PISCATAWAY, N.J. - No. 6 Rutgers men's lacrosse will head to Penn State this week for the 2021 Big Ten Tournament. The No. 2 seed, the Scarlet Knights earned a bye in the opening round and will face sixth-seeded and No. 20 Johns Hopkins in the Semifinals on Thursday night at 7:30 pm. The game will be televised by the Big Ten Network with Joe Beninati and Mark Dixon the call. WRSU will also provide a radio broadcast of the contest.
ABOUT RUTGERS
The Scarlet Knights enter the Big Ten Tournament at 8-2 overall. The eight conference wins and .800 conference winning percentage both mark program bests since joining the Big Ten. The 8-2 record through the regular season marked the first time RU had less than three losses in the regular season since 1982.
"I'm proud of the team for all the hard work they've put in and the sacrifices they've made to get to this point," head coach
Brian Brecht said. "They've committed to being the best version of themselves. We have great senior leadership and mentorship. Our success has been through a balance of good defense and goaltending with offensive production. I'm proud of what they've done in the regular season and excited to see what we can do in the tournament."
Rutgers set program records in the release of the All-Big Ten awards with six all-conference selections. The team had three major award winners as
Colin Kirst was named Big Ten Specialist of the Year,
Shane Knobloch was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year and
Brian Brecht was named Coach of the Year. Rutgers was represented on the First Team by Colin and
Connor Kirst alongside
Adam Charalambides, while
Jaryd Jean-Felix,
Kieran Mullins and
Ethan Rall were on the second team.
Rutgers was the lone school with its entire starting attack named all-league. The trio (Charalambides,
Connor Kirst and
Kieran Mullins) has combined for 89 goals this season. Each member of the attack line has at 24 goals and has surpassed 40 points. All three rank in the top-five in the conference in points per game. Kirst needs just two goals and six points to set new career-highs offensively.
As a team, RU ranks in the top-ten in the nation in man-up offense (third, 52.2%), scoring offense (fifth, 15.3), points per game (seventh, 24.2) and clearing percentage (eighth, 89.2%).
"This group has done a really great job of understanding the day-to-day commitment it takes to be great, starting all the way back in the fall,"
Adam Charalambides said. "That shows with the extra effort in practice. We have a great senior class, we have a lot of older, experienced guys. We're all pushing each other. We have great chemistry and its fun to be around this group. We're in a good spot, we've had good practices and we'll be ready to go for the Big Ten Tournament."
RECORD CHASING
Adam Charalambides enters the tournament with 140 career goals and 190 career points. He needs one goal to tie for third most all-time in Rutgers history and four to tie for second. He is currently 10
th in program history in points and can move into sixth place with seven more points.
Kieran Mullins needs two assists for 100 for his career. He would become the first player in Rutgers history to reach 100 goals and 100 assists in their career. He is eighth all-time at RU in both goals and assists and is on the verge of climbing up both of those rankings.
TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Rutgers is making its fourth appearance in the Big Ten Tournament since joining the league in 2015. RU is the No. 2 seed for the second time, the highest seed for the program since 2016. The Scarlet Knights are 1-3 all-time in Big Ten Tournament action. A victory would move RU into a tie for the third most Big Ten Tournament victories all-time.
2019: No. 1 Penn State 18, No. 4 Rutgers 6
2018: No. 1 Maryland 12, No. 4 Rutgers 9
2016: No. 2 Rutgers 14, No. 3 Johns Hopkins 12
2016: No. 1 Maryland 14, No. 2 Rutgers 8
Rutgers will be looking for its first win in the Big Ten Tournament since 2016, when RU defeated the same team it faces on Thursday, Johns Hopkins. In that contest, RU earned its first postseason win since 1990 with a 14-12 victory over the Blue Jays. The only two student-athletes to play in that game that are still on the roster each made big impacts in that win.
Adam Charalambides, that season's Big Ten Freshman of the Year, scored five goals to lead the Scarlet Knights in the game.
Zackary Franckowiak, then a true freshman who subsequently left RU for two seasons for a LDS Mission Trip, had his lone career multi-goal game with two scores in that contest and was named to the Big Ten All-Tournament team.
ABOUT JOHNS HOPKINS
No. 6 seed Johns Hopkins enters the matchup following a 15-7 win over No. 3 Penn State in the Quarterfinals. That improved their record to 3-8 on the season, having finished the season tied for fifth place in the Big Ten, but losing a coin flip to Michigan for seeding. The No. 20 Blue Jays are 6-3 all-time in the Big Ten Tournament, with their six all-time wins in the tournament are the most by any team in the league. The team is led offensively by Connor DeSimone, their lone all-conference selection, with 24 goals and 18 assists. JHU ranks last in the nation in saves per game (9.0), with Tim Marcille making the last two starts in goal. On faceoffs, Matt Narewski is at 54.4 percent.
ABOUT THE SERIES
The game marks the 43
rd meeting all time between the two squads, with the Blue Jays holding a 34-8 lead. In 2015, both teams joined the Big Ten, with the Scarlet Knights entrance into the conference leading to the league adding Johns Hopkins as an affiliate member. Since both teams became conference rivals, Rutgers has won four of the eight meetings. The Scarlet Knights won both regular season meetings this year against JHU. Earlier this season, the Scarlet Knights went to Homewood Field and captured a
15-9 win over No. 14 Johns Hopkins behind an explosive 7-1 outburst in the final quarter to capture the win.
Kieran Mullins led the way with five goals and three assists in that game. In the second matchup, Rutgers hosted the Blue Jays on Senior Day and finished the game on a 6-0 run over the final 21 minutes in
a 17-11 win.
Adam Charalambides had six goals and two assists in that contest. A victory for RU would represent the first time in the series history that the Scarlet Knights won three straight contests. This will be the first ever meeting between the teams to occur on a true neutral site, as Rutgers' 2016 Big Ten Tournament victory over Johns Hopkins came when the Blue Jays hosted the event at Homewood Field.
