KANSAS CITY, Mo. --- The Tusculum College men's soccer team has finished the 2016 season ranked 24th in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Division II Top 25.

Final NSCAA Division II Top 25 Rankings

The Pioneers went 16-4-0 overall and placed second in the South Atlantic Conference with an 8-3-0 record. Tusculum then defeated Mars Hill, Coker and Lincoln Memorial to claim its conference-record sixth SAC Championship tournament title and earn its first NCAA Division II Tournament berth since 2008. Tusculum was eliminated by Lenoir-Rhyne 3-1 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

Tusculum was last ranked in the final NSCAA poll following the 2008 season, when the Pioneers were seventh after they swept the SAC regular season and tournament championship and won the Southeast Region title. The Pioneers were 1-1 against teams in the final Top 25 poll, with a 3-2 overtime win over Pfeiffer and a 2-1 loss to Wingate on their final worksheet.

Wingate, which gave the SAC its first-ever Division II team national championship in any sport, finished at number one in the rankings followed by national runner-up Charleston, Rockhurst, UC-San Diego and Adelphi in the top five. The rest of the top 10 consisted of 2015 national champion Pfeiffer in sixth, followed by Midwestern State, LIU Post, Tampa and St. Edward's. Wingate, Pfeiffer and Tusculum were the only Southeast Region teams included in the final rankings.

The Pioneers were ranked seven of the 10 NSCAA national polls during the regular season, entering the rankings at number 18 for the week of Sept. 20 and climbing to as high as seventh during the weeks of Oct. 11 and Oct. 18. The Pioneers then dropped to 25th for the week of Oct. 25 and exited the poll the week of Nov. 1 before returning at 17th in the final poll before the start of the NCAA Tournament.