By Juliana Battaglia — SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
The Hofstra women’s soccer team ended its final game out of a four-game home-stand in a frustrating, scoreless draw with Monmouth University after two overtime periods on Sunday afternoon.

Hofstra outshot the Hawks 27-5, led by forward Kristin Desmond with eight, but couldn’t manage to notch a point against goalkeeper Amanda Knaub, who made eight saves in the game. Desmond alone took three more shots than the total number of shots taken by Monmouth all afternoon.

Aside from Knaub’s eight saves, the defense managed nine blocks against Hofstra’s shot attempts. Hofstra finished with an 8-2 advantage in shots on goal and each team took four corner kicks apiece.

There were many squandered opportunities that could have tilted the game in Hofstra’s favor, but freshman Lucy Shepherd’s missed shot in overtime arguably came the closest to securing a win for the Pride. Her shot deflected off the crossbar, mere inches away from sealing the win and putting an end to the team’s game-long struggles.

Head coach Simon Riddiough believes the team played well against Monmouth, but he acknowledges that there is still work that needs to be done with Hofstra opening up CAA competition in just two weeks.

“We can’t get away with [ending in a tie] in Conference, we have to finish a team a lot earlier than what we did today,” Riddiough said.

In spite of the work that lies ahead, the amount of pressure the team exerted to hold Monmouth scoreless is a step in the right direction.

“That means we are getting to where we need to be. That means when it comes to confidence when we play on Thursday, we are going to be a very difficult team to beat,” Riddiough said.

On another note, Hofstra’s goalkeeper Jenna Borresen put up two saves and held attackers scoreless in her second complete game. When asked his thoughts on Borresen’s efforts, Riddiough expressed his delight with his goalkeeper’s performance.

“[Borresen was] competent, confident, dominant. She was good … You can’t fault Jenna’s performance in the last two games.”

With the tie, Hofstra’s record moves to 3-2-2 on the season. With the four-game home swing all wrapped up, the Pride will next be in action on Thursday night at 7 p.m., heading out east to take on Stony Brook University in the latest chapter of the “Battle of Long Island.”