Pirates Host Hofstra, Sacred Heart This Weekend

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. – Walsh Gymnasium

SETON HALL (1-0) vs. HOFSTRA (2-0)

Date

Time

Live Video

Live Audio

Live Stats

Twitter

Friday,
Feb. 26

4:00 PM ET

LIVE STATS

@SHUVolley

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. – Walsh Gymnasium

SETON HALL (1-0) vs. SACRED HEART (1-2)

Date

Time

Live Video

Live Audio

Live Stats

Twitter

Saturday,
Feb. 27

4:00 PM ET

LIVE STATS

@SHUVolley

PREVIEW
Seton Hall will take on a pair of local foes this weekend at Walsh Gymnasium. The Pirates will host Hofstra on Friday and Sacred Heart on Saturday. Both contests will begin at 4:00 p.m. ET.

MEDIA
Both contests this weekend are tentatively scheduled to be streamed live by the Pirate Sports Network. The matches will also be able on 89.5 FM WSOU or wsou.net.

LAST MATCH
Three Pirates recorded double-doubles as the Seton Hall women's volleyball team swept Fairleigh Dickinson, 3-0, to open the 2021 season on Tuesday.

All three double-doubles were recorded by freshmen. Taylor Jakubowski (Lake in the Hills, Ill.) had game-highs of 34 assists and 16 digs. Tsvetelina Ilieva (Sofia, Bulgaria) had 12 kills, 10 digs and three blocks, while Perri Lucas (Chicago, Ill.) notched 12 kills, 10 digs and three service aces.

Junior Emilee Turner (Kaysville, Utah) also had a strong game with 11 kills, only two attack errors and three blocks.

SCOUTING HOFSTRA
Hofstra leads the all-time series with Seton Hall, 8-6, having defeated the Pirates in their most-recent meeting, 3-2, at the Hofstra Invitational on Sept. 15, 2018. The Pride has won the last three matches against Seton Hall. The Pirates' last win in the series came in 2015.

The Pride are coming off a solid 2019 season, which featured a 17-12 overall final record and a 10-6 mark in conference play. Hofstra's season came to an end in the quarterfinals of the CAA tournament, a five-set loss to Delaware. This season, Hofstra returns 11 players from the 2019 campaign, including five starters.

Hofstra is off to a 2-0 start after sweeps of NJIT and Stony Brook this past weekend. It is the Pride's first 2-0 start since beginning the 2016 campaign with four consecutive victories. Senior Ana Martinovic leads Hofstra with 21 kills and ranks third with 15 digs. Junior Maddie Appleton has started both matches at setter this season and dished out 58 assists and is fourth with 14 digs. Redshirt freshman Zyare Abdul Rahim is third with 13 kills and leads the way with seven blocks.

SCOUTING SACRED HEART
Seton Hall has never lost to Sacred Heart in four all-time meetings. In fact, The Hall has only dropped one set in the series. Most recently, the Pirates shut out the Pioneers at the Thunderdome Classic on Sept. 7, 2018.

Sacred Heart is coming off a strong 2019 season, which featured a 20-12 final record and a 13-3 mark in the Northeast Conference. The Pioneers finished the regular season with four straight wins, and then swept their way to the NEC Tournament title with a sweep against LIU in the semifinals and a sweep of Central Connecticut State in the championship. Sarah Ciszek was named the Most Valuable Player, after a seven-kill, 12-dig, 37-assist effort in the championship match. She was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Liisel Nelis, Makayla Dole, Gianna Scioletti and Emma Smallcomb.

The top returning scoring threat is sophomore Reghan Palanchi, who averaged 1.87 kills and 0.87 blocks. In limited action, senior Kathryn Green produced 1.29 kps. Machan is hoping to get an infusion of offense from graduate transfer Olivia Fairchild, who finished her career as Fordham's all-time leader with 3.39 kps and was a Second-Team All-Atlantic 10 selection.

Sacred Heart enters this weekend with a 1-2 record, having been swept by St. John's on Feb. 13. Most recently, they split a double-header at Albany on Feb. 20.