Staff Report

The Atlantic Tech softball team had a tough year in the Cape-Atlantic League standings, but the RedHawks had a couple of outstanding seniors who helped pave the way for what ACIT fans hope will be a brighter future.

Zhamirah Luna and Sarah LoVullo turned in performances that will have them being remembered for quite a while at the Mays Landing campus. Luna was the team’s second-leading hitter with a .405 batting average that included 30 hits, 16 runs scored and 15 RBIs in 74 at-bats, while LoVullo was one of the top two-way players in the league. She hit .397 with 16 runs scored, seven doubles and 19 RBIs, and as the team’s ace pitcher she fanned 92 batters in 105 innings. LoVullo finished her career with 73 hits as a batter and more than 200 strikeouts as a pitcher.

Luna, an Egg Harbor Township resident, said she plans to attend Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C., while LoVullo, of Absecon, plans to attend Stockton University.

South Jersey Glory Days Staff Writer Dave O’Sullivan caught up with the pair after a game against rival Oakcrest midway through the season to get to know a little more about them. Check out our 5 QUESTIONS with Zhamirah Luna and Sarah LoVullo:

QUESTION: Who is your favorite athlete of all time, and why?

LUNA: One of my favorite athletes is Aaron Judge. I like his confidence in the batter’s box, he seems calm at all times no matter the circumstance.

LOVULLO: Caitlin Clark. She’s one of the best female basketball players. She’s so good, and people push her around and foul her but she just takes it and stays calm about it. I like that.

QUESTION: What do you like most about attending ACIT?

LUNA: The community. I feel like I have a good friends circle, and the teachers are great as well. I don’t feel like I’m just a number at the school — I feel like I have a personal connection with a lot of the staff, and that makes me feel like I have a good circle of support.

LOVULLO: I think it’s really important that there’s a person for everybody. In our grade, we have more than 500 people. Coming in, I was scared that I wouldn’t make friends, but there is somebody for everybody. There are all kinds of clubs and all different kinds of people. You’re bound to make friends.

QUESTION: What’s the coolest thing about softball players?

LUNA: We’re tough. Mentally and physically. Softball is a very mental game, and I feel like we have a lot of mental toughness. When it comes to real-life situations, we can handle things.

LOVULLO: People say softball and baseball are boring games because of the slow pace, but it’s not just the physical side, it’s the mental side. We have to deal with stuff that football and basketball players never have to deal with because their sports are a constant back-and-forth.

QUESTION: How do you think it will feel on the first day after graduation?

LUNA: I think it will be a feeling of relief, but then the nostalgic moment will hit me that I really did graduate. Especially with me going away to college, it will all hit me at once.

LOVULLO: I’m going to jump up and down, party streamers everywhere! I’m staying local for college and going to Stockton, so it’s not going to be a big change for me.

QUESTION: Who inspires you the most, and why?

LUNA: My parents (Tamaika and Jovan). They have polar opposite personalities, but I believe I’m a blend of both of them. I have my mom’s ambition — the way she never quits with anything — and I have my dad’s calmness and how he reflects on things. He approaches things differently than my mom. Personality-wise, they are my biggest inspirations because I look at them as role models.

LOVULLO: I will never tell her this, but probably my little sister (freshman Sophia LoVullo). She’s one of the strongest people I know, both mentally and physically. She’s been through a lot, but she’ll never let you know that and you can never tell just by looking at her. She never lets anybody say anything bad about her, she lets them know about it. That’s something I didn’t learn to do for a long time. I’m a senior and she’s a freshman, but she learned how to do that long before I did.