ROME, Ga. – The future of the Salem tennis program received a major boost on Thursday afternoon when the USA South Conference office announced its 2024 All-Conference awards. Three Salem first-year's earned a spot on the All-Conference team, voted on by the league's coaches, including Mariana Faint (Second Team), Adley Keim (Second Team) and Jessea James (All-Sportsmanship).

The duo of Faint and Keim become the first players in Spirits tennis history to earn USA South All-Conference accolades, while James is the sixth different player to garner All-Sportsmanship honors from the league. Faint and Keim join Andrea Akers, Ayla Pruitt and Samantha Story as the only players in Salem tennis history to earn All-Conference honors in the same season. The trio of Akers, Pruitt and Story accomplished the feat in the Great South Athletic Conference in 2014.

Faint, a native of Reidsville, N.C., wrapped up her first season at Salem with seven singles wins, the most of any Spirit, and seven doubles victories with her partner Keim. Faint opened her collegiate career with a three-set victory over Jolie Nhouyvanisvong (Guilford) by margins of 5-7, 6-2, 1-0 (10-7). She capped off the fall slate with a win over Ellie Phillips (Meredith) on September 30th and followed that by earning a two-set win (6-1, 6-1) against Ferrum's Hannah Huffman on February 20th.

Faint won four of her final eight matches of the season by taking down Camryn Straughn (William Peace), Claire Southern (Meredith), Gracie Spangler (Brevard) and Kelsey Bantel (Mary Baldwin). With her seven wins as the Spirits' No. 2 seed she will enter her sophomore season fourth on the program's all-time list of wins by a second seed behind Ashley Koehler (12), Makenna Mason (9) and Abigail Williams (9).

Keim, who joined the program from Elkhart, Indiana, capped off her first year at Salem with six wins in singles action and seven alongside Faint in doubles. Keim began her collegiate career by winning four consecutive singles matches by downing Ashley Belnap (Guilford), Megan Rekieta (Pfieffer), Ellie Osborne (Meredith) and Morgan Hundley (Ferrum) in succession.

Keim posted her fifth singles win, first against a USA South Conference opponent, on April 6th by again downing Osborne by scores of 4-6, 6-3, 10-5. Her final singles triumph of the slate, which tied her alongside teammates Alana Bridges and Cadence Durham for second-most on the team, came in 6-0, 6-3 fashion over Hannah Eastridge (Mary Baldwin).

Faint and Keim were the only two individuals to compete as a No. 1 doubles team for the Spirits in 2023-24. They won four straight to open the season, taking down Guilford (Belnap/Kancie Tate), Pfeiffer (Rekieta/Alison Sloop), Meredith (Phillips/Hannah Higgins) and Ferrum (Huffman/Gabby Mendoza) in succession.

The fifth victory came at Columbia (March 12), as the pair downed Aniya Sims and Mariane Lima. In April, the Faint and Keim tandem posted doubles victories against Meredith (Southern/ Hannah Higgins) and Mary Baldwin (Eastridge/Bantel). The pair is tied for the second-most wins (seven) in program history with Makenna Mason / Abigail Williams and is two wins shy of Andrea Akers / Ayla Pruitt (9-5) for the most wins as a No. 1 seed in program history.

James, who hails from Ti Colon Gardens, Castries, Saint Lucia, joined the Spirits prior to the start of the spring season. She finished off her first season with one victory in three matches. James made her collegiate debut as the No. 6 seed for the Spirits against Elon on March 8th, where she fell by scores of 6-0, 6-0 to Miray Kornar. Just over two weeks later, she returned to the court to face sixth-seeded Erica McRay from William Peace, earning a 6-0, 6-0 victory of her own. Her final singles match of the season came against Pfeiffer's Kristen Colle, who emerged with a 6-0, 6-0 win.

James also competed in two doubles matches, the first of which came alongside Emily Griffis as the two faced Elon's pair of Konar and Helen Sarikulaya. James teamed with Abrielle Eckenroth on April 16th in a doubles match against Brevard's Jada Ore and Madison Bowen, who emerged by an 8-0 score. James joins Lindsay Young (2017), Abigail Williams (2018), Alyssa Cosentino (2019), Haley Gilley (2022) and Alyson Gammons (2023) as previous winners of the All-Sportsmanship Team Award.

USA South Player of the Year honors went to Paula Snelson (Southern Virginia), Rookie of the Year was Caimbree Gann (Pfeiffer) and Coach of the Year honors went to Albie Brice (N.C. Wesleyan).