PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Senior
Amanda Casten caused seven turnovers to tie a program record, junior
Abbey Brooks contributed a game-high four goals and Rutgers women's lacrosse (5-6, 0-2) earned a 14-8 win over Niagara (4-6, 1-0) Tuesday night at High Point Solutions Stadium. After the Purple Eagles tied with the Scarlet Knights midway through the second half, RU closed out the game with an 8-1 scoring run to earn their fifth win of the season and third at home in 2018.
Three players – senior
Paige Paratore, junior
Dana Gisonno and sophomore
Samantha Budd – each added two goals, as eight Scarlets Knights scored in the win. On defense, Casten scooped up a game-high six ground balls while Paratore added five ground balls and three caused turnovers. Senior
Alana Navaroli corralled four draw controls.
Inserted midway through the second half, senior
Bianca Dente produced seven saves and a ground ball to earn her first win of the season.
"At halftime, we just really wanted to make sure we were getting back to the basics of Rutgers lacrosse," said head coach
Laura Brand Sias. "We're a team that's going to be gritty and will fight until the end, so I wanted them to be focused on the fight and playing aggressive lacrosse. We had some really nice defensive sets and disruptive their play, so we needed to be ready to do that all over the field. I think we had our moments, we just need to string more of those together."
It was a defensive battle to start the midweek matchup, with only three goals scored in the first 15 minutes of play. Brooks found the back of the net for an unassisted score in the first minute of action, while Paratore buried her 18
th goal of the season to give RU a 2-1 lead at the 25:42 mark.
The Scarlet Knights followed with four consecutive goals after Paratore's scoring strike. Freshman
Taralyn Naslonski found a cutting
Tess Howland to make it 5-1 in favor of RU with 12:11 left to play in the half. Casten then took a turnover and ran down for her first goal of the season to increase Rutgers' lead at the 11:12 mark in the period.
Back-to-back goals from NU's Rachel MacCheyne made it a 6-3 score at halftime.
Niagara came out strong in the second half, using a 4-1 scoring run to tie the game midway through the final 30 minutes of play. Caroline Crump found MacCheyne, who buried the goal to make it a 7-7 contest with 18:56 left to play.
After the goal, Brand Sias inserted Dente, who made an immediate impact. Dente saved a MacCheyne shot, which led to Brooks' second goal of the night to regain the lead for Rutgers.
From there, it was all RU. Six Scarlet Knights scored during the 8-1 scoring run to close out the win, with Budd bypassing two defenders for her impressive unassisted goal, making it an 11-7 ballgame with under seven to play. Goals from Brooks, senior
Nicole Kopyta and Paratore followed to put a stamp on the out-of-conference win.
Rutgers returns to action on Saturday, as the Scarlet Knights head to Ithaca, New York, to face No. 21 Cornell for a 1 p.m. road contest.
Knight Notes
• Rutgers moved to 2-0 all-time against Niagara, as both schools met for the first time last season. Rutgers earned an 18-8 victory over the Purple Eagles in that matchup.
• RU's 28 ground balls were the most for the team in a game this season. The Scarlet Knights also matched a season high with 12 turnovers against the Purple Eagles.
• Casten tied the program mark for caused turnovers in a single game (seven), also held by Regan Teti (vs. Monmouth on March 20, 1998) and Kristin Checksfield (vs. Hofstra on March 15, 2003).
• Casten secured a career-high six ground balls in the win, surpassing the four she corralled last season against Temple.
• Brooks tied her season high with four goals against Niagara, as the junior also had four in the win over Drexel on March 3.
• Paratore has produced seven multi-goal games to lead RU in that category this season.
• Through RU's first 11 games, Puckhaber leads the team in points with 29, while Budd leads in goals with 22.
• Seven Scarlet Knights have scored 10 or more goals this season.
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www.ScarletKnights.com.
