PISCATAWAY, N.J.- No. 16 Rutgers field hockey is off to a strong start to the 2025 campaign, opening the year with a 2-0 record. The Scarlet Knights are hitting the road this weekend to play in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. RU travels to Columbus, Ohio to face a pair of ACC teams in No. 11 Syracuse (Friday, 1 pm) and No. 3 Virginia (Sunday, 11 a.m.). Both games will be live streamed on B1G+ from the campus of Ohio State University.
Friday vs. Syracuse (1 p.m.):
Live Stream |
Live Stats
Sunday vs. Virginia (11 a.m.):
Live Stream |
Live Stats
The Scarlet Knights are ranked No. 16 to start the year. Since the Scarlet Knights first earned a ranking under
Meredith Civico in 2017, the Scarlet Knights have earned a ranking at one point each season, including every preseason poll since 2018.
To open the year, RU has won the first two games, downing Wagner, 5-1 in the season opener and then earning a 2-0 road win at Vermont. The Scarlet Knights got seven goals on the weekend from seven different players. Against Wagner,
Maddie Kidd,
Olivia Fraticelli,
Lyla Rehill,
Maddie Olshemski and
Olivia de Zwaan all scored their first goal as Scarlet Knights, with last four mentioned above scoring their first collegiate goal. In Burlington, two of the team's top three leading goal scorers from last season,
Puck Winter and
Sophie Kuiper, tallied in the victory.
Goalkeeper
Emily Nicholls was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week. 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.
With a Win Friday
- First ranked win of the season
- 18th win over a top-12 team since 2021
- First win over Syracuse since 2021
- First win over an ACC school since the Syracuse win in 2021 and 15th lifetime win against the ACC
With a Win Sunday
- First ever win over Virginia
- Second straight season with a top-3 win
- Highest ever ranked win coming away from home
- Highest ranked non-conference win
- 4th top-3 win since 2021
- 8th top-5 win since 2021
- 21st top-10 win since 2018
Competition kicks into high gear starting this week, as RU will play four straight teams ranked among the top-12 teams in the nation. Next weekend, RU travels to No. 11 UConn on Friday and then hosts No. 10 Princeton on Sunday.
- This is the first time since joining the Big Ten that RU has had four straight games against ranked non-conference opponents
- Rutgers has had a stretch of at least four straight games against ranked teams every season since Spring 2021 (covid-adjusted 2020 season)
- The last time that RU played at least four games in a row against teams ranked No. 11 or better was Spring 2021 - RU played six straight games vs. No. 6 Michigan, No. 9 Penn State and No. 2 Northwestern - and went 4-2 in that stretch
"The team is playing some excellent hockey, especially this early in the season. The connections are improving with each training and match. This coming weekend will be a great test for the squad."
Syracuse is a common opponent for RU, including a frequent opponent in preseason scrimmages. The Scarlet Knights have played Syracuse 28 times, including 24 times in the past 31 years. RU played Syracuse every season as BIG EAST foes from 1994 to 2012, then three times since. RU last met Syracuse in 2022, a 4-3 road loss, and last defeated them in 2021, a 3-2 double overtime home win.
Syracuse opened the season with a 2-0 mark last weekend, defeating Lock Haven, 15-0, and Fairfield, 5-2.
Bo van Kempen, an All-American and First Team All-ACC selection last season, had 15 goals and eight defensive saves last year. Last weekend, she had nine goals to earn ACC Offensive Player of the Week honors, including a program record six tallies in the opener.
Cuse has a former Scarlet Knight on the roster in Liz Stange. Stange played just one season of collegiate field hockey, coming four years ago in the Covid-adjusted Spring season of 2021. Stange played in 14 games for RU, making 11 starts, and scoring two goals, both coming in back-to-back games against Michigan State.
Last season, the Orange went 13-7 overall and earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament.
Virginia and Rutgers have just met four times lifetime: 2007, 2014, 2015 and 2016, all wins for the Cavaliers. All four games were one score games and two of the past three games went into overtime. The Cavs were ranked in the top-15 nationally in all four games, including three times in the top-10.
Lauren Sloan was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Week. Junior Mia Abello and graduate student Suze Leemans were named Preseason All-ACC.
Last season, UVA went 14-5 overall and earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament, defeating Michigan in the First Round. The Cavs were ranked in the top-five all last regular season.
Puck Winter is on the top-10 all time in NCAA history in defensive saves. The reigning two-time NCAA stat leader in the statistic, Winter is tied for 9
th in NCAA history with 25
career defensive saves.
With one more defensive save, Winter become the outright Big Ten leader in career defensive saves and would have the second most defensive save of any D-I NCAA player since 2001 (24 seasons).
- Michelle Cargen, Holy Cross (1987-90): 58
- Susan Crafts, Virginia (1982-85): 38
- Amy Gielle, William & Mary (1993-96): 34
- Beth Senic, Ohio State (1985-88): 31
- Angie King, Quinnipiac (2013-16): 31
- Chantal Lacroix, Holy Cross (1990-93): 30
- Wendy Barker, Holy Cross (1985-88): 29
- Monica McCorry, Bucknell (1998-01): 29
T-9. Puck Winter, Rutgers: 25
T-9. Andrea Wiggins (1988-91): 25
T-9. Jenn Sciulli, Ohio State (2008-11): 25
T-9. Emily Trudeau, Pacific (2009-12): 25
Rutgers field hockey alumn Katie Larmour was recently honored with her first ever selection to the senior national team for her country. Larmour earned six caps with Team Ireland this summer, playing against Team USA in an exhibition match in Charlotte, then competing for Team Ireland in early August in the EuroHockey Championships.
Alumn Iris Langejans also recently begun a professional career back home in the Netherlands, playing with HC Rotterdam Dames 1 at the highest level of Dutch professional field hockey.
Since her first day as head coach for Meredith Civico, the foundation of Rutgers Field Hockey has been the culture, about intentionally creating a family atmosphere that allows student-athletes to thrive as students, as athletes and as people. By attracting and recruiting the very best players and staff over her fourteen years as head coach, and giving them an environment in which they flourish, Meredith Civico has built the program into one of the top in the Big Ten – and the nation. The core tenant for the program has been the establishment of a strong, positive culture where progression is expected, differences are celebrated and family is everything. The feeling of togetherness in the locker room and when competing is what makes this team special and unique.
"Culture is something you have to work at every single day; it doesn't just happen," Civico explained. "We have this acronym: RUTGERS that stands for our core values: Relentless, United, Tenacious, Gritty, Excellence, Respect, Strength. These aren't just words on a wall – they're how we live. We're not just coaching a sport; we're coaching people. Sports are played by people, and people are the most important."
