NEWBERRY - The eighth-seeded Newberry Wolves and top-seeded Wingate Bulldogs opened the 2013 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Championship with a thriller of a match, with Wingate prevailing 3-1 in Eleazer Arena.

Newberry falls to 18-12 and sees it postseason fate fall into the hands of the NCAA committee. Wingate moves to Saturday's semifinals with a 27-2 record.

Amanda Soper (Simi Valley, Calif.) led Newberry with 16 kills, while Jessica King (Los Angeles, Calif.) had 12 kills and Logan Hayward (Sylvania, Ohio) had 10 kills.

Samantha Parrish (Angola, Ind.) played her final match in Eleazer Arena with eight kills and 31 digs. Elayni Stokes (Houston, Texas) had 19 digs.

Rachel Moran (Cypress, Texas) had a double-double with 30 assists and 14 digs, while Chelsea Mayor (Sugar Land, Texas) passed out 19 assists.

Newberry opened the tournament with a huge run, scoring the first 10 points of the match. The top-seeded Bulldogs responded and got to within two points at 14-12.

The Wolves got back out to an 18-13 lead before Wingate scored five straight to tie the set at 18-all. The hosts scored four of the next five points to get back up 22-19, but the Bulldogs closed out the set with six of the final seven points to take the opener. Soper led the Wolves' attack with an impressive seven kills in the first set.

In the second set, the Bulldogs got up at 8-4 but could not pull away from the Wolves until late in the set. Newberry was within one point at 15-14 before the ‘Dogs surged and closed out. SAC Player of the Year Anna Hilton had six kills for Wingate, which hit .412 in the set. Hawyard had four errorless kills for Newberry.

Newberry stormed back to take the third set by a 25-19 score. From a 5-all tie, the Wolves scored five of the next six points to go up 10-6. Wingate was never able to cut the lead to fewer than three points in the rest of the set, as the Wolves kept the match alive.

Soper had five kills in the set as Newberry hit .273 in the set to Wingate's .167.

Wingate's play at the net defined the fourth set, as the Bulldogs had eight blocks on the way to a 25-21 win. Parrish had four kills and 11 digs to lead Newberry in the set.