NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana tennis sophomores Julius Hell and VanDer Woody received an at-large bid in men's doubles to this week's ITA Cup championships.
        Hell and Woody were the NAIA Gulf Region runner-up. They lost 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 to teammates Jacobi Bain and Nereo Suarez in the championship match Oct. 1 at XULA.
        Bain and Suarez earned an automatic bid to the ITA Cup. XULA will have three doubles teams at the event — Gulf Region women's champion Mbali Langa and McKenna Wheatley qualified automatically by beating LSU-Alexandria's Olivia Scattini and Annemart Kleijn 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-3), [10-3] in their final.
        Hell is from Pforzheim, Germany. Woody is from Baltimore and a graduate of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. At regionals they defeated William Carey's second-seeded Islam Orynbasar and Matt Shearer 8-5 in the quarterfinals and Mobile's third-seeded Joao Pedro Okano and Alex Verdu 9-7 in the semifinals.
        The ITA Cup will begin Thursday and conclude Monday. Venue is Rome Tennis Center at Berry College in Rome, Ga.