INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. --- The Tusculum University men's tennis team has earned the fifth seed in the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional and will play Wingate University in the opening round on Friday, May 7 at 3 p.m. at the University of North Georgia in Dahlonega, Georgia.
The Pioneers (17-3) earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by winning the South Atlantic Conference tournament title with a 4-1 victory over Anderson University in the championship match on April 17. Tusculum won its first conference championship since 2008, which is the last time the Pioneers captured an NCAA berth.
Tusculum will be in the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in program history, and the first time since the 2008 SAC Championship season. The Pioneers are seeking their first-ever NCAA win, and will be playing a non-Sunshine State Conference team for the first time in NCAA Tournament play.
The Pioneers have won eight straight matches heading into the NCAA Tournament, and two of the team's three losses came to teams in the Southeast Region field. One of the losses was to Friday's opponent, as Wingate earned a 4-3 win on March 26 during their regular-season meeting. Tusculum played at the UNG Tennis Complex this season, dropping a 6-1 decision to the host Nighthawks on Feb. 20.
Wingate (12-2), ranked 15th by the ITA, won the outright SAC regular-season championship with a 10-0 record, but the Bulldogs were upset by Anderson 4-3 in the conference semifinals. The fourth-seeded Bulldogs have won at least a share of six of the last seven SAC regular season titles and have captured five of the last nine tournament championships.
Tusculum is 2-5 in the postseason against Wingate, with all seven meetings in the SAC Tournament. The Bulldogs have won five consecutive postseason matches against the Pioneers and have won 10 of the last 11 meetings overall, with five of those matches decided by one point.
The winner of Friday's match between the Pioneers and Bulldogs will advance to the semifinals on Saturday against Columbus State (19-0), which is number one in the ITA Division II rankings and has won 28 straight matches and 43 of its last 44 contests dating to the 2018-19 season.
Lander (14-2) is the number-two seed in the region and will play Saturday in the semifinals against the winner of the other first-round match between third-seeded North Georgia (10-4) and sixth-seeded Mount Olive (12-3), the Conference Carolinas tournament champion. The semifinal winners will meet Sunday for the region championship, with a spot in the NCAA Championships at Surprise, Arizona May 18-20 to the winner.
NCAA Division II Men's Tennis Southeast Regional
at Dahlonega, Georgia
First Round - Friday, May 7
No. 6 Mount Olive (12-3) vs. No. 3 North Georgia (10-4), 11 a.m.
No. 5 Tusculum (17-3) vs. No. 4 Wingate (12-2), 3 p.m.
Semifinals - Saturday, May 8
Mount Olive/North Georgia winner vs. No. 2 Lander (14-2), 11 a.m.
Tusculum/Wingate winner vs. No. 1 Columbus State (19-0), 3 p.m.
Finals - Sunday, May 9
Semifinal winners
