Hickory, N.C.-- Lenoir-Rhyne Women's Tennis was picked to finish 4th in the South Atlantic Preseason Coaches Poll announced Thursday morning.

LR was picked to finish 4th in the SAC Preseason Coaches Poll. The team is led by senior Lucy Whelan, junior Diana Babinets, and Gemma Southwick. Southwick was named to the Preseason All-Conference in singles and doubles. She finished the season 9-1 in No. 1 singles and doubles with Babinets. Diana Babinets was also named to the Preseason All-Conference First team. The doubles tandem of Southwick and Babinets finished 4-1 on the season and are 13-5 overall in the last two years. 

Head Coach Jesse Tarr mentions how this year's team is preparing for this season.

"First, I couldn't be more proud of our team for how they are handling this unprecedented year, " Coach Tarr said. " We had a great fall, we trained hard and got better. The ladies also had a semester team GPA of 3.63. This spring as always will be a challenging one. We play in one of the toughest conferences and regions in the country. Match in and match out, we will need to be ready to go from the first serve. We have a talented group of ladies. Our season goal is always to compete for Conference Championships and NCAA Tournament berths. I believe in this group. The future may be unpredictable. What I can guarantee about this group is we will put in the work, represent LR the right way and we will have the opportunity to reach our goals." 

The Bears will return to action on Sunday February 14 on the road against Francis Marion at 2 p.m.


2021 SAC Women's Tennis Preseason Poll

Rank	School (1st place votes)	Points
1	Wingate (12)	156
2	Queens	138
3	Tusculum (1)	131
4	Lenoir-Rhyne	123
5	Anderson	110
6	Lincoln Memorial	90
7	Newberry	87
8	Carson-Newman	83
9	Limestone	75
10	Catawba	58
11	Coker	55
12	Mars Hill	35
13	UVA Wise	29

2021 SAC Women's Tennis Preseason All-Conference

First Team Doubles
Annie McCullough/Caitlin McCullough, Tusculum
Sasha Davidzenka / Yana Fleyer, Queens
Gemma Southwick / Diana Babinets, Lenoir-Rhyne

Second Team Doubles
Katya Akimenko & Liza Akimenko, UVA Wise
Una Pandurevic/Lauren Laughton, Catawba
Judit Gonzalez Agud & Elisa Aguirre, Newberry

First Team Singles
Annie McCullough, Tusculum
Viktorija Veselinova, Queens
Yana Fleyer, Queens 
Ana Carla Resende, Carson-Newman 
Sasha Davidzenka, Queens 
Gemma Southwick, Lenoir-Rhyne

Second Team Singles
Julia Lopez, Tusculum
Liza Akimenko, UVA Wise
Viktorija Veselinova, Queens 
Camilla Ciaccia, Wingate
Caitlin McCullough, Tusculum
Elena Bompieri, Wingate