Volleyball Takes On The Terps Wednesday On BTN

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball is out on the road Wednesday, Oct. 15 to close out the season series with Maryland in front of the BTN cameras with Jason Knapp and Mac Podraza on the call. The match is RU’s third game in the Discover In-Season Volleyball Challenge with first serve set for 7 p.m.
 

• Rutgers is coming off a four-game homestand which included a 3-0 victory over Maryland in the Scarlet Knights’ Big Ten home opener back on Oct. 3. In addition to picking up its first Big Ten win of the season, RU  set a school and state record in attendance with 8,000 at Jersey Mike’s Arena to watch the Scarlet Knights take on No. 1 Nebraska. Last weekend, Rutgers fell to Northwestern and Illinois, a team that continues to receive votes in the AVCA Top 25 Poll. Altogether, the Scarlet Knights, Wildcats and Fighting Illini battled to 40 ties across six sets.
• The Scarlet Knights come into the weekend at 10-8 overall and 1-5 in Big Ten play. RU concluded the nonconference portion of its schedule with a 9-3 mark with seven sweeps and a seven-match win streak, the longest since 2012.
• Entering the week, RU leads the conference in aces per set (2.08) and ranks ninth nationally, led by Lexi Visintine’s 29 on the year, averaging a league third-best 0.48 per set. More recently, the Scarlet Knights served up 11 in their 3-0 victory over Columbia to end nonconference play with Visintine and Aspen Maxwell each serving up a trio. With 84 aces in her career, Visintine is currently fifth in rally-era career aces, having cracked the top five in the 3-1 win over Maryland two weeks ago. 
• Aspen Maxwell, who has picked up two all-tournament nods this nonconference season, including being named the Sacred Heart Invite MVP, is fifth in points per set (4.79) and in total points (292.0), fourth in total kills (245) and sixth in kills per set (4.02) in the Big Ten. The right side leads RU with 4.02 kills per frame, including 3472 per set in Big Ten action. Additionally, she is second on the squad with 46 total blocks.
• Lily Bolen is adding 10.36 assists per frame and is 19th nationally and fourth among Big Ten setters in the category. She has collected four double-doubles this season in matches with Marist, Liberty, LIU and most recently versus Maryland with 42 assists and 10 digs.
• Zora Hardison leads RU with the stops at the net with 72 total blocks, including 23 solo stops. She is the Rutgers rally-era leader in solo blocks, having surpassed the former record of 21 set by former teammate Kristina Grkovic in 2023. Grkovic also holds the career record with 43 solo rejections from 2020-23, which Hardison is closing in on with 42 in her third season of action. Last weekend, Hardison totaled 10 rejections in matches with Northwestern and Illinois to surpass the 200 career block mark.
• Alleigh Dutton has led RU in digs in all but one match to date and averages 3.21 per set.

• The Terps come in front of the BTN cameras with a 7-9 ovrall record and looking for their first Big Ten win having dropped all six league matches to date. Following its 3-1 loss at Rutgers on Oct. 3, Maryland battled then No. 16 Penn State to five sets and fell 3-1 to Illinois and 3-0 to No. 7 Wisconsin at home.
• Ajack Maluai leads the attack at 3.60 k/s and has also put up a team-leading 30 aces. Lilly Wagner is posting 7.92 a/s set to set up the offense. 
• On the block, both Duru Gokcen and Eva Rohrbach lead Maryland with 79 and 78 total blocks, respectively. Digging up the defense is Ally Williams at 3.32 d/s and Lilly Wagner at 2.35 d/s.

• Rutgers volleyball used a gritty first-set comeback victory to fuel its 3-1 Big Ten home opening victory over Maryland back on Oct 3, winning the first game of their Discover In-Season Volleyball Challenge lineup
• The Scarlet Knights came back from an 11-point deficit to take the opening set, 27-25, but dropped set two, 17-25. RU, however, never trailed again, taking the victory behind a 25-20 set three win and a 25-16 set four triumph.
• Two Scarlet Knights landed in double-figure kills as Aspen Maxwell captured her second double-double of the year with the team-leading 13 kills to go with 10 digs and Zora Hardison collected 11 kills on 18 swings with only one error to hit .556 on the night.
• Hardison also became Rutgers’ rally-era season leader in solo blocks as she surpassed former teammate Kristina Grkovic’s record from 2023 with her 22^nd solo rejection. Hardison ended the night with five total blocks.
• Lily Bolen was another Scarlet Knights to log a double-double as she performed her fourth of the season and sixth of her career with 42 assists and 10 digs. It was the second time this season RU has had two Scarlet Knights with double-doubles with Maxwell and Bolen with the feat against Liberty back on Aug. 30. Bolen also contributed a career-high three blocks and tied her high in kills with a trio in the victory
• Altogether, four Scarlet Knights recorded double-figure digs for the first time since Oct. 27, 2023 in a five-set win at Iowa. Alleigh Dutton came up with 11 digs, while Maxwell and Bolen joined Jenna DeLaMaterwith 10, a season high.
• Natalie Robinson led RU at the net with six total stops and was just shy of a double-double with nine kills. The middle made only one error on 15 attacks to finish the night hitting .533.
• At the line, RU served up nine aces with Maxwell, DeLaMater, Bolen and Dutton all with a pair apiece.

• The Big Ten Conference and Big Ten Network (BTN) announced the launch of a newly created In-Season Volleyball Challenge. Partnering with Discover®, the official credit card of the Big Ten Conference, the inaugural Discover In-Season Volleyball Challenge will debut during the 2025 regular season conference schedule, starting Oct. 1, encompassing all 18 Big Ten Volleyball programs.
• Select conference matches played during the month of October will count toward the Discover In-Season Volleyball Challenge. Each team will play five designated challenge matches throughout the month, with the winner determined by the highest win total across the five games.

2025 Rutgers Discover In-Season Volleyball Challenge Schedule:

• Zora Hardison is RU’s rally-era season solo blocks leader and is coming close to becoming the rally-era career leader and entering the all-time top 10 in the category. With 42 career solo blocks, she needs two more to surpass former teammate Kristina Grkovic (2020-23) as the rally-era career leader. The junior middle is also 12 solo blocks away from joining the RU all-time career solo block top 10 list.
• Hardison also has 203 total blocks and is four blocks away from joining the rally-era career top 10 list, surpassing Stasa Miljeic (2017-19) for 10th place.   
• Lexi Visintine has served up 84 career aces and needs six more to move into fourth past Kamila Cieslik (2017-21) on the rally-era career list. Additionally, Visintine is one ace away from joining the rally-era season top 10 list for a second time in her career with 29 aces to date. 
• Lily Bolen has racked up 915 career helpers and is 85 assists away from her 1,000th career assist and 199 away from moving into sixth on the rally-era career leaders list past Nicole Bayer (2012-14). 

• 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.

• 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.

• 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 are back home at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Sunday, Oct. 19 to host #12 Purdue on Letterwinner Day/Homecoming Weekend at 1 p.m. Click here to purchase tickets.

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