Saint Peter's Volleyball To Open Run Baby Run Arena This Weekend

JERSEY CITY, NJ —The Saint Peter's women's volleyball team makes its home debut this weekend, which also marks the opening of the renovated and renamed Run Baby Run Arena. The school also will have COVID-19 safety guidelines in place for spectators.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, the Peacocks (1-13 overall, 0-3 in the MAAC) will host Marist (8-8, 3-2) in a conference game. At 1 p.m. the following day, Siena (2-13, 2-2) visits Jersey City.

On Saturday, it will be exactly 700 days since Saint Peter's last competed at home in Jersey City. Last season, the games were held in the spring - due to the fall season being canceled because of the pandemic - and home games were played on the campus of New Jersey City University.

The team will return to the upgraded Run Baby Run Arena, located inside the Yanitelli Center, which has been transformed thanks to a $5 million gift from Saint Peter's graduate Thomas P. Mac Mahon. The Run Baby Run name was chosen by Mac Mahon to honor his former 1967-68 basketball teammates.

"My relationship with Saint Peter's has been one sided in that it has done more for me than I could have ever imagined," Mac Mahon said last year when asked about his gift and the arena's new name. "The foundation of my life was built on the streets of Jersey City, at the corner of Kennedy Boulevard and Montgomery Street.

"This project has been a longtime dream of mine and I am thrilled that it will soon come to fruition. I am also delighted that this gift will pay tribute to my teammates, celebrate our time together at Saint Peter's and create a lasting legacy of basketball in the late 1960s."

Since this also will be the first time spectators are attending an event in the upgraded arena, the university is reminding fans about its COVID-19 spectator policy.

Though the arena will operate at full capacity, all guests ages 12 and older must provide proof of a completed series of World Health Organization (WHO)-approved COVID-19 vaccination.

According to the policy, full vaccination is achieved two weeks following a person's second dose of a two-vaccine series or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine.

Proof of COVID-19 vaccination may be demonstrated by displaying a photo or hard copy of a CDC vaccination card, NJ DOCKET app, New York State Excelsior App or an official vaccination record, the university said.

The women's volleyball team's lone win of the season was a 3-2 triumph over Fairleigh Dickenson on Sept. 11 at the Friar Classic in Providence, Rhode Island.

The Peacocks are led by senior Alanis Alvarado, an outside hitter, who has a team-high 90 kills. Graduate student Wildalys Soto, a setter, leads the team with 204 assists. In MAAC action, freshman middle blocker Suzzanne Bigelow ranks in the top 10 in blocks, while freshmen liberos Charlee Cordts and Alwen Pila each are in the top 10 in digs. Cordts is No. 4 on the leaderboard and Pila is No. 9.

The Peacocks have two more home games at Run Baby Run Arena next weekend. They host Fairfield at 1 p.m. on Oct. 9 and Quinnipiac at 1 p.m. on Oct. 10.