Hofstra’s volleyball roster reads like the United Nations member list.
In addition to six American players, Hofstra’s team includes 10 players from six other countries, including four from Brazil, two from Türkiye and one each from Australia, France, Italy, and Cyprus.
According to coach Emily Mansur, the Pride’s international flavor is no accident.
“It’s been a pretty normal thing for us since I started here,” she said.
What also is pretty normal now at Hofstra is winning. The Pride are 7-1 after sweeping Sacred Heart on Tuesday. They started 6-0, lost a tough one in five against Lehigh last Saturday, and held Sacred Heart to .021 hitting while five Hofstra players had five or more kills.
Eight matches into her 10th season at the school in Hempstead, New York, Mansur boasts a 171-92 record and two NCAA Tournament berths (2014, 2018). Hofstra, which finished 17-12 overall, 14-2 in the CAA, seemed poised for another postseason run last fall. But Hofstra sustained back-to-back losses to Towson to end the regular season and then, as the second seed, was upset by seventh-seeded William & Mary in the CAA tournament.
Hofstra goes to Dartmouth this weekend and plays Stoneill on Friday and Seton Hall and the…
