By Joe Fay -- SPORTS EDITOR
The Hofstra volleyball team snapped its three-match losing streak on Sunday, Oct. 22 with a 3-2 comeback win over the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW) Seahawks. Trailing two sets to one, the Pride put together two hard-fought sets to take the victory.
The comeback was fueled by career-highs from freshman Sanne Maring and sophomore Luisa Sydlik. Maring had 17 kills, crushing her previous career-high of eight while Sydlik tied her career-high in digs with 17 to go with 51 assists, her seventh double-double of the season.
Senior Laura Masciullo led Hofstra to a 25-21 first set win with nine kills and finished with 14 in the match.
The Pride had 20 total kills and a solid .359 hitting percentage in the opening set, despite six errors.
A highly-contested second set followed, seeing UNCW come out on top 25-20 to tie up the match.
The Seahawks carried that momentum into a nearly perfect third set in which they had a .368 hitting percentage while only committing one error. In contrast, the Pride had a dismal .128 hitting percentage and six errors, losing 25-17.
Hofstra then bounced back, winning a back-and-forth fourth set 25-23 with a balanced effort to retie the match at two sets-a-piece.
Though the match was tied, the momentum had shifted for good.
The Pride opened the final set with a 7-2 run and were able to hold off a UNCW comeback effort to win 15-10. The Seahawks, who put up a .103 hitting percentage and five errors, seemed to run out of steam in the fifth set against the resurgent Hofstra squad.
The Pride improves to 14-10 (6-4 CAA) on the season while UNCW falls to 8-15 (2-9 CAA). Hofstra has now won three straight meetings with the Seahawks.
Junior Michela Rucli tallied 14 kills and five blocks while freshman Ivania Ortiz had 16 digs and three aces for the Pride.
Hofstra will get to savor this win for a few days before returning to action this Friday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. against the Phoenix of Elon University.