Tenth win in grasp as Huskies, Red Storm visit Barn

With four games left in the regular season, the Rutgers volleyball team finds itself in an interesting position.
Aside from Pittsburgh, ranked third in the Big East, the remainder of conference challengers for the Scarlet Knights are no more than five spots ahead in the standings. With no clear dominant team, RU is in prime position to add a couple more tallies to the win column and issue a concluding statement to the season.
Two of those games take place in the College Avenue Gym this weekend, when the Knights take on Connecticut Saturday and St. John’s Sunday.
“[We play well] when we play our game and control the ball well, and play great defense,” said head coach CJ Werneke. “We know last year we could have taken UConn at their place. Now we have them at our place and we have a much better team.”
Last year’s contest between the Knights and Huskies ended in three sets. UConn took all three with scores of 25-13, 31-29 and 25-19.
The Huskies (11-12, 4-3) also come into Saturday in something of a rut. The team dropped four of its last five games — something Werneke wants to take full advantage of.
“I think we’ve just been sticking to the game plan,” Werneke said. “We’ve always been a good defensive team, a good ball control team.”
After UConn, RU (9-16, 2-8) welcomes St. John’s to the Barn. The Red Storm (9-17, 2-8) has virtually the same record as the Knights.
Last year, St. John’s was in first place in the Big East and promptly dealt with a struggling Knights squad in three sets. But Werneke said the advantage lies with RU this year.
“They have one or two big hitters and they rely heavily on those players,” Werneke said. “Obviously we have to be ready against them. If we play the way we did defensively against Notre Dame and DePaul, that’s going to give us a great opportunity. The matchup is good. I think we’re a little better of a team overall, but they have one or two athletes that we need to be aware of.”
One of the heavy hitters the Knights have to prepare for is sophomore Darlene Ramdin. With 371 kills on the season thus far, Ramdin leads the Big East in kills-per-set.
The Knights look to use the experience gained in taking on first place Notre Dame last weekend and use it to their advantage in the upcoming two matches, Werneke said.
“I think we’re just going to rally around this past weekend … and couple that with a great week of practice and there’s no doubt in our mind that we’re going to be ready against UConn on Saturday,” he said.
And the Knights need that practice and experience to come up big for them this weekend. One more win puts the total number of RU victories this season up to double digits, and another win under the Big East column wouldn’t hurt the team’s image.
“Our serving has improved steadily as the season has gone on, and with that confidence [we are] a much improved team statistically, and anytime you do that, you’re going to have an opportunity to win,” Werneke said. “That’s why we’re looking forward to UConn — coming up with a game plan, executing the game plan and executing the way we have been throughout the season.”
 

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