By Richard Nieves (Special to the Chronicle)
On the final day of the regular season the Hofstra women’s soccer team needed a win to keep the chance of a CAA birth alive, but picked the wrong time to lose its first home game of the season. The Northeastern University Huskies, also fighting for the final Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament spot, were able to win the seesaw battle between the CAA opponents, and knock the Pride out of tournament contention. Northeastern scored the first goal five minutes into the game, but Hofstra tied it shortly after as freshman forward Leah Galton scored at the 10-minute mark on an acrobatic play. The Pride held a strong 11-3 shot advantage in he first half, only to see Northeastern come back in the second half with 10 more shots of its own. From there Hofstra began to let sloppy mistakes and errors get the best of them. “Embarrassment; that was the worst performance that Hofstra has done in years,” said Hofstra head coach Simon Riddiough. The Pride (10-8, 6-4 CAA) gave up a second goal to the Huskies (9-9,7-3 CAA) later in the contest, but was able to pull back even as they tried to comeback, with Galton scoring her second goal of the game. An apparent handball called on Hofstra gave Northeastern a penalty kick, which it converted to take the lead 3-2. Hofstra would not go down without a fight as senior midfielder Nicki Choffel took a shot with time winding down that was swatted away by Northeastern goalkeeper sophomore Paige Burnett. Burnett would finish the game with eight saves. The loss sent Hofstra to a disappointing sixth seed, but their strong play early in the season allowed them to still make the playoffs.