Rutgers women’s sports had a memorable weekend

It was a big weekend for Rutgers women’s sports as many programs and student-athletes had standout performances. Here is a rundown of them all.

Women’s Lacrosse

No. 8 Rutgers women’s lacrosse (1-0) trailed No. 19 Jacksonville 7-5 with 12 minutes remaining in Sunday’s season opener. On the road, the Scarlet Knights delivered a thrilling comeback to win the game on a decisive 4-0 run. After Marin Hartshorn tied the game, Kate Carolonza scored the game winner and added an insurance goal to secure a 9-7 victory.

All-American Cassidy Spilis and Ashlet Moynahan scored twice while Jenna Byrne had three assists. All-American Meghan Ball had 10 draw controls, 5 ground balls and 4 caused turnovers while goalkeeper Sophia Cardello had 10 saves.

It was the 13th ranked win of head coach Melissa Lehman’s Rutgers tenure. You can watch and listen her preview the season ahead on this episode of The Scarlet Faithful podcast.

The Scarlet Knights will next play at Monmouth on Wednesday, February 15 at 2 pm.

Softball

Rutgers softball opened their season with five consecutive wins over the weekend. It marked the best start for the program since 1993. At the Norcal Kickoff, the Scarlet Knights defeated Utah Valley, Santa Clara, Seattle, UC Davis and Sacramento State by  combined score of 31-8.

Shortstop Kyleigh Sand was named the Big Ten Player of the Week after hitting .611 (11-for-18) over five games. She also scored 8 runs, had 3 RBIs and stole 7 bases. Payton Lincavage led RU with 8 RBIs and a home run. Jaden Vickers went 2-0 along with a save and 0.57 ERA over 12 1/3 innings pitched.

The Scarlet Knights will next play in the Mardi Gras Classic on February 17-19 with games against Missouri State, Mississippi Valley State and South Alabama.

Tennis

The tennis team is now off to a 7-1 start this spring. This past weekend, they notched wins against Seton Hall, LIU and FDU. They’ll next host UMass on Saturday, February 18.

Gymnastics

In a 196.875-196.325 loss to Maryland on Saturday, the gymnastics team still made history. For the first time ever, Rutgers scored over 196 points as a team twice in a single season. It was also the third highest team score in program history. RU also broke the program floor record with a score of 49.425. Lastly, Hannah Joyner broke her own all-around program record of 39.575 and extended her record in having 32 career event scores of 9.9 or better.

The Scarlet Knights will next compete in a Big Ten dual meet at Iowa on Saturday, February 18.

Track & Field

In the final regular season indoor meet, track and field had three female student-athletes set school records. The women’s team has now set 12 program records this indoor season. Over the weekend, Dennisha Page bested her own school record in the 60 meter with a time of 7.26. Kassidy Johnson broke Alex Carlson’s program record in the 800 meter a week after Carlson broke Johnson’s record in the 1,000 meter. Johnson ran a 2:05.75 at the Valentine Invitational to set the new record. In addition, Carlson reset her own record in the 3,000 meter by almost 20 seconds in running 8:56.15. She is the current program record holder in the 1,000 meter, the mile and 3,000 meter.

Both the men’s and women’s teams will next compete at the Big Ten Championships in Geneva, Ohio on February 24-25.

Kaylene Smikle

While the Rutgers women’s basketball team suffered it’s worst loss of the season on the road to No. 6 Iowa, freshman Kaylene Smikle played one of the best games of her standout rookie season. She scored 28 points on 9 of 14 shooting along with 5 rebounds and 5 steals. She was also a perfect 8 of 8 from the foul line and has made 23 free throws in a row. Smikle was also 2 of 4 from three-point range. It was the 21st double digit game of the season and 12th in scoring 20+ points. Smikle is fourth in Big Ten play in averaging 19.9 points per game and sixth in steals with 2.2 per contest.

The Scarlet Knights (10-16; 4-10) will next host Northwestern on Wednesday night at the RAC.

Swimming & Diving

One last note is that the Swimming & Diving team competes at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan from February 15-18. In their last dual meet of the season, they defeated Nebraska on Senior Day.

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