PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The No. 5 Old Dominion women’s field hockey team (11-6, 5-1) travels to play Rutgers (9-7, 2-4) this Friday at 1 p.m.
ODU is currently tied for first place with Louisville and Connecticut who each have 5-1 conference records. Friday’s game will give Old Dominion a chance to claim at least a share of the school’s first Big East regular season title. In other Big East action on Friday No. 15 Louisville hosts Providence, and on Saturday No. 17 Temple is at No. 8 Connecticut.
The Lady Monarchs hold a 10-game winning streak, which is the second longest in the NCAA (only Penn State has a longer streak with 12). Six of ODU’s 10 wins have been shutouts and the Lady Monarchs have not lost since Sept. 20. During the winning streak ODU has outscored opponents 41-6, and in conference play the team has scored 23 goals and allowed just four.
Old Dominion’s senior back Christy Longacre was recently named Big East Defensive Player of the Week and junior forward Rosario Villagra was named to the Big East Honor Roll. After last weeks results Villagra now leads the Big East in scoring with 41 points, five game winning goals and leads the conference with 13 assists.
Weekend Preview:
No. 5 Lady Monarchs (11-6, 5-1) vs. Rutgers (9-7, 2-4) Friday 1:00 p.m.
Where: Piscataway, N.J. Bauer Track/Field Hockey Complex
Series Record: ODU Leads 3-0
Scarlet Knights Report: Rutgers played one game last weekend and the game finished as a 3-0 loss to Providence. Five of their last six wins were one-goal differences.
Rutgers Player to Watch: Junior midfielder Sophie Wright. Wright (Devizes, United Kingdom) leads Rutgers with eight goals and 17 points on the season. Rutgers has lost by either two goals or one goal to the other top-3 teams in the Big East.
Last Meeting: Sept. 10, 2000 – ODU defeated Rutgers in Norfolk by an 11-0 final. The Lady Monarchs were led by Marina DiGiacom with four goals and had an assist in the game. Adrienne Yoder and Julie Miracle each scored twice while ODU outshot the Scarlet Knights 37-4 and had a 19-0 penalty corner advantage.
GAME COVERAGE
Live stats of Friday's game will be available at-
Live updates can be seen by going to- https://twitter.com/ODUFieldHockey
BIG EAST Current Standings:
Big East Overall GF GA
(15) Louisville* 5-1 13-4 21 12
(5) Old Dominion* 5-1 11-6 23 4
(8) Connecticut 5-1 13-4 24 9
(17) Temple 4-2 14-4 15 7
Providence 3-3 8-7 13 10
Rutgers 2-4 9-7 10 11
Villanova 0-6 3-11 8 28
Georgetown 0-6 2-15 2 35
*Louisville owns the current tiebreaker.
Big East Tiebreak Scenarios for Tournament Pairings:
The following is the Big East policy to break ties at the end of the regular season for seeding purposes:
*If ODU, Louisville and UConn all win this weekend-
1. Regular season head to head results. If three or more teams are tied, they are viewed as a ‘mini-conference’ when comparing head-to-head results. The team or teams with the best-combined record versus the other teams in the mini-conference gain(s) the advantage. 2. Each team's record versus the team occupying the highest position in the standings, continuing down through the standings until one team gains an advantage. NOTE: When arriving at another pair of tied teams while comparing records, use each team's record against the tied teams as a group rather than the performance against the individual tied teams. 3. Each team’s Conference seasonal goal differential (maximum of 3 goals per game). 4. Each team’s Conference seasonal goals for (maximum of 3 goals per game). 5. Each team’s Conference seasonal goals against (maximum of 3 goals per game).
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