New Jersey City University Athletics

JERSEY CITY, NJ (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | New Jersey City University's men's volleyball team will be the No. 3 seed in the 2012 Skyline Conference Tournament when the semifinals and finals are contested on Saturday, April 14, hosted by Kean University at Harwood Arena in Union, NJ. The winner of the Skyline Tournament will receive an automatic bid to the inaugural NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball national championship field, which will be announced on April 17.
 
NJCU (14-16, 14-14 vs. Division III, 9-5 Skyline) will face No. 2 seeded and long-time rival Ramapo College (18-12, 13-1 Skyline) in the tournament semifinals at 3:30 p.m. The other semifinal will feature top-seeded Kean University (23-10, 13-1 Skyline) against fourth-seeded The Sage Colleges (17-9, 9-5 Skyline) at 1 p.m. in the first of two semifinals. The two semifinals winners will square off at 7 p.m. for the championship.
 
Ramapo and Kean both posted 13-1 league marks but the Cougars earned the No. 1 seed by virtue of the league's tie-breaking procedures. NJCU and Sage also finished tied for third with a 9-5 record after splitting the regular season meetings. But NJCU won the head-to-head tiebreaker as the Gothic Knights had a better sets winning percentage in the two meetings; the Knights won 3-1 on April 1; the Gators needed five sets to edge NJCU, 3-2, on February 27 in Albany, NY.

Saturday, April 14, 2012 | Kean University's Harwood Arena | Union, NJ
Skyline Conference Men's Volleyball Semifinals
SEMIFINAL 1	1 pm	(1) Kean University (23-10, 13-1 Skyline) vs. (4) The Sage Colleges (17-9, 9-5 Skyline)
SEMIFINAL 2	3:30 pm	(2) Ramapo College (18-12, 13-1 Skyline) vs. (3) New Jersey City University (14-16, 9-5 Skyline)
Skyline Conference Men's Volleyball Finals
FINALS	7 pm	Semifinal Winners

 
It turns out the Skyline Conference coaches correctly picked the top four teams, in varying order, in the league's preseason poll released back on January 19. In that poll, Ramapo was the preseason favorite (five first place votes, 47 points), Kean was picked second (three first place votes, 37 points), with Sage (33 points) edging NJCU (32 points) for third place.
 
NJCU, Ramapo and Kean, all full-time members of the New Jersey Athletic Conference, are all in their first years as associate members of the Skyline, while Sage is a full-time Skyline member. The Skyline currently has eight men's volleyball playing members. NJCU and Ramapo were founding members of the previous conference, the North East Collegiate Volleyball Association (NECVA). Kean is in its second season of intercollegiate competition and Sage is in its third season.
 
Ramapo defeated NJCU in both regular season meetings, winning a close match in three sets (25-21, 25-22, 25-22) on January 28 in Jersey City before taking the rematch in four sets, 3-1 (25-17, 25-23, 19-25, 25-16). RCNJ leads the all-time series, 45-11 and has won the last 15 meetings. NJCU also lost its two regular season meetings against Kean—a 3-2 setback on January 28 and a 3-0 loss on April 1.
 
“It's just a good feeling,” said senior outside hitter and co-captain KENNY LISK (Old Bridge, NJ/Old Bridge) about playing in the conference tournament. “The whole season, even though we had ups and downs, it all comes down to that [the tournament]. I believe we can play well there. We're kind of peaking at the right time. We played very well against conference foes Sage and Kean [on April 1]. We're willing to go up against Ramapo again. We haven't seen them since the very beginning of the season, but we've grown a lot since then. We're willing to take on the challenge and if we beat them, we get Kean or Sage [in the finals]. Winning the conference—that's the goal of the year.”
 
Admission to the event is free. Live stats and live video are available for all three matches.
 
Live stats: http://www.sidearmstats.com/njcu/mvball
Live video: http://www.keanathletics.com/general_news/012309live