Rutgers Women's Soccer Defeats Harvard 3-0 To Advance to the 2nd Round of NCAA’s

Senior forward Madison Tiernan took matters into her own feet in extending her career Saturday night, as she scored two first half goals to lead the Rutgers women’s soccer team to a 3-0 victory over Ivy League champion Harvard in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Taylor Alymer scored an insurance goal late in the second half for Rutgers.

Tiernan scored her team leading 10th and 11th goals of the season, giving her 28 total points on the season. The senior was named to the Big Ten All-Conference Second Team for her play this season. Alymer was named to the All-Freshman team and it was her 2nd goal of her career. Senior Colby Ciarrocca and Big Ten Freshman Player of the Year Nicole Whitley had assists in the game. You can read about all of their conference honors here.

Rutgers (12-4-6) faced Harvard (10-4-3) for the first time in program history and has now advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for three consecutive seasons. They will face the winner of #2 seed Georgetown and St. Francis (PA), as the two schools play on Sunday. The second round match between Rutgers and the winner will take place next weekend.

The winner of Rutgers second round matchup will face the winner of #3 seed Virginia and defending national champion Penn State, both of whom won their first round matches. Rutgers beat Virginia in last year’s NCAA Quarterfinals to advance to the College Cup, where they lost to rival Penn State. Or course, Rutgers knocked off the Nittany Lions in the Quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament last month on their way to their third conference championship appearance in the past four years.

Congratulations to head coach Mike O’Neill and the women’s soccer team. Tonight was a big win and hopefully they can continue to make another deep run into the NCAA Tournament! To view the full NCAA Tournament bracket, click here.