By Anders Jorstad – STAFF WRITER
The Hofstra volleyball team’s losing streak extended to three games with a pair of 2-3 losses at the hands of Seton Hall and Notre Dame at the Seton Hall Classic this weekend.
The Pride played toe-to-toe in their first match with Seton Hall. The Pirates got out to an early lead, winning the first set by a score of 25-22. Hofstra won a close second set 25-21 and surrendered the third set to Seton Hall by the same score, faltering mightily on offense with an attack percentage of .000 in that third set.
In the fourth set the Pride came on strong, besting the Pirates 25-16 and sending it into a crucial fifth set. With the match on the line, Hofstra ended up losing the fifth set by a score of 15-13. The Pride were extremely close to grabbing a terrific victory against a team more than 40 spots higher than them in the RPI rankings (Hofstra is 90th, Seton Hall is 49th).
Veronika Kostova delivered 24 kills in the match and Leticia Valente pitched in with 15. Nanishka Perez had a rough contest, finishing with just a -.128 attack percentage and 13 total errors. A stronger game from Perez is probably all Hofstra needed to clinch a close victory against the Pirates.
Hofstra caught another case of late-game fever against Notre Dame, dropping the last contest of the Seton Hall Classic to the Irish by a final of 2-3.
Notre Dame took the first set by a score of 26-24, aided by a .222 attack percentage. Hofstra was victorious in the second set by the same score, and wound up dropping the third by a 25-20 score. A total of nine errors by the Irish helped the Pride to an easy 25-14 set win in the fourth and like the previous match the same day, the contest went into a fifth frame.
Both teams brought the offensive firepower into that fifth set, as only three total errors were committed the entire set, but in the end Notre Dame ended up taking the match with a 15-13 fifth set win. Kostova finished with 20 kills while Perez and Valente each added 14 and 13, respectively.
Hofstra will look to reverse its fortunes starting with a road match against Stony Brook on Tuesday. After that the Pride will host the Hofstra/ASICS Invitational starting on Friday.
