The William & Mary volleyball team opens Colonial Athletic Association play this week, starting with a mid-week trip to Harrisonburg, Va. to take on James Madison.  The Tribe and the Dukes will square off on Wednesday night at 7 p.m., and the match can be followed live online both through video and stats on Tribeathletics.com.

Scouting the Tribe
William & Mary begins conference play at 6-7 overall, and after two strong weeks of tournament play.  Freshman setter Autumn Brenner (McLean, Va.) was named the CAA Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, after earning all-tournament honors at South Carolina last week.  For the season, Brenner ranks third in the CAA with 9.96 assists and fifth in service aces, at 0.33.  Her classmate Casey Foote (Prospect, Ky.) ranks seventh in kills (3.15 per set) and eighth in points (3.43) in the league table, while junior Sydney Biniak (Elkridge, Md.) is eighth (3.14) and ninth (3.32), respectively.  Sophomore Katie Primatic (Pittstown, N.J.) is fourth in hitting percentage at .350, while freshman Samantha Conway (Mechanicsville, Va.) is third in aces at 0.35 per set and junior Sara Zumbach (Franklin, Tenn.) ranks ninth in digs with 3.89 per set.

Scouting the Dukes
James Madison enters the week at 8-5 on the year, going 1-2 each of the past two weekends.  Reigning CAA Player of the Year Janey Goodman leads the league with 4.23 kills and 5.05 points per set, while the potent Dukes defense features Taylor Gail (1.15 blocks per set) and Goodman, with 0.98 blocks per set.  Taylor Austin also ranks among the CAA leaders, with 5.24 digs per set.

The Series
W&M leads the all-time series with James Madison 44-43, while the Dukes have the edge in Harrisonburg, 16-10.  Four of the last seven matches in the series have gone to five sets.

News and Notes
- 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 earned her second all-tournament nod of the season at the Gamecock Invitational, after averaging 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.

- On Friday, junior Maddie Sanford (Georgetown, Texas) will be 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 senior Gabrielle Pe (Virginia Beach, Va.) 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.