WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - William & Mary head field hockey coach Tess Ellis announced the Tribe's 2021 fall schedule today, featuring a 16-game regular season leading up to the Colonial Athletic Association Championship tournament.  W&M will have seven home games in that slate in addition to a pair of home scrimmages, featuring teams from the Big Ten, ACC, and MAC in addition to three conference match-ups.  Seven of the Tribe's opponents finished the year ranked among the NFHCA National Top-20, with two making an appearance in the constricted NCAA field this past spring.
 
The Tribe gets the pre-season underway on Thursday, Aug. 19, hosting the first of two scrimmages at Busch Field against CNU at 9 a.m., before welcoming Old Dominion to town on Sunday, Aug. 22, at 1 p.m.  Both scrimmages will be played under modified rules and will not be broadcast, though fans are welcome to attend if they so choose.
 
The regular season begins at home on Sunday, Aug. 29, with W&M hosting Penn State at 11 a.m.  The Tribe and the Nittany Lions (alma mater of current W&M assistant Ayla Halus) last met in a classic in 2005 that went to penalty strokes before Penn State prevailed.  Friday, Sept. 3, will see state rival Virginia visit Busch Field at 5 p.m.  The Tribe and the Cavaliers last met in 2018, with UVA eking out a 3-2 victory in double-overtime in the freezing rain of late October.  This will also mark the first of two matches between the states' two original universities, the first time since 1980 that W&M and UVA have met more than once in a year.  On Sunday, Sept. 5, the Tribe will hit the road for the first time, traveling up to the nation's capital to face American at 1 p.m.  The former conference rivals haven't met since 2016, with W&M winning four of the last six match-ups.
 
The next weekend is another split weekend for the Tribe, with W&M visiting VCU on Friday afternoon, Sept. 10, at 3 p.m.  VCU is one of the Tribe's oldest opponents with a series record of 55-11 in favor of the Green & Gold, but the Rams won the last meeting 1-0 in penalty strokes in the fall of 2019.  VCU won the Atlantic 10 title in the spring, and made the NCAA Tournament first round.  W&M returns home on Sunday, Sept. 12, to host Longwood at noon.  Another ancient rivalry (dating back to 1927), the Tribe and the Lancers met in a classic in 2019 at Busch Field, with the visitors winning 1-0.  The Tribe has won 19 of the last 21 in the series, however.
 
Another road trip awaits on Sunday, Sept. 19, with W&M heading west to face Liberty at 2 p.m. in Lynchburg.  This will be just the third meeting between the two schools, but Liberty is an up-and-coming powerhouse in the Big East, and finished the spring season ranked No. 8 nationally.  The following weekend, Sunday, Sept. 26, the Tribe will host Duke at 1 p.m. at Busch Field.  Before the pandemic forced alterations to the 2020-21 schedule, the two schools had met every year but one since 1984, with W&M's last win in the series coming in 2001.  The Blue Devils finished the spring ranked No. 19 in the NFHCA national polls.
 
October brings the start of conference play, with two CAA opponents visiting Williamsburg on Friday, Oct. 1, and Sunday, Oct. 3.  On Friday night, Hofstra comes to town at 6 p.m., before Northeastern visits Sunday at noon.  W&M wasn't able to face either team in the spring due to extenuating circumstances, but has won four in a row and seven of the last 10 against Hofstra.  The Huskies are one of the Tribe's fiercest rivalries in the CAA and beat W&M, 1-0, in the 2019 CAA Semifinals to end a five-game winning streak in the series for the Tribe.
 
The following weekend, Friday-Sunday, Oct. 8-10, marks the start of a six-game road trip for the Tribe.  W&M first heads to Richmond on the Friday for a 6 p.m. match-up with the Spiders.  The two teams have been battling since 1931, and Richmond had their most success recently, winning seven in a row through the late 2000's and early 2010's, before W&M won 3-0 in 2016 in the last match-up.  Two days later, the Green & Gold will head to Towson, Md., for a CAA match-up with the Towson Tigers at 2 p.m.  The Tribe has won nine in a row in the series and 27 of 31 overall, including a 2-0 victory in Williamsburg during the spring.
 
Conference play continues the following weekend, Oct. 15-17, with a trip to the mid-Atlantic region.  W&M will face Drexel in Philadelphia on Friday evening at 4 p.m., looking to extend its five-match winning streak in the series, before continuing on to Newark, Del., to face Delaware at 12 p.m. on Sunday. The Tribe downed the No. 20-ranked Blue Hens 2-0 in Williamsburg during the regular season last spring, but Delaware got revenge with a 1-0 win in the semifinals of the CAA Tournament en route to the conference championship and a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
 
W&M's lone mid-week game of the year is Wednesday, Oct. 20, heading up to Charlottesville for the return meeting with UVA, slated for a 6 p.m. start.  The Cavaliers finished the spring ranked No. 14 nationally.  Sunday, Oct. 24, the Tribe will take its final road trip with a short jaunt down I-64 to face Old Dominion at 1 p.m.  The Lady Monarchs were ranked No. 15 in the final coaches poll of the spring, but W&M has had success in Norfolk recently, winning 3-2 in the 2017 season on the road.  The final game of the regular season will see the Tribe back home, hosting ancient rivals James Madison on Friday, Oct. 29, at 6 p.m.  The Dukes, who were the regular-season champions in the CAA during the spring and appeared in the national top-20, beat W&M 4-0 in the season opener during the shortened season.  The Tribe has had the better of the series overall recently, winning six of the last 10 including three in a row from 2017-19.  That game will also mark W&M's Senior Night, and the final home game in the careers of the Tribe's four outstanding seniors, Rachel Gantz (Lancaster, Pa.), Kimi Jones (Virginia Beach, Va.), Cara Menges (Richmond, Va.), and Jorja Morgan (Wakerley, QLD, Australia).