Rice match advisory: Due to heavy rain in Williamsburg on Friday, the match has been delayed an hour and will now start at noon.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The William & Mary women's tennis team opens up a three-match homestand with a pair of contests this week at the Millie West Tennis Facility, weather permitting. The Green and Gold faces its fourth CAA foe of the year and third at home, hosting Delaware on Thursday, March 30, at 3 p.m. W&M wraps up the weekend with a top-50 tussle against No. 47 Rice on Saturday, April 1, at 12 p.m.
 
Scouting the Tribe
The Tribe remained in the national top 50 for the sixth-straight week after splitting a pair of 4-3 matches at Ivy League foes last week. The Green and Gold was ranked No. 49 in the rankings released on Tuesday. W&M dropped a 4-3 decision at Brown on March 25, before upending Harvard by a matching score on March 26. The Tribe captured the doubles point in both matches led by the duo of juniors Ekaterina Stepanova and Olivia Thaler. The pair, which is 5-3 at No. 2, clinched the point in both matches on the way to earning CAA Doubles Team of the Week honors. It was the Tribe's sixth weekly honor this season. Stepanova, who was named the CAA Singles Player of the Week on March 21, received her first doubles award and third accolade overall in 2017, while it was Thaler's second doubles honor of the season and fourth in her career. In total, the Tribe has won the doubles point in three-straight matches. In singles action, freshmen Natalia Perry and Rosie Cheng both went 2-0 against Brown and Harvard. Perry won both her matches at the No. 3 position and shares the team lead of 17 victories with senior Marie Faure. Cheng ran her singles win streak to seven matches and improved to 13-8 overall with a 9-3 dual-match mark thanks to her victories over the weekend. At Harvard, Stepanova posted a three-set win at the top over Erica Oosterhout, who is the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year and was 10-3 at No. 1 entering the match, spot to clinch the team victory. Stepanova has won five of her last six matches improving to 13-9 overall and 8-5 at the top post. W&M is 8-9 on the year with seven of its nine losses to teams inside the current national top 31 - No. 13 South Carolina, No. 17 Duke, No. 22 Kansas, No. 26 N.C. State, No. 27 Notre Dame, No. 29 Wake Forest and No. 31 Tulsa. The Tribe owns nationally-ranked wins over current No. 37 Maryland and No. 44 Dartmouth. The Green and Gold is 2-1 in CAA play thanks to victories over James Madison and Elon.
 
Scouting Delaware
Delaware saw its six-match win streak come to an end at the hands of Old Dominion, 4-1, on Wednesday. The Blue are 8-5 on the year, including a 1-1 CAA ledger. Three of UD's previous four wins have been by narrow 4-3 scores, including a triumph at CAA counterpart UNCW on Sunday. The Tribe and Blue Hens have two common opponents in Richmond and James Madison. Both teams knocked off the Spiders with W&M tallying a 6-1 triumph and UD picking up a 4-3 victory. Delaware's lone CAA loss came at the hands of JMU, 5-2, while the Tribe downed the Dukes, 6-1. Freshman Brooke Pilkington holds down the No. 1 singles position and is a team-best 19-7 on the year. She is 8-2 at No. 1. Sophomore Sara Komer is 16-8 on the season and a perfect 12-0 in duals at the top two posts. In doubles, graduate student Denny LaMachia and junior Amanda Studnicki are one of UD's top all-time teams with 21 career wins. The pair is 10-8 this season, including 4-4 at No. 1.
 
Series History: W&M vs. Delaware
The Tribe and Blue Hens have met five times with every meeting coming in the CAA Tournament. W&M is 5-0 against Delaware, winning all five contests in the last 11 years. The team's last met in the quarterfinals of the 2015 CAA Championship with the Green and Gold tallying a 4-0 victory.
 
Scouting Rice
Rice enters the week ranked No. 47 nationally and at 9-5 on the year. The Owls are 7-0 at home this season, but just 1-4 on the road. Rice has dropped three of its last four games with all three setbacks coming off the road. They dropped a 4-3 decision at Arizona on March 24. Prior to that contest, the Owls fell at nationally-ranked foes No. 6 Texas Tech, 4-0, and No. 21 Texas, 4-3. Included in its haul of victories, Rice owns a 4-1 win at current No. 25 Texas A&M in February. The Owls were ranked as high as No. 23 nationally following the win over the Aggies. Rice's lineup features a pair of nationally-ranked singles players and two doubles teams in the national standing. Lindsey Hodge, who is 18-12 on the year and 8-4 in dual-match play between No. 1 and No. 2, is ranked No. 98 nationally, while Katherine Ip, who earned All-American honors last season, is No. 101. Alison Ho leads Rice with 20 singles wins on the year, while Wendy Zhang is 19-9. In doubles, Hodge and Zhang are ranked No. 70 nationally with a 10-6 overall record, including five wins at No. 1. Ho and Priya Niezgoda are rated No. 79, owning an 11-2 mark.
 
Series History: W&M vs. Rice
Following its 5-2 win over the Owls in New Haven, Conn., last season, the Tribe leads the all-time series with Rice at 4-3. Saturday marks the fifth straight season in which the teams have met. The Owls had won three straight in the series prior to the Tribe's victory last season. It is Rice's first visit to Williamsburg since 2014. W&M owns at 2-1 mark at home against the Owls. In the victory last year, Marie Faure (No. 2), Lauren Goodman (No. 3), Olivia Thaler (No. 5) and Maria Groener (No. 6) claimed four of the Tribe's five singles wins. Faure upset No. 50-ranked Katherine Ip in a pair of tiebreakers.