JERSEY CITY, N.J. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | The New Jersey City University's women's volleyball team served 19 aces and forced Albertus Magnus College into a negative hitting percentage as the Gothic Knights swept a non-conference home match, 3-0 (25-21, 25-12, 25-15) on September 6 at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center ("Coach Charlie Brown Court").
 
NJCU improved to 3-1 overall and 2-0 at home in the first meeting between the schools in women's volleyball in 19 years. AMC fell to 2-2.
 
Senior middle Shege Haxhaj (Lyndhurst, N.J./Lyndhurst) led the way with nine kills (.294, 9-4-17), six aces and three blocks in three sets while sophomore  outside hitter Ayleen Pittar (Union City, N.J./Union City) played the final two sets, collecting eight kills (.250, 8-4-16) and three aces. Junior setter Rachel McIntyre (Drexel Hill, Pa./Upper Darby) delivered 24 assists in 56 attempts (.429), four aces and five digs.
 
Freshman Stephanie Duque (West New York, N.J./Memorial) served three aces and contributed to two assisted blocks. NJCU hit .119 overall with 25 kills.
 
The Falcons were held in negative attack numbers in two of three sets and finished at -.085 for the evening with just 16 kills (16-22-71). Ana Gomez had six kills for the visitors. Setter Marielis Muriel had a double-double of 13 assists, 11 digs and three aces.
 
The Breakdown:
Both teams struggled offensively in the opening set and AMC had the early lead and still clung to a 16-15 lead before NJCU began to take charge. Two Falcon errors and an ace by Duque put NJCU ahead, 18-16, and the guests never got closer than one the remainder of the set (19-18). Two more AMC errors and a Haxhaj winner made it 22-18 and Haxhaj pounded two more kills to give the Knights set point, winning 25-21.
 
NJCU led wire-to-wire in game two, jumping out to leads of 4-0, 11-2 and 14-3. Pittar had two early kills to help put NJCU in front and after a Falcon timeout at 8-2, Haxhaj unleashed three consecutive aces for an 11-2 advantage. After a sideout, Duque floored two more aces. NJCU scored seven of the final eight points in the set, aided by two more aces from McIntyre and a pair of combo blocks by Haxhaj and Duque.
 
The Knights only trailed at the very beginning of the third set, taking charge at 8-2 after a 6-0 run that included two aces by Pittar. NJCU hit .409 in the final set with 12 kills (12-3-22) and put the match away with an 9-0 outburst that saw the score grow from 13-9 to 22-9. Pittar had four kills during that stretch with three more aces by Haxhaj, before a Pittar swing sealed it, 25-15.
 
#QUOTABLEknights
Head Coach Robert Cole on his team's performance from the service line: "We've been working on that for the past couple of days of practice. We had a pretty rough weekend in terms of a lot more errors than aces. We really want to get that ratio up; closer to 2-to-1, but even if it's even we feel we'll be a much more competitive team. After the first set we weren't too thrilled with it. We talked about it more, serving into the seams and things like that and changing their eye level. I thought Shege did a really good job of that. Rachel did a good job as well, and Ayleen Pittar as well."
 
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OF NOTE:

• Series: NJCU leads, 2-0. First meeting since October 11, 1997 (W, 3-0 at New York, NY)

WHAT'S NEXT?
NJCU is idle for a week when it opens New Jersey Athletic Conference play against Rutgers-Camden on Tuesday, September 13 at 7 p.m.