By Olson Barthelemy
No other word really better encapsulates the play of the Pride volleyball team this season, especially lately, than dominant. Simply calling the Blue & Gold a great team falls short of a true description of what has become a well oiled machine dispatching of its competition with relative ease.
The Pride, by way of its stellar play, has put itself in a unique position. Not only is Hofstra the favorite to win both the regular season title and the CAA Tournament (an NCAA Tournament berth comes along with this), but the team has put themselves in a position where coming short of that goal labels an otherwise stellar season as a disappointment.
Furthering that feeling of disappointment would be the fact that the Pride, in not winning a CAA Championship, would have failed to beat a field consisting of fellow CAA competitors. Considering the Pride’s systematic demolition of CAA competition this season, it would be a letdown of major proportions to fall at the end against teams which the team beat with relative ease earlier.
Head coach Lauren Netherby addressed these concerns, saying, “It’s a matter of saturating them with confidence at this point. They kind of lacked that in the last two years when it came conference tournament time. The fact that we’re 10-0 in conference says a lot. We haven’t been taken to five games by any of these teams yet. I think that is helping in our confidence so that when we get into those big matches in the end we can take care of a team.”
Speculation of the Pride’s performance in the CAA Tournament is a tad bit premature considering after its match against Northeastern University at the PFC this past Saturday, the team still has eight matches left to play in the regular season.
Matches against teams like Northeastern have been, and down the stretch will be, the true barometers of what to expect from the Pride as the CAA Tournament approaches. After Hofstra, who sits atop the CAA with a 10-0 record, the next three teams in the standings are Towson, James Madison and Northeastern. As the Pride nears the finish line, it will face both Towson and JMU on the road.
But first on the agenda for the Pride was its match against the Huskies. Four games (30-24, 24-30, 30-23, 30-26) and one victory later, the Pride defeated yet another CAA challenger.
Perhaps indicative of the fact that it was facing one of the better teams, however, the victory against the Huskies was anything but effortless. Despite jumping out to a quick one-game lead, the Pride found the tables quickly reversed as the Huskies took the second game.
In a crucial and tightly contested third game featuring seven ties and four lead changes, the Pride looked toward senior middle blocker Elizabeth Curley, as she accounted for six kills in the third game. Combined with the team’s ability to go on a game-deciding 6-0 run, the Pride took the crucial third game, 30-23.
Curley proved to be a huge contributor towards her team’s efforts in the decisive fourth game as well, accumulating seven more kills to bring her match total to a team-high and career-best 23.
After jumping to a 10-point lead halfway through the fourth game, the road to victory became fairly smooth for the Pride as it withstood various attempted comebacks by Northeastern. Aiding Curley in the win was Beverly Rivera’s sixth double-double of the season (17 kills, 11 digs) and Shellane Ogoshi’s 60 assists.
“It’s good to know that we can take care of a better team in the conference twice,” Netherby said. “The question is will we able to do it three times come conference tournament time? What we’re trying to do now is come up with new offensive schemes and improve our defense a little bit.”
As the Pride comes down the stretch, it will be interesting to see how the team handles some of the better teams in the conference the second time around.