Indianapolis, Ind.----The Wingate University men’s soccer team will host the Saints of Flagler College in the opening round of the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional tournament Wednesday night at 7 p.m. The Bulldogs earn the fourth seed in the tournament, while Flagler is the number five seed.

Wingate are 12-4-1 overall and 6-1-1 in the SAC, good for a second-place regular season finish. The Flagler Saints went 14-5-2 during the regular season and 7-1 in their first season in the Peach Belt Conference.

The 2009 season marks the third NCAA Tournament appearance for the Bulldogs. Wingate’s most recent appearance was in 2007, when the Bulldogs fell to Lincoln Memorial University. Wingate hosted an NCAA first round contest in 1999, falling to Queens (N.C.). This will be the first-ever matchup between Wingate and Flagler. The Saints are making their first appearance in the big dance.

The Bulldogs are led by four All-SAC selections, including 2009 SAC Player of the Year Luke Mulholland (Preston, England). A 2008 All-American, Mulholland has 15 goals and three assists on the year. His 0.94 goals per game average ranks first in the SAC. He finished second in the league with 2.06 points per game. Thirteen of Mulholland’s 15 goals this year were against SAC opponents, including two goals against Newberry in the quarterfinals of the Food Lion SAC tournament. He also led the conference with seven game-winning goals.

Senior forward Junior Nyemb (Douala, Cameroon) was named the SAC Scholar- Athlete Award winner, while also earning first team All-SAC honors. He finished second on the team and seventh in the league with nine goals on the year. Nyemb has earned All-SAC honors all four years of his Wingate career. A three-time ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III selection, Nyemb has netted 44 goals as a Bulldog.

Sophomore defender Tom Poole (Birmingham, England) also earned first team all-conference honors, while junior defender Jack Vundum (Birmingham, England) was a second team selection. The duo helped anchor a Wingate defense that was third in the league in goals against average. Poole had a goal and two assists on the year, while Vundum notched an assist as well.

Flagler is led by sophomore forward Mack Hough (St. Augustine, Fla.), with 10 goals and five assists on the year. Sophomore midfielder Pol Berenguer (Barcelona, Spain) is right behind him with seven goals on the year, while freshman forward Joseph Toby (Jacksonville, Fla.) has a team-best six assists to go along with four goals. Johan Bergfeld (Akers Styckebruk, Sweden) was a first team All-Peach Belt selection, while Toby was named the league’s Freshman of the Year. In addition, Flagler’s John Lynch was named the PBC Coach of the Year.

The Wingate-Flagler winner will face semi-final host and number one seed Lees-McRae College Friday in Banner Elk, N.C. The other side of the Southeast Regional bracket features number two seed Anderson (S.C.) University, a future member of the South Atlantic Conference. Anderson will face the winner of Wednesday’s contest between number three seed Carson-Newman College and number six seed Lander University.

Watch the Wingate University web site for more details about Wednesday’s NCAA play-off match. The full bracket NCAA Division II men’s soccer tournament bracket can be viewed at the NCAA web site at www.ncaa.com..

WINGATE UNIVERSITY

Founded in 1896, Wingate University is a private four-year co-educational institution of 2,159 students offering active learning opportunities through personalized instruction, world travel, career discovery and community service.

Wingate offers more than 40 undergraduate majors in arts and sciences, business, communication, education, fine arts, music and sport sciences. It also offers graduate degrees in business, education, physician assistant studies and sport administration. In addition, the school awards the doctor of pharmacy and the doctor of education degrees.

Bulldog student-athletes compete in 17 NCAA Division II sports. Wingate University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past three years.

Wingate University is ranked number three among NCAA Division II Academic All-America® producing schools in the 2000’s with 34 honorees during this millennium. Only Pittsburg State (Kan.) University and Truman State (Mo.) University have produced more Academic All-America® honorees during this time period. Wingate’s 43 Academic All-America® honorees (lifetime) is tops among all SAC schools.

(Wingate University assistant sports information director Hugh Patton wrote this article. Patton is a 2006 Wingate graduate with a B.A. degree in Communication Studies.)