Rutgers-Newark Athletics

Gabriela Tacuri teamed with fellow inductee Denise Cadmus Saywack to comprise one of the most potent attack duos in Rutgers-Newark and New Jersey Athletic Conference history.

A four-time All-NJAC outside hitter, Tacuri rewrote the Scarlet Raider record book while helping the team to a conference title, two runner-up finishes and a pair of ECAC South Championship playoff berths.

The Memorial High School (West New York) graduate left Rutgers-Newark with career records for points (1264), points average (4.04), kills (1.053), kills average (3.36), attack percentage (.219), digs (1,076) and digs average (3.44). She was the first Raider to reach the 1,000 plateau in points, kills and digs.

She earned first team All-NJAC laurels as a rookie in 1992 after helping the Raiders to an NJAC championship and a 21-7 record. After being voted to the league’s second team as a sophomore, Tacuri was a first team all-league choice in 1994 and 1995. She became the first four-time all-conference player in Rutgers-Newark women’s volleyball history.

The Ecuadorian born standout helped the Raiders go 78-39 overall with a sparkling 20-4 mark in NJAC matches over her four-year career.

While leading the Raiders to a 21-14 mark in 1994, Tacuri set the single season standards of 436 kills and 392 digs.

In December of 2000, the Star Ledger named Tacuri as one of the “Top 10 Players of the 1990s” for her high school exploits at Memorial.

Tacuri earned her bachelor of science in information systems from Rutgers-Newark in 1996 and added a master of science in the field in 2007 from Stevens Institute.

She works as the senior manager for information technology for customer and logistics services for Johnson & Johnson.