NEWBERRY, S.C. --- The Tusculum women's tennis team locked up the second seed in next week's South Atlantic Conference Championship tournament with an 8-1 win over Newberry on Saturday afternoon.

The 14th-ranked Pioneers (19-1, 9-1 SAC) will begin defense of last year's championship when they host Carson-Newman in the quarterfinal round on Tuesday at the Nichols Tennis Complex. The 37th-ranked Wolves (20-6, 7-3 SAC) will be the fourth seed and will host Lincoln Memorial in Tuesday's quarterfinal action. The winners will advance to play in the semifinals on Friday, April 20 at the Cayce Tennis Center in Columbia, South Carolina, with the title match scheduled for next Saturday, April 21.

The Pioneers opened the match with the Wolves with a sweep of doubles action. The 23rd-ranked team of Annie McCullough and Caitlin McCullough defeated Amanda Carrillo and Marta Gomar 8-6 at flight one, Franziska Funke and Katarina Majorova defeated Elisa Aguirre and Lucia Davila 8-4 at flight two, and Amber Lackey teamed with Africa Mota to beat Rebeca Martinez and Joelle Huelse 8-3 at flight three.

Tusculum put the match away with straight-set wins at the first three singles flights. Majorova defeated Carillo 6-4, 6-3 at flight one, Funke downed Aguirre 7-5, 7-5 at flight two, and Annie McCullough defeated Gomar 6-4, 6-2 at flight three. In pro-set action, Caitlin McCullough won 8-2 over Davila at flight four, and Angelica De Vincenzis was an 8-3 winner at flight five over Martinez.

The Pioneers played Carson-Newman in their next-to-last regular-season match, winning 9-0 on the road on Tuesday, April 10.