EAST LANSING, Mich. – Rutgers volleyball ended the 2021 season having to crack open the record books.

The Scarlet Knights collected their second-straight series sweep in a 3-1 victory (25-15, 16-25, 25-22, 26-24) at Michigan State setting the school record for aces in a contest (17) and Beka Kojadinovic serving up the second-most aces by a Big Ten player in a contest (10) in history.
 

STANDOUT STATS

• Senior Beka Kojadinovic and junior Anastasiia Maksimova both recorded their fourth-straight double-doubles. Kojadinovic was one dig shy of a triple-double and finished the contest with 11 kills and 10 aces along with nine digs. Maskimova, meanwhile, had 10 kills and a team-high 13 digs.
• Joining in on the double-figure kills was senior Kamila Cieslik with 10.
• Junior Inna Balyko contributed 36 assists in RU's fourth-straight victory to close out 2021 and led Rutgers with a pair of block assists.

KEY MOMENTS

• Set 1 (25-15) | The aces came early and often for the Scarlet Knights to take the 1-0 lead. Kojadinovic served up six of RU's nine first set aces and added three kills alongside Inna Balyko and Tina Grkovic. Rutgers hit .579 with kills on 12 of its 19 attempts while committing only one error. The Scarlet Knights never trailed and closed out set one outscoring the Spartans, 7-1.
• Set 2 (16-25) | While the set was tied 11 times, Michigan State scored seven-straight points to come back tie the match up at 1-1.
• Set 3 (25-22) | Rutgers collected six more aces and powered ahead to a 23-15 advantage. The Spartans, however, kept the frame close by going on a 7-1 run and pulled within two at 24-22. Cieslik gave the Scarlet Knights the set on her fifth and final kill of the stanza.
• Set 4 (26-24) | The Spartans were at set point, but Rutgers fought its way back with four unanswered points to take the match. Michigan State led 24-22 and served up an error on its first set point and a Maskimova swing followed to keep the contest going tying it up at 24-24. Back-to-back attack errors by the Spartans gave the Scarlet Knights the win.

KNIGHT NOTES

• Kojadinovic's 10 aces are the most by a Big Ten player since 1989 and ties for the second-most in Big Ten history. Only Maureen McLaughlin of Michigan State has served up more aces with 12 against Northwood on Sept. 18, 1986.
• The 10 points by Kojadinovic at the service line also tie for the most in a Big Ten conference match matching the 10 by Michigan State's State Gina Conroy vs. Minnesota on Oct. 7, 1983 and Minnesota's Sharon Oesterling vs. Michigan on Oct. 1, 1989.
• The Belgrade, Serbia native's 10 aces also resets the school record after classmate Kamila Cieslik had served up seven only last week against Maryland.
• Rutgers totaled 17 aces, the most in program history and besting the previous mark of 14 against Coppin State back on Aug. 31, 2018.
• The Scarlet Knights close out 2021 at 6-14 tying for the most wins in conference play since 2005 when RU went 6-8 in the Big East.

QUOTE

Head Coach Caitlin Schweihofer

On the victory:
"It's unreal the amount of firsts and things we crossed off our list of what we wanted to accomplish this season. I've talked about how we achieve what we want to achieve, but doing in a way that was reasonable and attainable. It was not 'hey, let's go get six wins', but more 'Let's get a Player of the Week', 'Let's go get a win for Michigan State who've never beaten' and 'Let's try to get set from Nebraska'. It was just such a buy in from this group on those little steps. They're big steps but from the little stuff that just equate to what our record ended up being. I'm just so proud of them."

On The Service Game and Beka Kojadinovic's Performance:
"She asked me before the match if she could go back to the float serve and was just there. It's been 22 games of her trying to jump serve and it takes a lot of effort to do that. I said trust yourself do what you think is best for you tonight in this moment. We felt like the power jump serve was another something we wanted to add to her arsenal. As a staff we don't put a lot of pressure on the service game. We talk a lot about for us to be successful as the underdog, which is pretty much what we are in, that we have to serve tough and the other team can't be in system. To do that,  we have to risk missing. Often you see nights like last night where we had 14 aces and 13 misses. That took a little bit of buy in from the team to see that that was true. Once they realized that I was not going to be upset if they miss to serve, it gave him the freedom to just go for it. We've had a few really good service games over the last few matches and it's ultimately what's driven our winning streak I think.

Overall look at the 2021 season:
"We've just defeated all odds. We stayed CoVID free for an entire season. We had no shutdowns. First and foremost, the health of the student-athlete was at the top of our list and we were able to achieve that. Then nobody expected this team to win six matches, let alone one match, with only 12 players. We  really embraced the whole 'expect to win'. That's the mindset we went into every match, no matter who we were playing. Our mindset was expect to win and sometimes it worked out for us and sometimes it didn't. This team has totally bought into my vision for the program. We're making a lot of noise and I'm so excited for the future the program."
 

HIGHLIGHTS

 

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