Dear Friends of William & Mary Athletics,
The past week has been quite a kick for our fans, as two of our awesome student-athletes booted their teams to success!
Women's soccer is off to a historically good start to the season, fashioning a 5-0-3 record through the first eight games. Nora Green-Orset provided the only goal on Sunday in the Tribe's 1-0 win at Delaware. The team looks to remain unbeaten tonight when we face fellow CAA league member Monmouth at home. Hope you will join me there, but if you can't make it,
follow the match here. Also, if you are interested in a good read,
click here to see Dave Johnson's (a.k.a. The Tribe Scribe) piece on outstanding sophomore forward Ivey Crain.
Tribe football made it two in a row with a 23-6 win against Wofford on Saturday, thanks in part to the leg of grad transfer kicker Caden Bonoffski, who is the CAA Special Team Player of the Week. Caden is an MBA student in the Mason School of Business and he scored 11 points (3 field goals and 2 extra points) vs. Wofford. Game attendees got an unexpected treat via the halftime program which involved 12 student groups, ranging from dance to capella to the pep band. Dean of Students Stacey Harris joined the band for the fight song.
Football, currently ranked #4 among FCS teams, is heading south this weekend for our first visit to Charleston Southern University, a team out of the Big South Conference. Tribe fans can start the party on Friday night at the High Wire Distillery in Charleston and keep it going at the Whiskey Run Sports Bar & Grill on Saturday before the game.
As usual, the Tribe had a lot to celebrate in the last couple of weeks:
· Field hockey's Pyper Friedman scored two goals to help power our upset of #12 Wake Forest. The performance earned her CAA Co-Player of the Week honors. Witnessing the win were her grandparents and parents, who really had a lot to cheer about since Pyper's older sister Nat plays for Wake. By the way, Pyper's mom Toni-Jean is a W&M alum and former field hockey player!
· Sofia Istnick was a CAA Runner of the Week off her performance at the Spider Alumni Open, when she was 4th among 180 runners.
· Men's cross country placed 4th overall at the Spider Alumni Open, with senior Nate Jennings and junior transfer Zach Ericksen leading the way for the Tribe, both placing in the top 20.
· William & Mary volleyball sophomore Olivia Esposito was named the CAA Co-Defensive Player of the Week. Esposito led the Tribe to a 3-0 record at the Bucknell Invitational on the way to All-Tournament honors.
· Preston Burton finished tied for seventh in his collegiate debut as men's golf came in seventh out of 15 teams at the Red Bandanna Invitational hosted by Boston College. Earlier this week, Preston posted back-to-back 1-under 69s over the final two rounds to lead the Tribe at the River Run Collegiate at the River Run Country Club. The team finished in eighth place.
· Women's golf also took to the links while hosting the W&M Invitational at Kingsmill Resorts' River Course. The team finished fifth among nine teams and was paced by Simone Senk's 9-over total.
It didn't take long for our student-athletes to get into full swing at the start of the semester, and the rest of the department is right there, too. I had the chance to speak to a terrific group at the Two Rivers Country Club, and did they keep me on my toes with their questions about W&M Athletics and the chaos that is defining conference realignment! It was a fun start to my busy travel schedule; stay tuned for details about upcoming events where I hope to meet more of you!
I only had to go across campus for this event, but it would have been worth it to go a lot farther Tuesday when I attended the Mason School's McGlothlin Leadership Forum and met Stephanie Linnartz, MBA '97, one of the 2023 McGlothlin Fellows. She is the president and CEO of Under Armour, which is the official outfitter of the Tribe. It was a stellar event and just another example of the wonderful programs available across the university.
Last Friday we honored three of our all-time greats at the W&M Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, which was the latest event honoring the class of 2020. A great crowd assembled in the Sadler Center to recognize the outstanding achievements of Ian Fitzgerald '09 (track, cross country), Sebronzik Wright '95 (men's gymnastics) and Claire Zimmeck '09 (soccer) and it was a special evening. The next day the trio was introduced to the home crowd at Zable during the Tribe's home opening win!
Please remember to check our composite schedule to keep track of every one of our 23 teams, and if possible, make plans to see a game in person. There's an opportunity to do just that with a road trip to Charlottesville Oct. 7 to watch our football team vs. the Cavaliers. Hurry and reserve your spot!
It has been a whirlwind of great moments since student-athletes returned and we started competing in our fall events. I love getting out to practices and attending games, but even better is when I see your support for our women and men in Green & Gold. Our students are in that ever-growing number and they didn't let a little rainy weather stop them from turning out in force for the Wofford game—you've got to love the energy! Thank all of you for your passion for W&M Athletics.
Thank you!
Go Tribe!
Brian D. Mann
Director of Athletics
