Rutgers Olympic sports: The Final Countdown

Men's Soccer

They probably deserve their own story, like the women.  That's coming.  The men are still in the regular season with one contest remaining, a big one at Maryland tomorrow night.  It will take some help from others, but the Knights have positioned themselves to win the regular season B1G title.

The No. 21 men topped Nebraska-Omaha last Saturday, winning their seventh straight contest, as senior Mitchell Taintor scored in the 39th minute to put the Knights at 11-4-1 (4-3-0 B1G).

Regardless of the Maryland match and the Big Ten tourney, the Knights have made significant moves in national polls.  They are No. 21 in the coaches' poll and sit at No. 29 in the RPI.

The Final Countdown

Below is what's on the docket for tomorrow night, the final games of the regular season.  RU needs to beat Maryland,  That settles a lot.  But a win by Michigan over OSU and a Wisconsin win over the Wildcats makes things easier.

Wednesday, Nov. 4
INDIANA at MICHIGAN STATE, 3 p.m.
RUTGERS at MARYLAND, 7 p.m.
MICHIGAN at OHIO STATE, 7 p.m.
NORTHWESTERN at WISCONSIN, 8 p.m.

2015 Men's Soccer Standings

Updated through 11/1.

Results and Upcoming Contests

Field Hockey

The record shows losses, more of them than wins.  But the fight has been there, shown again in the season finale.  Another loss, but another loss to a ranked team.  Field hockey dropped its season finale, losing a 1-0 decision at No. 9 Louisville on Sunday afternoon. The Scarlet Knights finish the 2015 campaign with a 7-11 record.

"It was a really hard fought game today," head coach Meredith Civico said. "Louisville is a really strong team, being in the top ten in the country. I saw a lot of good things from the team down the final stretch of the season that we can take moving forward."

Results

10/30/15	at Indiana *	Bloomington, Ind.	L, 2-0
11/01/15	at Louisville	Louisville, Ky.	L, 1-0

Volleyball

Concluding a three-game road swing, the Rutgers volleyball team dropped its match at Iowa on Saturday night. The Scarlet Knights fell by the slim margins of 25-20, 25-19 and 25-20.

Rutgers fell to an overall record of 4-20 and a 1-11 record in conference play. Iowa improved to 11-14 and picked up its first conference win of the season for an identical league mark of 1-11.

Results and Upcoming Matches

10/30/15	at Nebraska	Lincoln, Neb.	L, 3-0
10/31/15	at Iowa *	Iowa City, Iowa	L, 3-0
11/ 6/15	vs. Penn State *	College Ave. Gym	7:00 p.m. ET
11/ 7/15	vs. Ohio State *	College Ave. Gym	7:00 p.m. ET

Cross Country

It was not a good conference meet for either the men or the women.  The men finished 12th (of 12) while the women finished last among the 14 teams.

On the men's side, Freshman Conor Murphy was the top finisher for RU, securing 51st place with a time of 24:41.0. Sophomore Luke Wiley produced the second-best time with a mark of 24:52.7 for 66th place, while senior Jaimin Vekaria finished the race in 79th with a time of 25:12.6. For the women, Allyson Black led the Scarlet Knights with a 16th place finish.  Black crossed the finish line in a time of 20:30.6 for RU's best individual finish at the championships since joining the Big Ten Conference last season. She bested her previous top 6K time of 21:45.7, which she captured at the Princeton Invitational in mid-October. Sophomore  Alexandra Juzwiak also collected a PR with her finish of 22:30.1. Juzwiak took eight seconds off her previous top time from last year's NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional.

Swimming & Diving

The women open their season this week at home.