Volleyball Closes Homestand With UCLA at CAG and Michigan State at Jersey Mike's Arena

Thursday, November 7

New Brunswick, N.J.

7 p.m.

Rutgers University

UCLA

Natalie Robinson and Alissa Kinkela on the rotation against No. 11 Purdue at Jersey Mike's Arena

Photo by: Tyler Brooks

Volleyball Closes Homestand With UCLA at CAG and Michigan State at Jersey Mike's Arena

Nov 05 | Women's Volleyball

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball's homestand continues this week as the Scarlet Knights host UCLA on Thursday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. at the College Ave Gym and return to the court on Friday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. against Michigan State at Jersey Mike's Arena.

On Friday night, the Scarlet Knights will be hosting a Heart Health Awareness game where fans can learn about understanding risk factors, making healthy choices and ways to protect your heart. Visit the marketing table for free foam swords in honor of the fight against heart disease while supplies last.

Admission to all Rutgers home volleyball games is free.

Volleyball Preview Graphic vs UCLA & Michigan State featuring Georgia Lee

GAME DAY INFO

Venue:	Thursday - College Ave Gym \| New Brunswick, N.J. Friday - Jersey Mike's Arena \| Piscataway, N.J.
Game Notes:	Rutgers \| UCLA \| Michigan State
Statistics:	Rutgers \| UCLA \| Michigan State \| Big Ten
Schedule:	Thursday, Nov. 7 vs. UCLA - 7 p.m. (ET) - College Ave Gym B1G+ \| Live Stats Friday, Nov. 8 vs. Michigan State - 7 p.m. - Jersey Mike's Arena B1G+ \| Live Stats
Social Media:	Facebook \| X \| Instagram

ABOUT RUTGERS

Rutgers is back in action at home after taking on Indiana and meeting then-No. 11 Purdue in the first of two meetings with the Boilermakers last weekend at Jersey Mike's Arena.
While the Hoosiers went up 2-0 behind 25-21 and 25-13 set wins, the Scarlet Knights took set three 26-24. The fourth frame endured 11 ties before the visitors took the victory 25-22 in the final set of the evening. Zora Hardison tied her career high with 15 kills, swinging .314 for the match, while adding seven blocks to tie her season high. The Palm Bay, Florida product also had 15 kills in RU's five-set match at Michigan back on Sept. 29 and seven blocks at Maryland on Oct. 5. Lexi Visintine was just shy of a double-double and double figures in both kills and digs, finishing the night with nine in both categories. Natalie Robinson hit a team-best .353 with seven kills and added six blocks. Aly Borellis notched helpers on all but three of RU's kills, coming up with 42 assists, and set a new career mark in blocks with five stops at the net. Her five blocks marked a Scarlet Knight best for the setter and surpassed her previous high, which she had captured on four occasions in her previous stop at Ole Miss. Defensively, two Scarlet Knights landed in double-figure digs. Sophomore Kenzie Dyrstad led all with a match-high 17 digs, while Alissa Kinkela collected 11 Kinkela captured career kill number 900 in the match to become the third Scarlet Knight of the rally era to reach the milestone. She finished the contest with seven kills.
In the setback against Purdue, Kinkela cracked the top 10 in career aces while leading the attack with eight kills while her lone ace gave her 59 career points from the service line to move into 10^th on the Rutgers rally-era.Visintine added seven kills and joined Dyrstad with a team-high eight digs. Borellis finished the evening with 13 assists. Also on defense, Robinson tallied six digs while Avery Jesewitz was one dig shy of tying her season high with six as well.
On the season, Kinkela continues to lead the way on the attack with 3.28 k/s with Jesewitz adding 2.01 k/s. Borellis is putting on 6.71 a/s in directing the offense. Visintine has put away 27 aces at the service line, closely followed by Lily Bolen with 26 to rank eighth and ninth, respectively, in the Big Ten.
On defense, Dyrstad is collecting 2.99 d/g while Natalie Robinson checks in ranking sixth in the conference with 1.31 b/s with 97 total 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.

MILESTONE NUMBERS TO WATCH

Alissa Kinkela is eight kills away from moving into second in the rally-era in career kills to surpass Alex Jones (2009-12) and four blocks away from moving into ninth in rally-era career total blocks past Stasa Miljevic (2017-19).
Natalie Robinson is three blocks away from 100 blocks on the season as a freshman and one stop away from joining the rally-era season top 10.
RU's top servers Lexi Visintine and Lily Bolen are also nearing the rally-era top 10 list needing two and three service aces respectively to move onto the list.

SCOUTING UCLA

The Bruins make their to New Jersey for their first-ever meeting with the Scarlet Knights at 10-11 overall and 4-8 in Big Ten play. UCLA is coming off straight-set losses against USC and No. 9 Oregon last week.
The offense runs thru Cheridyn Leverett at 4.09 k/s and Audrey Pak at 10.16 a/s. Both rank sixth in the conference respectively. Kate Reilly, meanwhile, leads the Bruins with 18 aces.
At the net, Anna Dodon has racked up 85 blocks, averaging 1.10 per set, while also on defense, Peyton Dueck is coming up with 3.32 d/s.

SCOUTING MICHIGAN STATE

Michigan State will take on Maryland in College Park on Thursday before heading to New Jersey. The Spartans enter the week at 8-15 overall and 1-11 in Big Ten action. The Spartans were swept by Minnesota and dropped a 3-1 match with Ohio State last week.
Akasha Anderson leads the Spartans on the attack with 3.36 k/s. Anderson, along with Nalani Iosia, lead MSU with 17 aces on the season. Directing the offense are Julia Bishop with 6.20 a/s and Camron Berger at 6.00 a/s.
Defensively, Iosia leads the Big Ten in recording 4.43 d/s. Meanwhile Zuzanna Kulig has put up 114 total blocks, averaging 1.43 per set to rank fourth among her conference peers and 16th nationally at the net.

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 is on the road for its next four games starting with road trips to No. 9 Purdue on Thursday, Nov. 14 and Ohio State on Saturday, Nov. 16.

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