CHARLESTON, SC — The Hofstra volleyball team defeated the Charleston Cougars in four sets on Monday, Nov. 11, at TD Arena with scores of 21-25, 25-24, 25-17 and 25-14.
The Pride improved to 17-9 overall and 10-4 in Colonial Athletic Association play while the Cougars are now 6-21 and 3-12 in the CAA.
Luisa Sydlik led the way for the Pride with 16 digs and reached 1,000 digs for her career. She also tallied 39 assists in the victory.
To continue her historic outing, Sydlik became the 20th player ever for the Pride to reach 1,000 digs as well as the third to hit the 4,000 assist mark.
After coming out sluggish, Hofstra got better as the match went along, winning each of the final three sets by a bigger margin than the previous.
The Pride was down 24-22 in the second set, facing two set points to go down two sets to none, but they rattled off four straight points to even the match at a set apiece. Star senior Laura Masciullo capped the set off with a kill.
From that point on it was all Pride, as Hofstra outscored the Cougars 50-31 in the second half of the match.
Sustaining the momentum from their late set comeback, the Pride held their opponents at a negative hitting percentage in the final two sets. Charleston came into the match last in the CAA in hitting percentage.
Though the two teams were tied in both digs and blocks with 66 and eight, respectively, sets three and four belonged to Hofstra.
Masciullo, second in the CAA in kills with 393, led Hofstra with 15 kills on top of five digs, while freshman Athina Dimitriadis contributed 11 kills, a .526 attack percentage and five blocks in the victory.
Junior Juliana Vaz, who was named the CAA Defensive Player of the Week earlier in the day, added 27 digs and 10 assists for the Pride. She tied her season high in assists and put up her third double-double of the season.
Mandy Napierala led the Cougars with 18 kills. Lauren Freed tallied 11 kills and 21 digs.
Hofstra and Charleston are now 9-9 all time against one another, and the Pride won their first match of the season where they dropped the opening set.
Hofstra will be back in action for their final two games of the season this weekend when they host James Madison at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 15, and Delaware at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 17.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
