Top Five Weekend: Volleyball Hosts No. 3 Nebraska Friday, Travels To No. 5 Purdue Sunday

Friday, September 30

Piscataway, N.J.

7:00 PM (ET)

Rutgers University

Nebraska

Sasha Stotler and Megan Vernon on the block in the Big Ten Opener with Michigan on Setp. 25

Photo by: Ariel Fox

Top Five Weekend: Volleyball Hosts No. 3 Nebraska Friday, Travels To No. 5 Purdue Sunday

Sep 28 | Women's Volleyball

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers volleyball team tackles two top five teams this weekend. The Scarlet Knights welcome No. 3 and 2021 national runner-up Nebraska at Jersey Mike's Arena at 7 p.m. on Friday and travel to No. 5 Purdue on Sunday.

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

GAME DAY INFO

Venue:	Friday Nebraska - Jersey Mike's Arena \| Piscataway, N.J. Sunday Purdue - Holloway Gymnasium \| West Lafayette, Ind.
Jersey Mike's Arena Admission:	Free
Jersey Mike's Arena Parking:	Register Vehicle
Game Notes:	Rutgers \| Nebraska \| Purdue \| Big Ten
Statistics:	Rutgers \| Nebraska \| Purdue \| Big Ten
Video (Big Ten Plus):	Nebraska (Pat Boyle & Sam Graver) \| Purdue
Live Stats:	Nebraska \| Purdue
Social Media:	Facebook \| Twitter \| Instagram

FAN INFORMATION

Admission is free to all Home games.
Fans must register for parking here.
Proof of full vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of the event will be required for entry to all indoor events (for all individuals above the age of five).

SPECIAL OLYMPICS NIGHT

Friday night against the Cornhuskers will be Special Olympics Night.
Cheer on members of NJ Special Olympics as they participate in the high five tunnel during introductions and play a set during intermission.

ABOUT THE SCARLET KNIGHTS

Rutgers opened the Big Ten slate last weekend at Jersey Mike's Arena with a three-set loss to Michigan, the top team receiving votes this week, and a thrilling 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Michigan State.
Against the Wolverines last Friday, Madyson Chitty surpassed the 700-career dig mark and moved into the top 10 of the rally-era career leaders list. Kristina Grkovic, meanwhile, led Rutgers with nine kills and three blocks.
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 most-ever by the Scarlet Knights in a Big Ten contest. Taylor 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 have 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.
Alissa Kinkela continues to lead the offense overall at 3.10 k/s followed by Humphrey at 2.57 k/s.
Assisting the offense has been redshirt junior Lauren DeLo. DeLo, who is fifth in the rally era averaging 6.22 a/s over her career, is putting up 7.56 helpers per set.
Junior middle Kristina Grkovic, meanwhile, leads the squad with 17 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 2.45 k/s. On defense, she has racked up a team-leading 57 blocks, coming up with 1.16 b/s.
Junior Madyson Chitty is averaging 2.18 d/s this season and is fourth in the rally era with 3.16 d/s over her career. In cracking the rally-era career top 10 last weekend, she averaged 4.00 d/s in the matches with Michigan and Michigan State. Sophomore Lucy Malone checks in averaging 3.13 d/s. Among her stats this season was a career-high tying 22 digs against Radford at the Towson Invitational.

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 ninth in career digs with 721 and needs 23 more digs to surpass Alex Lassa (2012-15) for eighth.
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) for a tie for sixth.

SCOUTING NEBRASKA

Friday night will be the lone meeting of the season between the Scarlet Knights and Cornhuskers.
Nebraska, last year's national runner-up, enters Jersey Mike's Arena at 10-1 overall, 2-0 in the Big Ten and ranked at No. 3 in the latest AVCA Top 25. The Cornhuskers opened the year with seven-straight wins before a 3-1 setback against No. 9 Stanford on Sept. 13. Last weekend, Nebraska opened up their Big Ten slate with a sweep of Michigan State followed by a five-set thriller against No. 7 Ohio State taking the final frame, 15-13.
On offense, the Cornhuskers are led by Madi Kubik, who is eighth in the conference at 3.45 k/s and followed by Whitney Lauenstein at 3.15 k/s. Both Cornhuskers along with Kenzie Knuckles and Lexi Rodriguez have contributed a team-leading seven aces each. A trio of Cornhuskers have also put up over 100 assists each thus far this season led by Kennedi Orr at 5.45 a/s. Annie Evans is adding 5.17 a/s followed by Nicklin Hames at 4.35 a/s.
At the net, Kaitlyn Hord has totaled 53 blocks to rank fourth in the Big Ten averaging 1.39 per set with Bekka Allick making 40 total stops at 1.14 per set. The Cornhuskers also lead the league in digs averaging 15.47 per set led by Lexi Rodriguez at 4.08 d/s. Rodriguez is fourth in the league in the category.

SCOUTING PURDUE

Purdue will be in action on the road at Illinois before welcoming the Scarlet Knights to West Lafayette on Sunday. It will be the lone meeting of the season with the Boilermakers
The Boilermakers enter the weekend at 11-1 overall, 2-0 in Big Ten play and ranked at No. 5 in this week's AVCA Top 25 Poll. Purdue won six straight to open the 2022 campaign before falling to No. 4 Louisville in straight sets on Sept. 9. Since the setback, the Boilermakers have won five-straight contests including a sweep of No. 8 Minnesota to open up Big Ten play and a 3-1 victory at Iowa last weekend.
Eva Hudson leads the Boilermaker and Big Ten attack at 5.00 k/s and checks in eighth nationally while four of her teammates are contributing over two kills per set. Setting up the attack has been Megan Renner at 9.24 a/s and Grace Balensiefer at 8.79 a/s. Raven Colvin, meanwhile, leads Purdue at the service line with 15 aces.
Colvin also leads the Boilermakers on defense with 57 blocks averaging 1.39 per set. Maddie Schermerhorn, meanwhile, is coming up with 4.49 d/s.

UP NEXT

The Scarlet Knights travel to Chicago for its first meeting of the season with Northwestern on Friday, Oct. 7.
Rutgers will return home on Sunday, Oct. 9 to host Maryland on Alumnae Day.
Be the first 300 people to enter Jersey Mike's Arena when RU takes on the Terps and receive a Title IX tumbler.
Former Scarlet Knights are also welcomed back "To The Banks" and will be recognized between the second and third sets.
Admission is free to all home games with parking registration.

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