No. 2 Gold Rush make 52nd straight top-10 appearance

NEW ORLEANS — You've heard this before. Xavier University of Louisiana is No. 2 in the NAIA Men's Tennis Coaches' Top 25 Poll.
     
It's the sixth consecutive time that the Gold Rush (8-3) are second. The XULA men have won eight of their last nine dual matches; the lone blemish was 5-0 Feb. 19 against Georgia Gwinnett, which Tuesday earned its 24th consecutive unanimous No. 1 ranking.
     
Since the previous poll, the Gold Rush won 8-1 at then-NAIA No. 19 St. Thomas (Fla.) and 5-2 at home against Ouachita Baptist, No. 39 in NCAA Division II.
     
The next Gold Rush dual match will start at noon April 8 at NCAA Division I Jackson State. The next home appearance will be April 13 at 11 a.m. against NAIA No. 6 William Carey at XULA Tennis Center.
     
The Gold Rush active poll streaks:
     •  82 consecutive appearances in the top 25 . . . streak began April 4, 2007.
     •  73 consecutive appearances in the top 20 . . . streak began April 30, 2008.
     •  58 consecutive appearances in the top 15 . . . streak began Feb. 1, 2011.
     •  52 consecutive appearances in the top 10 . . . streak began May 3, 2011.
     •  14 consecutive appearances in the top 5 . . . streak began Jan. 26, 2016.
     •  12 consecutive appearances in the top 3 . . . streak began March 1, 2016.
     •  6 consecutive appearances in the top 2 . . . streak began May 25, 2016.

NAIA Men's Tennis Coaches' Top 25 Poll (first-place votes in parentheses — records through March 26) Rank Team Record Points Last 1 Georgia Gwinnett (12) 18-0 312 1 2 XULA 8-3 302 2 3 Keiser 15-3 291 3 4 Northwestern Ohio 12-0 283 5 5 Lindsey Wilson 9-5 272 4 6 William Carey 9-3 262 6 7 Arizona Christian 11-8 250 7 8 William Woods 6-4 235 10 9 Campbellsville 7-3 229 8 10 Cardinal Stritch 5-3 226 9 11 Mobile 16-1 217 11 12 Westmont 5-6 200 12 13 San Diego Christian 4-6 190 13 14 Coastal Georgia 11-5 185 14 15 Reinhardt 8-5 161 16 16 Middle Georgia 9-6 156 18 17 Aquinas 10-3 154 17 18 Tennessee Wesleyan 8-1 123 21 19 Olivet Nazarene 4-5 122 15 20 SCAD Savannah 6-6 110 NR 21 McPherson 1-3 105 20 21 Cornerstone 12-5 105 NR 23 Cumberland 3-2 99 22 24 St. Thomas (Fla.) 5-8 81 19 25 Lewis-Clark State 1-7 75 24 Dropped from rankings:  No. 23 Warner, No. 25 Bethany (Kan.) Others receiving votes:  Warner 54, Asbury 45, Bethany (Kan.) 41, Loyola (N.O.) 20, Lawrence Tech 17, Biola 14, Cumberlands 10, Marian (Ind.) 10, SCAD Atlanta 8 Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director XULAgold.com XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA  twitter.com/xulagold www.facebook.com/xulagold