Rutgers field hockey is heading to Columbus for a lone Friday matchup at Ohio State, with the game set for 1 p.m. and streaming on B1G+. Brendan Gulick and Doreena Beebe will have the call.
The Scarlet Knights come in at 6-6 after a split weekend that included a 1-0 Big Ten loss to Penn State and a 4-2 win over American on Sunday. That victory was a milestone for head coach Meredith Civico, who picked up the 150th win of her Rutgers career.
Rutgers is still chasing its first Big Ten win of the season, but the profile is stronger than the record might suggest. The Scarlet Knights are 25th in the RPI and have played the 12th toughest schedule in the country.
Five of their six losses have come against ranked opponents, including four top-10 teams at the time: No. 18 Monmouth, No.
5 Virginia, No. 4 Princeton, No.
10 UConn and No. 2 Maryland.
Rutgers also owns a win over then-No. 12 Syracuse.
Olivia Fraticelli continues to drive the offense. She had her third multi-goal game of the season with two against American, after earlier putting up two against Albany and three against Wagner. She leads the team with 10 goals, matching her team-best total from last season, and her scoring surge has been dramatic: after going scoreless in the first 22 games of her career, she now has 20 goals in her last 26 appearances.
Her name is climbing fast in the Rutgers record book, too. Fraticelli’s 21 career goals are tied for 10th all-time with Elizabeth McGuire, Nicole Wilson and Melissa Schepacarter.
One more goal would move her into a tie with Rachel Yaney for ninth, and two more would put her level with former teammate Guillermina Cuasarano for eighth. She also needs two goals to set a new career high and tie for seventh-most goals in a single season by a Rutgers player.
The scoring has been spread around beyond Fraticelli. Rutgers has 32 goals this season, and seven different players have scored multiple times. Laura Loycke has five goals, Anna Cogdell has four, and captains Sophie Kuiper and fifth-year transfer Talia Schenck each scored their first goals of the season on the past two Sundays, with two goals apiece in that span.
Emily Nicholls has anchored the defense in goal. She carries a 1.64 goals-against average with 52 saves and a .712 save percentage, and she leads the Big Ten with 4.33 saves per game.
Ohio State enters at 4-7 overall and 0-3 in Big Ten play, riding a five-game losing streak. The Buckeyes were in Piscataway earlier this season for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, where they picked up their biggest win of the year with a 2-1 victory over No.
5 Virginia. They also own the fourth toughest strength of schedule in the nation, the hardest of any Big Ten team.
Sierra Golden leads Ohio State with five goals. The Buckeyes also have returning First Team All-Big Ten selection Katie Fichtner back for her fifth collegiate season. In net, Maddie Stevens and Avery Alleva have both appeared in at least eight games, with Stevens posting a 2.26 goals-against average and Alleva a 2.21 mark.
Rutgers has had the upper hand in the series, leading 12-6 overall and winning nine straight since 2019. The Scarlet Knights have beaten ranked Ohio State teams six times since 2019 and have taken the last three meetings in Columbus. The last four matchups have all been one-goal games, all Rutgers wins, and two went to overtime, including one shootout.
Last season, Rutgers beat Ohio State 2-1 in overtime at home. Martha Goodridge scored the winner, and Nicholls made 11 saves as the Scarlet Knights survived 23 Buckeye shots while allowing just one goal. Over the last nine meetings, Rutgers has given up only four goals to Ohio State.
Rutgers returns home next weekend to host No. 19 Michigan on Friday and Michigan State on Sunday. The program will also welcome back its Letterwinners and mark the five-year anniversary of the 2021 Big Ten Tournament championship team.
In Other News...
Rutgers Let A Ranked Test Slip And Another One Awaits
Rutgers got a front-row lesson in the margins of Big Ten soccer on Friday night, falling 2-1 to No. 7 Maryland at Yurcak Field in front of a season-high 614 fans. Amer Lukovic supplied the lone goal for the Scarlet Knights, but Maryland struck first and spent much of the night controlling the terms before finding the winner late in the second half.
The result stings because it came in a game that felt within reach and because the schedule does not offer much time to regroup. Rutgers heads to No. 20 Wisconsin next, another ranked road test, before returning home to host Indiana in what shapes up as another demanding stretch for a team still trying to turn close chances into statement results. [Read more 🡒]
Rutgers Swimming Opens With A Chance To Prove Its New Promise
Rutgers swimming and diving opens its season this weekend with a home Invitational that gives the Scarlet Knights an early chance to show how much better they can be. The event will stretch across Friday and Saturday at the Rutgers Aquatic Center, with multiple sessions and a field that includes Army, St. Bonaventure, Northeastern, Boston College and Fordham.
There is real intrigue in how Rutgers pieces this group together, because the roster blends proven returners with newcomers and includes several athletes who earned Big Ten Preseason Swimmers and Divers to Watch recognition. Early meets can be tricky to read, but for a team looking to turn promise into results, this one should offer a useful first look at both its depth and its direction. [Read more 🡒]
Michigans Path Just Got Bigger For Indianas Big Ten Hopes
Michigans 2026 football schedule already looked like a grind, but the early stretch could be especially unforgiving if Kyle Whittinghams team has to navigate a series of tight games without much margin for error. The Wolverines are being sized up against a slate that includes Rutgers, Michigan State, Penn State, UCLA, Indiana, Oregon and Ohio State, and the broader takeaway is clear enough: there are very few spots where a win feels safe and plenty where one bounce, one injury or one coaching adjustment could tilt the day.
For Rutgers, that matters because every added wrinkle in Michigans path can reshape the race around the Big Ten. Indianas hopes are part of the conversation too, since the projection work points to a conference picture that could stay unsettled deep into the season. With so many of those matchups still hard to call, the real tension is less about one single opponent and more about whether Michigan can avoid the kind of early skid that turns a promising year into a chase. [Read more 🡒]