Rock Hill, S.C.----Lincoln Memorial men’s tennis team rallied from a 2-1 doubles deficit to take a 5-4 victory over number 42 Wingate University in the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference tournament championship match at the Rock Hill Tennis Center. The LMU Railsplitters (14-5 overall) avenge a 5-1 setback in last year’s title contest and earn the league’s automatic qualification to the NCAA tournament. Wingate is 16-11 overall; the Bulldogs will wait to hear about a potential NCAA at-large bid.
 
LMU freshman Guilherme Rocha (Victoria, Brazil) scored the ‘Splitters fifth point, as he survived Wingate sophomore Josh Eardley (Newcastle, Staffordshire, England) 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 in the number six singles match. In Wingate’s 5-4 win in Harrogate April 6, Bulldog junior Ryan Forbes (Charlotte, N.C.) defeated Rocha 7-5, 6-1 to give the visitors the league victory and the hosts their first SAC regular season loss.
 
Wingate freshman Sebastian Hall (Lörrach, Germany) gave the Bulldogs a 4-3 lead following a 6-4, 6-3 number three singles victory over LMU junior Marcelo Alvim (Sao Paulo, Brazil). Hall won a three-setter over Alvim thanks to a 13-11 third set tie-breaker during the regular season battle. LMU junior Gabriel Martins (Aracaju, Brazil) tied the match 4-4 with his 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5) win over Forbes at the number five singles flight.
 
Hall and Eardley put the Bulldogs up 1-0 with an 8-2 number three doubles victory over Martins and junior Michael Koenen (Auckland, New Zealand). After LMU won the number one doubles match by the same score, Forbes and freshman Kennedy Cancelado (Miami Springs, Fla.) defeated Alvim and sophomore Will Sparks (Knoxville, Tenn.) 8-6 in the number two doubles contest. Wingate’s number two tandem reversed their outcome from the regular season match.
 
Both Sparks and senior Philipp Hoffman (Karlsruhe, Germany) won twice each for the Railsplitters. Hoffman and junior Alexey Minevskiy (Taganrog, Russia) won the aforementioned number one doubles match, avenging a regular season set-back. Hoffman collected a 6-2, 6-2 number one singles win over Cancelado. Sparks edged Wingate sophomore Neal Towlson (Warwick, Bermuda) 6-4, 6-3 at the number two singles flight Saturday.