With the Colonial Athletic Association tournament looming, the William and Mary field hockey heads to James Madison for a Friday night match-up with big seeding implications.  Both teams have already locked up a spot in the six-team field, but the 7 p.m. meeting in Harrisonburg will go a long way towards helping determine what the bracket will end up looking like.

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Scouting the Tribe
W&M is 10-5 overall and 3-2 in the CAA after dropping a close 2-1 decision to then-No. 22 Wake Forest last Friday.  Five players have at least nine points on the season for the Tribe, led by senior captain Christine Johnson's (Williamsburg, Va.) seven goals and five assists, while on defense the College has a .738 save percentage and a 1.46 goals-against average.  With Taylor Hodge's (Louisville, Ky.) assist to Pip Saunders (Mittagong, NSW) Friday against Wake, this year's Tribe team has already tied the school record for assists in a season (41) set by the 1991 squad.

Scouting the Dukes
James Madison enters the weekend at 8-6 overall, and 2-2 in the league after dropping a pair of tight 1-0 decisions to Duke and Richmond last week.  The Dukes lead the CAA with a 1.10 GAA, and only one match all year has been decided by more than a single goal (a 4-0 win over Radford).  Rachel Wein is the top offensive weapon, with six goals and three assists, with Taylor West just one goal back.

The Series
JMU holds the all-time edge in the series, with 35 wins to 18 for W&M and six ties.  The last Tribe won in Harrisonburg was 2004, a 2-1 victory, that was also the last time the teams met on the road when JMU was unranked.

News and Notes
- With just three games left in the regular season, the Tribe knows that it will be playing in the CAA Tournament, but not who its opponents might be.  A win Friday night would lock up one of the top three seeds for W&M, while both the first and second seeds are still in play as well.

- W&M has already tied the school record for assists in a season with 41 in the first 15 games, matching the total put up by the 1990 team in 22 matches.

- Among the 15 returning field players who have recorded either a goal or an assist, 10 have set career-highs in goals scored, 12 in assists, and 12 in total points scored.

- Pip Saunders was named the CAA Rookie of the Week on Oct. 2, after scoring a goal and an assist over the weekend.  She helped on the first of Emma Clifton's two goals against Delaware on Friday night, and then scored the then-tying goal against Richmond on Sunday.

- W&M has opened conference play against Northeastern every year since 2007, a six-year span that is the longest such-streak in school history.  The Tribe played Radford four years in a row from 1985-88, and VCU four years as well from 1991-94.  The six times playing the Huskies in the conference opener is also second-most overall, behind only the seven times that W&M has taken on VCU.

- By splitting the first conference weekend, the Tribe has opened league play at 1-1 or better 26 times in 28 years.  The shutout over Hofstra also improved W&M to 7-2 all-time after losing its conference opener.

- The 4-0 win over Delaware was the fifth shutout of the year for W&M.  The last time the Tribe had four shutouts or more was 2006, when W&M carried six blank-sheets.

- The Tribe swept the CAA weekly awards on Sept. 18, with senior captain Maria Caro sharing Player of the Week honors and redshirt-freshman Cate Johnson being named Rookie of the Week.  Caro scored two game-winning goals, against Miami and then-No. 11 Boston University, while Johnson was credited with the win in both matches and stopped 92.9% of the shots made against her.

- Christine Johnson was named the CAA co-Player of the Week on Aug. 28, after scoring four goals and a defensive save to lead her team to a 5-1 win over Davidson.  Johnson is the seventh player in school history to score four goals in a single game, and the first since Katie Silverthorne '02 in 2001.  She is the first Tribe player to be named the conference Player of the Week since October of 2007.