The Rutgers women’s soccer team will have to quickly shake off a setback in the Big Ten Tournament final because it was handed a difficult draw in the NCAA Tournament. The Scarlet Knights (11-4-5) earned a sixth seed after finishing fifth in the Big Ten and reaching the championship match, but its reward for that was an opening-round contest against Big East champion UConn (13-4-4) on Saturday evening. Rutgers is making its 13th straight NCAA Tournament appearance. The winner advances to a second-round match against either Stanford, the third seed, or UC Santa Barbara. That game will take place on the campus of the highest remaining seed among the bottom half of the bracket, which puts second-seeded Arkansas in pole position for that. The Scarlet Knights own three RPI Top 50 wins over No. 22 Michigan State, No. 28 Wisconsin, and No. 50 Washington, with the first two coming away from home and the second two by way of shutout. They earned draws against four teams ranked in the top 16 of the RPI (No. 5, USC, No. 7 Wake Forest, No. 8 Penn State, and No. 22 Michigan State). Three of those four draws were away from home. Rutgers has plenty of local talent on the roster, a group that includes forward Olivia Bodmer (Notre Dame), forward Gia Girman (Nottingham) and midfielder Kylie Daigle (Pennington). Princeton (14-4) earned the Ivy League automatic bid with a 2-0 victory over Brown on Sunday. It turned out the Tigers likely needed that because they were drawn against fourth-seeded Virginia (12-5) in the first round. The Tigers have one of the best players in the country in forward Pietra Tordin. The junior from Florida was named Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year after scoring nine games once she returned from representing the United State in the U20 World Cup. The Princeton-Virginia winner faces either fifth-seeded Wisconsin or Maine in a match that will likely take place in Los Angeles on the campus of top-seeded USC. In Division III, unbeaten TCNJ (17-0-2) hosts a four-team pod this weekend in Ewing. Danny Blank’s Lions open against Bridgewater State (12-4-3), while Johns Hopkins (15-2-3) and Southern Maine (15-2-3) contest the other game. TCNJ is ranked No. 10 nationally and is one of four unbeaten teams remaining and comes into the NCAA Tournament on a 12-game winning streak. The two draws on the Lions’ resume came in back-to-back games against Johns Hopkins (1-1) and Stevens (0-0). If form holds, the Lions and Blue Jays would meet in Sunday’s second round. TCNJ has one of the most well-rounded teams, ranking 8th in Division III in shots per game (22.9) and 14th in goals-against average (0.368), having conceded just seven all season. Senior Victoria D’Imperio repeated as NJAC Midfielder of the Year, while Ava Curtis was honored as the Defender of the Year to headline five first-team all-conference selections. Men’s Soccer Rider survived a physical MAAC Tournament quarterfinal against Sacred Heart — there were 35 combined fouls — on Cole Sotack’s 102nd minute gold goal. The graduate transfer from Rutgers slotted home a pass from Theo Da Silva to end an exhausting match and send the Broncs (13-4-1) to the semifinals where they host Siena on Thursday night at 7 p.m. Rider, which claimed a piece of the regular-season title for the first time since its inaugural year in the MAAC in 1997, cleaned up in the conference awards. Momo Diop (nine goals, 22 points) won the Golden Boot as the top offensive player, Adam Salama took home the Gold Gloves after setting a program record with eight cleansheets and Chad Duernberger was selected Coach of the Year. The Broncs’ 13 total wins are tied for the most in the country with Ohio State, Clemson, George Mason, Hofstra and Penn. Speaking of Penn, the Quakers (13-2-1), coached by former Rider standout Brian Gill, are hosting the Ivy League Tournament after Pennington School product Stas Korzeniowski scored an 85th-minute winner against Princeton to clinch a third straight Ivy regular-season title. The 6-foot-4 senior, who was a second-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Union in 2023, has a career-best 12 goals. Princeton (10-6) will also be in Philly for the Ivy Tournament after finishing third and takes on second-seeded Cornell (12-2-2). Mercer County Soccer Hall of Famer Jim Barlow’s side is led by Daniel Ittycheria with six goals.