NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana tennis standouts Charlene Goreau and Samir Chikhaoui are Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Players of the Week for April 1-7.
     Goreau, a senior from Toulouse, France, moved up to the first court during the weekend for her final two home matches as a Gold Nugget, and she responded with four victories in as many attempts to lead XULA to team victories against NAIA top-10s William Carey and LSU-Alexandria. Goreau's final victory of the weekend ws a 6-1, 6-4 decision against LSUA's Miljana Milojevic, a second-team All-American a year ago.
     Not only did Chikhaoui, a junior from Lille, France, provide the clinching victory in a 5-4 win Saturday against No. 6 William Carey, he also became the first to beat Atikan Juprang in dual-match singles. Juprang was 15-0 over the last two seasons — 8-0 in 2019 — before losing 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 to Chikhaoui. In doubles, Chikhaoui and Pierre Andrieu won 8-4.
     It also was a big week academically for Chikhaoui, who was honored at XULA's Division of Business awards banquet for the highest GPA among junior finance majors, then was named three days later a first-team Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar.
     The GCAC weekly awards are the 14th for Goreau — extending her league career record in that sport — and fifth all-time for Chikhaoui.
     The third-ranked Gold Nuggets (15-4) and seventh-ranked Gold Rush (13-6) are idle until April 18 when they visit Mobile, whose women are ranked 11th and men are 15th.