GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum College women's golf team will be hosting the inaugural Pioneer Classic this weekend at the Nolichucky View Golf Club in Greeneville.

The Pioneers, along with four collegiate teams, will begin the two-day, 36-hole event on Saturday morning at the par-71, 5,842-yard layout.

Joining Tusculum are fellow South Atlantic Conference members Brevard College, Lincoln Memorial University and Mars Hill University. Spartanburg Methodist College will also be competing in this year's tournament.

The Pioneer Classic is one of four women's home events which Tusculum College conducts. TC hosts the Tusculum Fall Classic and the Agnes McAmis Memorial Invitational at Link Hills Country Club in Greeneville. Tusculum also sponsors the TC/Kiawah Island Intercollegiate each February at Cougar Point Golf Club in Kiawah Island, South Carolina.

This is the first women's event Tusculum has hosted at Nolichucky View, but it won't be the first collegiate tournament for the Pioneers. The Tusculum men hosted the Fall Festival Invitational in 2000 and 2001 at Nolichucky View, which was held in conjunction by the South Atlantic Conference Fall Sports Festival.

Tusculum has finished in the top-10 in three of its four fall events this year, including a fifth place showing at last month's Tusculum Fall Classic. TC also finished eighth at the Patsy Rendleman Invitational and 10th at the Flagler Fall Slam, which was concluded on Tuesday.

Freshman Ciara Rattana is leading the charge for the Pioneers with her 77.40 stroke average. She has finished the top-20 twice, including one top-10 finish.

Senior Alec Cunningham is second with her 79.40 scoring average while playing in all four events this fall. Cunningham has accounted for one top-20 finish.

Tusculum College, located in Greeneville, Tennessee, is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, USA and is a NCAA Division II member of the South Atlantic Conference. Tusculum, the oldest college in the State of Tennessee, sponsors 16 intercollegiate sports, including women's lacrosse, which will be competing in its first season during the 2014-2015 academic year.

Tusculum, the 28th oldest college in the nation, is a liberal arts institution committed to providing a liberal arts education in a Judeo-Christian and civic arts environment, with pathways for career preparation, personal development and civic engagement. Approximately twenty-one hundred students are enrolled on the main campus in Greeneville and three off-site locations in East Tennessee. The academic programs for both traditional-aged students and working adults served through the Graduate and Professional Studies program are delivered using focused calendars whereby students enroll in one course at a time.

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