NEW ORLEANS — For the second consecutive time, Xavier University of Louisiana has the NAIA National Men's Tennis Player of the Week.
This time it's
Juan Ramirez, who earned the honor for April 11-17 after a pair of victories against ranked opponents in a 4-3 home victory against sixth-ranked William Carey.
The NAIA announced the award Wednesday.
Ramirez and
Santiago Perez, No. 2 in the ITA NAIA doubles rankings, won 6-1 against Carey's eighth-ranked Daniil Klimov and Iskandar Karimov. Then Ramirez avenged a loss to Anton Magnusson with a 6-3, 6-0 victory. Magnusson is ranked 17th, Ramirez 35th in singles.
Ramirez is a senior from Cartago, Colombia. He also won Red River Athletic Conference Player of the Week for the same period. XULA is 16-5 and ranked fifth in the NAIA.
This is the eighth all-time NAIA National Player of the Week award for XULA men's tennis. Perez won the award this past week. This is the third time the Gold Rush won this award in consecutive weeks; Loic Didavi and Corey Huggins did it in 2012, and
Shaikh Abdullah and Perez did it in 2021.
XULA won both national awards this week;
Kareemah Muhammad did it for the women.
Next for the Gold Rush will be an 8:30 a.m. Friday match against Our Lady of the Lake or Southwest (N.M.) in the quarterfinals of an NAIA unaffiliated group tournament at Springfield, Mo. Both finalists in that 13-team event will earn automatic bids to NAIA nationals May 17-21 at Mobile, Ala.
