The William and Mary volleyball team plays twice this weekend for Homecoming, welcoming league-leader Hofstra Friday and Northeastern on Saturday.  Both matches will begin at 7 p.m. in Kaplan Arena, and will be broadcast live on TribeAthletics.TV with Kyle Rae on the mic.

Live Stats Friday
Live Stats Saturday
Live Video

Spike Out Breast Cancer
Friday night is the Tribe's annual "Spike Out Breast Cancer" game, benefiting the Williamsburg chapter of Beyond Boobs!.  Final numbers of donations are being tabulated by assistant coach Audra Harrison, and a large number of donated prizes will be auctioned off during the intermission between sets 2 & 3.  For questions or to make a donation, please contact assistant coach Audra Harrison at alharrison@wm.edu.

Scouting the Tribe
W&M enters the weekend at 5-16 overall (1-5 CAA), coming up just short against Liberty on Tuesday despite one of the best all-around performances of the season.  Junior Mallory Brickerd (Ashburn, Va.) re-took the team lead in kills with 20 against the Flames, and is averaging 2.79 per set.  In conference play, junior captain Dessi Koleva (Torrance, Calif.) ranks eighth in the league with 3.21 kills per set, and co-captain Carolyn Albright (Raleigh, N.C.) is third in the CAA with 1.25 blocks per set through the first six conference matches.  Freshman Sara Zumbach (Franklin, Tenn.) is averaging 4.35 digs per set in conference play, good for sixth overall, and classmate Austyn Ames (Wichita, Kan.) is ninth with 5.55 assists per set.

Scouting the Pride
Hofstra sits atop the league table at 18-2 overall and 6-0 in conference play, after knocking off Charleston 3-2 last week.  The Pride have won nine in a row, and are being led by pre-season CAA Player of the Year Kelsie Wills at 4.30 kills per set.  On defense, Nuria Lopes da Silva has 1.18 blocks per set and Adama Aja 1.13, while Sophia Black is cleaning up the backcourt with 3.44 digs per set.

Scouting the Huskies
Northeastern enters the weekend at 9-11 overall and 1-5 in the CAA, with a win over Elon.  The Huskies will play James Madison Friday before coming to Williamsburg on Saturday.  NU's top attacker is Brigitte Burcescu with 3.40 kills per set, with Jamie Bredahl following at 2.69 kills per set.  On defense, Natalia Skiba is all over the court collecting 5.58 digs per set, and Caterina Rosander is the top player at the net with 0.99 blocks per set.

The Series
- W&M is 18-17 all-time against Hofstra, and 6-5 at home.  Last year was a Tribe win in Williamsburg, 3-1, and the last six meetings have been split 3-3.  Friday will be just the second match in Williamsburg since 2010.

- Against Northeastern, the Tribe is 6-13 all-time.  Last year, W&M beat the Huskies 3-2 in Williamsburg, its first win in the series since 2009.

News and Notes
- In 1986, the Tribe defeated both Hofstra and Northeastern on back-to-back nights to win the ECAC Volleyball Championship.

- Against Liberty on Tuesday, Mallory Brickerd scored her second 20-kill match of the season, leading all players with 20.  That is tied for the third-most ever in a three-set match for the Tribe.  Brickerd also had 22 earlier this season against East Tennessee State.

- Also against the Flames, Carolyn Albright had a match-high seven blocks, and freshman Sara Zumbach led all players with 19 digs.

- Freshman Sydney Biniak (Elkridge, Md.) is averaging 3.33 kills per set in the last two matches, scoring nine against Towson and 10 against Liberty.

- Dessi Koleva made a double-double in each of her first four CAA matches this season, the only player in the league to do so.  Over the Oct. 3 weekend, she record both her 750 career dig and her 700th career kill, making her one of just eight players in school history to achieve those milestones, and the first since 2002.

- Also earning a significant career milestone was junior Mallory Brickerd, who made her 500th career kill in the win over Elon.

- W&M is rated by the NCAA as having the 78th-toughest schedule in the country so far this season (out of 334 teams).  The next closest CAA team is James Madison, at 106, and the conference average is 166.4 (including W&M, 177.5 without).

- After making only 62 digs all season coming into the week, Sara Zumbach made a big statement with 57 digs in three matches to start October, averaging 5.18 for the week (and 6.75 per set on the weekend alone).  She had 25 against Charleston, and then 29 over Elon which was tied for 11th in school history.  Zumbach's previous best this season had been 14 against Tennessee Tech.

- W&M had three players earn all-tournament honors in early-season action.  Redshirt-sophomore Michelle Heath (Rustburg, Va.) was honored at the Penn State Classic, sophomore Gabrielle Pe (Virginia Beach, Va.) earned a nod at the GMU Patriot Invitational, and Dessi Koleva was named to the team at the Clemson Invitational.

- Senior Monika Stanciauskas (Wheaton, Ill.) saw her first extended action of the season against Tennessee State, and delivered a career-high 10 blocks on two solo blocks and eight block-assists.

- Paige Humphrey (Oak Hill, Va.) was a blocking machine in the second week of the season, averaging a team-best 1.46 blocks per set.  She led the Tribe in each of the first three matches of the week, with four blocks against Hampton, six against East Tennessee State, and nine against Lehigh.

- With its 3-0 win over Iona, W&M has now won five of its last six season-openers.

- Mallory Brickerd has enjoyed her matches against Hampton.  Last year, she tallied a career-high 23 kills against the Pirates, W&M's best total since 2009.  This season, she had a then-best 15 kills while hitting .481.  Brickerd also had three aces in the match, coming on three-straight serves.