3 369 1 2 Georgia Gwinnett (6) 11-2 367 2 3 Lindsey Wilson 12-4 350 3 4 SCAD Savannah 14-1 337 4 5 Cardinal Stritch 11-1 325 5 6 Brenau 14-4 315 6 7 Westmont 7-7 289 8 8 Middle Georgia 13-6 285 7 9 Indiana Wesleyan 26-6 283 9 10 Arizona Christian 16-3 256 10 11-tie William Woods 10-2 236 18 11-tie Davenport 17-5 236 16 13 Keiser 10-7 230 12 14 William Carey 10-10 219 13 15 Xavier 8-11 210 15 16 Cumberland 9-7 204 14 17 Northwestern Ohio 8-7 202 11 18 Olivet Nazarene 3-4 179 17 19 Lewis-Clark State 7-13 152 19 20 St. Thomas (Fla.) 8-7 144 20 21 LSU-Alexandria 8-5 138 22 22 McPherson 6-4 123 21 23 SCAD Atlanta 8-3 104 23 24 Mobile 10-5 102 24 25 Marian (Ind.) 14-6 74 25   Dropped from rankings:  none      Others receiving votes:  Georgetown (Ky.) 73, Southeastern (Fla.) 50, Ottawa 43, Reinhardt 40, San Diego Christian 12, Evangel 11, Asbury 10, Texas Wesleyan 8, Campbellsville 6, Dalton State 4, Morningside 3, Southwestern (Kan.) 3