The William & Mary volleyball team brings its three-week road trip to an end this weekend, traveling north to far reaches of the Colonial Athletic Association.  On Friday night, the Tribe plays Northeastern at 7 p.m., before continuing on to face Hofstra on Sunday at 1 p.m.  Both matches will be available to follow both through live stats and live video on TribeAthletics.com.

Scouting the Tribe
W&M is 6-9 on the year and 0-2 in league play, after falling to James Madison and Elon last weekend.  Offensively, the triad of freshmen Casey Foote (Prospect, Ky.) and Autumn Brenner (McLean, Va.) as well as junior Sydney Biniak (Elkridge, Md.) are leading the way; Brenner with 9.91 assists per set, and 3.16 and 3.12 kills per set for Foote and Biniak, respectively.  On defense, junior Sara Zumbach (Franklin, Tenn.) has 4.12 digs per set, and classmate Paige Humphrey (Oak Hill, Va.) has 0.79 blocks per set.

Scouting the Huskies
Northeastern comes into the week at 11-5 overall, and 1-1 in the CAA after winning at UNCW and falling at Charleston last weekend.  Jamie Bredahl is averaging 2.83 kills and 0.50 aces per set on offence, while on the other side of the net Gabrielle Eyl ranks among the league leaders with 5.43 digs per set and Caterina Rosander has 1.07 blocks per set.

Scouting the Pride
Hofstra is 10-5 overall at 0-2 in the conference after road losses to COFC and UNCW.  Veronika Kostova is averaging 3.34 kills per set and Laura Masciullo 3.02 per set, while on defense Michela Rucli has 0.88 blocks per set and Leticia Valente 0.93.  Luisa Domingues patrols the backcourt with 4.39 digs per set.

The Series
- Northeastern leads the all-time series, 13-10, however the Tribe has won the last four in a row, all by a 3-1 score.
- W&M is 18-22 all-time against Hofstra, in the battle of schools with singular mascots that end in the letter "e".  The teams have met at least twice a year every season since 2012.

News and Notes
- Several Tribe players are closing in on significant career milestones.  Humphrey is only two blocks away from 200 in her career, and will become just the fourth player since 2008 to make that milestone.  Pe is just 129 digs from 1,000, and currently ranks 15th all-time at W&M, and third since the start of 25-pt sets in 2008.  Just behind her is Zumbach, 17th all-time and fifth in the current era with 848 career digs.

- 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.

- Last week, 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.