Six straight losses had all gone four sets. The seventh went three, and for most of the third set it looked like it would go four as well.
Rutgers lost 23-25, 14-25, 22-25 to Illinois on Saturday night at the Pink Out at Jersey Mike’s Arena, a night after losing to Michigan State in four in the same building. The match was over in 93 minutes in front of 1,027 people, about 300 more than Friday, and Illinois came in receiving votes on the back half of a road weekend that started at Maryland.
Illinois hit .336 with 47 kills and 11 attack errors on 107 swings. Rutgers hit .204 with 37 kills and 14 errors on 113. The Illini sided out at 54.1 percent to Rutgers’ 42.5, aced Rutgers five times to four and out-dug the Scarlet Knights 56-45. Both teams had six blocks, and Rutgers missed seven serves to Illinois’ six.
Rutgers led the third 18-14, and 22-19 on a Skylar George kill.
The Scarlet Knights did not score again.
Maya Harris served the last five points of the match.
Rutgers Leads Late in the First & Third, Then Maya Harris Serves Out the Sweep
Harris set the tone from the service line before Rutgers had found its feet. Malia Romes killed off a Lily Bolen set for the first point, George missed the next serve, and Harris aced Karis Willow, killed and aced again for a 1-4 Illinois lead. The second ace was charged to the team rather than a passer, and so was a Paityn Chapman ace at 5-8.
Rutgers got level at 8-8 when Willow aced Harris and George and Zharia Harris-Waddy stuffed Ashlyn Philpot. Then Kenzie Cogan came off the Illinois bench to serve. She aced Alleigh Dutton at 9-12, Chapman killed and Taylor de Boer killed twice, and Rutgers went into the media timeout down 9-15.
The climb back came one side out at a time, Natalie Robinson and Romes killing off Bolen. Rutgers still trailed 17-19 when it took its first timeout, and Willow came out of it with an attack error and a missed serve on either side of a Chapman service error.
Then Rutgers ran the best stretch of its night. George killed for 19-21, and with Harris-Waddy serving, George killed off a Kaila Kalama-Bajet set, George and Robinson stuffed Philpot and Robinson killed off Brooke Baldwin. Illinois took timeouts at 20-21 and 22-21, and Rutgers had its first lead since 1-0.
The lead survived one swing.
De Boer killed to tie it, killed again for 22-23 and, after Robinson and Aspen Maxwell stuffed her for 23-23, killed a third time for set point. Chapman ended it off a Talita Goncalves set, 23-25.
Five ties and three lead changes. Rutgers hit .333 on 14 kills, two errors and 36 swings, better than Illinois’ .268, and lost the set anyway with four aces against it and two missed serves.
The second was the floor again.
Rutgers led 1-0 on a Harris service error, Dutton missed the next serve, and Goncalves served four straight Illinois points, two Chapman kills and two from Alyssa Aguayo, before missing one herself at 2-5. That 1-1 was the only tie of the set and the 1-2 the only lead change.
Cogan served three more straight from 6-9 to 6-12, and Rutgers took a timeout down six. Willow’s kill off a Dutton set got it to 11-13. Then Chapman killed, Chapman and Kristina Starostenko stuffed Willow, Harris aced George out of the media timeout and Aguayo and Starostenko stuffed Romes, and it was 11-18.
Goncalves came back to the line at 13-19 and served five more, the last a Chapman and Philpot stuff of Willow for set point. Willow killed to save one, and Aguayo finished it 14-25.
Rutgers hit .031 on eight kills, seven errors and 32 swings. Illinois hit .483. Nine of Illinois’ 25 points came with Goncalves serving, and she did not record an ace.
Rutgers changed the lineup for the third. Avery Jesewitz started instead of Willow, who came back in at 5-3, and for most of the set it looked like the right call.
George missed the first serve and Illinois led 0-2 before Dutton went to the line. Harris-Waddy and Jesewitz stuffed Chapman, George killed off Bolen and Dutton aced Goncalves for 4-2, and Jesewitz’s kill off Bolen made it 5-3.
From there it was even, 10 ties in all, the teams trading from 10-10 to 14-14 with Bolen dumping for 12-11 and getting called for a bad set at 12-13.
Then Jesewitz served. Kenna Phelan was called for a bad set, Philpot hit out of the media timeout and George killed twice off Dutton, Illinois calling time at 18-14. It was Rutgers’ biggest lead of the night.
Illinois took two of it back right away on a Philpot kill and a George attack error. Aguayo missed a serve, Willow killed off a Jesewitz set for 20-16, and then Chapman killed and Starostenko stuffed Robinson solo for 20-18 and a Rutgers timeout. George answered with kills at 21-18 and 22-19, her sixth and seventh of the set.
Rutgers was three points from a fourth set.
Then Harris killed at 22-20 and went to the service line.
Robinson hit out. Starostenko killed to tie it at 22, and Rutgers took its second timeout of the set. Aguayo killed out of it, and killed again for match point.
Bolen was called for a bad set on the next rally, and that was the match.
Ten ties and six lead changes, the last of them at 22-23. Rutgers hit .222 on 15 kills, five errors and 45 swings and Illinois hit .297, and the third ended the way the first had, with Illinois taking almost every rally after 22.
Stats Breakdown
George led everyone in Scarlet with 13 kills on 28 swings and five errors, .286, seven of the kills in the third set, plus 11 digs and three block assists for a match-high 14.5 points. She also had nine total errors, more than anyone on the floor, with three missed serves and one reception error, Harris’ ace in the second.
Willow finished with eight kills, three errors and 26 swings, .192, and the split inside those numbers is the story again. She started the first two sets and had four kills and all three of her errors in them, two on Illinois stuffs in the second. She did not start the third, came on at 5-3 and had four kills without an error. She aced Harris in the first, and Harris aced her.
Romes had five kills on 23 swings, .174, four of them in the first set and none in the third, every one off Bolen. Harris-Waddy went three kills and three errors on 13 swings, .000, and Robinson three kills on 10, .100, with four block assists, three of them in the first set. All three of her kills came in the first and both of her errors in the last 10 rallies of the third. Maxwell was back after not appearing in the box score Friday and had two kills on seven swings in the first two sets. Imani Howell did not appear in the box score for a second straight night.
The setting split was Bolen 15, Baldwin 13 and Dutton five, and Dutton added two aces and eight digs.
Illinois got 13 kills on 28 swings from Aguayo without a single attack error, .464, and her last two were the 23rd and 24th points of the third. Taylor de Boer added 10 kills on 22 swings off the bench, .409, five of them in the first. Chapman was the one Illini hitter Rutgers made work, 11 kills and six errors, .185. Phelan had 35 of Illinois’ 46 assists and Harris finished with three aces, three missed serves and 11 digs.
What Didn’t Work (and One Thing That Did)
Finishing, first and most obviously.
Rutgers led 22-21 in the first and 22-19 in the third. From those two scores, they played 11 more rallies and won one of them, the Robinson and Maxwell stuff of de Boer at 23-23. A night earlier it led Michigan State 22-18 in the second and lost six of the next seven points, and only won that set because it saved two set points. Getting to 22 is not the problem. The three points after it are.
Side out, second, and Harris specifically.
Rutgers sided out at 42.5 percent for the match. Against Harris it barely sided out at all, winning six of the 19 rallies she served, and three of those six were her own missed serves. Of the five aces Illinois hit, Willow, Dutton and George were each charged with one and two were charged to the team. George, the passer opponents have hunted all season, was aced once.
The pins carried the attack because the middle of the net did not. Romes and Harris-Waddy combined for eight kills and four errors on 36 swings, .111, and Romes went the last two sets with one kill. In between came the second set at .031, the floor this team keeps finding, sometimes the same weekend as the ceiling.
The one thing that did work was the third-set lineup.
Jesewitz played one set and touched almost everything good Rutgers did in it. She was in on the stuff of Chapman that started Dutton’s run, killed twice without an error, set Willow’s kill at 20-16 and served the four straight points that put Rutgers up 18-14. Willow, coming off the bench, was cleaner in the third than in the two sets she started, which says as much about the pattern as about her.
It was the right change, but this new lineup just needed three more points.
Rutgers is 10-12 and 1-9 in the Big Ten and goes on the road next week, at #12 Purdue on Thursday at 7 p.m. and at Northwestern on Saturday.
That is seven straight losses, and the first of them in three sets.
Rutgers got to 22 first in two of the three sets on Saturday. Getting to 25 is the part they have not figured out yet.