By By David Gibb, Sports Editor

 The Hofstra Pride women’s soccer team has officially opened Colonial Athletic Association play, and they have done so with a bang, getting off to a 2-0 start.

The 11-game slate of all-conference play that will conclude the schedule for the Pride began Thursday night in Newark against the University of Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens. Entering the match-up, the Hofstra women’s team owned victories in every one of their last nine games against the Hens.

Despite the Pride’s tremendous track record, Delaware was the team on the offense early. In the 11th minute of the game, Hens’ forward Stacie Dulkis lobbed a ball over everybody’s head and into the back of the net, giving Delaware an early 1-0 lead.

Not one to rest on her laurels, Dulkis extended the Blue Hens’ advantage in the 27th minute, making some fancy moves before lobbing another ball high over goalkeeper Krysten Farriella’s head. The 2-0 lead may have looked commanding, but as the old soccer axiom goes, up 2-0 can be a very dangerous situation.

Despite Delaware’s dominance of the first half, the Pride proved early in the second that they were not about to give up. In the 51st minute, the team got their first goal of the game when sophomore forward Laura Greene beat Blue Hen coop-keeper Annie Bevan, who dove but was unable to corral the ball.

With the score 2-1 and time working against them, the Pride finally got the crucial, game-tying second goal in the 79th minute. The all-important kick came out of a crowd off the foot of Hofstra’s leading scorer Salma Tarik at the top of the box.

As regulation time ran down, it appeared that Hofstra were destined to play another overtime game, but in the 89th minute Laura Greene, who had Hofstra’s first goal of the game, became part of another huge play. Greene passed to junior midfielder Tiffany Yovino, who kicked home the tie-breaking goal to complete a thrilling comeback for the Pride, who won the game 3-2.

Sunday afternoon, the Pride looked to continue their winning ways within the CAA, welcoming the Drexel Dragons to the Hofstra Soccer Stadium for their first home conference game. Jess Crankshaw got the Pride off to a 1-0 lead on a 29th minute, 25-yard direct kick.

Just before halftime in the 45th minute, Crankshaw scored on another direct kick, this one glancing off the fingers of Drexel keeper Nicole Sinclair from 30 yards out. The goal gave both Crankshaw and Hofstra two on the day.

In the second half, the Pride ran away with the game, as Tiffany Yovino came up with a loose ball and a goal to push the Pride’s lead to 3-0. Her performance against Drexel as well as her game-winner against Delaware led to Yovino being named CAA Co-Player of the Week.

The second half also saw Jess Crankshaw score her third goal of the game, this time on a penalty shot. The hat trick gave Crankshaw four goals on the season, good for a share of the team lead with Salma Tarik.

Hofstra absolutely dominated at home against Drexel, ultimately winning 4-0 and sealing an extremely promising first weekend to their CAA conference schedule. The Dragons had only seven shots all game, as the Pride effectively shut them down. With the victory, the Pride sit on an 8-3-1 record with a so-far perfect 2-0 mark in the Colonial Athletic Association.

The upcoming weekend will see the Hofstra women’s soccer team hit the road to face George Mason on Friday night and Towson Sunday afternoon. George Mason has an 8-3 overall record, but are 0-2 thus far in conference play. The Towson Tigers are 5-5-1 with a 1-1 CAA mark.

(Photo courtesy of Sports Information)