Last season was a big step for the Hofstra Pride volleyball squad. Coming off one of the best seasons in recent history that saw Kelsie Wills lead the Pride to an NCAA tournament berth, the team had some big shoes to fill.
Despite having an inexperienced squad that featured just two seniors, the Pride put together a 21-11 overall record last year and competed in the CAA tourney. With most of last year’s team coming back for 2016 and a host of transfers ready to suit up for the Pride, Emily Mansur’s squad is poised to make big improvements from last year.
Mansur dove into her international pipeline for the coming season. The roster features players from seven different countries and four different states. Despite graduating only two players last year, there is a good deal of turnover with seven new faces in the mix.
Hofstra’s biggest strength in the coming season will certainly be in its front line. The Pride’s top four scorers from last season – Veronika Kostova, Leticia Valente, Nanishka Perez, and Michaela Rucli – are all back at Hofstra in 2016. Three members of that corps finished in the top 10 in the CAA in kills per set last season.
The fourth member was the third-best blocker in the conference. The only player from that frontline that will be missing is Brianna Montgomery. The right side hitter transferred to UC Irvine. Even without Montgomery, the group of net players for the Pride is a star-studded one.
In addition to the returning four, Hofstra adds a trio of transfers and a pair of freshmen to the mix.
Semen Sen is a graduate transfer from Charlotte. The middle blocker specializes in defense more than offense, finishing last season with 0.99 blocks per set and 2.11 kills per set. She’ll likely be used as a defensive specialist when the Pride is playing a particularly adept frontline squad.
Doris Bogoje comes to Hofstra by way of Long Beach State. Bogoje played for VC Dubrovnik, a team in her home country of Croatia, before attending school in the states. The middle blocker did not log any minutes with the 49ers last year and comes to Hofstra with three remaining years of eligibility.
Paola Figueroa is a junior outside hitter from Arizona Western. Figueroa is an offensive-minded player who finished last season with 2.88 kills per set, which was good for fifth in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference.
Along with incoming freshmen Laura Masciullo and Hanna Russell, the Pride will have a ton of depth at the net. Expect Coach Mansur to do a lot of mix-and-match with those players early in the campaign.
Hofstra also brings back a key cog in the team’s offense with setter Hannah Klemm. The rising senior finished last season with 1493 assists, which led the Colonial by more than 300. Her skills at distributing the ball are unlikely to be matched by anyone Hofstra plays against this year. Freshmen Luisa Sydlik and Malia Randolph will have the opportunity to learn from one of the nation’s best passers.
The biggest question mark for the team on the court will be in the backline. The only two players who Hofstra graduated from last year, Kaitlyn Krause and Corrina Delgadillo, were contributors to that group. Luisa Domingues, who ended last season as the team’s libero, will likely hold that position going forward.
Sophia Black, Hofstra’s libero in 2014, will join Domingues as a returning defensive specialist. The only other defensive specialist on the roster is Caylie Denham, who played in 13 of the team’s 32 matches last year. If those three take a big step forward in 2016, the Pride will run away with the conference title.
According to the official CAA preseason poll for the 2016 season, Hofstra is the favorite to win the conference crown. The Pride was picked first in the conference, just ahead of UNCW, Towson, and James Madison. Klemm, Kostova, and Valente were all picked for the eight-player CAA preseason team.
If the squad is able to play to its strengths at the net and make up for lost depth in the backline, Hofstra will be an extremely tough team to beat atop the Colonial.
