Buckeyes Open Campaign at No. 5 Northwestern
2/12/2021 6:31:24 PM | Women's Lacrosse
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State women’s lacrosse team will begin its 2021 season with a Big Ten Conference game at No. 5 Northwestern Sunday. The Buckeyes and Wildcats will face off at 1 p.m. ET in Evanston, Illinois, with the game streamed through BTN Plus and live stats available.
Buckeye Notes to Know
- Ohio State was 5-4 last season and had not yet started Big Ten play when the remainder of the campaign was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- For the second year in a row, the Buckeye captains are Regina Doty, Lindsay Epstein, Liza Hernandez, Jillian Rizzo and Emily Skrzypczak. Rizzo is now a four-time captain.
- Hernandez, Rizzo and graduate transfer Kelsey Reed were named Big Ten Preseason Players to Watch earlier this week. Rizzo was also tabbed a 2021 Preseason Honorable Mention All-American by Inside Lacrosse.
- Hernandez enters the season with 99 career goals and 146 career points. Rizzo is Ohio State’s all-time saves leader with 661 stops.
- The Buckeye roster includes players from 13 U.S. states and one Canadian providence.
- All Buckeye home games will be streamed online through the BTN Plus subscription service.
Buckeyes vs. Wildcats
- Ohio State and Northwestern did not meet last season. The last game between the squads was a 17-12 Wildcat victory April 25, 2019 in Columbus.
- The teams will meet in Columbus April 11 to close the regular season series between the squads.
- The Wildcats were 4-3 in 2020 and ended the season ranked sixth nationally, leading the NCAA with 21.57 goals per game.
- The squad started the year ranked fifth in the IWLCA Preseason Coaches Poll and fourth in the Inside Lacrosse preseason rankings.
On the Buckeye Sideline
- Amy Bokker is in her second year as the head coach of the Buckeyes.
- Buckeye All-American Gabby Capuzzi, who played four years for Ohio State (2009-12) and was an assistant coach at OSU from 2012-14, returned to her alma mater as the team’s associate head coach in July. She spent the previous six seasons on the staff at Navy.
- Taylor VanThof, a two-time All-American at Loyola, joined the team as an assistant coach in the summer. She was on the staff at UConn for a season following her graduation from Loyola in 2019.
A Look at the Buckeye Schedule
- The 2021 regular season slate is comprised of only Big Ten Conference games.
- The schedule includes two games against each of the other six B1G squads, with six home and six away contests. Four matchups are two-game weekend series, with Ohio State hosting Johns Hopkins and Penn State for two games and traveling for two games at Rutgers and Maryland. The Buckeyes will play home-and-home series with Michigan and Northwestern.
- All seven teams will advance to the Big Ten Tournament, hosted by Penn State April 29-May 2.
Up Next
- Ohio State will open its home schedule Feb. 21 when it hosts Michigan at 1 p.m.
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