HEMPSTEAD, NY – The Hofstra Volleyball team clinched the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) co-regular season title for the first time since 2015 on Sunday afternoon with a 3-0 sweep of the Northeastern Huskies at the David S. Mack Physical Education Center. In addition, the Pride captured the No. 1 seed in the CAA tournament for the first time since 2006.
Hofstra improves to 23-7 overall with its seventh-straight victory, and completes the regular season conference schedule with a mark of 13-3. Northeastern slips to 16-13 and 9-7 in the CAA. The Pride won by scores of 25-19, 26-24 and 25-20.
Hofstra finished with three players in double figures in kills, led by senior
Nanishka Perez who tallied a .370 hitting percentage, suffering just one error in 27 total attempts. Perez was joined by senior
Michela Rucli who totaled 11 kills, and junior
Laura Masciullo who had 10. Junior
Luisa Sydlik had 41 assists and seven digs in the win, and freshman
Maddie Appleton led the Pride with 14 digs.
As a team, the Pride hit .327 for the match, and tied for a match-high 17 kills in the second and third frames. During the second set, the Pride trailed by five points (24-19), and fought off a remarkable seven-straight match points to steal the second set away from the Huskies, 26-24.
Immediately following the match, the Pride honored its four seniors,
Doris Bogoje,
Nanishka Perez,
Michela Rucli and
Caylie Denham for Senior Day.
As the No. 1 seed, Hofstra earned a bye into the semifinals for the upcoming CAA Championship. The Pride will face the winner of No. 4 Towson and No. 5 Northeastern on Saturday, November 17 at the College of Charleston's F. Mitchell Johnson Center in Charleston, SC. All matches of the championship will be streamed live on CAA.tv, which is available on computers and mobile devices as well as Roku, AppleTV, Amazon Fire and other OTT platforms.
