Rutgers Women’s Soccer: NCAA Round 2 coming up

The opponent - and host team - consider this a true challenge.

The Rutgers women (12-4-6, 4-2-5 B1G) face the Hoyas (17-2-3, 6-1-2 Big East) on Friday afternoon at 1:30. That follows the other second round game being played in DC that day, as Penn State and Virginia square off at 11:00. The winners face each other on Sunday at Noon. Georgetown (No. 2) and Virginia (No. 3) are the higher seeds in their respective games.

Against St. Francis in the opening round, senior forward Grace Damaska scored her team-leading 14th goal of the season for the Hoyas in the 30th minute while graduate student forward Marina Paul scored in the 52nd minute. New Jersey native junior midfielder Rachel Corboz assisted on both goals. The fifth-ranked Hoyas outshot St. Francis, 24-2, and held a 19-3 edge in corner kicks.

The Knights (NSCAA No. 22) shut out Harvard in their opener, 3-0, with senior Madison Tiernan scoring two goals and first year player Taylor Aylmer added her second goal of the season for RU’s third goal.

Georgetown is an offensive and scoring machine, averaging 2.55 goals/game. Rutgers, by comparison, is averaging 1.73. The totals are also significant: the Hoyas have 56 goals on the season while the Knights have 38. Georgetown is led by senior Grace Damaska who has 14 goals on the season. Junior Rachel Corboz (10 goals) and grad student Crystal Thomas (10) are the other scoring leaders for the team.

Madison Tiernan (11 goals) and Colby Ciarrocca (6) lead the Knights in scoring.

Defensively, both teams are very good. Georgetown has yielded just 14 goals all year, a .64 goal average. Rutgers has given up 17 and has a .77 goal average. This second round matchup is a rematch from the regular season, when Georgetown beat Rutgers 2-1 in overtime at Yurcak field.

In the other game, Virginia (14-4-2, 6-2-2 ACC) is the No. 15 team in the nation, while Penn State (12-4-4, 7-1-3 B1G) dropped out of the rankings, but still received 46 points in the poll. The Nitts did not face Virginia in the regular season but did have two contests against Rutgers. The regular season saw a 2-2 tie in State College and a 2-0 loss to the Knights in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.

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