The Rutgers men’s lacrosse team went from having an unspectacular season to finding its stride at the best time - just as the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments are approaching.
That’s because the Scarlet Knights defeated No. 2 Maryland 8-6 last week, marking first win in program history over a team ranked that high. Rutgers had been struggling to pull together wins and its only set of back to back wins were at the beginning of the season against Lehigh and LIU.
The breakthough against Maryland boosted the Scarlet Knights (6-6, 2-1 Big Ten) to a national No. 18 ranking.
“Yeah, it’s a pretty good feeling,” said 6-foot-2, 210-pound senior captain and defenseman Tommy Mendyke, a Minnesota native who was named a 2025 Big Ten Preseason Player to Watch. “I think we’re now in a spot we’ve been wanting to be in all season. We definitely taken our lumps but our big motto is not getting too high or low off the results of our game.
"It’s allowed us to work back and get our biggest win in Rutgers history this last weekend. So we’re excited to get back in the spot we wanted to be.”
Defense turns into offense for Rutgers: Goalkeeper Cardin Stoller scores
Rutgers' defense was effective in multiple ways against Maryland. In the fourth quarter, redshirt sophomore and goalkeeper Cardin Stoller scored on a shot assisted by Mendyke to extend the lead 8-5 with 3:05 left in the game.
GOALIE GOAL DAGGER FROM CARDIN STOLLER 🚨😱
— TLN 🥍 (@LacrosseNetwork) April 5, 2025
(via @RUmlax, BTN+) pic.twitter.com/JyvxU7gCYb
“That’s just the icing on the cake from that game as Cardin hitting the full field goal.” Mendyke said. “That was a game that’s obviously circled on our calendar every year. We had a great week of practice, a really great game plan, and we just executed it.
"Our defense was really flying around, we really felt like one unit and I think that was giving them some trouble, and our offense was doing their work to putting in enough goals for us.”
