Volleyball Embarks On Last B1G Road Weekend

Friday, November 22

Urbana-Champaign, Ill.

5 p.m.

Rutgers University

Illinois

Zora Hardison during warmups against UCLA at the College Ave Gym

Photo by: Tom Gilbert

Nov 19 | Women's Volleyball

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball concludes its Big Ten road schedule this weekend with back-to-back matches in Illinois. The Scarlet Knights will face Illinois at Huff Hall on Friday, Nov. 22 and meet Northwestern at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Saturday, Nov. 23.

Volleyball preview graphic at Illinois & Northwestern featuring Ece Emurullah

GAME DAY INFO

Venue:	Huff Hall - Champaign, Ill. \| Welsh - Ryan Arena - Evanston, Ill.
Game Notes:	Rutgers \| Illinois \| Northwestern
Statistics:	Rutgers \| Illinois \| Northwestern \| Big Ten
Schedule:	Friday, Nov. 22 at Illinois - 5 p.m. (ET) B1G+ \| Live Stats Saturday, Nov. 23 at Northwestern - 8 p.m. (ET) B1G+ \| Live Stats
Social Media:	Facebook \| X \| Instagram

ABOUT RUTGERS

Rutgers heads into its final Big Ten road matches with Illinois and Northwestern. Last week, RU began its current four-game road trip with dates at No. 8 Purdue and Ohio State.
Against the eighth-ranked Boilermakers. the Scarlet Knights' eighth top 25 opponent of the season, junior Lexi Visintine joined the Rutgers rally-era season top 10 list in aces and freshman Natalie Robinson moved up into fifth on rally-era season blocks and into a tie for fifth in rally-era season block assists. Visintine topped the Scarlet Knights with seven digs and also served up an ace to move into the top 10 rally-era season ace leaders list with her 29^th of the season. With her three blocks, Robinson moved into the top five on the rally-era season total blocks leaders list. Redshirt junior Alissa Kinkela led RU with seven kills while freshman Lily Bolen collected a team-leading 13 assists with Georgia Lee adding 10 helpers.
At Ohio State, Kinkela became the rally-era career leader in points. With her six kills and two block assists, she became the rally-era career leader in points, surpassing the previous rally-era leader Alex Lassa (2012-15). Over the last four years, Kinkela has posted 1114.0 points. Sophomore Anna Hartman swung for 11 kills for the Scarlet Knight attack with Bolen and Lee directing the offense with 17 and 11 assists, respectively. Sophomore Zora Hardison added five blocks, including two solo stops to move into the Rutgers rally-era career top 10. Hardison has made 19 solo rejections over two seasons to climb onto the list.
On the season, Kinkela continues to lead the way on the attack with 3.21 k/s looking to crack the 1,000 career kills list and become the rally-era career kills leader with two weeks left in the season. Junior Aly Borellis is putting on 6.71 a/s in directing the offense. Visintine has put away 29 aces at the service line, closely followed by Bolen with 28.
On defense, Dyrstad is collecting 2.98 d/g while Natalie Robinson checks in ranking eighth in the conference with 1.24 b/s with 108 total blocks.

MILESTONE NUMBERS TO WATCH

Alissa Kinkela is 53 kills away from reaching the 1,000 career kill mark and 33 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 108 blocks on the season and needs five to move past Mikaela Matthews (2014) for fourth. Robinson also brought her block assist total to 96 on the year, moving into fourth in the rally era. She needs six more to place her name into the top three surpassing Shealyn McNamara (2021). The freshman seventh in the rally-era in season solo stops and needs two more to take over sixth place from Matthews (2013) and three more to move into fifth past Kristina Grkovic (2022).
Lexi Visintine cracked the rally-era season top 10 in aces last week and needs two more to usurp Kojadinovic (2021) for eight. Meanwhile, Lily Bolen needs one more service point to join the top 10.
Zora Hardison also moved into a top 10 list last week as her 18th solo stop moved her into tenth. She needs four more to move into seventh to pass Megan Vernon (2021-22), Shealyn McNamara (2020-21) and Rachel Andreassian (2012-24).

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 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 ILLINOIS

Illinois enters the week sporting a 17-7 overall record and 9-7 mark in Big Ten action. The Fighting Ilini dropped a pair of top-ten matches last week falling to No. 4 Penn State and No. 8 Purdue in straight sets.
Raina Terry leads Illinois with 4.36 k/sand checks in ranking fourth in the league in kills, while also adding a team-leading 53 aces, which places her third in the conference. Orchestrating the offense is Brooke Mosher, who averages 8.61 a/s and is second on the squad with 40 aces, placing her sixth in the Big Ten from the service line.
Defensively, Christina Martinez Mundo has averaged 3.56 d/s. At the net, blocker Ashlyn Philpot has tallied 109 blocks, averaging 1.14 b/s

SCOUTING NORTHWESTERN

Northwestern enters the week holding a 5-19 overall record and 3-13 Big Ten mark. The Wildcats will host No. 21 USC on Thursday before welcoming the Scarlet Knights. Northwestern is coming off its West Coast swing, which included a 3-1 setback at No. 11 Oregon and a loss at Washington in straight sets.
Buse Hazan leads the team with 2.91 k/s, while setter Alexa Rousseau averages 5.75 a/s Hazan also leads Northwestern at the service line with 28 aces.
Defensively, Drew Wright contributes 2.99 d/s and Kennedy Hill adds 1.24 b/s to rank 10th among Big Ten blockers.

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.

UP NEXT

Rutgers volleyball will wrap up the 2024 season hosting No. 4 Penn State on Wednesday, Nov. 27 at Jersey Mike's Arena and Maryland on Friday, Nov. 29 at the College Ave Gym. Admission to all Rutgers home games is free.

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