No. 19 Rutgers field hockey suffers tough road loss against No. 2 Northwestern
The Rutgers field hockey team started its weekend with a tough 4-0 road loss to Northwestern. The Scarlet Knights (4-5, 1-2) traveled to Evanston, Illinois, and struggled defensively against the undefeated Wildcats (11-0, 4-0).
The first quarter was uneventful for both teams. There wasn’t a single shot until the start of the second quarter, but redshirt senior goalkeeper Sophia Howard made two saves within the first 3 minutes to keep it scoreless.
No. 2 Northwestern would have two more shots in the half, failing to find the back of the net. No. 19 Rutgers had three shots in the first half. One of them was blocked, and two of them were saved by Wildcats goalkeeper Annabel Skubisz.
Although the Knights made it to the half without letting up a goal, the second-best team in the country eventually broke through.
Northwestern burst out of the locker room with a second-half surge befitting of its national rank. Five minutes into the third quarter, Ilse Tromp put her team on the board off a penalty corner thanks to assists from Katie Jones and Maddie Zimmer.
Rutgers managed to get a couple of shots off – senior midfielder Paulina Niklaus having one of hers blocked – but the score heading into the fourth favored the Wildcats.
In the final 15 minutes, Northwestern opened up on the Knights. Ashley Sessa, the Wildcats’ leading goal scorer, called it a game with a fourth-quarter hat trick. Sessa scored in the 47th, 50th, and 58th minutes, the first two coming from penalty strokes and the latter thanks to an assist from Olivia Bent-Cole. Sessa now has a staggering 10 goals on the season.
Senior midfielder Guillermina Causarano, redshirt junior forward Indy van Ek, freshman forward Sophie Kuiper, redshirt junior midfielder Vicky Jure and Niklaus all had shots in the fourth that either missed, were blocked or were saved by Skubisz.
Howard finished the game with six games, as her team was outshot 17-12.
Rutgers will now look to Sunday, when it will face Indiana in Bloomington, Indiana. The game will start at noon and will be broadcast on Big Ten Plus.
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