PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball continues its current road trip heading out to the midwest to meet with Iowa on Friday, Oct. 11 at Xtreme Arena and No. 2 Nebraska at the Devaney Center on Saturday, Oct. 12.
- The Scarlet Knights opened Big Ten play two weeks ago with a pair of five-set contests against Iowa and at Michigan and last week faced its first top-ten Big Ten program in No. 9 Wisconsin and kicked off its current road trip at Maryland with straight-set setbacks.
- Redshirt junior Alissa Kinkela led RU in both contests last week with double-figure kills as she continues to move up the all-time career list at Rutgers with 843 career kills. Her 3.63 kills per set currently tops the Scarlet Knights' rally-era single-seasoneason leaders list and is 11th among Big Ten attackers.
- Also ranked in Big Ten stats are freshmen Natalie Robinson and Lily Bolen. Robinson is sixth with 1.35 blocks per set and reached the double-figure block mark for the first time in her career in the last meeting with the Hawkeyes. Bolen, meanwhile, has totaled 24 aces and averages 0.55 per set to rank eighth in the league.
- In the mid-week clash with the No. 9 Badgers last week, Kinkela led the Scarlet Knights with 10 kills while sophomores Zora Hardison and Anna Hartman along with freshman Avery Jesewitz posted six kills apiece Junior Aly Borellis registered 25 helpers for the attack surpassing the 2,000 career assist mark. On defense, sophomore Kenzie Dyrstad logged 10 digs, while freshman Natalie Robinson, senior Emrullah and Jesewitz each had a pair of blocks.
- At Maryland on Saturday, Hardison and 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. Borellis posted a double-double, her second as a Scarlet Knight and 20th of her career behind 31 assists and 12 digs. Dyrstad aided the defense with a game-high 13 digs.Kinkela led the attack with 11 kills while adding six digs and three blocks.
- Rutgers hit a number of milestones in the opening week of Big Ten action with the Scarlet Knights going to five sets against both Iowa and Michigan.
- Alissa Kinkela was named the Big Ten Co-Player of the Week by the Big Ten Conference last week after pounding out 5.30 kills per set and hitting .446 along with an average 2.40 digs per set and six blocks in RU's two five-set Big Ten openers. Kinkela, who is the first-ever Scarlet Knight to earn Big Ten Player of the Week honors, set the program record for kills in a match and became the seventh Scarlet Knight of the rally era to reach the 800 career kill mark. Against Iowa, Kinkela set a host of Scarlet Knight records with her 29 kills. She surpassed her previous career high of 21 set against Michigan State on Nov. 23, 2022. She bested the RU Big Ten record of kills in a match, exceeding the previous mark of 25 set by Meme Fletcher versus Maryland on Oct. 21, 2015. She then collected the Rutgers rally-era record in kills in a match in passing the previous record of 27 registered by Fletcher versus Long Beach State on Sept. 5, 2015. Her 29 kills also marked the second-most in a match by a player in the conference this season. Kinkela, who hit .429 against the Hawkeyes, also collected 10 digs for her second double-double of the season and ninth of her career. She also tied her season-high with four blocks. Kinkela followed that performance with another 20+ kill outing, helping Rutgers collect two set wins over Michigan for the first time in program history and the first set win in Ann Arbor since 2015. The Melbourne, Australia product surpassed the 800 career kill mark behind 24 kills and a .432 hitting percentage. She also added 14 digs, one shy of her career mark, for her third double-double of the season and 10th of her career.
- Other Iowa match notables included Natalie Robinson reaching the double-figure block mark for the first time in her career with 10 stops. It marked the third-most blocks by a Scarlet Knight in a Big Ten match and the most in a rally-era match. Lexi Visintine posted her second double-double of the season with 10 kills and 11 digs and it was new career high for Kenzie Dyrstad in reaching 20-dig mark.
- At Michigan, the Scarlet Knights took their first set in Ann Arbor since 2015 and captured two set wins over Michigan for the first time in program history. In addition to Kinkela's 24 kills, sophomore Zora Hardison collected a new career high in kills with 15 and Dyrstad served up a career-high four aces. Junior Aly Borellis produced a season-high 51 helps and her first Scarlet Knight double-double in adding 10 digs.
- In the nonconference finale with UMES, RU served up 13 aces, marking the fourth most in a match and second most in a three-set match by the Scarlet Knights in the rally era. It was the most aces in a match since also serving up 13 aces against FDU on Sept. 17, 2022, and the most in a three-set match since capturing 13 aces against Buffalo on Sept. 2, 2017.
- RU was led by a career-high five aces from Lexi Visintine against the Hawks, marking the eighth most in a match and second most in a three-set match by a Scarlet Knights in the rally era.
- The Hawkeyes welcome the Scarlet Knights with an 8-8 overall record and 2-2 Big Ten mark. Since opening conference play at Rutgers back on Sept. 26, Iowa has picked up a five-set victory at Maryland while dropping matches at home with Washington and at Nebraska in straight sets.
- Malu Garcia leads the Hawkeye offense with 2.73 k/s. Jenna Meitzler directs the attack behind 9.87 a/s. At the service line, Michelle Urquhart has dropped in 29 aces.
- At the net, Hannah Whittingstall has racked up 67 stops averaging 1.22 per set. Also for the defense, Joy Galles is averaging 3.88 d/s.
- The Cornhuskers will host Purdue before hosting the Scarlet Knights on Saturday. Nebraska enters the week ranked at No. 2 in the AVCA Top 25 Poll with a 14-1 overall record and 4-0 in the Big Ten. The Cornhuskers lone loss on the season was 3-0 loss at SMU back on Sept. 3. Since then, Nebraska has rattled off 11-straight victories, including a 3-1 victory over UCLA to open conference play and straight-set wins over USC, Illinois and Iowa.
- Harper Murray leads the way on the attack with 3.12 k/s with Layla Blackwell leading the Big Ten swinging .509 on the season with 2.21 k/s. Bergen Reilly is second among league setters at 10.98 a/s. Both Murray and Lindsay Krause have served up a team-leading 15 aces.
- On defense, Rebekah Allick is third at the net in blocks in the conference having registered 64 stops with an average of 1.49 per set. Lexi Rodrigues is averaging 3.82 d/s ranking eighth in the Big Ten.
- 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.
- More success continued in 2022 as 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 while altogether Rutgers had 11 entries among the rally-era season leaders list.
- Another step up the ladder occurred last year as the Scarlet Knights earned their first-ever All-Big Ten attacker, captured their first-ever top 25 victory, collected the most overall wins and best nonconference record since 2012, improved set wins by 45% over the previous season and set a school record in attendance. RU placed 12 entries into the rally-era individual season top 10 records and 13 entries into the rally-era team top 10 records while collecting the most sets played, kills, assists, assists per set, digs and solo blocks by a team in conference play since joining the Big Ten in 2014.
- Rutgers volleyball returns home to host No. 14 Minnesota on Friday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. and No. 16 USC on Sunday, Oct. 20 at 1 p.m. Both matches will be played at Jersey Mike's Arena. Admission is free.
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