Teams Wind Down Nonconference Play With Mixed Results Before Schedules Get Tougher
As nonconference play winds down for field hockey and volleyball, both programs continued their strong starts to the season with dominant weekends of action. Rutgers field hockey got the party started on Friday, with a dominant 6-2 win over New Hampshire. The Scarlet Knights initially trailed 2-1 before scoring the final five goals of the game to bounce back from a 1-0 loss to Princeton.
Junior Olivia Fraticelli and freshman Olivia de Zwann each scored two goals for Rutgers, while Anna Cogdell and Martha Goodridge scored one goal each. Goodridge scored the first goal in her college career, while de Zwann and Fraticelli each had their first career multi-goal game. With today’s high-scoring contest, de Zwann leads the Scarlet Knights with four goals and eight points, while Fraticelli is second with three goals and seven points.
Rutgers dominated the statsheet, with 27 total shots to the Wildcats’ 15. The Scarlet Knights also had 20 shots on goal compared to New Hampshire’s 9 shots on goal. The Knights’ high shot total was the most since taking 28 shots against Vermont in last season’s opening game. Star goaltender Emily Nicholls made seven saves to add to her Big Ten-leading saves total.
However, in Sunday’s home contest against #18 Monmouth, the scoreboard told a different story. Captain Paulina Niklaus scored two goals, but they were outplayed by the in-state rival, with four different Hawks players scoring goals before Niklaus netted her second. Monmouth also outshot the Scarlet Knights 17-12 while tripling Rutgers’ shots on goal 15-5. Nicholls added another 10 saves to increase her total to 56.
The Hawks moved to 6-1 on the season, while the Scarlet Knights fell to 4-4, with a record of just 1-4 against ranked opponents. With conference play getting underway this Friday at home against the #14 Buckeyes, and six of nine ranked games to end the season, Rutgers must get this figured out quickly if it wants to have a successful season in 2025. Field hockey will then host Columbia on Sunday to conclude nonconference play.
Meanwhile, Rutgers volleyball took its six-game win streak into Virginia at the Patriot Invite on the campus of George Mason. The Scarlet Knights defeated Coppin State in straight sets of 25-17, 25-23, and 25-16, earning their seventh-straight win and fourth-straight sweep. Although the Scarlet Knights were tested in the second set, they also earned their sixth sweep in seven matches, while extending their win streak to seven, which was the longest win streak for the program since 2012.
But the tables were turned on Sunday, when hosts George Mason defeated Rutgers in a sweep of their own. Despite Aspen Maxwell and Tara Garvey scoring double-digit kills, the Patriots took down the Scarlet Knights 25-22, 28-26, and 25-14. George Mason won the first couple of contested sets before answering an early 6-2 Rutgers lead in the third set with runs of four and eight straight points to down the Knights in front of their home fans.
Volleyball will return to Jersey Mike’s Arena for its own nonconference finale against Columbia at 6 PM on Tuesday, before kicking off Big Ten play with a pair of ranked showdowns on the road. The program will face #8 Wisconsin on Friday at 8 PM before traveling to #11 Minnesota on Sunday at 3 PM.
To support me and my work, please follow me at @arnavsarkar100 on X!
Category: General Sports
