With Big Ten action in full swing for the Fall sports and all of the programs in action this past weekend, here is a summary report for each Rutgers team.
No. 7 Field Hockey (9-0; 1-0)
Meredith Civico’s team continued the best start in program history with a 4-2 win at No. 18 UMass on Sunday. After surrendering a goal in the first minute of the game, RU scored four straight before allowing a late score. Guillermina Caurasano produced a hat trick while Indy van Ek scored once. Caurasano leads the team with 20 points and is tied with Puck Winter for the team lead in goals with seven. It was the fourth ranked win of the season for the Scarlet Knights as well as a tied a program record eighth road victory. At 9-0 overall and 1-0 in Big Ten play, Rutgers finally has all of its starters back and healthy for the first time this season. It’s been a tremendous start for the field hockey team. A showdown approaches on Thursday, September 28 as RU hosts No. 8 Maryland (7-2; 0-0), Civico’s alma mater where she won a national title with as a player.
Hat trick! Take a look at the third goal from Guillermina Causarano!
The Scarlet Knights earned a much needed win on Sunday at home with a 1-0 victory over Purdue (3-7-1; 0-2-1). Emily Mason scored the game’s lone goal just two minutes in on a beautiful cross into the box from Riley Tiernan on a corner kick. After losing to Indiana and No. 4 Penn State to open Big Ten play, Sunday’s win was crucial to turning its season around. Goalkeeper Olivia Bodmer was excellent once again with a six save shutout in which Rutgers was outshot 19-10 by the Boilermakers. It was Tiernan’s 20th assist of her career, putting her in 7th place in program history and just nine away from the all-time record. A critical three game road trip is next with stops at Nebraska (7-2-2; 1-1-1) on September 28, at Iowa (6-1-3; 0-1-2) on October 1, and at Maryland (3-3-5; 0-2-1) on October 7.
The Scarlet Knights droppedits Big Ten home opener on Sunday to No. 19 Purdue (8-3; 2-0) in three sets 25-19, 25-20, 25-21. There were 24 ties in the match. Alissa Kinkela led RU with 18 kills. Rutgers has now lost three straight matches after a strong start to the season. The recent defeats came to in-state rival Princeton and No. 15 Penn State before Sunday. They’ll host a much improved Maryland squad at the RAC on Wednesday, September 27. The Terps are off to an 11-2 start and 1-0 in Big Ten play. The game will air live on BTN at 6:00 p.m. ET.
Men’s Soccer (2-4-2; 0-1-1)
It was a disappointing Big Ten road opener on Friday for head coach Jim McElderry’s team in what has been a disappointing season so far. Rutgers took an early 2-0 lead at Michigan before surrendering three unanswered goals in the second half. The Scarlet Knights were unable to build momentum after Jackson Temple’s 90th minute goalto tie Michigan State in the its league opening match at Yurcak Field on September 17. RU will look to turn things around against Ohio State (2-4-2; 0-2-0) on Friday, September 29 at Yurcak Field.
Women’s Tennis
Rutgers finishedthree days of competition this past weekend at the Yale Invitational. Rutgers went 17-20 overall including 9-15 in singles matches and 8-4 in doubles matches. Mai Nguyen and Amira Badawi won all three doubles matches together and combined for three singles wins.
On Friday against the hosts, they won just one of eight singles matches but won all four doubles matches.
On Saturday, the Scarlet Knights won five of nine singles matches and split the four doubles matches.
On Sunday, RU split the four doubles matches and won three of seven singles matches against Boston University.
Head coach Hilary Ritchie’s team is back in action at the ITA Regional, hosted by Columbia University in New York City on October 6-8.
Men’s Golf
The Rutgers men’s golf team finished in the top 10 in back to back tournaments last week with a seventh place finish at the Chicago Highlands Invitational hosted by Wake Forest. The Scarlet Knights shot four-under par with a final score of 860 (294-284-282). Luke Wells led the way by finishing in a fifth place tie after making ten birdies over the final two rounds. The Scarlet Knights will next compete at the Fighting Irish Classic hosted by Notre Dame in South Bend on October 1-2.
Women’s Golf
Rutgers women’s golf will begin playat the Molly Collegiate Invitational on Monday in Seaside, California at the Bayonet Golf Course. The tournament is hosted by California and Oregon State at Bayonet Golf Course. They’ll play two rounds on Monday with the third and final round on Tuesday. It’s a very competitive field with six regional qualifies from last season. They include 2022 national finalist Oregon, both hosts Oregon State and Cal, Maryland, Kansas and San Jose State. The Scarlet Knights tied for 11th place at the Badger Invitational last week.
Cross Country
Rutgers cross country wasn’t in action this past weekend. Their last competition was on September 9 when the women’s team claimedthe top three spots at the LIU Fall Festival. Alex Carlson, Sofia Condron and Rylee Ferretti swept the podium for the team win. The men’s team finished second overall with three top ten finishes. RU competed in that event after being unable to travel to The Badger Classic in Wisconsin due to bad weather. The program will next compete in the Paul Short Run at Lehigh on September 30.
Football (3-1; 1-1)
Rutgers lost on Saturday to No. 2 Michigan 31-7 for its first defeat of the season. Our coverage included three takeaways, a rapid reaction podcast, Greg Schiano’s commentsregarding the missed opportunities as well as reasons you should believein the offense after the loss. You can also watch a video produced by The Scarlet Faithful below.
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What a great summary of all of our fall sports wrapped into one concise article. Good read. Thank you.
I don’t even want to talk about the men’s soccer team blowing a 2-0 lead in the disaster at Michigan. I will, however, comment on the rain drenched win the women walked away with yesterday. I usually refrain from using terms like ‘lucky’ but RU was lucky to escape the game with the win. Had Bodmer not come up huge a few times Purdue would have left the field with a 3-1 win. Short passing from the defenders on a wet surface with a pressuring offense from Purdue resulted in countless turnovers and near scores. Watching, you’d almost think the RU women hadn’t played on a wet surface before. It was a terrible game with Tiernan earning her third yellow card of the season. She’s lucky it wasn’t a red card since she basically threw her opponent on the ground after the play. Fortunately, the ref considered the foul continuous. It was close enough where many other refs would have pulled the red card. Now about the midfield: Daigle was sterling. Her passes to the forwards created scoring opportunities. Why she is seeing such limited playing time is a mystery. Minimally, she and Brocious should be splitting time in the center midfield. A win is a win. Next.
Thanks again for your take on the soccer games. Maybe I’m wrong, but it’s hard not to think that the expectations for the both soccer teams were too high. I suppose there still may be some hope that both teams will put it all together by the Big Ten tournament, but I’m finding it harder not to think that what we’ve seen is all we’re going to get over the remainder of the season.
No, I don’t think the expectations were too high. Both teams earned NCAA tournament invitations last season. Both lost a few players but maintained the core of the teams. Both made portal additions to fill critical gaps. Both ended last season and started this season with talk of going deeper in the tournament.
I think the men will continue to improve. The coach has no issues making adjustments and moving players in a constant shuffle to find the optimal combination that yields the best results. The women’s coach, on the other hand, clings to the same line up unless forced to adjust due to injury. I often wonder if the staff takes the time to look at the game film, analyze, review and adjust to what they see. It sure seems like our competitors have scouted our team and know how to leverage our weaknesses. I think the women will be an average team in the Big Ten. I doubt we’ll see them in the NCAA tournament. Once the men lock onto the right combination they could ignite and earn a bid.
The women are on BTN tonight @ Nebraska @ 8PM EST. Nebraska is 7-2-2. In their last game they lost to PSU 1-0 @ PSU. PSU is the only common opponent. It should be a good game between two good teams where our defense is tested (again) against a team that scores a lot of goals.
Henry Rutgers
September 25, 2023 at 8:36 am
What a great summary of all of our fall sports wrapped into one concise article. Good read. Thank you.
I don’t even want to talk about the men’s soccer team blowing a 2-0 lead in the disaster at Michigan. I will, however, comment on the rain drenched win the women walked away with yesterday. I usually refrain from using terms like ‘lucky’ but RU was lucky to escape the game with the win. Had Bodmer not come up huge a few times Purdue would have left the field with a 3-1 win. Short passing from the defenders on a wet surface with a pressuring offense from Purdue resulted in countless turnovers and near scores. Watching, you’d almost think the RU women hadn’t played on a wet surface before. It was a terrible game with Tiernan earning her third yellow card of the season. She’s lucky it wasn’t a red card since she basically threw her opponent on the ground after the play. Fortunately, the ref considered the foul continuous. It was close enough where many other refs would have pulled the red card. Now about the midfield: Daigle was sterling. Her passes to the forwards created scoring opportunities. Why she is seeing such limited playing time is a mystery. Minimally, she and Brocious should be splitting time in the center midfield. A win is a win. Next.
pj43
September 25, 2023 at 3:27 pm
Thanks again for your take on the soccer games. Maybe I’m wrong, but it’s hard not to think that the expectations for the both soccer teams were too high. I suppose there still may be some hope that both teams will put it all together by the Big Ten tournament, but I’m finding it harder not to think that what we’ve seen is all we’re going to get over the remainder of the season.
Henry Rutgers
September 26, 2023 at 8:38 am
No, I don’t think the expectations were too high. Both teams earned NCAA tournament invitations last season. Both lost a few players but maintained the core of the teams. Both made portal additions to fill critical gaps. Both ended last season and started this season with talk of going deeper in the tournament.
I think the men will continue to improve. The coach has no issues making adjustments and moving players in a constant shuffle to find the optimal combination that yields the best results. The women’s coach, on the other hand, clings to the same line up unless forced to adjust due to injury. I often wonder if the staff takes the time to look at the game film, analyze, review and adjust to what they see. It sure seems like our competitors have scouted our team and know how to leverage our weaknesses. I think the women will be an average team in the Big Ten. I doubt we’ll see them in the NCAA tournament. Once the men lock onto the right combination they could ignite and earn a bid.
pj43
September 26, 2023 at 2:48 pm
Appreciate the frank & thoughtful reply
Henry Rutgers
September 28, 2023 at 9:04 am
The women are on BTN tonight @ Nebraska @ 8PM EST. Nebraska is 7-2-2. In their last game they lost to PSU 1-0 @ PSU. PSU is the only common opponent. It should be a good game between two good teams where our defense is tested (again) against a team that scores a lot of goals.