By Stacy Troiano
The offensive resurgence taking place this season among the women’s soccer team has them near the top the northeast region rankings and headed into conference play with a full head of steam. The Pride continued its winning ways on Saturday, defeating Fordham 2-0 on alumni day at the Hofstra Soccer Stadium.
Former Hofstra greats Amber Albrecht and Chrissy Arnone were among the host of other alumni present to watch the new Pride move its record to 6-1 on the season, while Fordham drops to 3-2-1.
Hofstra came out of the gate with a flurry of chances early, and just over eight minutes in, found the net for the first time. Sophomore midfielder Diane Caldwell sent a long ball up the right side where senior Brooke DeRosa ran it down and chipped a crossing shot into the box. Sophomore forward Jill Lipari beat Fordham goalie Elisabeth Roald to the ball and leapt up to head it into the net over Roald’s outstretched hands for her second goal of the season.
The Pride maintained possession of the ball and got a number of shots on goal and stifling the Rams’ offense throughout the first half. Fordham’s best look in the first half was when Alexis Ribadeneyra streaked up the field past Pride defenders, but senior All-American defender Sue Weber flew over from the other side of the field to break up the chance.
With just under 19 minutes left in the first half, DeRosa created a good look for herself. With her back to the goal, she spun around and whipped a shot that sailed just over the top of the cross bar. After weaving in and out of the Fordham defense and threatening to score all half, DeRosa got on the board with just four minutes left in the half. Weber made a long run up the field and fed DeRosa, who craftily dribbled around three Ram defenders and tucked a shot into the lower right corner of the net. DeRosa’s fifth goal of the year put the Pride up 2-0 going into the half, and that would be all they would need.
The aggressive play of Krystal Robens and the Pride defense kept the Fordham offensive attack almost non-existent, as Hofstra dictated the tempo for the entire second half. The Pride has its chances to lead, but Fordham second-half goalie Jen Byer came up with five big saves in the half for the Rams.
The Pride finished the game with a 23-7 edge in shots, and Robens recorded two saves in her second shutout of the season.
“I think it was a solid performance,” head coach Simon Riddiough said. “Fordham came in with a pretty good record, and we expected a competitive game, but we were able to pretty much dictate what we wanted to do. So I’m very happy with the performance and definitely the result.”
With the non-conference portion of the schedule in the books, Hofstra is set to begin CAA play this weekend. Riddiough has confidence in his team after its 6-1 start, and the Pride appear ready to take on the conference.
“I said to the team after Saturday, we’ve done everything we feel we could’ve at this stage of the season other than that hiccup versus Columbia, but even then we performed very well,” Riddiough said.
“This is where it becomes crunch time. The conference this year has had a tremendous non-conference season, so we know we’re going to come up against stiff competition. Hopefully we can step up to the challenge and play as well as we have been and get some wins under our belt.”
The CAA has indeed proven that it will be a tough conference this season. Ten of the 12 CAA teams have posted winning records so far this year, with five of them being ranked in the top 15 in the Mid-Atlantic region and Hofstra at No. 4 in the Northeast.
William and Mary (5-3), which was picked to win the conference, is coming off a shocking upset of North Carolina, the second-ranked team in the country.
Nonetheless, Riddiough is confident in his team’s performance and has high expectations for the rest of the season.
“From what I’ve seen so far with talent and intangibles this team has, we should be competing for a CAA championship, getting to NCAAs and hopefully moving on from there,” Riddiough said. “We’ve got enough talent and ability to make that happen.”
Hofstra’s quest for the CAA title begins with two tough away games this weekend at Towson on Friday and George Mason on Sunday. Riddiough believes this weekend will be crucial point in the conference portion of the schedule.
“This weekend is important. It’s important to get off to a good start. If we can come away and win two away games in the conference, that’s a tremendous start, and we could hopefully use that confidence boost for the following weeks.”