It was another busy week “On The Banks” for the Scarlet Knights, with a host of fall sports in action, as well as much more to come this week. Here is your weekly one-stop shop for everything you need
to know from around the world of Rutgers Athletics.
Women’s golf participated in its second tournament of the season after finishing ninth at the Wolverine Invitational in Ann Arbor. They finished 11th overall in the Canadian Collegiate Invitational, led by senior Grace Lu, who tied for 31st in the 66-player field, and sophomore Joline Truong, who finished in 34th. Auburn won the overall title at 16 under-par, while host Kent State (-10) finished in second. The women’s golf team will next be in action at the Princeton Invitational from October 4th to 5th.
Women’s tennis wrapped up its first weekend of competition at Yale’s Bulldog Invitational this past Sunday, winning 14 total matches, including five doubles and nine singles. Some of the top performers included Zeynep Ilker and Karina Jumazhanova, who won their doubles match 6-2, as well as Naomi Karki, who won her singles match in straight sets (6-2, 6-1). Meanwhile, Mai Nguyen competed at the ITA All-Americans tournament in Cary, North Carolina, falling to Giorgia Roselli of Wichita State (6-1, 6-2). The women’s tennis team will next take the court at the UNC Charlotte Invite from October 3rd through 5th.
Women’s soccer had two games last week and heads out to California for matchups against UCLA and USC this week. After falling to Minnesota 2-1 last Thursday, the Scarlet Knights finally found the win column by defeating the Hoosiers 2-0 at home on Sunday afternoon. After four straight draws and a loss, the first win of Big Ten play was a welcome sign. Rutgers is now 3-1-4 on the season with a 1-1-1 record in Big Ten play.
The schedule gets much tougher now, with a date at the #4 Bruins set for tonight at 10:30 PM Eastern before taking on the Trojans at 4 PM Eastern on Sunday. Both games will be broadcast nationally on the Big Ten Network, so for those who have not seen the team in action yet, this would be a great opportunity to do so.
Men’s soccer dropped a tough 2-1 decision in Evanston on Friday night (yes, while the football blackout was going on), by a score of 2-1. They then outlasted Fairleigh Dickinson at home 3-2 on Tuesday night in a back-and-forth game that was decided by Andrew Kitch’s goal in the 82nd minute. Rutgers is now 3-0 at home and improved to 5-2-1 overall, with a Big Ten record of 1-1.
The Scarlet Knights will resume conference play with Ohio State coming to New Jersey on Friday at 7 PM, before hosting the Monmouth Hawks in the final nonconference game of the season next Tuesday at 7 PM. The Ohio State game will also be a blackout game at Yurcak Field.
#19 field hockey had a mixed week, defeating New Hampshire 6-2 on Friday before falling 4-2 to #18 Monmouth on Sunday. Rutgers completes its five-game homestand with their conference opener against Ohio State on Friday at 3 PM, before hosting its final nonconference opponent, Columbia, on Sunday at 1 PM. One of the big storylines is their struggles against ranked opponents, as the Scarlet Knights are 4-4 overall but just 1-4 against a Top 25 team (sound familiar?)
Volleyball similarly had a mixed week, sweeping Coppin State 3-0 on Friday before getting swept by hosts George Mason on Saturday. Rutgers is 9-3 on the season after going just 6-25 with a 1-19 conference record in 2024. The Scarlet Knights are finished with nonconference play, with the schedule ratcheting up in difficulty quite a bit.
This week, Rutgers travels to the Midwest for a pair of road games, taking on #7 Wisconsin tomorrow night before heading to #12 Minnesota on Sunday. After a strong nonconference record, it will be interesting to see if Rutgers can continue to show improvement and steal a couple of Big Ten wins against ranked foes. The following week sees a couple of home games against Maryland and #1 Nebraska, which are both Scarlet Outs at Jersey Mike’s Arena.
Football will be back in action on Saturday, taking on the Minnesota Golden Gophers on the road at 12 PM Eastern. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network, WFAN, and WRSU, with the staff at On The Banks providing our usual gameday coverage on X and at onthebanks.com in the feed and game thread.
After four straight home games to start the season, the Scarlet Knights will be on the road for four of their next five contests, with a bye week to follow this game before the team heads to Washington to battle the Huskies. The next home game will be our homecoming game against the currently sixth-ranked Oregon Ducks, with a kickoff time of 6:30 or 7 PM. After a thrilling blackout environment, the stage should be set for another great home atmosphere in mid-October for a game against a top-ten opponent.
Rutgers fans should enjoy watching the game from home for the first time this season (or making the trip to Minnesota, if you’re going), and a great slate of college football is set for Saturday. Some of the other Big Ten games on the slate include Iowa-Indiana, Washington-Ohio State, USC-Illinois, and, of course, Penn State-Oregon, with Alabama-Georgia at the same time of 7:30 Eastern.
In other Rutgers football news, Dariel Djabome was named a semifinalist for the Campbell Trophy, which honors a combination of academic success, leadership, and football performance. Djabome led the team last year with 105 tackles, is a team captain, and has started all four games this season at linebacker, with eight tackles against Iowa and a sack against Miami (OH).
He is also a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree as a human resource management major, as well as being a member of Chop4Change, which involves giving back to the community in various ways. This video encapsulates his inspiring story, showing that you can make it if you work hard and believe in yourself.
In general athletics news, Rutgers Athletics has entered into a partnership with Shift4, which is an industry leader in payments and technology. They will provide end-to-end commerce solutions at Rutgers sporting events, including concessions and merchandise transactions. The technology has already been deployed at SHI Stadium for the first four games of the season, and will make its way to the other athletic venues later in the year.
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