Tournament page

        NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana's men are the No. 1 seed in a five-team NAIA unaffiliated group tournament that will start Thursday at XULA Tennis Center.
        The Gold Rush (12-10) have a first-round bye and will play fourth-seeded Texas A&M-Texarkana or fifth-seeded Rust in the semifinals at 2 p.m. CDT Friday. TAMUT and Rust will meet in the first round at 10 a.m. Thursday — the only tournament match that day.
        The other semifinal — matching second-seeded Our Lady of the Lake and third-seeded Lewis-Clark State — will start at 10 a.m. Friday.
        Semifinal winners will meet at 10 a.m. Saturday, and the champion will receive an automatic bid to NAIA nationals May 14-18 at Mobile, Ala.
        XULA, ranked 10th in the April 10 NAIA coaches poll, seeks its 15th consecutive bid to nationals. Also ranked is OLLU at No. 23, and TAMUT received votes.
        XULA seeks a third straight unaffiliated title. The Gold Rush defeated William Woods 4-0 in the 2022 final at Springfield, Mo., and Our Lady of the Lake 4-3 in the 2023 final at XULA.
        XULA's fourth-ranked women also will play at home Thursday, but it's the Gold Nuggets' regular-season finale: 2 p.m. against 13th-ranked LSU-Alexandria. The Gold Nuggets and LSUA will be the top two seeds in the Red River Athletic Conference Tournament April 25-27 at San Antonio, Texas.