Hempstead, N.Y. – Hofstra will open the home portion of the schedule  with two games in three days against Columbia and Fairleigh Dickinson, respectively, starting Friday at 5 p.m. in a matchup against the Lions at Hofstra Soccer Stadium. The Pride will be looking for its first victory of 2015 after dropping a pair of close one-goal games to nationally ranked Big Ten opponents in the season-opening Penn State Invitational.

Friday's home opener will also feature the Hofstra Men's Soccer team start the season against No. 15 Syracuse immediately following the women's game. Sunday's game against FDU will start at approximately 2 p.m. after the men's team plays Vermont at noon. Both doubleheaders will feature single admission and tickets can be purchased online at Hofstratickets.com or  through the ticket office at 516-HOF-TIXX (463-8499). For ticket deals for Friday's games, click here. For Sunday's doubleheader, click here.

Both women's games will feature free live video and audio via Pride Productions. Friday's game can also be heard on terrestrial radio on WRHU (88.7 FM).

Hofstra will be wearing lime green on Friday in support of the HEADstrong Foundation and their fight against cancer. For more information on the HEADstrong Foundation, please visit headstrong.org. 

The home opener for the Pride will also mark Columbia's season-opener. The Lions went 7-4-6 in 2014 and conceded just 11 goals all season and went 2-3-2 in Ivy League play. Hofstra is 5-4-1 in the all-time series against Columbia in a series that dates to 1996. Hofstra is unbeaten in the last four meetings dating to 2008, going 3-0-1 in that time. The Pride has not lost in the series since 2007. It is the first time the squads have played since 2011 and the first game on Hofstra's campus since 2009.

Hofstra will look to stay undefeated in the all-time series against Fairleigh Dickinson and will take a 3-0-1 all-time mark into the weekend against the Knights. The game marks the first time the teams have opposed each other since 2007. FDU will also be going for its first win of the season after falling to Temple, 3-0, on Opening Day.

Senior forward Leah Galton, the two-time Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year, showed she can produce against some of the nation's best competition. Galton scored Hofstra's only goal in the Penn State invitational with a 65th-minute strike against the sixth-ranked Nittany Lions in front of 3,175 people at Jeffrey Field. PSU scored 3:15 later to post a 2-1 win, though Galton finished with three shots and added two more shots in Hofstra's 1-0 loss to No. 24 Rutgers two days later.

Junior goalkeeper Friederike Mehring made four saves at Penn State and added five stops versus Rutgers to give Hofstra a chance to come back in the pair of one-goal games. A defense that features a mix of youth and experience has looked good; incorporating freshman Madeline Anderson with senior Mallory Ullrich and sophomores Rhian Cleverly and Emily Hulbert.

The Pride went 7-2-0 at home in 2014. Since 2012, Hofstra is 20-4-2 playing in front of its home fans. Hofstra is 75-19-8 all-time at Hofstra Soccer Stadium since the facility first opened at the start of the 2003 season. Hofstra has also compiled an impressive 107-24-10 record at home since the start of the 1999 season, when it played at University Field. The figures include a win over Towson in 2012 that was played at James M. Shuart Stadium when the Soccer Stadium was unavailable as Hofstra was hosting a presidential debate. Hofstra is 4-1 in the last five home openers.