Volleyball Hosts First Big Ten Midweek Match Against Ohio State

Wednesday, November 8

New Brunswick, N.J.

7 PM

Rutgers University

Ohio State

Volleyball Hosts First Big Ten Midweek Match Against Ohio State

Nov 07 | Women's Volleyball

Match Notes

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NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (Nov. 7, 2017) - Rutgers volleyball hosts its first Big Ten midweek match of the season on Wednesday, Nov. 8 against Ohio State to close out the season series with the Buckeyes. The match will be streamed live on BTN-Plus with a paid subscription, featuring Patrick Boyle on the play-by-play.

THE SLATE

Wednesday, Nov. 8 | 7 p.m.

Ohio State (13-12, 6-8)

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KNIGHT NOTES
• Rutgers dropped a pair of Big Ten matches on the road last week at Michigan and No. 1 Penn State. The Wolverines only out-killed the Scarlet Knights by a 39-32 count, but were much more efficient in the attacking department with a .303 attack clip while holding Rutgers to .095. RU was strong at middle blocker at Penn State as they received six kills from sophomore Jasmine Stackhouse, while sophomore Stasa Miljevic posted four on a team-high errorless .667 hitting clip.

• Junior Sahbria McLetchie is Rutgers' top outside hitter with 2.59 kills/set this season, and a team-best 2.47 through 14 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 2.70 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 1,225 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 0.85 blocks/set, followed closely by sophomore Jasmine Stackhouse's 0.83, pacing a team that has outblocked opponents 11 times this season. Rutgers is 4-7 in those contests, including four in the Big Ten.

• The service line will continue to be important for Rutgers, who ranks eighth in the Big Ten with 1.20 overall service aces per set. Cieslik leads the team in the department with 33 aces, which ranks second overall in the conference, and has at least one ace in 17 of her last 21 matches. Rutgers is 5-1 when out-acing opponents and 0-19 when it does not.

• Sophomore middle blocker Stasa Miljevic, a transfer from Florida State, has at least five kills in 13 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 76 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 16 matches this season. She scooped a match-high 16 against No. 5 Minnesota, her most this season in a three-set match and tied for career-best in a Big Ten match. Over her last eight matches, she is averaging 3.2 digs/set with five of those opponents ranked in the AVCA Top 25.

SERIES AT A GLANCE
• Ohio State won a three-set match on Oct. 7 in Columbus to take a 6-0 series lead over Rutgers as opponents in the Big Ten. The Scarlet Knights forced a tight third set that saw the Buckeyes eek out a 26-24 victory in extra points, while Rutgers sophomore Megan Sharkey passed out her 1,000th career assist. Rutgers out-blocked OSU 4-3 in the contest.

COACHES
• Ohio State is led by 10th-year headman Geoff Carlston, the fifth head coach in the 46-year history of the Buckeyes volleyball program. Carlston enters '17 with a career winning percentage of .708 in 14 years as a Division-I head coach, racking up 337 victories compared to just 139 defeats.

SCOUTING OHIO STATE (13-12, 6-8 Big Ten)
• The Buckeyes are coming off one of their biggest wins of the season, a five-set upset of No. 8 Wisconsin in Madison on Friday. OSU is sitting in ninth place with a 6-8 record, which is tied with Michigan, but the Wolverines swept the season series to claim the current eighth place in the standings.
• Ohio State was ranked in the national polls for the first four weeks of the season, and received votes for two weeks before falling out on Oct. 9.
• The Buckeyes are strong defensively behind freshman libero Hannah Gruensfelder, who ranks third in the Big Ten with 4.54 digs/set.
• Senior outside hitter Luisa Schirmer leads the attack with 3.11 kills set, junior setter Taylor Hughes passes out 10.25 assists/set and freshman middle blocker Lauren Witte puts up 1.12 blocks/set.

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 six matches remaining in the 2017 season, Rutgers will face the seventh toughest schedule in the nation with the average opponents' winning percentage sitting at .766 with five of the six teams ranked in the AVCA Top 25 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 Minnesota, No. 6 Nebraska, No. 8 Michigan State, No. 10 Wisconsin and No. 21 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.