Xavier basketball signs four on National Signing Day; women's soccer in NCAA Tournament

Adam Baum, Cincinnati Enquirer
·3 min read

Four Xavier men's basketball commits signed their national letters of intent on Wednesday, giving the Musketeers one of the top 2023 recruiting classes in the country, according to a number of recruiting services.

Xavier added Trey Green, a point guard from North Carolina, Reid Ducharme, a wing from Massachusetts, Dailyn Swain, a wing from Columbus, Ohio, and Kachi Nzeh, a big man from Pennsylvania.

Point guard Trey Green, a concensus four-star recruit, headlines Xavier's 2023 nationally-ranked recruiting class. Green signed a letter of intent Wednesday with fellow Xavier recruits Reid Ducharme, Dailyn Swain and Kachi Nzeh.
Point guard Trey Green, a concensus four-star recruit, headlines Xavier's 2023 nationally-ranked recruiting class. Green signed a letter of intent Wednesday with fellow Xavier recruits Reid Ducharme, Dailyn Swain and Kachi Nzeh.

Green, who's playing his final season of high school basketball at Prolific Prep in California, is ranked No. 67 nationally by 247Sports. Ducharme's ranked No. 111 and Swain, the reigning Division III Ohio player of the year out of Columbus Africentric, is ranked No. 87. Nzeh's a 6-foot-9 forward who's unranked in recruiting circles (meaning he's outside the top 150), but he's a former junior Olympic sprinter and he's only been playing organized basketball for a few years.

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"We feel really good about the group that we have," Xavier head coach Sean Miller told reporters Thursday. "There's no doubt we'll add to that group this spring whether it be a transfer, international player, high school, but we anticipate bringing in more than just those four, but in the early period that was our goal and I thought our coaching staff did a really good job transitioning and being able to get that class as part of our future."

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Women's soccer advances in NCAA Tournament

After finishing runner-up in the Big East Conference regular-season standings and the conference tournament, Xavier women's soccer earned another bid to the NCAA Championship tournament.

The Musketeers traveled to No. 22 Tennessee Friday for a first-round matchup and fell behind 1-0 early. Then Xavier proceeded to score four unanswered goals, three of which came in extra time, to knock off the Volunteers and advance to the second round.

Molly McLaughlin, Ella Rogers, Chloe Netzel and Sonia Vargas scored for the Musketeers.

In the second round, Xavier, 14-3-5, will face No. 11 Virginia on Friday.

This is Xavier's third straight trip to the NCAA Championship and the Musketeers have now advanced to the second round in two of the last three tournaments.

Five new Xavier Hall of Fame members

Xavier recently announced five new inductees to the P. Douglas O' Keefe Xavier University Athletics Hall of Fame, bringing the total number of members to 153.

This year's class includes men's basketball players Dexter Bailey (1984) and Josh Duncan (2008), volleyball's Abigail Bessler (2017), baseball's Jay Johnson (2005) and swimmer Michael Zennedjian Jr. (2012).

Four of the five have local high school ties: Bailey (Summit Country Day), Bessler (St. Henry), Duncan (Moeller) and Johnson (Dixie Heights). Zennedjian is from Farmington Hills, Mich.

The date of the Hall of Fame induction awards dinner will be Friday, Feb. 17 at Cintas Center. The class will also be honored at the 4 p.m. men's basketball game vs. DePaul on Saturday, Feb. 18.

Women's basketball adds two recruits, starts 2-0

Xavier's women's basketball team is off to a 2-0 start this season with wins over Miami and Detroit Mercy. Mackayla Scarlett's scored 19 points in each of the Musketeers' first two games.

Xavier head coach Melanie Moore announced the addition of two new recruits on national signing day.

Aby Shubert's a guard from Minnesota who averaged 21 points per game as a junior. Holly Griffiths is a 6-foot-2 post player from Melbourne, Australia.

"My staff and I are really excited about this class," said Moore. "We believe that both Aby and Holly will complement the pieces we already have in our program. They are both incredible young women who come from outstanding families and they will fit right in with the culture we have established at Xavier."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Xavier signs 4 on National Signing Day; women's soccer in tournament