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ALMA MATER
In the Mississippi Valley,
In the Crescent Bend
Stands our loved and noble Xavier,
Far her praises send.
Refrain:
Wave her colors bear them onward
Gold and white so true
Hail to thee, all hail, dear Xavier
Hail, all hail, X.U.!
Xavier, ever be our guide
And lead us on the way,
Through life's journey, onward, upward
To the eternal day. (Refrain)
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The GCAC Tournament title gives XU a second consecutive automatic berth in the NAIA National Championship.
Nuggets repeat as GCAC champion; Echebelem is MVP
November 10, 2012
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Xavier University of Louisiana's
women's volleyball team defeated Tougaloo 25-15,
25-13, 25-16 Saturday to win
the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament for the second consecutive year.
The Gold Nuggets (22-7, 4-0 tournament) became the first
HBCU to qualify for the NAIA National Championship in consecutive seasons.
They'll play a first-round match next Saturday against an opponent to be announced.
Xavier's Chinedu Echebelem was chosen tournament MVP and
was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Moira Kirk and Taylor Reuther.
All three are sophomores.
"It is an amazing feeling to be able to accomplish the
same thing we did last year," said Christabell Hamilton, whose Gold Nuggets are
28-0 against GCAC opponents during her two seasons as coach. "I am very proud of
my team and their hard work since August."
Tougaloo had less than an hour to prepare for Xavier
after rallying for a five-set semifinal victory against SUNO. The Lady Bulldogs
(23-14) won the final two sets. They turned an 11-6 deficit into a 15-13 fifth-set
victory which earned them their first berth in the final and denied SUNO a third
consecutive appearance in the championship round.
Xavier never trailed against Tougaloo until 1-0 and 2-1
in the third set. The Nuggets led 4-0 and 10-4 in the opening set and 7-1 and
13-3 in the middle set. They scored five consecutive points in the final set to
build a 10-4 lead.
"Tougaloo was tired by the time they played us," Hamilton
said. "They had some main players go down with injuries from the previous match
and during ours, and that was a factor. However, we played very well. We controlled
momentum the whole time, and we were able to play all of our players."
Echebelem excelled despite knee injuries which kept her
out of the opening tournament match Thursday against Philander Smith. Echebelem
played the final three matches, and "she played great," Hamilton said. "She's
the kind of kid every coach wants to have on their team. I admire her fight and
her love for the game and her teammates."
Echebelem said she was given the option to sit out the
tournament, but she declined. "I fought through my pain for my team,"
Echebelem said. "All my teammates worked together to win the championship."
Hamilton used Echebelem on the front row only and subbed
in CeCe Williams when Echebelem rotated to the back row.
The Nuggets have won six in a row, 9-of-10 and 17 of
their last 20 matches.
For the second consecutive year, all three of XU's fall
teams won conference championships. The men's and women's cross country teams
each won seventh consecutive GCAC titles in October. The volleyball Nuggets,
in their fifth season of intercollegiate competition, are 45-14 during Hamilton's
tenure. They were 30-73 the first three seasons.
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The Xavier Gold Rush and Gold Nuggets compete in Division I of the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) as a member of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC).
Xavier fields men's teams in basketball, cross country, tennis and track and field and women's teams in basketball, cross country, tennis, track and field and volleyball.
Department of Intercollegiate Athletics
Xavier University of Louisiana
1 Drexel Drive
Campus Box 92
New Orleans, LA 70125
(504) 520-7329 phone
(504) 520-7934 fax
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