BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Rutgers had gone three straight matches without scoring, a stretch of more than 270 minutes. Reilly McGlinn needed ten minutes and 35 seconds to end the drought.
McGlinn scored twice, and Tommi Valente and Lilia Calvert added goals, lifting the Scarlet Knights to a 4-0 win over Indiana on Sunday afternoon at Jerry Yeagley Field at Bill Armstrong Stadium in front of 476 people. Rutgers moved to 5-7-4 overall and 4-6-1 in the Big Ten with the win, its first since a 3-2 result over Northwestern at Yurcak Field on Oct. 8.
Sunday was just the second Big Ten road victory of the season and the first since Amanda Thornton’s 50th-minute goal gave Rutgers a 1-0 win at Oregon on Sept. 10. It was also the fifth win of the year, one more than Rutgers managed in all of 2025.
The week before produced the team’s worst stretch of the fall. Rutgers lost 1-0 at Penn State on Oct. 17, then went to Columbus on Thursday and was outshot 16-1 in the first half of a 3-0 loss to No. 3 Ohio State. The team arrived in Bloomington in a four-way tie at 10 points, six behind the eighth and final Big Ten Tournament place.
The three points could not close that gap. By the end of the afternoon, nothing could.
Indiana was the reason the trip looked like an opportunity. The Hoosiers came in 4-10-2 overall and 1-8-1 in conference play, last of 18 with four points, and had been eliminated from tournament contention three days earlier in a 5-0 home loss to No. 22 Purdue that also sent the Golden Boot back to West Lafayette for the first time in four seasons. Purdue outshot Indiana 23-2. It was Indiana’s second 5-0 defeat of the season and its ninth straight match without a win.
This was the second year under head coach Josh Rife. His first ended at 5-6-6 and 2-4-5 in the Big Ten, three points short of the tournament, and the expectation this fall was the next step. Instead, the Hoosiers went the full 90 against Michigan State and Purdue without earning a corner, and Sunday was their final home match. Indiana finished 0-6 at Bill Armstrong Stadium in Big Ten play.
The sides last met at Yurcak Field in September 2025, when Nata Ramirez and Ashley Baran scored in a 2-0 Rutgers win. Rutgers’ previous trip to Bloomington, in 2023, ended in a 3-2 loss.
Lineup
GK: Olivia Bodmer
D: Julia Joseph, Sophia Stiles, Morgan Hippeli, Lindsey Hailey, Patricia Tsokos
M: Tommi Valente
F: Lilia Calvert, Reilly McGlinn, Ashley Baran, Amanda Thornton
Subs: Emma Johns, Marian Dunne, Olivia Russomanno, Sarah Martinez, Jayme Malanda, Riley Morris, Gesare Omwenga, Madelyn O’Neill, Bea Tinoco, Lily Ann Phillips, Dina Bojkovic, Audrey Cain, Mikayla Mandleur, Charlotte Garcia, Lauren Swafford
Gabriela Gil, one of the team’s two captains, did not appear. Neither did transfer goalkeeper Iris de Rouw. When the change in goal came late, it was Lauren Swafford who replaced Bodmer at 82:48 and played the final 7:12.
The shape of the substitutions was the shape it has been all season, pushed further. The first wave came at 27:41, with four changes at once, including Emma Johns on for McGlinn, Marian Dunne for Baran, Olivia Russomanno for Thornton and Sarah Martinez for Valente. Jayme Malanda replaced Hippeli at 30:27 and Riley Morris replaced Calvert at 30:57, six changes inside 3:16 of clock. Gesare Omwenga and Madelyn O’Neill came on for Joseph and Tsokos at 41:07. Then the reset at the whistle, eight changes at once, and the starting eleven back exactly as it had begun.
Two Shots on Target, Two Goals
The opening belonged to Rutgers on every line of the ledger. Julia Joseph gave away a free kick at 4:11, but Rutgers won corners at 5:31 and 7:15, and Ashley Baran sent the first shot of the match off target at 8:16. The goal came two minutes later. McGlinn put a shot into the bottom right at 10:35, unassisted, the first shot on target by either side and Rutgers’ first goal since Oct. 8.
Rutgers kept leaning. They were flagged offside at 13:09 and again at 14:47, and Indiana did not take a single throw-in until 17:05. Valente was penalized at 20:42, and two minutes after Rutgers’ third corner, at 21:36, the lead doubled. Calvert found Valente, and the freshman finished with her right foot into the bottom right at 23:34.
Bodmer Saves the Penalty
Then came the moment that could have changed the afternoon. Sophia Stiles was whistled for a foul at 65:16, Indiana was awarded a penalty, and defender Piper Coffield stepped up. Bodmer saved it, top center. The score stayed 2-0, and Mike O’Neill made three changes on the spot, Russomanno for McGlinn, Bea Tinoco for Baran and Dunne for Thornton.
This was the closest Indiana came all afternoon.
Calvert kept testing Payton. Her shot at 67:44 went to the bottom left and was saved, Payton’s third stop of the half and her second on Calvert. Rutgers won another corner at 70:19, Calvert came off for Valente at 72:01, and Dunne had a shot blocked at 72:54.
Then the starters went back on. Baran, Thornton, Calvert, Hippeli and McGlinn returned in one wave, and the lead went from two to four inside four minutes. Calvert scored at 76:35, right foot, bottom left, unassisted, her team-leading fifth of the season and her third shot of the day, all three on target. Payton stopped Thornton’s shot to the bottom center at 79:35, and nine seconds later McGlinn put her second into the bottom right with her right foot. It was 79:44, three minutes and nine seconds after Calvert’s goal.
The final wave came at 81:43, eight changes that brought on Lily Ann Phillips, Dina Bojkovic, Audrey Cain, Mikayla Mandleur and Charlotte Garcia alongside the returning Johns, Madelyn O’Neill and Omwenga. Garcia wasted no time. She went off target at 84:42, forced Payton into a save at the bottom right at 85:19, had one blocked at 85:37 and sent another off target at 85:44. Indiana won a corner at 85:54 and Paige Droner went off target at 86:18, the only shot Swafford faced. Cain had the last word, a shot to the bottom center at 89:54 that Payton saved.
Charlotte Garcia took four shots in 62 seconds.
Rutgers outshot Indiana 15-7 after the break, put eight on target to Indiana’s two, and won three corners to two. Indiana committed eight fouls to Rutgers’ three. Emma Payton made six saves. Olivia Bodmer made two, and one of them was a penalty.
Over 90 minutes, Bodmer made four saves in 82:48 and shares the clean sheet with Swafford, Rutgers’ first since the scoreless draw with Nebraska on Oct. 11. Calvert finished with a goal, an assist and three shots on target from three attempts. McGlinn took two shots and scored with both.
The math ran out somewhere else. Michigan drew 2-2 with Penn State on Sunday afternoon to reach 17 points, leaving eight teams on 17 or more. Rutgers has 13 and can finish with no more than 16. The Scarlet Knights won by four and were eliminated from the Big Ten Tournament anyway.
That makes Friday the end of the season. Rutgers hosts Maryland on Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. at Yurcak Field, the Halloween-themed home closer. It is Rutgers’ first home match after three straight on the road, the last of them more than 700 miles from Piscataway. Maryland entered the weekend 4-9-3 overall and 1-7-2 in the Big Ten, 16th in the table. The 2025 season ended against the Terrapins too, in a draw at Maryland.
Three matches without a goal, then four in an afternoon from three different players. It came too late.
Rutgers did its part, but Michigan did just enough.