Men's Tennis Surges Into NAIA Unaffiliated Tournament Tomorrow

SAN ANTONIO (April 18, 2024) – The No. 23-ranked Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) men's tennis team begins play in the NAIA Unaffiliated Group Championship starting tomorrow. The tournament includes five teams and is being hosted by Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) in New Orleans from April 18-20.

The Saints are the No. 2 seed after finishing the spring season with an 18-7 record. Notable matches included sweeping the No. 12-ranked University of the Cumberlands and barely falling to NCAA D2 University of Texas Permian Basin. OLLU won every match in March that capped off an 11-game winning streak.

XULA will be the No. 1 seed in the tournament. The Saints faced the Gold Rush on April 4 and lost 4-2. Lewis-Clark State College (LCSC) is the No. 3 seed after going 12-13 on the season. The Saints swept the Warriors in March 7-0. Texas A&M University-Texarkana (TAMUT) is the fourth seed and Rust College rounds out the competition at fifth. TAMUT and Rust played today, and Texarkana eliminated the Bearcats 7-0. Texarkana will face the Gold Rush tomorrow at 2 p.m., while the Saints take on LCSC at 10 a.m. The winners will face each other in the championship match on Saturday at 10 a.m. The matches will be played to clinch, meaning the first team to four points wins. The doubles competition provides one point, while the singles matches are points per contest.

The tournament is being played at the XULA Tennis Complex. The automatic bid for the national tournament will go to the winner if the team is ranked in the latest NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Poll. The championship trophy will be presented at the end of the tournament.