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NEW ORLEANS — It was a double whammy Tuesday for the Xavier University of Louisiana women's tennis team. First the Gold Nuggets dropped out of the NAIA top 25 for the first time since February 2004. Then they lost their ninth consecutive dual match — 9-0 to SCAD Atlanta at the University of New Orleans Tennis Center.
The Gold Nuggets (2-11) had appeared in 44 consecutive top 25s dating to Feb. 25, 2004, but missed by 10 points this time and fell to 27th overall.
SCAD Atlanta (8-2) — an NAIA independent in its first year of intercollegiate sports but ineligible for rankings or the postseason until 2011-12 — dropped only one set in winning its fifth dual in a row. The closest match was at No. 3 singles, where Christina Swindall defeated XU's Nicole DeLoach 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 1-0 (10-4).
Once again, because of only five available players, Xavier was forced to default at No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles. The good news was that senior Ashley McGill returned to action for the first time in six duals after completing her basketball eligibility Friday.
Xavier's women and men will return to the courts Friday in a 3:30 p.m. makeup match against city rival Loyola at City Park Tennis Center.
The GCAC was established in 1981 and recently (2010) went through a major transformation with the six (6) non-HBCU institutions leaving for the Southern States Athletic Conference and the Red River Athletic Conference. This move left six (6) small, mostly private HBCUs institutions under the GCAC banner.
The president of the GCAC is Dillard University's Athletic Director and head women's basketball coach Kiki Baker Barnes. Barnes was unanimously voted in by her peers as the 17th president of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference at the 2009 fall meetings, making her the first African-American woman to hold the position.
She is one of only two African-Americans named to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics' (NAIA) newly formed National Administrative Council and a member of the Black Coaches and Administrators (BCA) professional organization. Upon her installation as conference president, Barnes stated, "now is a critical time in the history of the conference as it attempts to draw new members and build new rivalries, and I look forward to the challenge."
Talladega College will be leaving the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) and will be rejoining the GCAC in 2011-12 academic year, along with Philander Smith College (Little Rock, AR). Voorhees College decided in July 2010 not to accept an invitation to join the conference. Further expansion of the GCAC remains one of the conference's most important goals, in addition to raising its profile and sports branding by member institutions.
The conference fields 13 sports programs--Men's Basketball, Golf, Soccer, Cross Country, Track and Field, Tennis and Baseball; and Women's Softball, Volleyball, Basketball, Cross Country, Track and Field, and Tennis. Not all institutions are able to field teams in each sport, and may have as few as three programs, like Fisk University. Playoff bids for sports like tennis, soccer, baseball and golf will have to come by way of play-in tournament games with the NAIA's Association of Independent Institutions.
Current GCAC member institutions are: (click each name for auto link to each college athletic website)
Edward Waters College is the only football playing member of the conference and plays as an NAIA Independent for football. The EWC Tigers recently selected Bethune-Cookman University's assistant Brad Bernard as its new head football coach. Bernard tapped B-CU assistant coach Greg Ross as the Tigers new offensive coordinator and Millsaps College (Miss.) assistant Lane Powell as his defensive coordinator.
The basketball powerhouses this season are Tougaloo Bulldogs (27-4) and Xavier Gold Rush (men) (27-5) that are bracketed in the NAIA Division I National Championship Tournament in Kansas City, Missouri on March 16-22. The Xavier Gold Nuggets women's team (26-6) are also participants in the national championship tournament in Kansas City.
Many thanks to Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director at Xavier University of Louisiana who has been sending us stories on the Gold Rush and Gold Nuggets nationally ranked Tennis Teams. This pushed us to take a closer look at what was going on with the GCAC and examine the historic academic powerhouses that are charter member institutions, i.e., Dillard University, Tougaloo College and Xavier University of Louisiana.
Check back often for links to articles on our student-athletes from the fifth HBCU conference -- the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference.
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NEW ORLEANS -- Radford, winner of the last five Big South Conference regular-season men's championships in NCAA Division I, defeated NAIA No. 8 Xavier University of Louisiana 8-1 Thursday at the University of New Orleans Tennis Center.
Xavier (8-4) scored its point in the final completed match when freshman Jonathan Aubrey defeated Alex Metzner 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (10-7) at No. 6 singles.
Radford (7-3) ended a couple of Xavier streaks. Ivan Salec and Thomas Dehaen won 8-3 at No. 1 doubles to end the five-match win streak of Zach Taylor and Hassan Abbas. Dehaen won 7-6 (7-5), 6-0 at No. 2 singles to end Abbas' four-match streak.
Salec, ranked 67th in singles by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, played doubles only. Freshmen Stijn Meulemans and Paul Boslet won in singles and doubles for the Highlanders, with Meulemans beating Taylor 6-0, 6-2 at the top flight. Radford freshmen Joe Mills and Randall Carter also won in singles.
Radford has won three straight duals and six of its last seven. Xavier has dropped two straight. Three of the Gold Rush's four losses this season are to D-I teams.
It was Xavier's first home match since Feb. 8. The dual, scored by NAIA rules, was postponed Wednesday because of morning thunderstorms and moved from City Park.
Both Xavier teams will play NAIA opponents Friday in the AUM Invitational at Montgomery, Ala. XU's women, ranked 24th, will play No. 13 Lindsey Wilson at 9:30 a.m., and the XU men will play Georgetown (Ky.) at 10 a.m.
By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director Xavier University of Louisiana Visit: XULA Athletics
In a few weeks, the four HBCU conferences – the CIAA, MEAC, SIAC & SWAC – will need to make room at nation’s the table for a newcomer. The revamped Gulf Coast Athletic Conferencewill begin life with six historically black colleges and universities after 29 years as a mixed league. Dillard University,Edward Waters College,Fisk,Southern University-New Orleans, Tougalooand Xavier of Louisiana will try to keep the conference alive after six former members – all predominantly white institutions -- departed for greener pastures.
When the 2009-10 athletic season finished back in June, the GCAC had 10 members. But, LSU-Shreveport left to join the Red River Athletic Conference. Belhaven, Loyola of New Orleans, Mobile, Spring Hill and William Carey joined the expanding Southern States Athletic Conference in a bid for more exposure, according to New Orleans Small College Examiner Eddie Francis. That left GCAC with just four teams – Dillard, SUNO, Tougaloo and Xavier. Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director at Xavier, explained that the conference needed six members to keep its automatic bids to the various NAIA tournaments. Otherwise, members would have to participate in a preliminary tournament with the Association of Independent Institutions for the chance to go to the playoffs.
NEW ORLEANS — It was a double whammy Tuesday for the Xavier University of Louisiana women's tennis team. First the Gold Nuggets dropped out of the NAIA top 25 for the first time since February 2004. Then they lost their ninth consecutive dual match — 9-0 to SCAD Atlanta at the University of New Orleans Tennis Center.
