Volleyball Battles No. 21 Arkansas To 24 Ties And 12 Lead Changes

Thursday, September 5

Fayetteville, Ark.

8 p.m.

Rutgers University

1-3,0-0Big Ten

Arkansas

4-0,0-0SEC

Rutgers

Arkansas

Photo by: Zach Del Bello

Volleyball Battles No. 21 Arkansas To 24 Ties And 12 Lead Changes

Sep 05 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Rutgers volleyball team opened the Wooo Pig Invitational on Thursday night battling host No. 21 Arkansas, a squad that reached last year's NCAA Elite Eight, to 24 ties and 12 lead changes. It was the Razorbacks taking the match in three, 17-25, 19-25, 20-25.

STANDOUT STATS

Redshirt junior Alissa Kinkela led both sides with 11 kills, missing out on a double-double with eight digs.
Rutgers out-blocked its SEC foe, 15-10, with sophomore Zora Hardison coming away with a game-high five stops.
Sophomore libero Kenzie Dyrstad had 12 digs to go along with a dig-kill for her first Scarlet Knight career kill.
Freshman Lily Bolen and junior Aly Borellis logged 14 and 13 assists respectively.

KEY MOMENTS

SET 1 (17-25) | Rutgers employed a 7-2 run to knot the score up at 12-12. Five of RU's seven points came off kills, including Kenzie Dyrstad's first career kill off a dig that drew the Scarlet Knights within one, 12-11, before a swing by Zora Hardison tied up the opening frame. Arkansas responded with four unanswered and closed out the set with four unanswered for the 1-0 lead. One of Alissa Kinkela's four kills saw RU trail 21-17 before the Razorbacks closed out the set.

S1 | 👀 Libero Dig Kill #GoRU ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/ecJMOrG9X5
— Rutgers Volleyball (@RUvball) September 6, 2024

SET 2 (19-25) | Avery Jesewitz and Hardison teamed up at the tape for an early 5-5 tie and began what would end up being a 9-3 burst. The run included an ace from Rebekah Williams, a pair of kills from Kinkela and a solo block by Natalie Robinson. A Jesewitz swing ended the run putting RU up 13-8. Robinson and Williams teamed up for a stop to give Rutgers a 15-10 edge, but the Razorbacks scored the next four points and closed out set two on a 15-4 run. Kinkela added another four kills to her stat line.

S2 | Return to sender ↩️#GoRU ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/2158DHbfwo
— Rutgers Volleyball (@RUvball) September 6, 2024

SET 3 (20-25) | The final frame was a total of 12 ties and eight lead changes with Rutgers besting Arkansas in hitting percentage. With Arkansas ahead 12-9, Rutgers scored eight of the next nine points to go in front. A kill from Krista Dooley put Rutgers at the midway timeout leading 15-13 during the run and out of the huddle, a Robinson kill along with block assisted by Dooley put RU up 17-13. The Razorbacks came back with five straight to take back the lead. One of Jesewitz's four kills in the stanza along with an Arkansas attack error gave the Scarlet Knights a 19-18 edge. The hosts, however, notched seven of the next eight points for the win.