Battling the elements and a fiercely competitive conference opponent, the Scarlet Knights scored the only goal of the match as they took a tight, 1-0 victory playing through the aftermath of tropical storm Ophelia.

On a slick, rain-soaked Yurcak Field, RU jumped out to an early lead within the first two minutes when Riley Tiernan’s corner kick fed Emily Mason, who fired it past Purdue goalkeeper Charlotte Cyr, giving Rutgers the early lead, 1-0, at 1:22 into the first half.

Despite the poor weather conditions, Rutgers kept up the attack, controlling play for the first 15 minutes before Purdue finally mustered a counterattack.

Despite missing injured team captains Emma Misal and Becci Fluchel, the Scarlet Knights held off the efforts of the Boilermakers for the balance of the first half. One key reason for keeping Purdue off the board was the end-to-end play of Tiernan, who was omnipresent up and down the pitch, creating chances and stifling the efforts of the opponents to keep Rutgers with a one-goal advantage through the first 45 minutes.

But as the second half began, the Boilermakers stepped up their efforts, keeping the Knights bottled up in their own third of the pitch, while creating scoring chances that necessitated athletic saves by goalkeeper Olivia Bodmer.

As time wound down in the second half, the offensive pressure by Purdue increased, as did the anxiety of the 420 fans at Yurcak Field who have seen late-game collapses by the Scarlet Knights a number of times this season. In the end, the Knights were able to hold on to collect their first Big Ten win of the year, which saw Bodmer make seven saves off the 19 shots by the Boilermakers.

With the victory, Rutgers climbs back above the .500 mark, now 5-4-2, and will get ready to improve on their 1-2-0 conference record when they travel to Nebraska to face the Cornhuskers on Thursday, Sept. 28. Nebraska is 7-1-2 this season, having suffered their first loss against Penn State by a score of 1-0. The Scarlet Knights will have their hands full attempting to contain Nebraska’s prolific goal scorers, Eleanor Dale (13-2-28) and Sarah Weber (6-3-15), while they attempt to get the ball past Cornhusker goalkeeper Samantha Hauk, who has a 1.04 goals-against-average (GAA) this season.