The Hofstra University volleyball team defeated the University of Connecticut Huskies 3-1 on Friday, Sept. 1, continuing their season with a perfect 5-0 start.

Junior Beatriz Braga led the team with 14 kills. Sophomores Clara Bal and Izadora Stedile were right behind Braga with 12 and 10 kills respectively.

The Pride trailed narrowly early on in the first set, 6-8 and 8-10, but ultimately dropped the first set 16-25.

In the second set, Hofstra led the entire time. The Pride got out to a 10-4 lead in the opening minutes before the Huskies cut the deficit to 12-9. Hofstra then scored four unanswered points to make it 16-9.

Up 20-14, Hofstra was in prime position to close out the second set. UConn took advantage of multiple attack errors and tightened the score 20-18. After that, the Pride collected themselves and won the set 25-19, both teams owning a set apiece.

From that point forward, it was all Hofstra. They jumped out to a 5-1 start to begin the third set. UConn battled to stay close at 9-6, but Hofstra was stronger as they went up 14-6. The point-trading continued until the Pride went up 19-11, where the Huskies scored three in a row to make it 19-14. That’s when Hofstra put down six unanswered points to take the third set 25-14.

With Hofstra looking to close out the match, the fourth set started out as a back-and-forth affair with Hofstra up 6-5. The Pride took advantage of more attack errors to extend the lead to 10-5 before adding in more unanswered points for a 14-7 performance.

Hofstra maintained their iron grip on the ball, taking the fourth set 25-13 to win the match 3-1.

As a team, Hofstra recorded a .270 hitting percentage, more than double that of UConn, who finished the day at .118.

The Pride will wrap up the tournament with two matches on Saturday, Sept. 2. The first will come against Merrimack College at 11 a.m., followed by a matchup with Lehigh University at 4:30 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Clarus Multimedia Group