A week after losing in the Big Ten Championship game, the top-seeded Rutgers women's soccer team faced Bucknell at home in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Even though the Scarlet Knights were denied the Big Ten Tournament title, the team should still have been in high spirits.
The first reason is that under the guidance of Big Ten Coach of the Year, Mike O'Neill, the Scarlet Knights had set records for regular season wins(15), consecutive wins (13) and conference wins (10). They also went undefeated against conference opponents. Rutgers also came into Sunday's game heavily favored because they were third in the NCAA's Division one rankings.
Standing in the way of the top-seeded lady Scarlet Knights was 16th-seed Bucknell, but the visitors never posed much of a threat and were shut out 2-0 by the Big Ten Champions.
Strong Scarlet Knight First Half
The Scarlet Knights began the game by earning two successive corners. Both were cleared away quickly by Bucknell, who was content to let Rutgers have possession of the ball in the opening ten minutes.
Rutgers had the first quality chance of the game, when senior All-Big Ten forward. Amirah Ali's clever cut back sent her marker the wrong way and took a left-footed shot that was saved by Bucknell's goalkeeper, Jenna Hall. The game went dormant for the next eight minutes before Bucknell's offense got going.
Bucknell had the games next two shots that were both saved by senior goalkeeper, Meagan McClelland who hails from Kearny, New Jersey.
In the 30th minute, Rutgers broke through when a broken play led to a third chance-at-goal for Big Ten Midfielder of the Year, Frankie Tagliaferri, who slotted the ball past a determined Hall for her first NCAA goal as a Rutgers player.
Tiernan Continues Super Rookie Season
Rutgers took two shots between the 50 and 52nd minute that were saved by Bucknell's keeper, Jenna Hall who would make an incredible 15 saves on the afternoon. However, the one shot Hall could not stop came off the right-foot of Big Ten Freshman of the year.
🎯Riley. Tiernan!!
The birthday girl extends the #RUWS lead 2-0 with this 😍beautiful goal! pic.twitter.com/TyvlWdFBKD
— RUWS | BIG TEN CHAMPIONS (@RUWSoccer) November 14, 2021
It was Tiernan's first NCAA goal and made it so that a 'T&T' duo, two of Rutgers highest scorers during the regular season would start out on their NCAA journey with goals in the first round.
Rutgers saw the game out and cruised to a 2-0 shutout victory in front of the home fans. Big Ten Coach of the Year, Mike O'Neill had his girls ready to face the lowest seed in the tournament.
One interesting takeaway from this game, is that, while Rutgers totally had the run of play, and outshot their opponent by 17-6, Rutgers did not create a lot of quality chances and really were able to beat Bucknell because of a great persistent effort from Tagliaferri on the first goal and Tiernan's accurate long shot in the second half. Meagan McClelland was strong in goal when she needed to be and certainly without a strong goalkeeper, the game could have looked different.
The Big Ten Champions advanced to the second round for the second straight NCAA appearance. In April, Rutgers lost to Clemson in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in April 2021.
Rutgers' opponent in the round of 32 will be Saint Louis University, who upset #17 Ole Miss on the road in their first round game on Friday and will surely not be a pushover.
The full schedule can be found here.
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