By Joe Fay – STAFF WRITER
The Hofstra Field Hockey team ended their season with a crushing loss to the University of Delaware’s Fighting Blue Hens on Friday evening, losing by a score of 8-1 in the CAA Championship Semifinal game. Stella Schoen scored the lone goal for Hofstra.
The Pride never recovered the momentum they lost last week in their regular season finale, an 8-1 loss at James Madison University, which was also the location for the semifinal game. When Delaware and Hofstra met earlier in the season, the Pride were successful in slowing down the Blue Hens transition offense, despite a loss, which is their key weapon. That was not the case Friday night, as the transition offense proved to be too much for the Pride to handle.
Hofstra’s Head Coach Kathy De Angelis said that for “[Delaware’s] first three goals, our transition wasn’t there.”
Delaware struck first at 16:57, and then again 31 seconds later to make the lead 2-0. At the 20-minute mark, Stella Schoen scored her 17th goal of the season to bring the Pride to within one on their only shot of the first half.
Things only got worse from there, as Delaware tacked on two more goals before the break, opening the score up to 4-1. The Pride decided to switch goalies at halftime, placing Carys Swan in for Lauren Saltus. The change in net did not slow down the Blue Hen attack, as four different Blue Hens scored in the second half to complete the 8-1 rout.
Although the Hofstra defense could not stop Delaware’s transition, they did not get any support from the offense either. The Pride had eight shots the entire game, with just five on goal. The
Blue Hens shut down almost all scoring opportunities, and only allowed CAA leading scorer Claudia Marin Samper one shot on goal.
Coach De Angelis was correct in saying that Hofstra “fought every minute of this game”, but it’s hard to win when you get outshot 17-8. Delaware had their way with Hofstra and moved on to win the CAA Championship over James Madison on Sunday.
Coach De Angelis does not want to dwell on the loss, saying that “a game like this is not going to define our season.” Having not made the CAA Championship Tournament since 2012, the Pride had a strong season. They end the 2015 campaign with a respectable 14-6 record that earned them the third seed in the conference. Coach De Angelis, looking back on her 18th year as the Head Coach of Hofstra Field Hockey, added that her team “had a great year, [and] a great run.” With much of the roster returning for next season, the Pride will look to build on this year and bring home the CAA Championship.
