PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers women's lacrosse (8-9, 2-6) opens the 2025 Big Ten Tournament with No. 7 Maryland (12-4, 7-1) on Wednesday in College Park. First draw from Maryland's Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex is set for 3 p.m., with the game streamed on Big Ten Plus. The Scarlet Knights face the Terrapins for the second time in three outings, nearly defeating UMD on April 16 at SHI Stadium before losing 8-7 in their home finale.
 
RU enters the postseason as the tournament's No. 7 seed, with Maryland the No. 2 seed. The winner will face winner of No. 3 seed Michigan and No. 6 seed USC on Friday, April 25 in College Park. That game will start at approximately 7 p.m. with a national broadcast on Big Ten Network.
 
It marks the second consecutive season RU opens the Big Ten Tournament with Maryland. As the No. 6 seed, Rutgers down No. 3 seed Maryland, 9-8, last spring in College Park, advancing to its fourth consecutive Big Ten Semifinal under head coach Melissa Lehman.
 

Last Time Out

• Rutgers lost at No. 13 Michigan, 12-9, last Saturday in Ann Arbor. With the Scarlet Knights trailing just 9-8 late in the third quarter, the Wolverines closed the game with a 3-1 scoring run to secure their Big Ten Conference win at U-M Lacrosse Stadium.
• Rookies Caroline Ling and Delainey Sutley both registered hat tricks in the loss, finishing as two of five goal scorers for RU. Senior captain Emalie Clothier caused two turnovers, while graduate student goalkeeper Lexie Coldiron produced nine saves in cage.

What to Know

• Rutgers has won four consecutive opening games of the Big Ten Tournament dating back to the 2021 season. The streak includes two consecutive quarterfinal wins over higher-seeded opponents
  • 2024: Big Ten Quarterfinals: No. 6 seed Rutgers 9, No. 3 seed Maryland 8
  • 2023: Big Ten Quarterfinals: No. 6 seed Rutgers 15, No. 3 seed Johns Hopkins 14
  • 2022: Big Ten Tournament Semifinals: No. 3 seed Rutgers 13, No. 2 seed Northwestern 5
  • 2021: Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals: No. 4 seed Rutgers 19, No. 5 seed Ohio State 13
• The Scarlet Knights look to advance to their fifth consecutive Big Ten semifinal. RU defeated No. 7 Maryland, 9-8, last April in College Park to move to the 2024 Big Ten Semifinals, where they lost to Penn State.
• Rutgers last advanced to the Big Ten Championship in 2022 after they defeated No. 6 Northwestern, 13-5, at SHI Stadium. It marked just the second conference championship game in the program's history.

What to Know

• Rutgers is No. 37 in the latest RPI with three wins over the RPI top 50 (No. 24 Stony Brook, 31 Delaware and No. 43 Ohio State).
• The Scarlet Knights have played eight programs ranked in the RPI top 25 (No. 3 Northwestern, No. 4 Princeton, No. 7 Johns Hopkins, No. 8 Maryland, No. 10 Yale, No. 16 Michigan, No. 21 Army and No. 24 Stony Brook).
• Graduate student goalkeeper Lexie Coldiron leads the country in saves with 183 this season. Coldiron is seventh nationally and first in the Big Ten with 10.76 saves per game is fourth in the country with a .511 save percentage. Coldiron has earned weekly recognition from both the IWLCA and Big Ten this season and was recently added to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List.
• Junior Katie Buck has averaged 5.53 draw controls per game this season and owns 94 on the season. Buck needs six more draw controls to become just the sixth player in program history to log 100 or more draw controls in a single season.
• Junior Lily Dixon lead the team with 49 points on 33 assists and 16 goals. Dixon is 26th nationally and fourth in the conference in total assists and is fifth in the Big Ten with 2.00 assists per game.
• Dixon needs six assists to tie Steph Kelly (2022) for the most in a single season at Rutgers with 39.
• True freshmen have contributed significantly on both sides of the field this season. Rookies Delainey Sutley (25), Caroline Ling (20) and Hilary Elsner (17) rank fourth, sixth and eighth on the team, respectively, in points. Charlee Thomas has started all 17 games on defense, Bianca Chiarella is tied for second on the team with 13 caused turnovers and Sienna Cassella has secured 10 ground balls and nine draw controls.