PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 14 Rutgers field hockey (11-4, 3-4 Big Ten) swept a Big Ten road trip, following up a win at No. 15 Northwestern with a 4-0 win at Indiana on Sunday. The Scarlet Knights were led by two goals apiece from
Daphne Groothuis and
Nikki Profita, and blanked the Hoosiers (4-11, 1-6 Big Ten) for their seventh shutout of the season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Rutgers got an early lead, scoring just seven minutes into the contest. The Scarlet Knights earned a penalty corner, got a clean look for Groothuis, and she fired it in.
The team scored a second goal later in the opening stanza. Groothuis took a backhand shot, which was deflected across the circle by
Kassidy Shetler.
Nikki Profita was there and smacked the ball into the corner of the net to give the visitors a 2-0 lead at intermission.
In the second half, Profita tallied again to put the Scarlet Knights ahead by three. On the penalty corner,
Austyn Cuneo blasted a shot that was saved, but Profita was stationed right in front to slide the ball home.
The final goal came with five minutes remaining. Again off a penalty corner, Groothuis fired in a shot to make the final margin 4-0.
QUOTABLE
"Today our focus was to just move the ball and play two-touch as much as possible. We knew we needed to try and open up the field. I thought the team did an excellent job executing the game plan. There were some excellent individual performances as well. This team has done a great job staying focus on just one game at a time. We just stayed disciplined and executed the game plan. I thought they did an excellent job today."
"We've got to just get better every day. Every game poses a different challenge. We'll see Iowa at home on Friday and they're on a really good run and playing some really good hockey. We'll have to just look at ourselves, look at our past two matches and take out the positives and what we need to work on. And just stay focused and present in the moment, heading into the last weekend and then the Big Ten Tournament. I'm just really excited about the way the team is playing right now."
POSTGAME NOTES
- Daphne Groothuis extended her team leading totals to 11 goals and 33 points. It was her second two-goal game over the last three contests. She now has the seventh most points in a single season in Rutgers history, while also placing seventh in assists and eighth in goals.
- Nikki Profita had her second two-goal game of the season. After entering this season with zero career goals, she now has seven tallies this season.
- This is the team's seventh shutout of the season, tying for the nation's lead. Seven shutouts are the most RU has had in a single season since 1997.
- The four goal margin of victory is the largest for RU in a true road game this season and ties their largest margin of victory this season in a Big Ten game.
- With three Big Ten victories, RU ties last season's record mark for Big Ten wins in a season.
- Rutgers now leads the all-time series against Indiana 6-2
UP NEXT
The final weekend of the regular season sees two home games for Rutgers. On Friday at 3 p.m. RU hosts No. 8 Iowa. On Sunday, American visits for a 2 p.m. Senior Day game. The two Scarlet Knight seniors,
Nikki Profita and
Linde van Schaik will be honored in a pregame ceremony.
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