Volleyball to Host Senior Knight Blackout Against No. 1 Penn State

Saturday, November 18

New Brunswick, N.J.

7 PM

Rutgers University

Penn State

Volleyball to Host Senior Knight Blackout Against No. 1 Penn State

Nov 17 | Women's Volleyball

Match Notes

Seniors Talia Holze and Meme Fletcher will be honored in a pre-match ceremony.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (Nov. 17, 2017) - Rutgers volleyball concludes its 2017 home schedule on Saturday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. against the unanimous AVCA No. 1 team in the nation, Penn State, at the College Ave. Gymnasium.

Seniors Talia Holze and Meme Fletcher will be honored in a pre-match ceremony. Fans are asked to wear black to match the Scarlet Knights' uniforms on Saturday and blackout the College Ave. Gym. The match will be streamed live on BTN Plus with a paid subscription, featuring play-by-play from Patrick Boyle.

THE SLATE

Saturday, Nov. 18 | 7 p.m.

No. 1 Penn State (26-1, 16-1)

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Senior Knight!

Blackout the College Ave. Gym!

KNIGHT NOTES
• Rutgers dropped a pair of Big Ten matches last week in straight sets, at home against Ohio State, and on the road at No. 6 Nebraska. Against the Buckeyes, middle blockers Stasa Miljevic and Jasmine Stackhouse combined for 10 kills, a .416 attack percentage and four total blocks. In front of 8,135 fans at Nebraska, senior setter Talia Holze made her first start in a calendar year and passed out 20 assists, eight of which went to freshman outside hitter Yana Kamshilina.

• Junior Sahbria McLetchie is Rutgers' top outside hitter with 2.52 kills/set this season, and a team-best 2.38 through 17 conference matches. In back-to-back matches against Buffalo and Seton Hall, she recorded 17 and 19 kills, respectively, before picking up a total of 30 at Indiana and No. 17 Purdue in October.

• Freshman opposite hitter Kamila Cieslik posts a team-leading 2.61 kills/set. Cieslik was named to three All-Tournament Teams this preseason, including an MVP performance at the ECU Invitational. She made the Seton Hall Classic All-Tournament Team with 3.67 kills/set on a .424 hitting percentage, four service aces, 14 digs and eight blocks. She was also named to the Kangaroo Klassic All-Tournament Team with 21 kills, seven blocks and 18 digs.

• Sophomore setter Megan Sharkey has surpassed another milestone after reaching 1,000 career assists at Ohio State. Now with 1,240 career assists, she has moved into ninth all-time in program history and sits behind Roxy Calder's 1,640.

• Sophomore Stasa Miljevic leads the Scarlet Knights at the net defensively with 0.83 blocks/set, followed closely by sophomore Jasmine Stackhouse's 0.78, pacing a team that has outblocked opponents 11 times this season, including four in the Big Ten. Rutgers is 4-7 in those 11 contests.

• The service line will continue to be important for Rutgers, who averages 1.17 overall service aces per set this season. Cieslik leads the team in the department with 36 aces, which ranks third overall in the conference. Rutgers is 5-1 when out-acing opponents and 0-22 when it does not, and has at least one ace in 37 straight matches dating back to the 2016 season.

• Sophomore middle blocker Stasa Miljevic, a transfer from Florida State, has at least five kills in 14 matches this season, and combined for 18 against Michigan and Michigan St. Miljevic boasts a team-best .251 attack percentage, while also contributing to a team-high total of 81 blocks. The sophomore hit .429 against Michigan and Michigan State, bouncing 18 kills with three errors on 35 swings.

• Sophomore libero Karysa Swackenberg has a team-high 2.89 digs/set and has paced her team in the dig department in 18 matches this season. She led Rutgers' defense in holding No. 15 Purdue - the No. 3 ranked hitting percentage team in the nation - to a .207 attack clip at home on Nov. 15 with a match-high 13 digs.

SERIES AT A GLANCE
• Penn State is now 30-9 against Rutgers with its straight-set win in University Park, Pa. on Nov. 4. The Nittany Lions have won 21 straight matches against the Scarlet Knights and haven't dropped a set since 2001.

COACHES
• In his 39th season at the helm of Penn State, Russ Rose has become a record-setter with seven NCAA national titles and 16 Big Ten championships. Never having posted less than 22 wins in a season, his 1,213 career wins heading into the 2017 season rank first all-time among NCAA DI head coaches.

SCOUTING #1 PENN STATE (26-1,16-1 Big Ten)
• The Nittany Lions received the season's first unanimous No. 1 national ranking in the AVCA poll this season. Penn State has been No. 1 for five straight weeks, and earned all 64 first place votes in Monday's poll. PSU has been No. 1 for a total of 95 weeks since its first top ranking in 1997.
• PSU also leads the nation in team hitting percentage at .351 behind another national leader, Haleigh Washington, and her .515 attack clip. Washington also ranks 12th nationally with 1.49 blocks/set.
• Abby Detering and Bryanna Weiskircher have split the setting duties this season with 519 and 608 assists, respectively. Kendall White leads the backline with 3.73 digs/set.
• This season, Penn State has six Big Ten Players of the Week and four Defensive Players of the Week, with Washington taking home the top player honor four different times.

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
Senior setter Talia Holze and redshirt senior Brooke Enners were inducted into the Delta Chapter of Chi Alpha Sigma Society, the first national scholar-athlete society to honor collegiate student-athletes who have excelled in both the classroom and in athletic competition. They recognized for their achievements during halftime of the Rutgers football game against Ohio State on Saturday, September 30 in an on-field ceremony.

To earn induction into the honor society, a student-athlete must attend a four-year accredited college or university that is an NCAA or NAIA member, achieve junior status, hold a minimum 3.4 GPA, have an endorsement from their head coach and be of good moral character. Both Holze and Enners were also members of the Fall 2016 Academic All-Big Ten Team and Big Ten Distinguished Scholars for earning GPA's over 3.7. Enners completed the 2016-17 academic year with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average.

FLOORED
Rutgers volleyball debuted its brand new Taraflex playing surface at the College Ave. Gym upon the opening of 2017 Big Ten play against Iowa on Sept. 22, 2017.

With the floor's installation, the Scarlet Knights become one of just 26 NCAA Division I programs to utilize Gerflor USA's Taraflex floor, the exact surface used at the last 11 Summer Olympic Games. The portable Taraflex floor at Rutgers, featuring RU's signature colors, fonts and logos, is the only one of its kind among collegiate programs in the Northeast region and one of just nine to be used by a Power 5 institution across the nation.

B1G CHALLENGE
With four matches remaining in the 2017 season, Rutgers will face the toughest schedule in the nation with the average opponents' winning percentage sitting at .814 with all four teams ranked in the Top 15 of the AVCA national poll.

The preseason American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25 rankings included eight programs from the Big Ten, including four in the Top 10.

Current ranked programs include No. 1 Penn State, No. 5 Nebraska, No. 7 Minnesota, No. 8 Michigan State, No. 12 Wisconsin and No. 15 Purdue. Rutgers hosts Nebraska, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Purdue and Penn State - all of which were ranked in the Preseason Top 25 - this season in the College Ave. Gym.

NATIONAL EXPOSURE
Rutgers appeared twice on national television this season on Oct. 6 at Maryland and on Oct. 20 at Indiana.

AROUND THE WORLD
The Scarlet Knights' roster represents nine states, including California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey, Tennessee and Texas. California and Texas lead the way with two roster entries apiece. RU also has international representation with a total of five players from Israel, Puerto Rico, Serbia or Russia.