Northwestern fell to Rutgers in four sets on Saturday night while it celebrated Senior Night. In the last home game of the season for NU, Rutgers won its first Big Ten game after 17 straight conference defeats.
The Wildcats (5-21, 3-15 Big Ten) went into the game with a 13-1 all-time record against the Scarlet Knights (6-23, 1-17 Big Ten).
The standout of the game was junior outside hitter Rylen Reid, who recorded a career-high 19 kills. Junior outside hitter Buse Hazan also starred offensively with 15 kills. Graduate student setter Alexa Rousseau, one of the four senior night honorees, led the team in assists with 30 and digs with 18.
“She’s fiercely competitive,” junior setter Lauren Carter said of Rousseau. “I think her drive to win outweighs any talent that any setter could have.”
Carter said Rousseau served as a role model for her when they played together, especially because they play the same position.
The ’Cats pulled out a close first set against the Scarlet Knights, winning 25-23 as graduate student middle blocker Sophia Summers, another senior night honoree, hit the winning kill.
Graduate student middle blocker Sara Griffith and senior outside hitter Ariel Amaya were also honored during the senior night ceremony.
Down 5-3 in the second set, junior middle blocker Kennedy Hill fell on an attempted kill, appearing to injure her knee. Hill was wheeled out on a stretcher and the severity of the injury is unknown at this time. Before the injury, she had played a key role with seven kills.
Hill has been a star for the ’Cats all season, recording 172 kills in 95 sets.
“She was scoring a lot of points for us,” coach Tim Nollan said. “After that, we had a hard time scoring.”
After Hill’s injury, the energy shifted as NU lost one of its best players. The team began making more careless errors. Momentum shifted to the Scarlet Knights, and the ’Cats were unable to recover.
The ’Cats ended up losing the second set and the subsequent two sets as well. The ’Cats showed resilience in the final two sets, though, only losing by two points in each.
“Anytime you see a teammate get hurt, it’s always hard,” Nollan said. “We were just unable to manufacture points.”
The ’Cats will close out their season with a road trip as they take on Michigan State Wednesday and Michigan Friday.
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