Volleyball Sweeps Marist In Home Opener

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Rutgers volleyball captured its fifth sweep of the season in a happy homecoming. The Scarlet Knights defeated Marist, 25-23, 25-19, 25-16 in its home opener on Wednesday night at the College Ave Gym.

Rutgers picked up its fifth-straight win to improve to 8-1 on the year. Marist, meanwhile, dropped to 2-9 overall.

• Redshirt sophomore Alissa Kinkela continued her hot hitting swinging at a .525 clip with 10 kills on 19 attempts with no errors. The Melbourne, Australia native also added five digs and three blocks.
• Sophomore Taylor Humphrey was just shy of double-figure kills with nine.
• Fifth-year senior Alyssa Nayar provided 28 assists.
• Rutgers totaled 15 blocks on the night led by four stops from Rikki Williams. Williams also added eight kills.
• Senior Kristina Grkovic collected a trio of rejections and led RU at the service line with a pair of aces.
• Senior Madyson Chitty posted seven digs and is now five away from reaching the 1,000 career dig milestone.

• Set 1 (25-23) | The Red Foxes had the lead early but the strong swing on the over ball by Taylor Humphrey knotted the score at 16-16. From there, the set was tied seven times before Rutgers outscored Marist 4-1 for the win. Alissa Kinkela led with six kills on 12 swings with no errors.  

• Set 2 (25-19) | Rutgers went out to a 5-1 lead and never looked back. Kinkela continued her hot hitting with another three kills on five attempts for a…