Final Stats

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (Sept. 21, 2016) - In its Big Ten opener, the Rutgers women's volleyball team (4-10, 0-1 Big Ten) was topped by Penn State (9-3, 1-0 Big Ten) on Wednesday night at the College Ave Gym. The Nittany Lions claimed the win by set scores of 25-17, 25-17, and 25-5.

Rutgers was led by junior outside hitter Meme Fletcher and senior right side Cole Trimble with seven kills each. Fifth-year senior middle blocker Mikaela Matthews followed with six kills of her own, along with two blocks.

Penn State had two double-digit kill performs, paced by Simone Lee with a match-high 13 kills to go with a .458 hitting percentage. Ali Franti followed with 11 kills of her own and a .579 hitting clip.

Despite PSU taking the first set and gaining a slight edge to start the second, a block from the duo of Matthews and Trimble got the Scarlet Knight gears turning to send RU on a 3-0 run to tie the frame 8-8. RU kept the margin as close as one on seven occasions as four different Scarlet Knights contributed a kill across a span that set the score at 15-14. From there, PSU capitalized on a pair of aces and a few RU miscues to pull away to a 20-15 advantage en route to a set two win and 2-0 lead in the match.

RU was unable to retain its momentum moving into the third frame as PSU took the victory in the match.

NEXT UP
Rutgers continues Big Ten play on the road with a trip to Illinois on Saturday, Sept. 24 at 8 pm ET.

KNIGHT NOTES

• Rutgers faced its first ranked opponent of the season in No. 18 Penn State.
• Freshmen Jillian Duffin, Megan Sharkey, Jasmine Stackhouse, Karysa Swackenberg, Galia Nankin and transfer Phallyn Hill saw their first action in a Big Ten match.
• With two blocks in the contest, Mikaela Matthews brought her career mark to 330 total blocks, ranking sixth on Rutgers all-time career charts.
• Seven different Scarlet Knights contributed at least one kill in the match.
• Across the last three seasons, No. 18 Penn State had its lowest rank in a conference match against Rutgers. The Nittany Lions have met up with the Scarlet Knights ranked No. 6 in 2014 and No. 1 in 2015.

Follow Rutgers Volleyball on Twitter and Instagram (@RUvball) for all of the latest news and updates. The team is also on Facebook (www.facebook.com/RutgersVolleyball). For all Rutgers Athletics news follow us on Twitter(@RUAthletics), Instagram (@RUAthletics), Snapchat (@RUAthletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/RutgersAthletics ).

-RU-