Volleyball team is first in conference play

The NECC Women’s volleyball team is 3-0 in their conference and is 6-2 overall, the team has a winning streak of 3 previously beating Holyoke 3-0.

In previous years the team has had losing records at the part of the season and ended their seasons on a losing record. Last year the volleyball team went 3-12 and the year before that only 11 matches and the team went 0-11.

NECC Athletic Director Dan Blair says, “We have a new coach this year and it seems that the players like him, I personally really like him, he is somebody that can really build the program up.”

In August 2018 NECC hired Haverhill native Michael Pelosi. Pelosi has had experience in the past with high schools such as Timberlane Regional and Haverhill.

Pelosi has experience in club level volleyball previously with the Pumas Volleyball Club in North Andover.

The Knights heavy offensive attack has been trouble for their opponents.

Malabar, Florida native and NECC student Amanda Forgetta is an Outside Hitter for the team and is leading the offense. Forgetta is ranked 15th in Kills Per Set and is also 20th in Point Per Set in the NJCAA Division Three rankings. Nashaly Sanchez who is a Lawrence, MA one of the setters on team has 158 assists, she is a big reason why the Knights are 6-2.

The next match is Thursday October 4th,2018 at 6 p.m. which is home against MassBay Community College a team that they recently beat 3-0. inside the Sports and Fitness Center on the Haverhill campus.

For more information about the Knight’s volleyball team and other sports visit (www.neccknights.com).

NECC student-athletes numbers have grown in size since the arrival of Athletic Director Dan Blair

NECC athletics have been a huge part of the college for many years. NECC offers a variety of sports for Men and Women, for Men’s (Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Golf, Track and Field). For Women’s (Cross Country, Golf, Softball, Track and Field).

In the summer of 2018 eight NECC students earned Academic All-American honors, which is a record for the school. For a student athlete to eligible for this award they must have a GPA at 3.6 or higher. Also, NECC and Under Armour announced a partnership that will last for multiple years and will end in 2022-2023 academic year.

Every new academic year the student athletes number grows, The NJCAA showed that in the 2016-2017 academic year for division three sports there were and estimated of 58,785 student athletes in the previous year that number was 57,472.

Here at NECC, Athletic Director Dan Blair said,” The year before I got here there were 43 student athletes at the school and now we have an estimate of 80 student athletes.” Since the 2016-2017 academic year the number of student athletes has doubled.

The Knights baseball team has been to the NJCAA World Series for many seasons and had players get drafted to professional teams recently Ryan McAuliffe was signed by the New York Mets.

Since the restructuring of the athletic program and facilities NECC has been more successful than other Massachusetts community colleges, which could be a big reason why there are more student athletes at the school.