Volleyball Begins Four-Game Road Trip Starting With No. 8 Purdue & Ohio State

Thursday, November 14

West Lafayette, Ind.

Rutgers University

Purdue

Photo by: Ben Lerner

Volleyball Begins Four-Game Road Trip Starting With No. 8 Purdue & Ohio State

Nov 12 | Women's Volleyball

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball embarks on a four-game road trip this week, marking the final Big Ten road games of the season, with No. 8 Purdue on Thursday, Nov. 14 and Ohio State on Saturday, Nov. 16.

VB match preview graphic at Purdue & Ohio State featuring Lily Bolen

GAME DAY INFO

Venue:	Holloway Gymnasium - West Lafayette, Ind.\| Covelli Center - Columbus, Ohio
Game Notes:	Rutgers \| Purdue \| Ohio State
Statistics:	Rutgers \| Purdue \| Ohio State \| Big Ten
Schedule:	Thursday, Nov. 14 at #8 Purdue - 6 p.m. - Holloway Gymnasium B1G+ \| Live Stats Saturday, Nov. 16 at Ohio State - 7 p.m. - Covelli Center B1G+ \| Live Stats
Social Media:	Facebook \| X \| Instagram

ABOUT RUTGERS

Rutgers heads into its final Big Ten road matches starting this week with No. 8 Purdue and Ohio State.
Last week, RU met UCLA for the first time in program history as freshman Natalie Robinson cracked the top 10 in rally-era season blocks in a three-set loss. Robinson and sophomore Zora Hardison both had a trio of stops at the net. Robinson collected her 100^th block of the season and moved into the top 10 in rally-era season blocks. Hardison, meanwhile, registered career block number 100. Redshirt junior Alissa Kinkela climbed the rally-era career leaders list after leading the attack with eight kills and moved into second place. Sophomore Georgia Lee and freshman Lily Bolen both ended the night with 14 assists each. Sophomore Kenzie Dyrstad led RU in digs logging seven.
The Scarlet Knights also battled Michigan State to 22 ties and 12 lead changes across four sets. Rutgers had two in double-figure kills with Kinkela swinging away for a team-high 15 kills and freshman Avery Jesewitz collecting a career-high tying 11 and finishing the night swinging .305. Lee, meanwhile, set a new career mark with 24 assists. Bolen also joined with double-digit helpers, adding 15 while also coming up with 10 digs for her second double-double of the season. Altogether, four Scarlet Knights recorded double-figure digs with Dyrstad and freshman Alleigh Dutton both capturing 16. Junior Lexi Visintine posted 13 digs to go along with Bolen's 10. On the block, freshman Natalie Robinson made four stops and moved up the rally-era season list into sixth with 104 blocks to date.
On the season, Kinkela continues to lead the way on the attack with 3.28 k/s looking to crack the 1,000 career kills list and become the rally-era career kills leader with three weeks left in the season. Borellis is putting on 6.71 a/s in directing the offense. Visintine has put away 28 aces at the service line, closely followed by Lily Bolen with 27/
On defense, Dyrstad is collecting 3.01 d/g while Natalie Robinson checks in ranking seventh in the conference with 1.28 b/s with 106 total blocks.

MILESTONE NUMBERS TO WATCH

Alissa Kinkela is 67 kills away from reaching the 1,000 career kill mark and 46 away from becoming the rally-era career kills leader. Additionally, the Scarlet Knight Aussie is five blocks away from moving into eighth on the career blocks list past Beka Kojadinovic (2017-21).
Natalie Robinson has 104 blocks on the season and needs three more stops to move into the top five past Megan Vernon (2022) and nine more to move past Mikaela Matthews (2014) for fourth.
RU's top servers Lexi Visintine and Lily Bolen are also nearing the rally-era top 10 list needing one and two service aces respectively to move onto the list.
Zora Hardison is one solo stop away from moving into the rally-era top ten in solo blocks.

B1G OPENING WEEK NEWS

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.

SCOUTING PURDUE

Rutgers closes out the season series with the Boilermakers on Thursday. In the last meeting back on Nov. 2, Alissa Kinkela led the attack with eight kills and four digs, while her lone ace of the game gave her 59 career points from the service line to move into 10^th on the Rutgers rally-era career leaders list. Lexi Visintine added seven kills and joined sophomore Kenzie Dyrstad with a team-high eight digs. Junior Aly Borellis finished the evening with 13 assists. Also on defense, freshman Natalie Robinson tallied a pair of block assists and freshman Avery Jesewitz was one dig shy of tying her season high with six.
Purdue comes into the match with a 20-5 overall and 11-3 Big Ten record and ranks at No. 8 in the latest AVCA Top 25 Poll.
Eva Hudson leads the Boilermaker offense with a Big Ten-leading 4.63 k/s, which is 12th nationally. Taylor Anderson setts up the attack to the tune of 10.89 a/s, ranking third in the league and 11th among DI setters. At the line, Raven Colvin has served up 24 aces coming in eighth in the conference.
Defensively, Purdue looks to Colvin for a Big Ten-best 139 total blocks with the fourth-best average in the country at 1.56 per set. Additionally, Ali Hornung is averaging a team-leading 3.98 d/s for third in the league in the category.

SCOUTING OHIO STATE

The Buckeyes will welcome Maryland on Friday night before welcoming the Scarlet Knights on Saturday.
Entering the week, Ohio State is 11-13 overall and 4-10 in the Big Ten recently snapping a three-game win streak with a straight-set loss at Illinois on Saturday.
Emily Londot is putting away 4.42 k/s with the attack being directed by by Mia Tuman and Kamiah Gibson at 9.89 a/s and 9.75 a/s, respectively. Londot is fourth in the Big Ten in kills per set, with the Buckeye setters ranking tenth and 11th respectively. Olivia Hasbrook, meanwhile, has served up a team-leading 25 aces.
At the net, Eloise Brandewie has racked up 101 blocks averaging 1.09 b/s. In addition to leading OSU in aces, Hasbrooke tops the stat sheet and ranks fifth in the conference in digs with 3.88 per set.

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.
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.

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