A THREE-PEAT?: Hofstra women picked to win CAA again

Hofstra’s Lucy Porter was named the CAA’s preseason midfielder of the year. (Photo country of Hofstra)

RICHMOND, Va. – After securing back-to-back Colonial Athletic Association championships in 2017 and 2018, the Hofstra University women’s have been picked to complete the “three-peat” by the league’s 10 head coaches it was announced Thursday.

It was the second successive year that Hofstra has earned the top spot in the CAA preseason poll.

Junior Lucy Porter was named the preseason midfielder of the year and was joined on the preseason All-CAA team by junior forward Sabrina Bryan.

The Pride received 78 points and seven of the available nine first-place votes in the poll to beat out James Madison, which got three remaining first-place votes and 74 points. The voting was done by the league’s head coaches, who are not permitted to vote for their own team or athletes.

Porter recently was named to the 2019 Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy Watch List, the most prestigious individual award in college soccer awarded to the top men’s and women’s student-athlete. She also earned CAA first team, United Soccer Coaches Association All-Region first team and All-ECAC accolades a year ago after recording 11 goals and four assists. She finished in the CAA top 10 in points (tied for second), points per game (fourth), goals (second), goals per game (third), assists (tied for 10th), and game-winning goals (first).

Bryan posted a team-high 13 goals last season, which tied for seventh on the all-time season list at Hofstra. She also collected CAA first team and USC All-Region second team honors while finishing ranked in the conference in total points (first), points per game (first), goals (first), goals per game (first) and assists (tied for 10th).

Hofstra compiled a 16-6-1 record in 2018 and captured the CAA championship before advancing to the NCAA Division I Tournament, where the Pride moved on to the second round after a 4-1 victory over Boston College.

Hofstra opens its campaign at Monmouth University Friday, Aug. 23 at 6 p.m.