For most young teams, growing pains and struggles are inevitable. For the Hofstra volleyball team, one of the youngest teams on campus, that has certainly been the case so far this season.
But despite their up-and-down start in 2021, one that has seen both a thrilling upset against the usually unbeatable Towson University Tigers and a sweep from the lowly University of Delaware Blue Hens, the future looks very bright for the Hofstra Pride.
Since the end of the 2019 season, Hofstra has struggled to find consistent replacements for two of its all-time greats in outside hitter Laura Masciullo and setter Luisa Sydlik. The Pride also said farewell to its senior libero Juliana Vaz after last season, leaving yet another hole to be filled.
However, three freshmen standouts this year have shown that they can be the new leaders for the Pride and propel them back to the top of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) in the years to come.
Those freshmen are libero Chiara Cucco, setter Beatriz Alves and outside hitter Florencia Wolkowyski. All three have played big roles in the nine Hofstra wins this season and are already forming an incredibly strong bond on and off the court.
“It’s been wonderful to have them here,” said Hofstra head coach Emily Mansur. “Chiara Cucco really takes a lot of pressure off of other players on the back row, she has a great presence, and [Alves] got here late and has really been running a great volleyball match.”
Cucco has served as Hofstra’s defensive specialist and currently leads the CAA with 328 digs and 4.97 digs per set. While putting up those strong numbers, Cucco has been fulfilling her lifelong dream of coming to the United States from Italy.
“For sure it has not been easy because it’s a completely different reality, school, volleyball game and a different style of life,” Cucco said. “But honestly it has been my dream since I was two years old to come to the U.S.”
For many international student athletes, adjusting to life in a new country can be tough, whether it’s on or off the court. For Cucco, one of the more difficult parts about playing at Hofstra so far has been the difference in the libero position between the United States and Italy.
“Here, the libero serves a lot. In Italy, the libero doesn’t serve at all, so for me it was completely different because I have never served in my life,” Cucco said. “Now that I’m here I have to serve all the time so this shows we can always learn something.”
Despite having no experience in one of the most important skills of the game, Cucco has been learning on the fly, and has adjusted very well. In her 17 matches this season, she has 10 service aces.
“It’s just all about practice. I know that here I have to serve, so if I want to play I have to do that,” Cucco said. “I just have to keep practicing as much as I can and I will be okay.”
On the offensive side, the Brazil native Alves has been one of the best in the conference at her position, leading with 599 assists, while Wolkowyski, coming over from Spain, has racked up 125 kills, good for third on the team.
“I think Alves needed a little more time to get settled and adjust to the crazy life of a student athlete, but since we have gotten closer to the tournament, she has been ready to roll,” Mansur said.
Alves was one of the last members to join the team this year, but that has not stopped her from dominating the position and becoming one of the best young setters in the conference.
She also ranks fourth in the CAA with 9.08 assists per set, fourth in total service aces with 25 and sixth with 0.38 service aces per set. It’s been a strong start to her Hofstra career, but she too had some difficulties adjusting to life on the Island, especially with her late arrival.
“At first it was hard when I got here because I was late,” Alves said. “It was hard because I’m a setter too because of the different languages, different timing and different players. Now it’s been better this last month and we have improved a lot.”
One of the main factors to her success this season has been her bond with her teammates and coaches, especially fellow Brazilian Mansur. This helped Alves recently have one of the best performances of her short career against Northeastern University, where she totaled 47 assists, seven kills and 13 digs.
“It’s good that [Mansur] is Brazilian too, so for me it’s easier when I struggle with English and she can explain to me in Portuguese and that helps a lot,” Alves said. “I think being a team is important, and in that last game against Northeastern we had a lot of energy as a team that pushed everybody together.”
While Hofstra’s lead attacker this season has been graduate student Ana Martinovic, another freshman who also had a huge impact on the offense is Wolkowyski, who currently sits third on the team in kills and second in kills per set with 2.66 and points per set with 2.89.
Her best performance came in Hofstra’s biggest win since their 2018 championship season, where she racked up 15 kills in their upset win over Towson. Since then, she has totaled nine-plus kills in every match and reached double digits twice.
Once Martinovic departs in just a few months, Wolkowyski will most likely move into an even larger role on the offense and could become one of the most powerful outside hitters in the CAA. If she can clean up the errors, something she and this team has struggled with a lot this season, Wolkowyski can lead the Pride’s offensive attack to great success.
Before she leaves after five successful seasons with the Pride, Martinovic will continue to provide strong leadership to all the underclassmen this season, which has also been a huge factor in their success.
“[Martinovic] was the first person that I met when I came here and she’s very nice,” Cucco said. “I think she can be nice when she has to be nice and tough when she has to be tough so she pushes me to always get better and improve myself.”
Hofstra is 9-8 overall on the season and 3-3 in CAA play. They have pulled off some great wins against other top teams in the conference, including Northeastern and Towson. But they have also suffered some incredibly tough losses, such as blowing a chance at a fifth set in their second match against Towson and falling in a sweep to the eighth-place Blue Hens.
The young Pride understands a lot of more work needs to be done to reach the ultimate goal. With the strong play of Cucco, Alves and Wolkowyski, plus the veteran leadership from Martinovic, Mansur and other seniors like Maddie Appleton and Sheryl Matthew, this could just be the beginning of a championship-level core.
“For this season we hope to win the championship,&
#8221; Cucco said. “I think it would be really, really great to win the championship my first year, but I just hope everything keeps improving and getting better in the future.”
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
