New Jersey City University Athletics

 

 

JERSEY CITY, NJ…Freshman outside hitter JACQUELINE LeBLANC (Westfield, NJ/Westfield) uncorked a match-high 14 kills and hit .600, and sophomore middle blocker LIZZELLE CINTRON (Newark, NJ/Elizabeth) and sophomore outside hitter GLORINELL PEREZ (Elizabeth, NJ/Elizabeth) each smacked 11 kills, as New Jersey City University hit a collective .494 as a team, and won its 10^th consecutive match, with a 30-12, 30-6, 30-9 sweep of John Jay College. The non-conference contest at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center, lasted 52 minutes.

              

With the win, NJCU improves to 23-5 overall, and extends its home court winning streak to 19-0 in the last two seasons. It was NJCU’s 19^th victory in 20 matches in 2005, and at 10 straight, marks the second longest winning streak in school history. The Knights won 20 consecutive matches in 2004. Additionally, the win is the 299^th in the 23-year history of the program.

              

John Jay falls to 6-15 overall, with its second straight loss and sixth in its last seven matches. NJCU leads the all-time series against the Bloodhounds, 15-2, and have won the last 11 meetings.

              

The 27 combined points scored by JJC marks the second lowest total by a Gothic Knight opponent since rally scoring was established in collegiate volleyball in 2001. It is the third time in the rally era that NJCU has twice held an opponent below double digits on the scoreboard during a match.

 

As a team, NJCU collected 50 kills and only made seven errors in 87 attacks for a season-high .494 percentage, and added 14 aces and 7.0 total team blocks. The Knights committed only 20 combined errors in the match.

 

LeBlanc reached double figures in kills for the 10th consecutive match, and the 19^th time in 26 contests to begin her career, as she bagged 14 kills with only two errors in 20 attacks, for the .600 rate. The .600 percentage was a career best, as she led the team in kills for the second straight match. She also tallied 12 digs and three aces, giving her a double-double for the 12^th time in 2005. LeBlanc hit .800 alone in the first game with eight kills and no errors in 10 attempts. With 306 kills on the season, she cracked the Top 10 list for a single-season in NJCU history.

Cintron hit .474, with 11 kills and just two errors in 19 attempts, adding 10 digs and two aces. Cintron, the national leader in total blocks in Division III, rejected four in the match.

 

Perez reached double digits in kills for the second time this season, landing 11 winners with only two errors in 23 attempts, for a .391 percentage, the best rate of her career when compiling more than 20 attacks. She added nine digs and two solo blocks.

 

Sophomore middle blocker MEAGAN ROBERTS (Union, NJ/Union) hit an impressive .778, with seven kills and zero errors in nine swings. Freshman outside hitter SARAH TORRES (Elizabeth, NJ/Science) notched a .308 percentage with five kills (5-1-13), and three blocks.

 

Freshman setter SOFIA GUTIERREZ (Piscataway, NJ/Piscataway) delivered 22 assists and served three aces. Sophomore setter NADIA DASILVA (Newark, NJ/Science) added 16 assists.

 

JUNIE JEAN-MARIE" src="/images/wvball/2005/10/22/10-15-05%20Junie%20Jean-Marie%2010.jpg" width=150 align=left border=0>Senior libero JOANNA MIEDZWIEDZ (Jersey City, NJ/Dickinson) had three aces and nine digs. Freshman opposite JUNIE JEAN-MARIE (Rahway, NJ/Rahway) contributed two aces.

 

For JJC, no player totaled more than three kills, and the team tallied nine overall (9-11-66, -.030). Freshman libero Jennifer Tiburcio (New York, NY/Louis D. Brandeis) defended a match-high 13 digs for the Bloodhounds.

 

History can be made on Tuesday, October 25 at 7 p.m. when NJCU meets Kean University in a New Jersey Athletic Conference match in Union, NJ. A win by the Gothic Knights will be a historic 300^th in program history. Furthermore, if NJCU, the 2005 NJAC regular season champions, can defeat Kean, the Knights will conclude a perfect conference schedule with a 7-0 record. Only the 1979-80 men’s basketball team (10-0) has gone undefeated in the conference standings in any NJCU sport, men’s or women’s.