Senior middle blocker Elizabeth Curley (Centerville, MA - pictured) slammed down a career-high 23 kills and added seven blocks to lead the Hofstra Volleyball team to its ninth straight win, a 3-1 (30-24, 24-30, 30-23, 30-26) victory over Northeastern Saturday afternoon at the Physical Fitness Center.  With one more kill, Curley will become only the 11th player in Hofstra Volleyball history to reach the 1,000 kill plateau.

With its ninth straight win, Hofstra improved its record to 14-5 overall and a perfect 10-0 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play.  Northeastern saw its two-match win streak come to an end as it fell to 9-9 and 6-4 in conference action.

The Pride won their 12th straight regular season conference match and has also been victorious in 19 of their last 21 home CAA regular season matches.

Curley, who hit at a .583 clip (23 kills, two errors, 36 attempts) in the match, had her two strongest games in the third and fourth stanzas after the Huskies had evened the match at one game apiece.  After nailing five kills in both games one and two, Curley stepped up with six in the third game as Hofstra took a two games to one advantage and then put away seven kills in the decisive fourth game to lead Hofstra to the four-game victory.

Back-to-back kills from senior right side Dana Schaefer (San Diego, CA) early on in the first game gave Hofstra a 11-9 lead, an advantage they would hold until a 3-0 run from the Huskies knotted the score at 21.  Junior outside hitter Kira Batura (Downers Grove, IL) and sophomore outside hitter Brianna Seitz (Atlanta, GA) notched kills for Northeastern during the quick run, with Batura totaling five of her 11 kills in the first game.  Schaefer would come up big again, as after junior setter Shellane Ogoshi (Honolulu, HI) gave the Pride the lead back with her first kill of the match, Schaefer gave Hofstra some much needed breathing room with her fourth kill of the game to put Hofstra up 23-21.  Curley would put the Huskies away with a service ace to end game one.

Following a kill from senior outside hitter Beverly Rivera (Long Beach, CA) that gave Hofstra 17-16 lead midway though the second game, Northeastern used a 9-1 run and led 25-18 after three straight attack errors by Hofstra.  The Huskies would not look back and scored the game's final two points after Hofstra had closed the gap to 28-24 on a service ace from sophomore outside hitter Lauren Engle (San Diego, CA).

A tight game three saw Northeastern lead 14-12 after a Pride service error, before Hofstra scored five straight points and led 17-14 following a Rivera kill.  Northeastern would cut the deficit to one on several occasions later in game three, but a 6-0 run proved to be the difference as Hofstra pulled away for a 30-23 win.

In the final game, the Pride jumped out to a 15-5 lead and never trailed in posting a narrow 30-26 victory.  The Huskies slowly chipped away at the huge deficit, but ran out of time as they only got as close as two (23-21) after a Hofstra service error.

Rivera picked up her sixth double-double of the season with 17 kills and 11 digs, while Curley added a match-high three service aces.  Senior libero Catherine Durakis (Cresskill, NJ) had a team-high 12 digs for the Pride and Ogoshi dished out a match-high 60 assists and added eight digs and four kills.  With her eight digs in the match today, Ogoshi now has 992 digs in her stellar career and needs just eight to reach the 1,000 dig plateau.

Batura and senior middle blocker Ashley Reeves (Mesa, AZ) tied for team-high honors with 11 kills, with Batura adding a match-high 18 digs and Reeves totaling a team-high six blocks.  It was Batura's fifth straight double-double and eighth this season.

Hofstra returns to action Friday, October 20 when it hosts defending CAA champion Virginia Commonwealth at 7 p.m.  The Rams knocked Hofstra out of last season's CAA Championship with a 3-0 win in the semifinals.

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