By Ed Cassiere, Xavier (LA) Associate Athletics Director for Strategic Communications
NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana’s Santiago Perez and Shaikh Abdullah were named Tuesday to the NAIA’s committee-selected All-America men’s tennis team.
Perez was chosen to the first team, and Abdullah made the second team.
This the second time in three years that Perez was chosen to the first team. (The NAIA did not select All-Americans a year ago because of the season-shortening COVID-19 pandemic.) Petez is the fifth Gold Rush player to earn multiple first-team honors from the NAIA.
Not including honorable mentions, this is the 11th season that the Gold Rush have multiple All-Americans.
This is Abdullah’s second NAIA All-America award; he made the first team in 2018-19.
Still to be announced are the ITA’s NAIA All-Americans — the top 20 singles players and top 10 doubles teams from the end-of-season rankings.
The XULA men were 13-11 in dual matches, runner-up in the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament, an NAIA nationals qualifier and No. 9 in the end-of-season coaches poll also announced Tuesday.
