COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Rutgers volleyball kicked off a three-game road trip on Saturday night, falling to the Maryland Terrapins 25-22, 25-20, 25-19 at the Xfinity Center Pavilion.
- Sophomores Zora Hardison and Anna Hartman both collected blocking career marks. Hardison set a season-high with seven stops, which included a new career mark in block assists. Hartman, meanwhile, tied her career-high with six rejections.
- Junior Aly Borellis posted a double-double, her second as a Scarlet Knight and 20th of her career behind 31 assists and 12 digs.
- Sophomore Kenzie Dyrstad aided the defense with a game-high 13 digs.
- Junior Alissa Kinkela led the attack with 11 kills while adding six digs and three blocks.
- SET 1 (22-25) | The Scarlet Knights forced the Terps to contend for set point five times before taking the opening frame. With the hosts up 24-18, Rutgers came up with a kill from Zora Hardison, ace from Alissa Kinkela and back-to-back blocks from the hands of Hardison and Hartman to keep the Terps at bay down 24-22. RU opened the stanza whittling a seven-point deficit down to two midway through the opening set. Trailing 12-5, the Scarlet Knights went on a 7-2 run. Fueled by a pair of blocks and pair of kills from Hardison, RU fought back to trail 14-12. Another Hardison swing had Rutgers down 15-13 when the Terps extended their advantage to as many as eight before the late Scarlet Knight surge. Hardison was successful on five of her six swings to hit .833 and added four stops at the net.
- SET 2 (20-25) | The second set opened with five early ties. After an Avery Jesewitz swing that knotted the set at 9-9, Maryland registered a 7-1 run to pull ahead at 16-10. Momentum, however, shifted as RU took the next five points, including a pair of kills and a block from Krista Dooley. The run saw the Scarlet Knights trail 16-15, but Maryland responded with the next three, including back-to-back aces by Samantha Schnitta. Aly Borellis dumped a Terp attack for a kill for RU to trail 21-19, but Maryland closed on a 4-1 run for the 2-0 lead. Hartman and Kinkela led the attack with four kills each.
- SET 3 (19-25) | Again it was toe-to-toe early with nine ties. A Maryland attack error gave RU a lead at 11-10 and an errant Maryland serve saw RU up at 12-11. UMD's Eva Rohrbach was responsible for two of the next three points, which put the Terps up for good. A swing from Hartman had the Scarlet Knights down 17-15, but Maryland padded its advantage with the next four consecutive points and ended the night outscoring RU 8-4 down the stretch.
- Rutgers volleyball is on the road next week to close out the season series with Iowa on Friday, Oct. 11 and will meet #2 Nebraska on Saturday, Oct. 12.
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