Tribe Championships Team Notes

Tribe to Host Championship on Sunday (May 4) at 1:00 pm

05/03/08 11:47AM

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The College of William and Mary's 20th-ranked lacrosse squad will play for its first Colonial Athletic Association title since the 1992 season on Sunday afternoon as it will host the 18th-ranked Towson Tigers at Albert/Daly Field starting at 1:00 pm.

The following are some team and individual notes for Sunday's contest.

Setting the Table: The Tribe will be playing in the CAA’s Championship game for the fifth time since the league started sponsoring lacrosse in 1992. W&M is 1-3 in its three previous visits to the league final, winning the first championship in 1992 with a 7-5 win over Loyola.

The following is the College’s all-time CAA finals results:

1992: Defeated Loyola, 7-5 (at Old Dominion University)
1994: Lost to Loyola, 8-7 (at Loyola)
1996: Lost to Loyola, 13-5 (at American University)
2004: Lost to James Madison, 13-12 (at James Madison)

History with the Tigers: The Tribe is 7-5, all-time, vs. Towson. The two teams met earlier this season, with the College edging out the Tigers 14-13 on April 18. Coming into the year, Towson had won four of the last five regular season games against the College, including three straight.

The two squads have played in the post-season one other time (2004), a game that the Tribe won in a wild 14-12 shoot-out in the semi-final round.

Since first joining the league in 2002, Towson has played it’s way into one other CAA Championship contest (2005), which saw it defeat a hosting Hofstra squad, 18-15.

Good Competition: The 18th-ranked Tigers will be the eighth ranked squad the Tribe has faced this season. The College started the season by losing its first three games against nationally ranked opponents, but has since ripped off four straight against the national top 20.

Remarkable: After starting the season 2-6, the College has rallied to win eight of its last 10 games. William and Mary has won its last four contests (all at home) and will be carrying a seven-game home winning streak into Sunday’s championship contest. In the seven-game surge, the College has defeated three ranked squads and scored 10, or more, goals six times. The only two team’s that have crafted wins over the Tribe at Albert/Daly this season were a then second-ranked Virginia squad (14-11) and a then third-ranked Duke side (18-8).

Looking back one-step further, the College currently has shown a seven-win improvement over last season’s 3-11 record. Looking just at conference play, the Tribe has fashioned a four-game improvement over last year’s 1-6 mark.

While on the Subject: The hosting school has advanced to the CAA Final in each of the last five years, with the home team going onto win the championship three times, including in each of the past two seasons (James Madison, 2006; Hofstra, 2007).

Lucky 11?: If the College were to record a win over Towson Sunday, it will give the squad 11 wins on the year. One has to go back to the 1995 season to find the last Tribe squad with more wins. The Tribe’s single-season school record for wins is 13, achieved two times (1978 and 1979 seasons). Since the school first started playing varsity lacrosse in 1970, 15 squads have recorded double-digit wins in a season. But, previous to this season, only two Tribe squads have recorded 10, or more, wins in the last 10 years (2004 and 2006).

Strength v. Strength: The College’s only two league losses this season came against unranked squads in Drexel and Hofstra. Neither team qualified for the post-season. By contrast, the Tribe has defeated all three of the conference teams that have received a national ranking at some point this season (then No. 9 George Mason; then No. 15 Towson and then No. 19 James Madison).

Record Production: The Tribe’s high-octane attack has produced 226 goals through 18 games, an average of 12.49 goals a contest. The College’s single season team-record for goals in a season is 232, set during the 19-game schedule during the 1980 season. The Tribe’s record for goals per game is 14.9 set during the 14-game 1978 season.

To gain some perspective, the Tribe’s attack produced just 141 goals over 16 games last season.

Starts at the Top: William and Mary Head Coach Christine Halfpenny was honored by the league coaches by being named as the 2008 CAA Coach of the Year. As previously mentioned, Halfpenny authored one of the nation’s most remarkable turnarounds, as she guided the Tribe back from a 2-6 start to its current 10-8 record and to the tournament’s top seed. The team holds the 20th position in the latest national rankings and is making its first appearance in the league’s final since the 2004 season.

Halfpenny’s accomplishments in 2008 are made even more impressive when considering the squad finished 2007 (her first season with the program) with a 3-13 record and a 1-6 mark in league play.

She is just the second Tribe lacrosse mentor to earn the league’s top honor, joining Tribe legend and Hall of Famer, Feffie Barnhill, who received the award after the 1998 season.

Big Gun: Senior All-American candidate Jaime Sellers has been one of the league’s most dominant players, as she finished the regular season as the CAA’s leading goal scorer and was named to first team all-conference honors. She also finished the year with the league’s top figure in game-winning scores (five) and was second in total points and third in draws.

With five goals in the team’s hard-fought win over Delaware Friday in the conference semi-finals, Sellers has now scored at least one goal in all of the Tribe’s 18 games and has recorded three, or more, in 15 contests.

The five goal-effort pushed her into the top spot on the Tribe’s all-time single-season scoring listing, as she now has hit twine 65 times on the season. Her total passed Pixie Hamilton’s 64 goal-effort set during the 1978 season. The five-goal effort pushed her career goal total to 117, which places her in sixth-place on the College’s all-time top 10. Her next goal will put her in a three-way tie for fourth place (with Betsy Frick and Lisa Miller, 118), while third place is 125 goals (held by Ginny Ramsey (1975-78).

Sellers has recorded 133 points in her career, which is just six away from reaching the College’s top 10 chart, as former Tribe great Tara Hannaford holds the 10th spot with 139 career points.

Showdown?: Sunday’s game will feature a head-to-head match-up between the CAA’s two top scoring threats, as Sellers and Towson’s Hillary Fratzke finished the regular season, one-two, in both points and goals. Fratzke brings the top point total (80, to Sellers’ 70), while Sellers is the leading goal scorer with 65 tallies (to Fratzke’s 56).

In the team’s first meeting, just over two weeks ago, Sellers notched four goals in the Tribe’s win, while Fratzke found the net five times.

Similar: While both William and Mary and Towson have national caliber scorers, each team also has some depth in the scoring column. Both squads have five players with 20, or more, goals on the year, while each have a sixth with more than 15 scores.

Towson has scored 214 goals (in 17 games), an average of 12.59 per game. As previously mentioned, the College is average 12.49 scores a contest.

Good as Gold: Freshman midfielder Grace Golden has been nothing short of spectacular in her first collegiate season, as her speed and outstanding stick handling earned her the league’s Rookie of the Year honor. Her stat line reads like an all-American’s resume, as she has tallied 53 points (44 goals, nine assists), 45 ground balls, 41 draws and 19 caused turnovers. Entering Sunday’s action, she leads the Tribe in ground balls and is tied for the lead in caused turnovers. Golden is second in goals, assists, points, draws and game-winning goals (three).

She joins former Tribe great Meghan Schneider (1999) as the only other W&M player to earn the league’s Rookie of the Year honor since it was first awarded after the 1994 season.

Golden is just two scores away from breaking Pixie Hamilton’s school freshman goal record (45 set in the 1977 season).

Coming into Sunday’s action, Golden has been a model of consistency for the Tribe, as she has scored in 16 of the team’s 18 contests (including the last 14 consecutive games), with nine contests of three, or more goals. She has recorded two, or more, draws and ground balls in 10 of the 18 games, and has at least one of each in all but two games.

Fabulous Freshman: Along with Golden, the College has one of the most impressive freshman classes in the country. Three of the team’s top four scorers are newcomers, as Golden is second with 44 scores, Maggie Anderson sits in third with 32 and Ashley Holofcener is fourth with 24 tallies.

Overall, the Tribe’s freshman class is responsible for 101 of the team’s 226 goals on the year (.447).

Holofcener, a CAA All-Rookie Team selection, is the team’s leader in assists, with 18 on the season, a total that ranks her third on the conference. She is four helpers from moving into the team’s all-time single season top 10, three former players are tied for eighth with 22 assists (done most recently by Colleen Dalon in 2005). Holofcener has scored in six of the last seven games, while distributing nine helpers in that span. She came through with what was arguably the biggest, most pressure packed score of the season for the College during Friday’s semi-final game, by converting a free position shot with just under seven minutes remaining. The score broke a 14-14 tie and stood as the game winner, her first game winner of the season.

Playing besides Sellers and Golden, Anderson has quietly put together a tremendous campaign. Since the start of conference play (eight games ago), she has 13 goals, including seven over the last three games. She has become one of the team’s most reliable finishers, as she is converting .410 of her shot attempts on the season (but has been at nearly .500 during conference play).

Been there Before: Certainly, any conversation about the Tribe’s freshman collection would have to include CAA All-Rookie Team and all-conference keeper Emily Geary. Geary has been sensational in her first season in the cage for the College, as she finished the regular season as the league’s leader in saves per contest (9.88) and was second in save percentage (.487). She ended the year with an 11.50 goals against average, but she allowed 10, or less, in seven of the team’s final 10 regular season games. Geary has made the spectacular look routine, especially late in close contests, as she has delivered crucial saves in the waning minutes of multiple league wins for the College.

While she is making her first appearance in the post-season for the Tribe, she has experience in big game situations, as she was a member of the US National Under-19 team that won the IFWLA World Championship (2007). She saw action in the Gold Medal game against Australia.