Wingate Captures SAC Women's Soccer Regular Season Title in Dramatic Fashion as Tournament Bracket is Released
ROCK HILL, S.C. (TheSAC.com) – It came down to the final moments of the season, but the Wingate Bulldogs were crowned the 2024 South Atlantic Conference Women's Soccer Regular Season Championship. The Bulldogs entered the day in third place but just a point behind Lenoir-Rhyne and Catawba. The Bulldogs won 2-0 over Coker and could only win the league title if LR and Catawba tied. The Bears led 1-0 until Catawba's Bree Ehmer scored in the 89th minute to make it a 1-1 draw and give the Bulldogs the outright title.
Lenoir-Rhyne and Catawba finished the year with 27 points. With the head-to-head tie, the next tiebreaker is records against highest seed possible and continuing all the way to the lowest seed if necessary. LR beat No. 1 seed Wingate 1-0 on September 28 and Catawba tied with the Bulldogs on Oct. 16 giving the Bears the second seed and Catawba the third.
Lincoln Memorial earned the No. 4 and seed and the final host location with a 6-2-3 league record and 21 points.
The Railsplitters will take on fifth-seeded Coker. The Cobras and Anderson tied with 16 points and identical 5-5-1 records. However, Coker earned the tiebreaker based on a 2-1 win over the Trojans.
Anderson garnered the No. 6 seed in the conference tournament while Limestone is the 7-seed with a 4-5-2 mark and 14 points.
Carson-Newman rounds out the tournament field with the 8-seed thanks to a 3-5-3 mark and 12 points. The Eagles grabbed that last spot with a 3-1 win over Tusculum this evening.
All tournament games will be broadcast on FloSports.
SAC Quarterfinals – Saturday, November 9
Game 1: #1 Wingate vs. #8 Carson-Newman – Wingate, N.C. - 2 p.m.
Game 2: #2 Lenoir-Rhyne vs. #7 Limestone – Hickory, N.C. - 7:30 p.m.
Game 3 : #3 Catawba vs. #6 Anderson – Salisbury, N.C. - 1 p.m.
Game 4 : #4 Lincoln Memorial vs. #5 Coker – Harrogate, Tenn. - 6:30 p.m.
SAC Semifinals – Friday, November 15 – Matthews, N.C / Sportsplex at Matthews
Game 5: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 4 – 5 p.m.
Game 6: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3 – 8 p.m.
SAC Championship – Sunday, November 17 – Matthews, N.C. / Sportsplex at Matthews
Game 7: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6 – 4 p.m.