GCAC awards: Jackson ties record, Fakler extends hers

 Kwame Jackson and Catherine Fakler

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana's Kwame Jackson tied a Gulf Coast Athletic Conference men's cross country career record when he was named GCAC Runner of the Week for Sept. 15-21. It's the 13th time that Jackson has been honored.

Earning the GCAC women's award was Xavier's Catherine Fakler, who extended her career record to 11. Jackson and Fakler have won four times apiece in as many weeks this season.

Jackson is from Kingwood, Texas, and a graduate of Kingwood Park High School. Fakler is from Phoenix, Ariz., and a graduate of Xavier College Preparatory Roman Catholic High School. Both are XU seniors.

Jackson, who shares the GCAC men's record with former teammate Matt Pieri, finished 11th out of 54 runners in the LSU Invitational at Baton Rouge, La. He ran 5,000 meters in 16 minutes, 15.94 seconds — the Gold Rush's fifth-fastest 5K of the past 12 seasons.

Fakler ran her 5K in 19:10.99 to place eighth out of 48 women. Her time was the eighth fastest in Gold Nuggets history.

Both XU teams earned their highest-ever finish at the LSU Invitational. The Nuggets placed third, and the Rush placed fourth. Both teams finished ahead of a pair of NCAA Division I opponents. Xavier is an NAIA member.

Xavier will compete Saturday in the McNeese Cowboy Stampede at Lake Charles, La.


Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XULAATHLETICS
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA

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GAME DAY CENTRAL HUB: Florida A&M at Tennessee State

COURTESY FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS        FAMU Game Notes    LP Field (NFL) Bag Policy    TSU Game Notes

NASHVILLE, Tennessee  – Be prepared as the Rattlers take on the Tigers of Tennessee State, Sat., Sept.27 at 6 p.m. (CST) 7 p.m. (EST) at LP Field.

Watching On The Web: Tennessee State is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC), who produces webcasts of sporting events for its member institutions.  To watch the game online, visit: http://www.ovcdigitalnetwork.com/watch/?Live=1795

Listening on the Radio: WHBX 96.1 JAMZ Tallahassee is our flagship radiostation.  The radio station can be heard locally in Tallahassee and surrounding areas on 96.1-FM.  If you are not in the immediate area, you can log on and listen to the call of the game by play-by-play announcer Joshua Jackson and color analyst Michael Smith, by navigating to www.961JAMZ.com.  In addition, the station is on iHeart radio, where you can listen in on your smartphone, tablet or computer. Log on to iHeart radio and find WHBX 96.1 Tallahassee.

COURTESY FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION

XU sweeps Loyola; Dillard visits Saturday

NEW ORLEANS -- Chinedu Echebelem's third double-double of the season, 10 kills and 13 digs, led Xavier University of Louisiana to a 25-21, 25-19, 27-25 women's volleyball victory against Loyola on Friday at XU's  Convocation Center.

The Gold Nuggets (7-2), winner of seven straight, will play another city rival, Dillard, at noon Saturday at the  Convocation Center.

Echebelem also matched her career high of four blocks. She had a kill and teamed with Jodi Hill for a pair of blocks in Xavier's 12-3 run to end the match. The Gold Nuggets trailed 22-15 in the third set and fought off four set points.

Hill ended the match with an ace. Hill, CeCe Williams and Claudia Haywood had eight kills apiece, and Hill had a career-high six blocks. Jada Broussard had seven kills.

XU's Darian Harris had 17 digs and reached double figures for the eighth consecutive time.

Eva Allen had 16 kills and Lauren Brand eight for the Wolf Pack (6-10), and Becca Burnett had 10 digs.

Xavier, beating Loyola for the fourth consecutive time, rallied from 4-0 and 16-13 first-set deficits.

Xavier outhit Loyola .252 to .216 for the match and had advantages of 45-41 in kills, 55-42 in digs and 10-3 in blocks. The Gold Nuggets' blocks were a season high.


Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XULAATHLETICS
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA

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Tennessee State: Ed Temple To Be Honored With Statue

ED TEMPLE
COURTESY TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS

NASHVILLE, Tennessee -- Mayor Karl Dean will join friends and supporters of legendary TSU and U.S. Olympic women’s track coach Ed Temple at a reception Tuesday, Sept. 30, to announce the creation of a statue honoring Temple.

The event will be held at 5 p.m. in the main atrium at Bridgestone Arena. Pete Weber, voice of the Nashville Predators, will moderate a discussion with Coach Temple following remarks from Mayor Dean and Bo Roberts, who has led the effort for this statue for more than 15 years. Nationally renowned sports sculptor Brian Hanlon will be on hand to unveil a model of the statue.

The reception will announce the creation of a statue honoring Coach Temple, including an announcement of the statue’s location, a model of the statue and a call for fundraising support.

Temple was head women's track and field coach at Tennessee State University for 44 years. During his coaching career at Tennessee State University, forty members of the famed Tigerbelle teams have represented their countries in Olympic competition. Coach Temple has led the team to 34 national titles, and eight Tigerbelles have been inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, including Wilma Rudolph, Edith McGuire, Wyomia Tyus, and Chandra Cheeseborough, the current coach at TSU.

Temple has been inducted into at least nine Hall of Fames, including one from his alma mater Tennessee State University.

COURTESY TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION

A&T Aggies Open Conference Season At Howard

North Carolina A&T (3-1, 0-0 MEAC) vs. Howard (1-3, 0-1 MEAC)
Date: Sept. 27, 2014
Time: 1 p.m.
Facility: Greene Memorial Stadium
Series: A&T leads, 25-20-2
Media: WNAA, 90.1 FM; Play-by-play – Spencer Gwynn; Analyst – Billy Covington and Al Swann

Aggies Overview: North Carolina A&T heads to the nation’s capital to open the conference season against Howard University. The Aggies are 2-1 under head coach Rod Broadway in conference openers with the team’s only loss coming in a 21-18 defeat at home against Morgan State on Sept. 27, 2012. The last time the Aggies opened the conference season on the road, they came away with a 24-3 win over Morgan State in Baltimore on Oct. 1, 2011. The Aggies are 7-10-1 at Greene Memorial Stadium. A&T will face a tough challenge in the MEAC’s preseason offensive player of the year Greg McGhee, the Bison’s starting quarterback. A&T’s secondary looks up to the challenge. Their 10 interceptions lead the nation, and cornerback Donald Mattocks leads the country in picks per game (1.3). On the offensive end, the Aggies will be looking for the offensive diversity that allowed junior quarterback Kwashaun Quick to connect with 10 different receivers versus Chowan last week.

Howard Overview: McGhee has played three games against A&T in his career. He has thrown for 662 yards, four touchdowns and four interceptions on 59-for-116 (.509) passing in those games. This season McGhee has completed 48.3 percent of his passes for 614 yards and two touchdowns. Against Division II Morehouse he was 16-for-30 for 149 yards and two touchdowns. At the start of the season, the Bison also featured a superstar sophomore running back in Anthony Philyaw, but he has not played this season. Instead the running game has been put in the hands of McGhee, Aquanius Freeman, Terrance Tusan and William Parker. Each player has at least 25 carries this season with McGhee leading the way with 61. McGhee had 95 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 20 carries in the Bison’s 38-35 loss to Morgan State at MetLife Stadium last week. The Bison rank third in the conference in total offense and ninth in total defense.

News & Notes:

A&T scored a school record 42 points in one quarter, which was the second quarter against Chowan. The Aggies also scored a school-record 52 first-half points against the Hawks.
The Aggies had a few more records in their win over the Hawks. Donald Mattocks tied Alonza Barnett’s school record with three interceptions in one game. The Aggies also picked off a school record five passes.

The Aggies 59-0 win was the fourth-biggest shutout win in school history. Head coach Rod Broadway owns two of the Aggies’ biggest shutout wins after his 2012 team defeated West Virginia State 77-0.

A&T lost 35-28 in its last trip to Greene Memorial Stadium after giving up an 82-yard kickoff return, fumbling at the Bison’s 1-yard line and failing to score after having 1st-and-goal from the Bison 3 in overtime.

They said what?

“A&T coming to town is always exciting for the campus. The student population and the campus love when this type of team comes to town. Coach Broadway and his staff have the Aggies playing well. They are very explosive and they make big plays. The quarterback (Kwashaun Quick) has done a good job and of course the running back is outstanding. But they also do a good job on defense in terms of creating turnovers, and their special teams are outstanding. They are a tough matchup.”

Howard head coach Gary Harrell on playing A&T

“We are sort of in a similar position we were in three years ago when we went up there. We were 4-2 when we went up there at that time. We weren’t a very good football team. We thought we were fairly good, but we got up there and got embarrassed. Now we’re sitting here 3-1, taking a team up there that I know is a better football team, but we’ve got to play the best game we’ve played all year. That loss (three years ago) changed the course of our football season, so we’re going to go up there and play hard and hopefully we want put ourselves in a position that we put ourselves in the first year I was here because we only won one more game the rest of the year.”

A&T head coach Rod Broadway on the Aggies 35-28 overtime loss in 2011

COURTESY NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION

XU's Abbes is No. 1 seed at ITA/USTA NAIA regional

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana's tennis teams will have three seeded singles players and one doubles seed in the USTA/ITA NAIA South Regional Championships.
    
For the second consecutive year, Xavier will play host to the three-day event. The tournament will begin at 9 a.m. Friday at City Park/Pepsi Tennis Center (5900 Marconi Drive, New Orleans, LA 70124). Competition will resume at 9 a.m. Saturday at City Park, with the semifinals and championship matches on Sunday at XU Tennis Center (3619 Pine St., New Orleans LA 70125).
    
XU sophomore Nour Abbes is the No. 1 women's singles seed, and junior teammate Brion Flowers is No. 8. Senior Nikita Soifer is No. 4 in men's singles. The women's doubles team of Abbes and senior Carmen Nelson is seeded fourth.
    
Abbes, 21-0 in her XU singles career, was the A-flight champion at the HBCU National Championships in Jonesboro, Ga., last week. Flowers and Kourtney Howell, a senior last year, won the 2013 South Regional doubles championship. Flowers is paired with redshirt freshman Dasia Harris this week.
    
Also competing will be the men's and women's teams of Auburn Montgomery, Belhaven, Georgia Gwinnett, Loyola, Point and William Carey, the women of Brenau and the men of Mobile. Georgia Gwinnett's men and women in May won the NAIA's national team championships.
    
The No. 1 men's seeds are Georgia Gwinnett's Jordan Cox in singles and Cox and Matias Hatem in doubles. Auburn Montgomery's Paula Diaz and Anna Rudolfova are the top-seeded women's doubles team.
    
Main-draw champions in singles and doubles will qualify for the USTA/ITA National Small College Championships at Sumter, S.C., from Oct. 9-12.

Tournament home page
     
Here's the complete list of seeds:

Men's Singles
1. Jordan Cox, Georgia Gwinnett
2. Nicolas Pinones, Auburn Montgomery
3. Matias Hatem, Georgia Gwinnett
4. Nikita Soifer, Xavier
5. Othmane Lalami, Auburn Montgomery
6. Birkir Gunnarsson, Auburn Montgomery
7. Ricky Keppeler, William Carey
8. Jefferson Nino, Belhaven

Women's Singles
1. Nour Abbes, Xavier
2. Valeria Podda, Georgia Gwinnett
3. Maria Perdomo-Medina, Brenau
4. Judith van Fraaijenhoven, Georgia Gwinnett
5. Alice Baudeign, Auburn Montgomery
6. Paula Diaz, Auburn Montgomery
7. Chiara Di Salvo, Georgia Gwinnett
8. Brion Flowers, Xavier

Men's Doubles
1. Jordan Cox-Matias Hatem, Georgia Gwinnett
2. Birkir Gunnarsson-Francisco Mendieta, Auburn Montgomery
3. Nicolas Pinones-Miguel Grifol, Auburn Montgomery
4. Nick Van Amerom-Marcio Dal Pont, Mobile

Women's Doubles
1. Paula Diaz-Anna Rudolfova, Auburn Montgomery
2. Valeria Podda-Chiara Di Salvo, Georgia Gwinnett
3. Maria Perdomo-Medina - Patricia Recalde, Brenau
4. Nour Abbes-Carmen Nelson, Xavier


Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XULAATHLETICS
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA

https://twitter.com/xulagold
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ASU Hornets' Ponder turns up aggression on defense

MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- He's certainly paid his dues, waiting five years for this opportunity.

When Dionte Ponder became the third starting cornerback in four games for the Hornets, the senior had a sense of urgency to do the job correctly.

"The coaches wanted us to be a little more aggressive," Ponder said. "We've been getting some bad comments about the secondary, so we've got to pretty much show everybody we're not the weak link of the defense. We can compete with anyone.



"So I just took it upon myself. I just felt like the guy in front of me, I have to limit him in what he can do and stop him from making catches and touchdowns."

The tactic worked. Alabama State's defensive starters pitched a shutout against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on national television last week (the reserves gave up a late touchdown) gaining a little redemption for a much-maligned secondary.

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