By Nico Bermudez — STAFF WRITER
The Pride volleyball team won the 2017 meeting with Long Island rival Stony Brook on Tuesday night three sets to two.  After a very sluggish 1-4 start, the Pride has won its last two matches and now stand at 3-4.

“A win is a win and that’s always a great thing to go home with,” said Hofstra head coach Emily Mansur after the win.

The Pride began the match very slowly, losing the first set 25-15. Early on, Hofstra didn’t really seem to have a chance at putting a nice run together.

But the team rallied together and bounced back in both sets two and three.  The Pride won the second set pretty comfortably by a score of 25-16, then took a very competitive third set by a 25-23 score.  Stony Brook went on to take set four while Hofstra took the fifth set to seal the win in this cross-town rivalry match.

Setter Luisa Sydlik put together quite the match, as she managed to get 53 assists.  She recorded 53 of the Pride’s 57 assists total.  Sydlik is filling in the void of the now-graduated Hofstra star Hannah Klemm very nicely.

“Both of our starting outside hitters just couldn’t figure out their game, they couldn’t get in rhythm,” Mansur said.

The outside hitters, Nanishka Perez and Laura Masciullo, combined for a total of just eleven kills.  Coach Mansur noticed throughout the game they were struggling and felt they “weren’t watching the game.”

Masciullo and Perez are both outstanding outside hitters, so look for them to have big games in their next match.

With two wins in a row, Hofstra is ready to head down to Tuscaloosa for the Hampton Inn Bama Bash.  The Pride will open up the weekend against Furman University on Friday Sept. 8 at noon.