The William & Mary volleyball team wraps up the regular season at home this weekend, hosting Northeastern and Hofstra at Kaplan Arena in the race for the CAA Tournament.  The Tribe will take on the Huskies Friday night at 7 p.m., and the Pride Sunday at 2 p.m.

Senior Day
Before Sunday's match, the Tribe will take a moment to honor the six members of its senior class for their hard work and dedication to the team.  The class includes Olivia Jebb (Cornwall, N.Y.), Mallory Brickerd (Ashburn, Va.), Jenna Strange (Leesburg, Va.), Michelle Heath (Rustburg, Va.), Carolyn Albright (Raleigh, N.C.), and Dessi Koleva (Torrance, Calif.).

Climb to the CAA Tournament
W&M is in the thick of the fight to reach the CAA Tournament this year, and is just one game back of Delaware with two games left to play in the regular season.  Of the four teams in the running for the sixth and final spot in the tournament (Delaware, W&M, Northeastern, Elon), the Tribe has already beaten Delaware twice and Northeastern once.  W&M needs at least one win this weekend to tie Delaware (assuming the Blue Hens get beaten by both UNCW and Charleston), and would own the tiebreakers in two of the three possible scenarios (tied with Delaware, tied with Delaware and Northeastern).

Scouting the Tribe
W&M is 9-18 on the year and 3-11 in the conference entering the final weekend.  Koleva leads the team in kills at 2.65 per set and 3.10 points per set, and is also having her best-ever season on defense with 3.26 digs per set.  Albright is leading the Tribe in blocks (0.89 per set) and in attack percentage at 0.262, while sophomore Sara Zumbach (Franklin, Tenn.) has 3.84 digs per set.  Rounding out the leads are freshman Katie Kemp (Brentwood, Tenn.) with 5.06 assists per set, and junior Gabrielle Pe (Virginia Beach, Va.) with 0.23 aces per set.

Scouting the Huskies
Northeastern is 6-23 on the year, and matches W&M with a 3-11 mark in league play.  Brigitte Burcescu is the top offensive threat at 3.16 kills per set, while on the other side of the net Caterina Rosander has 0.83 blocks per set.  Digging duties have been evenly split between Gabrielle Eyl and Ashlee Asada, at 3.17 and 3.07 digs per set, respectively.

Scouting the Pride
Hofstra has already clinched a spot in the CAA Tournament, and is 19-10 overall (10-4 CAA).  The Pride can finish anywhere from 2-4 in the final seedings.  Hofstra's leaders offensively are Veronika Kostova at 3.73 kills per set and Leticia Valente, at 3.18 kills per set, while setter Hannah Klemm ranks among the league leaders with 11.71 assists per set.  On defense, Michela Rucli has 1.24 blocks per set and Valente 0.90 blocks per set, with Luisa Domingues at libero with 3.46 digs per set.

The Series
- W&M is just 9-13 all-time against Northeastern, but has won three in a row, all by a 3-1 score.  This will also be the rubber-match in Williamsburg, where the series is tied at 5-5.

- Hofstra leads the series against the Tribe at 21-18, and W&M is looking to break a four-match skid to the Pride.  The meeting earlier this season in Hempstead was 3-0 in favor of the New Yorkers.

News and Notes
- If the Tribe makes the CAA Tournament, they'll be just the second school in league history to make 25 championship brackets in the 32-year history of the event (JMU, 28 appearances).

- W&M's two wins over Delaware this season is the first season-sweep over the Blue Hens since 2005.

- Albright became just the fourth player in school history with 400 career blocks in the match at Towson, completing her march with two solo blocks and one block assist.  She joins Beth Ann Hull '89, Anna Agbe-Davies '93, and Caitlin Geraghty '06 as the only Tribe players to ever surpass 400 blocks, and passed Hull (409) for third all-time against Charleston last weekend with 413 so far.

- Heather Pippus (Lake Oswego, Ore.) was named the CAA Rookie of the Week on Oct. 20, after leading the Tribe to a 1-1 record against Delaware and Elon.  She averaged 3.71 kills and 0.71 aces per set on the week against the two CAA foes.  Against Elon, she had 19 kills, nine digs, and two aces, the most kills for a Tribe freshman since 2011.

- Against JMU at home, Koleva became the third player in school history with 1,000+ kills and 1,000+ digs in her career, joining Hall-of-Famers Heidi Erpelding '89 and Jennifer Torns '92 as the only players in school history with the "double-quadruple."  Koleva is also just the ninth player ever to surpass 1,000 kills, and the first since Erin Skipper '11.

- Koleva was named to the all-tournament team at the AU Eagle Invitational, her third all-tournament honor in four events this season.

- At the ECU Pirate Invitational, both Koleva and Pippus earned all-tournament honors.

- Brickerd was named to the all-tournament team at Army, after leading W&M in kills, aces, and points on the weekend.

- Over the weekend at Army, Koleva became the eighth player in school history with 1,000+ digs in her career.

- After the season opening victory at the Tribe Invitational, W&M has now won five of its last eight home tournaments.

- Zumbach was named the MVP of the Tribe Invitational, while Koleva and Albright also joined her on the all-tournament team.

- W&M leads the CAA in returning all-conference players with three; Koleva, Heath, and Zumbach.