By Stacy Troiano

As the regular season comes to a close, to say that the women’s soccer team is surging into the CAA playoffs would be an understatement. A surge would imply that they had slowed down at some point. The Pride have spent the season consistently building a full head of steam as they prepare for the conference playoffs for the eighth time in the last nine years.

The only two speed bumps along the way were losses to William and Mary and James Madison, games that head coach Simon Riddiough and the team believe they could have and should have won.

On Sunday, the Pride continued its dominant play, blanking Delaware 2-0 amid blustery winds in Newark.

The Blue Hens were playing for their season on Sunday, as they needed a win to keep in the running in the five-team race for the final playoff spot. But the Pride proved too much for Delaware, controlling the game from the start and never letting up, improving their conference record to 8-2, while Delaware dropped to 3-7.

Midfielder Edel Malone broke the 0-0 tie late in the first half, as she corralled a loose ball on a feed from senior defender Sue Weber and slotted a shot past Delaware goalie Annie Bevan. The goal was Malone’s fifth of the season, and the assist pushed Weber’s total to a team-leading six on the year.

The Pride carried its momentum into the second half, when forward Brooke DeRosa notched her 11th goal in the 51st minute. Sophomore back Jess Crankshaw served a corner kick to the deep back post where a waiting Liz Guise crashed in with a header back on goal, and DeRosa was able to deflect it in to the left side of the net to give the Pride an insurance goal.

DeRosa’s 11 goals are good enough to put her all alone in fifth place on the Pride’s all-time single season list with more games to play.

As has been the story all year, the Pride defense put the clamp on Delaware’s offense, not allowing a goal for the eighth time this season. Junior goalie Krystal Robens made five saves, tying her season high.

There are parts of the game that can be controlled and parts, like the weather, that can’t be. Riddiough said the wind was a major factor in Sunday’s game, and his team’s response couldn’t have been better.

“To play in those kinds of conditions and pretty much dictate the result was impressive if you ask me,” he said. “We didn’t allow them many chances in that first half when we played against the wind and got a goal. Then in the second half it was just a matter of getting a second goal and killing the game, and that’s exactly what we did.”

Perhaps the most impressive part of the Pride season has been their consistency and dominance of CAA opponents, both in wins and losses. Hofstra has out-shot opponents in every game this season. They have recorded an impressive eight shutouts. And they are tied for the CAA lead in total goals scored with 33.

“We’ve got a lot of depth, so when other teams get tired, we can put new players in and they’ll step it up at the same time,” Riddiough said. “Everyone that goes in contributes with energy and enthusiasm, and when you have that, you get a lot more consistent play from everybody.”

In the first game of the weekend on Friday, the Pride handily defeated an overmatched Drexel squad 1-0 for their fifth 2-0 weekend of the year. DeRosa scored the lone goal of that game off a corner from Crankshaw that midfielder Tiffany Yovino headed towards the net for a waiting DeRosa.

The Pride now head into its final regular season game Thursday against Northeastern with a load of momentum and a CAA title in mind.

“We’re happy with the way things have gone,” Riddiough said. “The team’s playing well. We’re looking fit; we’re looking fast; we’re looking sharp, and I think we’ve got a nice level of confidence. It’s not arrogance, just good confidence that we can beat anybody we play, which is a good trait.”

“The team knows it’s going to take hard work to be successful from here on out, and they’re willing to do it,” Riddiough added. “All those attributes make us a tough team to play at the moment.”

Jill Lipardi and the women’s soccer team appear poised to enter the CAA playoffs as one of the favorites to win the conference crown and advance further into the postseason. (Merab Okeyo/The Chronicle)