Wingate Captures 19th SAC Volleyball Title in 20 Years; Tournament Seeds Announced
ROCK HILL, S.C. (theSAC.com) – The Wingate Bulldogs completed a perfect South Atlantic Conference season to claim the 19th SAC regular season crown in the past 20 years. The Bulldogs swept Anderson in the regular season finale to go 18-0 in league play.
With the dominant season, Wingate clinched the top seed in the SAC Tournament and will host a quarterfinal match on Tuesday night.
Despite the setback this evening, the Anderson Trojans come in as the No. 2 seed in the SAC Tournament. The Trojans own a 21-5 overall mark and went 15-3 in SAC Play.
Lenoir-Rhyne locked up the No. 3 seed with a win over Lincoln Memorial tonight. The sweep over LMU on Senior Night made the Bears 14-4 in the conference.
Carson-Newman is the fourth seed after closing the regular season on a five-match winning streak. The Eagles also finished 14-4 in the SAC but lost a tiebreaker to Lenoir-Rhyne thanks to LR's 3-0 win on September 19.
UVA Wise garnered the fifth seed. The Highland Cavaliers took down Catawba in four sets to push their league mark to 8-10. They will head to Carson-Newman for a Quarterfinal matchup.
The final three teams all finished 7-11 and it came down to a three-way tiebreaker. Tusculum will enter the tournament as the No. 6 seed as they own a 3-1 head-to-head record against Mars Hill and Coker to win the tiebreaker. They will head to Lenoir-Rhyne for a Quarterfinal matchup.
Mars Hill grabbed the No. 7 seed. The Lions have the head-to-head tiebreaker over Coker since they won the head-to-head matchup this season. The Lions will play Anderson on Tuesday.
The final seed goes to the Coker Cobras who lost tiebreakers for the six and seven seed but earn a trip to the conference record with season-ending wins over Lenoir-Rhyne and Emory & Henry.
The SAC Tournament Quarterfinals take place on Tuesday at the higher seeds and the semifinals and championship take place at the Rock Hill Sports and Events Center on Friday and Saturday. Catch all the action on FloSports.
SAC Quarterfinals – Tuesday, November 18
Game 1: #1 Wingate vs. #8 Coker – Wingate, N.C. – 7 p.m.
Game 2: #4 Carson-Newman vs. #5 UVA Wise – Jefferson City, Tenn. – 7 p.m.
Game 3: #2 Anderson vs. #7 Mars Hill – Anderson, S.C. – 6 p.m.
Game 4 : #3 Lenoir-Rhyne vs. #6 Tusculum – Hickory, N.C. – 7 p.m.
SAC Semifinals – Friday, November 21 – Rock Hill, S.C / Rock Hill Sports & Events Center
Game 5: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2 – 4:30 p.m.
Game 6: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4 – 7 p.m.
SAC Championship – Saturday, November 22 – Rock Hill, S.C / Rock Hill Sports & Events Center
Game 7: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6 – 3 p.m