Opponent:
Salem vs. Guilford | September 22 | Winston-Salem, N.C. | 1 p.m. | Bert Lain Tennis Center

>SALEM OPENS 2024 FALL SLATE VERSUS QUAKERS
The Salem tennis team will open its 2024 fall schedule with a clash against Triad rival Guilford for the second time in as many seasons. The Spirits have clashed with Guilford on eight previous occasions and own a 6-2 advantage in the all-time series. 

>SPIRITS HAVE ADVANTAGE IN HEAD-TO-HEAD SERIES
Guilford captured wins in two of the first three clashes between the two programs, but since posting a 5-4 win on March 24, 2017, the Spirits have won five straight head-to-head matches. Salem earned a 7-2 win on September 24, 2023. That marked the first meeting between the two programs since October 6, 2019. 

>SPIRITS IN SEARCH OF THIRD STRAIGHT USA SOUTH CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT APPEARANCE
Salem heads into the 2024-25 campaign in search of its third straight appearance in the USA South Conference Tournament. 

The 2024 appearance in the USA South Conference Tournament marked the second in as many years the Spirits reached the postseason after making an inaugural appearance in 2023. 

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.

>STEELE RETURNS COMBINATION OF EXPERIENCE, WHILE ADDING YOUTH TO ROSTER
Salem head coach Ed Steele has a combination of both youth and experience on the 2024-25 roster. 

Steele has five players—Abrielle Eckenroth, Alyx Diggs, Mariana Faint, Jessea James, Adley Keim—with at least one year of college tennis experience on their resume. Those five combined for 21 singles wins over the course of the 2023-24 season, with Faint winning a team-best seven matches. 

Faint led all singles players with seven wins, all from the No. 2 seed, while Keim was one of three Spirits to close out the slate with six singles victories. She tied both Alana Bridges and Cadence Durham with six triumphs. 

Eckenroth delivered four singles wins, while Diggs added three and James one. 

>FUTURE OF SALEM TENNIS BRIGHT WITH FAINT, KEIM NAMED SECOND TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
The future of the Salem tennis program received a major boost in April when the USA South Conference office announced its 2024 All-Conference awards. Three Salem first-year's earned a spot on the All-Conference team, voted on by the league's coaches, including Mariana Faint (Second Team), Adley Keim (Second Team) and Jessea James (All-Sportsmanship).

The duo of Faint and Keim become the first players in Spirits tennis history to earn USA South All-Conference accolades, while James is the sixth different player to garner All-Sportsmanship honors from the league. Faint and Keim join Andrea Akers, Ayla Pruitt and Samantha Story as the only players in Salem tennis history to earn All-Conference honors in the same season. The trio of Akers, Pruitt and Story accomplished the feat in the Great South Athletic Conference in 2014.

Faint, a native of Reidsville, N.C., wrapped up her first season at Salem with seven singles wins, the most of any Spirit, and seven doubles victories with her partner Keim. Faint opened her collegiate career with a three-set victory over Jolie Nhouyvanisvong (Guilford) by margins of 5-7, 6-2, 1-0 (10-7). She capped off the fall slate with a win over Ellie Phillips (Meredith) on September 30th and followed that by earning a two-set win (6-1, 6-1) against Ferrum's Hannah Huffman on February 20th.

Faint won four of her final eight matches of the season by taking down Camryn Straughn (William Peace), Claire Southern (Meredith), Gracie Spangler (Brevard) and Kelsey Bantel (Mary Baldwin). With her seven wins as the Spirits' No. 2 seed she will enter her sophomore season fourth on the program's all-time list of wins by a second seed behind Ashley Koehler (12), Makenna Mason (9) and Abigail Williams (9).

Keim, who joined the program from Elkhart, Indiana, capped off her first year at Salem with six wins in singles action and seven alongside Faint in doubles. Keim began her collegiate career by winning four consecutive singles matches by downing Ashley Belnap (Guilford), Megan Rekieta (Pfieffer), Ellie Osborne (Meredith) and Morgan Hundley (Ferrum) in succession.

Keim posted her fifth singles win, first against a USA South Conference opponent, on April 6th by again downing Osborne by scores of 4-6, 6-3, 10-5. Her final singles triumph of the slate, which tied her alongside teammates Alana Bridges and Cadence Durham for second-most on the team, came in 6-0, 6-3 fashion over Hannah Eastridge (Mary Baldwin).

Faint and Keim were the only two individuals to compete as a No. 1 doubles team for the Spirits in 2023-24. They won four straight to open the season, taking down Guilford (Belnap/Kancie Tate), Pfeiffer (Rekieta/Alison Sloop), Meredith (Phillips/Hannah Higgins) and Ferrum (Huffman/Gabby Mendoza) in succession.

The fifth victory came at Columbia (March 12), as the pair downed Aniya Sims and Mariane Lima. In April, the Faint and Keim tandem posted doubles victories against Meredith (Southern/ Hannah Higgins) and Mary Baldwin (Eastridge/Bantel). The pair is tied for the second-most wins (seven) in program history with Makenna Mason / Abigail Williams and is two wins shy of Andrea Akers / Ayla Pruitt (9-5) for the most wins as a No. 1 seed in program history.

James, who hails from Ti Colon Gardens, Castries, Saint Lucia, joined the Spirits prior to the start of the spring season. She finished off her first season with one victory in three matches. James made her collegiate debut as the No. 6 seed for the Spirits against Elon on March 8th, where she fell by scores of 6-0, 6-0 to Miray Kornar. Just over two weeks later, she returned to the court to face sixth-seeded Erica McRay from William Peace, earning a 6-0, 6-0 victory of her own. Her final singles match of the season came against Pfeiffer's Kristen Colle, who emerged with a 6-0, 6-0 win.

James also competed in two doubles matches, the first of which came alongside Emily Griffis as the two faced Elon's pair of Konar and Helen Sarikulaya. James teamed with Abrielle Eckenroth on April 16th in a doubles match against Brevard's Jada Ore and Madison Bowen, who emerged by an 8-0 score. James joins Lindsay Young (2017), Abigail Williams (2018), Alyssa Cosentino (2019), Haley Gilley (2022) and Alyson Gammons (2023) as previous winners of the All-Sportsmanship Team Award.

>SCOUTING REPORT (vs. Guilford)
This match marks the first of three duals for the Quakers in the fall 2024 slate. After taking on Salem, the Quakers will face Pfeiffer (Sept. 25), Winston-Salem State (Sept. 28) before concluding the fall portion of the schedule by appearing at a tournament hosted by Methodist on October 4th. 

Guilford competed in the Battle of the Blue Ridge Tournament, hosted by Sweet Briar, on September 14th. 

Recap of Battle of the Blue Ridge: The Guilford College women's tennis team traveled to the Dennis Van Der Meer Tennis Center to compete in the Battle of Blue Ridge Tournament hosted by Sweet Briar College.
 
Guilford was one of four teams competing in today's competition, including Sweet Briar, Piedmont and Washington College.
 
Erika Mendez and LaNiya Ward were the stars of the singles competition, securing wins for the Quakers. Mendez made her debut in today's competition securing her first collegiate victory, defeating Washington's Sofia Sperandei Mercedes. Securing a first set win of 6-1 and closing out the game with a 6-2 win in the second set. Ward started off strong in her collegiate debut, claiming a first set win by a tally of 6-1. Set two was a minor setback for the freshman as she gave up the second set by a narrow score of 4-6 before wrapping up the matchup by a score of 10-7 and securing her first collegiate win.
 
Guilford competed in a total of 13 singles contests on the day. Ashley Belnap, Chandler Sizemore, Amy Soto Salgado, Bethany Lupo, and Jolie Nhouyvanisvong made appearances in their respective matches with Sizemore and Salgado making their first collegiate appearances.
 
Guilford competed in six doubles matches, securing three total wins at the event. Salgado and Ward claimed a victory with a margin of 6-4 against Sweet Briar's Atty Bestwick and Ari Cope. Belnap and Mendez obtained a win of 6-4 versus WC's Eva Kading and Sofia Sperandei. Nhouyvanisvong and Sizemore squeezed a victory at the end of their match-up with a scoreline of 7-5 against Piedmont's Kameron London and Sarah Row, earning Sizemore's first collegiate win.