Despite ending the season undefeated at home, the Pride’s road record fell to 3-6 with a tough loss on Friday night at Towson. After the Pride won three sets to one at home against Towson last month, the Tigers quickly ended this match winning three sets to zero – 25-21, 25-19 and 25-23.
There were several instances where Hofstra failed to communicate. A few points were scored for Towson with the ball landing in the middle of Hofstra’s end of the court because no player went after it. Hofstra even had a moment of hitting the ball four times before getting it over the net.
The Pride failed to reach an attack percentage of .100 in each of the three sets, their highest being .079 percent in the third set. Laura Masciullo and Veronika Kostova led the team in kills with six each. Luisa Sydlik and Hannah Klemm accounted for 21 of the team’s 22 total assists.
Towson’s performance was not the strongest either. Their best set was the first, with a .323 attack percentage, and they ended the following two sets with a .175 and -.032 attack percentage. The Tigers’ scoring was led by Candace Steadman, Jessica Lewis, Lindsay Flaherty and Payton Windell, each with seven kills.
Service aces and service errors played a major role in this match. Hofstra ended with four aces and 10 errors while Towson also ended with four aces but seven errors. With the only competitive set of the match (third set) coming down to the wire tied at 23, Towson scored their final two points thanks to a service error by Hofstra and a service ace by Annie Ertz – her third of the match.
The CAA tournament is just two weeks away, and Hofstra is looking to surpass Northeastern University as the top seed through their final two matches. They matchup against the University of Delaware this coming Sunday and Elon University next Friday. With both games being away, the Pride hopes to put an end to its road struggles and beat both of these teams for the second time this season.