Volleyball Hosts Maryland Wednesday Night On BTN

Wednesday, September 27

Piscataway. N.J.

6:00 PM

Rutgers University

Maryland

Anna Hartman on the attack against No. 19 Purdue at Jersey Mike's Arena

Photo by: Noah Murray

Volleyball Hosts Maryland Wednesday Night On BTN

Sep 26 | Women's Volleyball

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Both Rutgers volleyball matches this week will be featured on BTN. First up is the Scarlet Knights welcoming Maryland on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Jersey Mike's Arena.

GAME DAY INFO

Venue:	Jersey Mike's Arena \| Piscataway, N.J.
Admission:	Free
Parking:	Click here to register
Game Notes:	Rutgers \| Maryland
Statistics:	Rutgers \| Maryland
Video:	BTN (Chris Vosters & Rainelle Jones) \| Fox Sport App
Live Stats:	Statbroadcast.com
Social Media:	Facebook \| Twitter \| Instagram

ABOUT THE SCARLET KNIGHTS

Rutgers enters the week at 8-4 after opening Big Ten Conference play last week with a pair of top-25 matches at No. 15 Penn State and against No. 19 Purdue in its first match of the year at Jersey Mike's Arena. RU played to an 8-2 out-of-conference mark 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 most recently senior Madyson Chitty becoming the 10th Scarlet Knight in history to reach 1,000 career digs in a five-set match with Princeton.
Kinkela leads the offense with 3.23 k/s and a .354 hitting percentage and is second at the net with 0.77 b/s. Her current hitting percentage places her third in the rally-era season leaders behind leader Alex Jones who swung .383 in 2011 and Sarah Schmid who swung .355 in 2012. 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 the No. 19 Boilermakers.
Senior middle Kristina Grkovic is second on the squad at 2.22 k/s hitting .337 along with a team-leading 16 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. During the final week of nonconference play, Grkovic cracked the Rutgers rally-era career kills (536) and aces (63) top ten lists. The Belgrade, Serbia native also leads the block at 1.05 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 8.68 helpers per set, ranking ninth in the Big Ten, and is second on the team with 2.71 d/s. She also leads the Scarlet Knights with four double-doubles on the season. Harvey, meanwhile, is putting up 7.09 a/s including averaging 10.83 in wins against Morgan State and Columbia. Freshman Georgia Lee made her RU debut against No. 19 Purdue on Sunday putting up double-figure helpers in her first appearance.
Senior Madyson Chitty is currently logging 3.36 d/s. The Lewis Center, Ohio native became the 10th Scarlet Knight in history to reach the 1,000 career digs when RU closed nonconference play against Princeton and is currently tied for eighth all-time at Rutgers.
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.

SCOUTING MARYLAND

Maryland checks into Wednesday's contest at 11-3 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten. The Terrapins won six-straight heading into league play before its streak was stopped by No. 19 Purdue with a 3-1 loss last Friday. Maryland returned to the win column in their next match with a home sweep of Michigan.
Senior outside Sam Csire leads the Terps at 3.02 k/s and at the service line with 19 aces to date. Csire is followed by senior Samantha Schnitta at 2.68 k/s and sophomore Laila Ivey at 2.47 k/s. Directing the attack, Maryland looks to senior setter Sydney Dowler at 9.96 a/s.
Defensively, freshman middle Eva Rohrbach is at the net to lead the Terps with 60 blocks with redshirt senior middle Anastasia Russ close behind with 56 total stops. Senior libero Lilly Gunter, meanwhile, is averaging 3.42 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.