Volleyball Closes Out Road Schedule at No. 17 Purdue

Wednesday, November 20

West Lafayette, IN

7:00 PM

Rutgers University

Purdue

Photo by: Rich Graessle

Volleyball Closes Out Road Schedule at No. 17 Purdue

Nov 18 | Women's Volleyball

Match Notes Watch Live Stats

Scarlet Knights & Boilermakers Serve Up Action at 7 p.m.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Rutgers women's volleyball team closes out the road portion of its 2019 schedule on Wednesday at No. 17 Purdue at 7 p.m.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

ABOUT RUTGERS

Rutgers embarks on its final road trip of the 2019 campaign as they close out the season series with No. 17 Purdue on Wednesday night in West Lafayette, Indiana. The contest with the Boilermakers marks the seventh match against a top 25 opponent this season.
Last week, RU dropped a match at Northwestern (25-14, 25-22, 25-10) on Friday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena , thwarting the Scarlet Knights chance at its first season series sweep after having taken the Wildcats in five-sets back on Oct. 27. Additionally, Rutgers fell 3-0 (25-11, 25-15, 25-21) at No. 25 Illinois.
Against the Wildcats and Fighting Illini on defense last week, junior Beka Kojadinovic averaged 3.67 digs/set while sophomore Inna Baylko totaled five block assists. Offensively, Anastasiia Maksimova led RU in both matches positing 2.17 kills/set. In the contest at Northwestern, sophomore Tali Marmen also added six kills to go along with a match-high three service aces.
In the last meeting against the Boilermakers on Nov. 8, Maksimova led the Scarlet Knight attack for the third-straight contest with eight kills. Meanwhile, Kojadinovic, posted six her her seven kills in the third set, the closest set of the night in which Rutgers trailed 12-11 and was as close as 20-17 down the stretch.
Balyko has put together five double-doubles (assists/digs) in the last seven outings and has 11 on the season. Stringing together five-straight double-double between Oct. 27 - Nov. 9 in matches that included the first meeting with Northwestern, No. 8 Nebraska, Iowa, No. 15 Purdue and Indiana, Balyko averaged 9.29 assists/set and 3.35 digs/set during the span. On the year she is averaging 8.61 assists/set and 2.43 digs/set.
Senior middle Jasmine Stackhouse continued up the all-time block total charts after a trio last weekend put her into fourth place on the list with 371. She needs seven more to surpass Mary Kiriakou (1998-01) for third on the list.

ABOUT PURDUE

The Boilermakers welcome the Scarlet Knights at 17-7 overall and 9-6 in Big Ten play.
Since meeting RU back on Nov. 8, Purdue has gone 1-1 with a 3-1 setback to No. 8 Penn State on Nov. 9 and a 3-1 victory at home against Ohio State last Friday night.
Purdue is second in the Big Ten in blocks at 2.74 blocks/set with a trio among the league's top 15. Shavona Cuttino leads the Boilermaker blockers at 1.30 blocks/set, with Blake Mohler adding 1.22 blocks/set and Grace Cleveland at 1.12 blocks/set.
Additionally on defense, Jena Otec is averaging 3.85 dig/set to rank ninth in the league, with Marissa Hornung also among the conference leaders at 3.64 digs/set.
On the attack, Caitlyn Newtwon is swinging for 3.70 kills/set with Grace Cleveland adding 3.3 kills/set with hitting .333 percent.
Otec is also second in the Big Ten with 0.42 aces/set, while Hayley Bush is helping out with 10.77 assists/set coming in sixth in the Big Ten.

ABOUT THE BIG TEN

As a team, Rutgers is sixth in the Big Ten in blocks (2.45) and is one of five teams in the league to have at least two players ranked among the top 15. Merle Weidt is currently 12th in the conference (1.11), while Rutgers all-time block assist leader Jasmine Stackhouse is 13th in the category (1.79).
Inna Balyko, meanwhile, is ninth in the Big Ten in assists (8.58).
In Big Ten only matches, Rutgers has been averaging 1.09 service aces/set, with Tali Marmen tied for eighth averaging 0.35 aces/set in league matches.

IN THE RECORD BOOKS

Against Northwestern on Oct. 27, senior middle Jasmine Stackhouse took over sole possession of the Rutgers all-time block assist record and currently has 344 to top the list.
Stackhouse is also fourth on the all-time total blocks list with 371 and needs seven more to surpass Mary Kiriakou (1998-01) for third on the list.
Sophomore setter Inna Balyko moved into seventh all-time in assists with against No. 8 Nebraska on Nov. 1. With 1,820 assists in her two years "On The Banks", Balyko needs 404 to move past Danaan Luc (1984-87) into sixth place.
Balyko's 801 assists in 2019 places her sixth on the single season charts. As a freshman in 2018, she captured 1,063 assists to put her name third on the list.
Senior libero Karysa Swackenberg's 15 digs vs. the Wildcats on Oct. 27 moved her up into third on the all-time digs list. She has 1,255 digs in her four years at Rutgers and needs 86 more to move into second all-time past Shayla Bush (2000-03).

TRENDING

The Scarlet Knights are 6-0 when hitting over .250 and against Iowa on Nov. 2 had its second best attack percentage in a Big Ten matchup swinging for .282.
RU is 7-4 this season when winning the third set. Most recently, RU led from start to finish in the third set at Ohio State on Oct. 23 and clinched a victory over Iowa on Nov. 2 with a 25-19 third set win.
Tali Marmen has led or tied for the team-lead in services aces 11 times this season.
Anastasiia Maksimova has led RU in kills in six of the last seven matchups dating back to RU's first meeting with Northwestern. Over that span, she has averaged 2.48 kills/set.
Rutgers had led or tied for the lead in team blocks in 13 of its 27 matches, including seven of the last 13 Big Ten matches.
Seven Scarlet Knights have 1.5 or more kills per set, while six different RU players have led a match in kills this season.
Rutgers is 6-1 this season when winning the first set and 6-0 when leading in attack percentage.

UP NEXT

The Scarlet Knights are back at the College Avenue Gym to welcome No. 8 Penn State on Sunday, Nov. 24 at noon.

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