April 26, 2011
Final Stats
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Rutgers Scarlet Knights scored four of the game's first five goals and held the lead the rest of the way in a 13-10 triumph over the Villanova Wildcats in a BIG EAST contest played here on a warm, summer-like night. The loss drops the Wildcats to 5-9 overall, 1-5 BIG EAST while Rutgers improves to 9-6 overall, 3-4 in conference action.
Sophomore Maria Bowman paced the Wildcats on the night with four goals and a pair of assists. Junior Justine Donodeo added three goals to move her total for the season to a team-high 36 goals.
Ali Steinber and Marlena Walsh netted four goals each for Rutgers.
The Scarlet Knights owned a 34-19 edge in shots and a 16-9 advantage in draws controlled.
Kristen Anderson picked up the game's first goal for the Scarlet Knights 1:59 into the contest and that was followed at by another unassisted goal, this one from Walsh, at 23:59 to put Rutgers up 2-0.
Villanova broke into the scoring column when freshmen Ali Judge and Ali Brandenburg worked together to post a goal with 23:26 to play in the first half. Brandenburg delivered the assist with Judge scoring the goal.
But Rutgers bounced right back with a pair of goals just 41 seconds apart. The first came off the stick of Welsh while the second was notched by Katherine Marino at 22:08.
Bowman recorded her first goal of the night off a free position attempt at 16:12 to cut the VU deficit to 4-2 before Rutgers responded with its fifth goal of the night. Donodeo scored at 11:31 to make it 5-3 before Steinber scored twice more before halftime to make the count 7-3 in favor of the Knights at halftime.
Marino and Welsh scored goals in the first 1:08 of the second half to push the lead to 9-3 for the Scarlet Knights. Donodeo made it a 9-4 game with her second goal of the night on a free position attempt at 27:01 before Rutgers reeled off four consecutive goals over the next 12 minutes to take a 13-4 lead with 13:41 left to play in regulation.
Villanova kept competing and tallied the final six goals of the night, including three off Bowman's stick. Donodeo added another and seniors Carly Miller and Rachel Lasda also scored for the Wildcats.
Sophomore Amanda Hirschfeld made 11 saves in goal for the `Cats before being relieved in the second half by freshman Julia Todd. Amy Kalata made three saves while earning the victory in goal for Rutgers.
Villanova returns home to host a pair of BIG EAST games this weekend. On Friday, the Wildcats meet Connecticut at 6:00 p.m. at Villanova Stadium before Syracuse pays a visit at noon on Sunday to close out the regular season.
