Friday, October 13
Madison, Wisc.
8:00 PM
Rutgers University
at
Wisconsin
Volleyball Hits The Road For No. 1 Wisconsin & Illinois
Oct 10 | Women's Volleyball
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball will be road warriors the rest of October with five of its next six games outside of New Jersey. RU begins a three-match road trip meeting No. 1 Wisconsin on Friday, Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. (ET) and travels to Illinois on Sunday, Oct. 15 for a 2 p.m. (ET) start.
| GAME DAY INFO |
| Venue: | UW Field House - Madison, Wisc. | Huff Hall - Champaign, Ill. |
| Game Notes: | Rutgers | Wisconsin | Illinois |
| Statistics: | Rutgers | Wisconsin | Illinois |
| Video: | BTN + |
| Live Stats: | Statbroadcast.com |
| Social Media: | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram |
| ABOUT THE SCARLET KNIGHTS |
- Five of Rutgers volleyball's next next six games outside of New Jersey starting this weekend. Following this weekend's road series, RU will close out the season series with Minnesota on Friday, Oct. 20 before hosting the Fighting Illini on Sunday, Oct. 22 at Jersey Mike's Arena.
- Rutgers is coming off a historic victory as they knocked off No. 16 Minnesota, 3-1, for the program's first-ever top-25 win. Three Scarlet Knights landed in double-figures with Alissa Kinkela and Big Ten Setter of the Week Alyssa Nayar each collecting double-doubles. Kinkela was one kill shy of tying her season-high with a team-leading 17 kills and 13 digs and Nayar added 45 helpers and 14 digs. Anna Hartman swung at a .407 clip with 12 kills on 27 swings with only one error and Rikki Williams collected 10 kills.
- Redshirt sophomore right side Alissa Kinkela leads the offense with 3.18 k/s and a .304 hitting percentage. In her third season "On The Banks", Kinkela is currently third in the rally-era career kills per set at 2.84 behind Caitlin Saxton's 3.13 k/s (2008-10) and Sarah Schmid's 3.18 k/s (2012). In Big Ten play, she is averaging a team-leading 3.32 k/s. Over the last three final nonconference matches, Kinkela hit .457 with 41 kills on 81 attacks with only four errors to average 3.42 k/s from the right pin. More recently she tied her season-high with 18 kills hitting .325 against then-No. 19 Purdue and double-doubles versus Maryland and No. 16 Wisconsin.
- Senior middle Kristina Grkovic is second on the squad at 2.28 k/s hitting .362 along with a team-leading 19 aces, which included a career-high tying five against N.C. State. She is currently ranked 10th in hitting percentage and ninth in aces in the Big Ten. Most recently, Grkovic was one kill shy of tying her career-high last against Maryland hitting .667 in the four-set match. During the final week of nonconference play, Grkovic cracked the Rutgers rally-era career kills and aces top ten lists and is among RU's rally-era career leaders in blocks.
- Fifth-year senior Alyssa Nayar is on the set averaging 8.85 helpers per set, ranking ninth in the Big Ten, and is second on the team with 2.61 d/s. She also leads the Scarlet Knights with six double-doubles on the season. This past week she was named the Big Ten Setter of the Week after averaging 10.25 a/s against No. 24 Ohio State and No. 16 Minnesota.
- Senior libero Madyson Chitty is currently logging 3.67 d/s, ranking seventh in the Big Ten. She became the 10th Scarlet Knight in history to reach the 1,000 career digs when RU closed nonconference play against Princeton and is currently eighth all-time at Rutgers. Chitty collected 20 digs in the victory over No. 16 Minnesota marking the second time this season she has posted 20 or more digs in a match.
- Redshirt sophomore middle Rikki Williams leads at the net with 61 total blocks averaging 1.03 rejections per set. Most recently, Williams put up seven blocks on then-No. 24 Ohio State last week, one stop shy of tying her career high. Offensively, Williams also swung for nine kills against the Buckeyes hitting .400 over the four sets along with 10 kills against the Gophers.
| SCOUTING WISCONSIN |
- Wisconsin enters Friday's match as the top-ranked team in the nation with a 15-0 overall record and 6-0 Big Ten mark having only given up eight sets all season and collecting sweeps since entering Big Ten play. As a team, the Badgers are fourth nationally in hitting percentage (.313) and eighth in blocks per set (2.87).
- Offensively, the Badgers are led by senior outside Sarah Franklin at 3.55 k/s, checking in at seventh in the Big Ten, with graduate student Izzy Ashburn putting up 6.02 a/s. At the service line, junior outside Julia Orzol leads her squad with 21 placing her name fourth among her conference peers.
- Sophomore middle Carter Booth is hitting .450 on the season ranking fifth nationally while putting up 2.87 b/s to rank fourth in the country in the category while leading the Big Ten in both categories.
- In addition to her serving prowess, Orzol leads the defense with 3.40 d/s and is 10th in the Big Ten.
| SCOUTING ILLINOIS |
- The Fighting Illini enter the week at 7-9 overall and 2-4 in Big Ten action coming off 3-0 losses at then-No. 19 Purdue and at home against No. 1 Wisconsin last week. Illinois will travel to Ohio State on Friday before welcoming the Scarlet Knights on Sunday.
- Senior outside Raina Terry leads the Big Ten at 4.62 k/s averaging a Big Ten-best 5.25 points per set while redshirt sophomore Brooke Mosher averages 8.95 a/s, ranking eighth in the Big Ten. Six Fighting Illini have registered double-figure aces thus far led by freshman Lily Barry with 15.
- On defense, Barry leads Illinois with 3.03 d/s while middles, redshirt freshman Cari Bohm and graduate student Kennedy Collins, enter the weekend ninth and 10th in the league in blocks. Bohm has totaled 71 blocks averaging 1.16 per set while Collins has 70 and is rejecting the ball 1.15 times per set.
| RUTGERS ON THE RISE |
- In Caitlin Schweihofer's first season, played in the spring of 2021 due to Covid-19, the Scarlet Knights tripled its conference win total en route to capturing numerous program firsts. Among the team's first were its first-ever All-Big Ten honoree and Big Ten series sweeps. The Scarlet Knights won their first-ever Big Ten home opener, earned victories over Indiana and Michigan State for the first time in history, captured two series sweeps against Maryland and Michigan State, picked up set victories against No. 4 Nebraska and No. 10 Purdue and pushed No. 19 Ohio State to five sets and match point. RU established new team, season and match records for aces and reset program Big Ten game bests in kills, attempts, attack percentage and assists, as well as individual conference superlatives in attack percentage, assists and digs.
- Returning to fall ball for the 2021 season only three and a half months after the conclusion of the Big Ten-only 2020 season, Rutgers continued to make strides going 8-3 for its best nonconference record since 2012. During the season the Scarlet Knights battled eight Top 25 teams during Big Ten play, a conference that sent eight teams to the NCAA Tournament, including the year's national champion. Rutgers captured set wins over No. 8 Purdue and No. 15 Penn State and took Illinois to five sets in front of a national audience on BTN. Inna Balyko wrapped up her career fifth all-time in assists and ninth all-time in block assists, while Kamila Cieslik became the rally era leader in matches played (132) and Beka Kojadinovic concluded her career as the rally era leader in aces.
- Last season, Rutgers incorporated eight newcomers into the mix continuing to make notable strides. The Scarlet Knights opened the year at 3-0 for the first time since 1998 and battled eight Top 25 teams during Big Ten play and eight teams that advanced to the 2022 NCAA Tournament. During the nonconference schedule, four Scarlet Knights were named to All-Tournament squads. Altogether Rutgers had 11 entries among the rally-era season leaders list including Kristina Grkovic in aces, Madyson Chitty in digs, Alyssa Nayar in assists per set, and Taylor Humphrey and Alissa Kinkela in kills per set.
- RU played to an 8-2 out-of-conference mark in 2023 making it the program's best nonconference record since the 2012 season. Among the nonconference highlights include a 3-1 win at Rider that gave head coach Caitlin Schweihofer her 100th career win, a 3-1 victory at Columbia with redshirt sophomore Alissa Kinkela capturing the fifth-best hitting percentage in a match in school history and senior Madyson Chitty becoming the 10th Scarlet Knight in history to reach 1,000 career digs in a five-set match with Princeton.
| UP NEXT |
- Rutgers volleyball closes out the season-series at No. 24 Minnesota on Friday, Oct. 20 and returns home to Jersey Mike's Arena to close out the season series with Illinois on Sunday, Oct. 22.
- Note: The Sunday, Oct. 22 game against Illinois is now slated for a 3 p.m. start.
- RU -
Players Mentioned
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