Rutgers Women’s Lacrosse Picks up First Win of the Year, Looks Ahead to Monmouth

After a tough loss in the season opener at Temple, the Rutgers women’s lacrosse team got just what it needed, bouncing back with a dominating win at LIU Brooklyn in game 2 of the season opening 3-game road trip.

In the game, Freshman midfielder Taralyn Naslonski notched 3 goals on the afternoon and junior attacker Dana Gisonno added 3 goals as well.

Rutgers started off hot scoring the game’s first 4 goals and never looked back in a 15-4 victory at over the Blackbirds in the first ever meeting between the two squads.

Opening the season 0-2 would have been a tough pill to swallow for Coach Laura Brand-Sias’s squad, but that fear was allayed pretty quickly when the Knights led 8-2 at the half.

The 11-goal margin of victory was the largest win for Rutgers since a 10-goal win against Niagara last March. RU won by 10+ goals twice last season, also defeating Ohio State by a 10-goal margin. It is the largest victory on the road since defeating Lafayette 15-10 last season.

Next, Rutgers will face in-state rival Monmouth in the final leg of its road trip on Saturday, February 17th. The Knights defeated the Hawks 12-11 at Highpoint Solutions Stadium last spring, and a win would ensure a winning start to the season ahead of its first home game on February 24th against Delaware.

Monmouth has opened the season with two losses both at home. Rutgers and M.U. already have a common opponent, Temple. Like Rutgers, the Hawks lost their matchup with the Owls however, by a much more convincing scoreline, 18-7.

In their first two games, the Hawks have allowed a total of 30 goals which bodes well for a Rutgers attack that seemed to find its groove against Long Island University.

Monmouth has allowed 67 shot attempts over two games, and 51 of the shots have been on frame so Rutgers should have chances to score.

Individually, Monmouth is led by Nicole Ceraso who has 5 goals in the season’s first 2 games, while Alexa Smith and Jenny Staines have 3 goals apiece.

It should be a pretty high scoring affair between these two teams, as Rutgers looks to build off its first win.