The William & Mary volleyball team continues its conference-opening road swing with a trip down to Elon, N.C., on Sunday, taking on the Phoenix at 2 p.m. The game can be followed live both on video and stats, courtesy of ElonPhoenix.com.
Scouting the Tribe
W&M lost a closely-fought match to JMU on Wednesday to move to 6-8 overall and 0-1 in conference play, despite several strong individual performances. Freshman
Autumn Brenner (McLean, Va.) is the reigning CAA Offensive Player of the Week, and currently ranks second in the league with 10.06 assists per set, and ninth with 0.31 aces per set. Sophomore
Katie Primatic (Pittstown, N.J.) is fourth overall in hitting percentage at .353, and freshman
Samantha Conway (Mechanicsville, Va.) is fourth in the table with 0.35 aces per set. Junior
Sara Zumbach (Franklin, Tenn.) ranks seventh overall with 4.15 digs per set, while freshman
Casey Foote (Prospect, Ky.) and junior
Sydney Biniak (Elkridge, Md.) are sixth and seventh in kills, with 3.13 kills apiece.
Scouting the Phoenix
Elon is 13-4 on the year, and also started 0-1 in conference play with a loss to JMU on Friday night. Offensively, Kam Terry ranks third in the league with 3.43 kills per set, and setter Sydel Curry is third overall with 10.00 assists per set. The Phoenix are very strong defensively, with Ally Karle ranking first in the league with 1.5 blocks per set, and Maddie Jaudon sixth with 4.38 digs per set.
The Series
W&M leads the all-time series with Elon 4-3, but the Phoenix have won each of the last two in Elon.
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) 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 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.