Rutgers Fall Olympic Sports Updates

It’s been a busy past week for all the fall Olympic sports teams at Rutgers, so let’s get caught up on all the action here.

Field Hockey

The Scarlet Knights fell down 3-0 at halftime last Friday against #6 Northwestern (9-2; 3-0) at home. They battled throughout and while they scored 3 goals in the second half, it wasn’t enough and they lost 5-3 to the first place team in the Big Ten. Alyssa Bull, Katie Larmour, and Sarah Regn all scored for Rutgers. Bull also added an assist, the 19th of her career, which moved her into a tie for 7th most in program history.

Rutgers is now has a 6-4 overall record and a 1-2 conference record so far this season. They host Michigan (7-4; 2-2) at home this Friday at 3 p.m. in a crucial conference game and then St. Joseph’s (8-4) at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Volleyball

The women’s volleyball team suffered back to back losses to ranked opponents last weekend, falling to both #22 Michigan (13-3; 2-2) and #18 Michigan State (13-3; 2-2) at home in straight sets. Rutgers did give Michigan a tough match, losing the last two sets by 4 or less points.

It only gets harder this week for Rutgers (4-13; 0-4), as they host #2 Wisconsin (12-1; 4-0) tonight at home at 7 p.m. The women then travel to take on #16 Penn State (12-3; 4-0) on Saturday night in Happy Valley.

The Big Ten is an absolute powerhouse in women’s volleyball and although Rutgers is struggling this season, they are more competitive than last year and are playing a lot of underclassmen. Head Coach C.J. Werneke has the program moving in the right direction.

Cross Country

The Women’s team was in action this past weekend at Lehigh for the Paul Short Run, which had many top mid-Atlantic schools participating. Sophomore Allyson Black led Rutgers for the third time this season, running a time of 22:18 in the 6K race. Senior Kaitlyn Bedard ran a season best time of 22:24, while freshman Emma Bergman tied her and the result was her career best time.

The men and women’s teams are back in action on Friday at the Metropolitan Championships in the Bronx, which is hosted by Fordham University.

Men’s Soccer

It has been a difficult season for Rutgers for the men on the pitch and they lost a 1-0 match to Wisconsin (5-2-1; 3-1) last weekend on the road. This game came right after a heartbreaking 6-5 home loss to Florida Gulf Coast (8-2-1) in which Rutgers trailed 5-0 before storming back behind All-American Jason Wright’s hat trick and one assist. They just fell short and are still searching for their first win of the season (0-8-1; 0-4-1).

Rutgers has been close to a breakthrough the past few weeks, as they took now #1 Maryland (8-0-2; 4-0-1) into double overtime before succumbing 2-1 and played #6 Indiana (6-1-4; 1-0-3) to a scoreless tie a week and a half ago. They will look to get on track with a upcoming four game homestand that begins Friday against Michigan (2-6-3; 1-4) at 7 p.m. at Yurcak Field.

Women’s Soccer

The women’s team went 1-1 on their road trip last weekend to the state of Michigan and are now ranked 24th in the country by the NSCAA. Rutgers (8-2-2; 3-1-1) is also ranked #22 by Soccer America and Top Drawer Soccer. They lost a 3-2 heartbreaker in double overtime at #17 Michigan (9-1-1; 5-0) last Thursday and then rebounded with a 3-1 win over Michigan State (5-6-1; 2-3) last Sunday.

Freshman Nicole Whitley led Rutgers in their latest win with 1 goal and 2 assists. She leads the conference in assists and set a program record in the process.

Whitley leads Rutgers with 15 points on the season (3 goals, 9 assists), followed by Madison Tiernan with 14 points (5 goals, 4 assists) and Colby Ciarrocca with 10 points (4 goals, 2 assists). They are currently tied with Minnesota and Northwestern for third place in the Big Ten. Tomorrow the women host Purdue (3-8; 1-4) at 7 p.m. at Yurcak Field. The first 250 fans will receive pink rubber bracelets for Breast Cancer Awareness. They will then travel to play at Indiana (5-7-1; 2-3) on Sunday at 1 p.m. Good luck to the women as they look to build momentum ahead of their College Cup rematch with rival #13 Penn State (8-2-2; 4-0-1) in Happy Valley on October 13th.