Volleyball Drops 3-1 Opening Match With Hawkeyes

Friday, February 19

Iowa City, Iowa

5:00 PM (ET)

Rutgers University

1-8,1-8Big Ten

Iowa

2-7,2-7Big Ten

Rutgers

Iowa

Photo by: Stephen Mally

Volleyball Drops 3-1 Opening Match With Hawkeyes

Feb 19 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score

CORALVILLE, Iowa – The Rutgers volleyball team took the third frame to force four sets against host Iowa, but dropped the opening match of the weekend series, 3-1 (19-25, 17-25, 25-23, 17-25).

STANDOUT STATS

Junior Anastasiia Maksimova and freshman Tina Grkovic led Rutgers with 11 kills. Grkovic finished the evening swinging .562 making only one error on 19 swings. Maksimova also added a pair of aces, 12 digs and three blocks.
A trio of Scarlet Knights finished with double-digit digs with freshman Madyson Chitty and senior Kamila Cieslik each notching 13.
Junior Inna Balyko rounded out of the offense with 32 assists.
Rutgers totaled 18 block assists led by five from Grkovic and four from Shealyn McNamara.

KEY MOMENTS

Set 1 (19-25) | The Hawkeyes took their largest lead of the opening set at 13-7, but the Scarlet Knights were able to whittle down the Iowa advantage to three late in the frame. A 5-1 run, which included kills from Cieslik and McNamara, saw RU trail 20-17. Iowa, however, countered outscoring the Scarlet Knights 5-2 for the win.
Set 2 (17-25) | Maksimova made four kills and no errors to hit .571 in the stanza. There were five early ties before the Hawkeyes went ahead. Rutgers went on a 5-2 run, including a kill and an ace from the junior outside hitter, to close the gap to 18-16. Iowa, however, responded with six unanswered en-route to the 2-0 lead
Set 3 (25-23) | Both Maksimova and Grkovic collected four kills each, with Grkovic also contributing three blocks in the set victory. The Scarlet Knights trailed 19-17 when Grkovic teamed with countrywoman Beka Kojadinovic at the net for a rejection to jump-start a 5-0 run. The Hawkeyes retook the lead after with four-straight points for a 23-22 edge. RU closed out with a pair of Grkovic swings and the freshman joining Cieslik at the net for set point.
Set 4 (17-25) | Three-straight errors by the Hawkeyes saw the final set knotted at 5-5, however the hosts got four-straight kills and an ace to stay in front.

KNIGHT NOTES

Cieslik's 13 digs were a season-high surpassing her previous season-best of 11 last weekend against No. 4 Nebraska.
Grkovic hit for double-figure kills for the second-straight contest while hitting above .500 for the second time this year.

HIGHLIGHTS