PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Despite hat tricks by three different players and a career-high four assists from Abbey Brooks, Rutgers women's lacrosse (4-5, 0-1) dropped its Big Ten Conference opener to No. 6 Northwestern (6-3, 1-0), 23-13, on Thursday night at HighPoint.com Stadium.
 
Junior Samantha Budd and sophomores Taralyn Naslonski and Julia Lytle all netted three goals apiece in the loss to the Wildcats. For Naslonski, it was her team-high seventh hat trick of the 2019 season, while Lytle's three scores marked the first trifecta of her career.
 
Northwestern – who entered Thursday tops in the conference in goals-per-game and points-per-game – used a 44-28 shot advantage and 24 draw controls to secure the victory. Wildcat Selena Lasota registered a game-high nine goals and teammate Izzy Scane added six scores to pace the dangerous NU attack.
 
"We knew it was going to be a shootout coming in," said head coach Laura Brand Sias. "Twenty-three goals is pretty consistent with what they have put up all season. We knew there was going to be a lot of goals scored, so we wanted to counter that. We had a hard time on the draw today, which hurt us a lot as well. When we had the ball, I thought we had good opportunities, but credit to them. They're a solid team. We put up a fight, but made critical mistakes in the second half."
 
Rutgers put forth maximum effort in attempt to keep up with the Wildcats. Down 3-0 early in the first half, redshirt junior Dakota Pastore found Brooks for the first RU goal at the 24:04 mark. Both teams would begin to trade goals, as Budd's unassisted strike made it a 5-3 game in favor of Northwestern with 21:41 left in the half.
 
After another Wildcat run, Rutgers netted back-to-back goals form Naslonski and Budd to cut NU's lead to three at 10-7 with seven minutes remaining in the opening stanza. However, the Wildcats closed out the half with four consecutive goals to make it 14-7 at half.
 
Lytle shined in the second half, picking up two goals and an assist in the final 30 minutes of action. Her wide-open look created by Naslonski gave RU its smallest deficit of the second period at 18-12, as the Bridgewater Raritan High School product finished the game with four points on three goals and an assist.
 
Rutgers hits the road to face Lafayette on Tuesday, March 19 in Easton, Pennsylvania.
 
Notes
• The Wildcats, who check in at No. 6 in this week's IWLCA Coaches Poll, continue a stretch for the Scarlet Knights against ranked opponents. RU faced No. 7 James Madison last weekend, and also compete at No. 17 Johns Hopkins (March 23) and host No. 2 Maryland (March 30) during the tough slate.
• Naslonski now owns 43 points on 29 goals and 14 assists, tied with Kristina Dunphey for the most for a Scarlet Knight in a single season since 2017.
• Naslonski has scored two or more goals in eight of her nine games this season, including seven games of three goals or more and three with four goals or more.
• Lytle enjoyed the best game of her young career, registering career-highs in points (4), goals (3), ground balls (3) and draw controls (3).
• Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Kameron Halsall stopped a career-high 14 shots against the Wildcats, passing her 11 saves she had against Delaware (Feb. 23) and No. 7 James Madison (March 10).
• Brooks' four assists were a career-high and the most helpers in a game for her since she assisted on three goals to open the season against LIU Brooklyn (Feb. 8)
• Senior Tess Howland registered a career-high three caused turnovers.
• Camryn Rogers netted the second goal of her rookie campaign.
 
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