The Hofstra Pride volleyball team beat the Northeastern University Huskies in three sets on Saturday, Nov. 5. The Pride continues their astounding Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) run, bringing their CAA record to 13-0 and their overall record to 16-9.
“I think our ladies are just learning to trust themselves and to play good volleyball for most of the match, and that made the difference,” said volleyball head coach Emily Mansur. “We were able to capitalize in key moments to separate ourselves.”
The first set opened up with a kill from Zyare Abdul-Rahim. The Pride dug themselves into a hole early on in this set after a Huskies four-point streak, including back-to-back service aces from Kayla Martin, made the score 3-7. Hofstra clawed their way back into the game with an eight-point run, including a kill by Izadora Stedile. Hofstra maintained the lead for the rest of the set in a dominant fashion. The Huskies scored their 14th and final point off an Emily Nunes attack error in an attempt to narrow the scoring gap at 17-14. The Pride went on another eight-point streak to close out the set 25-14.
Hofstra flustered the Huskies, resulting in the last five Hofstra points coming off of Northeastern attack errors and a bad set. The Pride put points up in bunches with two long unanswered scoring runs in the first set.
The second set got off to a somber start when Nikiya Mitchell of the Huskies went down with a knee injury that held her out for the rest of the game. Northeastern overcame this setback by opening the set 5-2. A service ace by Yagmur Cinel highlighted a four-point Hofstra run that helped capture the lead for the Pride, making the score 6-5. The second set wasn’t as one-sided as the first set, with eight ties and seven lead changes. The two sides traded blows early, with Josie Fronczak capturing a service ace to tie the game 8-8. Hofstra scored two more points but Northeastern showed some life with a four-point streak of their own. A kill by Erica Staunton gave the Huskies a two-point lead of 10-12. Stedile added to her recent kill run with another kill that ended the drought for Hofstra.
Northeastern stayed on top, forcing Coach Mansur to call timeout twice and help the team compose themselves. After the second timeout, the score stood at 21-17 in Northeastern’s favor. A dig by Nunes, in which she used her foot soccer-style, resulted in a Northeastern attack error. This play fired up Hofstra and they ended the set on an 8-1 run, winning 25-22.
“A lot of times it’s just for us to reset,” Mansur said regarding her crucial timeouts. “Let’s go back to our game and the way that we know how to play.”
The third and final set was all Hofstra. The Pride came out firing and captured an 8-2 lead after a six-point scoring streak. Stedile achieved three kills during this early streak, and Cinel pitched in with a service ace. The Huskies had to call a timeout to gather themselves and scored a point before the Pride pounced right back on them with another three points. Hofstra continued to prevent any comeback attempts from the Huskies and stayed in front. A Chiara Cucco service ace kept the Pride in front 15-9.
As demonstrated in the first set, the Pride bombard their opposition with a barrage of points and scored four unanswered points to go up 19-10, which featured kills from Cinel and Stedile. A kill by Evelyn Gonzalez brought the Hofstra onslaught to a halt and started a short comeback bid for the Huskies. They went on a run of their own to cut the lead down to six, 24-18 before Mansur used one of her timeouts to reset her team again and finish out the set. Stedile capped off her game with the final kill to win the set and the game 25-19. The Pride was all over the Huskies, with only 2 ties at the beginning of the set without any lead changes.
Izadora led the team in kills for the third consecutive game with a dozen.
The Pride resumes play against Northeastern in the second game of the series on Sunday, Nov. 6, at 1 p.m. at the David S. Mack Physical Education Center.
Photo courtesy Neil mille/Hofstra Athletics
