Friday, September 25
Piscataway, N.J.
6 p.m. CT
Northwestern
at
Rutgers
#B1GCats Begin Conference Play this Weekend
9/24/2015 11:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
| NORTHWESTERN VOLLEYBALL: MATCH INFORMATION | |||||
| DATE | OPPONENT | TIME | LOCATION | BROADCAST | LIVE STATS |
| Friday, Sept. 25 | Rutgers | 6 p.m. | College Ave. Gym (New Brunswick, N.J.) | N/A | Gametracker |
| Saturday, Sept. 26 | Maryland | 6 p.m. | XFINITY Center (College Park, Md.) | BTN Plus | Live Stats |
| Social: Twitter (@NUVBall and @NU_SportsLive) | Instagram (NUVBall) | Facebook Wildcats Weekly Release | |||||
EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern opens Big Ten play this weekend after navigating a difficult nonconference slate that saw the Wildcats go 8-3 to begin the 2015 season.
Chicago's Big Ten Team kicks off the conference schedule at Rutgers on Friday night before heading to Maryland to wrap up the East Coast road swing Saturday night. Both matches will begin at 6 p.m. CT.
Live stats will be available for Friday's match vs. Rutgers, while the Maryland match will be streamed live via BTN Plus. Links are listed at the top of the page.
Northwestern enters this weekend's play allowing opponents to hit only .166 through the first eleven matches. That mark ranks eighth in the Big Ten and just outside of the top-50 nationally. On the other side of the net, the Wildcats hit at a .233 clip, led by Taylor Tashima at .434 and Maddie Slater at .389.
Eight of the Wildcats' eleven matches so far this season have gone only three sets. The Wildcats are 5-3 in such matches with sweeps over Wake Forest, New Hampshire, Loyola-Chicago, Furman and Milwaukee. Northwestern has won each of the three matches to go longer than three games.
Caroline Niedospial leads the Big Ten in digs per set with 5.14 per game. The senior ranks third all-time at Northwestern in total digs. Taylor Tashima is also among the best in the conference at her position, ranking fourth with 11.30 assists per set.
Northwestern has only played Rutgers once before, a 3-0 win last year in the Scarlet Knights' inaugural Big Ten season. Rutgers is 3-9 so far in 2015 and 1-2 at home. Maryland split the season series with the Wildcats in 2014. The Terrapins went 10-4 in nonconference play.
This weekend is the beginning of a four-match road trip to begin Big Ten play for Northwestern. The Wildcats are at Minnesota and Wisconsin next week before returning to Evanston for the conference home opener on Oct. 9.
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Players Mentioned
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/ Women's Volleyball
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/ Women's Volleyball
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