ROCK HILL, S.C. --- The Tusculum College men's tennis team has been picked to finish third in the South Atlantic Conference preseason poll, as voted upon by the league's 12 head coaches and announced Monday.

The Pioneers are coming off a season in which they earned a share of the SAC championship for the third time in four years, are represented on the preseason All-Conference team by juniors Tashique Kader and Toby de Klerk in singles, along with the doubles team of Kader and senior Leon Seiz.

Tusculum finished 19-4 overall last season and 10-1 in the SAC, sharing the league title with Wingate. The Pioneers were knocked out of the conference tournament in the semifinal round by Newberry, which went on to fall to Queens University of Charlotte in the tournament championship match.

Kader was named preseason second-team All-Conference after he finished 16-7 overall in singles last season, including 8-3 in SAC matches, while playing primarily at flight four in the Pioneer lineup. The Obertshausen, Germany native opened the 2015-16 season with eight consecutive wins, and thirteen of Kader's 16 victories came in straight sets.

This fall, Kader won the consolation bracket at the ITA Southeast Regional and went 1-1 in two dual matches. For his career, Kader has a 32-11 record in singles matches for the Pioneers.

De Klerk was also a second-team preseason All-Conference choice after he finished with a 12-2 overall record last season for the Pioneers, going 5-2 in SAC matches. De Klerk played most of his matches at flight six, where he compiled a 9-2 mark for the Pioneers. Both of his losses came in matches in which he was forced to retire due to injury, and eight of his wins came in straight sets.

A native of Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands, De Klerk had a 2-2 record in tournament action and went 0-1 in dual match play, leaving him with a career singles record of 21-9.

Kader and Seiz were selected first-team preseason All-Conference after earning second-team All-SAC honors last season when they finished with a 15-5 record as the Pioneers' #2 doubles team. The duo went 9-2 in SAC matches and had two separate six-match winning streaks during the season.

Seiz, a native of Ludwigsburg, Germany, has a 49-13 career doubles record in three seasons with the Pioneers, while Kader has a career doubles mark of 33-9.

Tusculum received two first-place votes and 107 total points in the voting, placing the Pioneers behind Queens and Wingate. The Royals and Bulldogs each had five first-place votes, but Queens had 135 points to capture the top spot in the survey followed by Wingate with 125 points.

After Tusculum, the remainder of the poll consisted of Newberry, Anderson, Lincoln Memorial, Lenoir-Rhyne, Coker, Catawba, Carson-Newman, Mars Hill and Brevard.

Tusculum, which went 2-0 in fall matches, opens its spring schedule on Saturday, Feb. 11 at three-time defending NAIA champion Georgia Gwinnett. The Pioneers' first SAC match of the season will be Thursday, Feb. 16 at Mars Hill, with the spring home opener scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 25 against Lenoir-Rhyne.

2017 South Atlantic Conference Men's Tennis Preseason Poll

2017 Men's Tennis Preseason All-South Atlantic Conference
First Team Doubles
Leon Seiz/Tashique Kader, Tusculum
Jordan Monosky/Jacob Svantesson, Newberry
Flilippo Pezzoli/Tyler Schofer, Wingate

Second Team Doubles
Ignacio Bidegain/Jeffery Dayton, Anderson
Amir Zari/Duncan Addison, Wingate
Pepe Batalla/Joshua Peress, Lincoln Memorial

First Team Singles
Jules Athalis, Queens
Andor Vas, Queens
Filippo Pezzoli, Wingate
Joshua Peress, Lincoln Memorial
Jordan Monosky, Newberry
Josh DuToit, Wingate

Second Team Singles
Amir Zari, Wingate
Toby de Klerk, Tusculum
Tashique Kader, Tusculum
David Segarra, Lincoln Memorial
Mark Watt, Coker
Joao Pedro Oliveira, Carson-Newman