PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball's nonconference slate continues this weekend with a trio of games in Fairfield, Connecticut, against Dartmouth on Friday, host Sacred Heart on Saturday and LIU on Sunday.
- The Scarlet Knights opened the season last weekend at the Buffalo Invite with a 3-1 win over Marist and five-set setbacks to Liberty and host Buffalo
- Sophomore right side 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.
- Joining Maxwell in leading the attack is junior middle Zora Hardison with 2.38 k/s in swinging a team-best .418, currently seventh in the Big Ten. Senior outside Lexi Visintine put away 2.21 k/s last weekend and Natalie Robison averaged 2.14 k/s and hit .375. Robinson collected a career-high 13 kills in the invite finale with Buffalo.
- Sophomore Lily Bolen set up the offense to the tune of 10.36 a/s and currently ranks sixth in the Big Ten. She dished out a career-high 51 assists against both Liberty and Buffalo. The second-year Scarlet Knight also captured a pair of double-doubles with 43 assists and 10 digs versus Marist and 51 helpers and 10 digs against Liberty.
- Junior Jenna DeLaMater and Visintine both served up six aces opening weekend. Visintine moved into the rally-era career top 10 with 61 aces in her four seasons "On The Banks". Meanwhile, DeLaMater tied her career high with four in the season-opening win over the Red Foxes.
- At the net, Hardison and Robinson continue to lead the block. Hardison had 11 total blocks last weekend with six solo stops, including tying her career mark with a trio of solo rejections against Liberty. Robinson logged 10 stops, including four solo blocks.
- Sophomore Alleigh Dutton wore the libero jersey to average 3.21 d/s, which included a career-high 17 against Liberty.
- The Big Green open the season this weekend with the Scarlet Knights serving as the opener. Last season, Dartmouth went 10-14 overall and 3-11 in the Ivy.
- Returning offensively is junior Maddie LaFata, who was second on the squad with 2.53 k/s. Dartmouth also returns junior Ellie Mattox, who was second on the stat sheet in putting up 4.66 a/s. In addition to being Dartmouth's top returning setter, Mattox is also the top returnee in digs, having come up with 1.36 per set last year.
- Senior middle Molly Power returns at the team's top blocker with 79 total stops in 2024. Additionally, she is the top returner at the service line, having served up 15 aces a year ago.
- Sacred Heart kicked off the 2025 season with a five-set loss to Gardner-Webb and a pair of three-set setbacks to UNC Greensboro and Queens (NC) last week.
- Junior outside Lauren Hubert led the attack with 3.64 k/s and freshman outside Ryleigh Short added 3.09 per frame. Junior setter Ava Roodbol captured 10.27 a/s thru the Pioneers firs three games. Additionally, rookie Abbie Hagedorn fired off four aces.
- Defensively, sophomore libero Miliani Villarreal came up with 5.82 d/s and junior middle Emily Sawyer led the block with 10 total stops.
- The Sharks enter the weekend having dropped matches with Grand Canyon and Gonzaga in straight sets and falling short in five sets to Texas - Rio Grande Valley.
- On the attack, junior Sara van Gisteren led LIU with 4.00 k/s behind 8.45 assists per frame from senior Karly Klaer. Both Klaer and sophomore Miabella Musignac led from the service line with four aces each.
- At the net, sophomore middle Sara Garcia came up with seven total blocks while Musignac came up with the ball to average 4.09 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.
- Rutgers is home next weekend to welcome Rider on Wednesday, Sept. 10, St. Francis (PA) on Thursday, Sept. 11 and New Hampshire on Friday, Sept. 12 at Jersey Mike's Arena.
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