The William & Mary field hockey team heads to Delaware this weekend for the Colonial Athletic Association Championships, looking to win the Tribe's first-ever conference title.  W&M is the No. 2 seed, and will face third-seeded and No. 20-ranked James Madison at 6 p.m. Friday night in the second semifinal.  If the Green and Gold is fortunate enough to advance to the finals, that match will come Sunday, Nov. 6 at 1 p.m., against the first semifinal winner of No. 9 Delaware and fourth-seeded Drexel.  All three matches can be followed via live stats, live video, or live audio on CAASports.com.

Scouting the Tribe
W&M is coming off its best season in more than a decade, and finished 9-9 overall and 5-1 in the CAA to earn the No. 2 seed.  It is the first time since winning the regular season title in 2004 (7-0) that the Tribe has been seeded in the top-two, as well as the most wins and fewest losses in conference play since that season.

Key to the season's success has been the growth of both the offense and the defense.  That is best exemplified by the seven players who earned All-CAA honors on Thursday night, tying the all-time program record for a single season.  Junior Erin Menges (Richmond, Va.) was named the Defensive Player of the Year after leading the CAA and ranking ninth nationally with five defensive saves.  Menges also had two goals and a career-best seven assists, and was one of three Tribe players named to the All-CAA second-team.  Cammie Lloyd (Midlothian, Va.) led the CAA in scoring during league play, and was named first-team All-CAA after totaling 36 points (15 goals, 6 assists) for the year.  That's the most for any W&M players since 2002, and Lloyd ranks 22nd nationally in both goals and points.

Also joining Menges on the second team were juniors Booter Ellis (Delmar, Del.) and Estelle Hughes (Newcastle, NSW).  Ellis was one of the Tribe's "do-everything" leaders, setting career highs with two goals and five assists while also providing two defensive saves.  Hughes broke out in the scoring column in a big way, and ranks second on the team with 18 points, coming on seven goals and four assists.  Two of those goals and an assist came in W&M's last match of the regular season, a 4-3 road win over Hofstra.

The Tribe also had three All-Rookie selections, the most in the league.  Goalkeeper Morgan Connor (Bedford, N.Y.) ranks fourth in the CAA in both GAA and saves, and has been solid in conference play with a 1.95 GAA and .700 save percentage.  Annie Snead (Midlothian, Va.) led the Tribe's freshmen in scoring with three goals and three assists, and was a two-time CAA Rookie of the Week.  Cassidy Goodwin (Gloucester, Va.) also earned CAA Rookie of the Week honors this season, and had three more goals and two assists as well as a defensive save.

Scouting the Dukes
James Madison is 12-6 on the year and 4-2 in the CAA, and re-entered the national poll this week in a tie for No. 20.  Leading scorer Miranda Rigg earned first-team All-CAA honors with 16 goals and 32 points, as did Hannah Hall with 11 goals and nine assists.  Sara Kraeutler is the Dukes' goalkeeper, and has a 2.19 GAA and a .670 save percentage this season.

Scouting the Blue Hens
Delaware held steady at No. 9 in the country this week, despite extending its school-record win streak to 13 matches en route to a 17-2 overall record, and 6-0 in the CAA.  Greta Nauck was named the CAA Player of the Year thanks to her NCAA-best 24 goals, and was joined on the first team by three teammates; Esmee Peet, Taylor Lister, and Emmeline Oltmans.  Peet (6g,5a) and Lister (5g,8a) had 18 and 17 points, respectively, while Oltmans was the league's top goalkeeper with a 1.92 GAA and .695 save percentage.

Scouting the Dragons
Drexel won two of its last three conference matches to earn the fourth seed this weekend, at 8-10 overall and 3-3 in CAA play.  Freshman Tess Bernheimer was named the CAA Rookie of the Year and first-team All-CAA after leading all rookies with six goals and four assists, and she was joined on the top squad by Jessica McCarthy, seven goals and eight assists.  In goal, Erin Gilchrist sports a 3.10 GAA and .675 save percentage with 110 stops.

The Series
- W&M has won three of the last four against James Madison, improving in the all-time series to 21-37-6.  Earlier this year, the Tribe upset the then-No. 17 ranked Dukes 4-3 in overtime in Harrisonburg.
- On the other end of the pendulum, Delaware is riding a seven-game win streak in the series with W&M, and leads the table 14-8 all-time.  In the regular season, the Blue Hens escaped Williamsburg with a narrow 3-2 overtime win.
- W&M beat Drexel 2-1 at home last month to break open the tied series, which now stands 9-8 in favor of the Green and Gold.

W&M in the CAA Tournament
- This is the 21st time in 26 years that the Tribe has appeared in the CAA Tournament, second-most in conference history behind only the 22 appearances for JMU.
- W&M is 12-20 all-time, ranking third in both total matches (32) and wins behind only former member Old Dominion (38) and JMU (24)
- The Tribe is 1-8 all-time in tournament play against James Madison, as well as 1-4 against Delaware.  W&M and Drexel have never met in the post-season.
- In its first game of the CAA Tournament, W&M is 11-9.
- William & Mary has advanced to two CAA Finals, the very first one in 1991, and most recently in 2002.  Both times, Old Dominion went on to win the championships.
- This will be just the fifth time W&M has played against the No. 3 seed, with a 1-3 record in the first four tries.
- In a similar vein, Friday will be the sixth time the Tribe has played as the No. 2 seed.  The first five matches generated a 1-4 record.

News and Notes
- The Tribe's seven All-CAA honorees matches the all-time high previously set by the 2000 and 2001 teams.

- W&M's three All-Rookie selections are the most-ever.

- Menges is just the second CAA Defensive Player of the Year for W&M, joining Anna Davis '06 who was honored in her senior season of 2005.

- Connor is the first W&M goalkeeper to earn All-CAA honors of any stripe since Heather Kibbee '05 in the 2004 campaign.

- Senior Olivia Hajek (Charlottesville, Va.) was named to the CAA All-Academic team for the third year in a row.  The biology major has a GPA north of 3.9, and also had two goals and an assist this year for W&M including the game-winner against Northeastern.

- The Tribe leads the CAA and ranks fifth nationally in defensive saves, with 12.  In addition to Menges' five and Ellis' two, W&M also counts two from Caroline Arrowood (Chesapeake, Va.), and solo stats from Goodwin, freshman Christie van de Kamp (Midlothian, Va.), and senior captain Maddy Moore (Norfolk, Va.).

- W&M has won a total of seven CAA weekly awards this season thanks to five different players.  The team has also broken or tied several all-time school records for the awards program, including most Players of the Week (3, matching the 2002 team), most Rookies of the Week (4, most-ever), most total honors (7), most players honored (5), most players to win Player of the Week (2, matching the 1998, 2003, and 2012 teams), and most players to win Rookie of the Week (3).  Additionally, with her two Player of the Week awards this season, Lloyd has matched Ann Ekberg '03 and Kelly Giles '06 for the most career CAA weekly awards, with three total.

- In addition to Lloyd (Player) and Goodwin (Rookie) on Oct. 25, previous weekly award winners include Emma MacLeod (Richmond, Va.), Player of the Week on Oct. 18, Lloyd Player of the Week on Oct. 4, Connor Rookie of the Week on Sept. 20, and Snead Rookie of the Week on both Sept. 13 and Oct. 4.

- The Tribe's 4-3 overtime win against No. 17 JMU was its first ranked win of the season, and the first over a ranked team since 2013.

- W&M is one just three teams to score more than two goals against current No. 1 Duke this season.  The Tribe tallied four goals against the then-No. 4 Blue Devils back in August in the season opener, while then-No. 4 Syracuse scored five in early October and then-No. 5 North Carolina had three in late September.  Both those ACC teams achieved that feat on their home fields, however, leaving W&M as the only team to score more than two against Duke in Durham.  In fact, the Green and Gold's four goals are almost as many as the other seven teams to play there scored combined (six).

- The last time W&M finished conference play with one or fewer conference losses was the 7-0 season in 2004.

- 2004 was also the last time the Tribe was seeded first or second in the CAA Tournament.

- W&M is currently on pace to set a program-record for most points per game in a season, and close to record-pace in goals and assists as well.  The Tribe is averaging 7.72 points per game, ahead of the school-record pace of 7.45 a game set in 2000.  W&M is also averaging 2.89 goals per game, fifth all-time and the best since 1977, and 1.94 assists per game, second-best behind only the 2012 team that averaged 2.32 per game.

- The Tribe's 8-1 win over Towson saw a number of historically ranked performances.  It was the second-most points ever scored by W&M in a game (22), trailing only the 23 points scored against Lehigh in 1990, and also tied for the second-most assists in a single game (6), behind only nine helpers against Ursinus in 1994.  The eight goals scored by the Tribe were tied for third-most ever, behind nine goals in the 1990 Lehigh game and against Old Dominion in 1974, and the 45 shots taken were sixth-most ever, and the most since 1992.

- Hughes scored the first goal against Towson just 23 seconds into the contest.  That's the second-fastest goal in school history, trailing only the 21-seconds it took for senior captain Maria Jose Pastor (Burke, Va.) to score against against Temple in 2014.

- The shoot-out win over Davidson was notable for a number of reasons.  It was W&M's first shoot-out game of any sort since 2008, and the first win for the Tribe in a shoot-out since 1993.  All-time, the Tribe is now 5-5 in games decided by a shoot-out.

- The win over Richmond was the Tribe's first since the 2007 season.

- Connor's 11 saves against No. 4 Duke in the season opener, a freshman record for W&M, were the most for any Tribe goalie since the 2014 season opener.

- Head coach Tess Ellis is in her fourth season with the Tribe, and has twice been named the CAA Coach of the Year (in both 2013 and 2014).

- Three Tribe juniors all earned pre-season honors from the CAA, with Ellis earning a spot on the first team, and classmates Lloyd and Menges being named honorable mention.

- This was the first season since 1986 that W&M entered the season with no previous game experience in goal.  That actually bodes pretty well for the Tribe, given that the 1986 season marked the debut for both Carlen Sellers '89 and Sharon Barone '90.  Sellers would set the still-standing career records for save percentage (.896) and goals-against average (0.87), while Barone graduated as--and is still--the all-time leader in saves (768) and saves per game (11.13), in addition to ranking second in percentage (.879) and shut-outs (25.5).

- Back in the spring, W&M had three freshmen named among the nation's top-50 recruits by MaxFieldHockey.com, one of just six schools in the entire country to achieve that feat.  Goodwin, Snead, and van de Kamp were the selections, and later in the summer, teamed up under assistant coach Mark Egner at the Young Women's National Championships to roll to an undefeated national title in the U19 division.