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Fans are offered the opportunity to discuss the Tribe's Top 25 Moments countdown on the Tribe Athletics Facebook page. On Twitter, fans are asked to use the hashtag #TribeMoments. Follow TribeAthletics on Twitter and discuss the top 25 by using the hashtag.
| #17 |
Senior Kristen Hamel registered a hole-in-one during
the second round at C&F Bank Intercollegiate. |
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When the Tribe women's golf team hosted the C&F Bank
Intercollegiate at Kingsmill for the first time, few could have predicted that
the tournament would include two holes-in-one. One of those came off the club of W&M senior Kristen Hamel, who aced
the 177-yard No. 2 hole on the famed River Course. It was just the second hole-in-one in school
history, and the first in 27 years. Hamel entered the second round tied for 19th overall after shooting a respectable 78 on the first day of the tournament, and came through the turn off the back nine four strokes over par. The first four holes of the front nine were astonishing, as the Nerinx Hall product carded birdie, ace, par, and birdie to get back to even. She finished the round with a 74, and shot up to a tie for eighth overall. Playing in all five of the team's spring tournaments, Hamel finished the year ranked fourth on the team with a 79.67 average and 232 victories in tournament play. At the season-ending CAA Championships, she finished in a tie for 22nd and helped the Tribe to a sixth-place team finish. |
| #18 |
Sophomores Maria Belaya and Jeltje Loomans selected for NCAA Doubles Championship. |
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On the strength of four wins over
nationally ranked competition and an impressive national ranking, sophomores
Maria Belaya and Jeltje Loomans earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Doubles
Championships. The Green and Gold pair became the 19th W&M team to compete
at the NCAA Doubles Championship. The pair won 13 straight matches before falling in the NCAA Championship. Belaya and Loomans, who won five CAA Doubles Team of the Week honors, finished the year ranked No. 34 nationally and was 20-6 overall. The duo was ranked as high as No. 20 nationally on March 27 and garnered First-Team All-CAA accolades in doubles. |
| #19 |
Senior Hailey Hewitt won the CAA title in the 200-yard backstroke. |
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Senior Hailey Hewitt brought her four years in the College pool to
a close in 2012 with a series of championship- and record-winning
performances. Persevering through a leg
injury that limited her during the regular season, Hewitt turned up the pressure
during the Colonial Athletic Association Championships and in the weeks after,
qualifying for the Olympic Trials and winning the conference title in the 200y
backstroke. At the CAA Championships, Hewitt broke three school records over the course of the three-day meet, including twice in the 200y backstroke on the final day as she earned her second conference championship. Never before in the history of Tribe swimming had an athlete broke the 2-minute barrier in the event, but Hewitt and freshman Liz Glenn each did it twice on the final Saturday in February. In the finals, Hewitt was in third as the race approached its final turn, but gaining a big push off the wall, overtook both women ahead of her in the final 25 yards to win the gold. She finished in an NCAA-qualifying and school-record time of 1:58.22, and was named to the CollegeSwimming.com Mid-Major All-America team. In the weeks following the conference meet, Hewitt continued to train and work towards reaching the Olympic Trials, a goal she accomplished at the Columbus Grand Prix in early March. Swimming against All-Americans and national champions, Hewitt finished the 200m backstroke in 2:17.97 to come in under the qualifying standard and become the second Tribe athlete in school history to qualify for the trials. She finished the summer in Omaha, improving nearly 50 spots from her initial seed at the Olympic Trials to take 143rd in 2:20. |
| #20 |
Junior Janine Aldridge set a trio of school records for 3-point shooting against Northeastern. |
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All at once, in a single-game
at Northeastern on Jan. 29, Tribe junior guard Janine Aldridge became the
school's all-time leader in three-pointer's made in a single-game, season and
career. Her nine triples not only set a
new single-game standard but in the process the Massapequa, N.Y., native
shattered the school mark for three-pointer's made in a season and career. Aldridge finished the contest with a
career-high 27 points on 9-19 shooting from three-point range. Through the first 20-games of the 2011-12 season, Aldridge pushed her season three-pointer total to 75, after connecting from deep nine times against the Huskies, which eclipsed the old single-season standard of 72. She finished the 2011-12 season with 92 three's. The nine triples at Northeastern pushed Aldridge's career total to 204 as she surpassed Jen Sobota's ('03) career-mark of 201. Standing as just a junior, Aldridge is on pace to put distance between herself and the previous records. |
| #21 |
Field Hockey upset No. 20 Northeastern, 4-3, for its sixth win in the first seven matches of the year. |
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The 2011 Tribe field hockey team got off to a hot start last fall, winning three in a row to start the season and six of its first seven matches. The sixth win that stretch came in the conference-opener against No. 20-ranked Northeastern, a 4-3 thriller that went down to the final minute of play. After Northeastern jumped on the board first with a pair of goals in the first half, W&M turned up the pressure in the second and began clawing its way back into the match. Ashley Kyle scored early in the 54th minute, taking a crossing pass from Brittany Hopkins deep in the zone and deflecting it back across the goal to the far side. Just three minutes later, Allison Moran found the back of the net, getting her stick onto another shot from Hopkins and deflecting it around the goalie to knot the score at 2-2. Northeastern regained the lead temporarily after gaining a penalty stroke opportunity, but Emma Clifton re-tied the score in the 63rd minute. Off a penalty corner, Maria Caro deftly faked a shot and passed the ball around the circle to find Clifton on the weak side of the defense. With overtime looming, the W&M gained a final penalty corner with just over a minute remaining. Having found a solution to the Huskies defense, the Tribe tried for the weak side again, and once again found the boards at the back of the goal. Clifton passed the ball around the top of the circle to find a charging Jeltje Loomans on the back side of the play, and the tennis/field hockey dual-sport athlete connected for her first collegiate goal to give the College the victory. |
| #22 |
Due to Hurricane Irene, Volleyball opened the season
on a school-record road trip. |
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Thanks to a quirk in Mother Nature, the Tribe volleyball
team embarked on its longest season-opening road trip ever in 2011, and also
the longest road trip in all of college volleyball last year. After Hurricane Irene forced the cancellation
of the W&M Invitational in August, the Tribe didn't return to Kaplan Arena
for 41 days and 15 matches, until hosting VCU on Oct. 6. That match came 11 months to the day since
W&M last played in Williamsburg, for Senior Night in 2010. |
| #23 |
Men's Soccer won its final two home games in overtime to clinch a CAA Tournament berth. |
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The Tribe used a pair of thrilling 3-2 overtime home
victories in the final two matches of the regular season to clinch its fifth
straight bid to the CAA Tournament. The College rallied from a 2-1 deficit in
the second half against Hofstra on Oct. 29 as Nicolas Abrigo scored a pair of
goals and looped a shot over the goalkeeper from 15 yards out in the 97th minute
to clinch the victory. A week later, W&M notched a 3-2 win over
Northeastern at the Warhill Sports Complex in a match moved due to weather in
the Williamsburg area. Freshman Chris Albiston scored his first career goal in
the 99th minute to clinch the No. 3 seed in the league tourney. Abrigo earned First-Team All-CAA honors, while sophomore Will Smith earned second team accolades. Freshmen Marcus Luster and Michael Teiman earned CAA All-Rookie Team honors. Abrigo led the Tribe with 20 points on nine goals and two assists on the way to earning Third-Team NSCAA All-South Atlantic Region honors. |
| #24 |
Freshman Lucy
Ferguson set a single-game school record for saves in W&M's overtime win
at Hofstra. |
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Freshman goalie Lucy Ferguson totaled a single-game school
record with 23 saves in the William and Mary lacrosse team's 8-7 overtime
victory at Hofstra. The impressive effort marked the most saves by any player
in the nation during the 2012 season. One of the country's top goalies last spring, Ferguson ranked fourth nationally in total saves (172) and fifth in saves per game (10.12). She led the conference in both categories. A starter in all 17 games, Ferguson was a second-team all-conference selection and garnered CAA All-Rookie Team accolades. |
| #25 |
Tribe Football garnered the preseason No. 1 national
ranking. |
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For the second consecutive year, the William and Mary
football team garnered a preseason No. 1 national ranking by
Phil Steele's College Football Preview. Led by preseason All-Americans Jonathan Grimes, B.W. Webb, Dante Cook and Alex Gottlieb, the Tribe returned 13 starters from the 2011 squad that captured the Colonial Athletic Association title and earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Playoffs. Although W&M was unable to earn a bid to the NCAA Playoffs for the third consecutive season, the Tribe's 2011 campaign included a win against sixth-ranked New Hampshire and retained the Capital Cup with a triumph at Richmond. |
