By Robert Pelaez – STAFF WRITER
Last Friday, the Hofstra Volleyball team stormed into The University of Delaware’s campus, and swept the Blue Hens in straight sets for their 15th win of the season.
Sophomore Leticia Valente led the team with 16 kills to go along with 3 blocks. The set scores were 27-25, 25-13 and 30-28 in favor of the Pride, who improved their record to 15-8 overall 6-2 in conference action. Freshman Nanishka Perez of Hofstra was a strong presence in the match as well, tacking on 13 kills and 3 aces in the victory. The Pride hit .314 in the contest, along with a remarkable .481 in front of the UDel faithful.
Junior outside hitter Veronika Kostova also added on 13 kills for the Pride in the sweep, proving, once again, her vitality for the team’s success. Kostova leads the Pride offense with 350 kills currently in 2015.
Hannah Klemm for Hofstra also played another outstanding match for the Pride with 51 assists to help led the Pride’s attack.
Head Coach Emily Mansur gave positive vibes after the game, excited about how the team is gelling together in the heart of the season. When asked about Klemm’s stellar performance in the match, Mansur explained that she gave Klemm the reins to the Hofstra offense.
“That’s one thing I told her … Today you are running the offense, you are giving very good opportunities to our hitters, let’s just keep doing that,” said Mansure. “She really took the lead role today, and got hands on some tough plays.”
The first set was setup as a tug-of-war battle as each team stayed within usually two to three points of each other. Only a few instances did the Pride take a four-point or five-point lead in the middle of the set. By the end of the set, Hofstra and Delaware were tied at 24-24 then the Fightin’ Blue Hens took the lead and were one point away from going up 1-0 in the match. But Hofstra fought back, two kills by Kostova with a Delaware error in between ensured the first set to the Pride
Hofstra then got into the swing of things and took the second set by a double-digit margin. The first wave that propelled the Pride was a five-point streak, going up 10-4 in the set. The next wave came shortly afterwards with another five-point rally and Hofstra went up 15-5. Lastly, the third wave of points came by the end of the set with four straight to increase their lead to 24-11.
Once Hofstra secured the second set, Delaware came back, trying to avoid the sweep and made things interesting. After both teams tied at 25 points, Hofstra and Delaware continued their back-and-forth play until the Pride took the last three points to seal the deal.
Freshman Luisa Domingues notched a match-high 22 digs for the Pride, as opposed to Ariel Shonk of Delaware who picked up 16.
The win ended a short two-match losing skid for the Pride, which went 3-2 on its recent stretch of five consecutive road matches. Hofstra has a small break until returning to action next Friday when the Pride entertain UNCW at 7 p.m. at the David S. Mack Physical Education Center.
