After winning their second straight Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) title and making it to the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2018, the Hofstra women’s soccer team will look to continue their streak for a third year.
“Making the second round of the NCAA was a fantastic achievement,” said Hofstra head coach Simon Riddiough in a radio interview with Radio Hofstra University (WRHU-FM). “We would have liked to have made it more of a competitive game at the end, but I think the length of the season took its toll. We had been on the road seven weeks out of the last eight and I think we were just tired by then.”
Hofstra defeated Boston College in the first round of the NCAA tournament, 4-1, before making a second-round exit to University of Wisconsin in a 6-0 loss.
Hofstra has much to look forward to with many key players returning, including juniors Lucy Porter and Sabrina Bryan, the top goal scorers for the Pride in 2018.
Porter was recently named the Preseason CAA Midfielder of the Year and placed on the Preseason All-CAA team alongside Bryan. Porter was also named to the 2019 Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy watch list.
Despite having many upperclassmen to rely on this season, Hofstra women’s soccer also has many rising sophomores in the lineup that they expect big things from this year.
“The freshmen gained some quality experience and they had a fantastic spring. I am expecting four or five of those freshmen to really push forward this coming fall,” Riddiough said. “They know what to expect now and hopefully the depth and quality of our team from top to bottom will be much better this year.”
Along with a new class of freshman, the Pride also added a new assistant coach, Kelsey Yam. Yam previously served as the head coach of the women’s soccer team at Clarkson University.
“It’s always exciting to get new faces with new personalities and get a chance to re-mold the team into something different,” Riddiough said of his new assistant coach.
For the second year in a row, the Pride was picked first in the preseason CAA poll.
“The goals are the same every year from an achievement perspective,” Riddiough said. “It’s winning the CAA and getting to the NCAA and hopefully extending our season beyond that. From a personal perspective, it’s each player has to be the best version of themselves. If you combine both of them, good things happen and that’s what we expect.”
Hofstra has a competitive schedule of non-conference play starting with three straight road games. Hofstra will first travel to New Jersey to face the reigning Metro Atlantic Conference champion, Monmouth University, on Friday, Aug. 23. The Pride are also set to face No. 6 Pennsylvania State University on Sunday, Aug. 25. The first road trip of the season will end in Providence, Rhode Island, where they will play Brown University on Friday, Aug. 30.
“It’s a new season,” Riddiough said. “We’ve got a lot of quality players coming back. My expectations are always the same: challenge for a CAA championship and moving on from there. It’s the same thing every year. We always want to be competitive.”
Image courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
