Rutgers women's soccer draws with Princeton in tight contest
The Rutgers women's soccer team traveled to take on in-state rival Princeton last night. The Scarlet Knights (2-1-2, 0-0-0) drew with the Tigers (2-0-1, 0-0-0) by a score of 0-0. Despite no goals being scored in the game, each team had its fair share of opportunities and battled hard in the tie.
Rutgers got off to a very slow start in this one. After 30 minutes of play, the Knights were able to stay alive and keep the game scoreless through this stretch against Princeton, largely due to sophomore goalkeeper Olivia Bodmer, who had five saves throughout the first half.
With nearly 10 minutes left of play in the opening half, Rutgers began to turn things around and string together some scoring opportunities. Freshman forward Ashley Baran had a great opportunity in the 38th minute to get the Knights on the board, but her shot attempt just missed wide of the right post.
At the half, the Tigers were still dominating the stat sheet, leading 8-3 in shots and 5-1 in shots on goal. Rutgers carried some momentum into the locker room, though, as the team had certainly tightened things up in the final portion of the half.
The second half began similarly to the first, as Princeton controlled the game's pace and dominated in time of possession. The Tigers were consistently applying pressure on the Knights and Bodmer.
With approximately 20 minutes to play, the tension was rising, things were getting chippy and the scoring opportunities for each team were hard to come by. In the 72nd minute, Rutgers had a free-kick opportunity from just outside the box but was unable to convert. The game remained level at 0-0.
Just minutes later, the Knights had their best scoring opportunity of the match as junior forward Riley Tiernan had a breakaway attempt toward the goal, but Tyler McCamey made an excellent save for Princeton. The ricochet off of the save went to senior forward Allison Lowrey, who then managed to fire off two more shot attempts, not converting on either of them, as the first was blocked away, and the second flew just wide of the goal.
In the final seconds, Tiernan broke away from the defense yet again and crossed the ball right in front of the net, but no one was home to get a touch on it. Time ticked out, and the game ended in a hard-fought draw.
Rutgers evened things up on the stat sheet a bit in the second half but still ended up behind 17-10 in shots and 7-5 in shots on goal. One major lack for the Knights in the game was corner kicks, as they didn't have a single one, whereas the Tigers had six.
Rutgers will now look ahead to its upcoming three-game homestand in which No. 14 Georgetown will be the first test. The game will take place on Monday at 1 p.m. and will be broadcast on Big Ten+.
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