New Jersey City University Athletics

 

NEW YORK, NY…Sophomore middle blocker LIZZELLE CINTRON (Newark, NJ/Elizabeth) and freshman outside hitter JACQUELINE LeBLANC (Westfield, NJ/Westfield) each smacked 14 kills and New Jersey City University won for the 12^th time in 13 matches by sweeping the City College of New York, 3-0, by scores of 30-22, 30-14, 30-18, in a non-conference match at the Nat Holman Gymnasium on Friday night.

 

NJCU, the first-place team in the New Jersey Athletic Conference, improves to 16-5 overall. CCNY (5-8) owns a slight 13-12 lead in the series that has existed since 1983. NJCU hit .265 as a team with 43 kills.

              

One day after breaking the NJCU all-time kills record, Cintron increased her total to 1159, by hitting .591 overall. She carved up 14 kills and only one error in 22 attempts, and added 12 digs, six blocks (three solo) and three aces.

 

Cintron now has 156 solo blocks and is only two shy of matching that career record (158). She already is the all-time leader in total blocks and assisted blocks.

 

With 14 kills, LeBlanc reached double digits for the 13^th time in 20 matches to begin her career, posting a .393 hitting percentage (14-3-28), the second best mark this season. She added nine digs.

Sophomore outside hitter GLORINELL PEREZ (Elizabeth, NJ/Elizabeth) continued to defend well, tallying 13 digs, with six kills. She now has 936 career digs, 64 shy of becoming the sixth member of the 1000-dig club.

 

Freshman setter SOFIA GUTIERREZ (Piscataway, NJ/Piscataway) and sophomore setter NADIA DaSILVA (Newark, NJ/Science) combined for 32 assists, posting 17 and 15, respectively.

 

Freshman outside hitter SARAH TORRES (Elizabeth, NJ/Science) aced CCNY five times, and sophomore middle blocker MEAGAN ROBERTS (Union, NJ/Union) added five kills. Freshman libero #LYANELLY NEGRON# (Union, NJ/Union) had 10 digs and three aces.

 

In what may be the most significant regular season match in NJCU volleyball history, the Gothic Knights, currently 4-0 in the NJAC, will next host Richard Stockton College (3-0 NJAC) on Tuesday, October 11 at 7 p.m. in a conference match at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center. If NJCU wins that match, it would only need to win one of its final two conference matches (William Paterson University, Kean University) to win the league’s regular season title and clinch the No. 1 seed and home court advantage throughout the NJAC Tournament. NJCU has never won a conference regular season title in a women’s sport. Stockton leads the all-time series, which began in 1983, 34-0, and 30 of the 34 victories have been sweeps. NJCU has only taken four games from the Ospreys in all 34 meetings.