Lions to Face Lenoir-Rhyne in SAC Tournament

ROCK HILL, S.C. - Pairings for the 2012 Food Lion SAC Soccer Championship were finalized on Saturday, with the Mars Hill men and Lenoir-Rhyne women earning the event's top seeds.

Lenoir-Rhyne will be the top seed after wrapping up a perfect conference season on Saturday with a win over Anderson. The SAC regular-season champion Bears, who were ranked 11th in the latest NSCAA national poll, went unbeaten in league play for the second-straight year and have won 19-consecutive regular-season conference matches.

L-R will face No. 8 seed Mars Hill in Tuesday's quarterfinals. The Lions finished the season 2-7 in the SAC.

SAC Championship men's and women's quarterfinals will take place at campus sites on Tuesday, followed by semifinals and finals next Friday and Sunday at Manchester Meadows in Rock Hill.

Wingate -- winners of 10-straight matches -- secured the event's No. 2 seed on Saturday by defeating Tusculum, 3-2. The Bulldogs, who won last season's Food Lion SAC Women's Soccer Championship, will be pitted against seventh-seeded Newberry in the quarterfinal round.

Tusculum is seeded No. 3 in the women's bracket and will host No. 6 seed Lincoln Memorial in Tuesday's quarterfinals. The Pioneers enter the tournament after going 6-2-1 in the SAC, while LMU went 3-4-2.

Catawba beat Brevard 3-1 on Saturday, clinching the bracket's No. 4 seed and home-field advantage for the quarterfinal round. The Indians will host fifth-seeded Anderson on Tuesday.

Catawba is 12-6 overall, while AU went 7-6-3 in the regular season.

Women
Quarterfinals - Tuesday, Oct. 30
No. 8 Mars Hill at No. 1 Lenoir-Rhyne, 7 p.m.
No. 7 Newberry at No. 2 Wingate, 4:30 p.m.
No. 6 Lincoln Memorial at No. 3 Tusculum, 7 p.m.
No. 5 Anderson at No. 4 Catawba, 5 p.m.

Semifinals - Friday, Nov.2 (Rock Hill, S.C.)
Lenoir-Rhyne/Mars Hill vs. Catawba/Anderson, 4 p.m.
Wingate/Newberry vs. Tusculum/LMU, 4 p.m.

Final - Sunday, Nov. 4 (Rock Hill, S.C.)
Semifinal 1 winner vs. Semifinal 2 winner, 1 p.m.