JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The College Sports Communicators (CSC) — formerly known as CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) — released its annual Academic All-District Men's and Women's Soccer selections. New Jersey University combined for four selections, two men and two women. It is the first time since 2014 that the NJCU women have had a selection and the first time since 2008 for the men.

Representing the women on the Divison III Academic All-District Team are senior midfielder Victoria Gil (South River, N.J./South River) and sophomore back Brianna Eckel-Cifrese (East Windsor, N.J./Hightstown). On the men's side, junior forwards Gabe Cruz (Colonia, N.J./Colonia) and Maximo Vargas (Montevideo, Uruguay/The British Schools) represented the Green and Gold. It is the first-career Academic All-District honor for all four Gothic Knight student-athletes.

Gil appeared in a career-high 17 games in her final season in Jersey City, including eight starts in the midfield. Eckel-Cifrese saw action in 13 matches on the backline this season for the Gothic Knights, including nine starts. Cruz, entering into the final weekend of the 2022 season for the men's squad, has seen action in 17 games, tallying a goal and an assist. Vargas, a two-time All-New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) selection — including First Team this year — has played and started in 18 matches and leads NJCU and is third in the NJAC in goals (11) and points (26).

The qualifications for the distinction of Academic All-District are as follows — student-athletes must have AT LEAST a 3.50 cumulative grade point average, be a starter or key reserve and have participated in AT LEAST 50 percent of their team's contests for the current season. Having been named as Academic All-District honorees, all four Gothic Knights are now officially nominated for Academic All-America. Voting among the nation's Division III Athletic Communications professionals is taking place from Nov. 15-22 and the Academic All-America Teams will be announced in early-December.

Up Next:
While the women's soccer program's season has come to a close — the squad had its most wins since 2019 — men's soccer's season continues for, at minimum, one more day. The Gothic Knights take on heated NJAC rival Rutgers-Newark in the semifinal round of the 2022 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Divsion III Men's Soccer Championships on Saturday, Nov. 19, in Reading, Pa., on the campus of top overall seed Alvernia University. The winner will play for the Championships at 12:00 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 20, against either Alvernia or Penn State Behrend.