Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Rutgers
No. 10 Northwestern Hosts No. 19 Rutgers Friday
9/28/2017 3:32:00 PM | Field Hockey
| NORTHWESTERN FIELD HOCKEY: GAME DAY INFORMATION | |||||
| DATE | OPPONENT | TIME | LOCATION | BROADCAST | LIVE STATS |
| Friday, Sept. 29 |
#19 Rutgers | 3 p.m. | Lakeside Field Evanston, Ill. |
BTN Plus on BTN2Go | NUsports.com |
| Social: Twitter (@NUFHCats and @NU_SportsLive) | Instagram (@NUFHCats) | Facebook | |||||
EVANSTON, Ill. – Tenth-ranked Northwestern faces its fourth straight ranked opponent Friday when it hosts No. 19 Rutgers at Lakeside Field. The contest gets underway at 3 p.m.
The Wildcats (7-4, 2-1 B1G) are coming off a strong week that saw them defeat two of the three ranked opponents that they faced. Northwestern topped then-No. 15 Louisville, 2-0, before suffering a narrow 4-3 loss at then-No. 3 Penn State. The 'Cats wrapped up the week by earning a 3-2 road win at then-No. 10 Maryland to stay in contention for a Big Ten title.
Kirsten Mansfield, who scored three goals – including two-game winners – to go along with an assist in last week's three contests was recognized as the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week.
Puck Pentenga contributed a goal and four assists in the three matches, raising her Big Ten-leading assist total to 10. She paces Northwestern with 16 points while Mansfield and Pascale Massey are tied for the team lead with five goals. Pentenga also is the Big Ten far-and-away leader with an average of 5.45 shots per game, well ahead of the 4.09 averaged by Iowa's Katie Birch.
Northwestern ranks third in the Big Ten with an average of 2.64 goals per game while Rutgers is right behind at 2.60.
The Wildcats are No. 8 in this week's RPI, having played the nation's third-toughest schedule to date. NU already has faced the Nos. 1 (UConn), 2 (Duke), 4 (Stanford), 6 (Penn State) and 7 (Boston College) teams in the RPI.
At 2-0 in the Big Ten, Rutgers (7-3 overall) is one of two remaining undefeated teams in conference play (Michigan, 3-0). The Scarlet Knights posted a pair of shutouts to open league play last weekend, topping Indiana, 2-0, and Iowa, 1-0.
Daphne Groothuis leads Rutgers with six goals and 17 points this season while Linde van Schaik contributes five goals and 14 points. In goal, Gianna Glatz sports a 1.64 goals-against average with a .739 save percentage.
Northwestern has won all three previous meetings with the Scarlet Knights, including notching a 5-3 win Sept. 30 last season in Piscataway.
