Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Rutgers
NU Hosts Rutgers Sunday in Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinal
10/27/2017 4:05:00 PM | Field Hockey
| NORTHWESTERN FIELD HOCKEY: GAME DAY INFORMATION | |||||
| DATE | OPPONENT | TIME | LOCATION | BROADCAST | LIVE STATS |
| Sunday, Oct. 29 |
#20 Rutgers | 11:30 a.m. | Lakeside Field; Evanston, Ill. |
BTN Plus on BTN2Go | SIDEARM |
| Social: Twitter (@NUFHCats and @NU_SportsLive) | Instagram (@NUFHCats) | Facebook | |||||
EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 10 Northwestern opens up postseason play Sunday as it hosts No. 20 Rutgers in the quarterfinal round of the Big Ten tournament at Lakeside Field. The contest gets underway at 11:30 a.m.
The Wildcats (13-5) are seeded fourth while the Scarlet Knights are seeded fifth. The winner of the contest advances to next Friday's semifinal round in East Lansing, Michigan, where it takes on either top-seeded Michigan eighth-seeded Ohio State. The Buckeyes defeated ninth-seeded Indiana, 3-1, in the play-in game.
Northwestern edged Rutgers, 3-2, in the regular-season matchup between the teams Sept. 29 in Evanston. NU had a pair of two-goal leads in the contest with Puck Pentenga, Saar de Breij and Elena Curley notching tallies for the hosts. The Wildcats had advantages of 14-7 in shots and 7-2 in penalty corners in the contest.
Another victory over a top-20 opponent would help Northwestern's case for an NCAA tournament bid. Ranked No. 10 in this week's RPI, the Wildcats have a 6-5 record against ranked teams this season. All but one of the losses have been by one goal.
Northwestern has been perfect at Lakeside Field this season as it enters Sunday's contest with an 8-0 mark on its home turf.
Pentenga paces the NU offense with a Big Ten-leading 16 assists and a team-best 34 points. She ranks second on the team to only Pascale Massey (12) with nine goals this season. Massey is coming off a first-half hat trick in last Sunday's convincing 8-2 victory over Michigan State.
In goal, Annie Kalfas sports a 1.63 goals-against average with a .730 save percentage.
Rutgers (9-8) is paced offensively by Daphne Groothuis and Linde van Schaik who have seven goals apiece. Gianna Glatz has a 2.06 goals-against average with a .676 save percentage for the Scarlet Knights who have dropped their last three contests. The team wrapped up its regular season with a 6-0 home loss to Maryland on Sunday.
Northwestern leads the all-time series, 4-0, with all of the matchups coming since Rutgers joined the Big Ten Conference in 2014.
The Wildcats advanced to the semifinal round of last year's Big Ten tournament before falling 3-2 in overtime to third-ranked Maryland.
