Wingate Tops SAC Volleyball Championship Field

ROCK HILL, S.C. – After going unbeaten in SAC matches, Wingate will be the top seed in the 2013 Food Lion SAC Volleyball Championship bracket, which was finalized on Saturday.

The championship, which begins on Friday with quarterfinal matches, will take place in Newberry, S.C. on the Newberry campus.

Wingate defeated Mars Hill on Saturday evening to finish a perfect 22-0 in the SAC. The Bulldogs – who have won eight-straight SAC regular-season titles and enter the conference tournament as the event's seven-time defending champions - are 26-2 overall and ranked ninth in the nation.

WU will take on No. 8 seed Newberry on Friday in the SAC Championship quarterfinal round. Newberry finished the regular season 18-11 overall and 12-10 in the conference.

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Tusculum will be the bracket's No. 2 seed after going 20-9 overall and 15-7 in the SAC. TC was last year's SAC Championship runner-up after falling to Wingate in a thrilling five-set title match. The Pioneers will face seventh-seeded Mars Hill – which went 16-11 overall and 13-9 in the league - in Friday's quarterfinals.

Four teams – Lenoir-Rhyne, Lincoln Memorial, Queens and Anderson – finished tied for third in the SAC standings at 14-8 in the league, requiring the use of multiple tiebreak procedures to determine SAC Championship seeds.

In a comparison of the foursome's results against the other three teams, Lenoir-Rhyne had the best record at 4-2, earning the bracket's No. 3 seed. Anderson and Queens were both 3-3, while LMU was 2-4.

In determining the No. 4 seed, Anderson, LMU and Queens were all 2-2 versus the other two, moving the tiebreaker to a comparison of the teams' records against the bracket's top seeds. All three finished 0-2 against No. 1 Wingate, but LMU went 2-0 against No. 2 Tusculum while Anderson and Queens were 0-2 versus the Pioneers, giving the Railsplitters the highest seed.

The Queens-Anderson tiebreaker for the bracket's No. 5 seed also required the use of multiple procedures, as the teams split head-to-head and had identical records against every other conference opponent. Queens ultimately wins the tiebreaker, however, by virtue of its 5-4 head-to-head set score advantage over Anderson's 4-5 mark.

Lenoir-Rhyne will take on Anderson and LMU will face Queens in Friday's quarterfinals.

Winners of Friday's matches will move on to Saturday's semifinals, while the championship's title match takes place on Sunday.

2013 Food Lion SAC Volleyball Championship

Quarterfinals – Friday, Nov. 22

No. 1 Wingate vs. No. 8 Newberry, noon

No. 4 Lincoln Memorial vs. No. 5 Queens, 2:30 p.m.

No. 2 Tusculum vs. No. 7 Mars Hill, 5 p.m.

No. 3 Lenoir-Rhyne vs. No. 6 Anderson, 7:30 p.m.

Semifinals – Saturday, Nov. 23

QF 1 winner vs. QF 2 winner, 1:30 p.m.

QF 3 winner vs. QF 4 winner, 4 p.m.

Finals – Sunday, Nov. 24

Semifinal 1 winner vs. Semifinal 2 winner, 2 p.m.