Sept. 23, 2011
NORFOLK, Va. - A stingy Old Dominion defense held Hofstra without a shot in the first half and the top-ranked Lady Monarchs rolled to a 5-0 win at a rainy Powhatan Sports Complex Friday evening.
Old Dominion (9-0, 1-0 CAA) got two goals each from senior Emma Batten and sophomore Kati Nearhouse and junior Maartje van Rijswijk dished out a career-high two assists as the Lady Monarchs opened CAA play with a bang.
Hofstra (7-5, 0-1 CAA), which was riding a four-game winning streak entering tonight, was only able to muster one shot on goal as the Pride lost their first game since September 10.
The game was delayed over an hour due to the inclement weather and both teams struggled to score early on. Batten broke the ice in the 25th minute as she received a pass from senior Kathryn Kirk behind the goalkeeper and scored the easy tally.
Nearhouse netted her first of two goals with less than a minute remaining in the second half off a feed from van Rijswijk to send Old Dominion into the intermission up by two.
In the second half, Nearhouse registered her second consecutive goal and fourth of the season just under 12 minutes into the period. Batten followed in the 54th minute with her team-leading 12th goal of the season to put the Lady Monarchs up 4-0.
Kirk got into the scoring action late, posting a goal off a Kelsey Smither feed at the 56:39 mark and the rock solid ODU defense held Hofstra in check to preserve their third shutout of the season.
Old Dominion outshot the Pride 19-3 for the game and held a 6-0 advantage in penalty corners.
The Lady Monarchs next welcome nationally-ranked Northeastern to the Powhatan Sports Complex on Sunday for a 1 p.m. CAA matchup. The game against the 20th-ranked Huskies will be Old Dominion's Olympic Sports Game of the Week with Ted Alexander and former Lady Monarch Sami Richardson providing commentary and analysis.
-ODU-