PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball is home at Jersey Mike's Arena for the first time in 2025 to host Rider on Wednesday, Sept. 10, Saint Francis (PA) on Thursday, Sept. 11 and New Hampshire on Friday, Sept. 12.
- Rutgers enters the week at 4-2 overall, having won three matches to take Sacred Heart Invitational Crown last weekend. The Scarlet Knights dropped only one set all weekend, capturing sweeps of Dartmouth and host Sacred Heart and picking up a 3-1 victory over NEC preseason favorite LIU.
- Leading the attack coming into the first RU home games of the year is sophomore right side Asepn Maxwell, who is putting away 4.04 k/s while coming up with 1.50 d/s to go along with nine aces and 17 blocks. She checks into the week eighth in the Big Ten in kills per set.
- The middles continue to pace Rutgers on both sides of the ball. Junior Zora Hardison is collecting 2.26 k/s and swinging away at a .419 clip to rank eighth in the league. Along with her attack prowess, Hardison adds 1.13 b/s, racking up 26 total stops thus far. Sophomore Natalie Robinson, who set the RU single-season blocks record last season, has racked up 15 blocks and posts 1.75 k/s.
- Senior Lexi Visintine, on the outside, has also been a threat as she is collecting 2.13 k/s and leading the team at the service line with 12 aces.
- Also at the line, the Scarlet Knights add threats in graduate student and New Jersey native Lauren Wilcock, coming off the bench for 10 aces. Both Visintine and Wilcock are 13th in the conference in aces per set.
- Sophomore Lily Bolen has registered three double-doubles this season and sets up the attack to the tune of 10.04 a/s, currently seventh among Big Ten setters, and adds 2.21 d/s.
- Sophomore libero Alleigh Dutton, meanwhile, leads the squad in digs, scooping up 3.75 per set to rank fourth in the Big Ten.
- 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 Broncs enter Jersey Mike's Arena on Wednesday with a 1-4 record. Rider opened the year with a 3-1 win at LeMoyne, but has since fallen to Syracuse, Binghamton, Hofstra and Army West Point.
- Senior outside Kiannisha Santiago leads the attack with 3.72 k/s along with five aces. Freshman outside Cecelia DeCaro adds 3.20 k/s with Brynn Johnson also contributing 3.13 k/s. Directing the offense has been junior Makenna Mason at 7.67 a/s. Molly Rohde, meanwhile, leads at the service line with 10 aces.
- Defensively, the Broncs are looking to Rohde, who has captured 16 stops this season, as well as senior libero Keegan O'Connor, who is scooping up 3.84 d/s.
- Rutgers and Rider last met on Sept. 6 in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. The Scarlet Knights won 3-1, giving head coach Caitlin Schweihofer her 100th career victory.
- The Red Flash are even at 3-3 overall and went 2-1 last weekend, hosting the Altoona Grand Red Flash Classic. SFU defeated Siena and Lafayette in five sets and fell in straight sets to Youngstown State.
- Senior outside Korrin Burns is putting away 5.58 k/s for the attack, aided by redshirt junior Alexandra Sappia's 10.33 a/s. Sappia also leads the Red Flash on the serve with 11 aces.
- Redshirt sophomore middle Alyssa Irwin leads the defense with 12 blocks, followed by Kori McClure with 10. Burns adds 2.42 d/s just head of rookie right side Gwen Atkins averaging 2.41 per set.
- The Wildcats enter the week at 4-2 overall and will meet St Francis (PA) on Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. before taking on the Scarlet Knights later that evening at 6 p.m. UNH opened the 2025 slate with wins over Holy Cross, Saint Peter's, Northeastern and New Haven before dropping two matches against top squads last weekend in No. 4 Kentucky and No. 5 Penn State.
- Freshman outsdie Lucy Chertock leads the Wildcats with 3.48 k/s while junior middle Rachel Grier has been putting away 2.22 k/s with a .408 hitting percentage. Aiding the offense is junior setter Jessica Shattles with 6.04 a/s. At the line freshman Dylan Hunt and senior libero Avery LePore has served up a team-leading seven aces each.
- Grier also leads the team at the net with 29 total blocks while LePore has collected 3.04 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 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 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 are back on the road one last time in nonconference action. RU will travel to Fairfax, Virginia to take on Coppin State and host George Mason.
- Rutgers returns home on Tuesday, Sept. 23 to host Columbia in its nonconference finale. Click here to purchase tickets.
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