PISCATAWAY, N.J.- No. 16 Rutgers field hockey grabbed its first Big Ten weekly award of the season on Tuesday as goalkeeper Emily Nicholls was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week. Nicholls did not allow a goal in 105 minutes played in the cage, making 11 saves during a 2-0 start for the Scarlet Knights on the opening weekend of the season.
 
Playing in the first two games of her career, the redshirt freshman played the first three quarters against Wagner in the home opener, making three saves and not allowing a goal, departing the contest with RU ahead 4-0 at the time. Then on Sunday, she made her first collegiate road start with a strong performance, blanking Vermont, the reigning America East champions and 2024 NCAA Tournament participants. The Haddon Heights, N.J. native made eight saves to hold the Catamounts off the scoreboard.
 
Nicholls became the first goalkeeper during Meredith Civico's 14 season tenure as RU head coach to not allow a goal across their first two collegiate starts. Her eight saves at Vermont was the second most saves by any RU freshman goalkeeper since 2013, with 32 games started by freshmen goalkeepers in that span, and most by a freshman goalkeeper since Gianna Glatz had nine saves at Michigan in October of 2017.
 
A product of Camden Catholic, she took a redshirt season last fall. Then, Nicholls was named the MVP of the Big Apple Tournament in the spring. She was selected for the Senior Nexus Championships, U-21 USA Junior Women's National Team Selection Camp and was placed on the NFHCA Collegiate Watch List.
 
Rutgers returns to action this weekend with four straight games against teams ranked No. 11 or better in the nation. The Scarlet Knights trip to Columbus this weekend for a pair of neutral site games against No. 11 Syracuse and No. 3 Virginia.