PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 4 Rutgers field hockey returns to Piscataway for a pair of home games at the Bauer Complex. On Friday, Rutgers hosts Indiana at 3 p.m. The game will be nationally televised on Big Ten Network (with Kylen Mills and Kara Lentz on the call). Friday is Senior Day, presented by the R Fund, and the game will be followed with a postgame Senior Day ceremony recognizing the program's seven seniors.
On Sunday, Rutgers' hosts No. 1 Northwestern at 11 a.m. The game will be the program's annual Letterwinners Day, with also a giveaway of R Field Hockey magnets.
Friday vs. Indiana (3 pm):
Watch on Big Ten Network |
Live Stats
Sunday vs. Northwestern (11 a.m.):
Live Stream |
Live Stats
About Rutgers
Rutgers enters the weekend as the nation's lone undefeated team at 14-0. Last weekend, RU traveled to No. 9 Ohio State, and claimed a 1-0 win in a penalty shootout. Then the Scarlet Knights grabbed a 3-1 win at Michigan State.
The Scarlet Knights as a team is third in save percentage and fifth in goals-against-average and fifth in defensive saves.
Puck Winter is second nationally in defensive saves, and
Sophia Howard is fifth in save percentage and seventh in goals-against-average.
Guillermina Causarano leads the team with 11 goals and 28 points. She is fourth in the Big Ten in points per game and fifth in the league goals per game.
Puck Winter had two defensive saves over the weekend for RU, who held OSU (the nation's leading goal-scoring team entering the game) to 0 goals in 80 minutes, and then just a penalty stroke goal at Michigan State. She was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week and NFHCA National Defensive Player of the Week. It was her second weekly award from the Big Ten and first national award.
The Scarlet Knights have settled into a starting lineup, with 11 players making at least 11 starts (GK:
Sophia Howard; B:
Olivia Beattie,
Puck Winter,
Iris Langejans; M:
Paulina Niklaus,
Ava Cickavage,
Lucy Bannatyne,
Carly Snarski; F:
Guillermina Causarano,
Bridy Molyneaux,
Marique Dieudonne). Off the bench,
Elise Pettisani (B),
Indy van Ek (F),
Vicky Jure (M),
Julianne Kopec (F),
Noelle Leaf (F) and
Olivia Fraticelli (F) have seen action in at least nine games this season.
Rutgers in Big Ten Play
The Big Ten has seven teams ranked in this week's NFHCA Poll: No. 1 Northwestern, No. 4 Rutgers, No. 5 Iowa, No. 9 Maryland, No. 10 Ohio State, No. 15 Michigan and No. 16 Penn State. Rutgers is 3-0 against those ranked Big Ten teams so far and has three games remaining against top-10 teams.
Rutgers is 34-44 (.436) in 10 seasons of Big Ten Conference regular season play (not including the team's 3-8 conference tournament record). Since starting 7-26 in the first four years of acclimating to the league, RU is 28-18 over the past six seasons. Since the spring 2021 season, RU is 19-10 in Big Ten Conference regular season conference games, and 26-14 overall against Big Ten teams (including conference tournament games and games not counting towards the conference standings in the spring '21
Past Success
The Scarlet Knights have proved their mettle as a top team in the Big Ten Conference. Over the past five seasons, RU has climbed to new levels. Since the start of 2018 (through the Michigan State game), Rutgers has a 74-34 overall record (.685 winning percentage), 37 ranked wins, 13 top-10 wins and five top-five wins. In that time they've made two NCAA Tournaments, including a Big Ten Tournament championship and Elite Eight appearance.
Senior Day
Following the game, Rutgers will host its annual Senior Day appreciation ceremony. This year's honorees are
Marique Dieudonne,
Bridy Molyneaux,
Carly Snarski,
Lauren Kokoskie,
Elise Pettisani,
Sophia Howard and
Iris Langejans.
The group has combined for 275 games played as a Scarlet Knight, with 33 goals, 21 assists and 151 saves. Six members of the group have started in over 20 games in their RU career, while five have started every game they've been active for this season.
About Indiana
Under fifth-year head coach Kayla Bashore, the Hoosiers enter the matchup 5-10 overall, 0-5 in conference play. They are 0-7 against ranked teams this season.
IU is led by Sarah Charley in goals (five) and assists (four). Goalkeeper Arabella Loveridge has a 2.51 goals-against-average, with a .750 save percentage while ranking third in the league in saves per game.
IU is being outscored 28-17 on the season. The Hoosiers have been shutout in all five conference games and have scored just eight goals since September 10 (10 games, shut out in six of them). Prior to September 10, IU was 2-2 with two one-goal losses to ranked foes. Since then, IU is 3-8 and has been outscored 23-10.
Rutgers leads the all-time series against Indiana 10-3-1. Last season, RU took a loss in Bloomington that snapped a six-game winning streak against the Hoosiers. The last RU-Indiana game in Piscataway came in the Quarterfinals of the 2021 Big Ten Tournament, a 3-1 win for RU that was
Meredith Civico's 100
th career win at RU and was the springboard to the program's run to the Big Ten Tournament championship.
Dating back to 2017, RU has won six of the past seven games against IU. The Scarlet Knights have never lost a home game against Indiana and are 6-0 all-time against Indiana.
A win would mean:
- A 15th win of the season would tie for the second most wins ever in a season for the Scarlet Knights, matching the 1984 team. Only the Big Ten Tournament champion 2021 team (19-4) won more than 15 games in a season.
- The sixth Big Ten Conference win of the season, matching the 2021 team's record for regular season conference wins.
- RU would improve to 11-3-1 against Indiana and have won seven of the past eight with the Hoosiers.
About Northwestern
The Wildcats enter the weekend at 13-1 overall and 5-0 in conference play, with a Friday game at Penn State en route to Piscataway. Northwestern lost their season opener on August 27, 1-0, to No. 9 Louisville. Since then, Northwestern has rolled off 13 straight wins and outscored opponents 42-6 in that span.
Peyton Halsey (10 goals, eight assists), Olivia Bent-Cole (eight goals, three assists), Maja Zivojnovic (nine goals) and Alia Marshall (12 assists) have all impacted the offensive end. Goalkeeper Annabel Skubisz has a 0.50 goals-against-average, top in the nation, and a .833 save percentage that is third nationally.
As a team, Northwestern is first nationally in goals-against-average, save percentage, corners and shutouts. They are also in the top-10 in scoring margin (second), assists (fourth), goals (eighth) and scoring average (ninth).
Northwestern holds a 9-5 lead in the all-time series against Rutgers, which dates back just to 2014 when RU joined the Big Ten. At the beginning of the Scarlet Knights' time in the league, the Wildcats won the first five meetings and won seven of the first eight times facing the Scarlet Knights. However, since the 2020 season was moved to the spring after Covid-19, Rutgers has flipped the script in the series. The Scarlet Knights have won four of the past six meetings against Northwestern. In the spring season of 2021, RU won a pair of games on the same weekend against a Northwestern team that was ranked No. 4 at the time. In the fall of 2021, RU traveled to Evanston and came back with a 2-1 win over the No.3 ranked Wildcats. Then last season, RU downed a No. 3 ranked Northwestern team again, part of RU's weekend full of celebrations in honor of the 50
th anniversary of Title IX, the Scarlet Knights were propelled by a large group of alumns, which spanned multiple generations, was recognized pregame in the anthem walkout, and help create a raucous atmosphere which fueled the team in the victory. The last meeting against Northwestern came in the Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals last season, where RU pushed No. 4 Northwestern into overtime before falling on a penalty stroke.
Letterwinners Day
Rutgers will celebrate its annual Letterwinners Day surrounding the game with Northwestern. The day starts with a breakfast at the Rutgers Club for letterwinners and their guests and then RU will host the group of alumns at the complex for the game.
Big Ten Standings
Rutgers has a pathway to clinching the Big Ten regular season title this weekend. With two wins, and a 7-0 conference record, RU would be assured of no worse than a tie for first place in the Big Ten, as well as the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament as RU would hold tiebreakers over all other potential 7-1 teams.
A win would mean:
- First ever victory over a No. 1 team
- Rutgers eighth ranked win of the season, 13th ranked win over the past two seasons, the 26th ranked win over the past three seasons and the 30th ranked win since the spring 2021 season, along with the 46th ranked win under head coach Meredith Civico.
- 3-0 against top-10 teams this season (previously defeated No. 8 Maryland and No. 9 Ohio State.
- 16 wins would mark the second most ever in a season for RU.
Rutgers Most Ever Wins in A Season
- 19: 2021 (Fall)
- 15: 1984
- 14: 1986, 1997, 2008
Milestone Tracker
Guillermina Causarano has 11 goals and 28 points this season. With one more goal, she ties for the seventh most goals in a single-season in RU history (which has been done before eight times, most recently in 2018. With two more goals, she would have sole possession of seventh place and the most goals in a season by a RU player since Amy Lewis in 2008.
She is currently tied for 10
th on the single-season points list. One more point would tie her for 9
th and three more points would tie her for eighth.
Up Next
Rutgers has just one more game after this weekend, a trip to Iowa for a game on Friday, October 27. After that, it is time for the postseason.
