Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer
The Official home of tusculum athletics

Pioneers picked third in SAC preseason poll, Fernandez named All-Conference

Pioneers picked third in SAC preseason poll, Fernandez named All-Conference

ROCK HILL, S.C. --- Tusculum University has been picked to finish third in the South Atlantic Conference men's tennis preseason coaches poll, released Thursday. Senior Yago Fernandez was the lone Pioneer to earn preseason All-Conference recognition, as he was voted second-team All-SAC in singles by the conference's media relations offices.

The Pioneers finished 13-6 overall last season and 7-3 in the SAC. Tusculum was ranked 29th in the final Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division II poll last season, with all six of its losses coming to teams ranked 34th or higher. The Pioneers received votes in the 2020 preseason national poll, and are ranked ninth in the first ITA Southeast Region survey of the season.

Fernandez was named second-team All-SAC in singles for the second time in his career last season, and received All-SAC status for the fourth time in three seasons at Tusculum (twice in singles, twice in doubles). The Aviles, Spain native led the Pioneers with a 12-5 record in dual matches and was 8-2 in SAC contests. Fernandez reached as high as 70th in the ITA Division II men's singles rankings during the season, and had a 4-1 record while ranked. This past fall, Fernandez went 7-2 in singles during tournament competition to improve his career record to 45-24 with the Pioneers.

Wingate captured 11 of the 12 first-place votes from the SAC coaches and took the top spot in the preseason poll with 132 points, with Queens earning the other first-place vote and 119 points. Tusculum had 109 points in the poll for third place, followed by Lenoir-Rhyne (105 points), Anderson (92) and Newberry (76) to round out the top six. Coker (62 points) was seventh, followed closely by Carson-Newman (61) and Catawba (60) in eighth and ninth, respectively. The rest of the poll consisted of Lincoln Memorial in tenth (54 points), Mars Hill (32) in 11th and league newcomer UVa-Wise (22) in 12th place.

The Pioneers play nationally-ranked Indianapolis in their spring opener on Sunday, Feb. 2 at Lexington, Kentucky, and host West Virginia Wesleyan and Johnson C. Smith in their first home matches of the spring on Sunday, Feb. 9 at the Nichols Tennis Complex. Tusculum's SAC schedule opens at Newberry on Saturday, Feb. 15 and the regular season concludes with a trip to Carson-Newman on Wednesday, April 8.


South Atlantic Conference Men's Tennis
Preseason Coaches Poll
Rk Team (1st)       Pts
1. Wingate (11)     132
2. Queens (1)       119
3. TUSCULUM         109
4. Lenoir-Rhyne     105
5. Anderson          92
6. Newberry          76
7. Coker             62
8. Carson-Newman     61
9. Catawba           60
10 Lincoln Memorial  54
11 Mars Hill         32
12 UVa-Wise          22

2020 Men's Tennis Preseason All-Conference
First Team Doubles
Daniel Belsito / Josep Canyadell, Wingate
Paolo Bompieri / Joel Dunlap, Queens
Edison Ambarzumjan / Enrico Haas, Newberry

Second Team Doubles
Sebastian Meum / Kasper Rolfsen, Queens
Paul Lenz / Rhodri Atkinson, Lenoir-Rhyne
Enrico Giacomini / Roy Stepanov, Wingate

First Team Singles
Daniel Belsito, Wingate
Edison Ambarzumjan, Newberry
Agustin Aran Martin, Queens
Josep Canyadell, Wingate
Ignacio Bidegain, Anderson
Tolunay Sumer, Wingate

Second Team Singles
Matt Jones, Wingate
Rhodri Atkinson, Lenoir-Rhyne
Yago Fernandez, Tusculum
Ryen Reid, Catawba
Tales Miranda, Lenoir-Rhyne
Paolo Bompieri, Queens

© 2023 TUSCULUM UNIVERSITY

60 SHILOH ROAD

GREENEVILLE, TN 37745

MISSION STATEMENT

"TUSCULUM WILL PREPARE STUDENT-ATHLETES TO BECOME PRINCIPLED LEADERS WHO ARE CONTRIBUTING CITIZENS AND CHAMPIONS IN LIFE BY INSTILLING THE HIGHEST VALUES OF CHARACTER, INTEGRITY, AND SPORTSMANSHIP."

Privacy Policy