Rutgers has played two sets past 30 points in six days. Against UCLA last Saturday, they won the third 31-29 to avoid a sweep and lost in four anyway. Against Washington on Friday night, they held set point five times in the fourth and lost that one 31-33.
The Scarlet Knights fell 21-25, 25-23, 16-25, 31-33 to No. 20 Washington at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle, a 142-minute match watched by an announced 3,242. It was their fourth straight loss and the fourth straight in four sets, this one against a Washington team Rutgers beat in four in last season’s finale at the College Ave Gym.
Washington hit .275 with 61 kills and 19 attack errors on 153 swings. Rutgers hit .199 with 51 kills and 20 errors on 156. The Huskies out-blocked Rutgers 6-4, out-aced it 8-7, out-dug it 67-56 and sided out at 61.7 percent to Rutgers’ 54.3.
This was not Penn, where Rutgers was better at everything except the serve. The giveaways were dead even, 31 points each way on errors. Washington simply earned 13 more, 75 to 62, which left Rutgers needing to be close to perfect at the end of the fourth to force a fifth.
Rutgers served on three of their five set points and missed two of them.
Up 19-16 in the First & 6-1 in the Second
Rutgers trailed 3-7 after Simona Mateska served three straight, then drew level on Alleigh Dutton’s serve, Imani Howell killing off Brooke Baldwin and Skylar George off a Dutton set for 8-8. George and Malia Romes killed back to back off Kenzie Dyrstad sets for 11-10, Rutgers’ first lead since 2-1.
The teams traded to 16-16, and Dutton went back to the line for Rutgers’ best stretch of the set. Aspen Maxwell and Howell stuffed Kylie Kleckner, Howell killed off Baldwin, Washington called time and Maxwell killed off Baldwin for 19-16.
Rutgers scored two more points the rest of the set.
Dutton’s next serve missed. Andrea Fabikovicova, Washington’s setter, killed one herself at 19-18, Howell’s attack error tied it at 19, and Maxwell’s kill off Baldwin after a Rutgers timeout was the last lead Rutgers held. Julia Hunt tied it at 20, Fabikovicova and Hunt stuffed George, and a Kaitlyn Nguyen set that went nowhere handed back 21-21. Karis Willow came on.
The set ended on four straight Rutgers attack errors, the last of them Willow’s first swing of the night, stuffed by Fabikovicova and Katy Wessels. Fourteen ties, five lead changes, and Rutgers hit .130 with eight attack errors in a set it led 19-16.
The second started like a correction. Baldwin served four straight, the last an ace on Addy Azavedo, to force a Washington timeout at 6-1. Howell stuffed Wessels solo for 9-3. Azavedo served Washington back within 10-8, the last of her three straight points an ace on Kami Dyrstad, but Rutgers was still up 15-11 at the media timeout.
Then Washington took six of the next seven. Fabikovicova’s serve drew attack errors from Baldwin and Maxwell, Mateska aced Kami Dyrstad, the second Washington ace on her in the set, to tie it at 16, and Samantha Destler killed off a Nguyen set for 16-17, Washington’s first lead of the set.
After ties at 17, 19 and 20, Howell killed off Lily Bolen for a 21-20 lead Rutgers did not give back. Addison Wiemann did the rest, killing off a Romes set for 23-21 and off Bolen with Jenna DeLaMater in to serve for 24-21. Hunt and Fabikovicova stuffed her on the first set point, Mateska killed on the second, and Romes ended it on the third, 25-23 off a Dutton set.
Five ties and two lead changes. Rutgers hit .226, and Washington hit .122 with eight attack errors, its worst set of the night.
It took Rutgers three set points to close the second. In the fourth, five were not enough.
Mateska Takes the Third & Rutgers Stumbles to Close the Fourth
Rutgers led the third 7-5 after Kami Dyrstad came on to serve, Zharia Harris-Waddy killing off Baldwin and Kami acing the next ball. Harris-Waddy’s attack error made it 7-6. Destler went to the line, aced Kami Dyrstad, then aced Kenzie Dyrstad, both sisters on consecutive serves, for 7-8.
That was the last lead change of the set.
Fabikovicova served Washington from 9-11 to 9-15 behind two Mateska kills, an ace on Dutton and a Howell attack error, and the third was decided by the media timeout. Rutgers trailed 12-20 after Azavedo served two more, and Mateska scored Washington’s last four points of the set. She had 10 of Washington’s 17 kills in the third without an error, and Washington hit .500 on 32 swings. Rutgers hit .226 and lost it 16-25, with five ties and four lead changes, all of them by 7-8.
Caitlin Schweihofer changed the front for the fourth, starting Natalie Robinson and Avery Jesewitz in place of Harris-Waddy and Wiemann. It did not help at first. Hunt served Washington from 6-7 to 6-10 with an ace on Jesewitz, a Fabikovicova and Wessels stuff of George and an ace on Dutton, and Rutgers trailed 7-12.
Howell answered with the run of the night. After a Romes kill made it 8-12, Howell served six straight points with three aces in them, two Mateska attack errors in between and a Jesewitz and Robinson stuff of Addie Kanouff for the 12-12 tie, and Rutgers led 14-12 before her seventh serve missed. Baldwin aced Fabikovicova out of the media timeout. Jesewitz served Maxwell and George kills for 19-14, the second through a Kanouff block error, and Maxwell’s kill off Baldwin made it 20-15.
Five points from a fifth set.
Washington closed to 20-17 on Maxwell and Howell attack errors, and Romes’ second kill in three rallies, at 24-21, gave Rutgers set point.
Destler killed off Baldwin’s serve for 24-22. Then Nguyen went to the line. She killed a ball herself for 24-23, Rutgers called time, she aced George for 24-24, and Destler’s kill off Fabikovicova made it 24-25, Washington’s first lead since 11-12.
Rutgers saved five match points. Maxwell killed off Baldwin at 24-25, Maija Howse missed a serve at 25-26, Destler missed one at 26-27, Mateska’s attack error came at 27-28, and Romes killed off Bolen at 28-29, a match point George had handed Washington with a service error at 28-28. Three of the five saves were Washington mistakes.
Howell went back to the line at 29-29 and aced Mateska for 30-29, set point.
Her next serve did not land in.
Mateska’s set went nowhere on the following rally to give Rutgers 31-30 and its fifth set point, and Romes missed her serve. A Dutton set went bad at 31-31 for Washington’s sixth match point, and Destler killed off Fabikovicova to end it 31-33.
Fourteen ties, five lead changes, and Rutgers hit .229 in the set to Washington’s .295. Both teams missed serves on their own deciding points in the extra stretch, Washington on two of its match points and Rutgers on two of its set points. Washington could afford it.
Stats Breakdown
Howell led everyone in Scarlet with 17 points, 11 kills on 24 swings with four errors for .292, four aces, all of them in the fourth, and three total blocks. Maxwell had 12 kills on 30 swings with four errors, .267, and two block assists for 13 points. Romes matched her with 12 kills on a team-high 33 attempts, .273, six of them in the fourth without an error.
George added 10 kills on 29 attempts with three errors, .241, and eight digs. Wiemann had five kills on 17 swings, .176, four of them in the second, and Harris-Waddy finished at minus-.100 on 10 attempts before sitting the fourth. Willow’s two stints produced four swings, no kills and the error that ended the first, minus-.250, a week after she was the best Rutgers attacker on the floor against UCLA.
The setting split was Bolen 22 and Baldwin 18, with three apiece from Dutton and Kenzie Dyrstad. Bolen led Rutgers with 11 digs, Baldwin added nine digs and two aces, and Washington out-dug Rutgers 67-56. Rutgers served seven aces against 15 service errors, George with four misses and Howell and Bolen with three apiece. Washington’s eight aces went three to Kami Dyrstad, two to Dutton and one each to Kenzie Dyrstad, Jesewitz and George.
Washington got 21 kills from Mateska on 48 swings, seven errors and .292, with a match-high 23 points, but only four kills against five errors in the fourth. Destler added 15 kills at .323 and 17 points, and Hunt hit .500 on 16 swings without an error. Below them, Kanouff hit .167 on 18 swings and Kleckner .000 on 11 in her only set. Fabikovicova had 44 assists, 19 digs and a match-high five blocks, and Nguyen matched her 19 digs.
What Didn’t Work (and One Thing That Did)
Closing, first and most obviously.
Rutgers led 19-16 in the first and 20-15 in the fourth and won neither set. From those two leads, Washington outscored it 27-13.
The serve, yet again.
Fifteen service errors against seven aces, and the timing was worse than the total. George, who led the team with four misses, gave Washington a match point at 28-28, and Howell and Romes missed with set point in hand.
Serve receive was the other half. Washington went after Kami Dyrstad, three aces on her in three sets. George, the passer opponents have hunted all season, was aced only once, at 24-24 in the fourth, on the one rally Rutgers could least afford to lose.
The one thing that did work was Imani Howell.
Rutgers was down two sets to one and trailed 8-12 in the fourth when she went to the service line, and she did not leave it for six rallies. Three aces, a stuff and two Washington errors later, Rutgers led 14-12, and every set point that followed only existed because of that rotation. She finished with 17 points, more than anyone in Scarlet, and four of Rutgers’ seven aces.
She also had the ball in her hand at 30-29, one point from a fifth set, and missed. That is this team in one player, the best and the most costly thing they did on the same night.
Rutgers is 10-9 and 1-6 in the Big Ten and stays out west, at No. 11 Oregon on Sunday at 4 p.m. on BTN.
That makes four straight losses, every one of them in four sets, and the next opponent is ranked nine spots higher than this one.
Last Saturday, Rutgers won a set the play-by-play briefly said they had lost. On Friday, they lost a set they had five chances to win.