PISCATAWAY, N.J.- No. 16 Rutgers field hockey is off to a strong start to the 2025 campaign, opening the year with a 2-0 record. The Scarlet Knights are hitting the road this weekend to play in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. RU travels to Columbus, Ohio to face a pair of ACC teams in No. 11 Syracuse (Friday, 1 pm) and No. 3 Virginia (Sunday, 11 a.m.). Both games will be live streamed on B1G+ from the campus of Ohio State University.
Friday vs. Syracuse (1 p.m.): Live Stream | Live Stats
Sunday vs. Virginia (11 a.m.): Live Stream | Live Stats
The Scarlet Knights are ranked No. 16 to start the year. Since the Scarlet Knights first earned a ranking under Meredith Civico in 2017, the Scarlet Knights have earned a ranking at one point each season, including every preseason poll since 2018.
To open the year, RU has won the first two games, downing Wagner, 5-1 in the season opener and then earning a 2-0 road win at Vermont. The Scarlet Knights got seven goals on the weekend from seven different players. Against Wagner, Maddie Kidd, Olivia Fraticelli, Lyla Rehill, Maddie Olshemski and Olivia de Zwaan all scored their first goal as Scarlet Knights, with last four mentioned above scoring their first collegiate goal. In Burlington, two of the team’s top three leading goal scorers from last season, Puck Winter and Sophie Kuiper, tallied in the victory.
Goalkeeper Emily Nicholls was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week. Playing in the first two games of her career, the redshirt freshman played the first three quarters against Wagner in the home opener, making three saves and not allowing a goal, departing the contest with RU ahead 4-0 at the time. Then on Sunday, she made her first collegiate road start with a strong performance, blanking Vermont, the reigning America East champions and 2024 NCAA Tournament participants. The Haddon Heights, N.J. native made eight saves to hold the Catamounts off the scoreboard.
Nicholls became the first goalkeeper during Meredith Civico‘s 14 season tenure as RU head coach to not allow a goal across their first two collegiate starts. Her eight saves at Vermont was the second most saves by any RU freshman goalkeeper since 2013, with 32 games started by freshmen goalkeepers in that span, and most by a freshman goalkeeper since Gianna Glatz had nine saves at…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Rutgers University Athletics…