The William & Mary field hockey team hits the road this weekend for pair of games against highly talented opponents, part of a season-long four-game road swing.  The Tribe will travel up to Richmond on Friday afternoon to face former conference foe VCU at 3 p.m., before heading down to Chapel Hill, N.C., on Sunday, September 15, to take on reigning NCAA Champion and No. 1-ranked North Carolina also at 3 p.m.  Live stats for both matches are available on TribeAthletics.com, and both matches can also be watched live on the ESPN family of networks.  Friday's match-up with the Rams will be broadcast on ESPN+ on the web and the ESPN app, and on Sunday, the meeting between the Tribe and the Tar Heels will be broadcast nationally on the ACC Network.

Friday, Sept. 13 - at VCU, 3 PM
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Sunday, Sept. 15 - at No. 1 North Carolina, 3 PM
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Scouting the Tribe
William & Mary is 1-2 overall, with a 2-0 shutout victory over Long Island and losses to No. 3 Duke and long-time rival Old Dominion.  Senior captain Christie van de Kamp (Midlothian, Va.) has scored goals in each of the last two contests to lead the way offensively, while on defense, Cassidy Goodwin (Gloucester, Va.) and Cara Menges (Richmond, Va.) have each recorded defensive saves to rank atop the CAA.  In goal, sophomore Kimi Jones (Virginia Beach, Va.) has started every game with a 3.03 GAA and seven saves on a .583 save percentage, while senior Morgan Connor (Bedford, N.Y.) has been strong off the bench, with a 1.48 GAA and seven more saves on a .778 percentage.

Scouting the Rams
VCU is 1-2 on the year so far, with a 3-1 win over LIU and 2-1 losses to Patriot League teams Lafayette and Bucknell.  The Rams' top scorer is Maite Sturm, with three goals, while Litiana Field has a goal and an assist.  On defense, goalkeeper Sasha Elliott has a 1.67 GAA and 13 saves, on a .722 save percentage.

Scouting the Tar Heels
North Carolina is 4-0 to start the year, and winners of 27 in a row as they retained the No. 1 ranking in the Penn Monto/NFHCA poll this week.  They've recorded wins over No. 7 Michigan, No. 8 Iowa, No. 5 Princeton, and Penn so far in 2019.  Erin Matson leads the team with five goals and five assists, and has been named the national Player of the Week each of the first two weeks, with Marissa Creatore adding four goals and Yentl Leemans seven assists.  On defense, Amanda Henry has played the majority of minutes in goal, with a 1.79 GAA and eight saves on a .571 save percentage.

The Series
- This is the 66th meeting all-time between W&M and VCU, with the Tribe holding a 55-10 advantage.  The series (including against VCU's ancestor schools, the Medical College of Virginia, Richmond Professional Institute, and the Richmond Division of W&M) dates back to 1948, a 5-1 win for the Rams, but the Tribe has won four of the last five and three in a row, including 5-4 in Richmond in 2017 and 4-2 in Williamsburg last year.

- W&M and UNC are meeting for the 31st time overall, with the Tar Heels holding a 25-3-2 lead so far.  The Tribe's last win in the series was 4-0 in 1980, but Carolina has won the last 24 in a row, including a 4-0 shutout in Chapel Hill last November in the NCAA Tournament First Round.


News and Notes
- W&M is 1-16 all-time against the No. 1-ranked team in the nation, with its only win coming in its first-ever matchup with the top-ranked team.  In the consolation semifinals of the 1979 AIAW National Championships, the Tribe toppled No. 1 Saint Louis, 1-0, en route to a fourth-place finish.

- The last time W&M beat a team ranked in the top-five was in 2013, when the Tribe went on the road to upset No. 5 Virginia, 2-1, on Oct. 13.  That was also the last time W&M recorded a win over an ACC opponent.

- The Tribe is 6-5 all-time on Sept. 13, and 7-4 all-time in games played on Sept. 15

- Since the start of the 2017 season, W&M is 19-8 (0.704) in games decided by one or two goals.  That includes an 11-5 mark (.688) in one-goal games, and 8-3 (.727) in two-goal games.

- Four of W&M's opponents appear in the top-9 spots in this week's NFHCA ranking, including No. 1 North Carolina, No. 2 Duke, No. 8 Louisville, and No. 9 Delaware.  The Tribe also played No. 6 Virginia in a pre-season scrimmage.

- Senior Woodard Hooper (Williamsburg, Va.) scored the game-winner against Long Island on Sunday, her 10th career game-winner.  That ranks her second among active players in Division I, behind only Michigan senior Meg Dowthwaite (with 15).  Hooper also ranks fifth all-time at W&M in game-winning goals, and tied for 13th in school history with 24 career goals so far.

- Christie van de Kamp's two goals have both come on penalty strokes, tying her fourth in school history in strokes made both in a single season, and in her career (three).  Saskia Bensdorp '98 made seven penalty strokes in the 1995 season and in her career, while second in both categories is shared between Amy Umbach '95, who had four in 1993, and Tara Duffy '01, who made four in 1999.

- This year marks the first time that W&M has ever been picked as the pre-season favorite in the CAA.

- Senior captain Christie van de Kamp is the first player in the roughly decade-long pre-season CAA voting to be named the Pre-Season Player of the Year for W&M.  She was joined on the pre-season all-conference team by fellow seniors Annie Snead (Richmond, Va.), Cassidy Goodwin, and Woodard Hooper.  Sophomore Cara Menges was named honorable-mention as well.

- Only three players from the CAA's top-10 in assists in 2018 return this year, all from W&M - all three were voted team captains this year.  Senior Annie Snead had 12 helpers to break the school record that had stood since 1979, and classmate Christie van de Kamp had nine assists, becoming just the second player since 1990 to score eight goals and nine assists in a single year.  Sophomore Cara Menges added in six assists along with her three goals, to earn CAA All-Rookie honors.

- Head coach Tess Ellis is in her 24th season at W&M and seventh as head coach, with a 57-62 career record (22-14 in CAA games).

- Sophomore Kimi Jones is the reigning Colonial Athletic Association and VaSID State Rookie of the Year, after going 10-3 with 58 saves and a 1.96 GAA as a freshman in 2018.

- Freshman Amber Bode (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) is just the third player from Illinois to ever play for W&M, and the first to do so since Jackie Adams in 1943.

- Another freshman, Tabby Billingham (Dallinghoo, Suffolk, England) is the third Englishwoman in team history, and the first to hail from Suffolk.  She joins her teammate junior Caitlin MacLean (Devizes, Wiltshire, England), as well as Jill Tester (Brighton, Sussex, England) who played as an exchange grad student in 1952.