NEWARK, NJ—NJIT women's volleyball assistant coach Simone Asque has been selected to represent her country, Jamaica, and compete in the 2016 Venus Invitational Volleyball Tournament held in Kingston, Jamaica on March 18-20.

Asque, who is both an accomplished player, having starred in college, in the professional ranks and as captain of Jamaica's national team, before becoming a rising talent in her new profession, coaching, joined the staff at NJIT as the full-time women's volleyball assistant coach in February.

"It is always an honor to have the opportunity to represent Jamaica," Asque commented. "The Venus tournament is a highly competitive international tournament and a great opportunity for Jamaican National Team members to gather and compete. We will be the host nation for the Caribbean Volleyball Championships this year and nothing would bring more pride than to make history and win the gold medal at home."

A member of the Jamaican National Team, Asque was the starting outside hitter and team captain. On the court, she helped Jamaica to a bronze medal finish at the hemispheric qualifying tournament for the World Championships. Individually, she was named the tournament's Best Server.

In the Caribbean Volleyball Championships, she helped Jamaica to a silver medal finish.  In her role as team captain, she performed coaching-related functions such as scouting, team development, and team performance.

The Venus Invitational Volleyball Tournament is an event geared towards, promoting sports in Jamaica. This annual occasion is a notable fixture on the Jamaica Volleyball Calendar and is sanctioned by the Jamaica Volleyball Association (Java) and the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA). The tournament will feature several overseas teams who will be competing with Jamaica's top male and female teams.

Head coach Peter Volkert added, "It is a great example for our players to see an assistant coach train and play at such a high level."  "The team sees her go through the same things that they went through on a daily basis in terms of practicing, lifting, conditioning, playing and reviewing video."

Asque is a 2012 graduate of the University of Virginia, where she starred on the women's volleyball team, earning All-Atlantic Coast Conference recognition in three seasons, including 2009, when she was All-ACC first team. She made the All-ACC freshman team in 2008 and was on the All-ACC Academic team in 2011.

In addition to ACC honors, she was voted to the Virginian Sports Information Directors all-state first team among the state's 14 Division I programs for three consecutive seasons and she was twice named All-East.
 
She ranks fourth all-time at UVA in career kills, fourth in kills per set, and second in career attack attempts.

After college, she played professionally in Slovakia, Denmark, and Cyprus, and was named the top outside hitter in the Danish League.