Gold Nuggets earn No. 3 seed and first-round bye

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana women's tennis received the No. 3 seed and a first-round bye Tuesday for next week's NAIA National Championships at Mobile, Ala.

The Gold Nuggets (17-7) will play SCAD Savannah (11-4) or Cumberlands (10-10) in the round of 16 at 9 a.m. May 16 — one week from Wednesday — at Copeland-Cox Mobile Tennis Center (851 Gaillard Drive, zip code 36608, phone 251-208-5181). Admission is free for every round.

SCAD Savannah, the No. 14 seed, and 19th-seeded Cumberlands will play at 8:30 a.m. next Tuesday.
The tournament's top four seeds — Keiser, two-time defending champion Georgia Gwinnett, XULA and Lindsey Wilson — are in the same positions as they were in the most recent coaches poll. But of the next 14 teams in that May 1 poll, only two have the same ranking and seeding. SCAD Savannah, for example, is seeded five spots lower than its poll position. Seventh-ranked William Woods is seeded 10th, and 10th-ranked Northwestern Ohio is seeded seventh. Eleventh-ranked Indiana Wesleyan received a nine seed.

XULA lost 6-1 to SCAD Savannah in the 2016 Green and Gray Invitational and defeated Cumberlands 5-3 in the 2017 Grizzly Invitational. Both those dual matches were at Lawrenceville, Ga. XULA and SCAD Savannah also met in the quarterfinals of nationals in 2015.

A SCAD Savannah-XULA matchup would result in a meeting between the the Bees' Camille Gbaguidi and the Gold Nuggets' Mariia Borodii, the top two in the ITA's most recent NAIA singles rankings. Both are unbeaten in singles in 2018, and Gbaguidi has won 55 singles matches in a row in dual competition — that streak began in March 2015.

This will be the Gold Nuggets' 12th appearance at nationals and their seventh in a row. They reached the national semifinals in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Ed Cassiere, Assistant Athletic Director for Communications
XULAgold.com
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA 
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