NIGHT EDITION of TOP PLAYS
MORNING EDITION of TOP PLAYS
JERSEY CITY, NJ (www.NJCUGothicKnights.com) | New Jersey City University junior goalkeeper LAURA ROBINSON's (Edison, NJ/Edison) remarkable diving stop and catch of a penalty kick in NJCU's 3-1 home victory against New Jersey Athletic Conference rival Montclair State University was so good, it has made national television. The video highlight of her diving stop was featured on the October 16/17 edition of ESPN's SportsCenter, and was selected as the #8 Play of the Day during the “Top Plays” segment of the broadcast.
The play is the second ever known instance of an NJCU athletics highlight being featured on SportsCenter and one of a handful of times a Gothic Knight team or student-athlete has been chronicled by the network since 2007.
The ESPN play was the culmination of an incredible effort by Robinson, who in her first season as a member of the Gothic Knights, established a school record for saves in a victory with 16—a career high for stops.
After a yellow card in the box by NJCU at the 80:44 mark of the second half, Montclair junior midfielder Christina DeMartinis (Kinnelon, NJ/Kinnelon) was awarded a penalty kick. Robinson, dancing on the goal line in preparation, read the play perfectly, diving towards the left post before tipping the ball up and off the crossbar. Before the loose ball could fall and spin into the net, she caught the rebound while lying on her back on the goal line. Perhaps the defensive play of the year for NJCU, it maintained the Knights' two-goal lead as her team defeated Montclair State for the first time since October 6, 1994. NJCU pulled into fifth place in the league standings with the win.
Ironically, it was the second consecutive year than NJCU has earned a spot in the ESPN SportsCenter Top Plays after playing Montclair State. On October 31, 2009, the men's soccer team's overtime golden goal win over the then #3 ranked Red Hawks was the #9 Play of the Day.
—www.njcugothicknights.com—
