PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball heads to Minnesota on Friday, Oct. 20 to close out the season series with the Golden Gophers at 8 p.m. and returns home to host Illinois at Jersey Mike's Arena on Sunday, Oct. 22 at 3 p.m.
- Sunday vs. Illinois - KID'S CLUB DAY - Pre-match all kids can enjoy an inflatable bounce house, caricature artist and face painter in the hospitality corner while Rutgers Kids Club members can pick up Sir Henry and Rutgers Volleyball pins at the marketing tables. Rutgers Kids Club members will also have the opportunity for a post-match autograph session.
- Rutgers embarks on its third-straight road trip closing out the season series with Minnesota, a team receiving votes in this week's top 25 poll, on Friday and returns home on Sunday to host Illinois, whom the Scarlet Knights saw last week in Champaign.
- The Scarlet Knights are coming off road swings at No. 1 Wisconsin and Illinois. Against the top-ranked Badgers, Rutgers knotted the score at 10-10 and 12-12 in the first set and trailed 15-14 with sophomore Taylor Humphrey ending the match with six kills, fifth-year senior Alyssa Nayar adding helpers on all but three kills and freshman Zora Hardison leading the block in her first career start. Against Illinois, RU captured its first-ever set win at Huff Hall in a 3-1 setback with Humphrey, redshirt sophomore Alissa Kinkela and freshman Anna Hartman all in double-figure kills and Nayar posting her seventh double-double of the year.
- In their last meeting with Minnesota, Rutgers captured a historic victory as they knocked the then-No. 16 Golden Gophers for the program's first-ever top-25 win. Three Scarlet Knights landed in double-figures with Alissa Kinkela and the eventual 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.
- Heading into the week, redshirt sophomore right side Alissa Kinkela leads the offense with 3.10 k/s both overall and in Big Ten play. 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).
- Senior middle Kristina Grkovic is second on the squad at 2.16 k/s hitting .339 along with a team-leading 19 aces, which included a career-high tying five against N.C. State. 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 8.75 helpers per set, ranking ninth in the Big Ten, and is second on the team with 2.67 d/s. She also leads the Scarlet Knights with seven double-doubles on the season including 40 assists and 12 digs at Illinois last Sunday. Last 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 3.51 d/s, ranking 10th 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, needing 15 more to move into seventh. 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, 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.
- Minnesota enters Friday's match at 8-8 overall and 4-4 in Big Ten play. Following the Oct. 7 match at Rutgers, the Golden Gophers have picked up a sweep at Michigan and a five-set victory at Northwestern.
- Sophomore outside Mckenna Wucherer leads Minnesota on the attack at 3.27 k/s with senior Melanie Shaffmaster putting up 8.53 a/s, ranking 10th in the Big Ten. Redshirt junior outside Taylor Landfair, meanwhile, has put up a team-leading 24 aces placing her sixth among her Big Ten peers at the service line.
- On defense, the Golden Gophers will look to senior middle Phoebe Awoleye at the net who has posted 80 total blocks averaging 1.33 per set landing 27th overall in the country and fourth in the league. Fifth-year senior libero Kylie Murr is putting away 4.16 d/s for fifth in the conference.
- The Fighting Illini snapped a three-game losing streak on Sunday in its 3-1 win over Rutgers to enter the week at 8-10 overall and 3-5 in the Big Ten. Illinois will play at Maryland on Friday night before making their way to Jersey Mike's Arena.
- Senior outside Raina Terry continues to lead the Big Ten at 4.84 k/s averaging a Big Ten-best 5.51 points per set while redshirt sophomore Brooke Mosher averages 9.04 a/s, ranking eighth in the Big Ten. Six Fighting Illini have registered double-figure aces thus far led by freshman Lily Barry with 27.
- On defense, Barry leads Illinois with 2.07 d/s while middles, graduate student Kennedy Collins and redshirt freshman Cari Bohm have amassed 78 and 77 total blocks respectively.
- 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. During the Big Ten season, the Scarlet Knights earned its first-ever top 25 victory with a 3-1 win over No. 16 Minnesota with Alyssa Nayar earning Big Ten Setter of the Week.
- Rutgers volleyball closes out the month of October on the road traveling to Iowa on Friday, Oct. 27 and No. 2 Nebraska at Saturday, Oct.28.
- In November, the Scarlet Knights will be at home in five of its final eight regular season matchups beginning with Indiana on Friday, Nov. 3 and Nebraska on Sunday, Nov. 5. Both matches will be held at Jersey Mike's Arena. Admission is free and doors will open one hour prior to competition.
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