Williamsburg, VA - After dropping a lopsided first set, the Hofstra University volleyball team regrouped to win three straight and grind out a 3-1 victory (13-25, 25-23, 25-20, 28-26) over William & Mary on Thursday night at Kaplan Arena, keeping its unbeaten streak in Williamsburg intact dating back to 2008.
The Pride (15-4, 10-1 CAA) reached 10 conference wins in 11 matches, their fastest pace since 2022, when Hofstra rattled off 14 consecutive victories to begin league play.
In the opening set, William & Mary (6-12, 2-7 CAA) jumped out to an 8-1 lead, its best start in a CAA match this season, and cruised to a 25-13 win. It was the Pride's most lopsided set loss since a 25-9 defeat to No. 10 Penn State on Aug. 30.
The Tribe made Hofstra work for every point from there. It was the first regular-season meeting between the teams to go beyond three sets since 2019, and the first in Williamsburg to reach four sets in nearly a decade.
The back half of the match turned into a tug-of-war. Sets 3 and 4 produced 25 ties and all 12 of the night's lead changes.
A well-timed service ace from
Ellie Pamatat stretched Hofstra's lead late in the third, helping the Pride close out a 25-20 win. In the fourth, William & Mary rallied from a 23-20 deficit and earned two set points, but two key swings from the Tribe's Devereaux Hoxsie went out, and Hofstra escaped with a nailbiting 28-26 victory.
Beatriz Braga put down 18 kills on .333 hitting. Over her last two matches, the CAA Preseason Player of the Year has collected 44 kills with just nine attack errors, and she now stands 35 kills shy of becoming the 19th player in program history to reach 1,000 career kills.
Valentina Lopez Moya added a season-high seven kills, while
Lauren Konzen set a career-high with 16 digs. Pamatat and
Sonja Rundcrantz dished out 23 and 21 assists, respectively.
There's little time to rest, as Hofstra and William & Mary run it back Friday (Oct. 23) at 4 p.m. at Kaplan Arena. The match will stream on FloCollege.
NOTES
- It was the first contest without a double-double for a Pride player since Oct. 2 vs. Campbell.
- After seeing her first collegiate action in the UNCW series,
Valentina Lopez Moya has 12 kills in her last two appearances with only one attack error (12 K, 1 E, 17 TA, .647).
- The Pride and Tribe went beyond three sets in a regular-season meeting for the first time since Oct. 26, 2019 (W, 3-1, in Hempstead).
