IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Rutgers women's volleyball team earned its second Big Ten victory of the year and its first-straight set win since joining the league in a 25-23, 25-19, 25-19 victory at Hawkeye-Carver Arena.
 

STANDOUT STATS

• Sophomore Anastasiia Maksimova, who sealed the victory with kills to end the second and third sets, collected a double-double leading the offense with 10 kills and was one of four Scarlet Knights in double figure digs with 13.
• Junior right side Beka Kojadinovic added nine swings, 12 digs and a trio of block assists.
• Sophomore setter Inna Balyko posted her third-straight double-double directing the offense with 32 assists and a team-high 15 digs.

KEY MOMENTS

• Set 1 (25-23) | Beka Kojadinovic, Stasa Miljevic & Anastasiia Maksimova collected four kills each & aces from Tali Marmen and Inna Balyko led RU to the opening set win. After eight ties, RU pulled in front at 19-15 with four-straight points, including a pair of swings and a block assist from Mijevic. The Hawkeyes climbed back into the match with four of the next five points as RU held onto a 20-19 lead. The Scarlet Knight advantage, however, did not waiver. With Rutgers up 23-22, a Maksimova kill and Hawkeye miscue at the net sealed the win.
• Set 2 (25-19) | Rutgers led from start to finish in the second set. The Scarlet Knights opened with a 4-1 lead and a Tali Marmen kill put RU in front 8-4. Five-straight points grew the Scarlet Knights advantage to 13-7 and the Hawkeyes were only able to cut its deficit to five late in the set.
• Set 3 (25-19) | The Hawkeyes jumped out to the lead and established an 11-8 edge, but RU climbed back into the match. Jasmine Stackhouse put Rutgers out in front at 13-12 with a trio of kills over the set's next four points. While a Scarlet Knight service error tied the set up, Rutgers rattled off six-straight points to go up 19-13 and lead by as many as eight down the stretch.

KNIGHT NOTES

• Rutgers captured its third Big Ten victory since 2015 and has won a league match up in two of its last three matches.
• The Scarlet Knights captured its eighth win of 2019 and marks the most wins for the program since 2012.
• The win was RU's first straight-set Big Ten victory after posting five sets wins over Maryland in 2015 and more recently against Northwestern on Oct. 27.
• Anastasiia Maksimova tied her career mark in digs for a fourth time most recently recording 13 in the RU win over Northwestern.
• The Scarlet Knights led in blocks for the fourth-consecutive match holding an 8-3 advantage at the net over the Hawkeyes.

QUOTABLE

• "I'm so proud of our players. I'm really excited for them. It was a total team effort with four kids with double digit digs and spreading it out among the kills. It's exciting to see. We're staying in the moment moving forward, making people beat us and taking control." - Head Coach CJ Werneke

👀 Watch Anastasiia Maksimova talk about #RUVB's straight-set win at Iowa

"We are super happy because we put in so much effort for this."

##GoRU ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/8ocufGLuBB

— Rutgers Volleyball (@RUvball) November 3, 2019

UP NEXT

The Scarlet Knights return home to the College Avenue Gym for Alumnae Weekend hosting No. 16 Purdue on Friday, Nov. 8 and Indiana on Saturday, Nov. 9. Both matches serve up action at 7 p.m.
 
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