New Jersey City University Athletics

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 JERSEY CITY, NJ (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | New Jersey City University junior middle hitter JADE MEDLEY (Queens, NJ/Hudson Catholic) played well, including her second career double-double, but it wasn't enough to propel the Gothic Knight women's volleyball team to victory as NJCU lost a pair of non-conference home matches on October 19 at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center. In the opening match of two against MAC Freedom Conference opponents, Delaware Valley College swept the Knights, 3-0 (25-16, 25-7, 25-16) before King's College (Pa.) won the nightcap, 3-0 (25-12, 25-21, 25-23).
 
With the two losses, NJCU (6-21) dropped its eighth consecutive match. DelVal (11-12) won its third in a row while King's (12-9) snapped a four-match losing streak. King's and DVC did not face each other. DelVal had a 30-14 advantage in kills, led by Janel Gluch (Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough) and Gina Page, and downed NJCU in the opening match as the Aggies hit .266 as a team (30-9-79), committing only nine attack errors. Meanwhile, the Aggies landed 14 aces and 6.0 blocks.
 
DVC had a 50-18 advantage in points. NJCU committed 24 attack errors as a team and was limited to a -.133 attack percentage—the seventh time this season the Knights had an attack percentage in the red.
 
In defeat in the opener, Medley landed eight of NJCU's 14 kills for a .136 percentage (8-5-22). Rookie defensive specialist JESSICA PEREZ (Cliffside Park, NJ/Cliffside Park) defended 10 digs. Junior setter MADELYN LEON (West New York, NJ/Memorial) finished with 12 assists.
 
For DVC, setter Crystal Ronan posted a double-double of 21 assists and 10 digs with four aces. Page hit .400 with 10 kills against two errors (20 attempts) and Gluch added 10 kills and only two errors in 21 attempts (.381) while putting down four blocks (three solo). Alyssa Riggins contributed six aces, five digs and four kills.
 
DVC never trailed in any of the three sets. The Aggies put away 15 kills in game one when they hit .324 (15-4-34) while surging in front, 10-2. DVC did not commit an attack error in game two, hitting .381 (8-0-21). NJCU had a -.261 rate in the game with eight errors (2-8-23). The Aggies vaulted ahead, 9-1 and 14-2 and never looked back. The visitors had leads of 8-2 and 14-3 in the third set before pulling away for the sweep. In the nightcap, Medley hammered a match-high 14 kills and hit .367 with 11 digs. She reached double figures in digs for the just the third time in her career and one year after achieving her only other career double-double in a  3-1 loss at King's (13 kills, 13 digs, October 19, 2012), she registered her second such feat against the same opponent. Medley committed just three attack errors (14-3-30). She reached double digits in kills for the 20^th time in her career and seventh time this season.
 
Despite Medley's efforts, no other Gothic Knight had more than five kills. Senior libero CINDY GARCIA (West New York, NJ/Memorial) defended a match-high 23 digs for her 10^th career 20-dig effort and 41st career outing with double-digit digs. Leon contributed her third double-double of her first season at NJCU, finishing with 21 assists and 10 digs.
 
King's only held a 35-30 edge in kills in the match but helped its efforts with 14 aces. Jessica Carr led the Monarchs with 10 winners and a .320 attack percentage (10-2-25).
 
Four visiting players had 10 or more digs. Setter Mary Loughran had a double-double with 24 assists and 10 digs while hitting .600 with six kills and no miscues (10 attempts). The team's lone New Jersey native, Alyssa Powell (Nutley, NJ/Nutley) finished with 13 digs and five aces. Aubrey Gryskiewicz chipped in 12 digs and Sarah Busse tallied 10 digs, five assists and four aces.
 
King's led the entire first set and moved ahead 10-1 and 16-3 to easily claim a 1-0 lead in the match. Both schools offenses picked it up in the second and third sets.
 
King's hit .220 with 16 kills in the second set (16-5-50) while NJCU put down 12 kills and hit .214 (12-3-42). There were six ties in the period. NJCU opened a 14-8 lead before the Monarchs rallied, evening the period at 14-14 on three straight kills—two by Elen O'Donnell—sandwiched around a pair of aces from Gryskiewicz. NJCU reclaimed leads of 17-14 and held a 21-19 advantage after Medley powered down two more kills. But King's scored the final six points of the period; kills by Powell and Carr tied it, Busse put the opponents ahead with an ace, and NJCU committed three straight errors.
 
The Knights had a 14-12 margin in third set kills. NJCU trailed early, 9-4 before scoring seven consecutive points to gain an 11-9 lead. Three more kills by Medley, a Garcia ace, and then back-to-back Medley kills, extended the run to 13-1 and NJCU led, 17-10. A kill by Medley made it 20-12 and the Knights were rolling. But behind the serving of Powell, King's unleashed an 8-0 run to tie the match at 20-20. The clubs traded tied at 21-21 and 22-22. But an NJCU service error and a kill by O'Donnell made it 24-22 and Loughran put away match point to complete the third-set rally.
 
NJCU is idle until Thursday, October 24 when it visits Rutgers University-Camden in a New Jersey Athletic Conference match at 7 p.m. in Camden, NJ.