WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Salem tennis team begins a three-match, eight-day stretch on Saturday, March 26th, when it heads to Danville, Va., for a 2 p.m. clash with USA South Conference rival Averett.

The Spirits will clash with Averett for the final time as a USA South Conference member, with the Cougars moving to the Old Dominion Athletic Conference at season's end. Salem will embark on a three-match in eight-day stretch that includes clashes at Southern Virginia (March 30) and the league home opener versus Methodist on April 2nd.

SPIRITS IN LEAGUE OPENERS: Salem enters the weekend with a 5-4 record in conference openers since the induction of the program in 2008-09. Three of those wins in league play came for the Spirits in the Great South Athletic Conference, which Salem competed in from 2012 until 2017.

Salem has won five of its last six conference openers since the 2014 season and two of its last three USA South Conference openers.

The Spirits picked up three wins over Wesleyan (Ga.) between 2014 and 2016, posting back-to-back 9-0 sweeps along the way. When Salem moved to the USA South in 2017 it suffered an 8-1 setback to Piedmont on March 17th. However, in both 2018 and 2019, Salem claimed decisive wins over Mary Baldwin by scores of 9-0 and 8-1, respectively.

STATISTICAL LEADERS FOR THE SPIRITS: Alyson Gammons heads into the weekend with a perfect 2-0 mark in singles play for Salem in 2022. The first-year tennis player has claimed wins at both the No. 4 and No. 5 spots for the Spirits.

Joining her in singles victories in the spring are Alyssa Cosentino, Haley Gilley and Zakeria Pomeroy, who all have one win each.

Gilley and her teammate McKinley Rice are responsible for the only win in doubles play this spring for the Spirits, posting a 1-1 record as the No. 1 doubles tandem.

ANALYZING AVERETT: The Cougars are 3-3 heading into the match, winning two of their last three by 9-0 decisions versus William Peace (March 19) and Virginia Wesleyan (March 22). The setback came at Sweet Briar by a 9-0 margin.

Averett, which claimed its first USA South win against William Peace on March 19th, is led in singles victories by the quartet of Paula Rhysen (10-4), Alejandra Garcia (9-4), Nakia Lee Goodall (7-1) and Linnea Sjostrom Krook (7-4).

Garcia has paired with Rhysen in doubles action to post an 11-2 mark in doubles play, picking up nine of those wins in tournament format.

ALL-TIME SERIES VERSUS AVERETT
(Averett leads series 4-1) 

RECAPPING TIGHT BATTLE WITH JOHNSON & WALES (March 18): Haley Gilley claimed her first singles win of the season and teamed with McKinley Rice to notch doubles point for Salem, but Johnson & Wales earned a hard-fought 5-4 win over Salem when the two teams met for the first time in program history in Charlotte.

After the Wildcats received a default point from No. 3 doubles, the tandem of Gilley and Rice evened the score at one with a decisive 8-0 victory over fellow No. 1 doubles Hannah Stokes and Miranda Montes.

Johnson & Wales closed out doubles play with an 8-3 victory by Eboni Montague and Maira Teurel, who triumphed over Alyson Gammons and Alyssa Cosentino.

Gammons rebounded from that setback with a two-set win (6-0, 6-2) over Montes when the two clashed in No. 4 singles. Salem's Zakeria Pomeroy clinched the third point of the afternoon in No. 5 singles, following a 6-3, 6-0 win against Ginger Gibson.

With the match knotted at 3-3, Montague provided the Wildcats with a one-point advantage by virtue of a 6-4, 6-2 win against Rice in No. 2 singles. Stokes followed with a 1-6, 6-2, 10-8 triumph over Cosentino in No. 3 singles, securing the team win for Johnson & Wales.

Gilley closed out the clash on a positive note for the Spirits by rebounding from an opening set loss to defeat Teurel in No. 1 singles by scores of 4-6, 6-2, 10-4.