To the delight of a raucous crowd, the William & Mary volleyball team opened its home slate on Friday night a come-from-behind 3-1 victory over Charlotte.  The Tribe improved to 2-5 on the year with the win, while the 49ers fell to 3-4 overall.  In the first game of the Colonial Classic on Friday afternoon, Western Carolina swept Coppin State, 3-0.

"I'm honestly proud of this team for their 'never say die' attitude," head coach Melissa Ferris said following the win.  "Charlotte has a huge block and it caused us some trouble at the beginning.  The team made some adjustments and the hitters were succesful because of it.  This was a great team win and I'm looking forward to tomorrow!"

Charlotte jumped out to an early lead in the first set that they would not relinquish, claiming the initial frame 25-22, but W&M answered right back with a dominating second set.  Freshmen Autumn Brenner (McLean, Va.) and Samantha Conway (Mechanicsville, Va.) set the tone early with a 4-1 lead, and the Tribe never trailed from there.  The capper was a 4-0 run to seal the 25-16 win that include kills from Katie Primatic (Pittstown, N.J.), Sydney Biniak (Elkridge, Md.), and Alex Stein (East Setauket, N.Y.), and a block from Primatic and Stein.

The third set alone was worth the price of admission, as the Tribe battled back from a an 18-15 deficit late.  Brenner and Stein traded assists and kills, before a 49ers error tied the set at 18-all.  Charlotte was able to open another small lead at 21-19, forcing a Tribe timeout, and after another flurry of exchanges, the visitors gained set point up 24-21.  The Green and Gold refused to get flustered, however, and Casey Foote (Prospect, Ky.) got the train started with her third kill of the set.  Paige Humphrey (Oak Hill, Va.) and Brenner combined for a huge block for W&M's 23rd point, and Foote came through again to knot the set 24-24 and forced Charlotte to ask for time.  The 49ers got their fourth set point on a kill at 25-24, but the Tribe answered right back with Foote's fifth kill of the frame, and took the lead for the first time at 26-25 with another spike from Stein.  Charlotte fended off the first set point against them, but the rookie hitters came through yet again with back-to-back kills to deliver their teammates a 28-26 win, and a 2-1 lead in the match.

The fourth and final set looked like it might have been developing in a similar style, when Charlotte took a 10-7 lead early.  W&M answered right away with a seven-point string to go up 14-10, including two kills each by Stein and Primatic, as well as a block from Biniak and a kill from Brenner.  The Tribe lead would grow as large as five at 18-13 on yet another kill from Foote, before Charlotte went on an extended run of its own that retook the lead, 21-20.  That lead was short-lived, however, as W&M tied it back up on the very next point, and then rattled off four more in a row to finish out a 25-21 set win and claim the match 3-1.

Overall, the Tribe was led by Foote, who collected season-highs of 18 kills and 17 digs for her first collegiate double-double.  Biniak had a terrific outing as well, setting career highs with 17 kills and a .419 attack, to go with three blocks.  Stein tied her season high with 11 kills and also had seven digs on defense, and Primatic hit .571 with nine kills and three more blocks.

Also of note, Brenner collected a double-double as well with a season-high 55 assists, 12 digs, four blocks, and five kills while hitting .417.  The junior Humphrey had a team-best five blocks, and also on defense Sara Zumbach (Franklin, Tenn.) made her first start at libero, coming away with 23 digs and an ace.  Senior Gabrielle Pe (Virginia Beach, Va.) and Conway each picked up eight more digs, with Conway also scoring an ace and her first collegiate kill.

William & Mary is back in action on Saturday with two more matches to close out the Colonial Classic.  The Tribe will take on Western Carolina at 12:30 p.m., before finishing up against Coppin State at 7 p.m.