PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 1 Rutgers field hockey kept up its winning ways, defeating Delaware in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament. The Scarlet Knights downed the Blue Hens, advancing to Sunday's Second Round game against Liberty, a 1 p.m. start in Piscataway.

The victory represented RU's first NCAA Tournament victory since 1986. The Scarlet Knights, making their fourth ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament and playing in the NCAAs for the first time since 2018, improve to 3-3 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.

It was the Scarlet Knights 13^th ranked win of the season, with the team improving to 19-3 overall. It was the teams seventh straight victory, and they are 11-1 in the past 12 games. Rutgers is now 19-1 in its last 20 games at Bauer.

"I'm really proud of the group for advancing," head coach Meredith Civico said. "That's huge. They earned that. The team has been so consistent. Our backs and defensive group defended so hard. Glatz made some key saves. The defensive effort and grit was what won the game for us today."

Rutgers was led in the game by goals from Liz Romano and Lucy Bannatyne. Goalkeeper Gianna Glatz, the reigning National Defensive Player of the Week, made four saves.

Playing on their home turf, the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament trailed in shots (8-7) but led in penalty corners (5-3). Yet again, it was the Scarlet Knights defense that was the key to a win.

"Our defensive pressure has been really great," Romano said. "We put high pressure on other teams and that's been a key all season."

Rutgers got its goal in the first half from Liz Romano. The team took advantage of a penalty corner, and Milena Redlingshoefer slid the ball to the back post. Romano banged it home, her first goal since September, to put RU in front.

In the fourth quarter, the Scarlet Knights added an insurance tally. Off another corner, Redlingshoefer again sent the ball forward, and Lucy Bannatyne got the deflection in front to pop the ball into the net.

"It's one game at a time for us and this one was game one," Civico said. "That's our approach to Sunday. We'll debrief, recover, and prepare for our next game on Sunday."


 

• Lucy Bannatyne scored her eighth goal of the season, the most goals by RU freshman since joining Big Ten.
• Milena Redlingshoefer had her third game this season with multiple assists. 
• She has 12 assists and 26 points on the season.
• She moved into 5th on RU's single-season assist list and 10th on RU's single-season points list. 
• Milena Redlingshoefer has 23 career assists, tying Janel Hileman  for sixth all-time in program history. 

35 ʏᴇᴀʀꜱ ᴛᴏᴏ ʟᴏɴɢ

.@RUFieldHockey has won their first NCAA tournament game since 1986 with a 2-1 win over Delaware. 😤💥 pic.twitter.com/1OthFYGGm2

— Rutgers On BTN (@RutgersOnBTN) November 12, 2021