Nuggets again awarded opening-round NAIA home match

NEW ORLEANS — For the second consecutive year, Xavier University of Louisiana has been awarded a home match in the NAIA Women’s Volleyball National Championship Opening Round.

The Gold Nuggets (23-2) will play an Indianapolis opponent, Marian University (27-5), at 4 p.m. Saturday (Nov. 18) in XULA’s Convocation Center (capacity 3,937, address 7900 Stroelitz St., zip 70125). The match will follow XULA’s 1 p.m. homecoming basketball game between the Gold Rush and Huston-Tillotson. Tickets will cost $10 for either contest. Fans who purchase basketball tickets can watch the volleyball match for free.

The NAIA announced pairings and the 44-team field Monday.

XULA qualified automatically for nationals for the seventh straight year by defeating Dillard 25-20, 25-16, 25-13 Saturday in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament final at SUNO.

It will be the first-ever volleyball meeting between XULA and Marian. The winner will advance to the NAIA National Championship presented by Delta Hotels Nov. 28-Dec. 2 at Sioux City, Iowa. XULA seeks its first trip to Sioux City after losses in the opening round each of the last six seasons.

The XULA-Marian match will be one of 12 Saturday in the opening round. Twenty teams received first-round byes and advanced automatically to Sioux City.

Marian is one of five teams that qualified for the first time. The Knights secured their bid by winning the regular-season championship of the Crossroads League, a 10-member conference that qualified for two automatic bids. Marian lost in three sets to Saint Francis (Ind.) in the semifinals of the Crossroads tourney.

It’ll be the second straight year that XULA’s opponent at nationals is a Catholic school from the Midwest. St. Francis (Ill.) defeated the Gold Nuggets 25-15, 25-21, 25-22 in the 2016 opening round. That was the first time a XULA team in any sport hosted an NAIA national tourney contest on its campus.

XULA is 9-0 at home this season and will enter the weekend with a 13-match winning streak, the second longest in the program’s history. The Gold Nuggets’ only losses this season were to Madonna (29-4) and Mobile (38-3), both of which qualified for nationals. XULA’s most notable victories were its first two ever against NCAA Division II Spring Hill, which finished the year 27-5.