Third-seeded Wingate University broke a 1-1 tie with two second-half goals and defeated seventh-seeded Tusculum College 3-1 in the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Women's Soccer Tournament semifinals at Manchester Meadows Soccer Complex Friday afternoon.

The Bulldogs (12-2-3) advance to battle top-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne in Sunday's championship match, after the Bears downed Newberry 2-0 in Friday's other semifinal contest. Both teams will be seeking their first SAC Tournament championship.

Wingate finished with a 22-6 advantage in shots over Tusculum (9-9-1), including a 13-3 margin in the second half, and had a 10-1 edge in corner kicks during the match.

Wingate was credited with the first four shots of the match before Tramicka James took Tusculum's first shot at the 15-minute mark. Neither team put any shots on goal until Patience Leonard took a pass from Kourtney Kavic and fired a shot from 40 yards out that skimmed the fingers of Bulldog keeper Miriam Boucher and found the back of the net. Leonard's fourth goal of the season came at 32:33 and gave the Pioneers the 1-0 lead.

The Bulldogs responded just 1:35 later as a long pass from Sam Baldwin connected with Chandler Murphy, whose shot from five yards out resulted in her second goal of the season and a 1-1 tie. With just under five minutes left in the half, Murphy's header was cleared away from the goal line by Tusculum's Amber Marceau to preserve the deadlock as the teams went to halftime.

Wingate put on pressure early in the second half, generating a pair of corner kicks and two shots at the Tusculum goal. A third corner kick resulted in the tiebreaking goal as Kelly Moldenhauer knocked home Kelly Adams' kick to give the Pioneers a 2-1 lead at 54:16.

Buoyed by the goal, the Bulldogs continued to swarm the Pioneer end of the field, denied only by the goalkeeping of Rachael Jennings who made a pair of saves on Murphy and saw two other Wingate chances sail wide of the target over the next six minutes of action.

The Bulldogs extended their lead to 3-1 at 71:56 when Jenni Barbett put home her second goal of the season from close range, assisted by Brandi Baldwin, and preserved the two-goal advantage for the final 18 minutes to advance to the finals.

Jennings finished with four saves in goal for the Pioneers, while Boucher made one stop for the Bulldogs.