TOWSON, Md. -- It was a brief stop at SECU Arena before the Tigers head for the northern climes of the CAA footprint with a pair of matches this weekend. The Tigers kick off a five-match road swing on Friday night with a 7 p.m. showdown against longtime foe Hofstra before shipping up to Boston for a 1 p.m. Sunday clash with Northeastern.

First Serve
After splitting their only pair of home games in the month of October, the Tigers hit the road for five-straight, beginning Friday night at Hofstra and 1 p.m. on Sunday at Northeastern.

In The National Rankings
This week's teams were neither ranked nor mentioned in the polls this week.

Scouting the Tigers
The Tigers dropped their last outing on Sunday against defending conference champion Charleston in straight sets. Towson enters this weekend's league showdowns with a 9-12 overall record and sitting at 4-4 in the CAA standings. Senior Jocelyn Kuilan and rookie Emily Jarome are neck-and-neck in the kill chart. The former has 219 while the later has dropped 217. Junior Olivia Finckel inches closer to the 200-kill club with 187. Jarome paces Towson with 2.86 kills per set this season during her 76 sets played. Kuilan leads with 255 total points aided by her kill total and 12 service aces. Marrisa Wonders has been serving up helpers all season and leads Towson with 343. Kristin Spengler is in second with 286 but has not seen action since the Tigers first match against Hofstra on Sept. 24. Peyton Moyles has filled in to set, putting up 101 helpers to date. On defense, redshirt senior Anna Holehouse has 412 digs to her credit in 79 sets, bringing her average to 5.22. She is on pace to become the first player in the CAA Era (2002) to average at least 5.00 digs per set. Her 412 digs to date rank 17th for a single season in program history and she needs two to pass Missy Rohrbaugh's mark of 413 during the 2009 campaign. At the net, Olamide Sonuga has 64.0 total blocks, including 58 assisted stops and just two blocking errors this season. Silvia Grassini (62) and Finckel (61) are the other two Tigers north of 60 total blocks to date.

Scouting the Pride (as of Oct. 18)
The Pride enter Friday night's match witha  16-6 overall mark and a 6-2 record in league play. Most recently, Hofstra topped Northeastern in straight sets Wednesday night in Boston. Hofstra returns home to the Mack Physical Education Center Friday night for the first time since a 3-0 win over William & Mary on Sept. 30. Laura Maciullo leads the Pride offense with 306 kills, followed by 268 kills from Aisha Skinner. Masicullo averages a team-best 3.69 kills per set while Skinner posts 3.23 on average. Luisa Sydlik is the top feeder for the Pride as she has 955 of the team's 1,089 assists this season (.876 percent). Maddie Appleton is the leading defensive player, posting 315 digs to date. Hofstra has been deadly on the service line this season, ranking seventh in the country (as of Oct. 16) with 148 aces, 52 more than its opponents. Ivania Ortiz leads the way with 35 perfect serves. Sydlik and Appleton rank second with 29 and 25, respectively. Michaela Rucli leads Hofstra with 90 total blocks, including a team-best 15 solo stops.

Towson-Hofstra History
Friday's match up will be the 60th meeting all-time between the Tigers and the Pride. Hofstra leads the all-time series 43-16, but Towson has crawled back with wins in five of the last nine meetings. The Pride took a 3-0 win earlier this season on Sept. 24, the Tigers' final home event of a 10-match home streak. Towson won its last trip to Hempstead, bringing home a hard-earned 3-0 sweep with a set line of 25-23, 26-24, 25-18.

Towson-Hofstra By the Numbers
All-Time Series Record Hofstra Leads 43-16
at Towson Hofstra 15-9
at Hofstra Hofstra 19-5
at Neutral Sites Hofstra 9-2
at Unknown Sites n/a
First Meeting 1982 - Hofstra 2, Towson 0
Last Meeting Sept. 24, 2018
Hofstra 3, Towson 0 (Towson, Md.)
Streak Towson -1

Last Time Out vs. Hofstra | Sept. 24, 2018 | Towson, Md. | SECU Arena
Despite a final 3-0 score, it was a tight battle throughout as the Tigers hosted Hofstra for Towson's 10-straight home match. Olivia Finckel finished with a match-best 14 kills on 28 swings. As a team, Towson had some success on the attack, hitting for .214 in the match, but was hindered in the first set with an .083 attack rate. Anna Holehouse led Towson on defense with nine digs while Olamide Sonuga was part of three block assists.

With a Win Friday Towson Would...
- Win its fourth match in the last five outings.
- Give the Tigers their third-straight win on the road, dating back to a pair of wins at Elon (3-1) and William & Mary (3-0) at the beginning of the month.
- See Towson win back-to-back games at Hofstra for the first time since the final meeting of 2010 and the first showdown of 2011.
- Keep the Tigers' conference record above .500 for a fourth-straight match. Towson has not dipped below .500 since improving to 2-3 following the Elon win.

Last Time Out vs. Northeastern | Sept. 22, 2018 | Towson, Md. | SECU Arena
It was a five-set thriller on Sept. 22 as the TIgers hosted Northeastern for the first time in 2018. The Huskies went up 2-1, taking the second set 26-24, but Towson roared back to level the set score after a 25-13 win in the fourth. Northeastern took the match with a 15-8 set five win. In the two sets it won, Towson hit for a combined .347, including .400 in the fourth set. Freshman Emily Jarome knocked down 23 kills on 48 swings with just five errors to lead the match. Kristin Spengler (22) and Marrisa Wonders posted (19) team highs in assists.

2,000 Digs
Early in the Tigers' first set at James Madison, redshirt senior libero Anna Holehouse became the first player in Towson history to post 2,000 digs. She finished with match with 20 digs, bringing her career total to 2,085. She is also the seventh player in CAA history to reach the 2,000 digs mark. She trails VCU's Grisselle Lopez Pereira's mark of 2,088 for fourth all-time in league history. To date, Holehouse has 412 digs in 2018. She needs another 316 digs to overtake the league's all-time record of 2,401, held by Delaware's Stephanie Barry.

Tigers in the Community
Sunday was a busy day for the Tigers. Beginning at 9 a.m., the Tigers helped Towson University in hosting the 2018 Autism Awareness Walk at Johnny Unitas ® Stadium. Following the Autism Awareness Walk, the Tigers crossed the street to SECU Arena to face defending CAA Champion College of Charleston with a noon first serve. AThe Tigers sported their blue Autism jerseys for the duration of Sunday's showdown.

Jarome Named CAA Offensive Player of the Week (Oct. 15)
Emily Jarome played all eight sets for the Tigers this weekend as Towson went 1-1 in CAA action. The freshman scored 24 kills, including 17 on Friday against the Seahawks of UNCW as Towson extended its winning streak over UNCW to six. She posted her first career double-double with 10 digs against UNCW while posting another five on Sunday against Charleston. Jarome added three assists and two block assists on the week as well.

Kuilan's Big Swing
Senior Jocelyn Kuilan is firmly one of the top offensive players in program history. The right sider has knocked down 1,1392 kills in her career at Towson, ranking fourth all-time and is the sixth player in program history with at least 1,300 kills. In the Tigers' sweep of William & Mary, Kuilan surpassed Val Davis's mark of 1,365 (1987-89). April Hoffman (2002-05) leads the career records with 1,588 kills. Kuilan averages 391 kills per season, including a rookie season with 426. Kuilan will need 196 kills to take the program's career record. Kuilan continues to climb in the program's all-time sets played list.