PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Riding a three-game winning streak, RV Rutgers women's lacrosse (7-7, 1-5) closes the regular season against No. 4 James Madison (14-1, 5-0) on Sunday at SHI Stadium. First draw is set for 1 p.m. with the game streamed on Big Ten Plus. WRSU (88.7 FM) will have the radio broadcast from Piscataway.
Sunday is Senior Day, as the program will honor its seven seniors and three graduate students pregame. The 10-player group -
Meghan Ball,
Riley Ban,
Jessica Beneducci,
Jenna Byrne,
Ashley Campo,
Janey Galski,
Marin Hartshorn,
Lindsay Newton,
Caroline Perry and Cassidy Spiliis - have helped the Scarlet Knights to 40 victories, 14 wins over ranked opponents, the program's first-ever appearance in a Big Ten Tournament final, back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament wins.
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.
- RU picked up its third consecutive win with a thrilling 13-12 come-from-behind overtime victory over Ohio State on Thursday night at SHI Stadium. Down five goals in the fourth quarter, Rutgers scored five consecutive goals to force overtime, with senior Jenna Byrne finding rookie Lily Dixon with 49 seconds left in extra time to secure the program's first conference iwn of the season.
- The victory locked up the No. 6 seed for the Scarlet Knights in this year's Big Ten Tournament, with their opening-round matchup still set to be finalized when play begins on Saturday, April 29. The win was also RU's fifth consecutive over the Buckeyes in the all-time series.
- Dixon finished with a career and game-high four goals in the win, with three of those scores coming during RU's 6-0 scoring run to end the game. Classmate Ava Kane added a hat trick, as the duo combined for seven of Rutgers' 13 goals on the night.
- Graduate student Marin Hartshorn secured the 200th point of her career in the win over Ohio State, becoming just the fifth player in program history to hit the milestone.
- With 184 career goals, Cassidy Spilis needs four goals to pass current volunteer assistant coach Taralyn Naslonski (187 from 2018-22) for the program record. Spilis leads the team with 39 goals this season and is fifth in the conference with 2.79 goals scored per game.
- Senior Meghan Ball was named to the Tewaaraton Award Top 25, announced Thursday by the organization. It marks the second consecutive season Rutgers women's lacrosse landed a student-athlete on the prestigious list after classmate Cassidy Spilis earned top-25 recognition during the 2022 campaign.
- 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 two 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 3.79 caused turnovers per game.
- Ball has caused 53 turnovers this season and has produced three or more caused turnovers in nine games during the spring campaign. Ball has tallied three or more caused turnovers 25 times during her historic career.
- Ball needs two caused turnovers to set a personal career-high with 55.
- Ball is second among active leaders nationally with 147 career-caused turnovers. She is just one behind Sam Thacker of Denver with 148.
- Ball is the program's all-time leader in caused turnovers (147) and draw controls (294), 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: 3.79 (First B1G, First NCAA)
- GBs-Per-Game: 3.14 (First B1G, 12th NCAA)
- DCs-Per-Game: 6.21 (Second B1G, 21st NCAA)
- Cassidy Spilis
- Goals: 39 (Sixth B1G)
- Goals-Per-Game: 2.79 (Fifth B1G)
- Marin Hartshorn
- Assists: 22 (Fourth B1G)
- Assists-Per-Game: 1.57 (Fourth B1G)
- Points-Per-Game: 3.43 (Eighth B1G)
- Jenna Byrne
- Assists: 20 (Fifth B1G)
- Assists-Per-Game: 1.43 (Sixth B1G)
- Sophia Cardello
- Save Percentage: .473 (Third B1G, 22nd NCAA)
- Saves-Per-Game: 8.93 (Second B1G, 31st NCAA)
- Saves: 125 (Third B1G, 31st NCAA)
- Goals Against Average: 10.38 (Fifth B1G, 25th NCAA)
- After a season-opening loss on the road to then-No. 1 North Carolina, the Dukes have won 14 consecutive games and are ranked No. 4 in the latest IWLCA Coaches Poll.
- James Madison delivered a 17-8 win over Cincinnati last Sunday in its last time out.
- JMU owns the third-ranked scoring defense in the country with 7.33 goals allowed per game and is also within the top-30 in scoring offense with 13.73 goals per game.
- Isabella Peterson is fourth in the country with 60 goals this season. Katelyn Morgan leads the team with 27 helpers.
- James Madison leads the all-time series, 6-3. Rutgers won last year's meeting - a 12-5 victory over the Dukes in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
- Rutgers will be on the road as the No. 6 seed to open the 2023 Big Ten Conference Tournament. Its opening-round opponent will be soldified after Sunday action across the league.
