By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics

For the first time since 2013, William & Mary field hockey is off to a 2-0 start. Both wins came in overtime against state rivals it had lost to the previous season — No. 19 Old Dominion and VCU.

The spark? A draw against Liberty, last year's national runner-up, in a scrimmage a week earlier.

"Our girls know their girls — they have a big contingent of Virginians," Tribe coach Tess Ellis said. "And in the scrimmage during preseason, our girls were able to gauge how much they have improved from the spring to tie Liberty 1-1.

"I think it's a belief that all the hard work they've done over the last couple of years has made them believe in themselves as a team. They know it doesn't take a bunch of superstars to win a game."

The Tribe began its season Friday night against ODU by taking a 1-0 lead, falling behind 2-1, and then rallying for a 3-2 win on Allison Goodwin's first career goal. It was the Tribe's first win over the Monarchs since 2017 and its first win against a ranked team since '19.

Less than 48 hours later, goalkeeper Maddie George posted a shutout and Sally Snead scored two minutes into overtime to give W&M a 1-0 win. Snead, who had goals in both games, was named the CAA Player of the Week.

"A win against a very good team like ODU, certainly when you go to double overtime, it takes time to recover," Ellis said. "It definitely was a bit of a (concern) going into Sunday's game.

"I was just hoping with the heat, we'd have enough legs to get us through. And it worked out well for us."

The Tribe will host Richmond Friday night at Busch Field and travel to Lynchburg on Sunday for a game against … wait for it … No. 6 Liberty.

Women's soccer bounces back with 2-0 week
The Tribe began its season with one-goal losses to Virginia Tech, which it led for nearly two-thirds of regulation, and George Washington. That disappointment was quickly set aside with wins over Old Dominion and High Point by identical 1-0 scores.

Elaina Longjohn and freshman Madison Moon provided all the offense that was needed, and goal keeper Zoe Doughty posted back-to-back shutouts.

"Obviously getting two wins against two good teams, one on the road, showed the character of our group," Tribe coach Julie Shackford said. "We controlled what we could control and took advantage of our changes.

"They were tight games. And with parity in the women's game, they're all going to be like that."

Doughty, who was named CAA Defensive Player of the Week, has six shutouts in her last 10 games.

Off to its best four-game start since 2017, W&M will visit VCU Thursday night and hosts American Sunday.

Men's soccer learning from a tough loss
It wasn't the week men's soccer coach Chris Norris had hoped for, especially with Sunday's 4-2 loss at home to Coastal Carolina. But at 0-1-1 after the first week of the season, which began with a 2-2 draw at George Washington, Norris feels good about how his team is looking.

"In terms of overall performance, I thought we were better yesterday (against Coastal) than at GW," Norris said. "We weren't quite fortunate to get some sort of a result out of it, but we scheduled those two games knowing they'd both be very difficult. I think we learned a lot from those two games.

"We certainly don't like losing, but most of the time you learn more from losses than wins. We're happy with the group overall. We just have to continue to evolve."

Tribe senior forward Diba Nwegbo was named the CAA Offensive Player of the Week after scoring two goals at GW and assisting against Coastal.

W&M begins conference play Saturday at Drexel.

Also coming up this weekend
After losing three matches last weekend in Tampa, Fla., W&M's volleyball team will travel to Pennsylvania to play Robert Morris and Duquesne on Friday and Canisius on Saturday.

The men's and women's cross country teams begin their seasons at the Charlotte Opener Friday morning in Concord, N.C. In addition to the 49ers and Tribe, Georgia and North Carolina will be in the field.