It took a late rally, but it was just what the Rutgers field hockey team needed to get things back on track.

After four straight games with some very tough competition that saw the No. 17 Scarlet Knights (4-3, Big Ten 0-0) drop three of the four, so they came into this weekend with New Hampshire and a Sunday meeting with No. 18 Monmouth to hopefully iron out some of the kinks.

Trailing 2-1 to New Hampshire on Friday late in the second period, the Rutgers attack stepped up and scored the final five goals for a 6-2 win, the six goals are a season high.

While the offense was capitalizing the defense was taking care of business of the other end.

“I thought we had a great week of training and I’m excited to watch the team compete this weekend,’’ said Rutgers coach Meredith Civico. “We are back home for two games in front of our home fans.”

Emily Nichols, the solid freshman goalie from Camden Catholic, has been amazing in the cage and she was honored this week being named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week.

“I was really impressed with the way the team defended against Princeton on Sunday,’’ said Civico. “Emily Nicholls had an amazing game; she had some amazing saves.’’

Nichols leads the conference in saves and added to it with seven against New Hampshire, who was the preseason favorite in the America East.

The offense on Friday was led by Olivia de Zwaan and Olivia Fraticelli as each caged a pair of goals.

De Zwaan now leads the Scarlet Knights with four goals on the season.

Rutgers has won the last six meetings with Monmouth and they are looking to make it seven straight

Monmouth, who have four games of five or more goals this year, lead the nation in scoring average (5.8) and scoring margin (4.0) along with being second in goals per game (4.83), assists (4.17) and points (13.83) and it enters the game with a 5-1 record.

Last season, RU went on the road to Monmouth and Paulina Niklaus had the game-winning goal in double overtime. The last meeting at Bauer was in 2023, with RU winning 4-2.

Lauren Relik leads the Hawks with three goals and nine assists, Claire Campen and Anna Moors each have seven goals for the explosive Hawks.

Rutgers will be relying on the defense to set the tempo on Sunday at noon in Piscataway.