No. 17 Rutgers field hockey will play its final home game of the season against No. 11 Maryland on Friday at 3 p.m. The game, designated as the team’s Unity Game in partnership with A Long Talk, will be broadcast on B1G+ with commentary from Dom Savino and former Rutgers player Liz Romano.
Rutgers currently holds an 8-7 overall record and is 3-3 in Big Ten conference play. The team faced defeats last weekend against top-ranked opponents Northwestern and Iowa. The Scarlet Knights are part of a group of five teams with between three and five conference wins as the regular season nears its end, with the Big Ten Tournament scheduled for November 6-9 in Bloomington, Indiana. Seven out of nine Big Ten field hockey teams will qualify for the tournament.
Last Sunday, Rutgers lost to No. 11 Iowa despite leading twice during the match. Sophie Kuiper, Paulina Niklaus, and Olivia Fraticelli scored for Rutgers in that game. The team also marked Letterwinners Day by welcoming over 30 former players and honored seven seniors in a postgame ceremony.
Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Emily Nicholls leads the Big Ten with 90 saves this season, the most by a Rutgers goalkeeper since Shevaun Hayes in 2014-15. Nicholls has a save percentage of 78.9% and a goals-against average of 1.64.
Rutgers is ranked No. 18 in the RPI and No. 17 in the NFHCA Coaches Poll this week. The team has played eight top-20 RPI teams this season, giving it the toughest strength of schedule among Big Ten teams. All seven losses have been to teams currently ranked in the RPI top 20.
Head coach Meredith Civico, who played her collegiate field hockey at Maryland under current Terps coach Missy Meharg, was part of Maryland’s 2005 NCAA National Championship team.
Maryland enters Friday’s game with an 8-6 record overall and a 4-3 record in conference play. Four of Maryland’s six losses have been to top-10 teams, while they have four wins over ranked opponents. The Terps have scored 24 goals in 14 games, with most coming from four players: Jordyn Hollamon, Maci Bradford, Ella Gaitan, and Josie Hollamon. Goalkeeper Alyssa Klebasko has a goals-against average of 1.06, third best in the Big Ten.
Rutgers’ all-time record against Maryland stands at 5-37-1, but the Scarlet Knights have won two of the last five meetings, including a shootout win at home in 2023 and a penalty stroke victory in 2021.
Defender Puck Winter is among the NCAA’s all-time leaders in defensive saves, currently tied for sixth with 30 career saves and leading the NCAA this season in that category.
This season, several Rutgers players have received individual honors. Puck Winter was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week on September 29 and also earned NFHCA National Defensive Player of the Week recognition. Martha Goodridge was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week on September 29, while Emily Nicholls received both Big Ten Freshman and Defensive Player of the Week awards earlier this season.
Three Rutgers players—Anna Cogdell, Paulina Niklaus, and Puck Winter—were named to the preseason Big Ten Players to Watch List, having also received all-conference recognition last season. Six Rutgers athletes were selected by USA Field Hockey for the 2025 Senior Nexus Championship, with Nicholls and Fraticelli also chosen for the U-21 Junior Women’s National Team Selection Camp.
Rutgers finished last season with an 8-9 record and was ranked No. 14 in the RPI but did not make the NCAA Tournament despite playing a challenging schedule that included multiple games against top-10 teams.
Since 2018, Rutgers field hockey has won 88 out of 139 games, with more than half of those victories coming against ranked opponents. The program reached the NCAA Tournament in 2018 for the first time in 32 years and set a school record with 19 wins in 2021 after winning the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed.
Alumna Katie Larmour recently made her debut with Ireland’s senior national team, while former player Iris Langejans began a professional career in the Netherlands with HDM Dames 1.
Head coach Meredith Civico highlighted the importance of team culture at Rutgers: “Culture is something you have to work at every single day; it doesn’t just happen,” Civico explained. “We have this acronym: RUTGERS that stands for our core values: Relentless, United, Tenacious, Gritty, Excellence, Respect, Strength. These aren’t just words on a wall – they’re how we live. We’re not just coaching a sport; we’re coaching people. Sports are played by people, and people are the most important.”
