PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The postseason begins for Rutgers' field hockey. Rutgers (15-2, 6-2 Big Ten) finished in second place in the Big Ten and the team is heading to Ann Arbor for the Big Ten Tournament this week, hosted by the University of Michigan.
Rutgers earned the No. 2 seed and will begin play on Thursday in the Quarterfinals. They are matched up against the host and the No. 7 seed (and No. 16 ranked nationally) Michigan Wolverines, the second game of the day, set for 2 p.m., streaming on B1G+. With a win, they will play the winner of No. 3 seed Maryland and No. 6 seed Iowa in a Friday Semifinal game, with a 3:30 p.m. start time on Big Ten Network. The Big Ten Championship game is Sunday, Nov. 5 at noon on Big Ten Network. BTN will have the call for both semifinal games and the title game, with Jack Kizer (play-by-play) and Kara Lentz (color commentator) on the call.
Every team that qualified for the Big Ten Tournament was ranked in last week's NFHCA Coaches Poll at 16 or better. In fact, every team that qualified for the Big Ten Tournament has been ranked in the Coaches Poll each in-season week since the week one poll on September 5. Seven of the nine Big Ten teams qualify for the conference tournament, with just Michigan State and Indiana not qualifying.
About Rutgers
Rutgers began the 2023 season by running off a program record 15 straight wins, including six wins over Big Ten teams. RU is 4-2 against this season's tournament field. The Scarlet Knights have six ranked wins this season.
The Scarlet Knights are led on the offensive end by
Guillermina Causarano (12 goals, seven assists, 31 points). She is fourth in the Big Ten in both goals and points per game.
Puck Winter is second on the team with eight goals. She also has nine defensive saves, which is second most in the nation and the most in the Big Ten. Rutgers is sixth nationally in defensive saves as a team. In goal,
Sophia Howard has a .758 save percentage and 1.22 goals-against-average.
Big Ten Tournament History
Rutgers is 3-7 all-time in the Big Ten Tournament, qualifying for the event in eight of the nine previous seasons as a league member. All of RU's lifetime wins in the Big Ten Tournament have come during a 3-0 run to the Big Ten Tournament title in 2021.
This will be the third time facing Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament. RU is 1-1, including a win over the Wolverines in 2021 to claim the Big Ten Tournament title.
This is the second time that Michigan has hosted the Big Ten Tournament since Rutgers joined the league in 2014. In fact, it was 2014, Rutgers first season in the Big Ten, when the Scarlet Knights last tripped to Michigan for the conference tournament. In 2014, coincidentally, the Scarlet Knights also met the host Wolverines in that matchup. That time, Michigan was the No. 2 seed, and the Wolverines earned a 3-0 win at Ocker Field.
This will mark the third time that RU has drawn the host school in the opening round, and the fifth time that RU has played a school on their home field in the Big Ten Tournament. Rutgers has only previously been the higher seed in the matchup during its 2021 tournament run (when RU was also seeded 2
nd).
Rutgers at Big Ten Tournament
2014: 3-0 Loss to 2-Seed Michigan (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
2015: Did not qualify
2016: 3-1 Loss to 1-Seed Maryland (College Park, Md.)
2017: 4-3 Loss to 4-Seed Northwestern (Evanston, Ill.) – round one on campus sites
2018: 1-0 Loss (2OT) to No. 4-Seed Ohio State – round one on campus sites
2019: 3-1 Loss to No. 3-Seed Northwestern (State College, Pa.)
Spring 2021: 2-1 Loss to No. 3-Seed Northwestern (Iowa City, Iowa)
Fall 2021: Big Ten Tournament Champions (Piscataway, N.J.)
3-1 Win over No. 7 seed Indiana
2-1 Win over No. 3 seed Penn State
1-0 Win over No. 4 seed Michigan
2022: 2-1 Loss to No. 3 seed Northwestern (Columbus, Ohio)
What a Win over Michigan Would Mean:
- Seventh ranked win of the season
- 4th ever Big Ten Tournament win
- 4th ever win over Michigan (two of them being in the Big Ten Tournament).
- First win against Michigan outside of New Jersey
Milestone Tracker
Guillermina Causarano has 12 goals and 31 points this season. With one more goal, 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 needs three goals to tie for sixth. She is currently tied for eighth on the single-season points list and needs four points to tie for seventh.
About Michigan
Michigan is 9-7 overall and 3-5 in the Big Ten. The Wolverines needed a victory in the regular season finale over Michigan State to make the field, and did so with a 1-0, double-overtime victory over the Spartans. At 3-5 in league play, it represents the first time that Michigan has been under .500 in conference play since the 2009 season, and just their second time with a conference record under .500 since 1997. All seven losses for Michigan came to ranked teams however, and the Wolverines enter the tournament on a three-game winning streak.
Michigan leads the all-time series against RU 12-3. The Scarlet Knights' victories all came on RU's home field against a ranked Michigan squad. The first came in 2019, a 3-0 win. Then in the 2021 Big Ten Tournament title game, RU claimed a 1-0 victory over UM. Earlier this season, Rutgers claimed a
2-1 overtime win over the Wolverines.
Guillermina Causarano scored the game-winning goal in overtime, with
Marique Dieudonne scoring in regulation.
UM has outscored opponents 38-18 on the year. The team has balanced scoring, with 10 players recording multiple goals, and four players between four and six goals among the team leaders. Kate McLaughlin leads the team with 16 points (six goals, four assists), followed by Lora Clarke (three goals, nine assists). In goal, Caylie McMahon has a 1.34 goals-against-average (11
th nationally) and a .766 save percentage.
Marcia Pankratz is at her 24
th season at the helm of the Michigan program. With her as the head coach, Michigan has a national title, 10 Big Ten regular season title and seven Big Ten tournament titles. The team has won the Big Ten Tournament crown three times from 2017 to 2022 and are the defending champions of the event.
Potential Future Opponents
With a victory, Rutgers would play either Maryland or Iowa in the semifinals Friday. Northwestern and Ohio State are potential future opponents for the Big Ten title game. A look at those teams:
No. 1 Seed Northwestern is 16-1 overall, 8-0 in Big Ten play. The Wildcats claimed a 2-1 win in a penalty shootout over Rutgers on Oct. 22 in Piscataway. The Wildcats now lead the all-time series with RU, 10-5.
No. 3 Seed Maryland is 14-4 overall, 6-2 in Big Ten play, tying RU for second place in the league with a 6-2 conference record. Rutgers claimed the No. 2 seed by virtue of a head-to-head victory over the Terrapins, a 3-2, penalty shootout victory in Piscataway on September 28. Maryland leads the all-time series against RU, 35-5-1.
No. 5 Seed Ohio State was 13-5 overall and 4-4 in Big Ten play. Rutgers captured a 1-0, penalty shootout victory at Ohio State on October 13. Rutgers leads the all-time series over the Buckeyes 9-6 and have won the past six meetings.
No. 6 Seed Iowa went 13-4 overall and was 4-4 in Big Ten play. The Hawkeyes earned a 7-2 home win over Rutgers in the regular season finale last Friday and lead the all-time series against RU 11-3-1.
Rutgers In the Big Ten
Rutgers is 35-46 (.432) 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 29-20 over the past six seasons. Since the spring 2021 season, RU is 20-12 in Big Ten Conference regular season conference games, and 27-16 overall against Big Ten teams (including conference tournament games and games not counting towards the conference standings in the spring '21. Since the start of 2018, Rutgers has a 75-36 overall record (.680 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.
