POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – Rutgers women's lacrosse (4-0) continued its best start to a season in a decade after it registered a 17-7 road win at Marist (0-4) on Saturday afternoon in Poughkeepsie, New York. Junior Taralyn Naslonski scored a season-high six goals in the victory, as nine Scarlet Knights contributed goals against the Red Foxes. Senior captain Samantha Budd (3) and rookie Cassidy Spilis (2) also notched multi-goal outings.
 
Sophomore Marin Hartshorn dished out a game-high four assists in the victory, as RU outshot Marist, 31-27, at Tenney Stadium at Leonidoff Field. Rutgers' defense forced the home squad into 16 turnovers, as senior captain Dakota Pastore, junior Julia Lylte and rookie Meghan Ball each caused two. Spilis led Rutgers with six draw controls.
 
Rookie goalkeeper Alonna Gliksman registered her fourth consecutive win to begin her collegiate career, as she finished the day with six saves while allowing just six goals.
 
Marist scored the first goal of the game at the 22 minute mark in the first half, but the Scarlet Knights quickly responded with a 7-0 scoring run over the next 15 minutes of play. Nalsonski netted a hat trick during the streak, Budd added two scores while rookie Ashley Campo's unassisted goal with 7:25 left in the half made it 7-1 in favor of RU.
 
The Red Foxes added back-to-back goals to stop the run, but Rutgers closed out the half with three consecutive goals. The stretch included Naslonski's fourth goal of the afternoon, as the Scarlet Knights entered the locker room with a comfortable 10-3 lead.
 
RU wasted no time putting the game out of reach out of the break, with a quick 3-0 scoring run. Naslonski netted her fifth and sixth goals, while an unassisted strike from Spilis made it 13-3 Rutgers with 25 minutes to play. The Scarlet Knights would allow just four more goals over the final 22 minutes of action, while junior Hannah Hollingsworth and senior Jordan Drab added their first goals of the season to lock up RU's second road win in as many weeks.
 
Next Up
Rutgers remains on the road to face No. 11 UPenn on Wednesday (Feb. 26) for a 6 p.m. game in Philadelphia. The game marks the first for head coach Melissa Lehman against her former team, as she spent the past 10 seasons on the coaching staff after a standout collegiate career with the Quakers.
 
Notes
• The 4-0 start marks the best for Rutgers since the 2010 season, when the Scarlet Knights open that campaign 5-0 with ranked victories over No. 20 Cornell and No. 7 Princeton. RU finished that season 11-5 and 4-4 in the BIG EAST.
• The 4-0 mark also represents the best start for a first-year head coach in program history, as Lehman is the first Rutgers coach to begin her coaching career 4-0.
• With her three goals, Budd is now 18^th all-time in program history with 118 points for her career.
• With her six goals, Naslonski is now 20^th all-time in program history with 112 points for her career.
• Senior Brianna Cirino needs one more ground ball for 50 for her career.
• First Collegiate Appearance (7): Riley Ban, Ashley Campo, Maggie Garvey, Mackenzie Porter, Elizabeth Skobelev, Alexis Watson, Linda Zamrowski
• First Collegiate Goals (1): Ashley Campo
• First Collegiate Saves (1): Mackenzie Porter
 
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