Hofstra, coming off of its first top 10 upset at home since 2013 after defeating Cornell 10-9 in overtime last week will step back into Colonial Athletic Association play to take on the University of Massachusetts in Amherst this Saturday.
With the win, Hofstra improved to 9-3 overall and enters Saturday’s matchup 3-0 in the CAA. The Pride is now also ranked 12th in the poll for this week.
UMass is coming off of a 13-9 loss to conference foe Drexel University. The Minutemen enter Saturday’s game with a 7-4 record overall, 1-2 in the CAA and is ranked 17th in the national poll this week.
Looking at the numbers, this week Hofstra’s scoring defense is ranked 13th with 8.67 GPG while UMass is ranked 23rd with 9.09 GPG. UMass’s man-down defense is ranked 18th with a .689 percentage.
Hofstra freshman Kris Clarke will faceoff at x against Minutemen senior Joe Calvello who is ranked 15th with a .604 face-off percentage.
It was an exciting and emotional game for Hofstra’s seniors last Saturday after defeating the big red in overtime. The Pride came back from a 2-0 Cornell lead after the first by scoring six goals to gain the 6-4 lead at halftime. In the fourth quarter the Big Red did not stay quiet as they went on a 5-0 run to take the 9-7 lead with 10:04 left in regulation.
Hofstra senior Drew Coholan and sophomore Sam Llinares gave the Pride some life helping to tie it up and send the game into overtime. With 3:16 left in the extra playing time, junior Mike Malave found the back of the net for his third goal of the game and 17th of the season to earn Hofstra the victory. Junior goalie Chris Selva had 11 saves in the upset.
UMass lost its second CAA matchup in a row to Drexel. The Minutemen had its only lead 3-2, early in the contest and tied it up twice in the first half going into the break trailing the Dragons 8-6. After UMass’s Connor Mooney scored his second of the game to cut the deficit to one, Drexel came out strong scoring five fourth quarter goals to the Minutemen’s two to earn the 13-9 victory.
The last time Hofstra and UMass met, Hofstra saw its CAA hopes getting thinner after the Minutemen came from behind and scored the winning goal with 5.6 seconds remaining to earn the 9-8 victory over the Pride. Hofstra senior Torin Varn had three goals; sophomore Brian von Bargon had two while Selva tied his career-high for the second straight week with 17 saves in net.
Hofstra and UMass with face-off in Amherst this Saturday at 7 pm.
