On Monday night, the Rutgers women’s soccer team heard the news that they had been waiting to hear. As the No. 24 team in the nation, their name was called as one of the schools invited to the 2022 NCAA Tournament. The Scarlet Knights will enter the tournament as a No. 5 seed, and will face off against Brown University.
While fans and alumni beamed with pride due to their beloved Scarlet Knights going to the tournament for the eleventh straight year, somewhere in the back of their minds looms another number.
Three straight losses.
Following their last victory nearly four weeks ago, the Knights dropped two winnable, heart-breaking one-goal games in the State of Michigan at the hands of the Wolverines and Spartans to end the regular season. This was followed by an early first-round exit in the Big Ten Tournament when they were again defeated in a one-goal match as the Northwestern Wildcats bested the Knights 2-1 in Evanston, Illinois.
In fact, the last victory for Rutgers was at home, when they defeated Wisconsin 2-0 at Yurcak Field back on Oct. 16. As they open the NCAA Tournament tomorrow, the Scarlet Knights will no doubt be hoping that Piscataway holds the cure for what ails them.
The Scarlet Knights will host the Ivy League Champion Brown University Bears, who currently boast a 12-2-2 record this year, and went undefeated in league play (5-0-1). This is the third consecutive year that the Bears have claimed the Ivy League title.
On offense, the Bears average three goals per game while their opponents average less than one (0.75).
The Bears top scorers include senior forwards Brittany Raphino (9-4-22), Claire Myers (4-3-11), and Ava Seelenfreund (9-1-19), as well as junior forward/midfielder Kira Maguire (5-5-15). Raphino, who was named Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year for the second straight season, is one of seven Bears honored by the Ivy League this season. Included in that group is freshman goalkeeper Bella Schopp (6-1-1 record with a 0.56 GAA) who made the Honorable Mention All-Ivy team.
Against common opponents this season, the Knights and Bears had similar results. Brown defeated Princeton 6-1 and topped Providence 3-0, while falling to Ohio State, 3-2. Rutgers, by comparison, won all three of those matches, with victories over Princeton 3-0, Providence 3-0 and Ohio State 2-0.
After starting their season with a historic 9-0 run, the Scarlet Knights went .500 (4-4-2) in the remainder of their games leading up to the Tournament, finishing at 13-4-2. Brown has never played against Rutgers before, but will for the first time, Saturday at 6 p.m. at Yurcak Field in Piscataway.
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