HARROGATE, Tenn. -- The South Atlantic Conference Men's Soccer Championship commences on Tuesday when the three-seeded Railsplitters (10-3-1) welcome the six-seeded Tusculum Pioneers (9-6-1) to the LMU Soccer Complex for quarterfinal round action. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m., with the winner advancing to the semifinal round to face the winner between Wingate and Lenoir-Rhyne on Friday in Rock Hill, S.C.
 
Danilo da Silva (Campinas, Brazil) helped Lincoln Memorial secure a top-four SAC finish and the program's first 10-win season since 2012 on Saturday by scoring two goals and initiated another in a 3-2 win over Catawba in the regular season finale.
 
Da Silva opened the scoring at the 9:15 mark, as he received a long pass up the left sideline from Henrique Rezek (Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil), wound his way into the box and drove the ball inside of the far post.  The Indians answered in the 33rd minute, but da Silva put the Railsplitters back in front with his second goal of the day at 39:26. Catawba tied the match again early in the second half before Rezek tallied the game-winner in the 59th minute by collecting a rebound on a shot by da Silva that was initially saved and curling the ball into the upper left-hand corner.
 
The win - which proved significant with both No. 4 Queens and No. 5 Anderson finishing just a point behind LMU in the standings - nailed down the Railsplitters' highest SAC finish (3rd place) since the 2012 campaign, when they also finished in third place with a 6-3 league record.
 
The Railsplitters enter postseason play in solid form with wins in four of their last five matches. That stretch run included 5-0 drubbings over Newberry and Coker, a 2-1 win at Anderson and Saturday's 3-2 triumph over Catawba. The only defeat over that span felt like anything but a loss, as the Railsplitters outshot the Mars Hill Lions 26-8 and hit the crossbar or post six times in a 1-0 setback.
 
The sixth-seeded Pioneers had a much more up-and-down finish to the regular season, losing 2-1 at home to 11th-place Coker, winning back-to-back road matches at Lenoir-Rhyne and Mars Hill, dropping two straight to 10th-place Catawba and Carson-Newman, and most recently capping the regular season schedule with a stunning 1-0 double overtime win over SAC co-champions Wingate. That victory, which gave the Pioneers the six seed over Lenoir-Rhyne, was brought forth by Gary Dunlop's 109th-minute marker.
 
Tusculum features a middling offensive attack that averages 1.6 goals on 14.3 shots per match. Creating quality shot attempts has been a bit of a struggle for the Pioneers, who rank last in the SAC with a shot on goal percentage of 41.0. Of their 229 total shots this season, just 94 have landed on target. Tusculum has scored the seventh-most goals in the league this season with 26.
 
Those minor offensive deficiencies are masked, however, by one of the better defensive units in the league. The Pioneers rank third in the SAC with a 1.09 goals against average, as only Lincoln Memorial (15) and Wingate (15) have allowed fewer than Tusculum's 18 goals this season.
 
The Railsplitters and Pioneers are squaring off in postseason play for the first time since November 7, 2008, when Tusculum ended Lincoln Memorial's season with a 2-0 victory in the semifinals of the South Atlantic Conference tournament. The only other postseason meeting between the two squads took place the season before that, as the then 16th-ranked Railsplitters knocked off the 23rd-ranked Pioneers 2-1 to claim their first-ever SAC tournament championship on the road to an eventual NCAA National Championship game appearance.
 
Sophomore forward Andreas Kvam leads the Pioneers in scoring with five goals and two assists on 21 shots and 12 shots on goal, but did not play in Tusculum's last two regular season matches for undisclosed reasons. Senior forward Pablo Laguna and junior defender Guillermo Lazcano are next in line with seven points apiece. Laguna has contributed three goals and an assist on a team-leading 31 shots and 14 shots on goal while Lazcano has produced a pair of goals and three assists. Sophomore forward Andre De Giorgi has added a goal and a team-leading four assists.
 
Pioneer goalkeeper Jorge Alvarez will be making his third career appearance against the Railsplitters. Both of Alvarez's first two matches against Lincoln Memorial ended in a 1-1 double overtime draw. He made four saves in the regular season meeting in 2014 and turned away five shots in this season's previous match before drawing a red card in the 108th minute. Alvarez has allowed a miniscule 0.85 goals against average with an .852 save percentage against SAC opponents this season. He ranks second in the league with six shutouts.
 
The Railsplitters and Pioneers played to a 1-1 stalemate on September 23 in Greenville, Tenn. That was a solid result for Lincoln Memorial, though, who played for the entire second half and the better part of the two overtime periods a man down after Nathaniel Johnson (London, England) was shown a red card in the 44th minute. Philip Wong (Hong Kong, China) scored an unassisted goal off of a free kick at the 71:09 mark to put the Railsplitters in front, but Jonathan Spicher drew the match back level at 77:51. The Railsplitters outshot the Pioneers 19-15 and posted a 12-9 corner kick advantage. It was the second consecutive draw in the series, which LMU leads 12-10-4 all-time.
 
Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for children under 13 years old and $2 for college students with a valid student ID. The LMU President's Office is sponsoring admission for the first 100 Lincoln Memorial students who present their school ID at the entrance gate.
 
Live stat and video links will be available for Tuesday's 2 p.m. kickoff at www.LMURailsplitters.com, the online home of Lincoln Memorial University athletics.