XU's Lyons, Walston, Ramirez receive GCAC awards
September 21, 2010

     NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana swept all three of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference's weekly student-athlete awards for Sept. 13-19. Sierra Lyons is the GCAC Player of the Week in women's volleyball, and Ray Walston and Yazmin Ramirez earned the GCAC Runner of the Week awards in cross country.
     Lyons, a freshman from Houma, La., and a graduate of Terrebonne High School, led Xavier with 28 kills and a .220 hitting percentage in three matches. She had 14 kills, three digs, two aces and a block in a four-set home victory over Alcorn State — the Gold Nuggets' second victory of the season against an NCAA Division I opponent. For the season Lyons leads Xavier with 102 kills and a .273 attack percentage.
     Walston, a junior from Atlanta and a graduate of Mays High School, ran 6,000 meters in 21 minutes, eight seconds at the Ragin' Cajuns Invitational to shatter the school record by more than three minutes. Walston placed sixth for his 11th top-10 finish in 20 collegiate meets.
     It's the fourth time in three seasons that Walston has won the conference award. Xavier has swept all three GCAC men's cross country awards this season — Matt Pieri won the first two.
     Also setting a school record was Ramirez, a freshman from Los Angeles and a graduate of St. Mary's Academy in Inglewood, Calif. Ramirez ran 4,000 meters in 17 minutes at the Ragin' Cajuns Invitational to place 12th and eclipse the previous mark by eight seconds. Her per-mile pace was approximately 40 seconds faster than in a meet six days earlier. Two weeks earlier she was the slowest of Xavier's seven finishers at the season-opening Southern Miss Invitational.
     The next Xavier volleyball match will start at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Mobile. XU's next cross country meet will be the LSU Invitational at Baton Rouge, La., on Saturday morning — men's race at 9:30, women's race at 10.