Volleyball Travels To Rambler Challenge

Friday, September 9

Chicago, Ill.

11:00 AM (ET)

Rutgers University

Kansas State

Megan Vernon, Kristina Grkovic, Lauren DeLo & Rachel Tam during starting lineup at the Towson Invite

Photo by: Greg Fiume

Sep 07 | Women's Volleyball

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers volleyball team continues nonconference road action at the Rambler Challenge this weekend. The Scarlet Knights will meet up with Kansas State, St. Thomas and host Loyola (Chicago).

GAME DAY INFO

Venue:	Gentile Arena \| Chicago, Ill.
Game Notes:	Rutgers \| Kansas State \| St. Thomas \| Loyola \| Big Ten
Statistics:	Rutgers \| Kansas State \| St. Thomas \| Loyola \| Big Ten
Video:	vs. Loyola (only) (ESPN+)
Live Stats:	vs. Kansas State \| vs. St. Thomas \| vs. Loyola
Social Media:	Facebook \| Twitter \| Instagram

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

Friday, September 9

Rutgers vs. Kansas State - 11:00 a.m. (ET)
Loyola vs. St. Thomas - 1:30 p.m. (ET)
St. Thomas vs. Rutgers - 5:00 p.m. (ET)
Loyola vs. Kansas State - 8:30 p.m. (ET)

Saturday, September 10

Kansas State vs. St. Thomas - 1:00 p.m. (ET)
Loyola vs. Rutgers - 3:30 p.m. (ET)

ABOUT THE SCARLET KNIGHTS

Rutgers enters the weekend at 4-2 overall having gone 1-2 at the Towson Invitational last weekend. The Scarlet Knights dropped a pair of five-set matches with three-time CAA champion Towson and Radford while sweeping Morgan State.
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.
Redshirt freshman outside hitter Alissa Kinkella currently leads the offense at 3.48 k/s and ranks eighth in the Big Ten in the category. Last weekend, she totaled 41 kills including a career-high 18 against host Towson.
Assisting the offense have been redshirt junior Lauren DeLo and senior transfer Alyssa Nayar. DeLo, who is fifth in the rally era averaging 5.13 a/s over her career, is putting up 6.95 helpers per set with Nayar averaging 5.88 a/s.
Junior middle Kristina Grkovic, meanwhile, leads the squad with eight aces and is second on the team in kills at 2.56 k/s. On defense, she has racked up a team-leading 27 blocks, coming up with 1.08 b/s. Last weekend, she hit .344 with 2.15 k/s and added 13.0 blocks.
Sophomore Lucy Malone checks in averaging 3.64 d/s and ranks seventh in the Big Ten. Among her stats last weekend was a career-high tying 22 digs against Radford. Junior Madyson Chitty is averaging 3.24 d/s this season and is fourth in the rally era with 3.26 d/s over her career. Meanwhile, as a team, Rutgers leads the Big Ten in digs at 15.60 d/s.

NONCONFERENCE NOTABLES

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.
Madyson Chitty became the 14th Scarlet Knight to cross the 600-career dig in the opening weekend at the College of Charleston. She is 43 digs away from cracking the rally era top 10 in career digs and 44 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.

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.

SCOUTING KANSAS STATE

The Wildcats enter the week at 5-1 overall having its season-opening win streak halted in their last game in a five-set setback at UCF. Kansas State also had sweeps against Sam Houston, Florida A&M and North Florida this season and 4-1 victories over NC State and Syracuse. They will host Missouri on Wednesday before making their way to the Rambler Challenge.
On offense, Kansas State is led by Aliyah Carter at 3.60 k/s and Elena Baka at 3.45 k/s along with a team-leading 14 aces. Directing the attack is Loren Hinkle at 10.00 a/s.
Defensively, Mackenize Morris is averaging 4.50 d/s while Kadye Fernolz and Baka have over 20 blocks thru 22 sets of play. Fernolz leads with 26 total blocks for 1.18 b/s, while Baka has collected 24 at 1.14 b/s.

SCOUTING ST. THOMAS

St. Thomas, located in St. Paul, Minnesota, began the reclassification process to Division I athletics in July of 2020 and became the first university to have been approved to transition to D-I from D-III in the modern history of the NCAA. The Tommies are Minnesota's first private D-I collegiate athletics program and the second D-I program in the state.
The Tommies are 2-4 this season coming off a 1-2 weekend last week with a five-set victory over St. Louis and a 3-1 loss to Central Michigan and a 3-0 loss to Youngstown State.
St. Thomas is led by Lauren Galive at 2.78 k/s with Keya Luta Win Hunt making 2.50 a/s. Emma Goerger, meanwhile, has collected 11 aces.
On defense, the Tommies will look to Carrie Rutledge at 3.28 d/s and Goerger at 1.18 b/s.

SCOUTING LOYOLA

The host Ramblers are at .500 at 3-3 with a 2-1 record last weekend. The Ramblers swept Toledo while dropping a 3-1 match with Morehead State and taking the Big Ten's Michigan to five sets.
Loyola is led on the offense by Addie Barnes at 3.00 k/s while Bree Borum is averaging 5.33 a/s and Bayley McMenimen adding 4.75 a/s. Borum also leads the Ramblers with six aces.
Grace Hinchman is leading the way on the defense at 3.79 d/s while Taylor Venuto has totaled 28 blocks for 1.17 b/s.

UP NEXT

Rutgers is home at Jersey Mike's Arena for the Rutgers Tournament. The Scarlet Knights will play host to FDU, FIU and Princeton. Admission to all games is free. All fans can register for parking here.

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