Volleyball On The Road To Indiana Friday, Hosts Illinois at CAG on Sunday

Friday, October 28

Bloomington, Ind.

7:00 PM (ET)

Rutgers University

Indiana

Rachel Tam on defense against Northwestern at Jersey Mike's Arena

Photo by: Rich Graessle

Volleyball On The Road To Indiana Friday, Hosts Illinois at CAG on Sunday

Oct 27 | Women's Volleyball

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball takes on Indiana on Friday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. in Bloomington and returns home for its lone match at the College Ave Gym on Sunday, Oct. 30 at 1 p.m.

Admission to all Rutgers volleyball home games is free with parking registration.

GAME DAY INFO

Venue:	Friday Indiana - Wilkinson Hall \| Bloomington, Ind. Sunday Illinois - College Ave Gym \| New Brunswick, N.J.
College Ave Gym Admission:	Free
College Ave Gym Parking:	Register Vehicle
Game Notes:	Rutgers \| Indiana \| Illinois \| Big Ten
Statistics:	Rutgers \| Indiana \| Illinois \| Big Ten
Video (Big Ten Plus):	Indiana \| Illinois (Pat Boyle)
Live Stats:	Indiana \| Illinois
Social Media:	Facebook \| Twitter \| Instagram

FAN INFORMATION

Admission is free to the College Ave Gym.
Fans must register for parking here.

PROMOS

Trick or Treat with the Scarlet Knights as fans coming to the College Ave Gym to cheer on Rutgers against Illinois wearing a Halloween costume can pick up free candy from the marketing table.

ABOUT THE SCARLET KNIGHTS

Rutgers faced its fourth top-25 program of the year and picked up a set victory last week. Taylor Humphrey led RU with double-digit kills at then-No. 13 Penn State last Saturday, while Lauren DeLo posted her first career double-double and Kristina Grkovic joined the Rutgers rally-era solo block top 10 in a 3-1 setback at home to Northwestern.
Redshirt freshman Alissa Kinkela continues to lead the offense at 2.69 k/s and has led RU on the attack in nine contests thus far. She is followed by Taylor Humphrey at 2.61 k/s, which included 16 kills at No. 5 Purdue and 10 kills at No. 6 Ohio State and No. 13 Penn State.
Assisting the offense has been redshirt junior Lauren DeLo. DeLo, who is third in the rally era averaging 6.52 a/s over her career, is putting up 7.51 helpers per set and ranks ninth 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 2.29 k/s hitting a team-best .273. On defense, she has racked up 69 blocks, coming up with 1.01 b/s. She recently joined the Rutgers rally-era career solo block leaders list with 16 solo rejections over her three seasons "On The Banks".
Graduate student Megan Vernon also leads RU at the net with 13 solo blocks and 70 total rejections. She is also swinging at a .268 clip for the offense.
Junior Madyson Chitty is averaging 2.79 d/s this season and is fourth in the rally era with 3.12 d/s over her career. Three weeks ago, she moved into seventh on the rally-era career digs list and has 790 over her three-year career.

CONFERENCE NOTABLES

In the last match with the Fighting Illini on Oct. 12, the Scarlet Knights nearly pulled off a second-set victory leading 23-21 before the hosts closed out on a 5-1 run and an unsuccessful Rutgers challenge on the last point. Illinois ended up taking the second set 26-24 in a frame that saw 11 ties and seven lead changes.
At Ohio State on Oct. 15, Rutgers took on its third top-10 program of the season. Humphrey had her seventh game with double-digit kills and second versus a top-10 team with 10 at Ohio State.
Freshman Bekah Williams led Rutgers on the attack for the first time in her career with nine kills versus Maryland on Oct. 18. Additionally, Taylor Humphrey collected a career-high 14 digs against the Terps.
Rutgers had a top-five weekend to close out September and open October 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. 25 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.
Redshirt freshman outside hitter Alissa 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, freshman Taylor 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 McLetichie 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 790 and needs 74 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. Kristina Grkovic joined Vernon on the list against Northwestern on Oct. 21. Grkovic currently has 16 solo rejections and needs one more to tie Lauren Cloyd (2013-16) for ninth.

SCOUTING INDIANA

Indiana enters the lone meeting with Rutgers at 12-10 overall and 5-5 in conference having won three-straight games including a pair of five-set victories over Michigan State and a 3-1 road win at No. 25 Michigan.
Mady Saris leads the Hoosier attack at 3.71 k/s with Camryn Haworth chiming in with 9.02 a/s. Both rank sixth in their respective categories in the Big Ten. Haworth also leads Indiana with 33 service aces and checks in eighth among servers in the Big Ten.
Defensively, Paula Cerame is collecting 3.81 d/s and Savannah Kjolhede has totaled 82 blocks for 0.99 per set. Cerame is eighth in the league in digs per set and is one of five in the conference with over 300 total digs this season.

SCOUTING ILLINOIS

Illinois is coming off a 3-1 win over No. 11 Penn State at home on Wednesday that snapped a three-game losing streak. The win upped the Fighting Illini's record to 10-11 overall and 5-6 in conference play.
Following Illinois' victory over the Scarlet Knights back on Oct. 12, the Fighting Illini fell in straight sets at No. 10 Minnesota, at No. 6 Ohio State and at home against No. 3 Nebraska.
Raina Terry continues to lead her squad and is second in the Big Ten with 4.08 k/s along with 33 aces. Diana Brown directs the attack and is third in the league with 10.26 a/s.
Caroline Barnes is digging up the ball 3.62 times per set to rank among the Big Ten's top 10 while at the net Kennedy Collins has collected 57 total rejections and Rylee Hinton checks in ninth in the category with 54 total blocks averaging 1.29 per set.

UP NEXT

Rutgers volleyball is home next weekend with games at Jersey Mike's Arena against Iowa on Friday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 6 vs. No. 11 Penn State at noon.
Admission is free to Jersey Mike's Arena.
Parking for all home games is free with registration.

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