Last season, after the Hofstra University softball team secured a Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) championship title, they took a trip to the NCAA tournament. While things didn’t go as planned in the big dance, the Pride heads into the highly anticipated 2024 season poised to make another run.
“Last year is in the past, and what we did was amazing,” said Hofstra head softball coach Adrienne Clark. “It allowed us to build some additional confidence in ourselves and get to experience something that not everyone gets to experience. We are in a new season, a new year. I see it as another opportunity to find a way to excel and win another championship. We’re trying to reframe the mindset around building off the momentum and the confidence that we built while also embracing the new challenge that lies right in front of us.”
This season, the Pride will be without standout middle infielder Meghan Giordano. Giordano joined Clark’s staff as an assistant coach this past summer. Giordano slashed .341/.450/.695 last season while also hitting 15 homeruns, and finding just one player to make up for that kind of production is improbable.
“I think it will be a combination of people,” Clark said. “Aliya Catanzarita is in position. She’s done nothing but continue to improve her offensive game and you saw that in the conference tournament. I think she’s starting to find that consistency within her process, and I do anticipate that she’ll have a standout year. Becca Vaillancourt and Olivia Malinowski both have capabilities of elevating their game. We have Brianna Morse, who has tremendous power in her bat, and I think we’ll see a little bit more from her as well. I anticipate that we also have a couple of freshmen that have a lot of power in their bats: Chelsea Villar, Gabriella Sultan and Dahlia Palacio.”
The Pride has 15 returners and seven additional freshmen. Clark highlighted some freshmen who could make an immediate impact this season.
“[The freshmen] all kind of did [stand out this offseason] in their own ways,” Clark said. “Lily Yepez is really fast, has a strong arm, and she’s a slapper, and I anticipate a lot of good things from her in a variety of ways. In addition to that, I’m curious to see how Mackenzie Fitzgerald comes into her own. Nicole Cancel is phenomenal defensively, and the strides she’s made have been really impressive.”
One returner who shined under the brightest of lights in 2023 by being a part of the CAA All-Rookie team is Alanna Morse. The all-around infielder showed promising potential at the plate by slashing .284/.329/.377.
“[Alanna Morse] started every game for us last year,” Clark said. “She is so dynamic defensively that you can put her anywhere on the field. Offensively, we found a really good spot for her in the bottom of the lineup where she got to see favorable pitching and had a ton of success. She’s going to be a fixture in the lineup.”
Graduate infielder/utility Chelsea Manto had an impressive 2023 campaign and was credited with the All-CAA First team honor. Manto slashed .301/.326/.352 while also stealing 27 bases. Replicating a season like that could bring this team right back to the top of the CAA and possibly the NCAA tournament.
“We do prepare ourselves over the offseason by hitting live off our own pitchers, and they do challenge us because they know our strengths and weaknesses,” Manto said. “Hitting is just as much physical as it is mental, so I believe in having a positive mindset while also having confidence in myself, helps me get back into the swing of things.”
Senior pitcher Julia Apsel was leaned on heavily down the final stretch last season. The southpaw’s explosiveness inside the circle could help this team get back to the NCAA tournament.
“I don’t anticipate her slowing down in any way,” Clark said. “She is so strong, so explosive, and she’s taken her game to a whole new level for herself. The confidence that it’s building and the speed and power in which she’s generating, I anticipate us having that throughout the course of the year.”
Apsel isn’t the only name to watch out for when it comes to the pitching staff. Other names that can make huge leaps this season include Anna Butler, Annabella Pisapia, Marisa Ogden and Haley Venturini.
“We have an incredible pitching staff,” Clark said. “I’m hoping we can keep them all in a really strong place and try to minimize any sort of fatigue throughout the season because we have a stacked pitching staff.”
Hofstra starts their season with a trip down south to the Sunshine State to take on the University of Illinois Chicago on Friday, Feb. 16, in the Fonseca Memorial Tournament at the University of South Florida. After that tournament on opening weekend, they will compete in two other invitational tournaments: first the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks Classic, then the University of Texas Longhorn Invitational. These programs in the southern part of the United States are playing year-round, so playing them early before conference play can set the Pride up for potential success come March. Some of the teams on the Pride’s schedule don’t play year-round, but these games tend to be littered with some of the top competition in the country.
“When you start out of the gate with the best of the best, it really helps get our underclassmen to understand the speed of the game and how it’s played at a high level,” Clark said. “In addition, it challenges our returners to understand that while they did some really cool stuff last year and had a lot of success, so has every other team in the country. So when you get to open up play in good weather and play that strength of schedule, I think as hard as it is because the wins and losses may not go in your favor, it gives you this experience that provides you with some confidence as you go into conference play.”
The season is just under two weeks away, and this team may have a target on their backs as the defending CAA champions. Conference play begins on Friday, Mar. 8, against Towson University, and the home opener is Friday, Mar. 15, against Drexel University.
Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
