PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers field hockey goalkeeper Sophia Howard was recognized with the national Defensive Player of the Week, the NFHCA announced on Wednesday. Howard earned the top weekly award recognition in the nation for the second time this season after her efforts in a pair of shutout wins for the program last weekend.

With Howard in the cage, RU produced a pair of conference wins in shutout fashion last weekend. RU defeated Michigan State 2-0 on Friday, then toppled then-No. 3 Ohio State by a 1-0 margin on Sunday. Howard made a total of six saves on the weekend.

On Sunday, she helped RU to a monumental victory over the third-ranked Buckeyes. OSU had entered the weekend as the fifth-highest scoring team in the nation at 3.67 goals per game, and Howard blanked them for just the second time all season that their output had been less than two goals.

"We came into the weekend with a changed mindset," Howard explained. "In playing two tough games, we knew we had to defend with everything we had. We were really strong with our passing out of the back and working really hard on our defending and having a mentality to never give up. I'm really proud of how the whole team performed."

The win over No. 3 Ohio State was the team's second ranked win and second top-10 win of the season (also the 15th top-10 win since April of 2021). RU has now won seven consecutive games over Ohio State.  It was only the fourth win in program history over a top-3 team and first since defeating No. 3 Northwestern in 2022.

Howard now has three shutouts on the season, with the pair this weekend her first season the season opening blanking of the Vermont Catamounts. The Auckland, New Zealand native has been part of 14 shutouts in her career. She has made 229 career saves, winning 32 games in the cage, and holding a goals-against-average of 1.61 with a save percentage of 0.716. Howard has made 30 saves in Big Ten play, second in the league.
 

For Howard, this is her second time this season being recognized as the NFHCA's National Defensive Player of the Week. Howard was previously recognized after helping RU defeat then-No. 7 Iowa in September, leading them to a victory via a penalty shootout where she halted three of the four Hawkeye tries. That week, Howard was also named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week, while RU had the league's Freshman of the Week in Anna Cogdell. The awards followed a similar fashion this week, as another top-10 win for the Scarlet Knights resulted in Howard as the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Week, and an RU freshman (this time Sophie Kuiper) earning the Big Ten Freshman of the Week award.  

Next up, RU will host one game this weekend. Friday at 2 p.m. will be the final Big Ten game, as Penn State visits for Senior Day. Howard, a redshirt senior, will be one of eight student-athletes recognized in a postgame ceremony.