This was not the way the Scarlet Knights envisioned their season ending.

After their stunning upset of USC in the Big Ten semifinal match in which they were down a player and goalkeeper Olivia Bodmer made three consecutive stops in the PK shootout to secure the win for Rutgers, the team appeared to be poised to make a postseason run.

But with a 5-0 blanking against UCLA in the Big Ten Championship game, the Knights were quickly brought back down to earth as they hit the re-set button awaiting the NCAA Tournament.

Former Big East rival Connecticut came into Yurcak Field with a game plan that put the Knights on their heels and kept them running uphill for the duration of the match.

Connecticut jumped out to a 1-0 lead when junior forward Chioma Okafor got free on a breakaway with just Bodmer between her and the Rutgers goal. As Okafor closed in on net Bodmer chose to gamble and challenge the shooter, but Okafor side-stepped her and calmly put the ball into the net for the one-goal lead at 30:11.

Less than six minutes later, Lucy Cappadona scored off a header courtesy of the corner kick from teammate Joyce Ryder to make the score 2-0 at 36:03.

Unable to muster any offense for the remainder of the half, the Scarlet Knights went into the locker room down by a pair, facing the possibility that there would only be 45 minutes left in their 2024 campaign.

But as they have done all season long, the Scarlet Knights found renewed vigor in the second half and made a game of it.

Three pinpoint passes deep in the Huskies’ end of the pitch resulted in a nice goal by sophomore Alyssa Martinez, which cut the deficit to 2-1 at 69:50.

Unfortunately, that would be as close as the Scarlet Knights would get, as the Huskies defense then shut down the Rutgers offense, not allowing a single shot for the remainder of the contest.

The Scarlet Knights were unquestionably hindered by the absence of senior forward Riley Tiernan, who was serving the second game of her suspension. This was the thirteenth consecutive NCAA appearance for the Scarlet Knights and the nineteenth consecutive overall for the program.