Hofstra women's soccer aims for redemption in 2024 after CAA tournament setback

Following a solid 2023 regular season, the Hofstra University women’s soccer team had a disappointing run in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) tournament, but they plan to bounce back in the 2024 season.

“As with anything, there’s always lessons to learn and I think with the success we’ve had over the last 10 years, a lot of times you can become complacent,” said head coach Simon Riddiough. “You can think you are going to win no matter what, and I thought we got a bit caught up with that last season.”

The Pride won the CAA tournament in 2022, making their 10th NCAA Championship tournament appearance. The team followed this with a 12-5-1 regular season record in 2023, before falling to the Monmouth University Hawks 2-1 in the conference semifinals.

In the 2024 preseason awards, the Pride received their flowers both as a team and individually. Returning players Dagny Run Petursdottir, Millie Davies and Louise Hayden all earned All-CAA honors.

“Hayden is going to be a grad student…We’re expecting big things from her in a leadership role,” Riddiough said when speaking about the three. “[Petursdottir] is a workhorse; she’s a machine and does a lot of covering for a lot of people…and it will be her time to shine. We’re just seeing what [Davies]’s skill set is truly about. She is a special player, and if she can start contributing more goals in the games, I think she is going to have an outstanding season.”

In this offseason, Hofstra reloaded their roster by adding eight new players to the team. Five of them are freshmen that coach Riddiough believes will make an impact.

“It’s a good class,” Riddiough said. “I think there’s a lot of talent in there. There’s a couple of players who will be knocking on that door to start, a couple that will play major roles. There’s two or three players who will make an immediate impact and others who will make an impact down the road.”

Riddiough and his staff also added two graduate transfers to the team. Carly Travers, a goalkeeper from the University of Rhode Island and Ellie Gough, who played last season with Middle Tennessee State University and will be heavily featured for the Pride this season.

“[Gough] was [someone] we felt from a skill set and a leadership perspective [that will] be a very good addition to the team,” Riddiough said. “She adds a bit of experience and a level of maturity. We’re expecting [Gough] to make an impact, if not immediately then pretty quickly. She’s got a very good caliber from her previous school and we would expect that to translate to Hofstra.”

With the loss of several impactful former players, the team will look for new leadership to make their mark by shaping the 2024 season. Hofstra transitioned into this season without point leader Wiktoria Fronc, who began her professional career in England. Riddiough acknowledged the importance of replacing Fronc’s output but believes his team will play differently this year.

“You always regret losing players and there’s a multitude of reasons for that happening,” Riddiough said. “[Fronc] was a great player in the two years she played for us, but we are going to be a different team now. We are going to have a different focus on certain things, we’re going to press better than we’ve ever done in the last couple of years. We are going to have to find goals from different areas of the field. Even last year, we were getting goals from everywhere. I don’t foresee anyone getting 14-15 goals this year, but maybe someone will surprise me and do it.”

Riddiough was also adamant about the impact of his class of nine juniors.

“They’re paramount of importance,” Riddiough said. “We’ve got some really good players in that class. They’re basically the backbone of the team. We’re gonna have to rely on probably two or three of them to make more goal contributions and an impact on the field. They’ve matured. They’ve had a good spring and summer, so I’m pretty excited about that class.”

In the lead-up to Hofstra’s season opener against Quinnipiac University on Thursday, Aug. 15, the team had three scrimmages. In the three matches, the Pride went 1-1-1, including a win against Rider University and a loss against Brooklyn Football Club on the professional side.

“I think it gives us a good idea of who can take that next step,” Riddiough said. “It gives us a good idea of where we are as a team, our strengths and our weaknesses. I think we probably are better prepared this year because we played three scrimmages.”

Riddiough also explained how tactically his team is coming together while acknowledging that they will not be in full form ahead of the season opener.

“I think our defensive pressure is going to be very good,” Riddiough said. “I think the girls are finally clicking and understanding it. We still have some fine tunings on the offensive side of things. We know that we are going to rely on set pieces to score goals this year, but we need to find a way to create clear-cut chances from those services. So, we’ve got our work to do for the next two or three days. We won’t be the finished product on Thursday by a long stretch, but we’ll improve each day, each game gives us another platform to get better. With this group in particular, I anticipate them developing week in and week out.”

With the matchup against Quinnipiac lurking, Riddiough recognized the difficulty of his team’s schedule.

“I think pretty much everybody on our schedule has been top three in their league,” Riddiough said. “If we can get some positive results against two or three of those teams, it really puts us in a good spot for an at-large bid. So, I think it’s a great schedule from a rankings perspective and if we come out of it on the positive side, it’ll bode well for us when we start conference play.”

As a team, Hofstra was picked second in the CAA coaches poll, behind Monmouth.

“I think getting voted second is a sign of the respect the coaches have for Hofstra,” Riddiough said. “Whether it’s a true depiction of where we should be or where we’re going to be, I don’t know, but it’s always good to get some respect from your fellow coaches.”

Riddiough also mentioned his expectations for his team entering the season.

“[A national tournament bid is] always an expectation,” Riddiough said. “We recruit players who we think will help us get there, who want to get there, who are willing to work hard to get there. It’s always an expectation to win the conference and to get to the NCAA. As we know from last year, you can’t always guarantee that you’re going to do it. But with this group and our coaching staff. I think we’ve got everything in our role to get there.”

 Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Evan Bernstein