Rutgers Olympic Sports: Women's Soccer moving up

Big Ten Field Hockey.  Big Ten Volleyball.  Big Ten, well, just about everything.  It means playing ranked teams more times than not when you face conference foes.  Such was the case for Rutgers FH and VB, as both squads had losing records this past week against B1G opponents.  Women's soccer. though, is making its presence felt in the conference as it picked up two wins.

Men's Soccer     Season record: 3-5-1, 1-2-1 Big Ten

In its only contest of the week, Rutgers faced off against No. 4 Penn State and lost a 1-0 tilt before a crowd of 2,532 in State College.  This was the third consecutive ranked opponent for the men. The teams were scoreless for 79 minutes.  The real difference, though, was in the shots on goal.  PSU outshot Rutgers 22-5.  Sophomore keeper David Greczek made seven saves.

Women's Soccer     Season record: 9-1-1, 5-1-1 Big Ten

The team moved into third place in the Big Ten standings with wins over Indiana and Purdue.  The No. 25/16 Knights topped the Hoosiers 1-0 and then beat the Boilermakers 4-0.  Against Indiana, Senior Stef Scholz scored in the third minute to provide all the scoring the Knights needed. Goalkeeper Casey Murphy made a career-high eight saves in the victory.  The second RU win, over Purdue, saw three players score, led by redshirt junior Amanda DeVolk's two goals.  Junior Hayley Katkowski netted for her first-career goal and senior Stef Scholz rounding out the scoring.  The team is off to its best start since the 2009 season when the squad began 8-1-2.

In addition, rookie goalkeeper Casey Murphy was named Big Ten Co-Defensive Player of the Week, the league announced Monday. Murphy is the first women’s soccer player to earn a Big Ten weekly honor, as she made 11 saves in two Rutgers shutouts to help improve RU to 9-1-1 on the year.

Field Hockey    Season record: 5-6,  0-4 Big Ten

Field Hockey split its two games, losing in-conference to No. 20 Michigan before turning around to beat New Hampshire.  Against the Wolverines, the squad came up just short as the Spartans took a 3-2 victory at the Bauer Track & Field Hockey Complex. Sofia Walia and Katie Champion were the goal scorers for the Scarlet Knights.

Against the Wildcats, two goals by Katie Champion was the difference maker as the Rutgers field hockey squad earned a 2-1 home victory. Champion got her second goal of the day when reshman Jade Dixon sent the ball into the offensive zone for Champion who put it home for a 2-0 lead that Rutgers would never relinquish.

Volleyball     Season record: 7-10,  0-4 Big Ten

Volleyball is meeting the juggernaut called Big Ten Volleyball.  The Knights dropped two matches, losing to No. 15 Purdue, 3-0 and then to Indiana, 3-0.  Head coach CJ Werneke was pleased with the performance.  "Although I was disappointed with set two, I was excited with the team's performance in sets one and three.  This should really boost our player's confidence....To be at 19-20 in set one and to be at 23-24 in set three, it really shows our resiliency and perseverance. We didn't give up despite a poor second set and that is something we can build upon."

Senior Nicole Bayer posted a team-high 21 assists. Junior Ali Schroeter paced the Scarlet Knights with 11 digs.

In the second meet of the weekend, Rutgers fell to Indiana in three straight sets by scores of 25-19, 25-21, and 25-10. Junior middle Mikaela Matthews and freshman Meme Fletcher led Rutgers with five kills. Senior setter Nicole Bayer had 17 assists in the match. Libero Ali Schroeter paced the team with 13 digs.

Golf

Men: Rutgers men's golf finished in 11th place (out of 13 squads) at the Badger Invitational in Wisconsin. The Scarlet Knights finished with a 919 (301-308-310).  Junior Jonathan Chang led the team, finishing 17 (of 78) with a 6-over-par 222 (70-78-74).  Freshman Toks Pedro finished 40th on the individual leaderboard, finishing with a 229 total (77-76-76).

Cross Country

Women: In the Paul Short Run at Lehigh, the women finished 27th of 38 teams in their division.  Head coach James Robinson was pleased with the results.   "We ran very well with runners one through four all running personal bests.  Our fifth and sixth runners were freshmen running their first ever collegiate 6K race. Running against high level competition will assist us in preparing for championship season."

Junior Paige Senatore led the Knights and improved upon her last year's time by 30 seconds. She finished 76th overall with a time of 21:26 on the 6K course.  Senior Brianna Deming came in with a time of 21:47, freshman Megan Coakley ran 21:58 and senior Allison Payenksi finishing in 22:00.

If you can't get to a home contest, many are broadcast - and rebroadcast - on RVision, BTN or BTN Plus

Coming up at home....and nearby