Wingate Wins 17th SAC Tournament Title in Program History

ROCK HILL, S.C. (TheSAC.com) – For the 17^th time in program history, the Wingate Volleyball team captured the SAC Tournament Championship. The top-seeded Bulldogs took down the No. 3 seed Lenoir-Rhyne Bears 3-0 at the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center on Friday night. Wingate didn't lose a set during the entire tournament, sweeping Coker, Carson-Newman and then LR. This is the second straight SAC Championship appearance for the Bears who drop to 22-7 on the season. 

The Bulldogs were led by a balanced attack that saw four different players totaled eight more more kills led by Gabby Saye who recorded nine. Tournament MVP Maya Van Heyst finished the match with six kills, 36 assists, 10 digs and two blocks while hitting .545. Maddie Hoffman totaled 17 digs and Sydney Morland, Emily Johnson and Allana Vavao each had eight kills. 

As a team, the Bulldogs hit .310 on the match and had just nine errors. 

Lenoir-Rhyne was paced by senior Emmaleigh Allen's 11 kills while Hadley Prince had 20 digs. LR was held to a .181 hitting percentage in the championship. 

The Bulldogs ran its winning streak to 27 games with today's victory. They went 18-0 in the regular season in the SAC. 

Wingate solidified their case for the No. 1 seed as both teams will find out their NCAA Tournament fate on Monday as the bracket is announced on NCAA.com.

All-Tournament Team

Raychel Ehlers, Carson-Newman
Emily Campbell, Anderson
Emmaleigh Allen, Lenoir-Rhyne
Averie Dale, Lenoir-Rhyne
Sydney Morland, Wingate
Maddie Hoffman, Wingate
Maya Van Heyst, Wingate, MVP