With another winning season under head coach Simon Riddiough in 2022, the Hofstra University Pride women’s soccer team continues their 2023 campaign as they look to capture their third straight Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) championship and a bid to the NCAA tournament.  

Hofstra finished with an overall record of 10-8-4, winning their second straight CAA tournament championship. The Pride carried on to the first round of the NCAA tournament, where they suffered a defeat to Georgetown 1-0. 

“We lose five, six, seven good players every year, and you hope you can replace them with freshman, transfers or within the team, and it’s an evolutionary thing. Freshmen last year were better than they were, sophomores were better than they were juniors, and so on,” said Riddiough. “It’s part of the college process. We miss a lot of them. We’ve replaced them from within the team and we’re pretty excited with what we’ve got right now.”

The Pride lost seven seniors from last year’s team but gained seven freshmen. Coach Riddiough explains that it will be an easier transition for the players this year compared to previous seasons.

“[The freshman transition] is a bit similar each year. [It’s] easier this year because we had a lot of sophomores on the team from last year. A lot of those guys are playing more integral roles in our team, so not necessarily relying on the freshman to come in and make a huge impact,” Riddiough said. “We just need them to come in when we require them to and be effective, so it’s easier than most years. We are pretty much a good returning core, and we’re just going to trust and believe that they can carry us to another championship.”

Different personnel can also mean different styles of play used throughout the season. Coach Riddiough mentioned that there’s a blueprint in place from game to game, and if adjustments are needed, they can be made. 

“We have a blueprint which we try and stick with, which deviates depending on personnel and the team. We’re kind of fluid with that stuff. There is a foundational thing that we stick to: we high press, we’re gonna work hard defensively, and we’re gonna be positive in possession, not necessarily negative or direct,” Riddiough said. “It’s a style where we can get the ball forward quickly, under control, and we’ll be in people’s faces. Sometimes we’ll be a bit more indirect, sometimes we’ll be more direct. This team is quite technical, so I can see us being a little bit less direct as this group develops and goes through the season.”

One face that will be familiar to the Pride is defender Louise Hayden. Hayden was a big part of the defensive line last year, as she played in all 22 games and started 21 while helping the Pride to seven shutouts on the season. She mentions that the preseason went well before the team started their non-conference schedule.

“[Preseason’s] been good. I was really looking forward to coming back over the summer, and going to the new team because you always lose some players and get some new players, but it’s been good energy, good practices and a good win against Rutgers. So good start,” Hayden said.

As Hayden enters her fourth season with the Pride, she reflects on what it’s like being a senior, and what she learned from the seniors her freshman year.

“The thing I remember the most is [the seniors] always gave everything no matter if it was like a recovery practice or if it was pregame practice or even a game it’s always to get the best. The best is always different depending on what day it is,” Hayden said. “You can’t always be an outstanding player, but you can always work your very hardest, so that’s the biggest thing I took away from my freshman and sophomore year. Then also how important it is to become a team, and we have developed team chemistry right now, and I think that’s an important thing to bring onto the field to be able to win games when they get hard.”

Along with gaining and losing players, Hofstra lost assistant head coach Gerry Lucey to another coaching job. To fill his place on the coaching staff, the Pride elected to bring on Tom Bowen as an assistant coach.

“Tom’s come on, and he has a great reputation in the men’s game. I know a lot of men’s soccer players who played for him in the summer, and they had only nice things to say about him,” said Riddiough. “Anybody on Long Island who’s dealt with Tom being around him from a coaching perspective or soccer perspective speaks tremendously highly about his abilities and intelligence as a coach. It came back as a pretty clear option for the next assistant coach of our program.”

The Pride have played the University of Albany and Rutgers University in their non-conference schedule. Hofstra suffered a 2-1 loss to Albany to kick off their season 0-1.

“We had a good preseason. I thought we practiced hard, I thought we were prepared, but usually in the early games, you’re missing the final product. Usually, the final product is scoring goals and minimizing mistakes defensively, and we made a couple of mistakes defensively. We didn’t score goals, so that was the first game against Albany,” Riddiough said.

The Pride bounced back in their next game as they defeated Rutgers 1-0.

“We played Rutgers, and we put a high demand on the players because Rutgers is a top 25 program. We knew that we had to play as well as we could to get any kind of result, and the positive about that is we got a tremendous result against an excellent group. It was purely down to the team working hard for each other, staying organized, and being disciplined, and you usually don’t get those traits this early in the season,” Riddiough said. “I think if we can recreate that discipline and hard work and energy that we brought against Rutgers, I think it’s gonna be difficult to beat Hofstra over the next two months.”

The CAA is once again expanding as last year, rivals Stony Brook along with Hampton and Monmouth University joined. This year, Campbell University joins the conference, and Riddiough believes it’s exciting to have a brand new opponent to face. 

“I think Campbell is a good addition. It also adds to the blueprint of the CAA and extends it a little bit. It gives us stability moving through the NCAA right now. I think conferences are collapsing, other conferences are building, and the fact that we’ve got 14 members in our conference gives us a bit of stability moving forward. I like the fact that it’s a new team and it’s somebody we’ve never played. I think it’ll be exciting for the girls, and it’s going to be a good competition,” Riddiough said. 

Riddiough talked about the goals for the season which include winning the conference and advancing to the NCAA Tournament.

“The main goal is to win the conference. I think it’d be a wonderful accomplish
ment. As a coaching staff, you always want your student-athletes to leave with lots of good memories,” Riddiough said. “Winning the championship, I think is a better memory than you can ever have. We want to experience national-level competition and get to the NCAA’s again, and from then on, it’s all about student-athlete welfare and making sure that they’re happy.”

Photo courtesy of Ariel Fox