ANDERSON, S.C. – Following a season that included a pair of tournament victories, the nationally 46th-ranked Anderson women's golf team is set to compete at the 2018 South Atlantic Conference Championship.

The 54-hole tournament begins Sunday morning and concludes Tuesday afternoon at The Members Club at Woodcreek, located in Elgin, S.C. The event has produced five different champions over the past five seasons, with defending champion Lenoir-Rhyne hoping to become the first repeat title-winner since Newberry won back-to-back conference crowns in 2012 and 2013.

Paced by Kate Hill's 2-over-par-74 in the final round, the Trojans posted their best finish since joining the league in 2011 by wrapping up last year's championship in fifth place. Hill earned First-Team All-Tournament honors last year after finishing in a three-way tie for fifth. Tiffany Elam shared 15th place, with Riley Lovorn finishing in a tie for 19th place.

The Trojans finished in the top four in seven of their eight tournaments this year, while winning the AU Invitational last September and bringing home the Pfeiffer Invitational title in early March. AU bested the school record twice during the regular season, as the Trojans shot a school-record 300 during the second round of the Patsy Rendleman Invitational and followed up by besting that score with a new school-record 295 in the opening round at Pfeiffer.

Hill, the league's 2017 Freshman of the Year, paced the Trojans throughout the fall slate, while newcomer Anna Freeman earned 2018 Freshman of the Year honors and led AU in two of its spring tournaments.

Hill notched a team-best 76.88 stroke average through 17 rounds this season, while recording four top-10 finishes, including a second-place finish at the AU Invitational, and finished lower than 13th just once in eight tournaments. The Clemson, S.C., native carded a season-best 74 in the second round of the AU Invitational and again in the opening round of the Pfeiffer Invitational.

Freeman posted a 77.94 stroke average, while book-ending the year with a tie for seventh at the AU Invitational and a share of eighth place at the Sunoco Campbell Oil Classic in late March. She posted back-to-back low-round 73s at the Pfeiffer Invitational and notched five top-10 finishes on the year, including a share of second place at the Pfeiffer Invitational.

Elam, who recorded 78.65 stoke average and led AU in two spring events, notched four top-10 finishes and claimed a tie for fourth at Pfeiffer after firing a season-low 73 in the opening round. Lovorn posed a season-low 75 on three occasions and tied for seventh at the AU Invitational, while sharing 11th place at Pfeiffer. Junior Samantha Ellison earned a 10th place finish at Cobb's Glen last September and claimed 16th place at Pfeiffer, while firing a season-low 77 twice.

Wingate enters the tournament as the conference's highest-ranked team, checking in at No. 15 in the Golfstat rankings and never finishing outside the top four in any tournament this season. The Bulldogs boast the newly-minted SAC Golfer of the Year in sophomore Diana McDonald, who is ranked 13th nationally, has won three tournaments this season, and set a school record with a four-under 68 in the first tournament of the season. Head coach Erin Thorne was selected SAC Coach of the year for the second season in a row.

The Bulldogs have experience at The Members Club this season, finishing in second place at October's Newberry College Invitational by six strokes to sixth-ranked Florida Southern. Six SAC teams were in attendance at the event in which McDonald took home individual medalist honors and led a group of three Bulldogs in the top 10.

Lenoir-Rhyne is arguably the hottest team in the conference, having won three of their last four tournaments and finishing second to Division I Western Michigan in the other. The Bears are currently ranked 25th in the nation and boast an all-SAC first team selection in Abbey Hartsell, last year's SAC Golfer of the Year and the 2016 SAC Freshman of the Year.

Close behind the Bears in the national rankings is No. 30 Tusculum, winners of two tournaments this season. The Pioneers have two players ranked inside the top 120 individuals in Division II and are seeking their first SAC title since capturing the first two conference tournaments in 2000 and 2001.

Carson-Newman (35th), Anderson (46th), and Lincoln Memorial (48th) are also ranked among the nation's top 50. The Trojans finished third in October at The Members Club and have the two all-SAC honorees.

Lincoln Memorial was fifth in the same tournament and placed Dominika Czudkova and Lise Malherbe on the all-conference first team. Carson-Newman's Elizabeth England, last year's individual medalist at the SAC Championship, claimed the final slot on the all-SAC first team.

Teams will compete on a 5,830-yard, par-72 layout. The course hosted last year's NCAA South Super Regional and will be the site of the 2022 NCAA Women's Golf Championships.

Live scoring will be available for all three rounds through Birdiefire.com, with tee times set for 8:30 a.m. each morning.