No. 8 Rutgers women's soccer picks up Senior Day win over Wisconsin
The Rutgers women’s soccer team won its 13th match of the season on Senior Day this afternoon against Big Ten rival Wisconsin. The record between The No. 8 Scarlet Knights (13-1-2, 5-1-2) and the Badgers (10-4-2, 5-3-0) now stands at 5-3-1 in favor of Wisconsin. The home win marks Rutgers’ second consecutive win against the Badgers.
Sunday’s game opened with a penalty kick goal after Wisconsin midfielder Ashley Martinez committed a foul. Junior midfielder Becci Fluchel proceeded to put the Knights in the lead in the 14th minute. Fluchel scored her 3rd goal of the season for Rutgers.
With a constant back and forth between the two teams, the Badgers suffered a red card on Aidan McConnell for denying the Knights a goal-scoring opportunity. With Wisconsin now down a player, Rutgers had an advantage leading into the second half.
The Knights capitalized on their advantage and doubled their lead to make it 2-0 less than 5 minutes into the second half. Junior forward Allison Lowrey and sophomore midfielder Kylie Daigle assisted junior midfielder Sara Brocious for the goal in the 50th minute. Daigle leads the team in assists with seven.
Brocious scored her 4th goal of the season, putting her just below junior midfielder Sam Kroeger, Lowrey and Daigle in goals scored this season. Lowrey now leads the squad in points scored this season with 18.
Daigle and Lowrey faced drama later in the game with yellow cards for unsportsmanlike conduct. Both were substituted for the remainder of the game.
The game started with Rutgers in the lead and ended the same way, with a 2-0 win marking the team's 13th win this season and fifth in conference play.
Last time out, the Knights tied in a close-fought battle against Minnesota. In that game, graduate student goalkeeper Meagan McClelland set an NCAA all-time record for minutes played.
“Every time we have a Senior Day, we all just want to play for the seniors … we feel like it's a little advantage because it’s extra motivation for our team to come out, get a clean sheet and get a win,” McClelland said.
Her clean sheet propelled Rutgers to victory this afternoon. Next time out, the Knights will travel to face Michigan in their penultimate game of the regular season before the Big Ten Tournament, spanning from October 30 to November 6.
“It doesn't matter if we’re a man down, it doesn't matter if we're a man up — we have a standard that we want to play the best soccer we can,” McClelland said. “It was a bit of an emotional game … so we were just saying to stay focused, don't worry about anything but ourselves and our soccer.”
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