Rutgers Field Hockey ends regular season tying program record of 15 wins

No. 3 Rutgers field hockey finished out the regular season with a 2-1 win over Lafayette on Sunday. They tied a program record with its 15th win this fall, matching the 1986 team for overall victories in a season. Before the game, the program honored a class of six seniors in Noelle Bessette, Olivia Drea, Tayla Parkes, Abby Regn, Milena Redlingshoefer and Liz Romano. On Friday, the Scarlet Knights honored the class of five super seniors in a 3-0 victory over Michigan State.

After it was scoreless at halftime, Rachel Houston scored on an outstanding individual play to give RU the 1-0 lead in the 39th minute of the game.

Parkes capped her own Senior Day with a goal off an assist from Maggie Lamb to give Rutgers a commanding 2-0 advantage in the 42nd minute.

Lafayette were able to get on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter, but the Scarlet Knights defense held strong to secure the 2-1 victory. RU held a 12-5 shot advantage, including a 6-3 edge on goal, and a 3-1 advantage on corners. Goalkeeper Gianna Glatz made two saves.

“It was really good for us to finish up the regular season by winning the weekend,” Tayla Parkes said. “It was very emotional with Senior Day, we’re all best friends and winning today was just icing on the cake. We’re really excited for next week and Big Tens, it’s going to be tough competition, but we’re really prepared and excited to start the tournament. All our hard work and training is really paying off and we’re pumped to get into tournament play.”

“It was really important to get a win for the seniors, not even just for the seniors we celebrated today but all 11 seniors we celebrated over the whole weekend,” Liz Romano said. “It was really nice to be able to get two significant wins this weekend to honor the seniors who have put so many years of dedication into this program. It was really emotional, really sentimental. A lot of us were able to channel that into the play and do a lot of good things on the field working together. Since I’ve been here, this is the closest we’ve been on and off the field, and it’s great to see that factor in to how well we’re playing as a team.”

The Scarlet Knights have had a historic season already ahead of the postseason arriving. In addition to tying a program record with 15 overall wins, they finished a program best second place in the Big Ten with a 6-2 record and earned a record ten victories against ranked foes. RU is 15-3 overall.

As the postseason begins, Rutgers is the host for the Big Ten Tournament this week from November 4-7. The No. 2 seeded Scarlet Knights will face No. 7 seeded Indiana in the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday at 2 p.m airing live on BTN+. RU defeated the Hoosiers 1-0 in double overtime on October 3 at home. Indiana finished the regular season 10-9 overall and 2-6 in conference play. The winner will face No. 3 seeded Penn State vs. No. 6 seeded Maryland on Friday, November 5 at 4:30 p.m. ET.