Women’s Soccer Puts 18 Shots on Target but Ends Its Season With a 3-2 Loss to Maryland

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Maryland came to Yurcak Field without a road win all season. Rutgers put 18 shots on target against the Terrapins, and lost.

The Terrapins beat the Scarlet Knights 3-2 on Friday night in the last match of both teams’ seasons. Jolie Farmer scored at 7:06 and again at 51:47, and Mia Mitchell converted a penalty at 38:43 after a handball on Sophia Stiles. Lilia Calvert answered from the spot at 56:25 and Reilly McGlinn made it 3-2 at 81:49 off a Julia Joseph assist, but the equalizer never came. Luckey made 13 saves before giving way to Meredith Fisher at 78:42, and Fisher made three more. Olivia Bodmer made one.

Thirty-three shots. Eighteen on target. Two goals, and one of them from the spot.

It was Halloween on the Pitch at Yurcak, with trick-or-treat bags and light sticks on the giveaway list for an announced crowd of 503, and it did not feel much like a holiday by the end. There was no postseason waiting. Rutgers’ Big Ten Tournament hopes were gone before kickoff, so the final whistle was the end of the year, and for five seniors the last match of their Rutgers careers. The mood on the Rutgers side afterward was somber, and plenty of players were emotional.

Rutgers had come in off their best result of October. Sunday’s 4-0 win at Indiana ended a run of three straight matches without a goal, and McGlinn scored twice in it, her first goals of the season. Picked 15th of 18 in the Big Ten preseason poll, this team spent most of the fall looking better than its record. It beat No. 14 Wisconsin 3-1 on Senior Day, beat Northwestern on the Pink Out, and lost one-goal matches to Purdue, UCLA and Penn State. The finishing never fully caught up, and Friday was its last chance to.

Maryland arrived 4-10-3 overall and 1-8-2 in the Big Ten, picked 17th in the preseason poll in Michael Marchiano’s second full season in charge. Its only conference win came Oct. 11 against Northwestern, it had been outscored 26-11, and it was 0-5-2 away from College Park. On Sunday the Terps lost 1-0 at No. 5 Michigan State on four shots of their own, and Faith Luckey kept it to one goal with nine saves. The senior goalkeeper came in with 71 saves in 14 starts and had just been named the department’s Terp of the Week.

The series had gone to two straight draws, 1-1 at Yurcak on Senior Day in 2024 and 0-0 at Ludwig Field last October, when Rutgers outshot Maryland 19-7 and could not score. Maryland had won three of its seven previous trips to Piscataway.

Maryland had not won on the road all year. It waited for the last night of Rutgers’ season.

Lineup

GK: Olivia Bodmer

D: Julia Joseph, Sophia Stiles, Lindsey Hailey, Patricia Tsokos

M: Tommi Valente, Morgan Hippeli

F: Lilia Calvert, Reilly McGlinn, Ashley Baran, Amanda Thornton

Subs: Bea Tinoco, Olivia Russomanno, Audrey Cain, Jayme Malanda, Marian Dunne, Sarah Martinez, Madelyn O’Neill, Emma Johns, Dina Bojkovic

Mike O’Neill started three of his seniors, Bodmer, Tsokos and Baran, and used the other two off the bench, Emma Johns for 23 minutes in two shifts and Audrey Cain for 11. Stiles started in the back four, Amanda Thornton started up top, and Gabriela Gil, one of the two team captains, did not appear.

The count finished at 26 substitutions, nine substitutes and 20 players, and the first half went in three late waves again. Dina Bojkovic, Olivia Russomanno and Johns replaced McGlinn, Baran and Thornton at 33:31, the same second Marchiano made three changes of his own. Jayme Malanda, Marian Dunne and Sarah Martinez came on for Calvert, Valente and Hippeli at 36:22, and Madelyn O’Neill and Bea Tinoco replaced Joseph and Tsokos at 39:11, 28 seconds after the penalty.

All eight came back at 45:00, a full restoration of the starting eleven after the partial one at Ohio State. Then the Rutgers coach did it again inside the second half. Johns replaced Thornton at 61:27, and at 64:32 Dunne, Cain and Bojkovic went on for Calvert, McGlinn and Baran. Malanda replaced Hippeli at 70:35. At 72:58 the starters came back in a block of four, Thornton, Baran, McGlinn and Hippeli, and Calvert followed at 75:58. McGlinn scored 8 minutes and 51 seconds into that second shift.

Marchiano matched the shape almost exactly, six first-half changes, all six undone at the interval, and eight more after it, including the goalkeeping change at 78:42.

Bodmer, Stiles and Hailey were the only Scarlet Knights who never came off.

Farmer Scores on Maryland’s Third Shot, and a Handball Makes It Two

Rutgers outshot Maryland 18-9 in the first half and put nine on target to Maryland’s three. Each team won one corner. Rutgers committed six fouls to Maryland’s two and was flagged offside twice. Ary Oliver was booked. Luckey made nine saves. Bodmer made one.

Maryland had the first two attempts, a Mckinley Heaven shot blocked at 2:04 and a Lisa McIntyre miss at 3:35, and then Rutgers started shooting. Tommi Valente, one of the freshmen who started regularly this fall, forced Luckey into a save at the bottom center at 4:25 and went off target 32 seconds later. Baran tested Luckey at the bottom right at 5:51.

Maryland scored with its third shot. At 7:06 Farmer finished low into the bottom right corner with her right foot, unassisted, for a 1-0 lead. Peyton Bernard went at Bodmer low to her left at 8:55, and Bodmer saved it.

It was the only save she made all night.

From there Rutgers had the ball and Maryland had the scoreboard. Calvert’s shot was blocked at 10:42, Heaven and Farmer missed the target at 13:52 and 15:00, and Baran went off target at 16:28. At 17:36 Oliver was booked for unsporting behavior, Valente was called for a foul on the same stoppage, and Patricia Tsokos put a shot at the bottom center for Luckey’s second save. Baran missed again at 20:33 and Joseph at 22:51.

The best spell of the half ran from 26:00 to 31:57. McGlinn tested Luckey at the bottom center at 26:00 and again at 27:28, and Thornton went at the same spot at 28:47. Maryland won its only corner of the half at 29:47, and Farmer’s attempt off it was blocked at 30:27. Valente was blocked at 31:44, and 13 seconds later Thornton went bottom right. That was four saves for Luckey in five minutes and 57 seconds, and nothing got past her.

Both benches turned over at 33:31. Joseph was blocked at 33:55, Rutgers was flagged offside at 34:14 and 36:53, and Russomanno went off target at 36:00. Then, at 38:43, Stiles was called for a handball in the box. Mitchell put the penalty top right, and from where I stood it caught the crossbar on the way in for 2-0.

Rutgers kept shooting anyway. It won its only corner at 39:13, Dunne was blocked at 42:13, and Russomanno and Johns put shots on target at 42:22 and 44:14, bottom center and bottom right, both saved.

Rutgers went to the break with 18 shots, nine on target, and nothing to show for any of them.

Calvert From the Spot, McGlinn Next, and the Equalizer That Never Came

Rutgers came out with its starting eleven back on and a two-goal hole to climb out of. Maryland was caught offside at 49:11, Calvert went off target at 49:41, and at 51:22 Baran forced Luckey into a save at the bottom center.

Twenty-five seconds later it was 3-0. Farmer struck top right with her right foot at 51:47 for her second of the night, on Maryland’s 10th shot. It was also the Terps’ fourth shot on target, and the third to go in.

Maryland would take one more shot all night.

Rutgers got one back five minutes later. Baran went at Luckey again at 54:25, low to her left, and was saved, and Bernard sent Maryland’s last attempt of the night off target at 56:21. Then Mitchell was called for a foul in the box, and Calvert, the true freshman who became the story of this Rutgers season, put the penalty top right at 56:25 to make it 3-1. From the sideline, Baran looked inches from a second goal moments later.

What followed was 20 minutes without a Rutgers shot on target. Lindsey Hailey went off target at 63:41, McIntyre was booked at 64:14, and Dunne picked up two fouls inside four minutes of coming on. Rutgers was flagged offside at 70:35 and called for a handball at 71:43.

The four starters came back at 72:58. Hailey was booked at 75:02, Calvert returned at 75:58, and the push began. Baran went bottom left at 76:25 and Thornton bottom center at 76:32, two saves for Luckey in seven seconds, and Baran missed the target at 77:03. At 78:42 Marchiano took Luckey off for Fisher and made three more changes, Farmer among them, and Thornton went straight at the new goalkeeper, bottom center, then had a second effort blocked.

At 81:49 Joseph found McGlinn, and McGlinn finished top center with her right foot to make it 3-2. It was her third goal in two matches after none in the first 15, and there were eight minutes and 11 seconds left.

Yurcak got louder. Valente was blocked at 83:29, and at 84:34 McGlinn went at Fisher bottom center for a save. Hippeli missed the target at 87:00 and was called for a foul at 87:21. At 88:40 Baran went bottom left, and Fisher saved it.

It was the last shot of the night, and the last of Baran’s senior season.

Rutgers took 15 shots in the second half and put nine on target. Maryland took two and put one on target. There were no corners. Maryland committed eight fouls to Rutgers’ seven, and McIntyre and Hailey were booked. Luckey made four saves and Fisher three. Bodmer did not have to make one.

Rutgers finishes 5-8-4 overall and 4-7-1 in the Big Ten. Maryland ends 5-10-3 and 2-8-2, with their first road win of the year coming on a night it was outshot 33-11 and put four shots on target to Rutgers’ 18. Sixteen saves across two Maryland goalkeepers decided it.

There is a version of this season the Scarlet Knights can take something from. Four Big Ten wins, two more than a year ago, from a team picked 15th. A 3-1 win over a ranked Wisconsin side, a 3-2 win over Northwestern, and four goals in Bloomington six days ago. A freshman class that played real minutes from August on.

And there is the version that ended Friday. Thirty-three shots and two goals, one of them from the spot. The same story as Purdue, UCLA and Penn State, close enough to touch and a goal short.

Friday also closed five Rutgers careers. Olivia Bodmer, a redshirt senior and three-time captain from Monroe, came into her fifth year with 210 career saves, ninth in program history, and 21 shutouts, seventh, and made more than 70 more saves this fall. Patricia Tsokos, who came from Arkansas and twice made Academic All-Big Ten, started every match of last season at left back. Ashley Baran, from Burlington, scored the opener against Wisconsin on Senior Day and took eight shots on her last night. Emma Johns scored Rutgers’ goal in the season opener at Tennessee. Audrey Cain, from Philadelphia, played her last 11 minutes in the second half Friday. All five had careers worth more than the way this one ended, and their presence will be missed.

Everyone else is set to come back, and Mike O’Neill is looking to keep every one of his returners. That group starts with Calvert, Valente, Dunne and Thornton, freshmen who started matches from the opening weeks, along with McGlinn, Joseph, Hailey and Gil. Much of next fall was on the field Friday night.
Maryland came to Yurcak without a road win. It needed four shots on target to get one.

Rutgers needed one more.

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