Volleyball Hosts No. 3 Wisconsin on Friday and No. 9 Minnesota on Senior Day Sunday

Friday, November 18

Piscataway, N.J.

7:00 PM (ET)

Rutgers University

Wisconsin

Rutgers Volleyball Seniors 2022 - Lauren DeLo, Rachel Tam & Megan Vernon

Photo by: Steve Hockstein

Volleyball Hosts No. 3 Wisconsin on Friday and No. 9 Minnesota on Senior Day Sunday

Nov 16 | Women's Volleyball

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball closes the home portion of its 2022 schedule with a pair of top 10 programs. The Scarlet Knights host No. 3 Wisconsin on Friday at 7 p.m. and No. 9 Minnesota on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Rutgers will celebrate seniors Lauren DeLo, Rachel Tam and Megan Vernon following Sunday afternoon's match-up with the Golden Gophers.

Admission to all home games is free.

GAME DAY INFO

Venue:	Jersey Mike's Arena \| Piscataway, N.J. Friday #3 Wisconsin - 7 p.m. Sunday #9 Minnesota - 1 p.m.
Admission:	Free
Parking:	Register Vehicle
Game Notes:	Rutgers \| Wisconsin \| Minnesota \| Big Ten
Statistics:	Rutgers \| Wisconsin \| Minnesota \| Big Ten
Video (Big Ten Plus):	Wisconsin \| Minnesota (Pat Boyle & Sam Graver)
Live Stats:	Wisconsin \| Minnesota
Social Media:	Facebook \| Twitter \| Instagram

FAN INFORMATION

Admission is free to all home games.
Fans must register for parking here.

PROMOS

The Scarlet Knights will be signing post-match autographs in the lobby following Friday's contest with the Badgers.

ABOUT THE SCARLET KNIGHTS

Redshirt freshman Alissa Kinkela leads the Scarlet Knight offense at 2.65 k/s and is coming off a Big Ten-high 14 kills last Sunday at Iowa. Kinkela has RU on the attack 10 times this season.
Freshman Taylor Humphrey is second on the stat sheet at 2.57 k/s. The rookie has led RU in kills in six of the last seven matches. She has had 11 double-figure kill matches, 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 is putting up 6.93 helpers per set and ranks 10th in the Big Ten.
Junior middle Kristina Grkovic, meanwhile, leads the squad with 29 aces, including a career-high five in RU's victory over FDU in the final nonconference weekend. More recently, she joined the rally-era season leaders' top 10 list. Grkovic is also third on the team in kills at 2.22 k/s hitting a team-best .262. On defense, she has racked up 92 blocks, coming up with 1.05 b/s. She recently joined the Rutgers rally-era season total block and solo block leaders list.
Graduate student Vernon leads RU with 98 total blocks. She is among the all-time rally-era leaders in career and solo blocks with 17 this season and 22 in her career. She is also swinging at a team-leading .274 clip for the offense.
Junior Madyson Chitty is averaging 2.33 d/s this season and is fourth in the rally era with 3.07 d/s over her career. More recently she became the seventh Scarlet Knight to surpass the 800-career dig mark in the rally era.

CONFERENCE NOTABLES

Rutgers nearly pulled off a third-set win against No. 15 Penn State on Nov. 6. The Scarlet Knights held a 20-14 advantage in the third set before the Nittany Lions came back to win by two, 26-24. In the match, Kristina Grkovic joined the rally-era season ace leaders list.
The Scarlet Knights earned a 25-14, 25-14, 25-23 victory over Iowa on Nov. 13 at Jersey Mike's Arena marking the first Big Ten sweep since 2019. It was the first straight-set Big Ten win for the Scarlet Knights since a 3-0 win at Iowa on November 2, 2019.
In the first 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. In the rematch at the College Ave gym on Oct. 30, RU did get a first-set victory over the Fighting Illini. The opening frame had 11 ties and five lead changes as the Scarlet Knights won the set 25-21 to take an opening set win for the first time since a 25-20 win over No. 8 Purdue on Nov 7, 2021.
Two Scarlet Knights had career nights at the net in a 3-1 setback on the road at Indiana on Oct. 28. Kristina Grkovic totaled a career-high 10 rejections behind a career-best three solo blocks while Bekah Williams swatted away four opponent attacks.
The Scarlet Knights closed out the season series with Northwestern on Oct. 21 with Lauren DeLo posting her first career double-double behind 24 assists and 10 digs, while Kristina Grkovic joined the Rutgers rally-era solo block top ten
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 team receiving votes in the poll, 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

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.
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.
Madyson Chitty became the 14th Scarlet Knight to cross the 600-career dig in the opening weekend at the College of Charleston. She is 10 digs away from cracking the rally era top 10 in career digs and 11 digs away from becoming the 10th Scarlet Knights to surpass the 700-career dig threshold. She posted a career-high 24 digs in the opener against Fresno State.
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 seventh Scarlet Knight to cross the 800-career dig threshold in the rally era. She is currently seventh in career digs with 839 and needs 25 more to go past former teammate Beka Kojadinovic (2017-21) for sixth.
Megan Vernon is third on the rally-era season block solo list with 17 and Kristina Grkovic is fourth with 14 in 2022. They are looking to surpass former teammate Shealyn McNamara who is second on the list with 18 blocks and Rachel Andreassian who leads the list with 19.
Vernon and Grkovic also appear on the rally-era career solo blocks list. Vernon is eighth with 22 career solo blocks while Grkovic is ninth with 20. Rachel Andreassian (2012-14) and former teammate Shealyn McNamara (2020-21) hold the sixth spot with 23 solo blocks while Jasmine Stackhouse ranks fifth with 24.
The duo of Grkovic and Vernon also recently cracked the rally-era season leaders list for total blocks. Grkovic is in a tie for 10th with 92 total rejections needing four more to move into a tie for ninth with Mikaela Matthew (2013) and five more to tie Lauren Cloyd (2016) for eighth. Vernon, meanwhile, is seventh with 98 total blocks this season and needs two more to tie Jasmine Stackhouse (2017) and Eden Frazier (2014) for fifth and three more to tie Mikaela Matthew (2016) for fourth.
Grkovic joined the rally-era season ace leaders list against No. 15 Penn State. She is currently in a tie for with former teammate Inna Balyko, who also collected 29 aces in both 2018 and 2021. Grkovic will need one more ace to tie former teammate Beka Kojadinovic for seventh on the list and three more to tie Tali Marmen (2019) and Hanna Curtis (201) for fifth.
Grkovic is also coming close to joining the rally-era career top 10 in total blocks and block assists. She needs 12 more total blocks and 17 more block assists to crack the lists.
Lauren DeLo surpassed the 700 career assists mark last weekend to become the eighth Scarlet Knight of the rally era to dish out 700 or more assists in a career. She needs 21 more helpers to move into a tie for sixth with Kallie Pence (2008-11) on the rally-era career leaders list. DeLo also needs 29 more assists to move into the rally-era season top 10.

SCOUTING WISCONSIN

Rutgers closes out the season series with the Badgers after meeting Wisconsin a week ago. The Badgers come to Piscataway sporting a 21-3 overall record and 15-1 mark in Big Ten play. The Badgers are currently ranked No. 3 in the latest AVCA Top 25 Poll.
Wisconsin has won 14 straight since a 3-0 loss at Minnesota on Sept. 25.
Nationally, the Badgers are second in blocks per set (3.01) behind Maryland, and lead the Big Ten in hitting percentage (.267).
Sarah Franklin is sixth in the Big Ten at 3.78 k/s with Izzy Ashburn at a team-leading 6.26 a/s. Danielle Hart, meanwhile, is second in the Big Ten swinging .418 with 136 kills. Ashburn and Gulce have each served up a team-leading 29 aces to come in fourth and 10th respectively in the league.
Gulce Guctekin checks in seventh among league players at 3.89 d/s Danielle Hart has collected 120 blocks for 1.58 per set ranking second in the conference with Caroline Crawford adding a Big Ten seventh-best 1.40 rejections per set.

SCOUTING MINNESOTA

Minnesota will travel to No. 14 Penn State before making their way to their first-ever appearance at Jersey Mike's Arena. The Golden Gophers are 17-7 overall and 12-4 in the Big Ten having won four straight and eight of their last nine matches. Minnesota's last loss was a 3-1 setback at Wisconsin on Oct. 29.
Taylor Landfair leads the Big Ten with 4.44 k/s with Carter Booth fourth in the Big Ten at a .351 hitting percentage with 140 kills. Melani Shaffmaster directs the attack with a league second-best 10.45 a/s to go along with a team-leading 25 aces.
Defensively, CC McGraw leads the Gophers with 3.23 d/s while Carter Booth has totaled 98 total blocks. Her 1.36 rejections per set are eighth in the Big Ten and help Minnesota rank 11th nationally in the category.

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