The Tusculum College men's lacrosse team has been picked to finish seventh in the South Atlantic Conference men's lacrosse preseason coaches poll, which was released Tuesday afternoon.

A pair of Pioneers earned Preseason All-Conference honors, as the coaches selected senior Mitch Chapman on defense and sophomore Nate Wade at midfield to the second team.

Chapman is a two-time All-Conference honoree for the Pioneers, having anchored the Tusculum defense in each of the program's first two seasons. The native of Oshawa, Ontario finished with five goals and nine assists for 14 points in 12 matches last season. All five of his goals came with the man advantage, while his 25 ground balls ranked fifth among field players on the team.

Chapman ranks at or near the top of all of Tusculum's career statistical categories, including goals (12, 9th), assists (15, 3rd), points (27, 6th), ground balls (76, 3rd), caused turnovers (34, 2nd), man-up goals (9, 1st) and games started (25, tie-1st).

Wade had a strong freshman season for the Pioneers, grabbing second-team All-SAC honors after finishing with a team-best 30 points on the strength of 23 goals (second on the team) and seven assists. The Victoria, British Columbia product led the Pioneers and tied for fourth in the SAC with seven man-up goals, and he had at least one goal in 12 of the Pioneers' 13 matches.

Defending SAC co-champion Queens captured the top spot in the coaches poll with four first-place votes and 75 points. Lenoir-Rhyne had the other five first-place votes and finished with 70 points, followed by Wingate (58), defending SAC co-champion Coker (54) and reigning SAC Tournament champion Catawba 27. The rest of the rankings include Catawba in sixth place (30 points), followed by Tusculum (27), Lincoln Memorial (19) and Brevard (18).

The Pioneers open the 2016 season on Saturday, Feb. 6 at Pioneer Field when they host two-time defending NCAA Division II champion Limestone. Their first SAC match of the season will be Saturday, March 6 at Brevard. The regular season ends on April 23 against Wingate, followed by the SAC Tournament April 26-30 hosted at campus sites (first round) and at Queens (semifinals and finals).