The Hofstra Men's Soccer and Women's Soccer teams will play their first home games of the 2005 season when they host a doubleheader with Marist College on Saturday, Sept. 10. The women open the doubleheader with a game at 5:30, and the men follow with a 7:30 kickoff.
The doubleheader will also serve as Alumni Day for the two programs, both of which entered the 2005 season with high expectations. The Hofstra Men's Soccer team is coming off its first ever NCAA Division I Tournament appearance in 2004, when it captured the Colonial Athletic Association championship with a dramatic postseason run. The Hofstra Women's Soccer team, meanwhile, has finished in first place in the CAA regular season standings in each of the last two years, including an outright regular season championship in 2003 and a shared title with Virginia Commonwealth in 2004.
The Hofstra Men's Soccer team is off to a 2-1 start this season, after defeating Saint Peter's 2-1 in Jersey City on Wednesday. The Pride also has a season-opening 2-1 win over Stony Brook to its credit, while falling 1-0 to Columbia on Sunday. Senior forward Michael Todd (Cleveland, England) is well on his way to leading Hofstra in scoring for the third year in a row, with two goals and one assist through the first three games.
Senior midfielder Jason Gates (Fort Collins, CO - pictured) and sophomore midfielder Adrian Papaluca (Winston Hills, Australia) have also tallied goals this season. Papaluca's goal, in fact, was the game-winner with 2:15 left against Stony Brook in his Hofstra debut after transferring from Division II Southampton during the offseason. In goal, senior Matthias Gumbrecht (Hemhofen, Germany) has tallied a 1-1 record, while sophomore Tom Johansen (Northport, NY) made his first collegiate start against Saint Peter's and tallied five saves in the win.
The Hofstra Women's Soccer team, meanwhile, is off to a 1-2-1 start after playing in two competitive tournaments in the early part of the 2005 season. The Pride opened the year at the Penn State Classic, where it played two nationally-ranked teams, dropping a 3-0 decision to #9 Connecticut on opening day, but bouncing back to tie #20 Washington 1-1 in the second game, when it outshot the Huskies 20-8. Last weekend, Hofstra traveled to play two regionally-ranked opponents at the Boston University Invitational, defeating Maine 1-0 on Friday, but falling 1-0 to Boston University in overtime on Sunday.
The Pride's strength this season is in its defense, led by senior goalkeeper Becky Wachsberger (East Meadow, NY), who picked up her school-record 40th career win and 26th career shutout against Maine.
Wachsberger has a career goals against average of 0.68, including an 0.45 average in 2003, when she ranked third in the country. She is supported defensively by two center backs who were both named to the Soccer Buzz Magazinefreshman All-America team last year in sophomores Marie Curtin (Kilmallock, Ireland) and Sue Weber (Islip, NY).Curtin was named the CAA Rookie of the Year last fall, while Weber started every game at the University of Georgia before transferring to the Pride during the offseason.
Hofstra is still experimenting with different combinations on offense, however. Senior midfielder Chrissy Arnone (Merrick, NY - pictured) led the Pride in scoring last year with eight goals and four assists and scored the game-winning goal in the Maine victory. Arnone is a former walk-on who developed into a full-time starter last season. Sophomores Carol Leurini (Whitman, MA), Larkin Hargraves (Deep River, CT) and freshmen Kacey O'Driscoll (Caherciveen, Ireland) and Edel Malone (Ennis, Ireland) will also be looked to for offensive contributions this fall.
