The William & Mary field hockey team closes out the regular season this weekend against two in-state rivals. On Friday, Oct. 26, the Tribe will host No. 20 Virginia at 4 p.m. for Senior Night, before traveling up to Harrisonburg on Sunday to face the James Madison Dukes at 1 p.m. Live Stats for both games can be found through TribeAthletics.com.
Scouting the Tribe
W&M is 8-6 on the year and 4-1 in the CAA, after splitting each of the past two weekends. The Tribe continues to rank highly in both the conference and national stats, with redshirt-senior
Estelle Hughes (Newcastle, NSW, Australia) leading the way with 21 points on eight goals and five assists. Junior
Woodard Hooper (Reston, Va.) also has eight goals, and
Annie Snead (Midlothian, Va.) and
Christie van de Kamp (Midlothian, Va.) rank first and third in the CAA with eight assists and six assists, respectively. On defense, freshman
Kimi Jones (Virginia Beach, Va.) leads the league in both GAA and save percentage, at 1.58 and .705 while collecting a 6-2 record.
Scouting the Cavaliers
Virginia is ranked No. 20 in the latest poll after beating No. 14 Wake Forest and No. 2 Maryland last weekend to improve to 7-8 overall. Grace Wallis and Greer Gill are tied for the team lead with four goals apiece, while Wallis also has a team-high five assists. On defense, Carrera Lucas ranks fourth in the nation with a .794 save percentage, and has a 1.33 GAA.
Scouting the Dukes
James Madison enters the weekend at 5-10 overall and 1-3 in the CAA, and will take on Towson on Friday. Lindsay Gippe leads the Dukes with 18 points on six goals and six assists, while Elfi de Rooij and Rachel Yeager have also scored six goals each. On defense, Megan Guzzardi ranks fourth in the NCAA with five defensive saves, and Caitlin Nelson has played the vast majority of time in goal with a 3.34 GAA and 88 saves on a .677 save percentage.
The Series
- W&M and UVA are meeting for the 48th time, with the Cavaliers holding a 30-16-2 edge in the series. Virginia has won the last four in a row and the last two in Williamsburg, while the Tribe's last win came 2-1 in Charlottesville back in 2013.
- Sunday is the renewal of W&M's most-played rivalry, as the Tribe and the Dukes are meeting for the 68th time dating back to 1930. JMU leads the series 40-22-6 with wins in three of the last five matches, including a 2-1 win in the regular season finale last year. W&M got revenge the following week, however, winning by an identical 2-1 score in the CAA Tournament semifinals.
News and Notes
- Friday is the final home game for W&M's senior class of Hughes,
Caroline Arrowood (Chesapeake, Va.),
Jenna Cutilli (Maple Glen, Pa.),
Alayna Tomlinson (San Diego, Calif.),
Jenny McCann (Annandale, Va.),
Ashleigh Nottingham (Norfolk, Va.), and
Jessica Wiggins (Williamsburg, Va.). Over the last four years, they have led W&M to a 37-35 record, including 14-9 in CAA play, and 18-18 at home. Their overall record is the best for a four-year class since 2007, the best in conference play since 2006, and the best home record since 2009.
- Hughes was named to the Victory Sports Tours/NFHCA Senior Game, one of just 38 players nationally and three from the CAA to garner the prestigious invitation.
- Snead ranks 15th nationally in assists per game, at 0.57. Her eight assists this season are tied for eighth all-time at W&M, and just three behind the school record of 11 set by All-Americans Pixie Hamilton '80 (in 1979) and Karen Thorne '84 (in 1982)
- So far this season, W&M players have recorded seven multi-goal games, including against Pacific when both Hooper and van de Kamp scored two goals apiece.
- The Tribe have also been exceedingly generous with the ball, with six multi-assist games on the ledger. Both Snead and van de Kamp have had two double-assist games.
- Between the 22nd minute against Northeastern and the 24th minute against No. 21 Stanford, the W&M defense shutout its opponents for 285:11. In that time, the Tribe out-scored its foes 17-0.
- Sophomore
Melanie Strik (Den Haag, The Netherlands) has scored three goals in the last four games for W&M.
- Van de Kamp won the game against Drexel last weekend with a penalty stroke in overtime, W&M's first stroke attempt of the year.
- Hooper's hat trick against Towson was the first of her career, and tied her for 15th all-time in a single game at W&M.
- Hughes' hat trick against Brown was her first, and her fifth overall multi-goal game. That's tied for the sixth-most in school history, and just one game behind what former teammates
Emma MacLeod '18 and
Cammie Lloyd '18 achieved.
- With both Hooper and Hughes scoring hat tricks this season, this is the first year since 2003 that W&M has had multiple hat tricks in the same year.
- Jones was named the CAA Rookie of the Week on Oct. 16, after going 1-1 against Pacific and No. 21 Stanford.
- Hooper was named the CAA Player of the Week on Oct. 9 following her performance against Towson.
- Freshman
Cara Menges (Richmond, Va.) was named the CAA Rookie of the Week on Oct. 2, after scoring two goals including the overtime game-winner against Northeastern.
- Hughes was named the CAA Player of the Week back on Sept. 11, after scoring four goals and an assist and leading W&M to wins over Brown and VCU.
- This season marked the first time that the Tribe has ever played west of the Mississippi River. The Tribe is 9-7 all-time against teams from California, but before this year, all of those games were held either in Williamsburg or at other neutral sites.
- W&M has been strong on the corner at both ends of the field this season, leading the CAA in offensive conversion of penalty corners, and ranking third on defending opponent's penalty corners. The Tribe has scored 13 goals on 65 corners (20%), and only allowed 12 goals on 78 attempts (an 84.62% penalty kill rate).
- Head coach
Tess Ellis became the third W&M coach to reach 50 wins with the victory over Towson, joining
Nancy Porter (1974-1981) and
Peel Hawthorne '80 (1987-2013)
- W&M's 4-0 start in CAA play matched the 2004 team as the only 4-0 starts in school history.
- In the latest NFHCA National Poll, W&M had seven opponents ranked. That includes No. 3 Duke, No. 4 Connecticut, No. 16 Delaware, No. 19 Wake Forest, No. 20 Virginia, No. 21 Stanford, and No. 25 Old Dominion.
- The first seven of the Tribe's games this season were all won with at least four goals, the longest-such streak in school history. Before the 6-1 win for No. 2 UCONN, the first six games had all been won with four goals each, which is the longest-ever streak of the same winning totals.
- With games against UCONN and Delaware, this is the first time since 1999 that the Tribe has played each of the previous two NCAA Champions in the same season.
- With the cancellation of the Davidson match, W&M is projected to finish the regular season with the fewest number of games played (16) since the 1989 season, which had 15 games before the South Atlantic Conference tournament. W&M went 10-5 in those 15 games, and finished 12-6 after reaching the conference championship game.
- Over the summer,
Christie van de Kamp was named to the Team USA U21 Junior National Team for the second year in a row.
- Both van de Kamp and McCann will serve as team captains this season.
