PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 13 Rutgers women's lacrosse (15-3, 4-2) downed No. 4 Northwestern (13-4, 5-1), 13-5, to advance to the 2022 Big Ten Women's Lacrosse final. The Scarlet Knights will face No. 3 Maryland on Sunday for a chance to win their first Big Ten Conference title in school history.
The win marked one the program's biggest in its 46-year history, as it defeated Northwestern for the first time in 17 chances and delivered its first-ever win over a top-5 ranked opponent. The victory helped RU set a program record for wins in a season at 15 and advanced Rutgers to its first Big Ten Conference title appearance since it joined the league in 2014-15. Sunday will be just the program's second appearance in a conference championship, as it faced Penn State in the 1998 ECAC title game.
The win also avenged a 21-13 loss to Northwestern last month in Evanston as well as a loss to the WIldcats in last year's Big Ten Semifinals in State College.
Battling a constant rain throughout the night, the Scarlet Knights held Northwestern - the top scoring offense in the Big Ten - to just three goals in the first half and five on the night. The goal total was NU's lowest since 2017, as the Wildcats were forced into 15 turnovers. On the other side of the field, Rutgers outshot Northwestern, 32-25, and was paced by junior captain
Cassidy Spilis, who netted five goals on five shots.
"These girls played their hearts out," said head coach
Melissa Lehman. "They had this game circled for so long and left their hearts out on the field. I'm so proud of the fight and grit they had tonight."
With her five goals, Spilis passed Heather Jones (1993) for the most goals in a season with 64. Graduate student
Stephanie Kelly produced four points on two goals and two assists to secure the 300th point of her career, while classmate
Taralyn Naslonski added her 11th hat trick of the season.
Defensively, junior standout
Meghan Ball caused a game-high three turnovers to go along with a game-high six ground balls. Sophomore
Sophia Cardello stopped 12 shots for her 13th win of the season.
"We spoke about starting strong and finishing strong, and that's exactly what we did tonight," Ball said. "We pushed the pace, caused turnovers and gave our offense opportunities to score. We needed to play well in all four quarters to beat this team and that's what we were able to do."
Northwestern took its only lead of the game at 2-1 six minutes into the game before Rutgers fired off a 4-0 scoring run across two quarters. Kelly, Naslonski and Spilis (twice) scored during the stretch, with Spilis' second goal providing the Scarlet Knights with a 5-2 lead at the 11:52 mark in the second quarter. The Wildcats added a third goal before Spilis rocketed back-to-back goals to provide RU with a 7-3 lead at half.
It was all Rutgers out of halftime, as it scored four consecutive goals to open the third quarter. Four different Scarlet Knights tallied goals to open the half, with Naslonski finding the back of the cage with 6:08 left in the quarter for an 11-3 lead.
RU held NU to just one goal in each of the final two quarters to hold on for this historic win.
Up Next
Rutgers faces No. 1 seed Maryland on Sunday in the Big Ten Championship. First draw is set for noon ET on Big Ten Network.
