New Jersey City University Athletics

JERSEY CITY, NJ (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | New Jersey City University senior striker JENNIFER ALBUJA (Union City, NJ/Hoboken) of the women's soccer team is featured in the December 12, 2011 issue of Sports Illustrated, after completing a standout career for the Knights that included scoring 91 goals and 203 career points while earning All-New Jersey Athletic Conference accolades four times.
 
Albuja appears in the “Faces in the Crowd” section of the 2011 Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year issue which features Pat Summitt and Mike Krzyzewski on the cover.
 
Albuja, who finished her career as the most successful four-year player in the program's history, is the 11^th NJCU student-athlete to appear in Sports Illustrated since 2000 and the ninth Gothic Knight published in the magazine's “Faces in the Crowd” section. Albuja is also the third women's soccer player featured by SI.
 
Albuja, a catalyst of the Gothic Knight offense her entire career, earned First-Team All-NJAC honors for the second time this season as the 2007 NJAC Rookie of the Year reached the 25-goal plateau for the second time in her career and the first time since 2008. She concluded her career ranking 25^th in Division III history in total goals and tied for 31^st in points.
 
A four-time NJAC Offensive Player of the Week in her career, including twice as a senior in 2011, Albuja finished the season with 25 goals, 11 assists and 61 points on 116 shots, including 59 shots on goal. She scored five game-winning goals, scored the first goal of a game five times, and netted three hat tricks, two game-tying goals and two overtime tallies during a successful 14-8 season during which NJCU reached the semifinals of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Metro Tournament, the NJAC quarterfinals, and equaled single-season school records for wins and shutouts (7). Albuja only had 10 assists in her first three seasons before more than doubling that total as a senior.
 
Albuja finished her career with 91 goals, 21 assists and 203 points on 402 shots, with a .537 shots on goal percentage and 216 shots on target. She scored 17 career game-winning goals in 81 games (81 starts) spanning 6,792 minutes of action.
 
She is NJCU's all-time leader in eight categories: points, goals, shots, shots on goals, shots on goal per game (2.67), games played, games started and minutes played. Albuja was second all-time in six categories—points per game (2.51), goals per game (1.12), game-winners, shots per game (4.96), and penalty kicks made (1) and attempted (2). She was third in total assists and 10^th in assists per game (0.26).
 
Meanwhile, the 'A-C Connection' of Albuja and senior forward JULIA CASERES (Union, NJ/Union) finished their careers as the all-time leading scoring combination in NCAA Division III history with amassed totals of 191 goals and 445 points between them. Caseres was the last NJCU player to appear in the magazine on October 5, 2009.
 
In the final 2011 NJAC statistics, Albuja was the conference leader in points, points per game (2.77), goals, goals per game (1.14), and shots, and tied with Caseres for the league lead in assists and assists per game (0.50). She held a three-way tie for game-winning goals. Albuja also ranked second in shots per game (5.27) and game-winners per game (0.23).
 
In the final NCAA statistics, Albuja ranked third in total points, fourth in total goals, ninth in points per game, 12^th in goals per game, 30^th in total assists,  and 44^th in assists per game. After winning a pair of NCAA national statistical championships as a sophomore in 2008, she was just three goals and three points shy of the overall NCAA title as a senior.
 
ROBERT BIELAN, head women's soccer coach, said: “Jennifer started her career as Rookie of the Year and ends in Sports Illustrated. I think it's a perfect way to end an amazing college career. It's probably every player's dream to start [their career] strong and finish strong and I can't think of anyone who deserves it more than her.”
 
“Faces in the Crowd” is on page 26 of the magazine. It can also be viewed online at:  http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/scorecard/faces/2011/12/12/index.html