By Tyler McCord, Staff Writer
This past weekend the Hofstra volleyball team travelled to West Point, NY to participate in the West Point Challenge. Although going 1-3, the Pride had many matches that could have went either way, but in the end the ladies from Hofstra left West Point with only one win under its belt.
In the first match against Buffalo, the Bulls stepped out to an early lead but the lead shortly diminished as the Pride took its first lead on a kill from Nikki Kinnier going up 8-7. After Kinnier’s kill, the Pride did not look back. Leading by six at one point 15-9 the Pride was dominating, but Buffalo fought back to bring the set within three points at 15-13. Then, a kill by Marina Markovic generated a streak that the Bulls could not stop. Hofstra had timely kills and forced errors against Buffalo, which were ultimately too much for the Bulls to handle and Hofstra took the first set 25-18. Hofstra would end up winning the match against Buffalo by a score of 3-1 with the help of Markovic’s twenty-one kills and ten digs giving her the first double-double of her career.
Later that day, Hofstra took on Bryant hoping to continue its winning streak. The Pride won the first set over Bryant 25-19 on a kill from Markovic. That would be the end of outscoring the Bulldogs. Bryant would win the next three sets to win overall by a score of 3-1, making Hofstra 1-1 for the day.
Sunday, September 19, Hofstra’s first opponent was the United States Air Force Academy. Hofstra dropped the first set 22-25, but came out the second set to beat Air Force 26-24 to notch the match at one win a piece. Then Air Force went on a streak to win two sets in a row, 25-23 and 25-21, to hand Hofstra its tenth loss of the season.
Following the loss to Air Force, the Pride took on its next and final opponent and also the host of the tournament: Army. The first set went Hofstra’s way with the Pride topping Army 25-22 with the set ending on a kill from Savannah Benton. The next set would not go Hofstra’s way, with Army winning in dominating fashion by a score of 25-12. Following the Black Knights win, they repeated by beating the Pride in set three by a 25-20. Then, Hofstra answered with a win of their own winning with a mirror score of the previous set 25-20. So it came down to the last set and it was a battle. Hofstra was up 10-6 at one point, but Army fought back to take the lead at a crucial point in the set, 14-13 on an attack error. After the error, Army closed the game out on a kill.
The Pride came back to Hempstead to face off against Fairfield on Wednesday. Not only was this a big game because Hofstra was in need of a win, but because they were about to play the first event on the new hardwood in the David S. Mack Sports Complex. “It was it was important for us, as an athletic department, to get the first win on here” said head coach Kristina Hernandez. “It definitely feels good because we didn’t want to come on here and stink it up, so it was a good win before conference play.”
In the first set, Hofstra fought back from an early lead taken by Fairfield but ended up taking the set 28-26. “We needed to be ready for them to come back” Hernandez told her young team. “To win the next set we would have to pass and serve more aggressively.” The ladies from Hofstra responded to her message. Taking an early lead Hofstra stayed there to win the set 25-23 with help from sophomore middle blocker Carolyn Jenkins and multiple errors coming from Fairfield.
Going up 2-0, the Pride had to be the aggressors. “If we have an opportunity to close out a team we want to do it,” said Hernandez. “We don’t want to give a team any type of momentum to try and crawl back into the game.” With that being said, the Pride gave the Stags no opportunities of crawling back. They went up 6-0 at one point and finished off Fairfield to win the set 25-23.
The Hofstra volleyball team currently stands with a record of 6-11and ends the week in conference play against William & Mary and VCU. “We have to be aggressive” stated Hernandez. “Conference is a whole different monster, everybody is in it to win, every game is important, and we definitely do not want to give any games away.”