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XULA Tournament History
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NEW ORLEANS —
For the first time in nine seasons, Xavier University of Louisiana men's tennis
will play in the first round at the NAIA National Championship tournament.
The NAIA announced Tuesday that XULA (14-10)
is seeded 11th and will play 22nd-seeded Oakland City (16-6)
at 9 a.m. May 14 at Copeland-Cox Mobile Tennis Center (851 Gaillard Drive, zip code 36608,
phone 251-208-5181). Admission is free for every round.
The XULA-Oakland City winner will play
sixth-seeded Middle Georgia (15-4) in the second round — the round of 16 —
at 9 a.m. May 15. Twenty-four teams qualified.
XULA earned an automatic bid to nationals
by winning 4-2 April 20 at home against Our Lady of the Lake in the
final round of an unaffiliated group tournament.
This is XULA's school-record 15th consecutive appearance at nationals
and 15th overall. Streaks do not include 2020, when the tournament was canceled in mid-March
because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Gold Rush are a three-time NAIA national runner-up, finishing
second to Georgia Gwinnett in 2016, 2017 and 2019. Men's tennis is the only XULA program
to reach the championship round of a bracketed NAIA national tournament.
In order from the top, XULA's singles lineup will be
Jacobi Bain,
Julius Hell,
Nereo Suarez,
VanDer Woody,
Ivan Vazquez and
Dedric Ray.
The doubles teams will be Bain and Suarez at No. 1, Hell and Woody at No. 2 and
Ray and Vazquez at No. 3. Also on the roster are
Jered Wilson and
Artur Yakubov.
Bain and Suarez are second, and Hell and Woody are third in the Intercollegiate
Tennis Association NAIA doubles rankings.
