PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 16 Rutgers field hockey (10-7, 4-4 Big Ten) will begin its postseason journey on Thursday at 5 p.m. in the Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals, hosted by Penn State. The Scarlet Knights are the sixth seed, and will open play against No. 14 Northwestern, who earned the third seed following a (13-6, 5-3 Big Ten) campaign. The game, the final matchup of the day in the tournament, will be live streamed on BTN Plus.
The winner of the game will move on to the semifinals, which will be held Friday at 6:30 p.m. That game will be against the winner of Thursday's game between No. 7 Iowa and No. 22 Ohio State. That contest Friday will be streamed live, then air on tape-delay on BTN at 12:00 a.m. on Saturday.
Rutgers won double-digit games in the regular season for the second consecutive season, which included tying a program records with four conference wins and two top-10 wins, winning four ranked games overall.
During the regular season, RU outscored opponents 28-22 over 17 games, allowing just 1.29 goals-per game. The team was led offensively by the duo of
Austyn Cuneo and
Katie Larmour. The two shared the team lead with seven goals, while Cuneo took the team lead with eight assists for 22 points. In goal,
Gianna Glatz posted a 1.38 goals-against-average and .744 save percentage on 64 saves. On Wendesday, Larmour and Glatz were named First Team All-Big Ten, while Cuneo was named Second Team All-Big Ten. Team captain
Alanna Gollotto was named the team's Sportmanship Honoree.
Northwestern enters the matchup at 13-6 overall and 5-3 in Big Ten play. Of the Wildcats' six losses, five have come by one goal and four of those were in overtime. NU has won three of their past four games and outscored their opponents 16-3 during this four game stretch.
Offensively, the team is led by Bente Baekers. The Big Ten Freshman of the Year had 24 goals and 50 points, leading the conference and ranked third nationally in both categories. Kirsten Mansfield averaged 0.84 assists per game, leading the league and second in the country. Back Kayla Blas and midfielder Saar De Breij were named Second Team All-Big Ten.
This will be the second matchup between these squads this season. In the previous meeting between these two teams on October 10th, then-No. 8 Northwestern earned a 4-1 victory, with Larmour scoring the RU goal. It was the only game in the regular season where RU surrendered more than two goals.
RU is 1-6 lifetime against Northwestern. The win came last season, a 2-1 victory. Rutgers will be looking for its first ever Big Ten Tournament win. This is the second time the Scarlet Knights will face Northwestern in their opening game of Big Ten Tournament play.
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