RRAC Tournament page
NAIA coaches poll of April 24, 2024

        NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana's McKenna Wheatley is the Red River Athletic Conference Player of the Week in women's tennis for April 15-21.
        The RRAC announced the award Tuesday.
        Wheatley, a sophomore from Madison, Miss., and a graduate of St. Andrew's Episcopal School, was the only Gold Nugget to win in doubles and singles in XULA's 5-2 home victory April 18 against NAIA No. 13 LSU-Alexandria. Wheatley and Mbali Langa clinched the doubles point with a 6-2 victory against Olivia Scattini and Annemart Kleijn, then Wheatley defeated Carla Serrano Gil 6-2, 6-1.
        The RRAC weekly award is Wheatley's first this season and the second of her career.

It's time for a title defense
        The Gold Nuggets will play host Our Lady of the Lake at 1 p.m. Friday at Blossom Tennis Center in San Antonio, Texas, in the semifinals of the RRAC Tournament.
        XULA, the No. 1 seed and defending champion, had a first-round bye Thursday. Higher seeds all advanced — fourth-seeded OLLU defeated fifth-seeded Louisiana Christian 4-0, second-seeded LSUA beat seventh-seeded Texas A&M-Texarkana 5-0, and third-seeded LSU-Shreveport defeated sixth-seeded Lewis-Clark State 4-3.
        LSUA and LSUS will meet at 10 a.m. Friday in the other semifinal. The championship match will start at 10 a.m. Saturday. The winner will receive an automatic bid to NAIA nationals May 14-18 at Mobile, Ala.

Coaches poll: Up to No. 3
        The XULA women were No. 3 — matching the Gold Nuggets' highest position of the last 10 seasons — in the final NAIA coaches poll of the season announced Wednesday.
        The Gold Nuggets made the final top 10 for the eighth consecutive season and the 11th time in the last 12 seasons. It's their 99th consecutive top-25 appearance; that streak began May 1, 2012.
        Combined with XULA's No. 10 ranking in men's tennis, this is the eighth consecutive season and the 11th time in 12 years that the Gold Nuggets and Gold Rush both have top-10 rankings in the final poll.

ITA rankings: Langa climbs twice
        Langa climbed Thursday in singles and doubles in the ITA NAIA Rankings sponsored by Tennis-Point. The senior moved from 21st to ninth in singles, and she and Wheatley climbed from 14th to sixth in doubles.
        Go figure. Neither Kyra Akinnibi nor Amira Bergaoui lost a singles match since the previous rankings April 11, but both dropped — Akinnibi from 23rd to 26th, and Bergaoui from 57th to 71th. Bergaoui, playing on the second line in her first semester of college competition, is 17-0 against NAIA opponents and 17-1 overall. Akinnibi, who rejoined the team in January, is 15-1 and has a victory against perennial power Georgia Gwinnett and a current win streak of 11.
        In the ITA's computerized team rankings, XULA moved from sixth to third.
        The ITA will announce its final two rankings of the season May 2 and May 23.

McKenna Wheatley photo by Yamlak Tsega