Wingate Tabbed Front Runners in SAC Men's Tennis Preseason Coaches' Poll

ROCK HILL, S.C. (TheSAC.com) – The Wingate Bulldogs have been picked atop the 2025 SAC Men's Tennis Preseason Coaches' Poll as announced by the league Friday morning (Jan. 24). The Bulldogs went 18-6 overall and a perfect 12-0 in SAC play in 2024 while advancing to the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional Semifinal.

Wingate has won 25 straight SAC regular season matches with the last loss coming on April 9, 2022 against Anderson. The Bulldogs have two doubles pairs and two singles players among the Preseason All-Conference list as they look for a third straight regular season crown.

Catawba earned three first-place votes and 135 points to place second in the coaches' voting. The Catawba Indians are coming off a season where they went 14-7 overall and 11-1 in league play.

Carson-Newman was tabbed for a third-place finish after finishing third in 2024. The Eagles were 13-6 overall and 10-2 in the SAC.

Tusculum finished fourth last year and were picked fourth in this poll after going 16-7 and 9-3 a season ago.

Lincoln Memorial and Lenoir-Rhyne tied for fifth in the final standings last year and the Railsplitters narrowly edged LR in the preseason poll with LMU in fifth and the Bears sixth.

Limestone earned 74 points to come in seventh in the preseason poll, one spot above eighth-place Anderson with 65 points.

Coker was picked ninth with 59 points and Newberry was 10^th at 46 points. UVA Wise, Mars Hill and Emory & Henry rounded out the poll.

On top of the coaches' poll, the league announced its first and second team preseason all-conference along with players to watch for the upcoming season.

The SAC Tournament takes place April 16-18 at the Palmetto Tennis Center in Sumter, S.C.

2025 SAC Men's Tennis Preseason Coaches' Poll

Rank                    School (first place votes)                        Points

1.                          Wingate (10)                                                   142

2.                          Catawba (3)                                                   135

3.                          Carson-Newman                                          113

4.                          Tusculum                                                        108

5.                          Lincoln Memorial                                         101

6.                          Lenoir-Rhyne                                                  93

7.                          Limestone                                                       74

8.                          Anderson                                                        65

9.                          Coker                                                                59

10.                        Newberry                                                         46

11.                        UVA Wise                                                        43

12.                        Mars Hill                                                          22

13.                        Emory & Henry                                              13

2025 SAC Men's Tennis All-Conference

First Team Doubles

Andre Zamorano / Andres Cortes – Limestone
Vadym Rogynsky / Rufus Plane – Lenoir-Rhyne
David Negzaoui / Joshua Fritz - Newberry

Second Team Doubles

Carlo Rosellini / Luka Brown, Wingate
Gabriel Constantino / Florian Walcher, Wingate
Mateo Berne / Marcos Castares, Catawba

First Team Singles

Marnix Van Dalen - Carson-Newman
Gabriel Constantino – Wingate
Florian Walcher – Wingate
Carlo Rosellini – Wingate
Alexandru Giurea – Lincoln Memorial
Vincent Mico Fellonar – Anderson

Second Team Singles

Vadym Rogynski – Lenoir-Rhyne
Louca Bertone – Limestone
Yi-Hsuan Chen – UVA Wise
Mateo Berne – Catawba
Will Gee – Tusculum
Radu Florea – Lincoln Memorial 

Players to Watch:

Andy Huynh, Coker
Sam Winter, Coker
Sasha Molina, Mars Hill
Diell Mehmedi, Mars Hill
Keenan Glago, Emory & Henry
Niclas Naedele, Emory & Henry
Chathurya Nilaweera, UVA Wise
Miguel De Rueda, UVA Wise