Opponent:
Salem vs. Mary Baldwin | April 19 | Winston-Salem, N.C. | 3 p.m. | Bert Lain Tennis Center

REGULAR SEASON CONCLUDES VERSUS MARY BALDWIN
The Salem tennis team closes out the 2023-24 regular season schedule on Friday when the Spirits clash with Mary Baldwin at the Bert Lain Tennis Center.

FAINT GRABS SIXTH SINGLES WIN VERSUS BREVARD
First-year Mariana Faint claimed her team-best sixth win of the 2023-24 season, but it was an 8-1 victory by Brevard that pushed the host Tornados to 4-3 in USA South Conference action when the two teams clashed on Tuesday afternoon.

Faint posted a 6-4, 6-2 victory in No. 2 singles, taking down her opponent, Gracie Spangler.

Brevard opened the day by sweeping doubles action, including an 8-0 win by Jada Ore and Madison Bowen defeated Abrielle Eckenroth and Jessea James in No. 3 action. Brooke Garland and Sophie Trantham followed that with an 8-0 victory over Alana Bridges and Cadence Durham in No. 2 play. The final point came from the duo of Spangler and Hannah Hersh, who triumphed over the Spirits' first-year tandem of Faint and Adley Keim.

The Tornados picked up their fourth point of the match when Garland delivered a 6-0, retired, victory against Emily Griffis. The decisive team point went the way of the Tornados as Trantham emerged with a 6-0, 6-0 win against Bridges in No. 5 singles.

Bowen picked up her second point of the match in No. 3 singles, following a 6-3, 6-1 triumph against Durham. Meanwhile, Ore also posted a win in No. 6 singles for the Tornados (6-1, 6-3) versus Eckenroth.

Faint provided the Spirits with their first win before Brevard concluded the match by virtue of a 6-3, 6-4 win from Hersh, who downed Keim in No. 1 singles play.

JOCKEYING FOR POSITIONS IN THE STANDINGS
The Spirits head into the final week of the regular season sixth in the USA South Conference standings. Salem, which is 2-4 on the season in league play, has the same number of wins as Meredith (2-6), one more than William Peace (1-6) and two more than Mary Baldwin (0-6). The Spirits own the tiebreaker over both William Peace and Meredith, who they defeated earlier this season.

William Peace has just one remaining USA South Conference match, which will pit the Pacers against Pfeiffer, while Mary Baldwin has Salem and Methodist (April 20th) remaining as far as USA South opponents.

Heading into Friday, N.C. Wesleyan sits atop the standings with an 8-0 mark, while Southern Virginia (6-1) is second and Methodist (5-2) is third. Pfeiffer and Brevard are tied for fourth with a 4-3 mark in league play, followed by the Spirits who are in sixth.

Since Salem joined the USA South Conference in 2016-17, the Spirits have finished at least sixth in the league's divisional standings on four occasions. The best finish since joining the league came in 2017-18, when Salem was fifth, which came when the Spirits were fifth in the East Division.

HOW THE SPIRITS STACK UP IN THE FINAL WEEK OF REGULAR SEASON
The Spirits are wrapping up their final week of the 2023-24 regular season with a pair of matches against Brevard (April 16th) and Mary Baldwin (April 19th). Those two matches put the finishing touches on a five-match month, which included clashes with Meredith, Southern Virginia and N.C. Wesleyan in succession.

-The tandem of Faint and Keim have delivered six doubles wins for the Spirits, all from the No. 1 seed. Meanwhile, while Durham has paired with Abrielle Eckenroth to win three straight doubles matches, two of which came as the No. 3 seed. The only other pairing with multiple doubles victories is Bridges and Emily Griffis, who have two wins in doubles action in 2023-24.
-Mariana Faint leads all Spirits in singles wins with six. Her six victories have come as the No. 2 seed.
-Three Spirits—Alana Bridges, Cadence Durham and Adley Keim—are second on the team in singles wins with five. Bridges has come through with four wins in No. 5 singles, while Durham has earned all five of her victories in No. 3 singles. Keim stands 5-8 as the No. 1 seed this season.
-Keim was the first to reach four singles wins on the season, winning her first four singles outings of the season. Three of those victories for the Indiana first-year came in the fall slate and the most recent singles win came in the first match of the season, against Ferrum, with a 6-1, 6-1 triumph over Morgan Hundley. The Hoosier State native claimed her fifth singles victory on Saturday in three sets against Meredith's Ellie Osborne. It marked Keim's second three-set win of the season and first since defeating Megan Rekieta (Pfeiffer) on September 30th.

ANALYZING MARY BALDWIN IN 2023-24 | 1-11 / 0-6 USA South
Salem All-Time (vs. Mary Baldwin): The two programs have met on six occasions with Salem owning a 5-1 record.

Salem won five consecutive games between its first meeting, which came on March 18, 2016, and April 22, 2022. The Fighting Squirrels earned their lone victory on April 4, 2023, which came by a 7-2 margin on April 4, 2023.

MARY BALDWIN IN 2023-24: After finishing with a 4-5 mark in 2022-23 USA South Conference action, Mary Baldwin has suffered six consecutive losses this season.

The last conference triumph for the Fighting Squirrels came on April 15, 2023 against Meredith by a 5-4 margin. Four days prior, Mary Baldwin posted a 6-3 win over Greensboro College.

The Fighting Squirrels are 0-5 away from home this season, while the one victory came at home versus East Stroudsburg, which was by a 5-4 margin.