WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – After their first appearance in the CAA semifinals since 2017, the William & Mary women’s soccer team will wrap up the 2024 season on Thursday night with a performance in Radford. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

The game will also be the first sporting event for W&M Athletics in the 2024-25 academic year.

MASTER NOTES

A look back

The Tribe had a successful 2023 season with a record of 9-4-7, 6-3-3 CAA, culminating in a trip to the conference semifinals for the first time since 2017. Julie ShackfordIn her sixth season at the helm of her alma mater, W&M also went undefeated outside of the conference for the first time, posting a record of 3-0-3.

After defeating Northeastern in the quarterfinals in a seven-round shootout, the Tribe’s season ended in the semifinals against eventual CAA champion Towson. Three Green and Gold players were named All-CAA a year ago. Nicole Sellers (First team), Ivey Crain (Second Team) and Molly Widderich (All newbies).

The Tribe were extremely solid defensively last season, keeping eight clean sheets and limiting opponents to a measly nine shots per game, of which fewer than four were on goal.

Back to overview
Shackford’s roster returns a whopping 23 players from a successful 2023 season. Even more impressive, not a single student has chosen to leave the program via the transfer portal from 2023 to 2024. That’s the fourth-most returners without a student leaving in Division I, with Eastern Michigan leading the way with 27.

Seven of the program’s top nine scorers from 2023 return for the upcoming season, including all three All-CAA honorees (Sellers, Crain, Widderich). In total, 24 of the Tribe’s 30 goals from last season return for 2024.

History with the Highlanders
W&M is looking to extend its six-game winning streak against Radford that began in 1985. This will be the first meeting between the two teams since 2013. Overall, the Tribe holds a 7-4-1 lead over the Highlanders but is 0-2 in games played in Radford. Thursday’s game will be W&M’s first trip to Radford since 1983.

Get started on the right foot
Since 2014, the Tribe has a 4-0 record when starting a season with a true road game, including last year’s 4-0 win at Temple to open the 2023 season. Overall, the Green-Gold have a 3-1 record in their last four regular-season wins.

Preseason predictions
The CAA released its preseason awards and poll last week, voted on by the conference’s 14 head coaches. Monmouth was voted the conference’s preseason favorite with five first-place votes. The Tribe was voted fifth, with Hofstra, Towson and Northeastern between them and the Hawks, rounding out the top five. Ivey Crain secured a spot in the Preseason All-CAA Team with Molly Widderich And Nicole Sellers received honorable mentions. All three players earned postseason All-CAA honors last year.

Tribal ties
As a program deeply rooted in its history, Julie Shackford ’88 has built a staff around himself in which all five members have ties to W&M. Their assistant head coach, Marsha Lycan ’87, was a teammate of Shackford on the Tribe while he was an assistant Zoe Doughty just finished her career as a goalkeeper at W&M last season. John Daly is in his fourth season as a volunteer assistant after spending 31 seasons as the program’s head coach, and new to the team, Caeden Fongwas a member of the men’s team for the last three seasons.

Scouting the Highlanders
Radford enters 2024 as the reigning Big South champion, having qualified for the NCAA Tournament a year ago. The Highlanders posted a Big South record of 12-6-2, 6-1-1 and went 8-0 at home in 2023. Their last home loss was in October 2022.