Thursday, October 1, 2026
Hofstra’s women’s basketball team is looking to build off a 14-win season which marked the most victories for the program in nearly a decade.
The Pride went 14-16 overall and 9-9 in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) to finish eighth in the 14-team conference after being picked to place 12th.
Hofstra returned eight players from the breakthrough season in which the Pride achieved their highest win total since going 25-9 in the 2015-2016 campaign and are looking to continue that winning mindset this winter.
“Ging into this year we were really excited because we have a really talented bunch,” said sixth-year head coach Danielle Santos Atkinson. “The returners want more as they had a taste of it last year and ran out of gas down the stretch.”
Senior guard Chloe Sterling, who missed the end of last season with a knee injury, gives the Pride an offensive boost this winter leading the team in scoring with 13 points per game prior to being sidelined in February. Sterling made her season debut on Dec. 6 with 11 points in a 67-46 home loss to Fordham.
The Pride also brought back senior guard Emma Von Essen, a Rockville Centre native who averaged 10.9 points per game as a junior. The Long Island Lutheran product has proven to be a three-point threat throughout her Hofstra career and sank her 200th career shot from beyond the arc at the end of last season.
“Her leadership has been great this year,” said Santos Atkinson of Von Essen. “She has led by example in things that we want to be able to do culturally and establishing our standards and expectations.
Hofstra has gotten a boost with the addition of SMU transfer Sandra Magolico, who is averaging more than 10 points per game despite battling some injuries. The 6-1 forward from Spain recorded 25 points and 13 rebounds in a 73-66 win at Yale on Nov. 11.
The Pride boast a number of offensive weapons as evident by an 80-44 win against Marywood on Dec. 10 where four players reached double figures led by sophomore guard Ema Karim, a Portugal native, who posted a career-high 15 points along with four assists.
The Marywood blowout victory also featured 11 points apiece from Sterling and Von Essen. Senior point guard Alarice Goode, a Brampton, Ontario native, tallied 11 points while senior Deivejon Harris nearly cracked double digits with nine points.
“We have the talent and it’s about us just being able to put it together,” Santos Atkinson said. "We're still trying to figure out our identity because we haven’t had everyone out there together due to injuries.”
Freshman forward Olivia VanPatten, who shined at St. George’s School in Rhode Island, has also shown offensive potential early in the season netting eight points in a 95-38 loss to then seventh-ranked Maryland on Thanksgiving Day in Puerto Rico.
Santos Atkinson organized a rigorous non-conference schedule that kicked off with a season-opening 83-48 loss at ACC foe Miami and saw the Pride take on Big Ten power and seventh-ranked Maryland. The Pride will close the non-league on Dec. 28 at Kentucky, who was ranked 15th in the nation in mid-December.
The home CAA schedule commences on Jan. 9 against Towson at 6 p.m. followed a week later when Hofstra hosts Long Island rival Stony Brook on Jan. 16 for another 6 p.m. tipoff. The Pride were picked to finish ninth in the 14-team conference in a preseason coaches poll.
“I think the conference season is going to be as it is every year, anybody's game for that championship, “ Santos Atkinson said. “It's going to be a fight.”
