Volleyball Road Trip Begins At Michigan State & Michigan

Friday, November 12

East Lansing, Mich.

7:30 PM (ET)

Rutgers University

Michigan State

Photo by: Ariel Fox

Volleyball Road Trip Begins At Michigan State & Michigan

Nov 10 | Women's Volleyball

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers is back on the road this weekend closing out the season series with Michigan State on Friday, Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m. and traveling to its lone matchup with Michigan on Saturday, Nov. 13 at 6 p.m.

GAME DAY INFO

Venue:	Jenison Field House \| East Lansing, Mich. Cliff Keen Arena \| Ann Arbor, Mich.
Game Notes:	Rutgers \| Michigan State \| Michigan
Statistics:	Rutgers \| Michigan State \| Michigan \| Big Ten
Video:	Michigan State \| Michigan
Live Stats:	Michigan State \| Michigan
Social Media:	Facebook \| Twitter \| Instagram

ABOUT THE SCARLET KNIGHTS

The Scarlet Knights and Spartans met just one week ago with RU coming up short in a 3-1 loss. Fifth-year senior Kamila Cieslik led Rutgers with 12 kills, while senior Inna Balyko had a double-double with 39 assists and 13 digs to go along with a career-high five aces.
Fifth-year Beka Kojadinovic continues to lead the attack with 251 kills, averaging 2.85 kills per set, which included a team-leading 16 kills against No. 8 Purdue in RU's last outing. She is the rally-era leader in aces with 105 in her career "On The Banks" and needs 13 more to crack Rutgers' all-time top 10 list. She currently has a team-leading 29 in the 2021 season and ranks 10th in the category in the Big Ten. Last season she served up 10 aces against Michigan State setting a Rutgers record and tying for the second-most in a game in Big Ten history.
Senior Inna Balyko, RU's first-ever First Team All-Big Ten selection who is fifth all-time and second in the rally era in assists, is averaging 8.58 helpers per frame. She also aids the defense with a team second-best 62 blocks. Her name is listed in rally era top 10 as well for aces, digs and blocks and more recently moved into ninth all-time in career block assists with 241 assisted rejections in her four seasons at RU.
Redshirt senior Shealyn McNamara leads the defense with 101 total rejections this season and 1.16 blocks per set. In her two seasons "On The Banks", she has placed her name second among career rally-era stats at 1.02 blocks per set and is near cracking the all-time top 10 in total blocks and block assists.
Sophomore Madyson Chitty, meanwhile, is collecting 3.52 digs per set for the defense and in her two seasons has placed her name fourth in the rally era in career digs per set at 3.28.

SCOUTING MICHIGAN STATE

The Spartans welcome the Scarlet Knights at 10-13 and 3-11 in Big Ten play. Among Michigan State's three Big Ten wins was a five-set upset victory over No. 9 Purdue back on Oct. 20.
Sarah Franklin leads the Spartans offense averaging a league third-best 3.99 kills per set while Rebecka Poljan is swinging away at a .406 clip as the fourth-best hitter in the Big Ten.
At the service line, MSU's is second in the league with 129 total aces this season led by Biamba Kabengele's 28. Kabengele ranks fourth in the league, while teammate Molly Johnson has contributed 14 aces thru her 42 set appearances.
Naya Gros meanwhile leads the Spartans defense with 106 blocks, averaging 1.34 putbacks at the net, which ranks fourth in the Big Ten.

SCOUTING MICHIGAN

The Wolverines welcome the Scarlet Knights at 14-9 and 7-7 in Big Ten play. Michigan will welcome No. 15 Penn State on Friday night before hosting Rutgers. Among the Wolverines' top victories this season was a five-set victory over then-No. 8 Minnesota back on Oct. 8.
Two Wolverines are putting away over three kills per set. Paige Jones leads the attack at 3.68 kills per game followed by Jess Mruzik at 3.55 kills per frame to check in seventh and ninth in the conference respectively.
Scottee Johnson, meanwhile, is putting up 9.76 assists per game ranking ninth in the league in helpers.
May Pertofsky enters as one of the top servers in the country. She leads the Big Ten and is 12th nationally serving up 0.51 aces per set with 38 total on the season.
Defensively, Michigan is led by Jacque Boney with 90 total blocks, averaging 1.10 stops at the net per set, while Hannah Grant is coming up with 4.17 digs per frame coming in 10th in the Big Ten.

UP NEXT

Rutgers closes out the road portion of its 2021 fall schedule meeting up with No. 8 Minnesota on Friday, Nov. 19 and No. 11 Nebraska on Saturday, Nov. 20.

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