Pride held to one shot in loss to UAlbany

The Hofstra field hockey team was unable to get anything going in a loss to the University at Albany Great Danes on a windy Sunday, March 14 at Hofstra Field Hockey Stadium. The Pride was held to just one shot in the 2-0 loss.

Merlijn van der Vegt made three saves in goal for the Pride, finishing with a save percentage of .600 after allowing Albany's two scores. Neither of the Great Danes' goalkeepers, Hannah Mangan and Sheridan Messier, saw any attempts come their way, as the Pride's lone shot of the game from Jasmijn Verdoes went wide.

"Albany is, and always has been, very strong tacklers," said Hofstra head coach Courtney Veinotte. "They're very low, they're physical and ultimately they did a good job taking away our right baseline. That's where we've been getting, so far, most of our circle entries [this season] ... To get those shots, they can come from penalty corners or circle entries, so just getting inside the circle was a struggle today.

Albany racked up six penalty corners throughout the game, the second-most allowed by the Pride this season. The Danes' second goal of the day came off their final corner of the match, as Julie Rodijk capitalized on an attempt with assists from Kelsey McCrudden and Lara Mortz. Rodijk's goal came with 2:32 left to play, putting an exclamation point on Albany's win.

The Danes' first goal was scored by Hanna Zarrilli. After Mortz took a penalty corner, Zarrilli was able to find the back of the net to put the first points of the game on the board for Albany.

Despite the Pride trailing 1-0, their bench erupted just under three minutes into the fourth quarter when Hofstra earned their first penalty corner of the game. The Pride was unable to turn the corner into a scoring opportunity, as the Great Danes' defense applied a great deal of pressure on Hofstra's attackers.

"We had opportunities to find our way on the scoreboard, and ultimately we didn't capitalize on our penalty corner opportunity inside the circle," Veinotte said. "So, [it's] a tough loss for us, but we're playing with good energy and I'm thankful for that, [but] we have got to find a way to get on that scoreboard."

The Pride has officially wrapped up their non-conference matches with a 2-5 record, and they look ahead to a meeting with Drexel University in Philadelphia on Sunday, March 21 where they will begin Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play.

"The beginning of conference play is always like a new season," Veinotte said. "It doesn't matter what your out-of-conference-play record is ... I'm happy we've got the games under our belt. I think we've worked a lot of things out, [and] we're getting better every day; that's all I can ask of this crew. The work ethic is there, they've got the desire and the drive."

Photo courtesy of Adam Flash/The Hofstra Chronicle