Sept. 17, 2015
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - For the first time this season, Rutgers field hockey will hit the road. The Scarlet Knights will begin Big Ten Conference play with a road match at No. 16 Iowa on Friday, and stay in Iowa City for a neutral site game against Missouri State Saturday. The game versus Iowa is at 4 p.m. ET, and will be televised by BTN Plus. The contest against Missouri State is at 2 p.m.
"We're looking forward to this second phase of the season with Big Ten play starting," coach Civico explained. "Right now, the conference is really wide open, which is exciting. We're just going to go out, compete hard, and really try and put together a solid competitive match against Iowa. The team is excited for the first Big Ten match and I expect a lot of emotion and adrenaline."
The Scarlet Knights have been an offensive force this season, scoring at least three goals in every game and leading the conference with 4.00 goals per game and 11.8 points per game.
Nicole Imbriaco has had an outstanding start to her senior campaign, scoring five times and adding the first two assists of her career for a career-best 12 points. She ranks 10th nationally with a 1.0 goal-per-game average and is third in the Big Ten with 2.4 points per game. Captain Alyssa Bull has become a force offensively of late, scoring three goals with an assist in the two victories last week for her best offensive season since 2012. The team's has gotten offensive contributions from throughout its lineup, with 10 different players scoring goals and three others adding at least one assist.
"We're finishing well, which has been a focus since last spring," Civico said. "We're focused on our attacking mentality, attacking as a unit, creating overloads. We want to put the ball in those danger zones and put the opponent under a ton of pressure. That's something we've been doing really well."
Iowa enters Friday's contest at 4-3, with two of those losses coming to top-five foes in No. 2 North Carolina and No. 5 Stanford. The Hawkeyes won their last two games by a combined score of 14-1 over Saint Louis and Kent State. Stephanie Norlander leads the team and the league with nine goals and 20 points, while Makenna Grewe is second to her in the Big Ten statistics with six goals and seven assists for 19 points. Iowa's 3.57 goals-per-game is second in the conference behind the Scarlet Knights.
The Scarlet Knights are looking for their first ever win against the Hawkeyes, with Iowa leading the all-time series 5-0-1. Last season's matchup was the first since 1995, with Iowa winning 3-0 in Piscataway. Natalie Cafone, who scored two goals in that contest, will redshirt this season for Iowa.
Missouri State is at 1-4 on the year, prior to a Thursday contest against Saint Louis. The Bears' lone win came at Davidson, and have previously lost to Big Ten teams Indiana (5-1) and Ohio State (5-0). Through five games the Bears have scored just seven goals, led by two from Charlie Redhead. The lone meeting all-time between the two schools was in 1995, with the Scarlet Knights earning a 1-0 overtime victory.
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