Rutgers volleyball had not won a match since Oct. 1. Eight Big Ten matches had come and gone since the sweep of Ohio State, eight losses had gone with them, and on Saturday night in Evanston the ninth was one rally from being buried alongside the rest.
The score read 21-24 in the fourth set. Northwestern led the match two sets to one and had the serve. Then, on Halloween of all nights, the Scarlet Knights came back from the dead.
Rutgers beat Northwestern 25-23, 22-25, 23-25, 26-24, 15-12 at Welsh-Ryan
Arena in front of 1,211, saving all three match points with five straight points to close the fourth and never trailing in the fifth.
Yes, really.
Rutgers hit .222 with 72 kills and 30 attack errors on 189 swings. Northwestern hit .183 with 57 kills and 27 errors on 164. The Scarlet Knights out-blocked the Wildcats 14-8, out-aced them 6-3, sided out at 57.3 percent to Northwestern’s 56.4 and out-hit them in all five sets, including the two they lost. Across the night Rutgers scored 111 points and Northwestern scored 109.
This win was not clean. Rutgers missed 16 serves and handed Northwestern 41 points on errors to the 19 it got back, nearly the shape of the Penn match in September, when 17 missed serves cost Rutgers a match by one total point.
In Queens, Rutgers lost by one point. In Evanston, they won by two.
A 22-16 Lead Nearly Dies in the First & Six Missed Serves Bury the Second
Campbell Paris killed three times in the first six rallies and Rutgers trailed 2-4 before Karis Willow went to the line. Her serve turned it, a Natalie Robinson and Brooke Baldwin stuff of Mara Stiglic tying it at 4-4 and her own ace on Lauren Dignan putting Rutgers ahead 5-4. Rutgers fell behind once more at 7-8, then Malia Romes killed off a Baldwin set for 9-8 and the Scarlet Knights never trailed again in the set.
Baldwin served three straight from 10-9 to 13-9, one of them an Avery Jesewitz solo stuff of Isabella Bullington, Kaila Kalama-Bajet served four more from 14-11 to 18-11 with an ace on Drew Wright, and Robinson killed twice off Baldwin for 21-14.
Then it nearly went the other way. From 22-16, Northwestern ran five straight, four of them on Wright’s serve and three of those Rutgers attack errors. Addison Wiemann stopped it with her only kill of the night, off a Lily Bolen set, and Romes killed twice off Baldwin, each answering a Rutgers missed serve, to close it 25-23. She had seven kills in the set.
Rutgers led 22-16 and won by two.
The second belonged to the service line, and not in the good way. Rutgers missed six serves in the set, Kalama-Bajet, Willow and Kenzie Dyrstad once each and Romes three times, and added a team error at 8-7 for seven free points in a set it lost by three. Northwestern’s two aces, Bullington’s on Skylar George and Gigi Navarrete’s on Kalama-Bajet, each tied it. Eleven ties and five lead changes, and Rutgers out-hit Northwestern .175 to .152 anyway.
Rutgers led 17-16 on a Jesewitz kill off Baldwin. Kenzie Dyrstad missed a serve, Romes had an attack error, Lily Wagner killed off a Wright set and Northwestern led 17-19. Willow tied it at 19 off Baldwin, and the Wildcats went up 20-24 on two more Wagner kills, a Paris kill and attack errors by Romes and Willow. Navarrete missed a serve, Robinson and George stuffed Stiernagle, and Northwestern burned a timeout at 22-24 with Romes at the line.
Romes missed her third serve of the set.
Rutgers Buries a 10-3 Lead in the Third & Climbs Out of the Grave at 21-24
Rutgers opened the third without Willow or Baldwin, with Zharia Harris-Waddy in the middle and Bolen setting, and this shift worked immediately. Jenna DeLaMater served three straight from 1-1 to 4-1 with two George kills off Bolen and an ace on Wagner, Romes killed off Bolen twice more, and Baldwin came in to serve three straight Northwestern attack errors from 7-3 to 10-3, two of them Wagner’s.
Cate Schnell came off the Northwestern bench and took it all back. She killed to side out at 10-4, then served four straight, a Stiernagle and Schaaf stuff of George, two Bullington kills and an ace of her own. A seven-point lead was two points in five rallies.
Northwestern tied it at 16 after the media timeout, and eight ties and four lead changes later Rutgers led 22-20, Jesewitz stuffing Paris solo and then killing off a Kenzie Dyrstad set.
Out of a Northwestern timeout, Paris and Maya Stillwell stuffed Jesewitz. Romes was then called for ball handling errors on back-to-back rallies with Bullington serving, and 22-21 was 22-23. Romes killed off Bolen to tie it at 23, Stillwell killed, and Paris ended the set off a Dignan set, 23-25.
Rutgers led the third 10-3 and 22-20, and shockingly lost the set.
The fourth looked like the funeral.
Rutgers’ last lead came at 2-1 on a Jesewitz kill, and Navarrete served Northwestern ahead 2-5 almost immediately. Willow came back on with Baldwin at 4-6 and killed on three of the next four Rutgers points, but Schnell and Bullington kept answering, and when a Wiemann attack error and a Bullington kill made it 12-17, Rutgers had already used both of its timeouts.
Harris-Waddy killed off Bolen and stuffed Schnell with Willow, and Northwestern still went up 14-19 when DeLaMater was called for a bad set. Willow killed twice off Baldwin, Willow and Harris-Waddy stuffed Bullington for 17-19, Northwestern called timeout, and George came out of it with an ace on Dignan for 18-19. Bullington and Paris killed back. Stiernagle and Harris-Waddy traded missed serves, Willow killed twice more around a Schnell kill, and Paris killed with Bolen serving.
21-24. Match point. Rutgers was surely all but dead.
Romes killed off Bolen to side out at 22-24, and Northwestern called timeout to make DeLaMater think about it. DeLaMater went to the line anyway. Romes killed off Bolen for 23-24. Romes killed off Bolen for 24-24. Romes and Robinson stuffed Schnell for 25-24, Rutgers’ first lead of the set since 2-1, and DeLaMater ended it with an ace, 26-24.
Three match points, three Romes kills, four straight DeLaMater serves. Rutgers hit .308 in the set, its best of the night, and Willow had eight kills in it with one error. It was the second time this season Rutgers has survived match point in a fourth set, after Bryant in September.
Northwestern had three chances to bury Rutgers. The Wildcats did not take one.
The Fifth Never Turns & the Losing Streak Is Laid to Rest
Rutgers led the fifth from the third rally on. Romes killed off Bolen on three of the first four Rutgers points, Harris-Waddy killed for 5-2, and Willow and Harris-Waddy stuffed Bullington at 8-4 to send Northwestern to a timeout. Willow killed off Baldwin for 9-5.
Then Bolen missed a serve, Bullington went back to the line, Robinson had an attack error and Stiglic, Stillwell and Paris triple-stuffed George for 9-8. Rutgers called time.
9-8, and the ghost of 22-20 in the third was back in the building.
Romes chased it off. She killed off Bolen to side out at 10-8, killed off a DeLaMater set for 11-8, and she and Robinson stuffed Stiglic for 12-8. Robinson killed off Bolen for 13-9, George and Harris-Waddy stuffed Bullington for match point at 14-10, and Northwestern got two back, a Stiglic kill and a Willow attack error on Stiglic’s serve.
George ended it off Baldwin, 15-12. One tie, no lead changes, and Rutgers hit .250 to Northwestern’s .056.
The losing streak is dead, and it stayed in October.
Stats Breakdown
Romes was the best player on the floor and the busiest one in both directions. The freshman middle had 22 kills on 47 swings with seven attack errors, .319, plus three block assists for a match-high 23.5 points, and she scored in every set, including five kills in the fifth and the three that erased match points in the fourth. She also led the match with 12 total errors, seven attacking, three serving and two handling.
Willow added 16 kills on 34 swings with four errors, .353, and four block assists for 19 points. Harris-Waddy played only those three and hit .571 to lead the match, four kills on seven swings without an error, with a match-high six total blocks, three of them on Bullington.
George took 51 swings, the most by anyone on either side, and finished with 15 kills and nine errors, .118, the same volume-over-efficiency line that has followed her all season. She also led Rutgers with 16 digs and killed the match winner. Jesewitz had 10 kills at .172 and four total blocks, two of them solo. Robinson hit .000 on 14 swings with four kills and four errors, and made up for it at the net with five block assists.
The setting split was Baldwin 41, Bolen 23, with Bolen setting all three of Romes’ match-point kills. DeLaMater served two aces and Kenzie Dyrstad dug 10. Rutgers was aced three times, once each on George and Kalama-Bajet, and was out-dug 74-67. Aspen Maxwell and Imani Howell again did not appear.
Northwestern ran nearly its whole offense through two hitters. Bullington came off the bench for 19 kills on 44 swings with eight errors, .250, and 10 digs for 21 points, and Paris had 19 kills on 43 at .326 for 20. The rest of the Wildcats combined for 19 kills and 14 errors on 77 swings, .065. Stiernagle set 46, Dignan dug a match-high 17, and Rutgers stuffed Bullington four times.
What Worked (and One Thing That Didn’t)
Malia Romes, once she got going.
For two and a half sets she was a big part of why Rutgers was losing, with three missed serves in the second and two straight handling errors at 22-21 in the third. Then, with Northwestern serving for the match, she killed three straight and stuffed Schnell for the lead. A freshman with 12 errors and 23.5 points is a strange thing to build a win on, and Rutgers built one anyway.
The net.
Rutgers out-blocked Northwestern 14-8, and the blocks came at the right moments, Willow and Harris-Waddy on Bullington at 17-19 in the fourth, Romes and Robinson on Schnell at 25-24, George and Harris-Waddy on Bullington for match point.
Karis Willow, off the bench.
Willow has been the clearest picture of this team all season, sometimes very good, sometimes very shaky, never clean for a full match. Yet no matter what, Willow possesses an extremely high level of energy. Saturday was not clean for her either, and she did not start any of the last three sets. Yet, the good half arrived exactly when Rutgers needed it, eight kills in the fourth on one error, four of them after Rutgers fell behind 12-17.
The one thing that didn’t work was the serve, yet again.
Sixteen service errors against six aces, six of them in a second set Rutgers lost by three, and 41 points handed over in all, more than a third of what Northwestern scored. Rutgers missed 17 against Penn and lost, 17 against St. John’s and won, and 16 on Saturday and won again. The serve is still a coin flip, and in Evanston it happened to land right side up.
Rutgers is 11-13 and 2-10 in the Big Ten and comes home for Michigan for Throwback Thursday at 7 p.m. at Jersey Mike’s Arena, then USC on Saturday at 1 p.m.
The streak is buried, and in an incredible fashion!
Eight straight losses, a 10-3 lead given away, three match points against and 16 missed serves, and Rutgers still walked out of Evanston on Halloween with their first win in a month. Some things just refuse to stay dead, and tonight, Rutgers Volleyball understood that message.
