The William & Mary volleyball team, fresh off two big wins at home last weekend, heads back on the road this week for a pair of Colonial Athletic Associaton match-ups.  On Friday night, the Tribe will play at Delaware at 7 p.m., before continuing on to face Towson at 1 p.m. on Saturday.  Both matches can be followed through both live video and live statistics through TribeAthletics.com.

Scouting the Tribe
W&M picked up wins at home against league-leading Col. of Charleston (3-1) and UNCW (3-2) last weekend, improving to 8-11 overall and 2-4 in league play.  Sophomore Katie Primatic (Pittstown, N.J.) was named the CAA Defensive Player of the Week after averaging a conference-best 1.67 blocks per set, and now has a team-best 0.82 blocks per set for the season.  On offense, junior Sydney Biniak (Elkridge, Md.) has 3.14 kills per set and freshman Casey Foote (Prospect, Ky.) is close behind with 3.09 per set, while fellow rookie Autumn Brenner (McLean, Va.) tops the team in both assists (9.74 per set) and aces (0.31 per set).  Back on the defensive side of the net, junior Sara Zumbach (Franklin, Tenn.) raised her digs average for the fifth-straight week (out of five possible), and now ranks sixth in the league with 4.47 digs per set.

Scouting the Blue Hens
Delaware entres the week at 6-13 overall and 0-6 in conference play, falling on the road at Hofstra and Northeastern last week.  Alexa Swann is the conference-leader with 1.12 blocks per set, while Maria Bellinger is the team's offensive pacer with 2.65 kills per set.  In the back court, Taylor Hollingsworth is providing 4.68 digs per set.

Scouting the Tigers
Towson is 16-5 overall and 3-3 in the league, coming off road setbacks at Hofstra and Northeastern.  Jessica Lewis is hitting a robust 4.05 kills per set, while Lindsay Flaherty is averaging 0.94 blocks per set on the other side of the net.  Anna Holehouse is the digs leader, at 4.33 per set.

The Series
- W&M trails the alltime series against Delaware, 14-21, but swept the Blue Hens last year in two matches, 3-0 in Williamsburg and 3-1 in Newark.
- The series with Towson is all tied up at 17-17, after the Tigers won twice last season by a 3-1 score.  Strangely enough, the Tribe has a 7-6 advantage in Maryland.

News and Notes
- Looking ahead to next weekend, the Tribe's Oct. 21 game against Hofstra will be the annual "Dig Pink" match.  To help W&M reach its goal of $1,500 raised to support the fight against Breast Cancer, please visit https://giving.side-out.org/campaigns/12396.

- W&M's 3-1 win over the Col. of Charleston on Oct. 7 was the first-ever against the Cougars, and gave Charleston its first league loss of the season.

- The win over UNCW on Oct. 9 was the Tribe's 50th all-time in the series, the first school W&M has reached that milestone against.

- In the first match against Northeastern, Humphrey made three blocks to surpass the 200-block milestone.  She's just the fourth player in the current era (25-pts per set) to reach that mark.

- Zumbach enters this weekend just 66 digs away from the 1000-dig milestone, and enior Gabrielle Pe (Virginia Beach, Va.) is just 76 away.  Overall, they rank 10th and 11th in school history, and third and fourth in the current 25-pt scoring era.

- Primatic's Defensive Player of the Week nod on Oct. 11 came after she averaged 1.67 blocks, 1.89 kills, and 2.94 points per set.  She had seven kills and eight blocks in the win over Charleston, and tied her career-high with 10 kills and seven blocks against UNCW.

- Freshman Autumn Brenner (McLean, Va.) made 64 assists as the Tribe earned a 3-2 comeback win over Davidson at the Gamecock Invitational, tied for 13th-most ever in a match for W&M.  It was also the highest total for any Tribe player since Cassie Crumal '11 made 66 in a match in 2007.

- Brenner was named the CAA Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 19, after earning her second all-tournament nod of the season at the Gamecock Invitational with 10.88 assists per set.

- Foote earned W&M's first 20-kill match of the year in the win over Davidson.  The freshman record is 30, set in 2007 by Erin Skipper '11.

- This semester, junior Maddie Sanford (Georgetown, Texas) was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, the premier national honor society for business students.  Induction is limited to the top 10% of each class at member universities, comparable to requirements for Phi Beta Kappa (which has not traditionally inducted business students).

- Against VCU, Zumbach made a career-high 34 saves.  That's tied for the sixth-most ever in a match at W&M, and the most since All-American Lindsey Pflugner '10 also had 34 in a match in 2009.

- The match against VCU was also the Tribe's "Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer" fundraiser.  W&M well-surpassed its goal of $500 dollars, raising more than $800 on the night for the Go 4 the Goal Foundation.

- The Tribe's win in the Colonial Classic was its fifth home tournament title in the last decade.  In that span, W&M is 28-10 overall in home events.

- Foote was named the MVP of the Colonial Classic, after averaging 4.1 kills, 3.6 digs, and 4.5 points per set.  Brenner was also named to the all-tournament team, with a nigh-unfathomable 12.0 assists per set, as Primatic, who hit .552 and averaged 0.75 blocks per set.

- Foote was named the all-tournament team at Belmont, after averaging 2.5 kills and 2.6 digs per set for the weekend.

- Sophomore Heather Pippus (Lake Oswego, Ore.) was named to the all-tournament team at Clemson on the opening weekend, after scoring 18 kills against both Wofford and High Point.

- The Tribe started the year with three-straight five-set matches for the first time ever.  It was only the seventh three-match stretch of its kind in school history, while the school record of four-straight five-set matches was set back in 1988.

- Brenner was named the CAA Rookie of the Week on Aug. 29, after piling up  132 assists at the Clemson Invitational.  That was more than five other CAA teams had total on the first weekend.

- Melissa Ferris is in her first season as W&M's head coach, after a very successful 18 years as an assistant coach in Division I.  Her most recent stop was at Rice, where she spent 12 years.  Ferris is the eighth head coach in school history.

- W&M earned a perfect 1000 score in the APR last year, led by the classroom heroics of Pe and Sanford, who were both named to the W&M Provost's Award list (for having a GPA over 3.5).

- If Pe plays every scheduled match this season, she'll tie the Tribe's all-time record of 121 matches currently held by Jill Hannah '98.  She can hold the record outright if W&M makes the CAA Tournament for the fourth time in the last five seasons.