STORRS, Conn . – Fifth-year senior
Beka Kojadinovic was named the UConn Challenge MVP and joined senior
Inna Balyko and redshirt senior
Shealyn McNamara on the UConn Challenge All-Tournament Team after Rutgers brought home the tournament title win a 3-1 win over Lafayette and 3-0 victory against the host Huskies on Saturday.
On Friday night, RU opened tournament play with a sweep of Central Connecticut State.
The Scarlet Knights improved to 5-1 on the year and are off to their best start since 2012.
Rutgers 3, Lafayette 1
- Set 1 (25-11) – The Scarlet Knights hit .522 for the frame. Lafayette called its first timeout with RU leading 9-6 and the Scarlet Knights only enhanced its advantage outscoring the opposition 8-3 out of the break. RU closed out the set on an 8-1 run. Beka Kojadinovic logged six of her 15 kills hitting .750 without committing an error.
- Set 2 (23-25) – Rutgers tried to overcome a six-point deficit but fell just short of taking the second set. The Scarlet Knights trailed 15-9 but rallied to take a 23-21 lead. A pair of kills by Cansu Gunaydin along with blocks from the sophomore, Shealyn McNamara and Inna Balyko gave RU its first lead of the stanza. The Leopards, however, got three consecutive kills and an ace to tie the match at 1-1. Gunaydin ended the set with seven of her ten kills of the match hitting .500 for the frame.
- Set 3 (25-17) – RU led from start to finish. The Leopards pulled within a point with the Scarlet Knights leading 13-12, but from there Rutgers outscored Lafayette 4-1 to add cushion to their advantage and eventually a seven-point differential. Tina Grkovic contributed five kills and hit .667 to help give RU the 2-1 lead
- Set 4 (25-23) | The wall of Shealyn McNamara, Anastasiia Maksimova and Beka Kojadonivc helped the Scarlet Knights to five unanswered points and open with a 9-6 edge. McNamara would go on to collect six of her career-high 11 rejections in the set and also add four kills. While RU built up a six-point cushion, the Leopards cut the gap to one twice late but would be unable to get past the Scarlet Knights.
- Shealyn McNamara's bested her previous high of nine blocks with 11 against the Leopards. It was the most blocks by a Scarlet Knight since Merle Weidt's 11.0 stops against Towson on Sept. 6, 2019. She also became the seventh Scarlet Knight of the rally era to post double-figure blocks.
Rutgers 3, UConn 0
- Rutgers hit a program-best .450 in the nightcap committing only six attack errors over its 80 attempts.
- Senior Anastasiia Makismova led the way with a game-high 11 kills with Beka Kojadinovic adding 10 kills and four aces in the victory. Inna Balyko, meanwhile, registered 33 assists.
- On defense, Tina Grkovic led RU with a pair of blocks and Madyson Chitty came up with nine digs.
- Set 1 (25-23) | The opening set was tight with 12 ties and four lead changes. The final tie came at 16-16 after which the Scarlet Knights scored three straight to remain in front. Rutgers grew its lead to four at 24-20 off a kill from Kamila Cieslik. The Huskies pulled with one at 24-23 off the ace from Caylee Parker, however out of the timeout Anastasiia Maksimova gave Rutgers the 1-0 lead.
- Set 2 (25-12) | Rutgers ran out to an 11-4 advantage and never looked back. The Scarlet Knights took the 2-0 lead closing the frame with five unanswered points. Anastasiia Maksimova totaled six of her 11 kills on the night hitting .500 for the set.
- Set 3 (25-17) | UConn was unable to overcome the hot-hitting Scarlet Knights who hit .600 in the final set. Kamila Cieslik collected four kills as RU led by as many as 11.
- The Scarlet Knights' 5-1 record marks the best start for the program since 2012 when RU opened the year at 14-1.
- Rutgers' .450 hitting percentage is the best of the rally era surpassing the previous benchmark of .436 against Hartford on 8/27/16.
- Beka Kojadinovic's four aces moved her into sole possession of second on the rally-era leaders list in career aces. She currently has 86 career aces and needs nine to become the all-time rally era leader surpassing Ronnie Komisarek (2012-15). Additionally, Kojadinovic needs 33 more to crack the all-time top ten.
- MVP Beka Kojadinovic totaled 35 kills, 19 digs, six blocks and four aces during the weekend's three games. She hit .384 averaging 3.5 kills per set.
- Shealyn McNamara racked up 16.0 blocks averaging 1.60 per set along with 20 kills for 2.00 per set. She hit .333 for the weekend.
- Inna Balyko finished with 101 assists averaging 11.22 per set.
"Last weekend, we played our best match of the weekend in the first match and then kind of went down a bit as we went to the next two matches. I charged the team with trying to work to do the opposite this weekend, to start strong and finish even stronger. I thought that was really evident tonight. We discussed this week in practice about being consistent and that elite level teams have a lot of consistency in everything they do, their attitude, their execution and their confidence. We went into the match tonight thinking about what each individual could do to be consistent and what one thing they could truly focus on. I think we met the task. We reached that goal because we basically played error-free volleyball tonight. We only had six hitting errors and two service errors. Eight errors in a three-set match is pretty remarkable. I'm really proud of their effort."
- head coach Caitlin Schweihofer
- The Scarlet Knights make their way back home for the Rutgers 9/11 Memorial Tournament Presented By The Bridgewater Marriott at the RAC with NJIT, NC State and Brown.
- Admission is free to all tournament games.
- Face coverings are required as the University continues to uphold health and safety practices in accordance with campus, local and state guidelines for indoor venues.
- Friday night's game with NC State at 6:30 p.m. will air live nationally on the Big Ten Network.
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