Hempstead, NY – Senior Josh Byrne recorded five goals and three assists and junior Dylan Alderman added a career-high four goals to lead the seventh-ranked Hofstra Pride to a 15-8 Colonial Athletic Association victory over the Massachusetts Minutemen at James M. Shuart Stadium Saturday afternoon.

The victory boosts Hofstra's overall record to 11-1 and 3-1 in the conference and clinches a spot in the four-team CAA Championship Tournament to be held at the home of the highest seed on May 4-6. Hofstra will face Towson (7-4, 3-1) for the possible right to host the conference tournament next Saturday at Johnny Unitas Stadium in Towson. The Tigers lost to Fairfield Saturday creating a three-way tie on top of the CAA heading into the final weekend next week. Drexel (6-6, 3-1) is also in the hunt to host following their win over Delaware Saturday. They close out the regular season next Friday at UMass.

Byrne, who recorded a seven-goal, two assist performance against NJIT earlier this season, posted his seventh game of the year with three goals or more and extended his consecutive game points streak to 17 and consecutive game goal streak to eight on Senior Day Saturday. He also topped the 100-point mark in his short two-season career on a second quarter assist on junior Brendan Kavanagh's man-up goal. Byrne now has career-highs of 35 goals and 24 assists in 2017 and 65 goals and 39 assists for 104 points in his Hof career

Kavanagh, who recorded his first career hat-trick, including the game-winning overtime goal at UMass in 2016, notched the hat-trick again on Saturday with three scores for his fourth three-goal contest of his career. Alderman topped his previous best of three goals set at UNC in March with his four-goal outburst. Freshman Ryan Tierney added a goal and two assists to give him 26 goals and 15 assists this year. Junior goalie Jack Concannon posted double-digit saves for the eighth time this season with 13 stops against UMass.

UMass was led by sophomore Ben Spencer with three goals and junior Jake Lisauskas with two goals. Senior Gianni Bianchin added two assists while classmate Jeff Trainor contributed a goal and an assist. Senior goalie D.J. Smith made five saves in the UMass goal in 30 minutes of action while sophomore Sean Sconone added five saves in the second half for the Minutemen.

Hofstra jumped out to a 9-1 lead in the second quarter on the way to a 10-3 halftime lead. The Pride opened up with goals by Kavanagh and Tierney before Trainor cut the Hofstra lead in half at the 6:16 mark of the first quarter at 2-1. But the Pride answered with seven consecutive goals including four by Byrne and two by Kavanagh to build the 9-1 advantage with 4:03 to play in the second quarter. Lisauskas and Leung sandwiched a Jimmy Yanes goal for Hofstra to close out the first half scoring.

UMass would open the third quarter with back-to-back goals by Spencer to close to 10-5 at the 9:33 mark of the period but junior Alex Moeser and Alderman responded in kind for the Pride to boost the lead to 12-5 with 2:18 to play in the third. The two teams would exchange goals, including Hofstra's final two by Alderman, over the next 17 minutes as the Pride clinched their second consecutive CAA playoff spot.

Hofstra outshot UMass, 34-32 while the Minutemen edged the Pride in ground balls, 30-29 and won 19 of 27 face-offs.

After Towson's loss at Fairfield and Drexel's win over Delaware on Saturday, the Pride will be playing for the top-seed and the right to host the CAA Championship Tournament when they travel to Towson's Johnny Unitas Stadium next Saturday, April 29. Game time is noon. Hofstra will need to defeat Towson next Saturday and have UMass defeat Drexel in Amherst next Friday to host the CAA Championship.