The Tusculum College Women's tennis team is picked to finish second in the South Atlantic Conference, according to the 2014 SAC Coaches' Poll which was released on Thursday.

The Pioneers return five starters from last year's team that finished 16-4 overall and 8-1 in the SAC, taking second place behind Wingate which won both the regular-season and tournament championships for the third straight year.

Tusculum's doubles team of sophomore Amanda Sumner and Emily Waters received recognition by being named to the Preseason All-SAC second team, after combining to go 15-2 overall and 8-0 in conference matches as freshmen.

The Sumner/Waters pairing finished the year with 11 straight wins, and went 14-1 while playing in the No. 3 spot in the Pioneer lineup, including an 8-6 win against Anderson in the SAC Tournament semifinals.

Wingate received 116 points and eight first-place votes in the rankings, followed by Tusculum which took the other four first-place votes and tallied 107 points. Anderson (98 points), Newberry (81), Queens (79) and Lincoln Memorial (78) rounded out the top six in the survey. Catawba (69 points) was seventh, trailed by Carson-Newman (46), Mars Hill (41), Coker (29), Brevard (28) and Lenoir-Rhyne (20).

Tusculum won all three of its matches in the fall portion of its schedule, and will open the spring segment on Sunday, Feb. 9 against North Georgia at the Nichols Tennis Complex. The Pioneers' first league match will be played Sunday, Feb. 23 at Anderson and the SAC Tournament will be contests April 16-18 at the Rock Hill Tennis Center.