Opponent:
Salem at William Peace | USA South Conference Tournament | Raleigh, N.C. | Tuesday, November 7 | 7 p.m.

SPIRITS OPEN USA SOUTH CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT AT WILLIAM PEACE
Salem will make its sixth all-time appearance at the USA South Conference Tournament on Tuesday evening when the Spirits make their 103-mile trek to William Peace. The match will mark the first-ever postseason meeting between Salem and the Pacers.

SALEM HEADING TO 20TH POSTSEASON MATCH
Tuesday night's clash with William Peace will mark the 20th in the all-time conference tournament postseason history for Salem volleyball.

Twelve of the matches in a league tournament came with the Spirits being part of the Great South Athletic Conference, where Salem amassed an 8-4 record between 2009 and 2015.

Salem joined the USA South Conference prior to the start of the 2016 season, reaching the league's postseason tournament to face both Piedmont and Maryville. The sweep of Piedmont marked the first USA South Conference Tournament victory for the Spirits, who advanced to face Maryville in the second round.

Six years later, the 2022 Spirits became the second unit to earn a USA South Conference Tournament victory, when they took down Meredith in five sets at Varsity Gym by scores of 25-17,19-25,27-25,20-25,15-4.

A total of six Salem teams have advanced to the second round of the two league tournaments in program history.

SALEM ALL-TIME CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT APPEARANCES

(GREAT SOUTH ATHLETIC CONFERENCE)

(USA SOUTH ATHLETIC CONFERENCE)

LOPEZ & BRAMEUS INSTRUMENTAL IN SPIRITS EARNING 22ND VICTORY
At the conclusion of a match that featured both Roanoke and Mary Baldwin, three milestones took place for the Salem volleyball program. Among them included Valeria Rosa Lopez notching 1,000 career kills; Ella Brameus finishing with the second-most service aces (10) in a single match, which came against Mary Baldwin; and the Spirits recording their 22nd victory of the season—a program single-season record.

The Senior Day festivities marked the final regular season match for Valeria Rosa Lopez, Brianna Moore, Macy Nelson and Nikita Sizemore. At the conclusion of the day, the Spirits earned the fifth overall seed in the USA South Conference Tournament. That will pit Salem against William Peace, in Raleigh, N.C., for the first round matchup.

Salem opened the day by making quick work of Roanoke, earning a three-set victory (25-16, 25-21, 25-19) after posting a .242 attack percentage. Lopez closed out the match with 13 kills, posting a .333 attack percentage, while Aspen Bradley added nine and Abrielle Eckenroth came through with seven.

Defensively, Salem was led on the back row by Macy Nelson and Lopez, who tallied 13 and 11 digs, respectively. Meanwhile, Anna Rymer stonewalled the Maroons' offense with two solo blocks and five assisted blocks.

Lopez and Brameus' performances highlighted the three-set victory over Mary Baldwin with their individual performances. Lopez drove home 14 kills, posting a season-best .600 attack percentage, and along the way became the third player in program history with 1,000 career kills. She also became the second player in Salem history, along with Taylor Moulton, to have at least 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career.

Meanwhile, Brameus capped off a double-double performance with 13 digs and 11 service aces. Her 11 service aces mark the second-most in a single match in program history. She was four behind the single-match record holder, Hillary McPhatter, who tallied 15 in a clash with Carolina University on September 13, 2014.

The Spirits, who posted a .434 attack percentage on the match, due to 41 kills and five miscues, set the single-season mark for victories (22). That eclipsed the 2022 mark of 21. The .434 attack percentage is the fifth-best in a three-set match in program history.

LOPEZ REWRITES SALEM RECORD BOOK
When senior Valeria Rosa Lopez slammed home the second point of the third set of a three-set victory over Mary Baldwin she accomplished four feats: (1) reaching the 1,000-kill mark in Salem career, (2) joining Taylor Moulton and Kylie Taffer as the only three members of the 1,000-kill club, (3) becoming the second Spirit to notch at least 1,000 digs and 1,000 kills in a career, joining Moulton in this group and (4) climbing to within seven kills of tying teammate Aspen Bradley's single-season kill mark (351).

As mentioned, Lopez completed her ascent to the 1,000-kill mark in the third set against Mary Baldwin, delivering the second point of the frame. She capped off the match with 14 kills, running her current streak of double-digit kill performances to five straight, which began with 11 kills against Pfeiffer (Oct. 28).

Lopez placed herself in unique company of Salem players with 1,000 kills, joining Moulton and Taffer as the only three Spirits to reach that milestone. Moulton leads all Spirits with 1,106 career kills, while Taffer is second with 1,059. Lopez enters the USA South Conference Tournament third in program history with 1,005 kills.

The Ponce, Puerto Rico, native moved into second in career digs at Salem in a clash against Methodist on September 26th. In her third dig of the match, Lopez passed Zy Henderson for the second-most digs in program history. Since that point, she has accrued 150 digs in 15 matches, moving her career total to 1,332.

Lopez, who leads the way for all Spirits in digs in 2023 with 446 (3.17 digs/set), has moved to within 37 of Taylor Moulton (1,369) on the program's all-time mark. The 446 digs are the fifth-most in a single season in program history. With just one more dig she will tie Henderson for fourth-most (447) in program history and 13 more will equal Mariah Sharon, who has third-most single-season digs at Salem.

Lopez is also encroaching on Bradley's single-season mark for kills. Bradley became the single-season leader with 351 in 2022, topping the mark formerly held by Kylie Taffer in 2016, who tallied 2016. Lopez has surged past Taffer for second-most single-season kills and needs seven to tie Bradley's 2022 record.

BARRY RYMER ADDS TO SALEM WIN TOTAL
After enduring a 1-23 season in his first year at the helm, Salem head coach Barry Rymer became the first coach in program history to lead his team to consecutive 20-win seasons following a five-set victory over Southern Virginia.

On Saturday, Rymer led his Salem unit to its 22nd win—setting the program record for most single-season victories. Not only is Rymer the first coach to lead Salem to the most single-season wins, but he is also the first coach in program history to notch consecutive 20-win seasons at Salem.

Rymer, who is the program's all-time winningest coach, has 44 wins at Salem. One of the keys to Rymer's success at Salem has been his ability to defend the home court advantage of Varsity Gym. Rymer's units are 19-5 in the last two seasons when playing at home.

Rymer has also earned 22 of his 44 victories in three-set fashion. When competing in five-set matches, Rymer has used his expertise to earn nine all-time wins at Salem, including a perfect 4-0 in five-set matches in 2023. The Spirits have a five-match winning streak in five-set contests, which began with a triumph over Meredith in the first round of the 2022 USA South Conference Tournament on November 1, 2022.

WINNINGEST COACHES AT SALEM COLLEGE

LOOKING BACK AT SEASON SERIES WITH PACERS
On Tuesday evening when the Spirits head to Hermann Athletic Center it will mark the 29th all-time meeting between the two North Carolina-based programs.

William Peace owns an 22-6 edge in the series, including an 11-4 advantage at home in the head-to-head series against Salem, capturing a four-set (21-25,17-25,25-22,18-25) victory on September 16th this season. However, the two teams have split their last four matches by winning on the road in the opponents building in the last two seasons.

Salem is 10-4 since claiming a four-set victory against the Pacers on September 28th by scores of 25-22,25-23,18-25,25-23 at Varsity Gym. By comparison, William Peace is 7-7 in that same span, including a 1-1 mark in its last two outings. The victory came over Pfeiffer on October 31st, while the loss came in four sets to Brevard on November 3rd.

Recap (vs. William Peace / Sept. 16): Valeria Rosa Lopez capped off an impressive hitting display against William Peace and 21st-ranked Mary Washington with a combined 34 kills, eight errors and a .347 attack percentage, while contributing 18 digs in a tri-match on Saturday, September 16th in Raleigh, N.C.

Lopez opened the afternoon by amassing a single-match season-high 19 kills (.341 attack pct.), 10 digs and two service aces in a four-set match against USA South Conference foe William Peace. She followed that with a 15-kill, eight-dig performance against Mary Washington, where she committed just four errors en route to a .355 attack percentage.

Aspen Bradley also had a solid outing against William Peace, driving home nine kills in an error-free performance as she posted a .391 attack percentage. Teammates Anna Rymer and Abrielle Eckenroth were also key for Salem against the Pacers, notching eight and seven kills, respectively. Ashlyn Wood contributed a team-best 16 digs, while Rymer came through with 13. Victoria Stratmann reached double-digit digs with a single-match season-high 10 digs for the Spirits.

Salem, playing against its third ranked opponent in program history, was led by Lopez in kills with 15. The trio of Rymer, Eckenroth and Stratmann tallied four apiece for the Spirits. Wood dished out a team-best 18 assists, while adding six digs for the Spirits. Lopez led the back row with eight digs while Eckenroth contributed seven digs.

Recap (vs. William Peace / Sept. 28): Sophomore outside hitter Aspen Bradley drove home 14 kills in a highly-efficient outing, where she posted a .308 attack percentage, as Salem earned a four-set win over USA South Conference leader William Peace. The Spirits, with a 25-22, 25-23, 18-25, 25-23, became the third team all season, and first in league play, to hold William Peace to just one set victory in 2023.

The victory over William Peace not only moves Salem to 4-3 in USA South Conference play, but also marks the longest winning streak in the collegiate head coaching career of Barry Rymer. The last time that the Spirits posted five consecutive wins was from September 25-October 3, 2018 under then head coach Cathryn Head. One year earlier, in 2017, Kevin Troup led Salem to a five-match winning streak from October 12-October 18.

The longest winning streak came in 2012, when Salem rattled off six consecutive wins from October 13-October 23. The 2017 unit equaled that mark with six-match winning streak that spanned from September 16th through September 26th.

Bradley posted a match-high 14 kills for the Spirits, committing just two errors in 39 attempts to top the .300 attack percentage mark for the eighth time all season and third consecutive match. She was joined by Valeria Rosa Lopez (12), Anna Rymer (10) and Abrielle Eckenroth (10) among Spirits with double-digit kills.

Ashlyn Wood quarterbacked the offense with 25 assists, helping the Spirits tally 60 team kills and a .237 attack percentage. Rymer also contributed 24 assists in the contest. Jolina Bun anchored the back row for Salem with 18 digs, while came through with 14 and Wood added 13.

ALL-TIME SERIES (vs. William Peace)