TOWSON, MD — Despite seniors Laura Masciullo and Luisa Sydlik continuing their climb through the Hofstra record books, the Pride couldn’t pick up the win against the Towson University Tigers as they dropped their Sunday afternoon match in Maryland, three sets to none, with scores of 25-15, 25-15 and 25-21.
With 12 kills, Masciullo brought her career total to 1,508. This moves her into No. 3 on Hofstra’s all-time kills list. Sydlik moved into fourth all-time in assists at 3,866. She recorded 20 in the match.
Masciullo has come back in a big way since her struggles in the Hofstra Invitational, averaging 13.3 kills in the three matches since then.
A big problem for the Pride is a lack of depth behind Masciullo. The player with the second-most kills for the Pride this matchup was Juliana Vaz, who only recorded six. Additionally, the team recorded 18 errors, three more than the Tigers.
The Pride was competitive early on, keeping the set close until the Tigers took a 12-9 lead. From that point, Towson went on a 5-0 run, putting them ahead 17-9. After that, the Pride couldn’t string anything together and eventually dropped the set, 25-15.
The Pride came out strong in the second set despite their slow start. After falling behind 6-2, Masciullo came up with three consecutive kills en route to a 4-0 run that tied up the set at six. The teams went back and forth until the set was tied at nine.
The Pride continued to respond to any attack the Tigers had, keeping the set close at 16-13. From there, Hofstra’s issue with errors started to catch up to them as the Tigers went on a 6-0 run to put the set out of reach at 22-13. Of those six unanswered points, three of them were by way of an error.
The Tigers took that momentum into the third set, jumping out to a quick 4-0 lead. After the Pride started to get into a rhythm they finally went on a run of their own, going 6-0 to take an 11-8 lead in the set. It was only their fourth lead of the day. The set continued to go back and forth, but the Pride maintained a lead as late as 15-14 in the third set.
After that, the Tigers started to gain more distance, but the Pride kept it close, trailing by only one point as late as 22-21. Unfortunately for the Pride, the Tigers closed out the set on a 3-0 run, taking the set and the match.
This continues the Pride’s rough start in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play, as they have lost two of their first three matches. It’s the first time since 2016 that they’ve begun conference play 1-2. They finished that season at 10-6 in the conference, good for No. 3 in the CAA.
The Pride look to get back in the win column on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at home against Northeastern University.
Image courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
