PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers women’s soccer has earned a berth into the NCAA Tournament for the 12th consecutive season. The Scarlet Knights are on the road in the first round and will visit No. 8 seed Columbia (10-4-3), an at-large out of the Ivy League, on Sun., Nov. 12 at noon to begin the national tournament.
RU carries on a longstanding tradition of NCAA Championships soccer, making the bracket for the 14th time in the last 16 years, and 18th time overall. The Scarlet Knights have been ranked or receiving votes for 16 straight seasons. The team enters the NCAA Tournament at No. 37 in the latest RPI.
A first round win would advance Rutgers into a second round matchup with the winner of 1-seed Clemson and Radford, which would take place at No. 1 seed Clemson if they advance out of the first round.
The Scarlet Knights are 9-6-4 and finished in a tie for sixth place in the Big Ten with a 5-4-1 conference record. The Big Ten admitted a record nine teams into the NCAA Tournament. Rutgers is unbeaten in five of its last six matches, including four wins over the final five regular season matches of the season. The defense has combined on 10 shutouts, with redshirt freshman goalkeeper Olivia Bodmer ranking 16th in the NCAA with nine solo shutouts.
Rutgers owns three shutout victories over NCAA RPI Top 50 teams, including No. 34 Ohio State on the road, No. 42 Providence, and No. 50 Michigan. They earned three draws on the road against teams in the NCAA RPI Top 25, including shutouts against No. 17 Princeton and No. 21 Wisconsin, and a 2-2 draw at No. 23 Nebraska.
Rutgers heads back to the NCAA Tournament with proven experience, with 10 starters and 18 letterwinners back from the 2022 NCAA Tournament squad. Included in that group is “Ironwoman” Allison Lynch, who is one of three players in program history to play 100 matches and has played in 100 percent of Rutgers’ matches since stepping foot on campus in 2019. Rutgers was honored with four All-Big Ten selections with Riley Tiernan and Emily Mason on the Second Team and Olivia Bodmer and Ashley Baran on the All-Freshman Team.
Follow Rutgers women’s soccer on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Download the Scarlet Knights App for Apple or Android today.
– RU –
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Rutgers University Athletics…