PISCATAWAY, N.J. - No. 3 Rutgers field hockey hosts the final two regular season games of the season this weekend. The Scarlet Knights welcome Michigan State at 2 pm on Friday, with a stream on B1G+ featuring Dom Savino and Marybeth Freeman on the call. Then on Sunday it's a 2 pm game versus Lafayette, also streaming on B1G+.
The weekend will be a time to celebrate a large and impactful Senior class for RU, with the program spreading the celebrations across both games. Friday's celebration will honor five fifth-year seniors who used an extra year of eligibility post-pandemic to return to RU for one last season:
Gianna Mancini,
Kassidy Shetler,
Kerrie Burns,
Gianna Glatz and
Katie Larmour. Sunday, RU will honor a traditional four-year Senior class of
Noelle Bessette,
Olivia Drea,
Milena Redlingshoefer,
Abby Regn,
Liz Romano and
Tayla Parkes.
The Scarlet Knights enter the weekend at 13-3 overall and 5-2 in Big Ten play. A win Friday would give RU a program-record six league wins, it's most since joining the Big Ten conference in 2014-15. A 14th win would be the most in a season under head coach
Meredith Civico, who is in her 10th season as head coach, and tied for the second most in a season in program history. A weekend sweep would give RU 15 wins, which would tie for the program record, previously set by the 1984 team that was RU's first to make an NCAA tournament
The weekend's action will determine the final bracket for the Big Ten Tournament, which will be hosted by Rutgers on November 4-7. In the most straightforward best case scenario for the Scarlet Knights, a win over Michigan State and a Penn State win over Michigan would make Rutgers the number 2 seed. In that scenario, RU would play the seventh seed in Thursday's quarterfinals. If Northwestern beats Indiana this weekend, the Hoosiers would be that No. 7 seed. A victory would also guarantee RU its best seed ever in the Big Ten Tournament, as they would be either a 2 or 3 seed with a victory, depending on the results of Michigan-Penn State.
Rutgers has excelled this season while playing top competition, notching program records with 10 ranked wins, four top-10 wins and seven ranked road wins this season. These two unranked games will mean that RU plays ranked teams in 13 of 18 games throughout the regular season.
RU has outscored opponents 33-17 on the year. The team is led offensively by
Lucy Bannatyne and
Milena Redlingshoefer, each with six goals. Redlingshoefer also paces the squad with nine assists and 21 points. In goal,
Gianna Glatz holds a steller 0.98 goals-against-average and .806 save percentage. Glatz enters the weekend with 344 saves, recently moving into fifth place all-time at RU, and 29 shy of tying Liz Ferrera for fourth. Redlingshoefer has 20 career assists, eighth all-time at RU, one shy of tying for seventh and three shy of tying for sixth.
Rutgers swept a home weekend series against Michigan State last season, winning 2-0 and 5-1. RU has won five straight games against the Spartans to even the all-time series at 8-8-1.
The Spartans enter the weekend at 7-7, winless in conference play after going undefeated in nonconference play and rise into the national rankings. Offensively, the squad is paced by Merel Hanssen with six goals, five assists and 17 points. The team has split action in goal between two keepers, Jade Arundell and Monique Jardell.
Lafayette enters the weekend with a 12-4 record. Audrey Sawers leads the offense with nine goals, 11 assists and 29 points, ranking fourth in the nation in assists per game. In goal, Haley Abbott has a 1.06 goals-against-average. Rutgers is 20-15-1 all-time against Lafayette. The last meeting came in 2014, a 2-1 win. Rutgers has won eight of the past 11 contests.
