No. 10 Rutgers women's soccer readies to face No. 8 Northwestern
After a 1-0 win against Maryland on Sunday at Yurcak Field on Busch campus, the Rutgers women’s soccer team looks forward to its next matchup tomorrow when the No. 10 Scarlet Knights (10-1-0, 2-1-0) travel to Evanston, Illinois, to take on Northwestern.
Rutgers, who faced its first loss of the season last week to then-No. 17 Penn State, defeated the Terrapins (2-3-5, 1-2-0) 1-0 with a late game-winning goal from junior midfielder Sara Brocious.
With a goal in the 88th minute that Brocious scored off a feed from junior forward Allison Lowrey, the Knights picked up their 10th win of the season that was less than 3 minutes away from being their first tie of the campaign.
In three in-conference matchups, Rutgers is outscoring opponents 3-2. Compare that to out-of-conference, where the Knights outscored opponents 27-5 to begin the year 8-0-0.
As Rutgers faces off against its fourth in-conference team, the Knights will be taking on a No. 8 Wildcats (9-1-1, 3-0-0) team that is outscoring Big Ten opponents 9-3 in three victories.
Northwestern, who is coming off in-conference wins against Purdue, Nebraska and Minnesota, played two ranked opponents in its out-of-conference slate and is riding a seven-game winning streak. Those two ranked wins came against then-No. 19 Xavier and then-No. 6 Stanford.
Josie Aulicino leads the Wildcats with 5 goals and 16 points this season. Following her, Aurea del Carmen has 3 goals and 10 points while Meg Boade has 4 goals and 10 points. Northwestern, like Rutgers, has a high-powered offense with multiple players contributing.
Lowrey and junior midfielder Sam Kroeger each have 6 goals on the season, with Lowrey totaling 15 points compared to Kroeger’s 14. Brocious follows those two with 3 goals, five assists and 11 points in 11 games this season.
“We train really hard together … and want to get a little bit better every day. We always hold each other to that standard, and we know how we want to play, so we just go out there and do it.” Brocious said about her relationship with both Lowrey and Kroeger.
The goalkeeper matchup is also an important factor, as graduate student goalkeeper Meagan McClelland rebounded with a 1-0 shutout win on Sunday. McClelland has started every game for the Knights and has a goals against average (GAA) of 0.65 and a save percentage of .750. The Kearny, New Jersey, native also has faced 95 shots and has made 21 saves in 2022.
The Wildcats enter with two goalkeepers who split time behind the net. Reiley Fitzpatrick has started every game this season, while Mia Raben has come in relief in each game. Fitzpatrick has a GAA of 0.73 and a save percentage of .556. Meanwhile, Raben has a GAA of 0.36 and a save percentage of .913.
The game will kick off at 8 p.m. and will be broadcasted on Big Ten Network+. Since 2015, Rutgers hold a 3-1-1 record against Rutgers.
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