Opponent:
(3) Methodist vs. (6) Salem | April 23 | Fayetteville, N.C. | 3 p.m. | Gene Clayton Tennis Center

SPIRITS RETURN TO USA SOUTH CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
The Salem tennis team makes its second trip in as many seasons to the USA South Conference Tournament on Tuesday afternoon when the team makes the trek east to Fayetteville, N.C., to face third-seeded Methodist at 3 p.m. at the Gene Clayton Tennis Center.

SEASON OPENS & CLOSES ON A WINNING NOTE
The Salem College tennis team closed out the regular season the same way it opened it—with a decisive victory. The Spirits closed out the regular season with a 9-0 triumph at the Bert Lain Tennis Center over USA South Conference foe Mary Baldwin on Friday afternoon.

The victory moves Salem to 6-9 on the season and 3-5 in league play as the Spirits play the waiting game to see who they will face as the No. 6 seed in the USA South Conference Tournament which begins next week.

The Spirits claimed their first of two default wins in No. 3 doubles, which was followed by an 8-0 victory from the No. 2 doubles pair of Alana Bridges and Abrielle Eckenroth, who defeated Lauren Byrnes and Gabrielle Wyatt. That lead quickly moved to 3-0 following an 8-1 triumph by Mariana Faint and Adley Keim, who downed the tandem of Hannah Eastridge and Kelsey Bantel.

The second default point came in No. 6 singles, which pushed the Salem lead to 4-0. Sophomore Cadence Durham claimed a straight sets win (6-0, 6-0) in No. 3 singles, downing Byrnes for the decisive team victory point. Faint, who defeated Bantel by margins of 6-1, 6-0, resulting in the sixth point of the match for the Spirits from the No. 2 seeded singles slot.

The seventh point of the afternoon came by virtue of a 6-0, 6-0 victory by Alyx Diggs, who defeated Wyatt in No. 5 singles. Salem collected its eighth point of the day in No. 1 singles as Keim fought past Eastridge by scores of 6-0, 6-3.

Salem collected its second 9-0 win of the slate, first since downing Ferrum 9-0 on February 20th, following a 6-1, 6-2 win from Bridges as she defeated Wyatt in No. 4 singles.

HOW THE USA SOUTH CONFERENCE REGULAR SEASON CONCLUDED
After the completion of the USA South Conference regular season, the seeding for the tournament was determined. The tournament consists of the top-eight teams in the conference and is scheduled to begin on Thursday, April 23rd with first round matches hosted by the higher-seeded team in that matchup.

First Round - Tuesday, April 23 (all contests played at the higher-seeded team in the matchup)
Match 1: #8 William Peace at #1 N.C. Wesleyan - 5:00 p.m.
Match 2: #7 Meredith at #2 Southern Virginia - 4:00 p.m.
Match 3: #6 Salem at #3 Methodist - 3:00 p.m.
Match 4: #5 Brevard at #4 Pfeiffer - 2:00 p.m.

Semifinals - Friday, April 26 (all contests played at N.C. Wesleyan University)
Match 1 Winner vs. March 4 Winner - 10:00 a.m.
Match 2 Winner vs. Match 3 Winner - 10:00 a.m.

Final - Saturday, April 27 (played at N.C. Wesleyan University)
Semifinal Winners - 10:00 a.m.

SALEM TENNIS HISTORY AT LEAGUE TOURNAMENTS
The 2024 appearance in the USA South Conference Tournament marks the second in as many years. Last season, Salem made its first appearance as a USA South Conference affiliated program.

While the invitation to the USA South Conference Tournament is a recent experience, it is the 10th-time in 15-year history of the tennis program that the Spirits have played a postseason match in a league tournament.

The Spirits, who competed in the Great South Athletic Conference from 2009-2016, made their first-ever conference tournament in 2012 when they clashed with Maryville. The first postseason win came two years later, in 2014, as Salem downed Trinity (D.C.) by a score of 5-1. That was followed by a win over Agnes Scott the following afternoon, by the same 5-1 margin, but the bid for the league crown came to an end with a 5-0 setback to UC-Santa Cruz.

Salem broke a seven-year league tournament drought in 2023. Prior to that it had been 2016 since the Spirits had last appeared in a postseason tournament, which came as a member of the Great South Athletic Conference. That season, the Spirits posted a 5-0 win against Wesleyan (Ga.) on April 29th before falling later that same day to UC-Santa Cruz by a 5-0 margin.

SALEM ALL-TIME CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT HISTORY

BREAKING DOWN THE 2023-24 SEASON FOR SALEM BY THE NUMBERS
The Spirits wrapped 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 seven doubles wins for the Spirits, all from the No. 1 seed. Meanwhile, Cadence Durham 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 seven. Her six victories have come as the No. 2 seed. Faint wrapped up the season with back-to-back singles wins at Brevard (April 16) and Mary Baldwin (April 19).
-Three Spirits—Alana Bridges, Cadence Durham and Adley Keim—are second on the team in singles wins with six. Bridges has come through with four wins in No. 5 singles, while Durham has earned all six of her victories in No. 3 singles. Keim stands 6-9 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.

METHODIST SCOUTING REPORT | 9-6 overall / 6-2 USA South
After reaching the league championship of the 2023 USA South Conference Tournament, Methodist was able to build off that momentum and finishing 9-6 overall and 6-2 in the league in 2023-24.

The Monarchs finished 3-3 at home, but claimed six road victories, to finish above .500 for the fourth consecutive season. Both of the two league setbacks came during April play at the hands of Southern Virginia (7-2) and N.C. Wesleyan (8-1) on April 6th and April 16th, respectively.

The trio of Veva Willocks (15-9), Toni Laney (13-7) and Emma Hulicki (13-10) led the way in singles victories for Methodist. Meanwhile, teammate Katie Sechrist finished 10-10 to give the Monarchs four players with double-digit singles wins.

Willocks picked up eight of her 15 wins as the No. 5 singles competitor, while Laney had 10 as the No. 1 seed and Hulicki claimed nine as the No. 2 seed. Hulicki also came through with eight wins, alongside teammate Annabelle Subirats, in doubles action—all as the No. 2 seed.

Salem All-Time (vs. Methodist): The Spirits are 0-6 all-time against Methodist. The two teams first met on February 17, 2016, with the Monarchs earning a 9-0 victory. Since that point, the Monarchs have earned four straight 9-0 wins over Salem.

Recap of March 24, 2024 Match: The Salem tandem of Abrielle Eckenroth and Cadence Durham teamed up to earn an 8-4 victory in No. 3 doubles, taking down Caitlin Tihanovich and Wilette Morales, resulting in the first-ever point for the Spirits in the head-to-head series with Methodist.

The Monarchs, who moved to 4-4 overall and 1-1 in league action, grabbed two points in doubles action. The first of those points came from Emma Hulicki and Annabelle Subirats, who posted an 8-0 win over Alana Bridges and Emily Griffis in No. 2 action. Meanwhile, Toni Laney and Veva Willocks earned an 8-6 victory over Adley Keim and Mariana Faint.

The Methodist lead moved to 3-1 as Subirats triumphed in No. 4 singles action against Griffis by scores of 6-0, 6-0. Willocks followed that with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Bridges in No. 5 singles.

Methodist clinched the team win as Katie Sechrist grabbed a 6-0, 6-1 win in No. 6 singles action over Eckenroth. The sixth Monarchs point came in No. 1 singles as Laney completed the 6-1, 6-1 triumph against Keim.

Tihanovich provided the seventh point for the Monarchs with three-set (1-6, 6-2, 6-3) victory over Durham. The eighth and final point came from Hulicki, who delivered a 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 in the clash of No. 2 singles play with Faint.