W&M News and Notes
- William & Mary kicks off its 101st season on the road at Old Dominion on Thursday night. It marks the third time in the last four years that W&M opens on the road. The Tribe has won its last three openers on the road in 2016 (at Mount St. Mary's), 2018 (at Howard) and 2019 (at Army). The Green and Gold is 4-3 on opening night under head coach
Ed Swanson. W&M is 7-8 in its last 15 season openers, while Swanson owns 14 opening-night wins during his coaching career.
- The Tribe and the Monarchs meet for the 96th time in series history. ODU leads the all-time series 73-22, but W&M has won three of the last five meetings.
- W&M is coming off its best season in school history during 2019-20. The Tribe posted school records in wins (21), CAA wins (12) and road wins (11). The team achieved its highest seed in the CAA Tournament at No. 3. With a final RPI of 104, the Tribe was on the verge of earning a postseason berth to, at least, the WNIT for the first time in the program's history before the season ended due to COVID-19.
- W&M head coach
Ed Swanson enjoyed a noteworthy 2019-20 season individually. He was named the CAA Co-Coach of the Year following the Tribe's historic season. Personally, Swanson won his 500th career game on Nov. 26 against Hartford, became just the third coach in W&M history win 100 games with the Tribe on Jan. 12 vs. Charleston, and was inducted into the Northeast Conference Hall of Fame in January.
- Redshirt junior
Sydney Wagner was named preseason All-CAA honorable mention by vote of the league coaches in October. She ranked third on the team at 8.3 points per contests in 2019-20 and was one of the top 3-point shooters in the CAA. Wagner was ninth in the league, knocking down 46 3-pointers last season and finished 13th in CAA games in 3-point shooting at 34.1%.
- As a team, the Tribe was picked eighth in the preseason standings by vote of the league coaches. James Madison was the preseason pick to win the league. Last season, W&M was picked seventh in the preseason before finishing a program-best third in the final league standings with a school-record 12 CAA wins.
- The Tribe returns a veteran line-up in 2019-20 with three starters back and half of its 12 active players being in the junior and senior classes. In fact, the senior pair of
Nyla Pollard and
Gabby Rogers have started a combined 137 games. Pollard, who averaged 6.1 points per game last season after averaging 4.1 per contest as a freshman and sophomore, has started 82 of 89 career appearances. Rogers started 55 games over the last two seasons and has been a significant contributor, averaging 6.1 points and 4.2 rebounds per game as a junior. She was at five points and 3.2 rebounds per game as a sophomore.
- The Green and Gold will not leave the state of Virginia during the nonconference slate, playing three home games in Kaplan Arena and another three contests on the road against Commonwealth rivals (Old Dominion, Radford and Norfolk State). The Tribe's six nonconference foes averaged 17 wins a season ago and four of them finished second in their respective leagues.
- Sophomore
Bre Bellamy earned a spot on the CAA All-Rookie team in 2020. She started 24 of the Tribe's 29 games, averaging 5.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. Bellamy was the 25th honoree in program history and the sixth in head coach
Ed Swanson's seven seasons.
- Last season, the Tribe led the country in free-throw %, connecting at an 81.5% clip from the stripe. W&M also ranked among the national leaders in assists per game (22nd at 16.3), field goal % (23rd at 44.9%), total assists (46th at 474), free throws made (50th at 415), scoring (72nd at 70 ppg), assist-to-turnover ratio (73rd at 1.02), 3-point % (84th at 33.3%) and turnovers forced (84th at 17.7).
- Senior
Bailey Eichner enjoyed a breakout season in 2019-20. She topped the Tribe and ranked 14th in the CAA at 5.3 rebounds per game. Making those numbers more impressive was the fact that Eichner started just four games and played 17.4 minutes per game. She also ranked ninth in the CAA in defensive rebounds (4.0) and 12th in blocks (0.8). Eichner blocked a team-high 22 shots.
- Last season, Pollard ranked third in the CAA in both assists (3.8) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.8). The assist-to-turnover ratio also ranked fourth on the Tribe's single-season list. In her career, Pollard ranks among the Tribe's top 20 in assists (223), while coming in third in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.42). The Virginia Beach, Va., native owns the most points (420), assists and steals (75) among active Tribe players.
- W&M will be down two scholarship players in 2020-21 as senior
Libby Underwood and junior
Eva Hodgson elected to opt out due to COVID-19 concerns. Underwood appeared in 52 career games, while Hodgson was an All-CAA First Team performer in 2019-20, averaging 20.7 points per game.
