NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana's Santiago Perez and Shaikh Abdullah are NAIA All-Americans in men's tennis on both end-of-season teams of 2018-19.Perez and Abdullah made the first team on the NAIA's committee-selected squad, and their final Intercollegiate Tennis Association player rankings earned them berths on the ITA's All-America list.
Both student-athletes will return to XULA in August. Perez, from Pereira, Colombia, will be a sophomore, and Abdullah, from Hyderabad, India, will be a junior.
Perez was 18-3 in singles and 20-8 in doubles. He won 17 consecutive singles decisions from Feb. 10-May 15, all at the No. 1 position. Perez was third in the ITA end-of-season NAIA national singles rankings and second in the South. In doubles, Perez and Abdullah were third nationally and third in the South.
Perez became the third Gold Rush freshman to make the NAIA's committee-selected first team, all in the last four years.
Abdullah was 10-6 in singles and 15-7 in doubles. He was the leading Gold Rush scorer at the NAIA National Championship tournament, going 2-0 in singles and 3-1 in doubles.
The final top 20 singles players and top 10 doubles teams earn ITA All-America.
This was the eighth consecutive season that the Gold Rush had a first-team All-American on the NAIA's committee-selected list and the fourth consecutive year with two first-team All-Americans.
XULA was 17-9 this past season, finished second at NAIA nationals for the third time in four years and was No. 2 in the coaches postseason poll.
Ed Cassiere, Assistant Athletics Director for Communications
Department of Athletics & Recreation
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
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