PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 3 Rutgers field hockey wrapped the regular season with a Senior Day victory, taking down Lafayette, 2-1. The Scarlet Knights finished the regular season with a 15-3 record, tying the program record for victories in a season.

Prior to the game, Rutgers recognized a class of six seniors: Noelle Bessette, Olivia Drea, Tayla Parkes, Abby Regn, Milena Redlingshoefer and Liz Romano.

Tayla Parkes scored on her Senior Day and Rachel Houston also scored. Maggie Lamb added an assist. Gianna Glatz made two saves. The Scarlet Knights outshot the Leopards 12-5 on the day and had a 3-1 advantage in corners.

The game was scoreless into halftime before Houston put RU ahead for good in the 39^th minute of action. She carried the ball in and launched home a shot to give RU a lead it would never relinquish.

Just three minutes later, RU added to its advantage. Maggie Lamb sent the ball towards the cage, and Parkes redirected it home for the score and a two-goal advantage.

Lafayette added their goal with 11 minutes to play, taking advantage of a turnover to score. However, they would come no closer, as RU closed out the victory. Rutgers' 15 victories tie the 1986 program for the most wins ever in one season.

"It was really good for us to finish up the regular season by winning the weekend," Tayla Parkes said. "It was very emotional with Senior Day, we're all best friends and winning today was just icing on the cake. We're really excited for next week and Big Tens, it's going to be tough competition, but we're really prepared and excited to start the tournament. All our hard work and training is really paying off and we're pumped to get into tournament play."



Next up, the Scarlet Knights will host the Big Ten Tournament. With a 6-2 conference record, Rutgers earned the No. 2 seed, the team's best ever conference finish. RU will open postseason play on Thursday at 2 p.m. when they take on No. 7 seed Indiana.

"It was really important to get a win for the seniors, not even just for the seniors we celebrated today but all 11 seniors we celebrated over the whole weekend," Liz Romano said. "It was really nice to be able to get two significant wins this weekend to honor the seniors who have put so many years of dedication into this program. It was really emotional, really sentimental. A lot of us were able to channel that into the play and do a lot of good things on the field working together. Since I've been here, this is the closest we've been on and off the field, and it's great to see that factor in to how well we're playing as a team."