By Kiana Trice-Hill — STAFF WRITER
The Hofstra volleyball team breezed through Bryant University volleyball team three sets to none Saturday morning in the Hofstra/ASICS Invitational tournament at the David S. Mack Physical Education Center.
A couple of slow starts occurred throughout the entire match, but that didn’t stop the Pride from winning its fourth home match of the season. The Pride won by scores of 25-11, 25-16 and 25-22.
“I think we played well overall.” said Hofstra head coach Emily Mansur. “Our players stepped up and there were some very good things that were good to see so we can use that for the NCAA [tournament] but I think it was a good effort for the team.”
Sophomore Luisa Sydlik had a game-high 37 assists. Sydlik reached 1,000 assists in a Hofstra uniform during Saturday morning’s contest.
The first set started off rocky for Hofstra due to a couple of minor mistakes, which led to the Bulldogs leading early in the first set 6-1. Hofstra freshman Emma Price gave a kill and freshman Ivania Ortiz had three spectacular serves and a kill to fuel the Pride to tie the set at six. After that, the Pride rolled through the rest of the opening set, winning 25-11.
After a relatively quiet second-set victory, the third set of the match was the most competitive one for Hofstra. Though the Bulldogs couldn’t just catch up with the Pride during the first two sets, it was the third set that caught the Pride off guard, forcing the team to step it up on defense.
Ortiz finished strong with a double-double, notching 10 digs and 10 kills. Julia Van Fleet had 10 digs as well. Junior Michela Rucli had a total of seven kills.
The Pride had a total of 42 kills, while the Bulldogs had 29. Even though Hofstra overmatched the Bulldogs in the assist column by a 39-28 margin, the Bulldogs eked out the Pride in the digs column by a 38-35 margin.
“We’ve been focusing a lot in practice,” Mansur said. “The first two minutes of practice is to play perfect volleyball, so we can get the mentality that we need to start our matches strong.”
This win is Hofstra’s eighth win of the season.
Hofstra will host College of Charleston this Tuesday at the David S. Mack Physical Education Center. The Cougars are 10-3 this season and are in third place early on in the CAA standings.
Game time is at 7 p.m
