By Kyle Kandetzki - SPORTS EDITOR In part two of our field hockey out-of-conference preview, Hofstra faces a selection of familiar teams from their 2014 schedule, most of which they succeeded against. How will changes to both rosters effect their winning chances?
9/18 – vs. UMass-Lowell (6-13, America East)
The Pride completes a four game, eleven day stay at home with another not-so scary opponent in UMass-Lowell. The Riverhawks were another opponent that Hofstra handled last year, 3-1, but unlike many of last year’s games, it wasn’t Jonel Boileau tearing apart the opposing defense. Claudia Marin Samper outscored UMass single-handedly with two goals in 2014.
Two more problems for the Riverhawks: they lost their top scorer last year, and they only notched one road win all of last season.
9/23 - @ Fairfield (7-12, America East)
Hofstra will finish off seeing just about all of the America East conference has to offer (5 out of its 6 tenants to be exact) following their meeting with the Stags. Fairfield comes up in the lower half of the RPI at 54th, but has notable threats to grab a win, lead by Ann Burgoyne, who scored 19 goals in 2014, good for the 4th best goals per game average in the nation.
Fairfield’s offense is looking for more threats to compliment Ann, after Felicitas Heinen (20 pts) graduated. The Stags do have viable options to keep this offense producing, but the defense is what handed them 12 losses last year. Their goalies were able to grab the 16th most saves per game in the nation last year, but still surrendered 41 goals, a -3 margin for the year. Despite better RPI numbers for Hofstra, this game could be a toss-up.
9/25 vs. Quinnipiac (8-11, MAAC)
Also hailing from Connecticut, the Bobcats had a similar season to Fairfield, going 8-11, and pulling up 58th in overall rankings. Their season started on a promising note, losing in OT to eventual National Champ UConn, but they kind of lulled from there. Quinnipiac did hand the Pride a 4-2 loss last season, shutting down their offense in the second half to claim the W, despite having only won twice coming into the game. The team succeeded on not one player’s merits, but a trio of women scoring 13+ points on the year.
The problem is their top two of those three are gone, effectively leaving the team 34 points to replace. And two of the goals in last year’s win over Hofstra came from their departed leading scorer Danielle Allan. The Bobcats also put a lot on their goalie Megan Conaboy, who made 128 saves but still allowed 3+ goals in a game nine times, which seems to represent an ailing defense. Even worse, Conaboy’s prowess in goal will also be lost to graduation. Quinnipiac has been able to beat Hofstra in the past, but their losses might be too much to overcome.
9/27 vs. Yale (3-14, Ivy)
The level of talent (at least based on 2014 rankings) stays about the same when the Bulldogs visit, pulling up smack dab in the middle of their previous two opponents at 56th. But what is odd about this ranking is that they earned it with a 3-14 record. Why? A schedule full of top teams, though the best team they beat was 57th ranked Brown. They lost to 19th ranked Boston U, 20th Princeton, 6th Stanford, 25th Columbia, 26th Cornell, Albany, and UConn.
Though they took on a hefty slate, they lack the tools to beat contenders, and still seem to this year, barring the emergence of a younger player. They had just one double-digit point scorer last year, and she still struggled to notch goals when she tried, making only 10% of her shots (Kelsey Nolan, 6 G).
10/2 vs. Sacred Heart (9-9, MAAC)
To close a set of four games against Connecticut teams, the Pioneers will provide another somewhat easy opponent for Hofstra. SHU grabs the lowest RPI of the Connecticut foes, but has the best record at 9-9 (makes sense right?), and they will be returning their top four scorers, their goalie who did a good job last season (74% in the net), and a good chunk of their defense. So though this team wasn’t anything too notable in 2014, the amount of turnover is minimal.
In all of Sacred Heart’s wins last year, they kept opponents at 3 goals or less, which on one end is a good sign of the team’s ability to defend against offenses. But to look at it negatively, they didn’t win any games where teams scored more, because they never posted more than three goals in a game all year. Having back the same core could help them build a more consistent offense, but on paper Hofstra may still be better.
10/4 @ Columbia (12-5, Ivy)
It is not a bad idea for Coach De Angelis to schedule a tricky opponent as the Pride’s final tuneup before CAA play, and they get just that with 25th ranked Columbia. The Lions had an offensive attack similarly as consistent as Hofstra’s last season, posting 51 goals, 2.92 per game (Hofstra had 2.94). The difference this season is Hofstra lost the reason they were so lethal last season, but Columbia didn’t, retaining Christina Freibott, who had 10 goals and 21 assists.
The team did lose their true leading goal scorer (Zoe Blake, 13 G) though, which could be an issue, since her, Freibott, and one other were the only on the squad to score more than five times. The Lions only lost five times last year, and all to teams in the top 40 of the postseason RPI rankings. But the good news about that is one of those teams was Hofstra, knocking off the Lions 4-3, and even better all four goals were scored by players that are still on the team this year. Signs points to Columbia having the upper hand this time, but then again, they did last season, too.