By Mike Rudin – SPORTS EDITOR
Before the season, Emily Mansur said 2015 was going to be a “rebuilding year,” and the Maryland Invitational was going to be a huge test for the Hofstra volleyball team.

“We don’t have an easier tournament like we did last year because I really wanted this group to come in and have a crash course,” said Mansur. “I didn’t want them to think ‘Oh, this is going to be easy,’ because that’s no reality.”

Mansur’s team was put to the test and came out with stellar results, winning three of the four matches within the tournament.

Friday consisted of back-to-back victories to start the season against Duquesne University and Kent State University, both wins came off of finishing each match at four sets.

The 2015 season opener against the Duquesne Dukes was a match that highlighted the team’s strengths on the roster. Veronika Kostova with 18 kills and Leticia Valente with 17 in match one. Plus, Hannah Klemm compiled 46 assists and both Corrina Delgadillo as well as Luisa Domingues each put 15 digs on the scoreboard.

The first set went to the Pride by a score of 25-18, after the score flipped flopped on both sides for a while, Hofstra started to pull away by the 15-13 point-mark. The Pride put up five consecutive points to create a seven-point lead and ultimately secure the 1-0 start.

The second set hosted Duquesne wanting revenge and they squeaked by, pulling a 25-23 victory up and under the Pride to even the match standings 1-1.

In the third set, two separate Dukes’ rallies – a five-point streak and a four-point streak – put Duquesne up 23-16 and posed big trouble for Hofstra. But the Pride buckled down and stringed together seven unanswered points to tie it at 23-23.

After that, Hofstra carried the momentum to take three of the four points following to win the third set and clinch the win in the fourth, going the distance 25-17.

Match two against Kent State University consisted of a different story but with the similar results. The Golden Eagles caught the Pride sleeping, taking the first set 25-18 right under their noses.

But Hofstra wouldn’t take it lightly and retaliated back winning the next three sets to secure their second win of the day.

The Pride squashed the Eagles in the second set 25-9, Kent State kept it completive in the third and fourth set but the Pride came out on top with a few points to spare each.

The very next day hosted the third and fourth matches of the Maryland Invitational and the Pride faced their hardest challenge, going up the invitational hosts, the Maryland Terrapins.

The Terps showed how a full day’s worth of completive volleyball took a toll on the Pride which put the crash in crash course by the third match.

Hofstra was handed their first lost on the season and in sweeping fashion to boot, the first set pre-determined how the whole match was going to go with the Pride shooting themselves in the foot and the offense shutting down. 20 attack errors in the match and 10 fewer kills than the Terrapins had.

The Pride lost the first set 25-22 but plentiful of attack errors and lack of kills early on costed Hofstra the entire match. Maryland got into a groove by the second set and went on a frenzy to win set number two by a 25-13 margin.

The Pride managed to start pulling themselves together in the midst of the third set. But ultimately it was too little too late as Maryland continued their play of utilizing the offense to simply overpower the Pride and take advantage of their own mistakes.

After the bitter loss settled in, Hofstra took it as fuel for their second match of the day against the Morgan State Bears.

Despite Morgan State not being as strong of a team compared to Maryland, it was the type of team needed to show Hofstra can rebound from a loss within a blink of an eye.

The Pride strutted their stuff and came out winning back-to-back-to-back for the sweep over the Bears.

Hofstra took complete control from the very beginning and they won each set by at least 10 points. Veronkia Kostova bounced back with 12 kills and Leticia Valente contributed with eight. Corrina Delagdillo (13) and Sophia Black (7) held down the fort, compiling 20 digs altogether.