Cedar Rapids, IA (November 9, 2023) – The Northern Essex Community College volleyball team saw its perfect season snapped on Thursday morning in the round of 16 on the first day of the NJCAA Volleyball Championships as the 14th seeded Knights dropped a 3-0 decision to the 3rd seeded Century College Wood Ducks. With the defeat the NECC falls to 23-1 on the season and moves into the tournament's elimination bracket.
NECC will play Finger Lakes (NY) Community College on Friday morning at 10:00amCT/11:00amET in an elimination bracket match. The winner will advance in the elimination bracket to a 4:30pmCT/5:30pmET match on Friday afternoon.
The Knights fell by set scores of 25-8, 25-22 and 25-15.
Offensively Abbigail Heredia (Lawrence) knocked down a team high seven kills while Liz Exume (Chelmsford) followed right behind with six kills of her own. Telaviv Nunez (Lawrence) and Vielka Sanchez (Lawrence) passed out eight and seven assists respectively.
Maria Reyes (Lawrence) had a team high 12 digs while Chantel Melgen (Lawrence) added 11 of her own.
As a team NECC attacked at just a .065 while Century had a .267 percentage.
The match was the programs first ever appearance in the national tournament and NECC will look to pick up their first national tournament win tomorrow against Finger Lakes.