Head coach Emily Mansur earned her 100th career win with the Hofstra Pride Volleyball team as they swept William & Mary in three sets, by scores of 25-21, 25-15 and 25-18. Along with the feat for Mansur, the Pride won their third straight match Sunday, Sept. 30 at the David S. Mack Physical Education Center.
The Tribe opened the match with a 5-0 run, but after a quick timeout by Hofstra, the Pride went on a 15-5 run of their own and ultimately took the set 25-21.
Hofstra’s offense was lights out in the second stanza posting a .531 attack percentage. Even with William & Mary’s .318 attack percentage, the Tribe were overpowered and lost set two, 25-15.
Set three was no different, with the Pride completely controlling the stanza, recording 13 kills to the Tribe’s five en route to a 25-18 victory and completion of the sweep.
“Every match in conference play is really important and being able to take over there 3-0 is a good thing moving forward,” Mansur stated.
The Pride’s offensive attack was spread across the board, led by Laura Masciullo’s 11 kills and Ana Martinovic’s eight.
Michela Rucli ended with seven kills and an ace while posting a .667 attack percentage.
Luisa Sydlik was the player supplying the balanced offense with ammunition, tallying 33 assists alongside three aces while Maddie Appleton also added four aces.
“That’s what we want in every match,” Mansur said, “To look at the box score and not know who’s going to be getting sets the most and I think we are working more and more towards that.”
After a stellar game against Elon where she posted six blocks, Dubravka Krakovic this time stuffed the Tribe offense with three, tied with Rucli for the Pride’s high.
For William & Mary, Lauren Merrill led with seven kills, two aces and three blocks. Kate Dedrick had six kills while Julia Brown had five aces with three blocks.
After losing their grip on a 20-19 lead in the first set, the Tribe trailed for the rest of the game.
Hofstra dominated the match posting 45 kills to William & Mary’s 22, edging the Tribe 10-9 on aces and 6-4 on blocks, and containing the Tribe’s offense to a .105 attack percentage compared to the Prides .302.
With the loss, William & Mary falls to 4-8 overall and 0-3 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play as they have now lost four of their last five matches.
The Pride move to a strong 13-5 overall record while improving to 3-1 in CAA play.
Hofstra now has a 10-match win streak against William & Mary, improving to 26-18 in the conference rivalry. They will open a four game CAA road stretch beginning on Friday at Charleston.
“It’s going to be very important matches that we are going to be seeing – some of the top teams,” Mansur said.
The Pride have now won three straight matches over CAA opponents, all of which have been sweeps. The last time Hofstra swept three straight conference opponents was in 2012 when they swept Georgia State, UNCW and George Mason.
Mansur, in her fifth season as head coach, becomes the second Hofstra Volleyball coach to reach 100 wins. She has posted a 100-46 record with the Pride in her tenure.
“I think it’s a great thing for our program. It’s awesome. It’s 100 wins and we want more and more to come.”
Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
