The No. 19-ranked William & Mary field hockey team begin post-season play on Friday in the Colonial Athletic Association tournament semifinals, taking on No. 15-ranked James Madison.  The game will begin at approximately 6 p.m. in Newark, Del., following the first semifinal between host and No. 8-ranked Delaware and Northeastern.  The winners of Friday's semifinals will advance to the championship game Sunday at 1 p.m.  All three matches can be watched live on CAA.TV.

Scouting the Tribe
W&M went 12-6 overall, it's best performance since 2004, and 4-2 in CAA play during the regular season to claim the No. 3 seed for this weekend's tournament.  Most recently, the Tribe fell to JMU last Friday in a hard-fought 2-1 contest that was not decided until the final three minutes.  W&M had six players named all-conference, including senior captain Erin Menges (Richmond, Va.) who repeated as the CAA Defender of the Year and made the All-CAA first team for the first time after leading the league and ranking third nationally with six defensive saves this season.  Also making the first team all-conference were W&M's two offensive leaders, seniors Emma MacLeod (Richmond, Va.) and Cammie Lloyd (Midlothian, Va.).  MacLeod leads the Tribe with 26 points on 11 goals and four assists, while Lloyd is close behind with 24 points (10g,4a).  The Tribe also had two make the All-CAA second team, courtesy of seniors Booter Ellis (Delmar, Del.) and Estelle Hughes (Newcastle, NSW), and freshman Melanie Strik (Den Haag, The Netherlands) was picked to the CAA All-Rookie team.  Sophomore goalkeeper Morgan Connor (Bedford, N.Y.), while not earning all-conference honors, is still having one of the best seasons for a Tribe goalkeeper this millenium with 12 wins and three shutouts.  She's played every game this fall with 80 saves on a .734 save percentage, and a 1.71 GAA.

Scouting the Dukes
JMU finished the regular season on a four-game conference winning streak to finish at 12-5 (5-1).  First-team All-CAA honorees for the Dukes include offensive leader Miranda Rigg, with 29 points (12g,5a), as well as All-American Hannah Hall (6g,10a), and Melanie Kusakavitch (7g,2a).  Goalkeeper Sara Kraeutler earned second-team all-conference honors after missing two weeks of action, but has returned the last two weeks to improve her stats to a 1.41 GAA and 44 saves on a .746 save percentage.

Scouting the Blue Hens
Delaware went undefeated in conference play for the second-straight season, and is 13-4 overall (5-0 CAA).  Junior forward Greta Nuack repeated as the CAA Player of the Year after leading the league with 21 goals and five assists (47 points), and was joined on the All-CAA first team by Rookie of the Year Lotte de Koning with 25 points (9g,7a), Taylor Lister (7g,18a), and goalkeeper Emmeline Oltmans.  Oltmans has a 1.75 GAA and 47 saves this season, on a .701 save percentage.

Scouting the Huskies
Northeastern went 8-11 this year and 3-3 in the CAA to earn its first post-season bid since 2014.  Senior Jamie Bartucca was named first-team All-CAA after scoring 38 points on 15 goals and eight assists, while juniors June Curry-Lindahl (8g,8a) and Laura MacLachlan (6g,5a) both earned second-team honors.  In goal, the Huskies have been utilizing two goalkeepers all season, with Julia Gluyas seeing the majority of the action with 3.10 GAA and 54 saves (.568 percentage) in 925 minutes, while Julia Ennis has played 403 minutes with a 2.08 GAA and 29 saves on a .707 save percentage.

The Series
- JMU leads the all-time series with the Tribe 39-21-6, including last week's 2-1 win in Williamsburg.  The teams have evenly split the last six games, 3-3, however, with all three of W&M's win in that span coming by a 4-3 count.  The Dukes are also the Tribe's most frequent CAA opponent, with Friday marking the 11th post-season game between the two schools (more than any other two schools combined).  JMU is 9-1 in those contests, with W&M's lone win coming in the 2005 quarterfinals.  This will be the second-straight year that the two teams will meet in the semifinals, and the 10th time overall.
- The Tribe is 8-15 all-time against Delaware, including 1-4 in the CAA Tournament.  Earlier this season, the Blue Hens won 3-1 in Newark, a place where the Tribe is looking for its first win since the 2004 season.
- Northeastern and W&M have only ever met once in the CAA Tournament, a 4-1 Huskies win in the 2006 quarterfinals.  Overall, Northeastern leads the all-time series, 11-7, but the Tribe has won the last two matches, including earlier this season, by a 3-1 count.

CAA Tournament Notes
- One of the league's founding members, W&M is making its 22nd appearance in the CAA Tournament, second only to JMU's 23 appearances.
- The Tribe is 12-21 (.364) overall in the CAA Tournament.  That includes a 2-16 (.111) mark in the semifinal round, and 11-7 (.611) in the opening game regardless of round.
- W&M has made the championship game twice, losing to national powerhouse Old Dominion both times.  The first was in the very first CAA Tournament in 1991, and then again in 2002.

News and Notes
- Menges is just the second player in CAA history to repeat as the Defender of the Year.  The first was ODU All-American Adrienne Yoder, in 2000 and 2001.

- Menges also made another bit of history on Thursday, becoming the first player in W&M history to earn a spot on all four of the CAA's all-conference teams.  She was named All-Rookie in 2014, before earning both second-team and All-Tournament nods last year.  Thursday, she completed the collection with a selection to the All-CAA first team.  Since the CAA began naming an all-rookie team in 2004, only 15 players across the entire league have been named to all four teams in their careers.

- Also notable for W&M, Lloyd became the 10th player in school history to earn multiple first-team All-CAA honors, while Hughes became the ninth to earn multiple second-team accolades.  Ellis set the program record for most second-team nods (three), while also tying the record for most combined first- or second-team honors.

- The Tribe's three first-team All-CAA honorees are the most since 2003.

- This is the seventh time in school history that W&M has played the same team in the final game of the regular season and the first game of post-season play.  Previous rematches include against Old Dominion in 1975, Virginia in 1980, Richmond in both 1986 and 1988, and Radford in both 1994 and 1995.

- Menges (individually) and the Tribe (as a team) are both ranked tied for third in the NCAA this season in defensive saves, with six and 11, respectively.

- This is just the ninth season in school history in which W&M has scored 50 or more goals.

- With 12 wins already, this is the most successful Tribe season since 2004, when W&M won the CAA regular season with 13 wins.

- The Tribe's 3-2 win over Old Dominion on Oct. 15 was both the first win of any kind over the Lady Monarchs since 2004, and the first road win over ODU since the 1977 season.

- W&M began conference play 3-0 for just the third time ever, joining the 2004 and 2005 teams that also opened CAA play with three straight victories.

- The Tribe has been ranked for the last eight straight weeks, matching the 2003 team for the most weeks ranked in a single year since the 2000 and 2001 squads both appeared in 10 national polls.

- W&M's 8-0 win over La Salle set the school single-game record for points (24, 8g and 8a) that had stood since 1990.

- MacLeod tied W&M's single-game record with four goals in a single game in the win over Hofstra on Sept. 29.

- MacLeod was named the CAA Player of the Week on back-to-back weeks, Sept. 26 and Oct. 3, after scoring seven goals and two assists across three consecutive games.

- Sophomore Woodard Hooper (Reston, Va.) was named the CAA Player of the Week on Sept. 12, after scoring two goals including the game-winner over No. 7 Michigan.

- Hooper has four game-winning goals on the year, tied for the 10th-most in school history and the most since Gina Cimarelli '07 also had four in the 2006 season.

- The W&M game on Sept. 8 was the last time that Michigan (17-2) has lost this season, a streak that has run 14 games and lifted the Wolverines to No. 3 in the country.  Their only loss other than the Tribe was to undefeated and No. 1-ranked UConn, 2-1 in the game right before W&M.

- With both Lloyd (33 total) and MacLeod (30) surpassing 30 career goals this season, this is the first time since 1976 and 1977 that W&M has had a pair of teammates playing together when each have more than 30 goals.  Then it was Ginny Ramsey '78 and Barb Logan '78 who achieved that feat.

- W&M has had a player score two assists in a game eight times already this season, including back-to-back games against Old Dominion and Davidson by sophomore Cassidy Goodwin (Gloucester, Va.).  That is tied for 10th-most in a single game in school history, along with double-helpers by Hughes, MacLeod, Annie Snead (Midlothian, Va.) and Menges against La Salle, Christie van de Kamp (Midlothian, Va.) against Pacific, and Ellis against Fairfield.

- Tribe players had an outstanding summer on the Team USA circuit, with six players being invited to the YWNC, and five of those earning an invitation onwards to the Team USA selection camps.  Erin Menges was named to the National Developmental Squad, while Christie van de Kamp was chosen for the U21 National Team and Annie Snead was named an alternate to the U21 team as well.

- At the conclusion of spring training, the team selected Erin Menges and Katelyn Rennyson (Centreville, Va.) as team captains.

Record Watch
- Morgan Connor: T-6th Season Wins (12), 7th Career Wins (21), 10th Career Saves Per Game (4.68), 10th Career Minutes Played (2553), T-10th Career Games Started in Goal (36), 12th Career Saves (173), 13th Career Games Played in Goal (37)
- Booter Ellis: T-5th Career Games Started (73), T-10th Career Defensive Saves (9), T-16th Career Assists Made (13)
- Woodard Hooper: T-10th Season Game-Winning Goals (4)
- Estelle Hughes: 15th Career Assists Per Game (0.22)
- Cammie Lloyd: 8th Season Shots Per Game (4.78), 9th Season Shots Attempted (86), T-12th Season Penalty Stroke Attempts (1), 4th Career Shots Per Game (3.15), T-5th Career Penalty Strokes Made (2), T-5th Career Penalty Stroke Attempts (3), 7th Career Goals Per Game (0.53), 7th Career Shots Attempted (195), T-8th Career Points Scored (76), T-8th Career Game-Winning Goals (6), 9th Career Points Per Game (1.23), 10th Career Goals Scored (33)
- Emma MacLeod: 11th Career Goals Scored (30), 12th Career Goals Per Game (0.40), T-13th Career Game-Winning Goals (5), 14th Career Points Scored (66), T-14th Career Games Started (65), 15th Career Points Per Game (0.88)
- Erin Menges: T-10th Season Defensive Saves (6), T-4th Career Defensive Saves (12), 6th Career Assists Per Game (0.26), T-7th Career Assists Made (18), 10th Career Games Started (68)
- Annie Snead: 16th Career Assists Per Game (0.22)
- Team: T-5th Points Scored (138), 1st Points Per Game (7.67), T-7th Goals Scored (50), 7th Goals Per Game (2.78), T-11th Game-Winning Goals (12), 3rd Assists Made (38), 2nd Assists Per Game (2.11), 9th Shots Made (322), 7th Shots Per Game (17.89), T-13th Defensive Saves (11), T-11th Wins in a Season (12)