The William & Mary volleyball team showed both dominance and resilience on Saturday afternoon in sweeping Western Carolina, 3-0, to move to 2-0 at the Colonial Classic tournament.  With the win, the Tribe improves to 3-5 overall on the year, while the Catamounts fall to 5-5 overall.

"It's nice to see us settle in and play Tribe volleyball," noted head coach Melissa Ferris afterwards.  "We are communicating well and trusting each other and the system we have in place and it's great to see.  We've been working on passing in practice and I think it's paid off.  Overall, it's just great to see the team relax and have fun!  They've worked hard and I'm glad to see it finally pay off.  I know I say this often, but I am so proud of this team and their work ethic."

Topping the stat sheet for the Tribe was freshman Alex Stein (East Setauket, N.Y.), who had a season-high 13 kills while hitting .458, and also added in a pair of blocks.  Usual W&M leaders Casey Foote (Prospect, Ky.) and Sydney Biniak (Elkridge, Md.) were their customarily-effective selves, with Foote producing 11 kills and nine digs to go with two aces and Biniak turning in 10 more kills, nine digs, and three blocks.

Junior Paige Humphrey (Oak Hill, Va.) had a terrific outing all the way around, hitting .455 with six kills and leading all players in the match with four blocks.  Her partner along the net, Katie Primatic (Pittstown, N.J.), had another six kills on a .500 attack, and freshman Samantha Conway (Mechanicsville, Va.) had nine digs and an ace off the bench.  Freshman setter Autumn Brenner (McLean, Va.) dished out 20 assists and a pair of aces while playing just two sets, giving way to sophomore Katie Kemp (Brentwood, Tenn.) in the second set as Kemp made 15 more assists.  Senior Gabrielle Pe (Virginia Beach, Va.) had five digs to add to the total, and junior libero Sara Zumbach (Franklin, Tenn.) rounded out the team effort with a match-best 14 digs to go with four assists and a final ace.

W&M took the first set and quickly grabbed a 1-0 lead in the match.  With W&M up just 8-7, Humphrey scored her first kill of the day and ignited a 17-1 run that put paid to the Catamounts, 25-8.  The Tribe scored the final 11 points in a row, capped off by Brenner's second ace of the match.  The second set was a thriller that featured 14 tied scores and seven lead changes.  Most came late, as WCU led for much of the early going, end up 22-20.  Humphrey scored a kill and added a solo block two points later to put her team on top, 23-22, and after the Catamounts tied it 23-23, Stein scored a kill of her own to gain set point for the Green and Gold, 24-23.  That began string of eight set points successfully defended for each team, before back-to-back kills by Kemp and Stein finally the won the set, 33-31.  The third and final set opened all-W&M with a 5-1 lead on Conway's service, and also featured a 9-0 streak for the Tribe en route to a 25-16 and the sweep.

William & Mary finishes out the weekend tonight, hosting Coppin State at 7 p.m.