No. 9 Rutgers women's soccer to face off against Maryland
The Rutgers women’s soccer team will be looking to increase its winning streak to eight as it travels to College Park to face Maryland at 7 p.m. this Thursday. The program is coming off a hard-fought 1-0 win against Iowa over the weekend.
The No. 9 Scarlet Knights (11-2-0, 6-0-0) remain undefeated in conference play after defeating the Hawkeyes (8-5-1, 2-4-0) in rainy conditions. Iowa’s Monica Wilhelm posted a career-high 11 saves and played arguably the best game of her career according to Hawkeyes' head coach Dave Dilanni. Rutgers' lone goal came from a 75th-minute handball in the box from Iowa.
“The way we scored today was a penalty kick, but that penalty kick came from so many other things and it's just how we pulled it out today," said sophomore midfielder Becci Fluchel, the lone scorer of the match. That marked the second goal of Fluchel’s career and her second game-winning goal for the Knights.
Rutgers secured the shutout thanks to a strong backline and senior goalkeeper Meagan McClelland who recorded three saves and her sixth clean sheet of the season. The Knights had an incredible amount of chances with 27 recorded shots that afternoon, with 12 of them being on target.
Rutgers freshman forward Riley Tiernan, freshman back Kassidy Banks and freshman back Emily Mason also received national accolades as Top Drawer Soccer ranked them as top 100 NCAA Division I freshmen this season.
The Knights’ next opponent, the Terrapins (4-6-4, 0-4-2), are coming off a three-game losing streak after consecutive away games. Maryland is last in Big Ten standings, third in goals allowed and their most recent loss against Penn State ended 5-1, as the Nittany Lions outshot them 18-5.
Rutgers will be the Terrapins' first nationally-ranked opponent of the season. The Knights will look to keep their momentous win streak alive, since beating Maryland would result in their longest winning streak since 2015.
“We're going to keep pushing and hopefully this leads to a good seed for the tournament and keep it rolling from there," said senior forward and team captain Amirah Ali.
The match between Rutgers and the Terrapins will be streamed on Big Ten Network+ and broadcasted for radio listeners on 88.7 WRSU. Live stats will be provided at kickoff.
For updates on the Rutgers women's soccer team, follow @TargumSports on Twitter.
