Big Ten Weekly Honours: Bent-Cole’s Hat-Trick Week, Nicholls’ 16 Saves, and a Third Maryland Freshman Honoured
The Big Ten’s last full week of the regular season produced three very different kinds of performances, and the conference’s weekly honours for 26 October split neatly between them.
Olivia Bent-Cole is the offensive winner, and honestly, there wasn’t much debate. The Northwestern senior forward scored a hat-trick in the Wildcats’ comeback win over Maryland, scoring twice in the fourth quarter as Northwestern turned a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 win. That result handed Maryland their first loss of the season and gave Northwestern a share of the Big Ten title. Bent-Cole and the Wildcats are 16-1 on the season and 7-0 in the Big Ten, and they go to No. 19 Penn State on Friday 30 October, at 2pm CT on B1G+, looking to claim the outright conference championship.
Emily Nicholls is the defensive winner, and her case is just as strong. The Rutgers junior goalkeeper backstopped the Scarlet Knights to an overtime win over No. 6 Iowa on Friday, making 16 saves as Iowa peppered her with 30 shots. She even made a diving save on a penalty stroke attempt in overtime. Sixteen saves is the most for any Rutgers goalkeeper since at least 2012, the most for any Big Ten goalkeeper this season, and the most for any Big Ten goalkeeper since 2024. It’s her second career game of 13 or more saves, and she’s the only Rutgers goalkeeper in the last 10 years with multiple games like that. Nicholls has 77 saves on the season, ranks second in the Big Ten at 4.53 saves per game, and holds a 72.0% save percentage with a 1.60 goals-against average. She’s the fifth different Scarlet Knight to win a Big Ten weekly award this season. Rutgers close out the regular season at home against Indiana on Friday at noon.
Ella Beach takes the freshman honour. The Maryland midfielder has started every game for the top-ranked Terrapins, helping them to a 15-1 record, and she becomes the third different Maryland freshman honoured with the rookie award this year. Maryland’s win at Indiana kept their hope alive for a share of the conference title, and they finish at home against Iowa on Friday.
Three winners, three stories. A hat-trick that changed the title race, a goalkeeping performance that will go in the record books at Rutgers, and a freshman who hasn’t missed a start all season. That’s a good week.
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