PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 18 Rutgers field hockey was unable to generate any goals on Sunday afternoon, falling 2-0 to No. 25 Ohio State. With the loss, Rutgers fell to 9-6 at 3-3 in the Big Ten, while the 8-7 Buckeyes earned their first conference win.
Esther Clotet Alsina scored both goals for the Buckeyes.
Gianna Glatz had two saves for RU, while
Simrin Dhillon and
Emily Howarth each had a defensive save for the home team. Rutgers outshot the Buckeyes 13-8 on the day, and held a 11-3 advantage on penalty corners.
"I'm disappointed with the performance today," head coach
Meredith Civico said. "You could tell that we were on our heels, and we're at our best when we play up tempo and front-foot hockey. It took us a while to get going. We feel like we let an opportunity slip away, but it's not a game that defines us. We're going to really look at it and see where we need to improve going forward."
The first half was scoreless, with even play throughout. At intermission, RU led 5-4 in shots and corners were 2-2.
The Buckeyes broke through shortly after halftime. A breakaway led to a one-on-one situation with the OSU player against the RU goalkeeper. The shot was initially saved, but popped into the area and just trickled across the goal line.
Following that, Rutgers had its best chance of the game to score. After a corner, a bouncing ball hit the right post and just bounced out, with RU unable to tie the game at that moment.
The Buckeyes added a final goal on an odd-man rush. OSU carries in against an advancing goalkeeper and passed to an open player at the back post for the score. The Scarlet Knights pressed forward late in the game, attempting to find a score utilizing nine second half penalty corners, but visiting goalkeeper Liz Tamburro made four saves to keep them off the scoreboard.
The Scarlet Knights will next play the final two Big Ten games of the season. Rutgers first travels to No. 6 Penn State for a contest at 5 p.m. on Friday. The team then returns home for the final home game of the season, a 1 p.m. contest against No. 16 Maryland that will air live on Big Ten Network. Prior to that game, Rutgers will honor its five seniors (
Simrin Dhillon,
Haley Meade,
Jade Dixon,
Katie Beilin and
Jessica Carey) for its Senior Day festivities.
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