LIZZELLE CINTRON the NJCU Women's Athlete of the Week for the third consecutive week and has also been tabbed as the New Jersey Athletic Conference Player of the Week for the third time in as many weeks, after posting four double-doubles and earning All-Tournament Team accolades as the Gothic Knights placed third at the University of Scranton Invitational. The Gothic Knights are 10-4 overall.
Cintron has now earned NJAC Player of the Week honors eight times in the last two years. NJCU did not compete in the NJAC in 2004.
Cintron, the reigning NJAC co-Player of the Year led the Gothic Knights to another 4-1 week and a third-place finish in a tournament for the second week in a row, as NJCU took third at the nine-team, two-day Scranton Invitational. She has now been named to the All-Tournament Team in all three events NJCU has competed in this season.
She posted another week of sensational results, averaging 6.76 points, 4.94 kills, 3.76 digs, a staggering 2.24 blocks and 0.41 aces per game, while hitting at a .416 percentage. She tallied 115 points, 74 kills, 64 digs and 38 blocks in 17 games over five matches. She also moved into second place in school history in career digs with 1,322—now only chasing current teammate Glorinell Perez.
In the opening match of the week, she hit .560 with 18 kills and only four errors (18-4-25), and added seven blocks and three aces as NJCU won its 22nd consecutive home court match with a 3-0 win against William Paterson University in the NJAC opener for both schools. NJCU has won its last 10 consecutive NJAC matches, including the conference tournament.
In a three-game sweep of Mount Aloysius College on September 15 in the Scranton Tournament, she hit .550 with 12 kills (12-1-20) and only one error, while rejecting 11 blocks, and adding eight digs—just two digs shy of her seventh career triple-double.
Also on September 15, in the Knights 3-1 win over McDaniel College in the Scranton Invitational, she posted 17 kills, 16 digs, nine blocks and three aces. She was one block shy of a triple-double.
Despite a 3-0 loss to host Scranton on the second day of the tournament, she managed 16 kills (16-2-35), a .400 percentage, 12 digs and five blocks.
In the September 16 consolation match, the Knights cruised past St. Lawrence University, 3-1, as Cintron slammed 21 kills and defended 22 digs, while adding six blocks. She hit .545 in the match, with only three errors in 33 swings. It was her 17th-career 20-kill/20 dig match and the 23rd time she has defended 20 or more digs.
For the season, she is averaging 7.15 points, 5.45 kills, 3.92 digs, 1.85 blocks and 0.45 aces per game, while hitting .479, and is ranked among the national leaders in seven categories. She currently is the Division III national leader in total kills.
—www.njcugothicknights.com—
