By Kevin Carroll -- SPORTS EDITOR Summer is over, school is fast approaching and we are just hours away from the beginning to the Hofstra fall sports calendar. While fans of the Pride will have to wait another week to have all four fall sports teams in action, the Hofstra women’s soccer team is getting a head start on the fun, taking on the University of Pittsburgh tonight at 7 p.m. to kick off its season.
Last year’s Hofstra squad was a group looking for an offensive identity after the graduation of all-time great Leah Galton. Jill Mulholland had a terrific season as the Pride’s primary scorer, but the lack of parity on the front end led to Hofstra missing the CAA Tournament with a 10-7 record.
It will be back to the drawing board on offense this year, as well, with the departure of Mulholland. The forward scored 13 of the Pride’s 28 goals last season, more than twice the amount of the Pride’s next two top scorers.
Those next two, Kristin Desmond and Noriana Radwan, will be back to lead the Hofstra attack. Radwan had an impressive debut season with the Pride after transferring from the University of Connecticut,and she’ll look to build on that this year as one of Hofstra’s top options on the attack.
Outside of those two, Hofstra will need to spread the wealth better than it has in the past if the team wants to get back to the CAA Tournament, and beyond that, the NCAA tourney. The Pride was a middle-of-the-pack offensive team last season, and head coach Simon Riddiough’s squad will have to work hard to ensure that a slip isn’t forthcoming.
Some options for the Pride include sophomore Maya Watkins and senior Maddie Anderson, who was just named to the All-CAA preseason team. Anderson scored two goals last year for the Pride as a defender, and she remains a key presence on a stout Hofstra back line, along with Rhian Cleverly and Kelly Gerdes.
Riddiough has also brought six freshmen into the fray this season, all capable of playing in the midfield or up top at the forward position. If Hofstra could get some key minutes out of some new faces, it will be a step in the right direction.
In net, the Pride will look to Ashley Wilson to anchor the defense. Wilson started all 16 games as Hofstra’s goalkeeper last year, but actually played fewer minutes than Friederike Mehring, who was the de facto second-half keeper for the Pride last year.
With Mehring gone, this will be a big step for Wilson, who will presumably be the Pride’s full-time goalkeeper. Behind her, Jenna Borresen and Sabrina Painter haven’t gotten much time in net, so Wilson’s workload will likely see a big increase of last season.
Riddiough enters his 12th season as the head coach of the Hofstra women’s soccer team, and has been consistently excellent since his hiring in 2005. He’s never had a losing season, and last year marked the first time that a Riddiough-led team failed to make the CAA Tournament since 2006.
After an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2015, last year’s season was a step back, and for a program so accustomed to success, especially postseason success, fans will undoubtedly see a team focused on getting back to the CAA tourney, and to bring Hofstra back up to the level of excellence that has become so customary for this program in the last ten years.
The Pride will be tested early and often with this year’s schedule, but no bigger test lies ahead for this team than Hofstra’s date with defending national champs Penn State in just two days, on Sunday afternoon. Win or lose, a good performance against one of the nation’s elite teams will do wonders to get this tea on the right track down the road.
Another game to circle on Hofstra’ schedule this year will be the CAA opener against the University of Delaware on Sept. 21. Last season, a promising start to the season was derailed by a four-game losing streak to open up CAA play, a misstep that could spell disaster once again for the Pride this year.
But before those games, Hofstra has to take care of business tonight, traveling to the Steel City to take on Pitt. Hofstra’s season kicks off at 7 p.m., and even though you can’t forecast a whole season by one game, tonight’s contest will give Hofstra fans a look at the direction this team will be heading in as it looks to get back to the postseason.