Final Stats

NEW HAVEN, CONN. (Sept. 3, 2016) - The Rutgers women's volleyball suffered losses to Albany and Yale on day two of the Yale Invitational Saturday. The Scarlet Knights first fell in a three-set match to the Great Danes before being edged in a thrilling five-set decision to the Bulldogs.

Rutgers moved to an overall record of 4-3 on the season, halting a four match win streak entering the Saturday's contests.

Fifth-year senior Mikaela Matthews was named to the All-Tournament team after posting a team-high .605 hitting percentage across the three games. Matthews posted 1.25 blocks per set for a total of 15 on the weekend.

GAME ONE
Rutgers dropped its first match of the day to Albany, falling by the close margins of 25-19, 26-24, 25-21.

Mikaela Matthews led RU with nine kills followed by senior right side Lauren Cloyd with eight kills of her own. Freshman middle blocker Jasmine Stackhouse continued as a force up front with a match-high six blocks.

Albany was led by Laini Leindecker, the 2015 America East Co-Player of the year, with 13 kills. Kelly Cameron contributed 31 assists in the win.

After falling in set one, Rutgers bounced back with an early 5-1 lead in set two. The Scarlet Knights extended their lead to 8-3 before Albany closed the gap to 8-6. Although RU re-established a five-point edge on two more occasions, Albany tied up the score 14-14. From there, the Great Danes delivered six straight points to move in front 20-16. A Matthews' kill ended the burst, helping RU pull back within two at 22-20. Despite Albany moving back to a 24-20 lead, Rutgers rattled off four unanswered points to tie the set, 24-24. However, the Great Danes tacked on two final points to halt the comeback and take a 2-0 lead in the match.

Rutgers used its momentum to push to a 7-4 lead in set three. However, Albany responded with a 5-0 run to switch the lead, 9-7. The Great Danes would go on to lead by as many as five. Trailing 19-14, a kill from Matthews followed with three consecutive blocks from the front line cut the deficit to 19-18. The defensive surge was not enough to ignite the Scarlet Knights, as Albany held off Rutgers in the third and final set.

GAME TWO
After dropping the first two sets of the match, Rutgers came to life with wins in the third and fourth frames. However, the Scarlet Knights were edged by the Bulldogs in the fifth to drop the match by set scores of 13-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-17 and 10-15.

Junior outside hitter Meme Fletcher led the team with her third double-double of the year, posting 16 kills and 16 digs in the win. Freshman right side Jillian Duffin followed with 12 kills, while Lauren Cloyd rounded out the double-digit kill scorers with 10 kills of her own.

Yale was paced by Kelley Wirth with a .278 hitting clip to go with a match-high 24 kills.

Following a loss in set one, Rutgers found its rhythm at the start of the second set, pushing to a 5-2 advantage. The Bulldogs managed to tie the score on three occasions before sneaking ahead 11-7 on a 5-0 burst. The Scarlet Knights responded with a 5-1 run capped by an ace from freshman setter Megan Sharkey to tie up the score again at 12-12. Rutgers picked away at the Yale lead en route to moving in front, 17-16. However, the Bulldogs re-established a lead by outscoring RU, 7-2, for a 23-19 advantage. The Scarlet Knights cut the deficit to 24-21 before the Bulldogs closed set two with the win and 2-0 lead.

After Yale found a 5-2 edge to open set three, Rutgers answered with three consecutive points fueled by back-to-back blocks to tie the score, 5-5. A point-for-point battle ensued as the score was found tied four times before a block for Cloyd and Stackhouse finally put RU in the lead, 11-10. Although the battle persisted with six ties and five lead changes, the Scarlet Knights found the edge at 19-18 and never let up. Yale would continue to balance the score, but RU tacked on the final point with a block from Matthews and Cloyd to keep the Scarlet Knights alive in the match.

Set four followed suit with six ties from the start as Yale held an edge. After the Bulldogs added on three consecutive points to generate the largest margin at the point of the set at 13-10, the Scarlet Knights countered with a 5-0 run for a 15-13 lead. Rutgers dominated the rest of the way outscoring Yale 10-4 for the remainder of the stanza. A block from the duo of Cloyd and Stackhouse sealed the win, 25-17, to push the match into the deciding fifth stanza.

The Scarlet Knights moved to a 5-3 lead in set five before the Bulldogs inched in front 6-5. RU knotted the score, 6-6, however, Yale held onto its advantage. RU tacked on consecutive kills from Cloyd and Fletcher to pull within three at 13-10, but the Bulldogs won the fight with a 15-10 win to close the match.

UP NEXT
Rutgers travels for its final road tournament of the season with a trip to the Temple Invitational from Sept. 9-10. The Scarlet Knight will face New Hampshire, Cleveland State and host Temple.

2016 Yale Invitational All-Tournament Team
MVP - Kelley Wirth - Yale
Kaitlyn Gibbons - Yale
Brittani Steinberg - Yale
Laini Leindecker - Albany
Nicole Otero - Albany
Mikaela Matthews - Rutgers
Claire Archibald - Iona

KNIGHT NOTES

• Rutgers finished the weekend at the Yale Invitational with a record of 1-2 with a win over Iona and losses to Albany and Yale.
• Mikaela Matthews registered at least a .500 hitting percentage across all three matches to end the weekend with a .605 hitting clip.
• Jasmine Stackhouse has posted at least five blocks for four consecutive matches. The freshman leads the team with 1.48 blocks per set and a total of 34 blocks on the season.
• Jillian Duffin registered her best hitting percentage of the season with a .346 clip against Yale, posting a total of 12 kills.

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