SUMTER, S.C. --- Tusculum University advanced to the finals of the South Atlantic Conference Women's Tennis Championship tournament with a 4-0 semifinal victory over Catawba College Friday morning at the Palmetto Tennis Center.
The 18th-ranked Pioneers (17-5), the top seed in the tournament, won doubles and took two of the three completed singles matches in straight sets from the 37th-ranked Indians (14-7) to advance to face second-seeded Wingate in Saturday's championship match, which is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.
Tusculum will be making its first appearance in the SAC Championship match since 2019, and is seeking its fifth SAC Tournament championship in program history (2004, 2008, 2014, 2017).
Catawba earned the first win in doubles at flight one, where Ami Miya and Alexandra Parra defeated Paulina Loretz and Tabitha Howe by a 6-2 score. Tusculum would come back at flight two as Valentina Loretz and Elodie Baechler went out to a 5-1 lead and held on for a 6-4 win over Sofia Hernandez and Carolina Correia.
With the doubles point up for grabs, it would be the Pioneers' team of Leonie Floeth and Ylva Frafjord Landa that won the final two games for a 6-4 victory over Nika Dundovic and Tina Gomes at flight three.
The Pioneers would take the first set in five of the six singles matches, and go up 3-0 in the match as Paulina Loretz defeated Vaishnavi Venkatesh 6-4, 6-1 at flight four, followed by a 7-5, 7-6 (8-6) win by Howe over Matilde Moretti at flight two.
Each of the four remaining matches would go to a third set, and it would be Baechler who clinched the win for the Pioneers as she finished off a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 victory over Parra at flight three to send Tusculum to the finals.
Wingate, ranked sixth in the NCAA Division II Southeast Region rankings and 13th in Division II by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, held on for a 4-3 victory over Newberry in Friday's other semifinal match. The Bulldogs needed a third-set tiebreaker win from Chloe Kosmrlj in the deciding match to outlast the Wolves and move into the finals.
Saturday's match will be the third time that Tusculum and Wingate have met for the SAC Tournament championship, with the Pioneers winning in 2017 and the Bulldogs in 2019. Wingate is making its eighth straight appearance in the SAC Championship final and seeking its seventh title, all since 2011. Tusculum beat Wingate 4-3 in the regular-season meeting between the teams on April 10 in Greeneville.
