Volleyball Heads To No. 6 Ohio State Saturday

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers volleyball team continues its current road swing traveling to No. 6 Ohio State to meet up with the Buckeyes on Saturday at 5 p.m.

GAME DAY INFO

Venue:	Covelli Center \| Columbus, Ohio
Game Notes:	Rutgers \| Ohio State \| Big Ten
Statistics:	Rutgers \| Ohio State \| Big Ten
Video:	Big Ten Plus (Neil Sika)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Social Media:	Facebook \| Twitter \| Instagram

ABOUT THE SCARLET KNIGHTS

Redshirt freshman Alissa Kinkela continues to lead the offense at 2.84 k/s and has led RU on the attack in nine contests thus far. She is followed by Taylor Humphrey at 2.70 k/s, which included 16 kills at No. 5 Purdue two weeks ago.
Assisting the offense has been redshirt junior Lauren DeLo. DeLo, who is fifth in the rally era averaging 6.48 a/s over her career, is putting up 7.61 helpers per set and ranks 10^th in the Big Ten.
Junior middle Kristina Grkovic, meanwhile, leads the squad with 20 aces, including a career-high five in RU's victory over FDU in the final nonconference weekend. Grkovic is also third on the team in kills at 2.34 k/s. On defense, she has racked up a team-leading 63 blocks, coming up with 1.09 b/s.
Graduate student Megan Vernon also leads RU at the net with 13 solo blocks and 60 total rejections. She also checks in as the Scarlet Knights' most efficient hitter with a .280 attack percentage.
Junior Madyson Chitty is averaging 2.84 d/s this season and is fourth in the rally era with 3.15 d/s over her career. Last weekend, she moved into seventh on the rally-era career digs list and has 765 over her three-year career.

CONFERENCE NOTABLES

Rutgers nearly came out on top for a second set victory on Wednesday night at Huff Hall, but the host Illinois pulled out the set and match win. The Fighting Illini took the second set 26-24 in a frame that saw 11 ties and seven lead changes.
Freshman Bekah Williams led Rutgers on the attack for the first time in her career with nine kills in last week's contest with Maryland. Additionally, Taylor Humphrey collected a career-high 14 digs against the Terps.
Rutgers had a top-five weekend two weeks ago as the Scarlet Knights hosted No. 3 Nebraska and hit the road for the first time in Big Ten action with a trip to No. 5 Purdue. The Scarlet Knights were swept by the Cornhuskers, the 2021 national runner-ups, and played the Boilermakers to 21 ties and eight lead changes in the first two sets in a 3-0 loss.
Against No. 5 Purdue, Humphrey put away 16 kills becoming only the second freshman on the rally-era individual match performance top 10 list.
Rutgers opened the Big Ten slate at home with a three-set loss to Michigan, a squad ranked at No. 24 this week, and a thrilling 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Michigan State.
Against Michigan on Sept. 23, Madyson Chitty surpassed the 700-career dig mark and moved into the top 10 of the rally-era career leaders list. More recently she moved into seventh on the list.
In their first conference win, a 3-2 victory over Michigan State on Sept. 25, the Scarlet Knights were down 0-2 before storming back to take the next three sets for their first Big Ten victory. RU posted 19.0 blocks in the match, the second-most in a game of the rally era and the most ever by the Scarlet Knights in a Big Ten contest. Humphrey had her second double-double this year with 14 kills and 11 digs while Megan Vernon had a career-high 11 total blocks.
It was the second time under head coach Caitlin Schweihofer that the Scarlet Knights had come back from a 2-0 deficit to claim victory. Rutgers also had a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over UMBC last season. Before that five-set win over the Retrievers, RU's last five-set come-from-behind win was over Wofford in 2012.

NONCONFERENCE NOTABLES

Rutgers finished nonconference play at 6-6 overall, which included taking a pair of NCAA Tournament squads to five sets. The Scarlet Knights took three of five against So-Con Champion The Citadel and forced a deciding set against Towson, the defending three-time CAA Champions.
Alyssa Kinkela was named to the Rutgers All-Tournament squad following the final nonconference weekend, her second tournament team selection of the season. She averaged 3.33 kills per set and swung .316 over the course of the weekend's three games and also came up with six blocks, She had a tournament-high 13 kills against the Tigers on the final day of action hitting a career-best .414. She also served up a pair of aces along with three blocks against FDU.
Megan Vernon set a new career mark in kills with her 13 against St. Thomas and her .650 hitting percentage ranks third in the single-game rally-era record book. Additionally, Vernon has totaled 10 block assists thus far in 2022 joining the rally-era single-season top 10 in the category last weekend.
Lauren DeLo made the Rambler Classic All-Tournament Team after totaling 61 assists and 10 blocks over the weekend's three games. She made a career-high five kills against Loyola hitting .667 and had a career-high four blocks against the Ramblers, as well as Kansas State. She also served up an ace in each match.
Kinkela was named the College of Charleston Classic Most Valuable Player. The Melbourne, Australia native totaled 46 kills, averaging 3.84 per set, hitting .310 on the weekend.
Middle blockers Kristina Grkovic and freshman Taylor Humphrey were also named to the College of Charleston All-Tournament. Grkovic led RU with 14 blocks, averaging 1.17 per set while averaging 2.50 kills per set and swinging at a .333 clip. Humphrey, in her debut weekend, racked up 37 kills, for 3.70 per frame along with 16 digs.
Also at the College of Charleston Classic, Humphrey collected 18 kills in the win over the host Cougars marking the most kills by a Scarlet Knight in a three-set match of the rally era. The last RU player to have 18 kills in a three-set contest was Sahbria McLetchie against Coppin State back on Aug. 31, 2018.
The Scarlet Knights opened the 2022 season at a 3-0 start for the first time since 1998 at the College of Charleston Classic. RU opened 2022 with a 3-1 win over Fresno State and followed with a five-set victory over The Citadel, the 2021 SoCon Champions and NCAA Tournament Team, and a sweep of host College of Charleston.

COACHING NOTABLES

Head coach Caitlin Schweihofer embarks on her third season "On The Banks" having made notable strides with the program in her first two seasons.
In year one in the spring of 2021, Rutgers tripled its conference win total along with capturing numerous program firsts including its first-ever All-Big Ten honoree and Big Ten series sweeps. Over the season, RU established new team, season and match records for aces and reset program Big Ten game bests in kills, attempts, attacked percentage and assists.
A mere four months later Schweihofer's Scarlet Knights were back in action for year two where they kicked off the fall 2021 season going 8-3 for the squad's best nonconference record since 2012. Rutgers battled eight top 25 teams during Big Ten play, which included not only eight NCAA teams, but the national runner-up in Nebraska and national champion in Wisconsin.

RECORD BOOK UPDATES

Madyson Chitty became the 14th Scarlet Knight of the rally era to cross the 600-career dig in the opening weekend at the College of Charleston and broke the 700-career dig mark in the Big Ten opener on Sept. 25 against Michigan State. She is currently seventh in career digs with 765 and needs 99 more to go past former teammate Beka Kojadinovic (2017-21) for sixth.
Megan Vernon joined the top 10 career solo blocks list to close out the nonconference schedule in mid-September. Vernon currently has 17 solo blocks in her two seasons "On The Banks" and needs six more lone rejections to join Rachel Andreassian (2012-14) and former teammate Shealyn McNamara (2020-21) into a tie for sixth.

SCOUTING OHIO STATE

The Buckeyes host the Scarlet Knights with a 10-5 overall record, 6-1 mark in the Big Ten and at No. 6 in the latest AVCA Top 25 poll. The squad is coming off a 3-0 sweep at No. 10 Minnesota on Wednesday night and has won five straight since their lone Big Ten setback, a five-set loss at No. 3 Nebraska on Sept. 23.
Offensively, Ohio State is second in kills averaging 13.73 per set led by Emily Londot and Gabby Gonzales. Londot is fifth in the Big Ten at 3.82 k/s while Gabby Gonzales is contributing 3.24 k/s and is third in the league with 26 aces. Rylee Rader, meanwhile, is 10^th in the league swinging at a .433 clip. Mac Podraza has been directing the attack with a conference-leading 10.65 a/s.
On defense, the Buckeyes are led by Kylie Murr, who is seventh in the Big Ten at 3.93 d/s, and Adria Powell, who has collected 52 blocks and averaging 0.95 per frame.

UP NEXT

Rutgers volleyball is back home and on tv next week.
The Scarlet Knights wrap up the season series with Northwestern on Friday, Oct 21 at 6 p.m. on BTN.
Post-match autographs will be held in the lobby.
RU will also travel to No. Penn State on Sunday, Oct. 23.

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

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Schedule

Players Mentioned

Madyson Chitty

Lauren DeLo

Kristina Grkovic

Taylor Humphrey

Alissa Kinkela

Beka Kojadinovic

Shealyn McNamara

Megan Vernon

Rebekah Williams

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