After a long month on the road, the William & Mary volleyball team returns home this weekend for Fall Break, and a pair of Colonial Athletic Association matches.  The Tribe hosts the Col. of Charleston on Friday night at 7 p.m., before welcoming UNCW to town on Sunday at 2 p.m.  Both matches will be streamed live on TribeAthletics.com.

Scouting the Tribe
W&M comes into the week at 6-11 overall and 0-4 in the CAA.  Junior Sydney Biniak (Elkridge, Md.) had a big match in her last outing, against Hofstra, and took over the team lead with 3.20 kills and 3.39 points per set, while freshman Casey Foote (Prospect, Ky.) is close behind with 3.08 kills and 3.34 points per set.  On defense, junior Sara Zumbach (Franklin, Tenn.) raised her average to 4.24 digs per set, and classmate Paige Humphrey (Oak Hill, Va.) has a team-best 0.8 blocks per set.

Scouting the Cougars
Charleston is 11-5 overall, and leads the conference with a perfect 4-0 record.  The Cougars have four players averaging over 2.5 kills per set, led by Devon Rachel with 2.8 kills per set, and thanks to the setting of Allison Beckman who has 10.60 assists per set.  On defense, Jane Feddersen has 0.88 blocks per set, and McKala Rhodes is providing 4.66 digs per set.

Scouting the Seahawks
UNCW has amassed a 12-4 record so far this year, and 2-2 in the CAA.  Nicole Lott ranks among the league leaders with 3.20 kills per set, while Sydney Brock controls the defensive side of the net with 1.08 blocks per set.  Sydney Alvis is the top back row player, providing 4.18 digs per set.

The Series
- W&M is looking for its first win in the young series against Charleston, which is only in its eighth match.
- The Tribe is 49-11 all-time against the Seahawks, including 21-5 at home.  Along with JMU, W&M and the UNCW are the only remaining original teams that have been in the CAA since 1984.

News and Notes
- In the 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.

- Senior Gabrielle Pe (Virginia Beach, Va.) is just 112 digs from 1,000, and currently ranks 13th all-time at W&M, and third since the start of 25-pt sets in 2008.  Just five digs behind her is Zumbach, 15th all-time and fourth in the current era with 883 career digs.

- 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.  It was also the most digs in the CAA this season by a wide margin (seven).

- 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.