NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana will begin its quest for a fifth consecutive Gulf Coast Athletic Conference regular-season volleyball championship against Talladega at 7 p.m. Monday at the Convocation Center.
     Admission is free.
     The Gold Nuggets have won 59 consecutive matches against GCAC opponents, 48 in the regular season. They have a 58-match win streak against HBCUs. Xavier is 4-4 this season after going 2-2 in a pair of tournaments. Most recently, the Gold Nuggets won both their matches Saturday to close the Mariner Invitational at Brunswick, Ga.
     Xavier's statistical leaders include CeCe Williams with 71 kills, Patricia Young Yen with a .391 hitting percentage, Franziska Pirkl with 263 assists, Pirkl and Darian Harris with 10 aces apiece, Harris with 143 digs and Claudia Haywood with 14 blocks.
     Xavier is one of nine schools to rank among the NAIA's top 30 in kills per set and digs per set. The Gold Nuggets are 21st with 17.37 digs per set and 29th with 12.83 kills per set.
     Talladega (0-5) is led by junior Carla Novaes, who shared the preseason GCAC Player of the Year award with Haywood. Novaes ranks 26th in the NAIA with 3.67 kills per set and 47th with a .308 hitting percentage. Talladega finished fifth in the conference in 2014 and lost to Xavier in three sets in the GCAC Tournament, which Xavier also won for the fifth consecutive year.
     Xavier is 8-0 all-time against Talladega, including three victories a year ago. They'll also meet Oct. 17 at Talladega, Ala.
     The Gold Nuggets' next five matches will be in the GCAC. Their other match this week will start at 6 p.m. EDT Friday at Edward Waters in Jacksonville, Fla.