The B1G Tourney: No. 20 Women’s Soccer Faces Off This Sunday Against No. 12 Northwestern

How To Watch The Opening Round of the B1G Tourney

No. 20 Rutgers vs. No 12 Northwestern

Where: Evanston, Illinois

When: Sunday, 1pm ET.

Stream/Radio: B1G+ and WRSU

Weather: 58 degrees and overcast with a slight chance of a shower

The Knights (13-3-2) begin postseason play in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals at No. 12 and 2-seed Northwestern (13-3-2) on Sun., Oct. 30 at 1 p.m. ET. The winner advances to the semifinals to take on the winner of (3) Wisconsin and (6) Penn State on Thurs., Nov. 3 at Lower.com Field in Columbus, Ohio.

Rutgers finished Big Ten play in 4th-place, in a four-way tie with Ohio State, Nebraska, and Penn State but slid to the 7th seed due to losing the tiebreaker against common opponents.

How The Regular Season Ended in Michigan

The Knights suffered two consecutive gut-wrenching losses to end the season. The first was at Michigan in Ann Arbor on October 20th in a game that Rutgers led 2-0 heading into the 64th minutes of play but surrendered three consecutive goals, the final in the 79th minute, to a Wolverines squad that did not quit. The most frustrating part of this game was that Rutgers had ample opportunity to pad their lead in the first half but some outstanding goalie play kept the Wolverines in striking distance.

On October 23rd, Rutgers battled undefeated Michigan State in East Lansing in a gritty, physical, defensive battle. The Spartans finally found the back of the net on a long distance shot in the 86th minute to prevail 1-0.

Scouting Northwestern

The Wildcats finished one of their most successful seasons in recent history and led the conference with eight players named to the All-Big Ten team. Back on the September 29th matchup in Evanston, the Knights were only able to get two shots on goal, one was the equalizer by Allison Lowrey in the 48th minute. Rutgers will need to find more offense to have a chance to defeat the Wildcats on the road and advance to the 2nd round of the tournament.

Six Knights Receive All-Big Ten Honors

Sophomore Emily Mason earns her first All-Conference nod with a spot on the First Team for defenders. Junior Sara Brocious is Second Team for midfielders. Juniors Sam Kroeger and Allison Lowrey, along with sophomore Riley Tiernan, have been named Third Team All-Big Ten for forwards, and junior Emma Misal, who also earned the team’s Sportsmanship Award, earns a spot on the Third Team for defenders (courtesy Rutgers Athletics).

Quotable

“We’re really excited for the postseason. We had a rough weekend last weekend, but we’re leaving the past in the past, and just focusing and taking it one game at a time because it’s either win or go home. We take everything as a learning experience so even though things didn’t go our way, we’re looking at the positives and using them to see what we can do to be better.”

Sophomore Back Kassidy Banks (courtesy Rutgers Athletics)

Tournament Bracket

Final Big Ten Regular Season Standings