No. 9 Rutgers women’s soccer defeats Nebraska for third win in a row

No. 9 Rutgers women’s soccer improved to 2-0 in Big Ten play with a 1-0 victory over Nebraska at Yurcak Field on Sunday afternoon. The Scarlet Knights have now won three games in a row and are 7-2 overall this season.

It was scoreless the entire first half until the 45th minute when Kylie Daigle delivered a beautiful threw ball to Allison Lowrey, who then sent a powerful strike into the back of the net. It was a fantastic scoring play and gave RU halftime lead of 1-0.

“I got a pass from Gabby through the middle. We were finding those pockets, we found those pockets in the beginning of the game. I looked up and I always know where Allie is. She was on and she hit a banger,” said Daigle. “After Penn State, we figured we can really do anything. With Nebraska, we knew we hadn’t beaten them in six years so we wanted to make history. And we did.”

“Coach always says know your players. I know Kylie can hit that ball so I made the run, played it and, you know, swing hard in case you hit it. We wanted to be a goal up going into halftime and of course we didn’t want to let anything up. We were able to find one today and got a clean sheet so that is the most important part,” said Lowrey.

The Rutgers defense held firm as goalkeeper Meagan McClelland made four saves to record her fifth shutout of the season. Here was a great stop from her in the first half that kept the score even at the time.

“Our team puts in so much hard work for 90 minutes and they make my job really easy. In the last 5-10 minutes when they’re tired and they’re just pushing themselves to the limit, it feels great to be able to have their backs and come up with the save. It’s us having each other’s back. We bend but we don’t break. It was good that we stayed strong at the end there,” said McClelland.

Rutgers held an 11-7 shot advantage as well as a 6-5 edge with shots on goal. RU has now held 37 straight opponents to single-digit shots on goal dating back to 2019. They also had a 6-3 advantage in corners.

Sunday’s victory was Rutgers first ever over Nebraska and broke a streak of six consecutive draws between the two programs. The Cornhuskers fell to 4-6-1 overall and 0-2-1 in Big Ten play.

The Scarlet Knights had last Thursday’s home match against Michigan postponed due to weather. It was announced on Tuesday that Rutgers will host the makeup game against the Wolverines on October 6 at 1 p.m. at Yurcak Field.

RU now heads on the road for a two game trip this coming weekend. They’ll take on Minnesota (5-2-3; 1-2-0) on Thursday, September 30 at 7:00 p.m. followed by a nationally televised game on BTN against Ohio State (7-4-0; 2-1-0) on Sunday, October 3 at 12:00 p.m. The Buckeyes have lost to Minnesota but just beat Penn State this past weekend. Rutgers is just one of three unbeaten teams in Big Ten play, as Purdue is 3-0 and Wisconsin is 2-0-1.