WEEK of: SEPTEMBER 1-7, 2008
For the fourth time in her career, sophomore striker
JENNIFER ALBUJA of the women's soccer team is the NJCU Women's Athlete of the Week. She also was named the
New Jersey Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week for the first time.
The sensational forward accumulated a season’s worth of offensive production in only three games, setting records along the way.
Albuja scored nine goals with three assists for 21 points as NJCU opened a women’s soccer season with a 3-0 record for the first time in its history. She has 33 goals in only 21 games in her brief career.
Albuja, the 2007 NJAC Rookie of the Year and First-Team All-NJAC selection, is the first NJCU player to receive the honor since current assistant coach KATIE FEEHAN on October 24, 2005.
In 270 minutes, Albuja uncorked 33 shots—including 17 on goal—and chalked up two game-winning goals. She also assisted on the game-winner in a third game. Albuja was named to the All-Tournament Team at the Scarlet Raider’s Women’s Soccer Classic with six goals and three assists in a pair of contests.
With 33 career goals, she equaled Feehan’s career program goal record, and tied her record of six game-winners. She registered her fourth and fifth career hat tricks and ninth and 10th multiple-goal games. She also moved into second place in school history with 72 career points.
In NJCU’s 4-3 season-opening road win at Lancaster Bible on September 2, Albuja opened the 2008 season the way she performed as a freshman—as an unstoppable goal scorer. Albuja notched her fifth career game-winner, scoring the first, third, and fourth goals.
Trailing 1-0, that deficit stood for just over 11 minutes before NJCU uncorked the first of three consecutive goals at 20:14. Albuja outleaped the LBC keeper on a cross, heading in her first goal of the year for a 1-1 tie. The clubs were knotted at 1-1 at halftime. At 63:40, Albuja delivered again, firing a shot into the upper right corner, over the leaping keeper, for a 3-1 margin. After LBC cut the lead to 3-2, Albuja answered just 48 seconds later with her third goal of the game, and what proved to be the eventual game-winner, scoring off a thru ball that led to a breakaway goal. Albuja slipped a shot on the ground for the winner at 84:02.
In a 1-0 win over College of Staten Island on September 5 in the Scarlet Raider’s Women’s Soccer Classic, NJCU scored the only goal of the game at 87:12. Albuja lofted a perfectly-placed corner kick from the left endline, over both the opposing keeper and defenders, onto the right side of the box where it was banged home.
In NJCU’s 10-1 win over Medgar Evers College on day two of the tournament on September 6, Albuja tied the single-game school record with six goals, collected 14 points—one shy of the single-game mark of 15—and in the process equaled the program’s career mark of 33 goals.
The six goals in one game ties for sixth most in a game in NCAA Division III history while the 14 points ties for eighth on the NCAA single-game charts. Her six goals were also a Raiders’ Classic record. She uncorked 15 of NJCU’s 39 shots and was one shy of her own single-game record of 16 shots set last year.
Albuja scored the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, ninth and 10th goals for NJCU. She scored the eventual game-winner in the 6th minute, for a 2-0 lead. She also provided two assists on corner kicks in the second half. All three of her assists this year have come off her corner kicks.
