No. 18 Field Hockey Heads to Big Ten Tournament

Thursday, November 3

Columbus, Ohio

5 PM

Rutgers University

Northwestern University

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Photo by: Dustin Satloff

No. 18 Field Hockey Heads to Big Ten Tournament

Nov 01 | Field Hockey

Tournament Central Quarterfinals: Stream on B1G+Quarterfinals Live Stats Tickets Rutgers Game Notes Northwestern Notes

Scarlet Knights face No. 4 Northwestern Thursday at 5 pm in Quarterfinals

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 18 Rutgers field hockey begins play at the Big Ten Tournament this week. The Scarlet Knights head to Columbus, Ohio, where they will be the No. 6 seed in the bracket, and face No. 3 seed and 4^th ranked Northwestern in the opening round. The opening quarterfinal game for RU will take place at 5 p.m. Thursday and will stream on B1G+. The Scarlet Knights have qualified for the Big Ten Tournament in eight of their nine seasons in the league and are the defending tournament champions.

The Scarlet Knights earned the No. 6 seed after a 3-5 conference mark, alongside an 8-9 overall record. Rutgers played just four unranked teams all season long, going 3-1 versus unranked foes and 5-8 versus ranked teams. Rutgers' last six opponents of the season were all ranked, with four of those in the top-3 in the rankings at the time of the meeting. RU is guaranteed to face only ranked opponents in the Big Ten Tournament as well.

Rutgers finished the regular season last Sunday with a 3-0 win over No. 19 James Madison on Senior Day. RU now has five ranked wins on the season. The Scarlet Knights also boast ranked wins over No. 3 Northwestern, No. 15 UConn, No. 23 Ohio State and No. 25 Monmouth.

"We've been playing some of our best hockey these past few weeks, playing our past couple games against ranked teams." head coach Meredith Civico said. "The matchup against Northwestern is one the team has a lot of confidence in. We know them well. It's going to be a battle, but we're excited. We know them well, we've played them a lot. We need to defend well as a team. We have confidence in our game plan against them and we're ready for this game."
Sophia Howard averages 4.53 saves per game, second in the Big Ten. Her shutout last Sunday was the team captain's fifth of the year.

"Northwestern is a good team, but we have a lot of confidence from our win over them earlier this season and know that matchup well," Howard said. "Our chemistry and connection on the field has grown as the season has gone on. We've been working really hard on that aspect of our game. I'm proud of how much improvement we've made as a team, with everyone giving their all each game. We're taking it one game at a time and we'll see what happens."
Offensively, Indy van Ek leads RU with five goals. Iris Langejans (four goals, seven assists) has a team-high 15 points, sharing second on the team with four goals with Marique Dieudonne and Lucy Bannatyne. Senior Rachel Houston also joins the group in a double-digit point total with three goals and four assists, both career-highs.

Rutgers was recognized in Wednesday's Big Ten awards release. Puck Winter was named Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Year. Iris Langejans was named First Team All-Big Ten. Rachel Houston was the recipient of the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.

Rutgers head coach Meredith Civico is in her 11^th season at the helm for Rutgers. She coached her 200^th career game as RU head coach against JMU in the regular season finale. In that span, she has won 111 games, and is looking to make this the 10^th seasons that she has reached at least nine wins, which would be so with a win in the Quarterfinals.

A victory in the Quarterfinals over No. 3 Northwestern would also mark:

RU's sixth ranked win this season
RU's second top-5 ranked win this season (both over Northwestern)
RU's third ranked win this season away from home
Winning at least one Big Ten Tournament game for the second straight season. Prior to last season's 3-0 mark in the Big Ten Tournament, RU had never won a Big Ten Tournament game.
Five wins in the past six meetings against Northwestern, with each win coming with Northwestern ranked No. 4 or higher.
A 6-3 record in the last nine meetings with Northwestern.

Northwestern finished the regular season at 15-3 overall and 5-3 in conference play. The team earned 10 ranked wins. The Wildcats have been a second half team, with 32 goals this year coming after halftime.

Bente Baekers is third in the nation in goals (1.22) and points (2.83) per game. Kayla Blas is 11^th in the country with 0.67 assists per game. In goal, Annabel Skubisz has a 1.19 goals-against-average and .766 save percentage.

The game against Northwestern will be a rematch from a home meeting on October 8, when RU downed then-No. 3 Northwestern, 2-1. Indy van Ek and Iris Langejans scored goals in the opening quarter for RU, and the defense held on to the lead there to secure the victory.

After that victory, RU has four wins in the past five meetings with Northwestern. Each win came with Northwestern ranked No. 4 or higher. The win tied a previous win over No. 3 Northwestern for the highest ranked win in the regular season in RU program history. The only higher ranked win for RU came last season over No. 2 Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament championship game. After starting the all-time series 0-5, RU is now 5-3 in the last eight meetings in the series.

If RU advances to the Big Ten Semifinals, they will play the winner of No. 2 seed and No. 2 ranked Maryland and No. 7 seed and No. 20 ranked Ohio State. That potential meeting would come on Friday, at 4 p.m., on Big Ten Network. During the regular season, RU defeated Ohio State, 2-0, back on September 23, with goals from Langejans and Bannatyne and five saves in a shutout from Sophia Howard. RU now has won five straight games over the Buckeyes. The team tangled with then-ranked No. 2 Maryland on October 16. In that road game, RU overcame a 3-1 late deficit to tie the game, but Maryland scored in the final minute of regulation for a 4-3 win. Rutgers is 7-6 all-time against Ohio State, but just 4-33-1 against Maryland. The opposite side of the bracket, which would await RU in a potential title game Sunday at noon, features No. 1 seed Penn State, No. 4 Michigan and No. 5 Iowa.

Rutgers returns to the Big Ten Tournament after hosting last year's event in a signature moment in program and Rutgers' Athletics history. In a four-day span, RU earned wins over Indiana, Penn State and Michigan, claiming the first ever Big Ten Tournament title for any Rutgers' sport team.

RU enters the Big Ten Tournament with an 8-9 record. The Scarlet Knights, who boast an RPI of 17, will need to reach at least the Big Ten Tournament Championship game to ensure they have either the .500 record overall necessary to qualify for an NCAA Tournament at-large berth, or gain the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament via the league tournament title.