TOURNAMENT BRACKET
PITMAN, NJ… New Jersey City University will be the sixth seed in the 2008 New Jersey Athletic Conference Tournament, the conference office announced on Wednesday night. The Gothic Knights (10-5-2, 4-4-1 NJAC) will open the 2008 NJAC Quarterfinals on Saturday, November 1 at 6 p.m. when the Knights visit third-seeded Rutgers University-Camden in Camden, NJ.
It will be the second meeting between the clubs in a week at Rutgers Camden Community Park, as the two teams squared off on Sunday, October 26 with the Scarlet Raptors winning 3-0. The Raptors lead the all-time series, 17-8-6 and are 3-0-2 in the last five meetings.
The winner will advance to the NJAC Semifinals on Tuesday, November 4 at 7 p.m. against second-seeded and #24 ranked Richard Stockton College (15-4-1, 7-2-0 NJAC) at G. Larry James Stadium in Pomona, NJ. NJCU defeated Stockton, 5-2 on September 20 in Jersey City, in a game the Knights led 5-0. Since that loss, Stockton has won 12 of its last 13 games, only losing to #3 ranked Montclair State University (18-0-0, 9-0-0 NJAC), the top seed in this year's tournament.
The other quarterfinal match will feature fourth-seeded William Paterson University (12-4-2, 5-3-1 NJAC), ranked 11th in the nation, meeting fifth-seeded The College of New Jersey (9-8-2, 5-4-0 NJAC), also at 6 p.m. on November 1. The winner will visit Montclair State for a 7:30 p.m. semifinal.
The highest remaining seed will host the championship game at a time to be determined on Friday, November 7. The league champion gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
NJCU has reached the conference finals in each of the past two seasons and three times overall since 2001. NJCU was the top seed in 2007, but lost to Montclair in both the 2006 and 2007 finals.
In all, this will be the eighth appearance for NJCU in the six-team conference tournament (1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008) and the fourth consecutive year. NJCU is 4-6-2 (.417) all-time in 12 tournament games. NJCU competed as an independent in 2004 as was not eligible for the tournament.
Before being the #1 seed in 2007, NJCU was the third seed in 2006 and the fifth seed in 2005. The sixth seed is NJCU's lowest since 2003 when it was the sixth seed. NJCU finished that year with an identical 4-4-1 NJAC record.
Ticket prices for all tournament matches are $5.00 for adults and $2.00 for seniors, children and students.
—www.njcugothicknights.com—
