Rutgers Olympic Sports: Teams head for conference tournaments

Cross Country - Big Ten Conference Meet

For Rutgers, Junior Paige Senatore was the top women's finisher (47th) and freshman Luke Wiley (87th) were the top finishers at the Knights' first Big Ten Cross Country Championships.  The women came in 12th of 14 teams while the men finished 12th of 12 teams. Michigan State won the women's title while Wisconsin took the men's crown.

BTN will offer delayed coverage of the Big Ten Cross Country Championships at 5 PM ET on Wednesday, Nov. 12.

Men's Soccer    Season Record 5-10-1, Big Ten 1-5-1

The men dropped an out of conference game to Bradley, 1-0 at home.  The team has scored only 17 goals in 16 games, having been shutout six times. The Knights have one game remaining, against second place Maryland, before the Big Ten tournament where they will face Wisconsin in a play-in game next Saturday, probably at Penn State vs. Wisconsin.

11/05/14

vs. Maryland *

Yurcak Field

7:00 p.m. ET

Big Ten Men's Soccer Tournament

Saturday, November 8	TBD	First Round: No. 8 vs. No. 9	Site of No. 1 seed	TBD
Sunday, November 9	TBD	Quarterfinals - Game 1	Site TBD	TBD
Sunday, November 9	TBD	Quarterfinals - Game 2*	Site TBD	TBD
Sunday, November 9	TBD	Quarterfinals - Game 3*	Site TBD	TBD
Sunday, November 9	TBD	Quarterfinals - Game 4*	Site TBD	TBD

Women's Soccer  12-4-1, 8-4-1

The women split the week's games, losing to Minnesota, 2-0 before bouncing back to defeat Ohio State by the same 2-0 score.  Stephanie Scholz scored her sixth goal of the season and Madison Tiernan notched her sixth goal in the win against the Buckeyes.  Rutgers faces Iowa as the fourth seed as the B1G tournament starts on Wednesday.

Big Ten Women's Soccer Tournament

Wednesday, November 5	10:30 AM	No. 4 Rutgers vs No. 5 Iowa	West Lafayette, IN	BTN Plus
Wednesday, November 5	1:30 PM	No. PSU 1 vs No. 8 Northwestern	West Lafayette, IN	BTN Plus
Wednesday, November 5	4:30 PM	No. 2 Wisconsin vs No. 7 Illinois	West Lafayette, IN	BTN Plus
Wednesday, November 5	7:30 PM	No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 6 Minnesota	West Lafayette, IN	BTN Plus
Friday, November 7	11 AM	Semifinal #1	West Lafayette, IN	BTN/BTN2Go
Friday, November 7	2 PM**	Semifinal #2*	West Lafayette, IN	BTN/BTN2Go
Sunday, November 9	3 PM	Championship	West Lafayette, IN	BTN/BTN2Go

Volleyball  Season Record 7-18, Big Ten 0-12

Volleyball dropped two conference matches, losing to No. 14 Nebraska 3-0 and then going to four sets before losing against Iowa.

After the Nebraska match, head coach CJ Werneke commented, "I am really excited for our players. They really came out and competed from point one until the end of the set. We are growing and developing, which is all part of the process. To be competitive in this league you have to maintain a high level of play from start to finish of each set and we showed that tonight. We are proving to these teams that we belong. More matches like this and we will be well on our way."

Sophomore middle Lauren Cloyd knocked down a team-high 12 kills, while senior setter Nicole Bayer put up a team-best 25 assists. Defensively, junior libero Ali Schroeter maintained a solid performance, pulling up 21 digs from a powerful opposition. Rutgers paced Nebraska in blocks with junior middle Mikaela Matthews adding a team-high five stops.

Junior outside Alex Lassa paced the squad with 12 kills on the night. Senior Nicole Bayer put up 21 assists, while freshman setter Talia Holze added 15 of her own. Holze also tied her career-high with two service aces.

Defensively, junior libero Ali Schroeter pulled up 19 digs.

11/07/14	at Penn State *	University Park, Pa.	7:00 p.m. ET
11/08/14	at Ohio State *	Columbus, Ohio	7:00 p.m. ET

Field Hockey  Season record 9-9, Big Ten 2-6

A 3-0 week, including a conference win, wrapped up the regular season for the Knights. Rachel Yaney and Jasmine Cole scored the goals for the Knights in their 2-1 win over JMU. Rutgers won by an identical 2-1 score over Indiana with Nicole Imbriaco and Sofia Walia hitting the back of the cage. "It was a great win," head coach Meredith Long said about the win over the Hoosiers. "The team performed well under pressure. There was a lot on the line today and we played composed, mature hockey. It was a tough game, but we earned the win at the end of the day." The team ended the week on Senior Day with a victory over Penn.  Katie Champion (2) and Rachel Yaney tallied for the Knights.

Big Ten Field Hockey Tournament

Thursday, Nov. 6	10 AM	No. 1 Maryland vs No. 8 Ohio State	Ann Arbor, MI	BTN Plus
Thursday, Nov. 6	12:30 PM	No. 4 PSU vs No. 5 MSU	Ann Arbor, MI	BTN Plus
Thursday, Nov. 6	3 PM	Michigan No. 2 vs Rutgers No. 7	Ann Arbor, MI	BTN Plus
Thursday, Nov. 6	5:30 PM	No. 3 Northwestern vs No. 6 Iowa	Ann Arbor, MI	BTN Plus
Friday, November 7	1 PM	Semifinal #1	Ann Arbor, MI	BTN/BTN2Go
Friday, November 7	3:45 PM	Semifinal #2*	Ann Arbor, MI	BTN/BTN2Go
Sunday, Nov. 9	1 PM	Championship	Ann Arbor, MI	BTN/BTN2Go

* Quarterfinal #2 and #3 and semifinal #2 will begin no earlier than the above time, or 40 minutes after conclusion of previous game

Swimming & Diving

In its first competitive dual meet of the season, the Rutgers swimming and diving team dominated Wagner. The Scarlet Knights posted a final score of 168-112 highlighted by 13 first-place finishes out of 16 events.

"It was great to see the team get off to a solid start with some very strong swimming and diving at this point in the season," said head coach Phil Spiniello. "I am proud of the team and hope we can carry this momentum into next weekend's meet."

The Scarlet Knights put up their best performance of the day in the 100 freestyle, sweeping the top three sports. Junior Sarah Coyne touched the wall first at 52.47. Sophomore Meghan Kiely came in next with a time of 53.43, followed by junior Julia Kudryashova with a time of 54.19.

RU also notched the top-two spots in a total of four events.

In the  200 free relay, the team of junior Kudryashova, Kiely, Coyne and junior Sophie Newton hit the wall first at 1:38.15. The group of sophomore Chantal Asselin senior Brogan Lee sophomore Barbra Brottman and senior Caroline Carlisle came in second at 1:42.84.

Senior Greta Leberfinger finished first in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:19.17, followed by sophomore Rachel Stoddard with a 2:24.91 result.
In the 50 free, Coyne touched the wall first at 24.22. Junior Joanna Wu (Kent, Wash.) was close behind, getting the touch at 24.25. Leberfinger and freshman Emily Erwin went on to take first and second respectively in the 400 individual medley.

On the boards, sophomore Alyssa Black placed first in both the 1-meter dive (229.64) and 3-meter dive (235.13).

11/07/14	Villanova/Georgetown/Seton Hall	RU Aquatic Center	4:00 p.m. ET
11/08/14	Villanova/Georgetown/Seton Hall	RU Aquatic Center	10:00 a.m. ET