WINGATE, N.C. -- The second-seeded Lady Railsplitters (25-8) suffered a 3-0 loss to the top-seeded Wingate Bulldogs (29-5) in the title match of the 2016 South Atlantic Conference Volleyball Championship on Saturday afternoon at Cuddy Arena in Wingate, N.C. Lincoln Memorial falls to 25-8 on the season with the loss and will have to wait until Monday night to learn its postseason fate, while Wingate earns the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and improves to 29-5.
 
The Lady Railsplitters, who were making just their second appearance in the SAC Championship title match and first since 2008, couldn't get anything going offensively against the stingy Wingate defense. Lincoln Memorial finished with just 27 kills and 15 errors for a .121 attack percentage. On the other end of the spectrum, the Bulldogs piled up 47 kills on a .309 hitting percentage.
 
Kiera Holland (Columbia, S.C.) paced the Lady Railsplitters with nine kills on 19 attempts for a .368 attack percentage, while All-SAC first team pick Samantha Cash (New Carlisle, Ohio) had seven kills without an error to go along with four digs. Nobody else finished with more than five kills for the Lady Railsplitters, but Liz Brock (Lima, Ohio) had four and Jamie Jehne (Hollywood, Fla.) chipped in three. Abby Cash (New Carlisle, Ohio) led Lincoln Memorial in both assists (22) and digs (11).
 
Wingate was powered by spectacular performances from Abby Saehler, Lynnlee Mather and Anna Holmquist. Saehler recorded a match-high 15 kills on a .452 clip while chipping in 11 digs and three blocks. Mather tallied eight kills on just 11 attempts for a .636 percent mark, while Holmquish notched eight kills on a .471 attack percentage. Rachel Alles led all players with 37 assists to go along with four kills, while Treslyn Ortiz put up a game-high 15 digs.
 
Kills by Jehne and Holland sparked a 3-0 run that put the Lady Railsplitters ahead 7-4 early in the first set. However, Wingate answered by winning five of the next six rallies to take a 9-8 lead. Rachel Alles had three kills over that stretch. The Lady Railsplitters controlled the next passage of play and took a 14-11 lead on a kill by Abby Cash, but the Bulldogs won four of the next five points to draw it back even at 15-15. Lincoln Memorial had two more leads after that at 16-15 and 17-16, but Wingate used a 3-1 spurt to take a 22-19 lead on a kill by Katie Bludau. The Lady Railsplitters closed within one point late on a Wingate service error, but the Bulldogs shut the door on their 25-23 win on a kill by Saehler.
 
Wingate never trailed in the second set, opening on a 6-0 run before Abby Cash halted that flurry with a kill. A Wingate attack error made it two straight points for the Lady Railsplitters, but the Bulldogs followed that up with a 9-2 spurt. That stretch, which was highlighted by four kills by Saehler, catapulted the Bulldogs out to a commanding 15-4 lead. Lincoln Memorial righted itself later in the set and trimmed Wingate's lead to 19-10 on a Bulldog miscue. However, it was too little too late, as the Bulldogs finished off their 25-12 win with back-to-back kills from Oakley Attaway.
 
The Bulldogs led from start to finish again in the third set, using three straight kills by Saehler to pull ahead 3-0. Wingate later increased its lead to 8-3 on a kill by Bludau. Lincoln Memorial briefly worked its way back into the set, cutting the deficit to 8-6 on a Holland kill and a Wingate miscue, but the Bulldogs responded with a 5-3 spurt, aided by two more kills from Saehler. The Lady Railsplitters never could quite get over the hump after that, as Wingate pulled ahead 17-12 with a service ace. The deficit was never less than four points the rest of the way while the Bulldogs ended the set on a 3-0 run to finish off the match with a 25-18 victory.
 
With the loss, the Lady Railsplitters will have to wait until Monday night to learn if they will be making their first trip back to the NCAA Tournament since 2012. The NCAA will announced the 64-team field for the NCAA Tournament during a live selection show at 7:30 p.m. eastern time. Eight teams will be selected to participate in the NCAA Southeast Regional and Lincoln Memorial was ranked fifth in the most recent regional poll.
 
The selection show can be seen here.
 
Quick Hits
-Lincoln Memorial falls to 0-2 in the SAC Championship title match with the loss. The Lady Railsplitters also suffered a 3-0 loss at the hands of Wingate in the 2008 SAC tournament.
-A day after breaking the program's single-match record for digs with 45, sophomore libero Erica Whiteaker (Kingston Springs, Tenn.) was limited to just nine digs by the Bulldogs.
-Wingate improved to 22-1 all-time against Lincoln Memorial with the victory and avenged a 3-2 loss from back on October 28 at Mary Mars Gym.