Rutgers has lost three four-set matches since the middle of September, and it has had more kills than the team across the net in all three. Penn won with 54 kills to Rutgers’ 55. Indiana won with 53 to Rutgers’ 55. On Friday night, Minnesota won with 61 to Rutgers’ 62.
The first two came down to a point and to three points across four sets. This one came down to 14.
The Scarlet Knights lost 20-25, 25-23, 22-25, 17-25 to No. 20 Minnesota on Friday night at Jersey Mike’s Arena, in a match that ran 133
minutes in front of an announced 809.
Rutgers hit .266 with 62 kills and 20 attack errors on 158 swings. Minnesota hit .320 with 61 kills and 13 errors on 150. The Golden Gophers out-blocked Rutgers 11-2, out-aced it 7-1 and sided out at 67.1 percent against Rutgers’ 57.7. Across four sets Minnesota scored 98 points and Rutgers scored 84.
Rutgers handed Minnesota 30 points on its own errors, 20 on attacks and 10 on serves, and 11 of those 20 attack errors came straight back off Minnesota hands. Minnesota handed back 21.
The kills were a tie. Nothing else was.
An 8-2 Run Takes the First & Baldwin Serves Out the Second
Rutgers led the first 2-0 on Skylar George’s serve, an Addison Wiemann kill off Lily Bolen and an ace of George’s own, and led it 4-3 on a Malia Romes kill off, of all people, a Wiemann set.
Then Makenna Crosson went to the service line for Minnesota. Elena Hoecke and Mckenna Wucherer killed, Hoecke and Wucherer stuffed Aspen Maxwell, and after Rutgers won two straight and Minnesota sided out, Wucherer took the ball herself and served four more. Hoecke killed, Hoecke and Kelly Kinney stuffed Maxwell again, Kinney killed, Rutgers called timeout and George came out of it with an attack error.
That was an 8-2 run from 4-4 to 12-6.
It was also the set.
Rutgers never got closer than three again. Romes had five kills in the set, four of them off Bolen, and Rutgers hit .297, which wins most first sets. Minnesota hit .459 with 19 kills and two errors on 37 swings. Stella Swenson aced Kenzie Dyrstad at 22-17, Wiemann saved one set point at 24-20 and Wucherer closed it 25-20 with her sixth kill of the set. Three ties, one lead change.
The second was the only set with an argument in it, five ties and four lead changes. Rutgers went up 7-4 behind three Imani Howell kills, then gave it back when Bolen missed a serve to make it 8-7 and Stella Swenson served four straight, an ace on Kami Dyrstad, a Crosson and Jordan Taylor stuff of George and two Kinney kills off Zeynep Palabiyik sets. George served Rutgers right back in front, three straight from 9-11 to 12-11 on a Natalie Robinson kill, a Romes kill off a Kenzie Dyrstad set and a Crosson attack error.
The teams traded to 14-14.
Then Brooke Baldwin went to the line.
Baldwin served three straight, a George kill and two Howell kills, all three off her own sets, and Rutgers led 17-14. Howell’s sixth kill of the set made it 18-15, a Wucherer set error made it 19-15 and forced a Minnesota timeout, and Rutgers led by four for the first time all night.
It did not stay comfortable. Wiemann missed her next serve, and after a Kinney attack error put Rutgers up 20-16, Kinney killed, Stella Swenson and Taylor stuffed George, Rutgers called timeout and Kinney killed again to make it 20-19. George answered for herself twice, once off Baldwin and once off Bolen, for 22-19. Romes made it 23-20, George missed a serve, McKenna Garr killed and Romes made it 24-22. Kenzie Dyrstad missed the next serve, Rutgers took a timeout, and George ended it 25-23 off a Bolen set.
Rutgers hit .300 and missed four serves in the second. Minnesota hit .231, their worst set of the night.
Olivia Swenson Serves Five Straight & the Fourth Never Turns
Rutgers opened the third with Maxwell, Kaila Kalama-Bajet and Baldwin in the lineup and Romes and Bolen on the bench, and Kalama-Bajet served it to a 3-0 lead on a George kill, a Maxwell and Howell stuff of Crosson and a Maxwell kill. Romes and Bolen came on together at 7-4, and Romes killed off Bolen’s next set for 8-4 and a Minnesota timeout.
Rutgers led at every score but one through the first 27 rallies, the exception a 3-3 tie, and went up 14-11 on a Garr service error. Carly Gilk sided out for Minnesota at 14-12, and Olivia Swenson went to the service line.
She stayed there for five points.
Wucherer killed, Gilk killed off a Wucherer set, Lucie Blazkova and Wucherer stuffed Maxwell going into the media timeout, Wucherer killed again, and Karis Willow, on the floor since 14-14, hit an attack error to make it 17-14.
Rutgers got within one five times after that, at 17-18, 18-19, 19-20, 20-21 and 21-22, on a Blazkova error, a Romes kill off a Kenzie Dyrstad set, two Howell kills and a Maxwell kill. It never got level. Maxwell hit an attack error at 21-23, Olivia Swenson came back to the line, and Wucherer and Blazkova stuffed Maxwell for 24-21. George saved one set point and Gilk ended it 25-22 off Stella Swenson. Two ties, one lead change, and Rutgers hit .220.
Five chances to tie it. None taken.
The fourth had three ties, all of them in the first eight rallies. Rutgers led 3-1 on a Howell kill off Baldwin, Gilk aced to tie it at 3, and from 4-4 Wucherer killed, went to the line, aced Rutgers and watched Stella Swenson stuff George solo for 7-4. Rutgers called timeout. Minnesota led the rest of the way.
It was 15-9 at the media timeout after Crosson came on to serve and Wucherer and Blazkova stuffed Maxwell again. Zharia Harris-Waddy came off the bench and killed off Baldwin, Maxwell killed twice more, and Rutgers never got closer than three. Minnesota sided out on 14 of the 17 rallies Rutgers served in the set, which means Rutgers scored three points on its own serve in the fourth.
Olivia Swenson went back to the line at 21-16. Wucherer and Blazkova stuffed Romes, Swenson aced George, Rutgers spent its last timeout and Swenson aced Kenzie Dyrstad for 24-16. Wiemann saved one match point and Blazkova and Gilk stuffed Harris-Waddy on the next. Minnesota hit .324 with four aces in the set, and Rutgers hit .233.
Olivia Swenson served 19 rallies. Minnesota won nine of them, and eight came in two runs.
Stats Breakdown
Romes was the best player in Scarlet, with 15 kills against one attack error on 26 swings for .538. She had five kills in each of the first two sets, Bolen set 12 of the 15, and her only error was a stuff in the fourth. Wiemann added 13 kills on 29 swings with two errors, .379.
Howell went for 10 kills on 18 attempts, .444, six of them in the second set, and added a solo block and a block assist for 11.5 points. She was in on both of Rutgers’ blocks. George took a team-high 33 swings and finished with 13 kills, four errors and a .273 line, plus 15 digs, Rutgers’ only ace and three of the 11 times Minnesota stuffed Rutgers.
Below those four it falls off. Maxwell had seven kills and seven attack errors on 31 swings, .000, and five of the seven errors were blocks. Robinson had three kills on 15 swings with two errors, .067. Willow and Harris-Waddy combined for one kill and two errors on five swings. Take Romes out and Rutgers hit .212.
The setting split was exactly even, Bolen 26 and Baldwin 26, with Kenzie Dyrstad adding four. Kenzie Dyrstad also led Rutgers with 19 digs, the Dyrstad sisters shared the floor in the first two sets with Kami adding four digs, and Rutgers out-dug Minnesota 67-66. The serving line read one ace against 10 service errors, one in the first, four in the second, three in the third and two in the fourth.
Wucherer was the best player in the building, with 20 kills on 50 swings and four errors for .320, two aces, five block assists, 11 digs and a match-high 24.5 points. Kinney added 13 kills with one error, .387, and Gilk seven on 15 swings, .400, in the last two sets. Stella Swenson ran the offense with 44 assists and added five kills, two aces and three blocks, and Blazkova was in on five blocks in three sets. The one set Minnesota’s attack slipped, .231 with four errors in the second, was the one set Rutgers won.
What Didn’t Work (and One Thing That Did)
The net, first and most obviously.
Minnesota put up 11 team blocks to Rutgers’ two, and those 11 stuffs account for more than half of Rutgers’ 20 attack errors. Maxwell was stuffed five times, twice in the first, twice in the third and once in the fourth, and George three times. Four came in the fourth set alone. Rutgers’ own block produced two all night, both with Howell’s hands on them. A nine-block gap in a match decided by 14 points, ouch.
The service line, second. Rutgers missed 10 serves and aced Minnesota once, George at 2-0 in the first. Minnesota aced Rutgers seven times. Kenzie Dyrstad was on the receiving end of three, Kami Dyrstad and George one apiece, and two in the fourth dropped with nobody credited on the pass. For most of this season opponents have gone looking for George. On Friday Minnesota served everywhere, and it worked everywhere.
Then the pins, again. In the Indiana recap the problem was Maxwell and Wiemann together. Wiemann fixed her half on Friday, and Maxwell, who hit .625 against Penn three weeks ago, hit .000 on 31 swings. Willow got two swings, both in the third after she came on at 14-14, and one was an attack error in the middle of the run that decided it, the pattern in miniature: on the floor at the moment the set turned, and part of the turn.
Sixty-two kills, and 11 balls straight back.
The one thing that did work was Romes. The freshman middle from Kalida, Ohio, hit .500 against Indiana on Sunday and .538 against Minnesota on Friday. Minnesota blocked 11 balls, and only one of them was hers. She is the one Rutgers hitter right now that an opponent cannot plan around.
Rutgers is 10-7 and 1-4 in the Big Ten and stays home for UCLA on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Jersey Mike’s Arena, the last match of the homestand before a trip west to Washington and Oregon.
There are less than 22 hours to find a second hitter.
Rutgers matched Minnesota kill for kill. It could not stop the ball from coming back.
