BREVARD, N.C. --- Wingate University's Filippo Pezzoli won a three-set thriller at No. 5 singles to lead the top-seeded Bulldogs to a 5-1 victory over No. 2-seed Tusculum College in the championship match of the 2015 South Atlantic Conference Men's Tennis Tournament.
The three-day event was held at the McCoy Tennis Complex on the campus of Brevard College.
Wingate (15-5) snaps the Pioneers' nine-match winning streak and claim's the league's automatic berth to next month's NCAA Division II Tournament. Tusculum (18-2), the No. 43 ranked team in the country, will await word of a possible at-large bid to the NCAA postseason.
Wingate jumped out to a 2-0 lead with victories at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles. Tusculum's All-SAC first team pairing of Lukas and Jonas Winkelmann claimed a hard-fought 8-6 win at the top flight. The win moves the Winkelmann brother's undefeated doubles record to 19-0 this year.
The Bulldogs claimed their third point with a 6-0, 6-4 decision at No. 6 singles and Wingate's Amir Zari rallied from a set down to pull out a 2-6, 6-0, 6-1 victory at the third flight.
Pezzoli won his first set 6-1, but TC's Tashique Kader answered with a 6-1 in the second frame to send it to a deciding set. Pezzoli clinched the match's deciding point 6-0 in the third and earning him SAC Tournament Most Valuable Player honors.
Tusculum's Leon Seiz was one-point away from claiming a victory at No. 4 singles as he claimed a 7-6 decision in the opening set on a 7-4 tiebreaker. He was leading 5-2 in the second when the match ended.
All-SAC first team honoree Nic Planchard was up a set in his No. 2 singles bout with Sebastian Hall when the match was called.
Lukas Winklemann, the three-time SAC Player of the Year, was locked in a singles battle with Wingate's Neal Towlson at the top flight. Towlson edged Winkelmann 7-6 in the first set, winning the tiebreaker 7-5. The second set was underway when the overall match was decided.
Winkelmann, the No. 10th-ranked singles player in NCAA II, has a 70-5 career singles record, that includes a regular-season 50-match winning streak.
Tusculum was making its ninth appearance in the SAC Tournament final on Saturday. The 18 wins this season for the Pioneers are currently tied for the second most in program history.
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