The No. 19-ranked William & Mary field hockey team stayed perfect in conference play on Sunday, beating Northeastern 3-1 at home.  The Tribe improved to 8-4 overall and 2-0 in the Colonial Athletic Association with the victory, while the Huskies dropped to 6-5 (1-1 CAA) with just their second loss in the last five games.

The Tribe got off to a blistering start, scoring just one minute into the game.  Sophomore defender Christie van de Kamp (Midlothian, Va.) took matters into her own hands and drove upfield, dishing off to Cata Days (Buenos Aires, Argentina).  Days took the ball to the baseline, and seeing the defense collapsing her way, passed back to van de Kamp at the high elbow for a shot that ripped past the goalkeeper and into the boards.  In the ninth minute, the Green and Gold doubled their lead, this time with sophomore Woodard Hooper (Reston, Va.) taking the ball just inside midfield and driving through the defense in a pinball fashion to the middle of the scoring area, and finishing with a shot under the goalkeeper's foot to go up 2-0.

Northeastern began battling back over the course of the first half, making several nice runs and drawing a corner, but sophomore goalkeeper Morgan Connor (Bedford, N.Y.) made four saves and the Tribe defense several more nifty plays to keep the Huskies off the board.  The visitors finally broke through early in the second half, with Aniek van de Graaf making a pass from just outside the circle across to Jamie Bartucca standing just out of Connor's reach in the middle.  The CAA's leading scorer, Bartucca finished with a reverse-shot back across the goal and in to cut the lead to 2-1.

After another 20 minutes of back and forth play, including timeouts from both squads and a two back-to-back diving stops from Northeastern goalkeeper Julia Ennis on opposite sides of her cage in the 54th minute, W&M struck again with an insurance goal.  Junior Jenny McCann (Annandale, Va.) drove in along the baseline, then passed into a scrum in front of the Northeastern goal that included three defenders and two Tribe attackers.  One of those was Hooper, who was able to wrap the ball around the backside of the knot of players and in for her second score of the afternoon.  Northeastern was still dangerous, however, drawing four penalty corners in the final five minutes.  The Tribe defense was up to the task, with seniors Booter Ellis (Delmar, Del.) and Erin Menges (Richmond, Va.) both making defensive saves and Connor two more to put the finishing touches on an eight-save afternoon.



Starters
W&M: Morgan Connor (GK), Erin Menges, Annie Snead, Cata Days, Christie van de Kamp, Estelle Hughes, Bailey McCarthy, Booter Ellis, Cassidy Goodwin, Cammie Lloyd, Emma MacLeod
NU: Julia Gluyas (GK), Jamie Bartucca, Kristin Abreu, Mia Martin, Laura MacLachlan, Aniek van de Graaf, Ffion Thompson, Megan Barrett, Rachel Campbell, June Curry-Lindahl, Kellie Stigas

Inside the Numbers
- For the first time this season, W&M was out-shot in a win, 20-16.  The first half was an even 8-8, before Northeastern led the second 12-8.
- Northeastern also led the corner count, 8-2.  The Tribe's first corner didn't come until the 46th minute of the game.
- Morgan Connor had her third game of eight or more saves this season, and the seventh with one or zero goals allowed.  For Northeastern, Julia Gluyas made the start with a save and two goals allowed, before being replaced immediately after the second goal.  Julia Ennis then played the remaining 62 minutes, making eight saves and giving up one.

Notes
W&M started the same players in back-to-back games for the first time this season ... The Tribe is 2-0 in the CAA for the first time since 2006 ... Seven of W&M's eight points on the day came from the sophomore class ... Erin Menges now has a CAA-best four defensive saves on the year, tied for third-most in the NCAA ... Booter Ellis made her first defensive save of the season, and ninth of her career ... Woodard Hooper had her first two-goal game of her career ... With six games left in the regular season, the Tribe already has three players with 7+ goals, a total surpassed by only the 2000 squad over a full season.

Up Next
William & Mary hits the road on Friday, taking on CAA foe Towson at 7:00 p.m. before returning home on Sunday to host Davidson at 12 p.m.