By Amanda Brody
Super sophomore Charlia Warner scored six goals this weekend against James Madison and VCU and secured Hofstra’s advancement to the playoffs.
Hofstra won its final games of the regular season last weekend with scores of 4-1 against both No. 15 James Madison and VCU. The Pride improved its record to 12-6 overall and 5-3 in the conference, with an undefeated season at home (7-0).
The No. 3 seed Pride will now march onto the CAA Tournament semifinals, after last night’s 2-1 opening round win over Delaware.
“There’s no doubt that playing at home is an absolute advantage and it certainly can help us, give us an extra boost,” head coach Kathy De Angelis said.
Earlier this season, the Pride faced a devastating 3-2 overtime loss to Delaware on Sept. 24 but the Pride were able to advance to the semifinals in Virginia Beach, Va., on Saturday to play James Madison.
On Friday, the Pride defeated James Madison, 4-1. The Pride has played a much more defensive first half lately but has come back to its old ways of executing early in the game. With 10 minutes left in the first, Hofstra’s Leslie DeSimone and Warner scored two consecutive goals to open the scoring.
Less than four minutes later, James Madison’s Melissa Walls scored on a penalty stroke, leaving the score 2-1 at the half. Although goalkeeper Jessica Cowperthwait only had one save in the second period, James Madison took only two shots.
The Pride was able to score in the first 10 minutes of the second when Warner had her second goal of the day unassisted on a breakaway. To secure the game with less than one minute to play, freshman Kristin Thompson scored her fourth goal of the season on an assist from DeSimone. Hofstra dominated again on Sunday against VCU, winning by the same score as Friday. This game was all Warner, who scored all four of the Pride’s goals, three of them unassisted. The first two goals were scored 10 minutes into the game and the Pride took a 2-0 lead into the break. When play resumed, Warner was again ready to attack, scoring another goal five minutes into the half and then again with nine minutes left to play in the game. Emily Guerra scored VCU’s only goal with less than five minutes to play on an unassisted breakaway. The Pride out shot VCU 16-8, and Cowperthwait had four saves.
The two superstars, Warner and Cowperthwait, have dominated for Hofstra this season and will be keys to how the team performs in the postseason.
“Her [Warner] performance has certainly helped guide us here [to the playoffs], as far as being the leading goal scorer. But again our performance has been based on the whole team unity,” De Angelis said.
Cowperthwait had 101 saves this season in pacing the Pride to a third place conference finish, and her coach couldn’t be happier. “I couldn’t be more satisfied with Jess. Her performance in goal under the pressures that a goalkeeper faces game after game is incredible. I’m so proud of her and proud of her steadiness when we needed her through out the season,” she said.
In order to get to the CAA Championship, De Angelis said her team needs to “Continue discipline, which we did show this past weekend, certainly against James Madison. As you get into playoffs it becomes a mental toughness and it becomes a discipline. As it comes down to the championship, the skills are already determined at this point so the mentality is going to be key to us continuing on to Virginia Beach and on to the championship.”