Rush have 4 singles players in ITA national rankings

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana's season-long run as the No. 2 NAIA men's team has not gone unnoticed by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, which Wednesday listed four singles players and two doubles teams from the Gold Rush in the initial national individual rankings of the 2017 spring semester.

Ranked from XULA are:

     •  Antoine Richard, fifth nationally and third in the South in singles.
     •  Moses Micheal, 16th nationally and seventh in the South in singles.
     •  Karan Salwan, 19th nationally and eighth in the South in singles.
     •  Catalin Fifea, 38th nationally and 11th in the South in singles.
     •  Tushar Mandlekar, 18th in the South in singles.
     •  Richard and Micheal, eighth nationally and second in the South in doubles.
     •  Pierre Andrieu and Fifea, 23rd nationally and seventh in the South in doubles.
     •  Mandlekar and Salwan, 10th in the South in doubles.
     
XULA firsts include two freshmen in the same singles ranking (Richard and Michael), a ranked all-freshman doubles team (Richard and Micheal) and five singles players and three doubles teams ranked in the region.
     
Richard, from Laval, Quebec, is the sixth Gold Rush player and the second freshman to earn a top-5 national singles ranking. Micheal is from Kaduna, Nigeria. Fifea is a junior from Bucharest, Romania, and a transfer from VCU, and Andrieu is a sophomore from Tours, France. All four enrolled at XULA in January.
     
Salwan, a senior from New Delhi, India, is in the national singles rankings for the sixth time in as many opportunities. Mandlekar, a senior from Bhilai, India, earned a regional singles ranking for the sixth time.
     
Richard and Micheal's No. 2 in the South equals the highest regional ranking ever by a XULA doubles team.
  
Oracle Corporation sponsors the ITA rankings.
     
The XULA men are in Florida for dual matches against ASA Miami at 2 p.m. EDT Thursday and St. Thomas at 10 a.m. Friday. The next home dual will start at 1 p.m. March 22 against Ouachita Baptist at XULA Tennis Center.


Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XULAgold.com
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA 
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