Wingate, N.C.----The Wingate University Bulldogs guaranteed at least a share of the regular season conference title Friday night, sweeping the Tusculum University Pioneers in South Atlantic Conference volleyball action in Cuddy Arena. Wingate won by scores of 25-15, 25-20 and 25-23 to improve to 25-1 overall and 18-1 in the SAC, claiming its 12th regular season title in the last 13 years. Tusculum falls to 6-19 overall and 4-15 in league play. A victory Saturday would give the 'Dogs the outright SAC title.

THOUGHTS FROM COACH COLLIER

"Senior Nights are always special and with us having seven seniors tonight was perhaps even more special. As we head into the final stretch of our season it is of course important to win, but also important to keep making progress. Tonight we played a couple strong sets, which was good to see and after being down by a huge deficit in the third set we were able to find a way to come back and win. That showed some good qualities in our team as well.

KEY STATS

- Wingate hit .308 with 51 kills and 14 errors
- Tusculum hit .124 with 28 kills and 13 errors
- The Pioneers had six blocks compared to Wingate's five
- Each team had five aces
- WU had 70 digs while the Pioneers had just 48
- The 'Dogs hit over .350 in two of the three sets
- Tusculum hit under .100 in the first two frames; hit .231 in the third

KEY BULLDOGS

- Anna Holmquist hit .526 with 11 kills in just two sets of action, adding three blocks
- Phoebe Havenaar had nine kills and two blocks; Molly Lambillotte had seven kills and 12 digs
- Anne Abernathy had six kills in one set; Taylor Williams had six kills in two sets
- Sophie Schaff hit .455 with six kills; Hannah Givens added four kills in two frames
- Rachel Alles piled up 42 assists, 14 digs, two blocks and two kills
- Kori Adams picked up 23 digs

NOTES

- 14th regular season SAC title in program history
- Wingate has 22 total SAC titles since start of 2006 (10 tourney, 12 regular season)
- WU improves to 45-6 all-time against Tusculum
- Wingate is 21-3 vs. TU in Cuddy Arena
- 16th straight win over the Pioneers; Wingate has won 29 of the last 30
- 18th double-double of the year for Alles
- The Bulldogs hit over .300 for the ninth time this season
- 14th sweep of the season
- Second most kills in a three-set match this year
- Wingate moves to 370-33 overall since the start of the 2007 season
- WU has won 321 of its last 342 regular season matches
- The Bulldogs are 215-12 in league play over the last 12 seasons

SET ONE

- Wingate hit .385 with 18 kills and three errors
- Tusculum hit .077 with seven kills and four errors
- Holmquist had six kills in 10 swings; Havenaar and Schaff had four kills each
- Alles had 15 assists; Adams collected eight digs
- Back-to-back Holmquist kills gave Wingate an 11-6 lead
- Aubrey Hawkins got Tusculum within two with a kill
- Two Havenaar kills sparked a 5-0 run that made it 16-9
- A Williams kill made it 21-12, while a block and two kills from Holmquist made it 24-12
- Schaff ended the frame with a kill

SET TWO

- Wingate hit .190 with 15 kills and seven errors
- Tusculum had eight kills and five errors to hit .070
- Abernathy had six kills in 11 swings
- Lambillotte added three kills and four digs
- Alles had 13 assists and nine digs; Adams had eight digs
- Two Abernathy kills and a Givens ace gave Wingate a 12-8 lead
- Two more Abernathy kills, along with a Lambillotte kill made it 16-11
- A Carli Pigza kill got the Pioneers within one at 17-16
- Kills from Givens and Schaff pushed the lead back to three at 20-17
- Kills from Lambillotte and Abernathy made it 23-18; another Lambillotte kill made it 24-18
- A Treslyn Ortiz ace ended the frame

SET THREE

- The Bulldogs hit .359 with 18 kills and four errors
- Tusculum had 13 kills and four errors, hitting .231
- Holmquist hit .556 with five kills
- Williams and Lambillotte added four kills each
- Alles had 14 assists; Adams collected seven digs
- Two aces from Cassie Born helped Tusculum take an 8-1 lead
- A kill and a block from Williams got WU within six at 12-6
- An Alyssa Rojas kill gave the Pioneers a 15-8 advantage
- Holmquist and Lambillotte had two kills each in a 4-0 run that made it 15-12
- A kill from Nevena Pejovic gave the Pioneers a 21-16 advantage
- WU scored the next four, getting a kill and a block from Holmquist to make it 21-20
- Born's kill gave the Pioneers a 23-22 lead; Williams tied it with a kill
- A Tusculum error gave the Bulldogs a 24-23 advantage; Holmquist capped it with a kill

UP NEXT

- The Bulldogs wrap up regular season play Saturday against LMU at 2 p.m.
- Wingate will host a SAC Tournament quarterfinal match Tuesday night