PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers volleyball team is home this week at Jersey Mike's Arena to host LIU on Tuesday at 6 p.m., Binghamton on Thursday at 7 p.m. and VCU on Saturday at 2 p.m. A neutral site match between Binghamton and VCU will also take place on Friday at 4 p.m.

Admission to all Rutgers home games is free. Click here to register for parking.

 

GAME DAY INFO

  

Venue:	Jersey Mike's Arena | Piscataway, N.J.
Game Notes:	Rutgers | LIU | Binghamton | VCU
Statistics:	Rutgers | LIU | Binghamton | VCU | Big Ten
Schedule:	Tuesday, Sept. 10 vs. LIU - 6 p.m. Video (B1G +) | Live Stats Thursday, Sept. 12 vs. Binghamton - 7 p.m. Video (B1G +) | Live Stats Saturday, Sept.14 vs. VCU - 2 p.m. Video (B1G+) | Live Stats
Social Media:	Facebook | X | Instagram

         

ABOUT THE SCARLET KNIGHTS

• Rutgers went 1-2 last weekend playing against host No. 21 Arkansas, going to five with Little Rock and taking its second sweep of the season versus LA Tech. Redshirt junior Alissa Kinkela led RU in all three matches averaging 3.82 k/s while hitting .311. Freshman Lily Bolen put up 5.91 a/s and led her squad with eight total aces. Both sophomore Zora Hardison and freshman Natalie Robinson collected 15 blocks with sophomore Anna Robinson contributing 10 stops. Sophomore Kenzie Dyrstad, meanwhile, came up with 3.45 d/s.
• Bolen is tied for third in the Big Ten in aces with 14 on the year.
• In a 17-25, 19-25, 20-25 setback to the host Razorbacks, 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 Hardison coming away with a game-high five stops. Dyrstad had 12 digs to go along with a dig-kill for her first Scarlet Knight career kill. Bolen and Aly Borellis logged 14 and 13 assists respectively.
• Against Little Rock, the Scarlet Knights opened with a 25-21 victory while the Trojans tied the match following a 25-22 win in set two. Rutgers went back in front taking set three, 25-19, but Little Rock tied up the contest a second time behind a 25-18 set four win and took the deciding set five, 17-15. Four Scarlet Knights landed in double-digit kills led by Kinkela with 15 and also added six digs and four blocks. Lexi Visintine captured her first career double-double behind a career-high 11 kills and career-high 17 digs. Avery Jesewitz also added 11 kills making only one attack error in the match across her 28 attempts. Hardison tied her career-high with 10 kills to go along with five blocks. Bolen registered 33 assists and four aces. Five games into her Scarlet Knight career, Bolen's four aces tied for the ninth most in a five-set match in the rally era. Bolen was also one dig shy of a double-double with nine. Rutgers out-blocked Little Rock, 12-3, with Robinson leading the way with seven rejections. The freshman also added seven kills hitting .400 for the night. Hartman had a career-high six blocks while contributing eight kills and six digs. Joining Kinkela in double-figure digs on the defense was Dyrstad with 12.
• The Scarlet Knights captured its second sweep of the season with 25-22, 27-25, 25-11 set wins over LA Tech. It was Kinkela once again leading the offense with a game-high 16 kills. Bolen helped set up the attack with 18 assists along with three service aces and seven digs. Junior Aly Borellis added 13 helpers. Both Hardison and Robinson made five stops each with a solo block and four assisted stops. Dyrstad came away with 13 digs.

SCOUTING LIU

• The Sharks come to Jersey Mike's Arena at 1-5 overall coming off a 1-3 weekend last week. LIU defeated Youngstown State in five sets and dropped straight sets to Tennessee and UCLA.
• Camelia Melendez leads the Shark attack with 2.88 k/s and six aces while on the assist LIU will look towards Selia Koc at 4.95 a/s and Paola De Chavarria at 3.24 a/s.
• Defensively, Alasha Colon tops the stat sheet with 4.33 d/s and Bria Plante has racked up 26 total blocks to average 1.08 per set.

SCOUTING BINGHAMTON

• The Bearcats enter the week at 4-3 overall having captured the Fairfield Invite title last week with a 3-0 win over Central Connecticut State, a 3-1 victory against host Fairfield and a five-set win versus Boston College. Binghamton will play Hofstra on Wednesday before making its way over to Jersey Mike's Arena for Thursday's match-up.
• On offense, Binghamton is led by Tsvetelina Ilieva with 3.27 k/s and Lottie Scully at 6.31 a/s to go along with her 14 aces.
• At the net, Misa Dlouha has accumulated 40 total blocks to make 1.62 stops per set while Emily Cronkhite is putting away 3.23 d/s.

SCOUTING VCU

• The Rams start the week off a 1-3 overall splitting last weekend's VCU Invite with a 3-1 loss to Virginia Tech while rebounding for a win over Winthrop in straight sets. VCU will meet Binghamton in a neutral site match at Jersey Mike's Arena on Friday before taking on the Scarlet Knights on Saturday afternoon,
• VCU has four players averaging over 2.3 k/s. Jasmine Knight leads both the offense with 2.64 k/s and the defense with 14 total blocks. Also among the leaders on the Ram attack are Julia Rienks and Alicja Jaryszek both adding 2.57 k/s. Rienks also leads the team in aces with five. Abby Edwards, meanwhile, is averaging 9.38 a/s.
• On defense, Anja Kujundzic is hauling 3.39 d/s.

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 concludes the nonconference slate in Norfolk, Virginia at the Old Dominion Invitational. The Scarlet Knights will meet up with UMES and host Old Dominion.

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