UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – No. 16 Rutgers women's lacrosse (6-7) defeated No. 23 Ohio State (4-9), 19-13, on Thursday night to advance to the Big Ten Tournament semifinals in University Park, Pennsylvania. The win marked the second victory all-time for the Scarlet Knights at the conference championships, as RU will now face No. 1 seed and undefeated Northwestern Friday night at Panzer Stadium.
Six Scarlet Knights scored at least two goals against the Buckeyes, which included a team-high four from sophomore
Cassidy Spilis and hat tricks from senior
Hannah Hollingsworth, junior
Marin Hartshorn and sophomore
Jenna Byrne. Hollingsworth added three assists for a game-high six points, while Byrne and senior
Taralyn Naslonski chipped in two helpers apiece.
Thursday marked the third victory over Ohio State this season, as Rutgers earned a regular-season sweep of the Buckeyes back in February. It also signified the first postseason win of second-year head coach
Melissa Lehman's career, as the Scarlet Knights have now defeated a program-record six ranked opponents this season.
"I'm just so proud of this team," Lehman said. It was another team effort with so many players chipping in on both sides of the field. It got close there at the end, but we just gritted it out by winning the draw and holding possession down the stretch. It is hard to beat a team three times in one season, but we believed in ourselves to get the job done. Now the focus is on Northwestern."
Rutgers earned a 19-15 advantage in the 50/50 battle thanks to a game-high 10 draw controls from sophomore
Meghan Ball. RU's defense forced nine OSU turnovers, while rookie goalkeeper
Sophia Cardello stopped a career-high 15 shots for her first postseason victory in cage.
"[Cardello] was there when we needed her the most," Lehman said. "She had several point-blank saves. It was a close game throughout and when we needed stops, she came up huge for us."
It was a back-and-forth game for the majority of the afternoon, with the first half featuring five lead changes and five ties. Hollingsworth netted all three of her goals in the first 30 minutes of play, with her third off a pass from redshirt freshman
Grace Curran giving RU an 8-6 advantage with 3:28 left in the first half. Ohio State would respond with back-to-back goals to make it an 8-8 contest at halftime, as Cardello entered the locker room with seven saves.
Naslonski provided arguably the goal of the afternoon out of the break, as she hit a spin move and fired an unassisted strike five minutes into the second half to put the Scarlet Knights up 9-8. The Buckeyes would tie the game up for the final time on the following possession before Rutgers responded with a 5-1 scoring run, as Naslonski's second goal of the day made it 14-10 in favor of the Scarlet Knights with 18 minutes left.
OSU made one final push, as Jamie Level found Lindsay Epstein to make it just a 15-13 lead in favor of RU. However, Rutgers closed out the win with a 4-0 scoring run with goals from Spilis (2), Curran and rookie
Ashley Moynahan.
Rutgers' semifinal game against the Wildcats begins tomorrow night at 5 p.m. ET on Big Ten Network. A win will propel the Scarlet Knights to their first-ever Big Ten title game appearance.
