Oct. 16, 2004

Box Score

HEMPSTEAD, NY - Junior Tessa Sphar had 16 kills, including the 1,000th of her career, to lead Hofstra University to a five-game (30-25, 30-23, 26-30, 22-30, 15-10) victory over George Mason University on Saturday evening at the Volleyball Venue in the Physical Fitness Center. Sphar's milestone kill came near the end of game two, as she put away an attack that gave the Pride a 21-18 advantage at the time.

Hofstra, winners of six straight and 11 of its last 12 matches, improves to 15-6 overall and 6-1 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play. The victory was also Hofstra's ninth straight at home this season, the longest home court winning streak since tallying 11 straight wins at home in 1998. George Mason slips to 8-7 and 3-4 in conference play.

The Pride got off to a hot start in the match, jumping out to a two games to zero advantage heading into the third game. Hofstra used a strong hitting performance in the first two games to earn the 2-0 lead. The Pride hit .337 in the first two games as senior Julie Tatar (Kettering, OH) led the way with 10 kills.

The Patriots roared back to even the match as they hit at a .475 clip in the third game, putting down 21 kills on 40 attempts with only two errors. The fourth game went back and forth until George Mason went on a 5-0 run to open a 24-18 lead and never looked back in posting the 30-22 win.

Each team was coming off a five-game match the night before, and tonight's match would be settled the same way. It was a back-and-forth game early on in the fifth stanza, with Mason taking a 5-4 lead following a kill from Marie Skelton. Hofstra answered though, and notched six of the next nine points in the game to lead 10-8.

George Mason would close the gap to one, 10-9, before the Pride closed the game and the match with a 5-1 run.

The win improved Hofstra's record to 19-12 in its last 29 matches that have gone five games.

Tatar led the way for the second straight day with 17 kills, and also posted nine digs. Freshman Shellane Ogoshi dished out a season-high 64 assists and also tallied 12 digs for her team-leading 16th double-double of the season.

Natalie Porosa led the Patriots with 23 kills, while Niki Bernardes and Skelton each added 12. Jesica Umansky had a match-high 66 assists and also picked up 14 digs.