The William and Mary field hockey team played its last home match of the season on Sunday, blasting visiting Drexel 2-0 for its third shutout of the season.  The Tribe improves to 3-1 in the conference standings and 6-10 overall, while the Dragons fell to 8-8 on the year and 0-4 in CAA play.

Box Score

Before the match, the Tribe took a moment to honor its eight seniors, and those veterans responded by powering the victory.  W&M came out firing with four shots in the first 90 seconds, and achieved breakthrough in the sixth minute.  Senior captain Emma Clifton (Loomberah, NSW) drove in through the circle and fired a shot from right in front to the far post, banking in past the goalkeeper for her fifth goal of the year.  Just three minutes later, she struck again to make it 2-0 tribe.  Off a corner, Clifton took the insertion and passed it over to fellow captain Jesse Ebner (Sinking Spring, Pa.), pulling off a perfect give-and-go.  Ebner passed it back to Clifton, who one-timed her shot pass the goalkeeper and into the back boards.  That gave her six goals on the year, and Clifton has now tied her career-highs in all three offensive categories (6g, 6a, 18 points).

With the two-goal cushion, the defense took over for W&M and kept the Dragons out of the goal for the next hour.  Drexel took five shots in the first half and put all five on-target, but junior Meredith Savage (Virginia Beach, Va.) made four saves and senior Kelsea Hull (Fredericksburg, Va.) got her stick in front of another one, making her team-leading fourth defensive save of the year.  In the second half, the Dragons took another five shots, but the defenders stepped up with two blocks and the final three all swung wide.  For the game, the Tribe held a 16-10 advantage in shots, and both teams had a matching six penalty corners.

William and Mary heads north next weekend for the final two matches of the regular season.  The Tribe will play at Hofstra on Friday afternoon, Oct. 31, at 3 p.m., before continuing on to Northeastern on Sunday at 1 p.m.  All three teams are tied for second in the league standings at 3-1, half a game behind leader Delaware (4-1).  W&M can guarantee a spot in the CAA tournament with a win in either match, or with a JMU loss (also playing Hofstra and Northeastern).