Aug. 28, 2007

NEWARK, NJ - The next step in the evolution of New Jersey Institute of Technology athletics begins Sunday, September 2, as soccer takes the field as the school's first women's sport to achieve full NCAA Division I status.

That means the Highlanders are eligible for postseason championship play at the highest level of the college game.

NJIT women's soccer received formal certification for Division I championship eligibility earlier this summer.

NJIT women's soccer follows by two years its counterparts in men's soccer at the forefront of NJIT's overall athletic reclassification to NCAA Division I.

Men's soccer was the first NJIT program to make the move to Division I, starting in 2003. In 2004, the men played their first Division I-only schedule and they achieved full championship-eligible status in 2005. Women's soccer is following a corresponding single-sport reclassification track, starting in 2005, playing a Division I schedule in 2006 and achieving full status in 2007.

Also in 2005, the NCAA gave NJIT the okay to reclassify the remainder of its athletics program to Division I from Division II, a longer process that will bring all Highlander sports to Division I championship eligibility in 2009-10. The overall athletic program was also greenlighted into the next year of its NCAA reclassification process in the summer of 2007.

Women's soccer coach Alyssa Radu is looking forward to what lies ahead. "We are honored that we have this opportunity as a program and coaching staff," she said. "We understand the importance of this move and we will keep it in mind in the way we conduct ourselves on and off the field."