Men's Tennis | 4/18/2015 1:30:00 PM

Box Score

Brevard, N.C.----The top-seeded Wingate University Bulldogs picked up a pair of doubles victories and three singles wins Saturday morning to prevail 5-1 against number two seed Tusculum College in the 2015 South Atlantic Conference men's tennis tournament championship match. Wingate wins its second straight tournament title and third in four years. The Bulldogs have also captured five regular season championships in the past seven years, to give Wingate eight total conference titles in seven years.

"It was a great team win today," head coach Michael Cabana says. "Tusculum came out ready to play and they have a great team. We played very well today and I am so proud of the team and of the program."

Wingate took a 1-0 lead thanks to an 8-3 win at number two doubles from sophomore Connor Kudrick (Spring, Texas) and freshman Amir Zari (Jerusalem, Israel). Sophomores Filippo Pezzoli (Milan, Italy) and Tyler Schofer (Graham, N.C.) added an 8-4 victory at number three doubles to give Wingate a 2-1 lead heading to singles play.

Freshman Josh DuToit (Charlotte, N.C.) picked up a 6-0, 6-4 win at number six singles to put the Bulldogs on top 4-1. Pezzoli won the clincher at number five singles. The sophomore won the first set 6-1, while dropping the second set 6-1. Pezzoli responded by taking the third set 6-1 to clinch the title.

When the match was clinched, Wingate senior Neal Towlson (Warwick, Bermuda) was leading SAC Player of the Year Lukas Winkelmann at number one singles. Towlson won the first set 7-6, with a 7-5 win in the tiebreaker. He led 3-2 in the second set when Pezzoli clinched the match. Junior Sebastian Hall (Lorrach, Germany) lost his first set 6-1, but led 6-5 in set two at number two singles.

Pezzoli was named the SAC Tournament MVP. The honorable mention All-SAC selection went 2-0 in singles play and 2-0 in doubles play in the SAC Tournament. He also won the clincher in the 5-4 win over Queens in Friday's semifinals. Pezzoli is now 18-1 in singles play this season, winning 15 consecutive matches.

The SAC title gives Wingate the league's automatic bid to the 2015 NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs will be making their second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and third in the last four years.