Volleyball Hosts Iowa on Friday and No. 15 Penn State For Black Out on Sunday

Friday, November 4

Piscataway, N.J.

7:00 PM (ET)

Rutgers University

Iowa

Lucy Malone digging up the ball against Northwestern at Jersey Mike's Arena

Photo by: Rich Graessle

Volleyball Hosts Iowa on Friday and No. 15 Penn State For Black Out on Sunday

Nov 03 | Women's Volleyball

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball is home and back at Jersey Mike's Arena this weekend for both its matches. The Scarlet Knights welcome Iowa on Friday, November 4 at 7 p.m. and then wrap up the season series with #15 Penn State on Sunday, November 6 at noon in a BLACK OUT.

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

GAME DAY INFO

Venue:	Jersey Mike's Arena \| Piscataway, N.J.
Admission:	Free
Parking:	Register Vehicle
Game Notes:	Rutgers \| Iowa \| Penn State \| Big Ten
Statistics:	Rutgers \| Iowa \| Penn State \| Big Ten
Video:	Iowa \| Penn State (Pat Boyle)
Live Stats:	Iowa \| Penn State
Social Media:	Facebook \| Twitter \| Instagram

FAN INFORMATION

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

PROMOS

Wear black to Sunday's game against the Nittany Lions to help BLACK OUT Jersey Mike's Arena.
Celebrate National Nacho Day on Sunday with $8 loaded nachos at the concession stand.
Visit the marketing table on the concourse on Sunday to enter a raffle to win a free TV.

ABOUT THE SCARLET KNIGHTS

Redshirt freshman Alissa Kinkela continues to lead the offense at 2.57 k/s and is followed by Taylor Humphrey at 2.52 k/s, which included 16 kills at No. 5 Purdue and 10 kills at No. 6 Ohio State and No. 13 Penn State. Humphrey has led RU in ten contests this season with nine double-digit outings.
Assisting the offense has been redshirt junior Lauren DeLo. DeLo, who is fourth in the rally era averaging 6.37 a/s over her career, is putting up 7.24 helpers per set and ranks ninth in the Big Ten.
Junior middle Kristina Grkovic, meanwhile, leads the squad with 24 aces, including a career-high five in RU's victory over FDU in the final nonconference weekend. More recently, she put up three aces in RU's 3-1 setback against Illinois on Oct. 30. Grkovic is also third on the team in kills at 2.21 k/s hitting a team second-best .264. On defense, she has racked up 83 blocks, coming up with 1.09 b/s. She recently joined the Rutgers rally-era season solo block leaders and vaulted into fourth with three solo blocks at Indiana last weekend. She is tied with teammate Megan Vernon with 13 solo blocks this season.
Graduate student Vernon is second at the net with 78 total rejections. She is also swinging at a team-leading .281 clip for the offense.
Junior Madyson Chitty is averaging 2.67 d/s this season and is fourth in the rally era with 3.07 d/s over her career. Last week she became the seventh Scarlet Knight to surpass the 800-career dig mark in the rally era.

CONFERENCE NOTABLES

Rutgers has won a set in three of its last four matches including set wins at home against Northwestern and Illinois, as well as on the road against Indiana. Meanwhile, the first meeting with Penn State back on Oct. 23 during that span marked the fourth top-25 program the Scarlet Knights have faced this season.
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. Taylor Humphrey led the way in the match with her ninth double-digit kills game of the year.
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 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

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.
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 last weekend. She is currently seventh in career digs with 802 and needs 62 more to go past former teammate Beka Kojadinovic (2017-21) for sixth.
Both Kristina Grkovic and Megan Vernon are fourth on the rally-era season block solo list with 13 solo blocks each in 2022. They each need one more solo block to move into a tie with Mikaela Matthews for third and five more to tie former teammate Shealyn McNamara for second on the list.
Vernon joined the top 10 rally-era career solo blocks list to close out the nonconference schedule in mid-September. Vernon currently has 18 solo blocks and is ninth on the list with two season "On The Banks" under her belt. She needs five 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 and three solo blocks against Indiana last weekend helped move her into eighth all-time in rally-era career solo blocks. She currently has 20 career solo rejections and needs three more lone rejections to join Rachel Andreassian (2012-14) and former teammate Shealyn McNamara (2020-21) into a tie for sixth and four more to tie Jasmine Stackhouse (2016-19) for fifth.
Grkovic is also coming close to joining the rally-era career top 10 in total blocks and block assists. She needs 25 more total blocks and 21 more block assists to crack the lists.
Lauren DeLo has collected 650 career assists in her three seasons "On The Banks". She needs 50 more helpers to become the eighth Scarlet Knight of the rally era to dish out 700 assists in a career.

SCOUTING IOWA

Iowa comes to Jersey Mike's Arena at 7-16 overall and 1-11 in Big Ten action. The Hawkeyes have dropped their last six matches and 11 of their last 12. Iowa's last win was a five-set victory at home against Indiana on Oct. 8.
The Hawkeyes are led by Michelle Urquhart at 2.62 k/s followed by Delaney McSweeney at 2.04 k/s. Lily Tessier directs the offense to the tune of 7.31 a/s and is ninth in the league in the category. Amiya Jones, meanwhile, is serving up a team-leading 36 aces and ranks third in the Big Ten at 0.43 aces per set.
On the defense, Iowa is led by Mari Hinkle at 4.23 d/s and McSweeney with 0.87 b/s. Hinkle is third in the Big Ten in digs per set.

SCOUTING PENN STATE

The #15 Nittany Lions come to Jersey Mike's Arena to wrap up the season series with the Scarlet Knights at 18-6 overall and 7-6 in conference play. Penn State snapped a two-game slide on Wednesday night defeating Maryland at home, 3-1.
Kashauna Williams leads PSU at 3.30 k/s with Zoe Weatherington contributing 2.38 k/s. Allie Holland meanwhile is adding 2.22 k/s swinging .330 on the year.
Seleisa Elisais is posting 10.20 a/s with 908 total helpers to-date ranking fifth in the conference. She also holds a team-leading 23 aces.
Defensively, the Nittany Lions look to Maddy Bilinovic at 3.39 d/s and Holland, who has racked up 110 blocks averaging 1.41 per set to check in fifth in the Big Ten in the category.

UP NEXT

Rutgers hits the road again traveling to 2021 national champion and third-ranked Wisconsin on Friday, Nov. 11 and closes out the season series with Iowa on Sunday, Nov. 13.
The Scarlet Knights return to Jersey Mike's arena to wrap up the home portion of its 2022 schedule on Friday, Nov. 18 against the Badgers at 7 p.m. and on Sunday, Nov. 20 against Minnesota at 1 p.m. Admission is free to Jersey Mike's Arena.

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