Princeton versus Rutgers: the battle of New Jersey. For Talia Schenck, both colleges will be part of her legacy. The senior forward is taking advantage of her last year of eligibility by becoming a Scarlet Knight and spending her first year as a graduate student at Rutgers, playing for their field hockey squad.
At Princeton, Schenck has been an offensive backbone, and she looks to have the same impact at Rutgers. In 2024, her last full season with the Tigers, she was a Second-Team All-Ivy selection. Schenck started the first seven games of the 2025 season but then sustained a stress fracture in her shin, forcing her to watch her team’s National Championship post-season run from the sidelines.
“I thought it was going to be more difficult than it was when I first got injured,” Schenck told The Daily Princetonian. “But it wasn’t really that hard at all because that's just the culture we have.”
Per NCAA rules, Schenck was able to pocket the year of eligibility she missed because of her season-ending injury.
Prior to Princeton, Schenck played just down the road at Lawrence High School where she scored 244 goals and became the fourth leading scorer in American high school field hockey history. She was the first high school field hockey player from New Jersey to reach 100 goals in a season.
After high school, Princeton was the next stop on her New Jersey roadmap. After facing off against Rutgers each of the last four years, going 3–1 in those matchups, Schenck will now be on the other side of this iconic Garden State rivalry.
But Schenck’s ties to Rutgers go beyond just playing against them in games.
“It was one of the first schools that came to my mind for a lot of reasons,” she told the ‘Prince.’ “I have known their coaches for a long time because they run a U.S. regional training out of Rutgers. Academically, it made a lot of sense, because my dream is to go to vet school, so I wanted to do an animal science program. Not a lot of D1 field hockey schools have an animal science program, but I’ve always known Rutgers does, so it was one of my first thoughts.”
Beyond the Garden State, Schenck was one of 16 American players selected to play in the Junior Pan-Am Games in Paraguay, where she showed out, racking up four goals to secure the silver medal.
With her skill, there is no doubt that the future is bright for Schenck, but Princeton field hockey contains a strong culture that she says makes it difficult to leave. “Everyone Loves Everyone” is the informal motto that the field hockey players and coaches use at Princeton. The Tigers play as a unit, and every player, regardless of their statline, has a role on the team.
“When I spoke to [Rutgers] coming out of high school that first time of recruiting, I got a family vibe from them,” Schenck said. “They always talk about being a family and having a sisterhood; I have really grown to appreciate that.”
Emilia Reay is a senior Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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