Wingate Draws Top Seed for 2011 Food Lion SAC Volleyball Championship

ROCK HILL, S.C. - With the South Atlantic Conference volleyball regular season coming to a close on Saturday, pairings for next week's Food Lion SAC Volleyball Championship have been set.

SAC regular-season champion Wingate, currently 25-0, will be the event's top seed. Wingate finished with a perfect record in SAC play for the fifth season in a row, keeping intact a streak of 82-consecutive conference matches.

The Bulldogs were No. 14 in the latest AVCA national rankings.

Catawba and Lincoln Memorial both finished with identical 14-4 conference records, but the Indians earn the SAC Championship's No. 2 seed by virtue of a tiebreaker.

The SAC tiebreak procedures first consider head-to-head record, then record against higher-seeded teams. Catawba and LMU split in the regular season, and both went 0-2 vs. Wingate and No. 4 seed Tusculum. However, Catawba went 2-0 vs. No. 5 seed Lenoir-Rhyne, while LMU went 1-1.

After Tusculum at No. 4, Lenoir-Rhyne and Mars Hill tied with an 8-10 conference mark and split their two matches, but the Bears earn the higher seed because of their 1-1 record against LMU. MHC lost both of its matchups with the Railsplitters this season.

Finally, Newberry and Carson-Newman tied for the seventh in the regular-season SAC standings, both going 7-11 and splitting head-to-head. The Wolves are awarded the No. 7 seed on account of their 1-1 record against No. 2 Catawba, while the Eagles went 0-2 against the Indians.

The 2011 Food Lion SAC Volleyball Championship will begin on Friday, Nov. 11 with quarterfinal matches on the campus of Lincoln Memorial in Harrogate, Tenn. Semifinals will take place on Saturday, followed by the title match on Sunday.

The event promises to be a competitive one, as the SAC has been one of the top Division II conferences in the nation this season. Currently, seven league teams appear in the NCAA Southeast Region rankings, led by No. 2 Wingate.

Complete information on the event will be updated throughout the week at Championship Central.

2011 Food Lion SAC Volleyball Championship - Quarterfinals

No. 1 Wingate vs. No. 8 Carson-Newman
No. 4 Tusculum vs. No. 5 Lenoir-Rhyne
No. 3 Lincoln Memorial vs. No. 6 Mars Hill
No. 2 Catawba vs. No. 7 Newberry