NEWARK, NJ—The NJIT women's soccer team, with two road contests under its belt, opens its home season Friday night, September 2, at 7 pm, when the Highlanders host Rider under the Lubetkin Field at J. Malcolm Simon Stadium lights.

First-year head coach Sergio Gonzalez will lead a young squad that counts 14 players from the combined freshman and sophomore classes on the 22-player roster.

The Highlanders came up short in their two road games, falling at Iona, 3-1, in the opener on August 26 and then 2-1 on a late goal by unbeaten Wagner on August 30.

The NJIT goals were scored by freshman Kylie Jones (at Iona) and by junior Gechi Ukaegbu (at Wagner). 

For the first time since 2006, NJIT has a new goalkeeper following the graduation of two-time Great West Conference East Defensive Player of the Year Sadie Mele, who played every minute of every game in her four-year career.

Sophomore Anna Kornmuller has stepped in this year as the starting keeper, going the distance in both games.

Friday's opposition is a New Jersey rival, Rider, which competes as a member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

The teams previously played in each of the last two seasons. NJIT was a 2-1 winner in the first meeting on September 13, 2009 in Newark and the Broncs won last year, 5-2, in Lawrenceville, near Trenton, on September 21, 2010. 

The MAAC women's soccer coaches voted Rider sixth out of 10 teams in their preseason poll and the Broncs will come to NJIT having played three matches, which produced a win, a loss, and a tie.  

The first two contests went to overtime, as Rider lost its opener in one extra period, 1-0, at home against Mount St. Mary's (MD) and then the Broncs played a scoreless tie, with 20 extra minutes at Fairleigh Dickinson on August 23. Rider broke into the win column with a 3-0 result at Bryant on August 26 in Rhode Island.  

Sophomore back Becca Kape was picked by the coaches for the Preseason all-MAAC team. She is a former Star-Ledger state high school Player of the Year from her days at Westfield HS.

Gonzalez, who is a college head coach for the first time, comes to NJIT after a distinguished run as an assistant coach, including his last stop, Dayton, which was a combined 35-4-7 in 2009 and 2010. Gonzalez worked with the Flyers for five seasons and those last two culminated in Atlantic 10 Conference championships and berths in the NCAA Division I postseason championship tournaments.