WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – William & Mary women's soccer opens the 2021 season with a pair of road contests. The Tribe kicks off the year on Thursday afternoon at American, before traveling to ACC-foe Virginia Tech on Sunday. Both matches carry a 4 p.m. start time.
Things to Know
- W&M returns six starters from the spring season and 10 total players with starting experience. The Tribe's returning starters from last season including senior defender
Page Frantz (4 starts), senior forwards
Caroline Monahan (5 starts) and
Renee Kohler (4), junior midfielders
Kayleigh Shackford (6) and
Jillian O'Toole (5) and junior goalkeeper
Zoe Doughty (5). Senior
Addie Puskar (2), sophomores
Elaina Longjohn (1),
Ginny Delacruz (2) and
Grace Lemley (1) each earned starts during the spring as well.
- The Tribe leads the all-time series with American at 9-0. The teams last played in 2000 with W&M claiming a 2-0 victory. W&M also leads the all-time series with Virginia Tech at 11-5. Last spring, the Hokies topped the Tribe, 3-0, in Blacksburg.
- W&M is the only Division I program in the country to have its entire coaching staff as graduates of the institution. Head coach
Julie Shackford is a 1988 graduate of W&M and enters her fourth season on the sidelines. Assistant coach
Marsha Lycan, who is in her fifth season, was a teammate of Shackford and graduated in 1987.
Grace Barnard returned to W&M this fall after graduating in 2011. She helped the Tribe to two trips to the NCAA Tournament and most recently was the head coach at Assumption College, going 29-17-11. After serving as the Tribe's head coach for 31 years,
John Daly, a 2016 honorary alum, returns as a volunteer assistant in 2021. He won 413 games and led W&M to 10 CAA titles and 22 NCAA Tournaments during his career. Finally,
Kellie Ernst, a 2010 graduate, returned to the program last season, helping out as a volunteer assistant and moved into the operations role this season. She helped lead W&M to three NCAA Tournament appearances during her career.
- Senior
Renee Kohler is the Tribe's top returning scoring with 15 points on four goals and seven assists in her career. She was named to the All-CAA Second Team in 2019, but was slowed last spring returning from injury.
- Junior goalkeeper
Zoe Doughty ranked fifth in the CAA last season in both goals against average (1.20) and saves per game (3.8). She started five of W&M's six matches last spring and earned CAA Defensive Player of the Week honors after recording a career-high eight saves in a shutout of Charleston.
- The Tribe has enjoyed great success in the classroom recently. As a team, W&M sports a 3.53 cumulative GPA, following a 3.6 semester in the spring. In total, 30 W&M student-athletes earned CAA Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll distinction last year and 23 received W&M Provost Award honors with a GPA of 3.5 or higher.
