MOBILE, Ala. — For the first time ever, Xavier University of Louisiana has two Intercollegiate Tennis Association/NAIA national of-the-year student-athlete recipients from the same team.Santiago Perez was named ITA/NAIA National Men's Rookie of the Year, and Gabriel Niculescu was selected National Men's Most Improved Senior for the 2018-19 season. Both won similar awards in Region IV (South).
Perez and Niculescu received their awards Monday evening at a banquet for teams competing in the NAIA National Championships. The men's and women's tournaments will begin Tuesday, and both XULA teams have byes into Wednesday's round of 16.
Perez, a freshman from Pereira, Colombia, has a 16-match singles win streak — all at the No. 1 position and XULA's second-longest streak of last eight years. He is No. 2 in the ITA/NAIA singles rankings and No. 6 in doubles with Shaikh Abdullah. Niculescu, from Bucharest, Romania, is 16-10 in singles and 16-7 in doubles after three-year winning percentages of .373 in singles and .472 in doubles.
NAIA Champions of Character recipients from XULA for 2018-19: Charlene Goreau, left, and Pierre Andrieu.
Perez and Niculescu are the third and fourth Gold Rush student-athletes to win ITA national awards at the pretournament banquet. Loic Didavi was 2012-13 Senior Player of the Year, and Antoine Richard was 2016-17 Rookie of the Year. In addition, Alan Green was National Men's Coach of the Year in 2015-16 and 2016-17.
Also honored at the banquet were Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes participating in the tournament. XULA has three; Niculescu and Samir Chikhaoui on the men's team and Yi Chen Pao on the women's.
Receiving NAIA Champions of Character awards were Charlene Goreau of the Gold Nuggets and Pierre Andrieu of the Gold Rush. Each team at the tournament can nominate one recipient who best exemplifies the Champions of Character traits of integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship and servant leadership.
Wednesday the XULA men will play at 9 a.m. against Union (Ky.) or Asbury, and the women will play at 1 p.m. against Mobile or Cumberlands. Admission is free daily at Copeland-Cox Mobile Tennis Center (851 Gaillard Drive, zip code 36608, phone 251-208-5181). The tournament will conclude Saturday.
XULA Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes for 2018-19, from left: Gabriel Niculescu, Yi Chen Pao and Samir Chikhaoui.
Ed Cassiere, Assistant Athletics Director for Communications
Department of Athletics & Recreation
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
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