Women's Volleyball | October 06, 2015
The Basics: |
The Matchups: | New Jersey City University Gothic Knights (8-7, 0-4 NJAC, WON 2) vs. |
| York College (NY) Cardinals (3-13, 1-3 CUNYAC, Lost 4) |
Date: | Tuesday, October 6, 2015 |
Times: | 7 p.m. |
Place: | John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center (Coach Charlie Brown Court) |
Series: | NJCU leads the all-time series, 14-1, and has won 13 consecutive meetings since 1991 |
Last Meeting: | September 11, 2012 in Jamaica, NY |
Last Result: | NJCU won, 3-1 (24-15, 25-18, 23-25, 26-24) |
NJCU Twitter: | @NJCU_Athletics |
NJCU Instagram: | @NJCUGothicKnights |
York Twitter: | @YorkCardinals |
Preferred Hashtags: | #NJCUWVB | #GothicGameDay | #NJCUvsYORK || #CastleonCulver |
Live Stats Coverage: | http://www.sidearmstats.com/njcu/wvball/ or http://www.sidearmstats.com/njcu/wvball/media |
Live Video Coverage: | https://www.youtube.com/user/NJCUGothicKnights/live |
NJCU seeks its third consecutive non-conference victory as it takes on City University of New York Athletic Conference member York College (NY).
One-Way Series: NJCU has never lost to York in Jersey City or in a three-set match. The only win for York in the series was a 2-0 (15-8, 15-6) neutral court decision in Brooklyn, NY on October 8, 1990. That season, women's volleyball was best 2-of-3 for non-conference matches.
#GothicRewind—NJCU Sweeps Purchase, CCNY:Sometimes the best recipe to break out of a losing funk is to face teams that are also struggling. NJCU has lost five of its six previous matches before erasing those memories with two overwhelming wins on October 3, shelling Purchase College, 3-0 (25-9, 25-20, 25-9) before completing the non-conference tri-match with a 3-0 sweep (25-13, 25-18, 25-12) of the City College of New York. With the wins, NJCU (8-7) moved back above .500.
Shege Haxhaj needed 18 kills to become the 15th player in school history with 500 for a career and she notched exactly 18, with nine in each match.
Haxhaj posted an attack line of 18 kills, only two errors and 31 attempts, good for a .516 attack percentage on the day.
Rachel McIntyre, who entered the day with 988 assists in her young career and 13th in Division III in service aces, became just the fifth player in program history to eclipse 1,000 career assists. She finished the day with 56 total assists—exactly 28 in each match—and eight more aces.
O'Donnell Honored:Earlier today, freshman outside hitter
Amber O'Donnell (East Newark, NJ/Harrison) was named the
New Jersey Athletic Conference Women's Volleyball Rookie of the Week for the first time. The award is for week five of the season and gives NJCU three winners in the first five weeks. Fellow freshman outside hitter
Georgina Rayo (Jersey City, NJ/McNair Academic) won the award in week one (September 8) and two (September 15).
O'Donnell, in three matches, averaged 2.22 points, 2.00 digs and 1.78 kills per set. She totaled 20.0 points, 16 kills, 18 digs, three aces and two blocks in nine sets.
Haxhaj Climbing Kills, Blocks Chart:Junior
Shege Haxhaj enters today's action with 500 career kills in 84 matches with 92 total blocks. She has produced 618.5 points. Next on the kills list in 14th place was
Cara Strzelczyk who had 523 kills in one season in 2002. With eight more blocks, she'll become the 11th Gothic Knight with 100 career blocks.
McIntyre Close to a 100 Aces:Sophomore setter
Rachel McIntyre, the sports editor of NJCU's school newspaper 'The Gothic Times', enters today's match with 94 career service aces. With six more, she'll become the 23rd Gothic Knight with 100 career aces. Meanwhile, she'll become the sixth player to have 100 aces in two or less seasons.
McIntyre is Athlete of the Week:Rachel McIntyre was selected NJCU's Women's Athlete of the Week for the first time in her career on October 5. In a 2-1 week for the Gothic Knights,
McIntyre averaged an impressive 7.44 assists per set, handing out 67 assists in 206 attempts in nine sets for a .325 setting percentage. She unleashed eight aces in 38 attempts versus only three errors for a .921 serving rate and defended 20 digs. For the week she also averaged 2.22 digs, 1.44 points, 0.89 aces and 0.56 kills per set, hitting .143 (5-3-14).
Valerie is Digging It:Senior libero
Valerie Ballestas tallied 14 digs in last week's loss to Rutgers-Newark.
Ballestas has double figures in digs six times in her career (four times in 2015).
Romero is rising:Jacqueline Romero defended a career-high equaling 14 digs and did not have a reception error in 18 attempts in NJCU's sweep of CCNY.
Romero's 14 digs marked her third double-digit kills effort this season and fifth of her career. She also had 14 digs in four sets against Keystone on October 25, 2014.
Let's Ace This Place:Entering the week, NJCU ranks 13th in Division III in aces. As a team, NJCU ranks No. 1 in the NJAC in service aces at 3.04 per set (141 total). Ramapo is second at 2.63 per set.
McIntyre leads the NJAC in aces by a sizeable margin at 0.94 per set; the next closest player is Ramapo's
Larysa Iwaskiw, a potential NJAC Player of the Year (0.72).
McIntyre currently lists No. 13 in Division III in aces.
York Notables:- Of its 13 losses, 11 have been in three sets.
- NJCU and York have two common opponents with similar outcomes. York played Pratt on September 25, winning 3-1; NJCU swept Pratt. Both teams have lost 3-0 at William Paterson.
- York is 0-6 in away matches this year.
- The Cardinals are hitting in negative territory for the season (302-313-1242, -.009). Meanwhile, NJCU is ranked 15th nationally in opponent hitting percentage (.097).
- Renee Daley has been the bright spot for York. She is averaging 2.53 points, 2.15 kills and 0.28 blocks per game.
