PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 4 Rutgers women's soccer's program-record 13-game winning streak came to end with a 1-0 loss to No. 13 Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament Championship Game held Sunday at Yurcak Field. The crowd of 5,103 set a new venue record. Senior captains
Amirah Ali and
Gabby Provenzano were named to the Big Ten All-Tournament team.
The Scarlet Knights, the 2021 Big Ten undefeated regular season, champions will next await their seeding for the NCAA Tournament, which will be announced Monday.
"We had an unfortunate loss just now, but I'm completely proud of this team. Going undefeated [in the regular season] is something that doesn't happen usually. We got the conference win, we got our ring, and we did what we had to do. Now it's just going on to the NCAAs. We'll focus on the next thing and we're going to keep pushing. No matter what the outcome was today, we are still going to push in the NCAAs," said senior
Amirah Ali.
"We play for something bigger than ourselves. We put it on the line for our sisters, for every single person on the field and on the bench. All 28 of us are working for each other and that is what we have in the back of our mind. We are doing it for each other, our team, our school, and Rutgers Nation."
RU posted eight shots in the second half, including one from freshman
Emily Mason on goal in the 89
th minute. Classmate
Kylie Daigle led the team with three shots overall. Senior goalkeeper
Meagan McClelland secured four saves for the Scarlet Knights.
Michigan's Raleigh Loughman scored the game-winning goal for the Wolverines in the 27
th minute with a shot into the bottom left corner, while Hillary Beall made three saves for the visitors.
"We have to just keep our heads up. And if you look at us that is exactly what we did. We got into a huddle really quickly and we said ' hey we gave everthing and we did it together'. Yea, it's not the result we want, but we have another goal to go after. The season is not over so we have to move on from this. Going after a National Championship, we have to just keep doing what we are doing. I haven't really heard of a team going 10-0 in the Big Ten for conference and then also making it to the tournament Championship. It is not an easy thing to do," said senior
Frankie Tagliaferri.
"We all worked super hard together. One thing that Becci [Fluchel] said is that we lost two games before going into Big Ten's and then [we went undefeated]. Every team needs to learn, every team needs to grow, every team needs to be reminded to take it one day at a time."
The Scarlet Knights suffered just its third setback of the season for an overall mark of 17-3 on the year. Rutgers went undefeated in its Big Ten Conference slate, claiming the first outright Big Ten title in program and Rutgers history. The conference champions were also the first team since 2005 to complete a perfect Big Ten season.
In addition to a program-record win streak, the Scarlet Knights have posted the most goals in a single-season with 55, most assists with 53, most regular season wins with 15, and the most conference victories with 10. Rutgers also matched its highest ranking at No. 4 in the latest poll, entering the championship at No. 3 in the RPI.
Next up, Rutgers awaits its seeding for the NCAA Tournament. The Division I NCAA women's soccer selection show will take place on Monday at 4:30 p.m and will stream live on NCAA.com.
"We have another goal to get after and that's a National Championship," said Tagliaferri.
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