The No. 22-ranked William & Mary field hockey team opens the 2018 season this weekend, heading down south to take on No. 3 Duke.  The game will start at 6 p.m. on Friday, August 24, and can be watched live on the web to subscribers to the ACC Network Extra package.

Scouting the Tribe
W&M looks to build upon  last year's run of success that included a 13-7 record and a spot in the Colonial Athletic Association Championship game for the first time since 2002.  The Tribe was picked third in the CAA pre-season poll behind Delaware and James Madison, and led all teams with a program-record five players on the pre-season All-CAA team.  That included first-team honors for redshirt-senior Estelle Hughes (Newcastle, NSW, Australia) and juniors Morgan Connor (Bedford, N.Y.) and Christie van de Kamp (Midlothian, Va.), as well as honorable-mention accolades for juniors Cassidy Goodwin (Gloucester, Va.) and Woodard Hooper (Reston, Va.).

Scouting the Blue Devils
Duke opens the year at No. 3 nationally, after reaching the NCAA Quarterfinals and a No. 2 ranking at the end of 2017.  The Blue Devils were picked second in the ACC pre-season poll behind North Carolina, and had two All-Americans picked to the All-ACC team in Margaux Paolino (who scored twice for Team USA at the World Cup this summer) and Rose Tynan.

The Series
- Friday marks the 35th meeting all-time between the Blue Devils and Tribe, dating back to 1975, and the 33rd meeting in the past 34 years.  Duke leads the series 26-8-1, with the last win for W&M coming in the 2001 season.  This will be just the sixth time that both teams have been ranked in game.

News and Notes
- The CAA pre-season poll reflected last year's regular season finish, with W&M picked third behind Delaware and James Madison.  Northeastern was picked fourth, followed by Drexel, Hofstra, and Towson.

- A win by the Tribe would be just the third win over a top-3 team in school history.  W&M beat No. 1 Saint Louis, 1-0, at the AIAW National Championships in 1979, and No. 3 Ursinus the following year back at nationals.

- Seven of W&M's 2018 opponents appeared in the pre-season NFHCA coaches poll.  In addition to No. 3 Duke, other ranked teams included No. 1 UConn, No. 7 Virginia, No. 9 Delaware, No. 14 Wake Forest, No. 15 Stanford, and No. 17 James Madison.

- This year will mark the first time that the Tribe has ever played west of the Mississippi River.  W&M will head to California in October, facing Pacific on Oct. 13 and Stanford on Oct. 15.

- Fans will have nine new faces on the sidelines this year, including seven freshmen and two transfers.  That includes sophomores Ashley Drum (Virginia Beach, Va.), a transfer from Iowa, and classmate Haley Hopkins (Springfield, Va.), who came to Williamsburg from the University of Virginia.  Freshmen include Kimi Jones (Virginia Beach, Va.), Maggie Hubert (Stafford, Va.), Rachel Gantz (Lancaster, Pa.), Jillian Murphy (Greenwood Village, Colo.), Hallie Larsen (Richmond, Va.), Cara Menges (Richmond, Va.), and Jorja Morgan (Wakerley, QLD, Australia).

- Both Hopkins and Menges are sisters of former W&M standouts.  Brittany Hopkins '15 scored nine goals and 11 assists from 2011-14, and Erin Menges '18 graduated last spring as a two-time CAA Defensive Player of the Year with 10 goals, 18 assists, and 12 defensive saves.

- 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 senior Jenny McCann (Annandale, Va.) will serve as team captains this season.

- Junior goalkeeper Morgan Connor is averaging 11 wins per year in her career so far at W&M, and enters this year just 14 wins shy of the all-time record of 36 held by Cindy Heldt '79.

- Head coach Tess Ellis begins her sixth year at the helm of Tribe field hockey, with a record 44-52 (17-13 CAA).  In just five years, Ellis already has three coaching awards, including CAA Coach of the Year in 2013 and 2014 and was named the 2017 SynapseSports.com National Coach of the Year.

- This is the earliest game W&M has ever played, by a day.

- All-time in the month of August, the Tribe is 19-13.