Find directions to UNO Tennis Center via Yahoo! Maps
Xavier tennis plays host to GCAC Tournament at UNO
April 29, 2010

     NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana will attempt to repeat as the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference champion in men's and women's tennis when it plays host to the GCAC Tournament on Friday and Saturday.
     All matches will be played at the University of New Orleans Tennis Center. First-round competition will begin at 9 a.m. Friday. Championship matches will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday. Both the men's and women's champions will earn automatic bids to the NAIA National Championships at Mobile, Ala., on May 18-22.
     Xavier (13-13) is seeded first in the women's division and will play its first-round match at 11 a.m. Friday against eighth-seeded LSU-Shreveport. The XU men (10-13) also are seeded first but have a first-round bye. They'll play fourth-seeded Belhaven or fifth-seeded Spring Hill in the semifinals at 4 p.m. Friday.
     Xavier has dominated this tournament recently — winning six of the last eight women's championships and four of the last five men's titles — but should receive strong challenges in both brackets.
     Four GCAC women's teams are ranked in the NAIA top 25 — Xavier is 19th, William Carey is 20th, Mobile is 23rd and Spring Hill is 25th — and Mobile ended the Gold Nuggets' streak of 54 consecutive GCAC regular-season victories with a 5-4 victory at Mobile on Feb. 6. Xavier also has a 5-4 victory over William Carey and a pair of 5-4 victories against Spring Hill. A Xavier-Spring Hill quarterfinal matchup is possible Friday and would start at 2 p.m.
     No GCAC men's team has defeated Xavier since Spring Hill beat the Gold Rush in the opening round of the 2004 NAIA Region XIII Tournamanent, but William Carey came close on Feb. 17 before falling 5-4 at Hattiesburg, Miss.
     Xavier will have just five men available — senior Cameron Knowles is unavailable because of injury — so the Rush will default dual-match points to opponents at No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles.
     William Carey, in its first season of intercollegiate tennis since the 1990s, will enter the tournament with the hottest teams. The Lady Saders have won seven straight duals, and the Crusaders have won five in a row.
     Mobile's men and women already have clinched host-team berths to the NAIA National Championships by virtue of their winning records and finishing ahead of crosstown rival Spring Hill in the GCAC regular season.
     Loyola's women also are competing for the first time since the 1990s. LSUS is in its first season of women's tennis.
     Xavier in 2009 defeated Mobile 7-1 in the GCAC women's championship match and 6-0 in the men's final. Xavier is tournament host for the first time since 2007, when the event was played at City Park.