Hempstead, NY – Hofstra women's basketball stars Chloe Sterling and Emma Von Essen represent the Pride on the Preseason All-CAA women's basketball teams, as the Coastal Athletic Association announced Thursday afternoon its preseason award and all-conference teams, as well as the results of the preseason coaches' poll.
 
A senior guard from Kennesaw, Georgia, Sterling started all 21 games she played in, averaging a team-best 13.0 points per game with 5.2 rebounds per game and 3.6 assists per contest in 33.3 minutes per game. Sterling led the Pride in scoring, assists, steals (28) minutes played per game, and she placed seventh in the CAA for assists per game and 10th for points and steals per game in her first season in a Hofstra uniform. She topped double-digits in scoring 16 times last season, including a streak of eight consecutive games with at least 10 points to begin the season, and back-to-back 21-point outings against NJIT (Nov. 8) and Yale (Nov. 11).
 
A senior guard from Rockville Centre, New York, Von Essen started all 30 games in 2024-25, and she averaged 10.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 0.8 steals in 30.3 minutes per game. Von Essen connected on 71 three-point field goals last season, the ninth-most in a season in program history, and averaged the second-most threes per game in the CAA with 2.4. Additionally, she became only the fourth Hofstra women's basketball student-athlete to eclipse 200 threes in a career. Von Essen led the team with 19 double-digit games in 2024-25 and had five outings with at least 15 points, including a season-high 20 points against Bucknell.
 
In addition to placing Sterling and Von Essen on the Preseason All-CAA teams, the Pride received 67 total points to place ninth in the preseason poll, as voted on by the head coaches of the CAA. With 139 total points and eight first-place votes, Charleston is the top team in the preseason poll, followed by Drexel in second with 125 points and two first-place votes, and North Carolina A&T in third with 124 points and the remaining three first-place votes.
 
Hofstra's 2025-26 season begins in Coral Gables, Florida on Monday, November 3 against Miami.