Rutgers Field Hockey broke the regular season draw record with 15 wins

Well. 3 Rutgers field hockey ended the regular season by beating Lafayette 2-1 on Sunday. They set a program record with their 15th win this fall, which equates to the 1986 team’s overall wins during the season. Prior to the game, the program honored six senior classes from Noelle Bessette, Olivia Drea, Tayla Parkes, Abby Regn, Milena Redlingshoefer and Liz Romano. On Friday, the Scarlet Knights honored a class of five super seniors in a 3-0 win over Michigan State.

After 39 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by Rachel Houston might have resulted in another goal for RU.

Parkes decided his own Senior Day goal was scored by Maggie Lamb and gave Rutgers a dominant 2-0 lead in the 42nd minute.

Lafayette reached the scoreboard in the fourth quarter, but Scarlet Knights ’defense kept firmly securing a 2-1 win. RU had a 12-5 shot advantage, including a 6-3 goal set and a 3-1 lead at the corners. Goalkeeper Gianna Glatz blocked twice.

“It was really good for us to end the regular season by winning the weekend,” Tayla Parkes said. “It was very emotional with Senior Day, we’re all best friends and today’s win was just a cherry on the cake. We’re really excited about next week and Big Tens, it’s going to be a tough race, but we’re really ready and excited to start the tournament. All of our hard work and practice pays off, and we’re excited to get involved in the tournament games.

“It was really important to have a victory for the seniors, not just the seniors we celebrated today, but all 11 seniors we celebrated throughout the weekend.” Liz Romano said. “It was really nice to have two significant wins this weekend in honor of the seniors who have invested in this program for so many years. It was really emotional, really sentimental. Many of us were able to channel it into the game and do a lot of good on the field by working together. Ever since I’ve been here, this is the closest we’ve been on the field and beyond, and it’s great to see this factor in how well we play as a team.

The Scarlet Knights have had a historic season even before the season came. In addition to tying the program record with 15 total wins, they finished second in the program at Big Ten with a 6-2 record and earned a record ten wins against ranked enemies. RU is 15-3 in total points.

As the post-season begins, Rutgers will host the Big Ten tournament this week 4-7. November. Second-place Scarlet Knights will face 7th place in the Indiana Big Ten on Thursday at 2pm live on BTN +. RU beat the Hoosiers 1-0 in a double overtime on October 3 at home. Indiana finished the regular season in overall results 10-9 and in the conference game 2-6. The winner will face No. 3 sown in Penn State vs. No. 6 sown in Maryland on Friday, Nov. 5 at 4:30 p.m. ET.