Rutgers women's soccer shuts out Nebraska
The Rutgers women’s soccer team has continued their win streak in Big Ten play, beating Nebraska 1-0 Sunday afternoon at Yurcak Field. The team's last scheduled game against Michigan was canceled due to inclement weather with a potential makeup.
The No. 9 Scarlet Knights (7-2, 2-0) are on a three-game winning streak after their 4-0 win against Drexel and close-fought match against No. 12 Penn State. This win against the Cornhuskers (4-6-1, 0-2-1) was no different.
Sophomore forward Allison Lowrey scored the match’s only goal in the final minute of the first half from an assist off freshman midfielder Kylie Daigle. This marks Lowrey’s second goal of the season and Daigle’s third assist of her 7-point season.
Senior goalkeeper Meagan McClelland recorded four saves to give Rutgers their seventh clean sheet of the season.
Nebraska has not won a game since Sept. 5, when they won against Loyola-Chicago. In their last outing, they drew 0-0 against Maryland with only eight total shots on goal between both teams.
The Big Ten awarded two Knights with accolades the past week — sophomore back Becci Fluchel won Defensive Player of the Week, the first of her career. Fluchel aided Rutgers countless times this season, including scoring a game-winning penalty against the Nittany Lions (6-4, 0-3). Her contributions to defense this season held every team to single-digit shots on goal in the 2021 season.
Freshman back Kassidy Banks earned Freshman of the Week for the first Big Ten accolade of her career. She played the entire game against Georgetown and has contributed to every shutout this season, starting in 8 of the 9 games this season.
The Knights have proved themselves on the field and in the classroom earning the United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Award for their 3.64 average team GPA. While 624 schools received the award, Rutgers is one of 90 teams to have both men’s and women’s soccer programs recognized for the academic award.
Individually, senior back Gabby Provenzano earned Scholar All-American and Scholar All-Region for her academic successes. She is the third Scholar All-American in the Knights' last four seasons and this is the second consecutive year that a Rutgers student-athlete was recognized.
"The coaches prepared us really well in practice the past week, and all of our energies were really high," said sophomore forward Emily Sapienza before Thursday’s cancellation against the Wolverines (7-1-2, 1-0-1). "We're ready to play more teams. We can't wait to see what the rest of the season holds."
The Knights’ next game is at Minnesota at 7 p.m. on Thursday night.
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