Volleyball Back On The Road To Iowa & No. 1 Nebraska

Friday, October 27

Iowa City, Iowa

7:00 PM

Rutgers University

Iowa

Kenzie Dyrstad digs the ball during Rutgers volleyball's match with Purdue at Jersey Mike's Arena

Photo by: Noah Murray

Volleyball Back On The Road To Iowa & No. 1 Nebraska

Oct 25 | Women's Volleyball

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball closes the month of October on the road traveling to Iowa on Friday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. (ET) and No. 1 Nebraska on Saturday, Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. (ET).

GAME DAY INFO

Venue:	Xtreme Arena - Iowa City, Iowa \| Bob Devaney Sports Center - Lincoln, Neb.
Game Notes:	Rutgers \| Iowa \| Nebraska
Statistics:	Rutgers \| Iowa \| Nebraska
Video:	BTN +
Live Stats:	Statbroadcast.com
Social Media:	Facebook \| Twitter \| Instagram

ABOUT THE SCARLET KNIGHTS

At the conclusion of the weekend, Rutgers will have played five of its last six matches on the road before hosting five of eight matches at home in November.
The Scarlet Knights are coming off a five-set setback to Illinois on Sunday marking the second time RU and the Fighting Illini have gone to five frames at Jersey Mike's Arena. Alissa Kinkela and Alyssa Nayar collected double-doubles while Kinkela joined Kristina Grkovic and Taylor Humphrey in double-figure kills.
Heading into the week, redshirt sophomore right side Alissa Kinkela leads the offense with 3.07 k/s In her third season "On The Banks", Kinkela is currently fourth in the rally-era career kills per set at 2.83 behind Sarah Schmid's 3.18 k/s (2012), Caitlin Saxton's 3.13 k/s (2008-10), and Meme Fletchers' 2.84 k/s (2014-17).
Senior middle Kristina Grkovic is second on the squad at 2.20 k/s hitting .342 along with a team-leading 20 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 7.09 helpers per set, ranking ninth in the Big Ten, and is second on the team with 2.72 d/s. She also leads the Scarlet Knights with eight double-doubles on the season including 45 assists and 17 digs against Illinois in RU's last match. Two weeks ago, 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 3.56 d/s, ranking ninth 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 moved into seventh all-time and third in the rally era in career digs. Against Illinois on Sunday, she tied her season with 22 digs marking the third time this season with 20 or more digs in a match.
Redshirt sophomore middle Rikki Williams, who returned to the court against Illinois after missing the prior three matches, leads at the net with 64 total blocks averaging 1.00 rejections per set. Most recently, Williams put up seven blocks on then-No. 24 Ohio State, one stop shy of tying her career high.

SCOUTING IOWA

The Hawkeyes welcome the Scarlet Knights with an 8-14 overall record and are looking for their first win in league play after a 3-1 setback at Maryland on Saturday dropped them to 0-10 in the Big Ten.
Fifth-year senior outside Caitlan Buettner leads the Iowa offense at 3.27 k/s with senior Bailey Ortega and freshman Kaia Mateo putting up 5.63 and 4.60 assists per set respectively. At the service line, junior outside Michelle Urquhart is second in the Big Ten having totaled 37 aces averaging 0.49 per set.
Defensively, the Hawkeyes are led by redshirt junior middle Anna Davis with 66 total blocks while redshirt senior middle Delaney McSweeney has recorded 60 total stops. Redshirt sophomore Sydney Dennis is averaging 4.05 d/s ranking sixth in the conference.

SCOUTING NEBRASKA

Nebraska, who has received 63 of 64 first-place votes in this week's top 25, is undefeated at 19-0 and 10-0 in Big Ten action coming off a 3-2 victory against last week's No. 1 Wisconsin in Lincoln.
In Big Ten stats, the Cornhuskers as a team lead the league in kills (13.88).
Offensively, Nebraska is led by junior outside Merritt Beason at 3.64 k/s followed by freshman outside Harper Murray at 3.36 k/s with both leading the team with 18 aces each. The duo ranks eighth and tenth respectively in the Big Ten in kills per set. Setting up the attack is freshman Bergen Riley who is putting up a league-leading 10.45 a/s.
The Cornhuskers are led on defense by sophomore middle Bekka Allick with 74 total blocks averaging 1.30 per set and freshman middle Andi Jackson with 72 total rejections averaging 1.13 per set. Allick is fifth in the Big Ten in blocking. Senior Lexi Rodriguez, meanwhile, is collecting 3.45 d/s checking in tenth in the stat among her Big Ten peers.

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. 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. Additionally, the Scarlet Knights collected their first-ever set victory at Huff Hall against Illinois and went to five sets against the Fighting Illini for the second time in the series history at Jersey Mike's Arena.

UP NEXT

The Scarlet Knights will return home to host Indiana, who is receiving votes in the top 25, on Friday, November 3 and the league-leading Cornhuskers on Sunday, November 5. Admission is free and doors will open one hour prior to competition.

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