Scouting the Tribe
William & Mary is coming off a 3-1 victory over Navy in its lone exhibition game of 2017. Senior
William Eskay scored twice over a near three-minute span, while junior
Antonio Bustamante added the third. Both players factored in all three goals as Bustamante recorded a pair of assists and Eskay notched one. The Tribe was named the favorite to win the Colonial Athletic Association by vote of the league coaches. W&M placed five players on the preseason all-conference team led by Bustamante as the preseason player of the year. Juniors
Marcel Berry and
Ryder Bell garnered preseason All-CAA honors, while Eskay and sophomore
Tanner Shane were named honorable mention. The Green and Gold returns nine starters and 20 total letterwinners from last year's team that finished at 12-7-2 and advanced to the CAA Championship match. It is an upperclassmen-laden roster with 13 of the 20 returners being juniors or seniors.
Michigan was picked fifth in the Big Ten preseason poll by vote of the league coaches. The Wolverines were picked behind a trio of nationally ranked teams in No. 6 Maryland, No. 7 Indiana and No. 23 Michigan State as well as Wisconsin. U-M won its lone exhibition, downing Green Bay, 3-0, at home on Saturday. Freshman Mohammed Zakyi scored a pair of goals in the win, while sophomore Lucas Rosendall added the other. Junior Robbie Mertz recorded a pair of assists. Juniors Francis Atuahene and Marcello Borges as well as sophomore Jack Hallahan have been named to the 2017 Big Ten Preseason Honors List. Atuahene led the Wolverines last season with eight goals and 20 points. U-M finished 2016 at 4-11-4, including a 3-6-1 mark in the Big Ten.
Series History: W&M vs. Michigan
The Tribe won the first meeting between the teams last season as part of Homecoming, 4-0. Junior
Ryder Bell scored a pair of goals and added an assist, while classmate
Antonio Bustamante tallied a goal and an assist.
Reilly Maw, a 2017 graduate, also added a goal and two assists in the win. Senior
Phil Breno registered a save in picking up the shutout vs. the Wolverines.
CAA Favorites
W&M was selected as the preseason favorite to win the Colonial Athletic Association by vote of the league's nine head coaches. The Tribe received five first-place votes and totaled 61 points to outdistanced second-place Hofstra, which tallied three first-place votes and 52 points. The Pride was the 2016 regular season CAA Champion, before falling to the Tribe, 3-1, in the CAA Semifinals. UNCW, which received the other first-place vote, was third in the standings followed by Elon and reigning Champion Delaware. Charleston and JMU tied for sixth in the poll, while Northeastern and Drexel rounded out the standings.
Playing the Power 5
The Tribe faces four teams from Power 5 conferences this season, including three from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The four major conference foes are the most on the Green and Gold slate since 2007. The 2017 campaign marks the third time in the last five years that W&M plays three ACC teams, and it's the fifth consecutive season that the Tribe has faced multiple ACC opponents. During head coach
Chris Norris' tenure, the Tribe owns seven wins and four ties against Power 5 Conference opponents. Over the last six years, the Green and Gold tallied four wins against ACC counterparts.
Preseason Hype for Bustamante
After a stellar sophomore campaign, junior
Antonio Bustamante has been well recognized during the preseason. The United Soccer Coaches (USC) named him to the Watch List for the Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy, which is college soccer's version of the Heisman Trophy. He is the second Tribe player and first since Nat Baako in 2010 to be named to the national player of the year watch list. The CAA head coaches voted Bustamante as the league's preseason player of the year after he ranked second in the CAA with 24 points and third with 10 goals in 2016. Most recently, Bustamante garnered preseason All-America honors by the
College Soccer News and was selected to
Top Drawer Soccer's Top 100 Players to Watch list. He was second team All-America selection and ranked No. 50 on the Top 100 list. Bustamante was a First Team All-CAA and All-Midwest Region selection last season and has 15 goals in 33 games over his Tribe career.
Down Right Offensive
The Tribe sported one of the top offenses in the country during the 2016 season, and if the exhibition game against Navy is any indication, it could be once again in 2017. Last year, the Tribe ranked No. 7 nationally in points (121), eighth in goals (41) and scoring offense (1.95) and ninth in assists (39). The Green and Gold led the CAA in all four categories. In its lone exhibition, W&M scored three times in an eight-minute stretch to down the Midshipmen, 3-1. The Tribe tallied 11 points as a team on the three goals and five assists. W&M will certainly have options returning 12 of the 14 players that registered a point in 2016 and five of the program's top six scorers from a season ago. The Green and Gold brings back 78 percent of its goals (32-of-41), 84.6 percent of its assists (33-of-39) and 80.2 percent of its points (97-of-121) from last year. The Tribe returns its top two goals scorers in juniors
Antonio Bustamante (10) and
Ryder Bell (8) as well as it top three players in assists from last season in seniors
William Eskay (7) and
Riley Spain (5) and junior
Marcel Berry (5).
Eskay's Exhibition Excellence
Senior
William Eskay enjoyed a strong exhibition performance in the win over Navy, tallying two goals and an assist. He scored both goals over a two-minute-and-40-second stretch starting at the 10:27 mark. He added an assist on
Antonio Bustamante's goal in the 19th minute, giving the Tribe three goals in eight minutes. For his career, Eskay has 16 goals and 14 assists. Last season, he ranked eighth in the CAA in points (17) and third in assists (7), while adding five goals.
Up Next
W&M opens the home portion of its schedule on Monday night when it welcomes N.C. State to Martin Family Stadium at Albert-Daly Field. The contest carries a 7 p.m. start time and the live stream will be available at TribeAthletics.com.
