Women's Basketball | May 21, 2015

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | New Jersey City University women's basketball senior co-captain Ashley Vazquez (Jersey City, NJ/Marist) has been honored as a 2014-15 winner of the Dennis N. Goodson Memorial Basketball Award.
 
Vazquez, who graduated on May 12 with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science with a Pre-Law minor, received the award at NJCU's annual athletics awards banquet which was reintroduced to the community this spring. Since the plaudit was first introduced as an annual distinction during the 2002-03 season, this year marked the first time the University presented two Goodson awards, with men's basketball senior Drew Marley (Maplewood, NJ/Columbia) joining Vazquez as a recipient.
 
Video of Presentation

The award is presented annually to a men's or women's basketball player who best exemplified the attributes for which Dennis Goodson, a former star point guard for then Jersey City State College from 1983-87, was known. Those attributes included team loyalty, dedication to the sport, competitive spirit on the court, knowledge of the fundamentals of basketball, academic achievement and demonstrated leadership and sportsmanship. Goodson, a starter on the first Gothic Knight Final Four team in 1986, died suddenly in 2002 at the age of 36 from heart failure caused by a blood clot.
 
Vazquez has been one of the most recognizable faces on campus since her arrival prior to the 2012-13 season after returning home to New Jersey after spending two years at Division II Slippery Rock University.
 
A two-year team co-captain, Vazquez twice served as chair of the NJCU Student Athlete Advisory Council from 2013-15. This year's representative as NJCU's NJAIAW Woman of the Year, she was a 2013-14 Honorable Mention All-New Jersey Athletic Conference selection who was poised to have a brilliant senior season before a knee injury in a preseason scrimmage caused her to be lost for the entire campaign.
 
As a junior, Vazquez was named to the D3hoops National Team of the Week on December 30, 2013. In two years on the court, she was a major force to be reckoned with. She averaged 13.0 points per game and produced 649 points, 201 rebounds, 157 assists and 74 steals in exactly 50 games and 50 starts. She shot 73.4 percent from the line (135-184) and knocked down 34.9 percent of her shots from the field (220-630) and 74 three pointers (74-254, .291).
 
Vazquez scored in double figures in 39 of 50 career games including 21 of 25 times as a junior. She was a nine-time NJCU Athlete of the Week selection. Her 73.4 percent free throw percentage ranks No. 1 in program history.
 
In just two years her 649 points cracked the Top 20 in the program's annals and her 13.0 scoring average ranks eighth. Meanwhile, she listed seventh on the all-time lists in three-pointers made, seventh in minutes per game (34.5) and finished 13th in assists.
 
Vazquez, a Fall 2013 Dean's List student who plans to move to Arizona this summer while pursuing a career in the criminal justice or law disciplines, put into perspective what the award meant to her.
 
"It means everything. I've spent the last three years trying to be my best. I've had amazing coaches and teammates who have helped me along the way. This shows the dedication and hard work of everyone that has influenced me over the years. After getting hurt and sitting out my senior year it feels great to end on a high note."