The William & Mary volleyball team brings its 2016 campaign to a close this weekend at home, hosting a pair of longtime CAA-rivals.  The Tribe welcomes Towson on Friday night at 7 p.m., before hosting Delaware Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. for Senior Night.  Both matches are free to attend, and can be followed online through both video and live stats on TribeAthletics.com.

Scouting the Tribe
W&M enters the final weekend of the season at 8-19 overall, and 2-12 in league play.  Junior Sydney Biniak (Elkridge, Md.) is the CAA's sixth-ranked scorer with 3.03 kills per set, while freshman Samantha Conway (Mechanicsville, Va.) is fourth in service aces with 0.29 per set.  On defense, Sara Zumbach (Franklin, Tenn.) is fifth in the league table with 4.51 digs per set, and Paige Humphrey (Oak Hill, Va.) leads the Tribe with 0.85 blocks per set.

Scouting the Tigers
Towson comes into the week at 22-7 on the year, and in the fight for a first-round bye at 9-5 in conference action.  Jessica Lewis is among the very top players in the CAA with 3.90 kills per set, and is joined above the 3.0 mark by Jocelyn Kuilan (3.01 kills per set).  On defense, Lindsay Flaherty controls the net with 0.91 blocks per set, while Anna Holehouse is sixth in the league with 4.38 digs per set.

Scouting the Blue Hens
Delaware is on a tear in the second half of the conference rotation, and currently holds the sixth and final CAA tournament qualifying spot at 13-14 overall and 7-7 in the CAA.  Balance is the name of the game for the Blue Hens, whose top-two attackers are Maria Bellinger and Autumn Jenkins at 2.77 and 2.57 kills per set, respectively.  On defense, Taylor Hollingsworth is fourth in the CAA at 4.78 digs per set, with Alexa Swann also fourth at 1.09 blocks per set.

The Series
- W&M is 17-18 all-time against Towson, last winning at home in the 2013 campaign.
- The Tribe is 14-22 all-time against Delaware, but won its last meeting in Williamsburg 3-0 last season.

News and Notes
- Before Friday's match, we will take a moment to honor and celebrate the memory of Hoddy Potter '01, who passed away last December from cancer.  Potter graduated in just three years from W&M, and was a student assistant coach with the Tribe after injuries kept her from playing.  After graduation, she went to the University of San Francisco Law School and was a lawyer for almost six years, before moving to Kansas with her family and starting her own two-studio yoga practice.  Potter is survived by her husband, former W&M basketball player Mit Winter '01, and their three children.  To make a donation in her memory to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, please visit https://donate.lls.org

- W&M signed two players in the early signing period that began on Wednesday.  Julia Brown (Geneva, Ill.) is a 6-2 middle blocker and Kate Dedrick (Plano, Texas) a 6-2 right-side who both competed in their states' highest classification.

- Senior Gabrielle Pe (Virginia Beach, Va.) reached the 1,000-dig milestone last weekend against Charleston, becoming just the 10th player in school history to reach that mark.  Pe and Zumbach are the first Tribe teammates to reach 1,000-digs in the same season since Kathleen Hawley '07 and Erin Simmons '06, who both reached 1,000 in the 2005 season.

- Pe is also on pace to tie Jill Hannah '98 as W&M's all-time leader in matches played, with 121.  Currently at 119, if Pe plays both matches this weekend she'll tie that record.

- Oct. 22 against Northeastern, Zumbach surpassed the 1,000-dig mark in her career, just the ninth player ever at W&M to accomplish that feat.  She did it in just 72 matches, the fastest in school history, and became the first player to surpass 300 digs in each of her first three seasons.  No Tribe player has ever collected 300 digs all four years.

- Freshman Casey Foote (Prospect, Ky.) is just 12 kills away from 300 for the season, a mark that would put her in select company.  Only three other players in school history have made 300 kills in their freshman campaigns, including Jennifer Torns '92 (383 in 1988), Becky Eggering '93 (326 in 1989), and Erin Skipper '11 (326 in 2007).

- Sophomore Katie Kemp (Brentwood, Tenn.) set career-highs in every category but aces against Northeastern.  She had 53 assists, 18 digs, four blocks, a kill, and five attempts.

- W&M's efforts for the "Dig Pink" campaign netted more than $1500 for stage 4 cancer treatment and research.

- Freshman Autumn Brenner (McLean, Va.) already ranks 16th all-time at W&M, across all eras, with 759 career assists.  The last time a Tribe player surpassed 800 assists in a year was Kim Mount '09, who had 1,030 back in 2008.

- 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.  All-time, Humphrey's 203 block-assists ties her for 16th in school history.

- Sophomore Katie Primatic's (Pittstown, N.J.) 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.

- Brenner 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).