STORRS, Conn. – It was three straight sets for Rutgers volleyball to open up this weekend's UConn Challenge. The Scarlet Knights improved to 3-1 with a 3-0 victory over Central Connecticut State.
 

STANDOUT STATS

• Three Scarlet Knights had double-digit kills led by fifth-year senior Kamila Cieslik with 11 hitting .526 for the game. Classmate Beka Kojadinovic and redshirt senior Shea McNamara added 10 kills apiece.
• McNamara also contributed four blocks for the defense.
• Senior Inna Balyko collected a game-high 27 assists.
• Sophomore Madyson Chitty posted a new career-high in digs with a game-high 22.

KEY MOMENTS

• Set 1 (25-13) | Shea McNamara hit a blistering .857 with kills on six of her seven attempts. After the opening stanza was tied at 9-9, Rutgers closed it out outscoring the Blue Devils 16-4 included two 5-0 bursts during the run.
• Set 2 (25-15) | Three-straight kills by Beka Kojadinovic saw RU jump out to a 6-1 edge. RU extended its advantage to 10-3 prompting a CCSU timeout. The Blue Devils, however, came back with an 8-2 run to pull within a point. Up 12-11, Rutgers scored the next four points and never trailed by less than five the rest of the way.
• Set 3 (25-23) | The Blue Devils forced match point five times, but it was still a sweep for the Scarlet Knights.  RU opened outscoring CCSU 7-1 and led 20-13 off blocks from Lauren DeLo and Megan Vernon. The Blue Devils closed the gap with four unanswered, but Rutgers forged ahead to match point at 24-19. CCSU stayed alive with the next four points until Kamila Cieslik put the game away off the pass from DeLo.

KNIGHT NOTES

• The Scarlet Knights are off to a 3-1 start for the first time since 2017.
• Rutgers hit .358 marking the fourth-best hitting percentage in a game of the rally era. It was the Scarlet Knights' best hitting mark since hitting .272 against Howard on Sept. 7, 2018.
• Madyson Chitty reset her career-high in digs with 22 besting her previous high of 22 last season at Michigan State.
• Cansu Gunaydin registered a career-high five digs surpassing her previous best of three against No. 19 Ohio State last season.

 

UP NEXT

The Scarlet Knights close out the UConn Challenge with two matches on Saturday. RU takes on Lafayette at 10 a.m. and host UConn at 7 p.m.

Follow Rutgers women's volleyball on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.