Hempstead, NY – The Hofstra Women's Lacrosse team will head to the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championship this week as the Pride will be the three seed and face second-seeded James Madison at 3:30 p.m. on Friday. The tournament is being hosted by top-seeded Towson at the Tiger Soccer Complex.
The semifinals will take place on Friday, May 3 with Towson hosting Drexel at 1 p.m. before Hofstra and James Madison meet at 3:30 p.m. The championship game is set for Sunday, May 5 at 1 p.m.
In an interesting coincidence, the field for the 2013 women's lacrosse championship is identical to the 2012 field, down to the exact seeds for all teams involved. All three games of the 2012 tournament were one-goal contests.
Hofstra Head Coach Shannon Smith will lead the Pride into the conference tournament in her first season at the helm after guiding Hofstra to a 10-7 overall record and a 4-3 conference mark so far in 2013.
The semifinal matchup will be a rematch of a very entertaining contest from earlier this season as JMU earned a 9-8 triple overtime victory over the Pride back on April 12 in Hempstead. That contest saw Hofstra hold a late 8-5 advantage before the Dukes stormed back, including scoring two goals in the final 1:14 of regulation, to send it into overtime where they eventually were victorious. That game is the longest in the history of the Hofstra Women's Lacrosse program.
In all Hofstra is 2-1 against this year's CAA Tournament field as they defeated Towson, 6-5, on April 19 and notched a 12-10 win over Drexel last Saturday (April 27). The win over Towson ended the Tigers 17-game conference win streak and also ultimately allowed the Pride to gain the number three seed in the championship due to the tiebreakers involved.
Hofstra will be looking for its third-ever NCAA Tournament berth after qualifying in 2001 and 2007. The 2007 squad is the Pride's only CAA Championship since joining the league in 2002. This year's appearance in the CAA Tournament is Hofstra's eighth since joining the league.
With 10 victories so far in 2013, Hofstra has now won at least 10 games in six of the last nine seasons.
