First Round - Tuesday, November 12
Game 1: #8 N.C. Wesleyan at #1 Southern Virginia - 6:00pm
Game 2: #7 Brevard at #2 Salem - 6:00pm
Game 3: #6 William Peace at #3 Methodist - 7:00pm
Game 4: #5 Meredith at #4 Greensboro - 7:00pm
Semifinals - Thursday, November 14
Game 1 Winner vs. Game 4 Winner - Time TBA
Game 2 Winner vs. Game 3 Winner - Time TBA
Final - Saturday, November 16
Semifinal Winners - Time TBA
>SPIRITS CLINCH TIE FOR REGULAR SEASON CROWN
The Salem volleyball team clinched a share of the USA South Conference Regular Season championship following a 3-0 victory over Mary Baldwin on Saturday, November 9th.
Salem, which entered the match with the chance to win the league title outright, emerged with wins of 25-11, 25-16, 25-9 over the Fighting Squirrels. The Spirits then turned their attention to the scoreboard, looking at the outcome of the Methodist-Southern Virginia match, which went the way of Southern Virginia.
Due to Southern Virginia's two wins over Methodist during the regular season, the Knights owned the tiebreaker for the No. 1 overall seed. However, they split the league's regular season championship with the Spirits.
It marks the sixth regular season USA South Championship in Salem Athletic history. The soccer team earned the regular season title twice (2016, 2017) and the softball team captured three crowns in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
>DEFYING THE ODDS FOR A THIRD STRAIGHT SEASON
Salem has managed to defy the odds of the USA South Conference Preseason Polls in each of the last three seasons under head coach
Barry Rymer.
After posting just one win in his first season at Salem, 2021, Rymer's unit was picked to finish ninth overall in the 2022 preseason polls. But, like Drake and the Salem theme song "Started from the Bottom" the Spirits went out to prove their critics wrong by finishing fourth overall by posting a 21-10 overall record and a 12-6 mark in league play. That marked the single biggest turnaround in conference and program history from one year to another.
In 2023, Salem was predicted to finish fifth in the league standings and closed out the campaign locked in a five-way tie for third most USA South Conference wins.
The 2024 team entered the season looking to break the stigma of a sixth-place prediction. Salem answered that by delivering a 28-5 mark, which was best in the league, and shared the 2024 Regular Season Conference Championship with Southern Virginia as the pair finished 15-3 overall in league play.
>DEFENDING THE HOME COURT ADVANTAGE
The Salem volleyball team ran its home court winning streak to 18 straight with a pair of 3-0 victories over Mary Baldwin and Roanoke on Saturday afternoon.
The Spirits began their 18-match winning streak with a triumph over N.C. Wesleyan on October 21, 2023. That win was followed by Salem defeating Carolina University, Southern Virginia, Roanoke and Mary Baldwin in success to close out the 2023 season.
Salem managed to move the streak to six after claiming a five-set win over Greensboro in the 2024 home opener on September 19th. The Spirits have managed eight three-set wins this season, 12 during the entire winning streak, and have been taken to four sets on three occasions and five-sets on two occasions during the stretch.
To put the current volleyball home winning streak into historical context, it ranks as the second-longest home winning streak on campus by any program in Salem history. The winningest home streak by a Salem athletic program is 24, which belongs to the soccer program. From October 18, 2014 through October 17, 2017, the Salem soccer program won 24 straight matches.
The longest winning streak for the basketball program at Varsity Gym is 12, which spanned from January 22, 2013 through January 26, 2014. The softball team had a 10-game winning streak, which spanned from March 23, 2016 through February 17, 2017.
>REWRITING THE RECORD BOOKS IN 2024
The Spirits have not only established a number of individual records this season, but they have mirrored that feat on a team and program level.
The 28 wins on the season mark the most in a single-season in program history, breaking the mark of 23, which came in 2023. The Spirits set the record for most home wins (13) and have the second-most road wins (eight) in 2024, just one off the pace of the 2023 team. Along the way, Salem captured 200 program wins.
Salem has set new program marks in five team categories over the course of the 2024 campaign, including kills (1,649), kills/set (13.60), attack percentage (.255), assists (1,502) and assists/set (12.40). The Spirits have the second-most total attacks (4,502) and digs (2,114) in program history in a single season.
>BRADLEY BECOMES FIRST TO 400 AND QUICKEST TO 1,000 IN KILLS
After eclipsing the double-digit kill mark in 28 of 35 matches this season, including 11 in the final 12 matches of the regular season,
Aspen Bradley became the first Spirit in program history to reach the 400-kill mark in a single season.
The Redmond, Oregon, native delivered a team-high 406 kills, which set the single-season record in program history and resulted in second-most in the USA South Conference this season. Bradley averaged 3.36 kills/set and was the most efficient hitter for both Salem and the USA South in 2024.
Along the way, Bradley became the fourth Spirit to reach the 1,000-kill mark in their career. In a three-set victory over Eastern Mennonite on Saturday, November 2nd, which marked the 94th match of her collegiate career, Bradley's second kill of the match marked her 1,000th kill at Salem. She joined Kylie Taffer, Taylor Moulton and
Valeria Rosa Lopez as the only Spirits to accomplish the feat.
>ANNA RYMER NOT TO BE OUTDONE WITH OVER 1,000 CAREER KILLS IN 2024
Anna Rymer was not to be outdone by her front row teammate
Aspen Bradley as she too became a member of the 1,000-kill club in 2024.
Rymer, who reached the milestone in a four-set clash with Methodist on October 15th, amassed 205 kills during her freshman season at Ferrum. Since that point, Rymer has accrued 912 kills at Salem, which is fifth-most all-time in program history.
In her first year in Winston-Salem, Rymer came through with 285 kills (2.46 kills/set) and posted a .302 attack percentage along the way. She followed that with 310 kills in 2023 and closed out the regular season with 317 kills (2.66 kills/set) in 2024, which was second-most on the team in each campaign.
>LEAH RYMER ALSO ESTABLISHING RECORDS OF HER OWN
One of the primary reasons that both
Aspen Bradley and
Anna Rymer managed to reach 1,000 kills in their career, along with the 400 and 300-kill marks in 2024, is first-year setter
Leah Rymer.
Leah Rymer not only surpassed Hannah Delcamp's 2016 mark of 978 assists, the program's benchmark for single-season assists, but she also became the first player in Salem volleyball history with 1,000 assists in a single season.
Leah Rymer broke Delcamp's record and went over 1,000, finishing the regular season with 1,033 assists, in the regular season finale versus Roanoke. The China Grove, N.C., native came through with 41 assists in the clash with the Maroons, needing just eight entering the match to reach the quadruple-digit mark.
Leah Rymer had at least 40 assists on nine occasions during the regular season, including a single-match season-high 47 in a four-set victory over William Peace on October 5th.
>RAKING IN THE ACCOLADES IN 2024
On Monday afternoon, the USA South Conference announced that
Leah Rymer earned her fifth Rookie of the Week honor in 2024.
Rymer became just the fifth player in USA South Conference history and first since Averett's Keenan Marks in 2015, to earn a fifth Rookie of the Week honor from the league office. Rymer joins Dana Sandknop (Greensboro), Karlie Long (Meredith), Hannah Shields (Averett) and Marks (Averett) as the only players in league history to earn at least five Rookie of the Week honors. Long would end her freshman season with six in 2013, a league record.
Rymer brought home her first Rookie of the Week honor on October 7th and followed that by garnering the same honor the following week. She posted her third USA South Rookie of the Week on October 28th and has earned the distinction in each of the two weeks since, which were announced on November 4th and November 11th.
Salem volleyball has earned nine weekly honors from the USA South Conference office this season.
Maia Johnson also notched three USA South Rookie of the Week honors in 2024, on September 9th, 23rd and 30th.
Anna Rymer came through with USA South Player of the Week honors for the Spirits on October 21, 2024.
Maia Johnson was the first Salem player to earn in-season accolades when she was named All-Tournament at the Averett Classic on August 30-31.
Anna Rymer followed that up by being named to the All-Tournament Team at Roanoke College the following weekend.
>SCOUTING REPORT—BREVARD
Brevard closed out the October and November by posting a 5-10 mark in its final 15 matches. That includes a 2-3 mark in November, which resulted in wins over Mary Baldwin and Pfeiffer along with setbacks to Methodist and William Peace twice.
The three October triumphs came over the likes of Mary Baldwin, Pfeiffer and N.C. Wesleyan.
Makenna Parkins (274) and Casey Wampler (202) led the way in kills for the Tornados on the season, while teammate Izzy Boulay topped the unit in assists with 852.
Bailey Lance was tops among back row defenders with 503 digs (4.70 digs/set) as Jaxson Tumicki anchored the front row with 49 total blocks. Tumicki was responsible for the team-highs in both solo blocks (29) and assisted blocks (20) along the way.
Salem finished off the head-to-head series with two wins against the Tornados in the regular season. The first match went to five sets, while the second clash, which came at Varsity Gym on October 8th, was extended into the fourth set.
(vs. Brevard | Sept. 24): One day after laying claim to her second USA South Conference Rookie of the Week this season, Salem's
Maia Johnson became the 13th player in program history with at least 20 kills in a match. Johnson, who tallied 20 kills and a .289 attack percentage, was one of three Spirits to have double-digit kills as the team won its fourth straight match by scores of 25-16, 21-25, 17-25, 25-21, 15-12 at Brevard.
Joining Johnson in double-digit kills were
Aspen Bradley (14) and
Ellie Scherer, who finished with 10. First year setter
Leah Rymer handed out 42 assists, leading the way for an offense that tallied 59 kills and a .236 attack percentage.
McKenzie Tullock showed off her defensive skills with 20 digs, while
Makailey Albright was active with 16.
Leah Rymer completed her double-double performance with 12 digs, while
Jolina Bun also reached double figures with 10 digs.
(vs. Brevard | Oct. 8): While the tandem of
Aspen Bradley and
Maia Johnson combined for 30 kills on the front row, the back row of
Anna Rymer,
Makailey Albright and
McKenzie Tullock collectively amassed 41 digs, to help Salem earn a 25-21, 16-25, 25-20, 25-12 victory over Brevard in USA South Conference volleyball action.
Bradley drove home a match-high 16 kills, finishing with a .429 attack percentage in the process, while Johnson tallied 14 strikes and a .375 attack percentage, to lead the way for a Salem offensive attack that finished with 49 kills. The Spirits also took advantage of nine kills from
Anna Rymer and five off the hand of
Abrielle Eckenroth, while
Leah Rymer dished out 41 assists.
The Spirits defense forced Brevard into committing 19 errors in the match, with
Anna Rymer leading the unit in digs with 17. Tullock contributed 14 digs for Salem and Albright, who was also effective in the service game, added 10 digs in an all-around performance.
