Behind junior forward Woodard Hooper’s first career hat trick and junior defender Christie van de Kamp’s goal and two assists, William and Mary continued its strong start in Colonial Athletic Association play as it topped Towson Friday. The Tribe (6-4, 3-0 CAA) raced out to an early lead against the Tigers (1-10, 0-3 CAA) and never let up en route to a 6-0 victory, the 50th win of head coach Tess Ellis’ tenure at the College.
“It’s certainly nice when you have a game plan, and the girls just stuck to it,” Ellis said. “… To come out on a Friday night and have that kind of energy, it just shows the growth of the team so far this year.”
The Tribe started the scoring right away, putting a goal up on the board just over 14 minutes into the contest. Sequences of sustained pressure by the College began to wear the Tigers down when junior midfielder Annie Snead found senior forward Jenny McCann down the field. McCann slid the ball past goalkeeper Mackenzie Peacock to give the Tribe an advantage it would hold for the rest of the match.
Seven minutes later, van de Kamp found the back of the goal off a penalty corner, scoring for the third time this season. Then, in the 25th minute, the Tribe upped its lead to three when senior midfielder Jenna Cutilli tallied a goal, the first of her career.
The Tribe didn’t let up in the second half, as Hooper tallied her three goals. Just over five minutes into the period, Hooper nabbed a rebound and put it into the goal to put the Tribe up 4-0. In the 60th minute, Hooper deflected a penalty corner in for her second of the night. Van de Kamp tallied an assist on the play. Then, not even four minutes later, Hooper finished off the hat trick, again assisted by van de Kamp off a corner.
“It was just a team effort,” Hooper said. “I don’t think I got a lot of shots off; I was just cleaning up in front. So, it’s really nice. It’s really easy for me when we get a lot of shots off from the backfield.”
Behind the College’s flashy offensive performance was a shutdown defensive game. The Tribe limited the Tigers to just one shot the entire game, which freshman goalie Kimi Jones saved. Meanwhile, the College piled on 32 shots, 21 of which were on cage. Peacock was forced to make 15 saves, but that would not be enough to turn the night into a winning effort for the Tigers.
“I think our defensive line had really good communication for the whole thing,” van de Kamp said. “It’s kind of what helps push everyone else up. It’s something we’ve been working on a lot throughout the season, so now that we can use that in our game and push [a defender] back up to kind of generate more attack is cool for us.”
Friday marked Ellis’ 50th win with the Tribe. Ellis, in her sixth year at the College, is the third coach to reach the milestone at the school.
“I think it’s always a compliment to the program when you actually get those 50 wins in five years,” Ellis said. “… Anything like that, I always give it back to the program, that the program’s moving in the right direction.
The Tribe will travel to California over fall break, taking on Pacific Saturday before facing Stanford Monday.
