PISCATAWAY, N.J. - No. 18 Rutgers field hockey has a big two-game conference weekend on tap. The Scarlet Knights will first travel to Michigan State for a Friday game that will be broadcast on Big Ten Network. They then return home to host No. 25 Ohio State on Sunday. Sunday is the White Out Game, with a white rally towel giveaway and fans encouraged to all wear white.
Rutgers is coming off a 1-1 weekend that was highlighted by a 2-1 overtime victory against No. 12 Stanford. The victory over the 12th ranked team in the nation is the highest ranked victory in program history. The win joined victories over No. 19 Iowa and No. 23 Old Dominion to give RU three ranked wins this season. The team entered the year with just three ranked wins all-time, all previously having come under current head coach
Meredith Civico.
"This weekend is a huge weekend for us," head coach Meredith Civico said. "Michigan State is always a tough team. We have to be mentally and physically ready. They are always a bit unpredictable. They are a team that doesn't stop for 70 minutes. We really have to stay focused, take our chances early."
"Ohio State has a new coach, who is an incredible coach. They are well organized, deliberate, they have a plan. It's a different Ohio State team than we've seen in the past. We need to take it one game at a time, focus on Michigan State first."
Daphne Groothuis scored the game-winning goal in the 82nd minute of action against the Cardinal. The freshman now leads the team with seven goals, six assists, and 20 points on the year. It is a Dutch duo atop the Rutgers' stat leaders, as a fellow Netherlands native, junior
Linde van Schaik, shares the team lead with seven goals and is second with 18 points. Van Schaik will play her 50th career game Friday.
Groothuis has led a youth movement on this squad. RU has just two upperclassmen as regular starters this season in van Schaik and senior captain and midfielder
Haley Meade. Last weekend, Rutgers started five freshmen (Groothuis, goalkeeper
Gianna Glatz, back
Kerrie Burns, midfielder
Gianna Mancini and forward
Kassidy Shetler) and four sophomores (back
Austyn Cuneo, back
Emily Howarth, back
Alanna Gollotto and forward
Nikki Santore).
The Scarlet Knights are at No. 18 in this week's NFHCA Coaches Poll and No. 17 in the most recent edition of the NCAA RPI. Both marks are the highest of the season for RU.
Michigan State enters the weekend at 7-7, having won four of its past six games. MSU is led offensively by Kendall Anderson (seven goals, 15 points). In goal, Katie Miller has played 675 out of 1050 minutes, with a 3.07 goals-against-average and .709 save percentage. The Spartans lead the all-time series 8-3-1, with RU's last win coming in 1989.
Ohio State joined the national rankings this week at No. 25 after a 3-1 stretch that featured a ranked win over No. 11 Stanford rose their record to 7-6. They are still searching for their first conference win at 0-4. Maddy Humphrey leads the squad with seven goals and 18 points, while Liz Tamburro has played every minute between the pipes with a 1.45 goals-against-average and .759 save percentage. The all-time series is knotted at 3-3, with RU winning two of the three matchups since joining the Big Ten.
