PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball heads off for its final road nonconference weekend to take on Coppin State at 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 19 and host George Mason on Saturday, Sept. 20 at 4 p.m. at the Recreation Athletic Complex in Fairfax, Virginia.
- The Scarlet Knights are riding a six-match win streak into the weekend and check into the Patriot Invite with a 7-2 overall mark.
- Aspen Maxwell, who has picked up two all-tournament nods, including being named the Sacred Heart Invite MVP, is currently fourth in the Big Ten on the attack, averaging 4.15 kills per set. The sophomore right side has collected double-figure kills in all but one match this season.
- Senior outside Lexi Visintine currently leads the Big Ten with 0.58 aces per set and has served up 19 total. With 74 aces in her career, she is nine aces away from cracking the rally-era career top five.
- Sophomore Lily Bolen is adding 10.45 assists per frame and is tied for fourth among Big Ten setters in the category. She has collected three double-doubles this season in matches with Marist, Liberty and LIU.
- Junior Zora Hardison leads RU with the stops at the net with 39 total blocks, including 15 solo stops. The Scarlet Knight season solo blocks record is 21 set by former teammate Kristina Grkovic in 2023. Grkovic also holds the career record with 43 solo rejections from 2020-23.
- Sophomore libero has led RU in digs in all nine matches to date and averages 3.52 per set.
- Rutgers is currently riding a six-match win streak, its longest since 2019. The Scarlet Knights have captured sweeps in five of the six contests, including three consecutive sweeps to open the home schedule last weekend against Rider, Saint Francis (PA), and New Hampshire. It also marked the most consecutive sweeps for RU since 2019.
- As a team, the Scarlet Knights have hit .342 and averaged 2.58 aces per set, serving up 49, in the streak. Six Scarlet Knights have swung over .300 in the span, including Natalie Robinson at a .409 clip, while a trio were at the line for double-figure aces led by Lexi Visintine and Lily Bolen with 13.
- During the streak, Aspen Maxwell has blasted away 4.32 k/s and 11 aces and Tara Garvey has added 3.11 k/s while Lily Bolen has managed to average 10.53 helpers.
- Maxwell has also teamed up with Zora Hardison to lead the defense with the two Scarlet Knights combining for 31 total stops. Hardison has racked up 28 rejections, including nine solo stops, while Maxwell has made 15 blocks.
- Alleigh Dutton also continued to stop the ball from hitting the ground to the tune of 3.74 digs per set.
- Opening weekend Aspen Maxwell was named to the Buffalo Invite All-Tournament Team after averaging 3.93 kills and adding nine blocks across 14 sets. In her RU debut, Maxwell hit .346 with 14 kills and four blocks in the victory over Marist. She followed up with 20 kills and 12 digs for her first career double-double to go along with four blocks in a five-set match with Liberty and added a career-high 21 kills with Buffalo.
- Maxwell, the following week, was named the Sacred Heart Invitational MVP after averaging 4.20 k/s with a .363 attack percentage along with seven aces, 1.60 d/s and eight blocks. In a sweep of Dartmouth to kick off the weekend, she captured a match-high 16 kills and hit .500 while also contributing two aces, two blocks and seven digs. Maxwell's 16 kills tied for the fifth most kills by a Scarlet Knight in a three-set match, while her efficiency on the attack helped RU hit .348. Additionally, her 19.0 points marked by sixth-most by an RU player in a three-set match of the rally era. Maxwell followed up with nine kills and a career-high five blocks as RU made it back-to-back sweeps in its win over host Sacred Heart. The right side ended the weekend with a match-best 17 kills, swinging .367, with a career-high four aces and eight digs as the Scarlet Knights wrapped up the weekend with a 3-1 win over NEC favorite LIU.
- Lily Bolen also made an appearance on the Sacred Heart All-Tournament Team, having averaged 9.60 a/s, 2.70 d/s and six aces. In a sweep of Dartmouth to kick off the weekend, she put up 29 helpers and narrowly missed a double-double with nine digs and helped direct the attack to hit .348. Bolen followed up with 26 assists, eight digs and a block as RU made it back-to-back sweeps in its win over host Sacred Heart. The setter ended the weekend with her third double-double of the season with 41 assists and 10 digs to go along with a block as the Scarlet Knights wrapped up the weekend with a 3-1 win over NEC favorite LIU.
- The Eagles will meet the Scarlet Knights sporting a 5-6 overall record having snapped their three-match win streak last Saturday in a 3-0 loss to Princeton after victories over Lafayette, Penn and Iona.
- On the attack, TaKenya Stafford leads her squad at 3.81 k/s and 13 aces with Andrea Cintron putting up 4.29 a/s.
- At the net, Kayden Cupid has racked up 22 total stops and Coco Figuerora is collecting 5.52 d/s
- The Patriots enter the week at 6-3 and won a trio of games last weekend with a sweep of Morgan State and 3-1 wins over UMBC and Loyola Maryland at home.
- Leading the way on the offense is rookie outside Kiera Hamilton at 3.50 k/s and is adding a team-second best 2.32 d/s. The attack is fueled by junior setter Camryn Weldson with a team-leading 5.16 a/s followed by freshman outside Nia Thompson putting up 4.39 per frame. Both redshirt freshman middle Mia Hazelett and junior libero Autumn Martinez-Robinson have recorded 23 aces.
- On defense, junior middle Chelsea Colter has registered 40 total blocks, averaging 1.11 per set, while Martinez-Robinson contributes 3.87 d/s.
- 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 firsts 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 in 2023 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.
- Last season, a youthful Scarlet Knight squad continued to rewrite the Rutgers record book, putting up several notable career and season numbers as the Big Ten expanded to the West Coast. On the attack, Alissa Kinkela, the squad's first-ever All-Big Ten attacker from 2023 and an Australian Olympic hopeful, cracked the top 10 all-time in career kills, the second most rally-era career kills and the third most rally-era career kills per set. Following the season, Kinkela signed to play professionally in South Korea. In addition to Kinkela's mark in the record book, Rutgers put nine entries into the rally-era individual season top 10 records, with a new benchmark set for blocks in a rally-era season from rookie Natalie Robinson. Additionally, Robinson leads RU's career blocks per set category after only one season "On The Banks". At the same time, junior Lexi Visintine was just two aces shy of setting a new season standard in the category.
- It's goodbye nonconference and hello Big Ten play next week.
- Rutgers returns home on Tuesday, Sept. 23 to host Columbia in its nonconference finale. Click here to purchase tickets.
- The Scarlet Knights open Big Ten play on the road Wisconsinonson on Friday, Sept. 26 and Minnesota on Sunday, Sept. 28.
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