Pride has NCAA bid on radar

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Expectations could not be higher for the Hofstra women’s soccer team. 

The Pride was picked first in the 2014 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) preseason poll and return seven starters off last year’s 10-6-3 team that reached the CAA semifinals before falling to James Madison 3-1. Hofstra also has 12 starters on its roster who were part of the program’s CAA title run two years ago.

“The motivation is to win the conference,” said ninth-year head coach Simon Riddiough. “We have a team we think can compete with the best.”

The Pride are led offensively by senior forward Sam Scolarici, who netted a program single-season record 18 goals and 38 points in 2013. “She is probably the most pure goal scorer this program has ever had,” Riddiough said of Scolarici, who registered two tallies in a 4-2 win over Bucknell on Aug. 24.

Joining Scolarici as an offensive threat near the net is junior forward Leah Galton, who captured CAA Player of the Year honors last season after scoring eight goals to go along with 11 assists. The England native was also named to the watch list for the Herman Award, which is given to the nation’s top collegiate women’s soccer player. “We are expecting big things from Leah,” Riddiough said. “She has accomplished a lot in her two years she has been at Hofstra.”

Completing Hofstra’s starting forward trio is redshirt senior Amber Stobbs, a London native who is the only member of the Pride roster to be a part of the program’s last two NCAA Tournament appearances in 2010 and ‘12.

East Meadow High School graduate Lulu Echeverry returns for her senior season and adds some speed off the bench to the Pride’s offensive attack. The Columbia native assisted on a winning goal registered by Stobbs in the CAA quarterfinals against UNC-Wilmington last year. “Lulu is a lovely fantastic kid,” Riddiough said. “She gives us athleticism, she gives us energy and she gives us passion.”

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