PISCATAWAY, N.J. – RV Rutgers women's lacrosse (6-7, 0-5) returns home for its final two home games of the regular season, beginning with a Big Ten Conference matchup against Ohio State (5-10, 0-5) on Thursday night at SHI Stadium. First draw is set for a 6 p.m. start on Big Ten Network, with Dean Linke and Taylor Thornton on the call. WRSU (88.7 FM) will have the radio broadcast from Piscataway.
Admission and parking for all home games are free. Fans planning to park must register their vehicles with the University through
this link. Visitors only need to register their vehicle once for the entire season. Parking for 2023 home games is in the Scarlet Lot outside the West entrance of SHI Stadium.
Tomorrow night will be the program's 'Throwback Thursday' game, with the first 400 fans in attendance receiving an exclusive 'Throwback Thursday' women's lacrosse t-shirt.
- The Scarlet Knights earned back-to-back non-conference victories last week - a 12-7 win over No. 6 Stony Brook last Wednesday at SHI Stadium and a 15-7 triumph over Vermont last Saturday in Burlington.
- RU picked up its signature victory of the season over the Seawolves - the third over a top-10 opponent under head coach Melissa Lehman and the program's first regular season win over a top-six team in school history. The victory avenged back-to-back loses to the Seawolves in the past two NCAA Tournaments and marked the first win over Stony Brook in the all-time series. RU allowed just two goals in the second half and muscled a 15-7 advantage on the draw to earn the marque win in Piscataway.
- Junior goalkeeper Sophia Cardello registered 12 saves on the night and seven in the second half, as Rutgers held the Seawolves well below their 32 shots-per-game average with 23 attempts on cage. The Scarlet Knights converted an impressive 15-of-16 clear attempts and earned key possessions thanks to eight draw controls from senior Meghan Ball and six from classmate Cassidy Spilis.
- Spilis (four goals, one assist), graduate student Marin Hartshorn (three goals) and rookie Ava Kane (three goals) all tallied hat tricks to pace RU on offense, while senior Jenna Byrne dished out three helpers to eclipse the 100-career point milestone.
- Featuring 11 different goal scorers against Vermont last Saturday, the Scarlet Knights scored first and never trailed against the Catamounts, using a 38-29 shooting advantage and a 6-0 scoring run in the third quarter to secure the weekend win.
- With 182 career goals, Cassidy Spilis needs six goals to pass current volunteer assistant coach Taralyn Naslonski (187 from 2018-22) for the program record. Spilis leads the team with 37 goals this season and has scored three or more goals in her past four games.
- Several student-athletes from Rutgers women's lacrosse earned individual accolades after standout performances last week. Senior Cassidy Spilis was named IWLCA Co-Offensive National Player of the Week and Big Ten Midfielder of the Week. Graduate student Marin Hartshorn earned Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, and junior Sophia Cardello collected Co-Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors.
- With at least three games to play before the 2023 NCAA Tournament field is selected, Rutgers owns the No. 32 RPI in the country.
- Rutgers has played eight teams who advanced to last year's NCAA Tournament.
- With their matchup against No. 4 James Madison on Sunday, the Scarlet Knights will finish the regular season having played 12 teams who appeared or received votes in the IWLCA Coaches poll in 2023.
- RU owns ranked victories over No. 6 Stony Brook and No. 19 Jacksonville.
- Ball leads the country with 3.69 caused turnovers per game.
- Ball has caused 48 turnovers this season and has produced three or more caused turnovers in eight games during the spring campaign. Ball has tallied three or more caused turnovers 24 times during her historic career.
- Ball is second among active leaders nationally with 142 career-caused turnovers. She is just six behind Sam Thacker of Denver with 148.
- Ball is the program's all-time leader in caused turnovers (142) and draw controls (289), secure the program's individual records in both categories earlier this season in a 15-8 win over Georgetown at SHI Stadium.
- Meghan Ball
- CTs-Per-Game: 3.69 (First B1G, First NCAA)
- GBs-Per-Game: 3.23 (First B1G, 11th NCAA)
- DCs-Per-Game: 6.31 (Second B1G, 17th NCAA)
- Cassidy Spilis
- Goals: 37 (Eighth B1G)
- Goals-Per-Game: 2.85 (Fifth B1G)
- Marin Hartshorn
- Assists: 21 (Fourth B1G)
- Assists-Per-Game: 1.62 (Fourth B1G)
- Points-Per-Game: 3.54 (Seventh B1G)
- Jenna Byrne
- Assists: 18 (Seventh B1G)
- Assists-Per-Game: 1.38 (Sixth B1G)
- Sophia Cardello
- Save Percentage: .484 (Second B1G, 17th NCAA)
- Saves-Per-Game: 9.15 (Second B1G, 26th NCAA)
- Saves: 119 (Third B1G, 32nd NCAA)
- Goals Against Average: 10.34 (Fifth B1G, 24th NCAA)
- The Buckeyes enter Thursday night after they dropped a 17-11 matchup against No. 2 Northwestern last Saturday in Columbus.
- Jamie Lasda leads the team with 54 points on 29 assists and 25 goals. Nicole Ferrara is the team's leading goal scorer with 37.
- OSU goalkeeper Regan Alexander leads the Big Ten and is sixth nationally with 148 saves this season.
- Rutgers leads the all-time series with Ohio State, 8-5. The Scarlet Knights have won the past four meetings, all coming in the past two season.
- Ohio State will host the 2023 Big Ten Tournament semifinals and finals from May 4-6 in Columbus.
- Rutgers closes its regular season Sunday against No. 4 James Madison. First draw is set for 1 p.m. and will stream on Big Ten Plus. Sunday will be senior day, as the program will recognize its three graduate students and seven seniors before the game.
