By Kevin Carroll – ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
It was a stellar start to the 2015 season for the Hofstra field hockey team on Friday, opening up play with a convincing 4-2 victory over the University of Vermont at the Hofstra Field Hockey Stadium.

“It’s exciting, certainly, to win our first match and we were well prepared,” said head coach Kathy DeAngelis. “I knew [when] finishing up pre-season that we were ready for today. I thought that we showed all the hard work from pre-season and the off-season last year.”

All-CAA preseason selection Claudia Marin-Samper came out firing for the Pride, netting a hat trick to lead her squad to victory, with senior captain Charlotte Loehr providing the assist for two of Marin-Samper’s goals. Stella Schoen also scored for Hofstra, and goalie Lauren Saltus made two saves, notching her first career victory.

Shots rained down on Catamount goalie Lena Benwood from the very get-go, as Hofstra’s offense exploded for 28 shots in the match, nine coming off the stick of Marin-Samper.

The junior forward proved to be too much for the Vermont defense to handle, scoring the first two goals of the match for Hofstra, giving them a nice 2-0 cushion just over thirteen minutes into the game.

Vermont’s offense sputtered early going up against the Pride defense, not getting off a shot until fifteen minutes in. The Catamounts picked up their first goal off a penalty corner at the 17:21 mark, pulling to within one goal, but they failed to get another shot off for the rest of the first half.

The second half was more of the same, with the Pride offense attacking relentlessly, getting off multiple shots. Stella Schoen picked up her first goal of the season to stretch the Pride’s lead to 3-1.

Marin-Samper followed just six minutes later, completing her hat-trick with an unassisted goal.

Molly Higgins scored for Vermont at the 59:08 mark, but that was it, as the Pride held firm for the remainder of the half, coming away with a 4-2 victory.