Women’s Soccer extends season with second round victory over Saint Louis
A brilliant series of passes put Amirah Ali in position to score less than four minutes into the match, and the three-time All-American made good on the opportunity to give Rutgers a 1-0 lead in their second round contest against Saint Louis. As it turned out, it was all the scoring the Scarlet Knights would need.
Rutgers and Saint Louis had never played before today, and one could not ask for a better debut performance from the Scarlet Knights. Saint Louis, the A-10 champions, defeated Massachusetts in their conference title game to earn the bid into the NCAAs. The Billikens then defeated Ole Miss, 2-1, in their opening round match to earn their spot against Rutgers.
The No. 1 seeded Scarlet Knights, dressed in their white uniforms, looked to come out fast in the early going. Precision passing from freshman Riley Tiernan to senior Frankie Tagliaferri set up the first goal of the game as Tagliaferri found Ali, who put the ball past Saint Louis goalkeeper Emily Puricelli for her tenth goal of the season at 3:39.
Rutgers nearly made it 2-0 less than seven minutes into the match when sophomore Sam Kroeger rang a shot off the left post, and had another chance less than two minutes later when Tagliaferri had a point-blank shot that required a save by Puricelli. Despite dominating the first half and outshooting Saint Louis 14-3, the first 45 minutes ended with Rutgers holding a 1-0 lead.
But that score didn’t hold up for long.
Just 3:16 into the second half, Tiernan took a left-footed shot on net and beat Puricelli on the left side to stake the Scarlet Knights to a two-goal advantage. For the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, it was her sixth goal of the season.
Tiernan got her seventh goal of the 2021 campaign twenty minutes later, this time with a right-footed shot, and Rutgers found themselves up 3-0 with a little more than 21 minutes left in the game. By the time freshman Kylie Daigle scored at 78:29 into the match, the Scarlet Knights had the game well in hand at 4-0, and were on their way to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. For the Millville, New Jersey native, it was her third goal of the season.
Rutgers maintained constant pressure during the game, taking 27 shots, 18 of which were on net. Voorhees, New Jersey native Riley Tiernan finished the game with two goals and one assist in her 67 minutes on the pitch.
Scarlet Knights goalkeeper Meagan McClelland needed to make just three saves in the game, as RU posted its nineteenth victory of the season. Rutgers will now face No. 4 seed TCU in their semi-final matchup on Sunday, Nov. 21.
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