PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball welcomes the Columbia Lions for its nonconference finale on Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 6 p.m. at Jersey Mike's Arena. The Scarlet Knights will then hit the road to open Big Ten Conference play this weekend at Wisconsin and Minnesota.
- The Scarlet Knights has a seven-match win streak snapped on Saturday in a straight-set loss at George Mason. seven-game game win streak was the longest for the Scarlet Knights since 2012 and included sweeps in six of the seven matches.
- Aspen Maxwell, who has picked up two all-tournament nods this nonconference season, including being named the Sacred Heart Invite MVP, is currently fifth in the Big Ten on the attack, averaging 4.26 kills per set. The sophomore right side has collected double-figure kills in all but one match this season.
- Senior outside Lexi Visintine is second in the Big Ten with 0.54 aces per set and has served up 21 total. With 76 aces in her career, she is seven aces away from cracking the rally-era career top five.
- Sophomore Lily Bolen is adding 10.46 assists per frame and 17th nationally and seventh 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 46 total blocks, including 20 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 Alleigh Dutton has led RU in digs in all 11 matches to date and averages 3.41 per set.
- Rutgers won a stretch of seven straight, marking the longest win streak for the program since 2012. During the streak, RU captured sweeps in six of the seven contests, including four consecutive 3-0 victories, the longest streak of sweeps since 2012.
- During RU's win streak, Aspen Maxwell blasted away 4.41 k/s while hitting .361 on her 97 total kills, adding 11 aces, 1.50 d/s, and 16 total blocks, and Tara Garvey put away 68 kills to average 3.09 k/s.
- Zora Hardison was at the net for 31 stops, including 11 solo blocks, averaging 1.48 blocks per frame. She also hit .363 with 41 kills, averaging 1.95 per set.
- Natalie Robinson was also on the block for 13 blocks while contributing 1.77 k/s and swinging at a .372 clip.
- In addition to Maxwell, Lexi Visintine and Lily Bolen were also in double-figure aces. Visintine served up 15 with Bolen amassing 13.
- Bolen averaged 10.68 assists per set, helping RU to average 14.05 kills per frame and swing .336 across the streak. She also came up with 2.23 d/s.
- Alleigh Dutton continued to be steady for the defense picking up 3.64 d/s.
- Zora Hardison is coming close to becoming RU's career and rally-era season solo blocks leader. With 40 career solo blocks, she needs four more to surpass former teammate Kristina Grkovic (2020-23) as the rally-era career leader. With two more solo stops, Hardison will overtake Grkovic rally-era season record of 21 set back in 2-23. The junior middle is also 29 total blocks away from joining the RU career top 10 list and currently has 135 under her belt in her three seasons. Sophomore Natalie Robinson is on her heels with 126 career blocks.
- Lexi Visintine has served up 76 career aces and needs seven more to move into a tie for fifth on the rally-era career leaders list with Karysa Swackenberg (2016-19)..
- Lily Bolen has racked up 691 career helpers and is 40 assists away from moving into ninth on the rally-era career leaders list past Kallie Pence (2008-11).
- 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 Lions, also playing in their final nonconference match, enter Tuesday's match at 2-7 overall. This weekend they went 1-2 at the Iona/FDU Invitational with a 3-1 win over Iona, a 3-1 setback to LIU and 3-0 loss to FDU.
- Senior outside hitter Eva Atkins leads Columbia with 2.24 kills per set with setters senior Ruby van der Heide and sophomore Clara Yu posting 5.79 and 5.10 assists per match, respectively. Four Lions have logged double-digit aces led by freshman outside Elena Maynulet with 16.
- Sophomore outside Charlotte Gravlee leads the block with 35 total stops followed by junior outside Avery Jones with 32 rejections. In addition to leading Columbia in aces, Maynulet also leads her team in digs at 2.64 per frame.
- 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.
- The Scarlet Knights open Big Ten play on the road at Wisconsin on Friday, Sept. 26 and Minnesota on Sunday, Sept. 28.
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