Wingate earns top seed for 2006 Food Lion SAC Volleyball Tournament
ROCK HILL, SC - Wingate University, the 2006 regular-season co-champions are the top seed for this week's 2006 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Volleyball Tournament, the league announced Sunday.
The tournament will be held at Wingate University. Quarterfinal and semifinal matches will be held Friday, November 3. The championship match is set for 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 4.
Wingate and Lenoir-Rhyne College shared the conference title, each going 12-2 in league play. The two teams split their two regular-season meetings and tied in games won in head-to-head play with three each. Wingate earned the top seed with a .760 winning percentage (38-12) in all conference games, while Lenoir-Rhyne had a .740 winning percentage (37-13).
Wingate (12-2 SAC, 22-7) will face eighth-seeded Mars Hill (2-12 SAC, 11-20) in one of the opening matches Friday at 9:30 a.m. at Wingate's Cuddy Arena.
Fourth-seeded Tusculum College (9-5 SAC, 21-9) and fifth-seeded Carson-Newman College (5-9 SAC, 15-19) will square off in the other quarterfinal match at 9:30 a.m.
Second-seed Lenoir-Rhyne (12-2 SAC, 22-12) will face seventh-seeded Presbyterian (2-12 SAC, 9-24) in a quarterfinal match at 12:30 p.m. Presbyterian and Mars Hill tied for seventh place with 2-12 conference records. The two schools split their regular-season meetings and tied 4-4 in games won against the other. Presbyterian earned the tiebreaker by virtue of its .220 winning percentage in all conference games (11-39), while Mars Hill had a .208 winning percentage (10-38).
Catawba (11-3 SAC, 17-11), the third seed, will face sixth-seed Newberry (3-11 SAC, 4-28) in the other quarterfinal match at 12:30 p.m.
The winners of the Wingate/Mars Hill and Tusculum/Carson-Newman matches meet in one semifinal at 4 p.m. on Friday. The Lenoir-Rhyne/Presbyterian winner faces the Catawba/Newberry winner at 7 p.m.
The championship match is set for 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Presbyterian is the defending tournament champion. The winner of the tournament receives an automatic bid into the 2006 NCAA Division II Volleyball Championship Tournament.