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Oct. 12, 2001

NORFOLK, VA -- The third ranked and defending national championship field hockey team is set to take on seventh ranked CAA foe William and Mary on Friday night on Foreman Field at 6:00 p.m. and top ranked Maryland on Sunday afternoon in College Park, MD at 1:00 p.m.

Friday night's game will mark the first time in nearly a month that the Lady Monarch will be playing on their home turf of Foreman Field. The last Old Dominion field hockey home game was back on September 9th with a 4-1 victory over Boston University. The Lady Monarchs, who played their last six contests away from home, finished up their road swing with a 3-0 win over Connecticut and 8-0 shutout over New Hampshire last weekend for a 5-1 road trip record.

The next Lady Monarch victory will mark a milestone in the career of head coach Beth Anders, who is just one win shy of the 400-career win mark. Compiling a 399-58-7 mark in 20 years as the Old Dominion head coach, Anders needs just one more victory to become just the second ever and first Division I coach to reach the historic 400-win milestone.

The Tribe enters Friday nights' game with a 10-2 record, the best start for the William and Mary team since 1979. The Tribe are led by the top two goal scorers in the Colonial Athletic Association, Ann Ekberg and this week's CAA Player of the Week Katie Silverthorne, each with eight. In its last outing, William and Mary shutout fellow conference rival Virginia Commonwealth and set new school records in the process. Silverthorne scored four goals, tying the school record for most goals in a game, while sophomore Jordan Steele also made it into the record books, tying for most assists in a game with three. The Lady Monarchs own a 28-11-0 all-time record against William & Mary including last season's conference game (3-0) against the then 11th ranked Tribe.

Maryland will enter Sunday's game as the school atop the STX/NFHCA Poll with a 10-2 overall and 2-1 ACC mark. The Terps finished last week 2-0 with a 10-0 stomping of Rutgers and a 6-5 overtime thriller against fellow ACC member Duke. Maryland found themselves down 4-0 against the Blue Devils within the first twenty minutes of play only to come back to tie the game in the second half. Down by a goal, 5-4, redshirt-freshman Sara Silvetti scored with no time remaining on the clock and Dina Rizzo found the back of the net just 40 second in the extra session period for the game-winner.

The Terrapins and Lady Monarchs will be squaring off for the second time this year. Back on September 1st in Old Dominion's home opener, the Lady Monarchs took a 2-1 victory with senior Crystal Carper (Fredericksburg, VA) scoring the game-winning goal en route to being named the CAA Player of the Week. Old Dominion holds the advantage in the all-time series 16-8-1.

Following Sunday's game against the Terps, Old Dominion will travel to North Carolina on Wednesday, October 17th in a rematch of last year's NCAA Championship game. This game was originally slated for September 15th, but was postponed due to the tragic events of September 11th. Following the Lady Monarchs trip to Chapel Hill, Old Dominion will return to Foreman Field to close out the 2001 season. Next weekend the Lady Monarchs will face CAA member James Madison and American and close out the regular season the following weekend with North Carolina and Northeastern.