New Jersey City University Athletics

 

JERSEY CITY, NJ…The New Jersey City University women’s bowling team has reached the NCAA National Collegiate Championship Final Four in two of the last three seasons and the quest for a fourth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament begins on Saturday, October 28 when the program’s seventh season opens. The nearly six-month long 2006-07 schedule was released on October 6, and features nine tournaments, four conference events, and one singles championship, leading up to the NCAAs.

               

Overall, if NJCU makes the NCAA Championship, the Knights will compete in a total of 15 events in 10 different states. The most traveled of any athletic team at the University, NJCU’s keglers will log more than 10,200 miles by bus and plane, in quest of the elusive national championship. The Knights placed third at the NCAAs in 2004, fifth in 2005 and fourth in 2006, and have been ranked as high as No. 2 nationally among Division I, II, and III schools over the past three seasons.

 

“This year, we’re going to some news states and venues to try to get competition against the best teams in the country, like we have done in the past, to hopefully get ready for the postseason,” said FRANK PARISI, the 2006 NCAA Division II/III National Coach of the Year, who begins his seventh season as NJCU’s head coach this year.

 

The North East Women’s Bowling Conference adds two new members this season to increase the league lineup to six schools. NJCU, defending national champion Fairleigh Dickinson University, Sacred Heart University and Saint Peter’s College return as NEWBC members, while St. Francis College of Brooklyn, NY and Adelphi University (NY) have joined the ranks of the NEWBC as new programs.

 

The NEWBC will host an event on October 28 at Wallington Lanes in Wallington, NJ, followed by a meet on November 4 at Maples Lanes in Brooklyn, NY.

 

The conference will host its final two events on Saturday, January 20, 2007 at Parkway Lanes in Elmwood Park, NJ and Hamden Lanes in Hamden, CT on February 24.

 

NJCU will compete in two tournaments during the month of November, beginning with the UMES Shootout, hosted by University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Millsboro, DE on Saturday-Sunday, November 18-19. NJCU was also in the tournament last season.

 

Over Thanksgiving weekend on Friday, November 24 and Saturday, November 25, the Gothic Knights will enter the Jeannette Lee Invitational in Richmond, VA. It will be NJCU’s first entry in the tournament, and give the Knights an opportunity to face a number of Division II schools from the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA).

 

Following a month-long break, NJCU will return to action for a third year in a row at the Holiday Jamboree, hosted by FDU in Egg Harbor Township, NJ, from Wednesday, December 27 thru Friday, December 29.

 

February and March, 2007, have a combined six tournaments on the slate. NJCU will make its first trip to Arkansas in any sport on Saturday-Sunday, February 3-4, when it competes at the Mid-Winter Classic, hosted by Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, AR. The 2,325-mile round-trip will be the longest regular-season travel planned this season.

 

On February 10-11, the Knights return to the Capital Classic, hosted by Delaware State University in Dover, DE, and will compete in the Morgan State University Invitational in Baltimore, MD on February 17-18.

 

“I think the tournament that will be best attended will be the Morgan State Invitational because there will only be a month left in the regular season at that point, and teams will be jockeying for position with the national committee to get selected for the NCAA tournament,” Parisi predicted.

 

For the third consecutive year, NJCU will be the host school for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship, held at AMF Lanes in East Brunswick, NJ. NJCU won the inaugural title in 2005, before FDU captured the crown in 2006.

 

The Knights will make their first trip to Nashville, TN in mid-March, when NJCU competes at the three-day Music City Classic, hosted by Vanderbilt University from Friday, March 16 thru Sunday, March 18.

“We’ll still see the same teams from the Central Region that we normally saw [at tournaments] in Alabama,” Parisi noted of the two new southern events. “We’ve never been to Arkansas or Tennessee, so it’s a change of venue.”

 

The final event of the regular season will also be a three-day competition, as NJCU returns to Chicago, IL for the second year to bowl at the Brunswick Windy City Classic from March 23-25.

 

New to the schedule this year is a NEWBC Singles Championship, which will be held on Saturday, March 31 at Parkway Lanes in Elmwood Park. The idea, conceived by FDU head coach Mike LoPresti, will decide the conference singles champion.

 

“After the regular season is over, it will give players some competition between the end of the regular season and the beginning of nationals,” said Parisi. “There will be no team competition.”

 

For the second time in the four-year history of the NCAA Championship, the national title will be decided at Wekiva Lanes in Apopka, Florida—the site of the 2005 championships. The Orlando, Florida-area event will be held from Thursday-Saturday, April 12-14, 2007.