PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 11 Rutgers men's lacrosse finishes the regular season this Friday night at No. 5 Penn State. The contest will be a 6 p.m game on Big Ten Network, with Joe Beninati and Mark Dixon will be on the call.
ABOUT THE SCARLET KNIGHTS
Rutgers stands at 8-4 overall and are at 1-3 in Big Ten Conference play, with the lone win in league play coming over Michigan in overtime. Last Sunday, RU made a late comeback against No. 4 Maryland, but were unable to overcome an early deficit in an 11-8 loss on Senior Day. In addition to recognizing 21 seniors pregame, Rutgers also
honored its alumni, including last season's final four team.
Rutgers is the lone team in the Big Ten to have four players reach the 20-goal plateau.
Ross Scott,
Brian Cameron and
Dante Kulas have 25 goals and
Jack Aimone has 20.
Shane Knobloch has 17 goals, plus added a team-high 16 assists. Those five players have combined for 112 of the team's 157 goals (71.3%) and 163 of the team's 238 points (68.4%).
Rutgers remains first nationally in turnovers (12.0/game). The team is also 12
th in scoring defense, leading the Big Ten at 10.25, and leads the league in caused turnovers at 8.33.
RU has excelled in the middle two quarters this spring, outscoring opponents, 87-53. RU outscored their foes 49-30 in the second and 44-29 in the third. They've been outscored 40-34 in the first and have outscored foes 31-29 in the fourth quarter.
RU is at No. 11 in the RPI following their last game. They are 5-4 against the top-25 in the RPI, with wins over No. 17 Utah, No. 18 Princeton, No. 20 Michigan, No. 22 UMass and No. 24 Loyola.
WITH A VICTORY
A win over No. 5 Penn State would represent:
- Fourth ranked win of the season.
- Second top-five win of the season (also defeated No. 5 Loyola).
- First time since 2003 defeating two top-five opponents in the same season.
- Fourth top-five win since 2019.
- First ranked road win over a top-five team since March 31, 2019 (14-6 win at No. 4 Ohio State)
- Would improve to 47-24 in the all-time series vs. Penn State
ABOUT THE SERIES
Rutgers holds a 46-24 advantage in the series against Penn State, a .657 winning percentage in a series that dates back to its first meeting in 1946. Rutgers has won three straight meetings. Last season,
Ross Scott had five goals, including the game-tying tally and game-winning goal in overtime in a 14-13 win.
The annual rivalry game is contested for the Friendship Cup. The trophy debuted in 1998 as a symbol of the friendship of a group of four friends from Sewanhaka High School on Long Island who went off to college splitting two ways; one pair attending Penn State, and the other heading off to Rutgers, including the recently passed Tom Hayes, who was a Penn State alumn and then the longtime head coach at Rutgers.
ABOUT THE OPPONENT
Penn State is 5
th in the polls and No. 8 in the RPI, and on a three-game winning streak in league play.PSU leads the Big Ten in scoring offense, points per game, saves per game, and both man-up and man-down percentages.
Jack Traynor, off a six-goal game that earned him Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, sits first on the team in goals and second in the Big Ten with 26. TJ Malone leads the team with 24 assists and 49 points. Jack Fracyon has a .567 save percentage and 10.43 goals-against-average. Chase Mullin is at 51.6% at the faceoff 'X'.
#ULYSTRONG
Rutgers will be wearing burgundy shoelaces and special burgundy warmups for the remainder of the season in support of their equipment manager, Uly Molina, who was recently diagnosed with throat cancer and is undergoing radiation treatments. Molina graduated from Rutgers in 1989 and has been a member of the equipment staff ever since.
MILESTONE WATCH
Ethan Rall enters the game with 80 career caused turnovers. He is 4 shy of RU's record of 84 for a career, set by Nick Contino, who graduated in 2014.
Brian Cameron is three goals away from reaching 100 for his career. He scored 38 with UNC and 59 with Rutgers.
Ross Scott is 11 goals away from reaching 100 for his career.
UP NEXT: BIG TEN TOURNAMENT
All six teams will make the Big Ten Tournament. The top two seeds get byes. On Saturday, April 29, the 3 seed hosts the 6 seed and the 4 seed hosts the 5 seed in the Quarterfinals.
The top four remaining teams head to Homewood Field for the Big Ten Semifinals (Thursday, May 4) and Championship Game (Saturday, May 6).
Rutgers has three potential scenarios for the Quarterfinals next weekend, pending the results of Rutgers-Penn State and primarily the Michigan-Ohio State game (as RU is tied with both Michigan and Ohio State currently for fourth place).
- Rutgers Win, Michigan Win: Rutgers Hosts Michigan
- Ohio State Win over Michigan: Ohio State Hosts Rutgers
- Michigan Win but Rutgers Loss: Rutgers plays at Loser of Johns Hopkins vs. Maryland game.
Rutgers-Penn State is at 6 pm Friday, Michigan-Ohio State in at 8 pm Friday and Maryland-Johns Hopkins is at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
