The 8-1 Hofstra Women's Soccer team will face a couple of key Colonial Athletic Association tests as defending regular season champion William & Mary (7-3, 2-0 CAA) visits on Friday at 7 p.m. and defending CAA Tournament champion Old Dominion (5-2-1, 1-1 CAA) visits on Sunday at 12 noon.
Both games will be broadcast live on the internet by Hofstra student radio station WRHU (www.wrhu.org).
The Pride jumped out to a 2-0 record in conference play with a pair of road wins last weekend, defeating Towson 1-0 on Friday and then defeating George Mason 2-1 on a goal from senior forward Brooke DeRosa (Ronkonkoma, NY - pictured) 49 seconds into overtime. Hofstra's 8-1 record ties its best-ever mark through nine games, matching the standard set by the 1994 and 2003 teams.
DeRosa currently leads Hofstra in all three offensive categories with six goals, five assists and 17 points. Her 17 points leads the CAA, while her five assists rank her tied for first in the league. Her six goals are one behind William & Mary's Claire Zimmeck (and Towson's Kaitlyn Zamroz) for the league lead.
Junior midfielder Edel Malone (Ennis, Ireland) ranks second on the Pride with three goals and two assists, including the only goal in the 1-0 win over Towson on Friday. The Pride has already had 13 different goal scorers this season, which ties a school record first set by the 2003 squad. Senior forward Larkin Hargraves (Deep River, CT) became the 13th player to score for the Pride this season when she tallied the tying goal with 9:05 left in regulation in Sunday's win over George Mason.
William & Mary visits Hofstra with a 7-3 record, including a 1-0 win over defending national champion North Carolina earlier this season. The Tribe started out 2-0 in CAA play with a 3-0 win over Drexel on Friday and a 2-1 win over Delaware on Sunday. Zimmeck, who shared Preseason CAA Player of the Year honors with Hofstra All-America defender Sue Weber (Islip, NY), leads the Tribe with seven goals, while Danielle Collins (three goals, one assist) and Emily Kittleson (two goals, three assists) each have seven points.
Goalkeeper Meghan Walker has an 0.60 goals against average and was named the NSCAA National Player of the Week after her shutout of North Carolina. William & Mary has allowed only two goals in the last seven games, one of which came on a penalty kick against Delaware, with the other coming in the second overtime against fourth-ranked Virginia.
Old Dominion, which won the 2006 CAA Tournament as the fourth seed (inculding a semifinal win over top-seeded William & Mary on penalty kicks), has a 5-2-1 record heading into its game on Friday at Northeastern. The Monarchs split its first two conference games, falling to Delaware 3-1 on Friday (despite outshooting the Blue Hens 20-7) and defeating Drexel 1-0 on Sunday. Shavon Knight leads Old Dominion with five goals and two assists for 12 points, while Elizabeth Brewster is close behind with five goals and one assist for 11 points.
Hofstra assistant coach Lindsey Vanderspiegel will face her former team for the first time when the Pride faces William & Mary on Friday. Vanderspiegel was a four-year starter for the Tribe from 2000-2003 under head coach John Daly, earning CAA Player of the Year honors in 2002. Redshirt senior midfielder Donna Mataya, though, is the only current William & Mary player left from Vanderspiegel's senior season.
