2014-15 South Atlantic Conference Year in Review

2014-15 SAC Highlights 

• Wingate reached a No. 3 ranking in the Learfield Sports Director’s Cup Fall Standings.
• Lincoln Memorial University was the top fundraiser in the NCAA Division II of the 2015 Play 4Kay initiative.
• The SAC had six student-athletes named National Player of the Week across Football, Men’s Soccer, Women’s Soccer and Baseball.
• Mars Hill Men’s Cross Country, Wingate Volleyball & Catawba Baseball won Southeast Regional Championships.
• Wingate, Queens and Mars Hill Women’s Cross Country each qualified for the NCAA National Championship.
• Wingate men’s soccer player Charlie Machell earned All-America honors.
• Wingate’s Jade Montgomery and Garcelle Alequine of Lenoir-Rhyne each earned women’s soccer All-America plaudits.
• The South Atlantic Conference had five volleyball student-athletes tabbed All-Americans as Wingate won the 2014 Southeast Regional Championship.
• Carson-Newman’s Andy Hibbett was named the Football Super Region II Offensive Player of the Year, while Tanner Botts from Lenoir-Rhyne picked up Defensive Player of the Year.
• Lenoir-Rhyne earned a No. 3 national ranking in football this past season.  Carson-Newman was also ranked in the top-25 for the majority of the season.
• A total of 12 SAC football players were named All-America.
• Lincoln Memorial’s Lorenza Ross was invited to play in the Men’s Basketball Reese's Division II All-Star Game.
• LMU men’s basketball reached as high as No. 1 in the NABC National Coaches Poll.
• Anderson’s women’s basketball squad reached the “Sweet 16” of the 2015 NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Championship.
• Newberry women’s basketball player Samantha Creed earned All-American honors from the WBCA.
• Catawba’s Craig Brooks was named the 2015 NCBWA & Daktronics Southeast Region Pitcher of the Year and teammate Will Albertson earned Southeast Region Player of the Year honors.
• Catawba’s Will Albertson Named NCBWA & Daktronics National Player of the Year.
• Craig Brooks from Catawba was named the ABCA Player and Pitcher of the Year, while Albertson was named ABCA position Player of the Year
• Catawba baseball finished the 2015 season as the National Runner-Up.
• Catawba baseball ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation and earned the No. 1 seed in the Southeast Region.
• Cailah Niles of Anderson was named one of the top three softball freshmen in the nation.
• Queen’s Crockett Sewell and Head Coach Brett Karpman received recognition from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) for the 2015 ITA Division II Men’s Awards. Sewell is the Southeast Arthur Ashe Jr. honoree while Karpman took the Wilson/ ITA Men’s Coach of the Year.
• The South Atlantic Conference sent a record number 21 student-athletes to the 2015 NCAA D-II Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
• The South Atlantic Conference finished the year with 39 All-Americans.