While winter sports are in full swing, spring sports are getting preparations underway. This includes Rutgers men’s and women’s lacrosse, which both announced their 2026 schedules this month.
Men’s lacrosse announced its spring schedule on December 1st and will kick off the season with the earliest game in program history on January 31st against Jacksonville in Naples, Florida. The nonconference schedule includes home games against Army, Villanova, LIU, and Hofstra, along with road trips to face Stony
Brook, Princeton, and St. John’s. Before the season officially gets underway, the men’s team will scrimmage at UMass on January 17th before hosting Boston University for a scrimmage on January 24th.
In Big Ten play, Rutgers hosts Ohio State and Johns Hopkins, while road games at Michigan and Maryland round out the conference slate ahead of a season finale home matchup with Penn State. The Scarlet Knights will face four of the seven top teams in last year’s RPI, four NCAA Tournament teams, and seven top 20 RPI teams from last season.
The Big Ten quarterfinals will begin on Saturday, April 25th, ahead of the Big Ten Semifinals on April 30th and the Big Ten Championship Game on May 2nd. Both semifinals and the conference title game will be hosted at SHI Stadium for the first time since 2019 and the second time ever. Last season, the men’s lacrosse team finished 7-9, falling to #5 Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals and failing to make the NCAA Tournament.
Rutgers men’s lacrosse also announced that it will be led by a singular captain in Joe Juengerkes. He is an elite short-stick defensive midfielder, was named an All-American last year by three different publications, was a Second Team All-Big Ten selection, and was the Rutgers Lacrosse Knight Cup winner. He played three seasons at Princeton before being named a captain in his first year as a Scarlet Knight last season.
Shifting over to women’s lacrosse, their schedule was released by the program yesterday, featuring 17 games, with seven home dates, eight Big Ten matchups, and seven games against 2025 NCAA Tournament teams.
Rutgers women’s lacrosse opens the season on Friday, Feb. 6th, when it hosts Army under the lights at SHI Stadium, which points to the opener being an evening/night game. They will host Monmouth and Hofstra and make trips to Delaware, Villanova, Princeton, Temple, and Stony Brook in the early part of the season.
Their Big Ten opener will be at home against Johns Hopkins on March 15th, before the Scarlet Knights go on an extended road trip, traveling to Ohio State, USC, San Diego State, and Maryland before returning to Piscataway for a home game against Michigan on April 9th.
Women’s lacrosse will wrap up the regular season with a home game against Oregon, their final road trip to Northwestern, and the season finale against Penn State on April 18th. Last season, Rutgers finished the year 8-10, with ranked wins over Stony Brook and Ohio State, but ended the regular season on a five-game losing streak before falling to #2 Maryland 17-11 in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.
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