Volleyball Opens Home Schedule With Marist & Princeton

Wednesday, September 13

New Brunswick, N.J.

7:00 PM

Rutgers University

Marist

Taylor Humphrey on the attack against Northwestern at Jersey Mike's Arena

Photo by: Rich Graessle

Volleyball Opens Home Schedule With Marist & Princeton

Sep 11 | Women's Volleyball

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball is home this week at the College Ave Gym to close out nonconference play. The Scarlet Knights host Marist on Wednesday, Sept. 13 and Princeton on Friday, Sept. 15. Both matches begin at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

GAME DAY INFO

Venue:	College Ave Gym \| New Brunswick, N.J.
Admission:	Free
Parking:	Click Here To Register
Game Notes:	Rutgers \| Marist \| Princeton
Statistics:	Rutgers \| Marist \| Princeton \| \| Big Ten
Video:	Marist \| Princeton
Live Stats:	Statbroadcast.com
Social Media:	Facebook \| Twitter \| Instagram

ABOUT THE SCARLET KNIGHTS

Rutgers enters the week at 7-1 marking the program's best start since 2012. Last week, the Scarlet Knights earned a 3-1 win at Rider that gave head coach Caitlin Schweihofer her 100th career win, a sweep of Morgan State and a 3-1 victory at Columbia with redshirt sophomore Alissa Kinkela capturing the fifth-best hitting percentage in a match in school history.
Kinkela leads the offense with 2.17 k/s and a .368 hitting percentage and is second at the net with 0.90 b/s. Senior middle Kristina Grkovic is second on the squad at 2.30 k/s along with a team-leading 13 aces, which included a career-high tying five against N.C. State. She is currently ranked ninth in the Big Ten at the service line. The Belgrade, Serbia native also leads the block at 1.17 b/s and is among RU's rally-era career leaders in the category.
Fifth-year senior Alyssa Nayar and redshirt junior Chelsea Harvey aid the attack on the set. Nayar is averaging 8.56 helpers per set and is second on the team with 2.84 d/s. Harvey is putting up 8.56 a/s including averaging 10.83 over last week's three games.
Senior libero Madyson Chitty is currently logging 3.60 d/s and checks in ninth in the Big Ten. The Lewis Center, Ohio native, who is fifth in the rally era in career digs, is 12 away from joining the 1,000 career dig club.
Rutgers returns nine letterwinners and welcomes six newcomers to the court for the 2023 campaign.
Eighty-four percent of last year's attack is back including Kinkella who recorded a team-leading 2.76 k/s and Humphrey, who as a rookie collected 2.54 k/s. Kinkela totaled 301 kills in 2022 marking the ninth-most by a Scarlet Knight in a rally-era season. Humphrey also had another notable record book entry as she tied for most kills in a rally-era three-set match with 18 kills against the College of Charleston.
On this year's schedule, seven opponents appear on the Preseason AVCA Poll including No. 2 Wisconsin, No. 5 Nebraska, No. 7 Minnesota, No. 8 Penn State, No. 14 Ohio State, No. 16 Purdue and RV Illinois.

SCOUTING MARIST

Marist enters the week at 2-8 overall and is coming off a West Coast trip with games against San Diego, Southern California and UC Davis.
The Red Foxes are led on the attack by senior outside hitter Sasha Van der Merwe at 3.17 k/s and Gabriella Heimbauer at 2.69 k/s. On the set, junior Claire Lewis is averaging 9.61 helpers per set. At the service line, senior middle blocker Vanessa Zolg leads with eight aces with three other Red Foxes with seven each.
Defensively, Marist is looking at Zolg for the stops at the net with 19 total blocks averaging 0.54 per set. Rookie libero Katherine Thompson, meanwhile, is posting 3.14 d/s.

SCOUTING PRINCETON

The Tigers start off the week at 2-4 overall and will travel to Temple on Wednesday before making the trek up Route 1 to meet up with the Scarlet Knights. Most recently, Princeton met up with Maryland, UMBC and Coastal Carolina at the Terps' home tournament.
On the stat sheet, Princeton is led by freshman outside hitter Kamryn Chaney at 3.76 k/s and sophomore middle Lucia Scalamandre at 2.90 k/s with freshman Sydney Draper aiding the attack with 10.40 a/s.
At the net, Scalamandre leads the Tigers with 23 total blocks with junior right side/middle blocker Mariah Haislip right behind at 22 total rejections. Freshman libero Syndney Bold is adding 3.55 d/s.

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.
In 2023, Rutgers has opened to a 7-1 record marking the best start for the program since 2012.

UP NEXT

Rutgers opens up Big Ten action on the road at Penn State on BTN on Wednesday, Sept. 20 at 6 p.m. and returns home to host Purdue at Jersey Mike's Arena on Sunday, Sept. 24 at 1 p.m. on Letterwinner's Day. Letterwinners can sign up for the event here.

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