Hofstra beats NJIT 3-1 to continue Hofstra Invitational
The Hofstra Pride volleyball team beat the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Highlanders three sets to one in their second game of the Hofstra Invitational, on Aug. 26
Clara Bal led the way with 16 kills in this matchup. Yagmur Cinel and Beatriz Braga achieved double-digit kills with 12 and 10 respectively. Beatriz Alves recorded 84.6% of the assists for the Pride. She tallied 44 while the rest of the team had the other eight of the total 52 assists.
“We need that so it’s awesome. And we need it, that’s the person we are expecting to be our go-to player this year to get the kills for us. So it is very cool to see that she did it,” said volleyball Head Coach Emily Mansur about Bal’s performance.
The first set opened with Alves serving and a Cinel kill to start the day. The two teams traded points tying up at 6-6 after a kill by Bal was overturned due to an attack error. The Pride ripped off a nine-point run after a service error by Braga that made the score 8-7 to a 17-7 lead. A block by Rowan Schreiber for the Highlanders ended the run and a kill by the team’s leader in kills, Adriana Goetz-Morales, brought the score to 17-9. An impressive one-handed dig by freshman Nil Kayaalp led to an attack error and capped a quick 5-0 run for the Pride increasing their lead to 22-9. The Highlanders battled back to come within eight points at 23-15 forcing Mansur to call a timeout. After the timeout, the Pride won the first set 25-17 on a kill from Braga.
“It’s not that she had a great match but she had to step up and play six rotations which we did not expect this early in the year. We thought that this would come a little bit later on. She was able to stay composed even though the game wasn’t great. Even though she didn’t play her best that we know she can she was able to still hold that position because Izadora was out.” said Mansur of freshman Braga’s performance in place of an injured Izadora Stedile.
The second set started sloppy for the Pride with an early out-of-rotation error, service error and attack error. The Highlanders stayed on top of the Pride throughout the set, with the Highlanders answering each time the Pride scored any points. An 11-11 tie was broken by five points in a row for NJIT, taking a 16-11 lead. Goetz-Morales registered the final kill for the Highlanders winning 25-20.
Coming into the third set tied 1-1, the Pride jumped out to a 6-0 lead. Bal recorded five of her 16 kills in this set. The Pride came out much more aggressive in the third set, finishing with an 8-2 run, winning 25-10.
“That’s one of the things for us this year to really continue. I think yesterday we did a little bit of a better job on that, today we kind of got a little bit more relaxed but we’re going to continue to push and yes, Clara is a big part of that.” says Coach Mansur about the vocal intensity the team showed throughout the match.
The fourth set started with back-to-back service aces from Campbell Walker, giving the Highlanders an early 2-0 lead. A kill from Cami Augustine gave the Highlanders a 5-2 lead that quickly disappeared with a five-point run from the Pride giving them a 7-5 lead. NJIT proceeded to regain the lead and keep control for most of the set. The Pride tied the set multiple times but couldn’t take the lead until a block from Cinel gave Hofstra a 21-20 lead. The Pride won the fourth and final set 25-22 on a ball handling error by Schreiber r that NJIT challenged but was upheld.
The Pride improved their season record to 2-0. Hofstra travels to New Rochelle, New York, on August. 29 for their first away game to take on Iona University.
Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Evan Bernstein
