The William and Mary field hockey team brought its season to a close Friday morning in the quarterfinals of the CAA Tournament, falling to Delaware 3-2.  The Tribe finishes the year at 10-9 overall, and reached the conference tournament for the first time since 2008 with a 3-4 ledger in the league.  The Blue Hens (8-11, 3-4) advanced to Saturday's semifinals, where they'll face top-seeded No. 18 Drexel.

Box Score

After Delaware got on the board first on a blustery morning in Philadelphia, the Tribe scored in the 19th minute to knot the score at 1-1.  After a foot-fault gave W&M possession just a few yards off the circle, sophomore Emma Clifton (Loomberah, NSW) rocketed a pass into the scoring area and found freshman Pip Saunders (Mittagong, NSW) streaking through with two defenders around her.  Saunders took the pass in stride and beat her markers in the next two steps, then flipped the ball up and over the diving goalkeeper to score into the upper 90 on the right side.  It was the team-leading eighth goal of the season for Saunders, who tied Ann Ekberg '02 for sixth on the freshman goal list.

The Blue Hens found the back of the net again off of a tipped corner in the 28th minute, and took a 2-1 lead into the half.  In the 44th, Delaware took a 3-1 lead on a breakaway give-and-go, but the Tribe got one back in the 58th.  Drawing its fourth corner of the match, W&M sent Saunders over to insert and the pass went to Clifton for the stop.  Senior captain Christine Johnson (Williamsburg, Va.) whaled on the ball, straight between the keeper's leg pads.  The goal put Johnson back into a tie with Saunders for the team lead at eight goals, and was the sixth assist of the season for both Australians.  Although the Tribe put three more shots on goal and took another corner set-up, the College was unable to score the equalizer and Delaware held on for the win.

In goal, redshirt-freshman Cate Johnson (Charlottesville, Va.) came off the bench for the final 24 minutes, and made three stops while blanking the Blue Hens to give her teammates a chance to tie the match.  In the final season stat-sheet, Saunders scored a team-high 22 points (8g, 6a), most for any Tribe rookie since Karen Thorne '84 had 30 in 1980.  Johnson was close behind with 21 points, on eight goals and five assists, and she became the first Tribe player since Jordan Steele '04 in 2003 to score in both the first and last matches of the season.

While the matches may be complete, William and Mary players are still up for several individual honors.  The NFHCA all-region teams will be announced in two weeks, with the All-American squads being revealed the week following the national championships.  The VaSID all-state teams will be announced in early December, and the NFHCA All-Academic teams are typically revealed in early March.