Mobile, Students & Alumni »

Haverhill, MA (October 30, 2025) — This past week brought good news for three Northern Essex Community College athletic teams. The men’s basketball team learned it was ranked eighth in the NJCAA Preseason poll. And the men’s soccer and women’s volleyball teams are heading into the postseason. On the pitch, soccer has earned the top seed in the tournament and home field advantage throughout the tournament for a third consecutive season, while volleyball has earned the fourth seed in the tournament and will head to Holyoke for a semi-final match-up.

Men’s Soccer:

The Knights, receiving votes in the final NJCAA soccer poll of the season, earned an opening round bye and will play host to Springfield Tech on Friday, October 31, at 7:00 pm at Whittier Tech High School.

A Friday night win would advance NECC to the championship game on Sunday evening. The Knights are looking for their second straight title and looking to become the first repeat champion since Bunker Hill won three straight from 2016-2018. Heading into the post-season, three Knights have double-digit point totals, led by Christian Colem (Nashua, NH), who leads the team with 16 points on five goals and six assists. He’s followed by Maxim Chris (Lexington), who has a team-best six goals to go along with an assist for 13 points, while Ilembo Kiza (Lowell) has five goals on the season.

Oriol Jean (Haiti) spearheads a defensive unit that has held conference opponents to just five goals on the season, while the Knights have scored 22 goals in conference matches en route to a 7-1 region record. Dylan Gavin (Methuen) has seen the bulk of the action in goal this season with a 1.49 goals against average in 10 games over 844 minutes of action.

The tournament winner will advance to the eight-team national tournament in Herkimer, NY, scheduled to get underway on November 11th. 

Volleyball:

The Knights will enter as the fourth seed in the tournament and will look to pull an upset on the top-seeded Cougars on Friday night. NECC will enter the post-season with a 12-7 record, having fallen to Holyoke twice by scores of 3-0 and 3-1.

The region champion will head to the 16-team national tournament in Cedar Rapids, IA, set to begin on November 13th. NECC is looking for its first region championship since 2023.

The Knights’ attack has been led this season by Cherly BritoRosario (Lawrence) and Crismary DeLeon (Lawrence), who are both averaging over two kills per set with 162 and 11,2, respectively, over the course of the season. Rachelle Torres (Lawrence) has handed out a team-best 235 assists.

Defensively, BritoRosario leads the team with 197 digs, while also serving up 54 aces.

Friday’s match is set for 7:00 pm at the Bartley Center. Basketball:

The three-time defending Region 21 champions have been ranked eighth in the NJCAA Preseason poll released earlier this week by the NJCAA Basketball Committee after a 29-4 season last year. The Knights return 11 members from the 2024-25 season, highlighted by First Team All-Region selection Alejandro Delgado (Haverhill), who averaged 14.9 points per game to go along with 8.7 rebounds while playing just over 21 minutes per game.

NECC also welcomes back double-digit point scorer Alex Johnson (Worcester), who dropped in 10.3 points per game a season ago. Johnson will highlight a backcourt that is expected to be one of the deepest in the country this season. Returning to the backcourt with Johnson will be Joendy Rosario (Lawrence), Cristian Moscat (Lawrence,) and Yunosuke Matsuda (Tokyo, JP). Newcomers expected to have an impact in the backcourt are Jay’von Depina (Brockton) and Joan Vidal (Lawrence).

In the frontcourt, Christian Sanders (Boston) returns along with Johnarieus Davis (Waterbury, CT), with newcomers Teriq Goodman (Worcester) and CJ Williams (Easton) expected to contribute. Darren Stratton enters his 23rd season leading the program with a .626 winning percentage, currently sitting at 351-210.

The Knights will open their 30-game regular season schedule on Saturday, November 1st, when they travel to the Jersey Mike’s Brookdale Basketball Classic to take on Rockland County and Monroe-Bronx. A 13-game November schedule will see the Knights open at home on Thursday, November 6t,h against Bristol Community College.

Learn more about athletics at NECC by visiting the website.

This article was adapted from press releases written by NECC Director of Athletics, Dan Blair.