By Olson Barthelemy
Stop me if this sounds familiar: the Hofstra Pride volleyball team wins the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) regular season title and also the right to host the CAA championship tournament. The Pride also get a bye meaning they get to skip the first round of the tournament and face one of two teams in the semifinals.
If you’ve identified this particular scenario as the situation the Pride finds itself entering this weekend, you’re correct. But bonus points to those who also realized the Pride were in this same exact position last year. This is why it makes the task of predicting a victor in the midst of this six team pack (Hofstra, James Madison, Towson, Northeastern, Delaware, and last years champs VCU) extremely difficult.
Even the most astute prognosticators picked the Pride to win the tournament last year. So one can imagine the shock felt by many when the Pride not only lost in the semifinals to eventual champions Virginia Commonwealth, but lost in convincing fashion, losing in three straight games. So just what, if anything, can be expected as the tournament begins on Friday?
As has been mentioned the Pride, due to their first round bye, will be facing one of two teams in the semifinals. Also receiving a bye for the first round is second seeded James Madison. The two teams rounding out the semifinal pairings will be decided by the opening round matches taking place this Friday. The winner of the match between #4 Northeastern and #5 Delaware will face Hofstra while the winner between #3Towson and #6 VCU will face James Madison.
The Pride have a distinct advantage from the get go based on the two prospective teams hoping to face them in the semis. The Pride’s only conference defeat this season came at the hands of the Towson Tigers. In fact the Pride’s last two regular season in conference losses have both come against the Tigers. And as was earlier mentioned the Pride were beaten by VCU in the CAA tournament last year. Luckily for the Pride however, they won’t have to face either Towson or VCU until the tournament finals.
But standing in Hofstra’s path to the finals will either be Northeastern or Delaware. Who would the Pride prefer to play if given the choice? Sophomore setter Shellane Ogoshi exercised caution when asked saying, “It’s hard to think about anything to be quite honest because the team’s are so close together that it could go either way. We don’t know who we’re going to play. We all have our predictions whose going to make it or not but it’s such a close race that it could go either way.”
Other than the loss to Towson the Pride’s toughest match against CAA competition this season was undoubtedly against Delaware. Despite the fact that they eventually succumbed to the Pride, the Blue Hens were the only CAA team to push Hofstra to a five game match this season. Conversely the Pride had a relatively easier time handling Northeastern beating them in a pair of four game matches.
If the Pride does make it to the finals it may be in their best interests to be paired up against James Madison. Yes JMU is the highest possible ranked team the Pride could play, but the Pride’s troubles with Towson and VCU have already been enumerated. Add to that the carefree fashion in which the Pride beat JMU in three games just two weeks ago and a finals face-off against the Dukes would seem their best bet.
Whatever the match ups, the Pride and their fans will certainly be hoping for a slightly longer run in the tournament this time around. If the Pride follows the path they’ve been on all season it may mark the first trip to the NCAA tournament in the team’s history.
Lauren Engle and the Pride are odds on favorites to win the CAA’s.