Tribe News and Notes
- The Tribe won for the seventh time in its last eight matches with a 4-0 opening round victory over Sacred Heart on Wednesday. The Tribe won its NCAA Opening Round Game for the second time in as many appearances also accomplishing the feat in 2018. Like it did that season, the Tribe will face top-seeded North Carolina in the first round. UNC won the 2018 meeting, 4-0.
- Four different Tribe players scored in its dominant 4-0 win over the NEC Champion Pioneers. The four goals and four assists were the most for the Tribe in an NCAA tourney game in program history. The Tribe is making its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in 2023.
- W&M has recorded shutouts in five of its last eight matches. The team owns a GAA of 0.85 over that stretch. As part of the defensive surge, the Tribe shutout three-straight opponents in Queens, Richmond and Drexel, marking the first time W&M had three-straight clean sheets since 2018. The Tribe's clean sheet vs. Sacred Heart was its first in the NCAA Tourney in five games.
- A trio of Tribe players tallied a goal and an assist in the NCAA Opening Round win over Sacred Heart. Graduate student
Lonica McKinney, junior
Pyper Friedman, and senior
Mollie Schuma each accomplished the feat. It marked the first time in McKinney's and Schuma's Tribe careers they had a goal and an assist in a game, while it was the second time this season for Friedman. Only one other Tribe player (Annie Snead in 2018) had an NCAA Tournament game with a goal and an assist in the program's tournament history.
- Graduate student
Lauren Curran continued her late season torrid goal-scoring pace with a tally in the opening round. She scored less than five minutes into the second half with a hard shot between the goalkeepers legs for her team-leading 15th goal of the season. The 15 goals are the 10th most in school history, and Curran has 11 goals in her last seven matches, including a pair of hat tricks.
- W&M won its second CAA Championship in come-from-behind fashion on Nov. 5, knocking off regular-season champion Monmouth, 3-2, in double OT. The Tribe twice responded from a goal deficit, finding the winner in the 75th minute on Curran's game-winner.
- Curran notched a hat trick in the CAA Championship on her way to earning tournament Most Outstanding Player honors. Her hat trick was the second for a Tribe player in the conference tournament and first since 1995.
- Senior goalkeeper
Maddie George was named to the CAA All-Tournament team after turning in a stellar two-game performance. She tallied a season-high 10 saves, the third-best total of her career, in the semifinal win over Drexel. George followed with six saves, including a penalty stroke stop in the 54th minute with the Tribe trailing by a goal, in the championship win over Monmouth. She posted a save in the Tribe's first NCAA shutout vs. SHU.
- Junior
Pyper Friedman recorded her third game of two goals, scoring both Tribe tallies in the 2-0 CAA Semifinal win over Drexel. She also scored two goals in wins over then-No. 12 Wake Forest and Towson on the way to earning CAA Player of the Week honors on Sept. 4 and Sept. 18, respectively.
- Along with George and Curran, seniors
Allison Goodwin and
Jayden Moon were named to the CAA All-Tournament team. Goodwin assisted on the Tribe's second goal in the semifinal win over Drexel.
- Moon, who assisted on the game-winner vs. Sacred Heart, and Friedman earned All-CAA First Team honors for the first time in their career after being named to the Preseason All-CAA team to start the year.
- Curran earned All-CAA honors for the second-straight year. After earning first team honors last season, Curran was named to the second team in 2023. It marked the seventh-straight season that the Tribe had at least three players named to the top two teams.
- Freshmen
Mackinzie Brown and
Josie Mae Gruendel were named to the CAA All-Rookie team, giving the Tribe multiple selections for the sixth time and first since 2018.
- Curran has been one of the top offensive weapons in the CAA, ranking second in the league in shots (85), shots on goal (55), goals (15), game-winning goals (4) and points (33). Nationally, she is 18th in the country in goals per game (0.75) and 25th in points per game (1.65).
- George ranks third in the CAA in GAA (1.77) and shutouts (4). For her career, she is among the program's all-time best coming in ninth in wins (23), ninth in shutouts (9), 11th in saves (205), and 17th in GAA (1.78).
- With her standout season, Curran has continued to etch her name in the Tribe record book. She ranks sixth in game-winning goals (9) and 10th in goals (35) and points (74) over her four seasons at W&M. Her goals per game mark of 0.60 is seventh in school history, while her 1.28 points per game is ninth.
- The Tribe's 2-1 win over then-No. 12-ranked Wake Forest was the Tribe's 12th under head coach
Tess Ellis against Top-20 opponents, including the fourth over the ACC. Last season, W&M topped three top-20 opponents, including No. 6-ranked Liberty.
- Moon and Friedman competed in the U.S. Under 21 National Team Camp and Junior Pan American Championship Selection Camp over the last year. Moon was selected as a reserve for the JPAC team.
