Volleyball Downed By RV Illinois - Rutgers University Athletics

Saturday, October 24

Piscataway, N.J.

7:00 PM

Rutgers

10-12,1-9Big Ten

Illinois

14-7,6-4Big Ten

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Illinois	25	25	25	3
Rutgers	23	14	22	0

Box Score (PDF)

Skylar George on the attack against RV Illinois at Jersey Mike's Arena

Oct 24 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score Photo Gallery

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball dropped Saturday night's match with Illinois in straight sets at Jersey Mike's Arena.

The Fighting Illini, who are receiving votes and are the seventh straight opponent featured in the polls RU has faced, topped the Scarlet Knights 25-23, 25-14, 25-22.

STANDOUT STATS

Skylar George collected her second straight double-double, sixth of the season and 16^th of her career with a team-leading 13 kills and team-leading 11 digs. She also recorded a trio of blocks.
Lily Bolen put up 15 assists and recorded seven digs. With an ace, she is now four away from reaching her 100^th career ace.
On the block, Natalie Robinson led RU with four.

KEY MOMENTS

SET 1 (23-25) | After Skylar George and Zharia Harris-Waddy teamed up at the net for a stop, the Fighting Illini went on a 7-1 run for a 15-9 edge. Rutgers followed by outscoring Illinois 8-3 to pull within a point twice during the burst. An Illini miscue saw RU trail 17-16 and a Malia Romes swing had RU down 18-17. Back-to-back strikes from George prompted an Illinois timeout with the Fighting Illini clinging to a 21-20 edge. Rutgers came out of the huddle for George to join Natalie Robinson for the block and Robinson followed with the quick kill in the middle to go up 22-21. Illinois took the next two points to regain the lead, but Aspen Maxwell and Robinson came up with a crucial stop at the right pin to the fifth and final tie of the set at 23-23. The Fighting Illini, however, took the opener on kills from Taylor de Boer and Paityn Chapman. Both George and Romes collected four kills each.

SET 2 (14-25) | Illinois kicked off the second frame with a 5-1 lead. While RU came back within a point to trail 6-5, the Fighting Illini maintained the advantage, with a 6-1 run to go ahead 12-6. The Scarlet Knights narrowed the gap with four of the next five points as Karis Willow found the floor for Rutgers to trail 13-11. Illinois, however, responded by limiting the Scarlet Knights to three points while scoring 12 of their own to take a 2-1 lead. Willow notched a trio of kills in the set while both Lily Bolen and Alleigh Dutton each had an ace.

SET 3 (22-25) | After nine ties and five lead changes, Rutgers scored five unanswered to claim an 18-14 lead. George's 13^th kill of the night had RU up 22-19, but the Fighting Illini came back to score six straight to take the match. George captured seven of RU's 15 kills in the frame.

UP NEXT

Rutgers volleyball is back on the road, traveling to #12 Purdue on Thursday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. and Northwestern on Saturday, Oct. 31 at 8 p.m. (ET). Both matches will be streamed on B1G+.
The Scarlet Knights return home to host Michigan on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. and USC on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 1 p.m. Click here to purchase tickets

Follow Rutgers women's volleyball on Facebook, X and Instagram.

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