JERSEY CITY, N.J. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | A pair of New Jersey Athletic Conference teams will be going for their first conference win in their final NJAC match of the season when New Jersey City University (10-16, 0-7 NJAC) hosts Rutgers University-Camden (9-16, 0-7 NJAC) on Tuesday, October 23 at 7:00 p.m. at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center on Coach Charlie Brown Court. It will be the 25th meeting between the sides.
 
Watch Live:     http://vcloud.volarvideo.com/broadcast/embed/93102
Live Stats:    https://njcugothicknights.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary   
 
The Gothic Knights and Scarlet Raptors have both struggled in conference this year, but both have had solid seasons outside of the NJAC, with the Knights reaching double-digit wins over the weekend while hosting the #NJCUWVB Tri-Match. It is the fourth consecutive season under fifth-year head coach Robert Cole the team has won 10+ matches—the longest such stretch since doing it in 10 straight seasons from 1999-2008. It's the 21st time in 36 seasons NJCU has reached double figures in victories.
 
Rutgers Camden is still one win short of double digits, and has lost four straight matches.  
 
Hard 'Ware':
Prior to today's game, NJCU will honor senior setter Shaylah Ware (Newark, NJ/Science Park) who on Saturday became the sixth player in program history to deliver 1,000 career assists—doing so in just one and half seasons as a primary setter. She has five double-doubles this season and eight in her three-year NJCU career.
 
Seeing Amber:
Senior outside hitter was named the NJAC Defensive Player of the Week yesterday. She is the first Gothic Knight to receive the award since Cindy Garcia in week four of the 2013 season. O'Donnell enters the final week of the season with 945 career digs (343 sets).
 
Last Meeting: September 12, 2017 | Box Score
The two teams met in their respective NJAC openers last year, with the Raptors sweeping the Knights, 25-18, 25-19, 25-16. Rutgers Camden had a healthy edge in most statistical categories, with its 13-1 edge in service aces particularly jumping off the page. Of the two top players in last year's match for Rutgers Camden, they return one.
 
Rutgers Camden Key Players:
The Raptors are led by the Mulligan twins, junior outside hitters Morgan and Jamie (New Gretna, N.J.), who respectively rank first and second, on the team in points this season. The two are the team kill leaders in 2018, with their combined 386 kills making up more than a third of the team's total kills this season.
 
Rutgers Camden has a two-setter system, with freshman setters Brinn Hassan (Williamstown, N.J.) and Kayla Benesz (East Brunswick, N.J.), leading the way with 384 and 332 assists, respectively. Hassan also leads the team with her 59 service aces.
 
Morgan Mulligan also leads the team in digs (258), while freshman middle hitter Ava D'Ambrosio (Aliso Viejo, Ca.) and senior middle hitter Myiah Gatling (Woolwich Twp., N.J.) are tied for the team lead in blocks (32.0) this year.
 
Common Opponents:
Since this is the final NJAC game for both teams, and both sides are yet to pick up a conference win, clearly they share the same overall results in conference play. For the Knights, their closest match came in their most recent home conference outing, as they went to five sets with William Paterson, the sixth seed in the conference. The Raptors took a pair of NJAC teams to five sets, third-seeded Rowan and the seventh-place Ramapo.
 
As for non-conference shared foes, there are two: Baruch College, whom both teams defeated (Rutgers Camden defeated 3-0 and NJCU 3-2), and Brooklyn College who beat NJCU (3-1) but lost to Rutgers Camden (3-1).
 
2018 NJCU Leaders:

• Points: Stephanie Duque (West New York, NJ/Memorial) (260.5)
• Kills: Florimon (223)
• Assists: Shaylah Ware (Newark, NJ/Science Park) (688)
• Service aces: Ware (75)
• Digs: Georgina Rayo (Jersey City, NJ/McNair Academic) (302)
• Blocks: Naiomi Cintron (Bayonne, NJ/Bayonne) (35.0)

 
SERIES:

• 25th meeting. NJCU leads 15-9, but Rutgers Camden has won the last nine meetings.

 
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