The field hockey hits the road over the weekend

PISCATAWAY, NJ No. 15 Rutgers field hockey will begin the fall 2021 season this weekend with a couple of matches in Durham, North Carolina. The Scarlet Knights will face Duke and Richmond in the first two races of the season.

The games mark Scarlet Knights ’first races against the non-Big Ten team after RU faced Temple on October 27, 2019, for 670 days.

DAY OF THE WEEK MATCHUPS
Friday (6 p.m.): Rutgers at Duke: Live video | Live statistics
Saturday (2 p.m.) Rutgers vs. Richmond: Live video |Live statistics

The Scarlet Knights want to build on the success that the team presented in the spring season, when the team finished seventh in the country with 9-6 and four ten wins. A veteran team this season, Rutgers will return three All-Americans (Gianna Glatz, Katie Larmour and Milena Redlingshoefer) and four meeting options (Glatz, Larmour, Redlingshoefer and Kerrie Burns).

On Friday night, the nation is 15^th the ranked team opens the year with road game No. 12 Duke. Both teams will meet for the fourth time in history and for the first time since 2013. The all-time series is exactly 1-1-1, with all three matches continuing for extra time. The Duke won 3-2 in 2013 and the Rutgers won 2-1 in 1989. The draw came at the first meeting in 1987. The Blue Devils went 4-12 in the 2020-21 season, which the ACC played in both the fall and spring seasons. Duke will be left without a full 2019 conference selection Leah Crouse playing with Rutgers goalkeeper Gianna Glatz team for the U.S. at the Youth Pan American Championships this weekend.

The team will stay in Durham to play a neutral site competition the next day against Richmond at 2 p.m., staying on Duke’s campus for the game. The match is the opening of the Spiders regular season, winning 4-3 in the shortened spring season of 2021. Rutgers is an all-time 4-1 against Richmond and a two-match winning streak (2018 and 2016). Current Scarlet Knights Kerrie Burns and Kassidy Shetler Everyone had goals in the 2018 race, a 3-0 victory. Richmond was selected fourth in the A-10 pre-season survey.

“We’re looking really good in the preseason,” head coach Citizen Meredith said at Inside Rutgers Athletics Podcast. “We bring back a bunch of players with tremendous experience, we are lucky that five players will return for their fifth season. And we have a good group of younger players and new entrants that make an impact. We have a lot of depth and there is something really exciting and fun in this group I’m really looking forward to competing again, starting with our opening game Duke. “