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Fall camp is closer than it looks on the calendar, and no Rutgers program will be back on the field before women’s soccer. Mike O’Neill’s group hosts Pittsburgh at Yurcak Field on August 5 in a preseason scrimmage, the earliest preparation game of any fall sport at Rutgers this year, followed by a second tune-up against Georgetown on August 8. Both are scrimmages, not regular-season contests, but they will offer the first real look at a Scarlet Knights roster that turned over significantly this offseason. Rutgers brings in a seven-player freshman class and two transfers, while losing just one player, midfielder Abby Cox, to the transfer portal. It is a group tasked with getting the program back to the NCAA tournament after a 2025 season that snapped a streak of appearances dating back to 2011 and produced Rutgers’ first losing record since 2000.
The Freshman Class
Lilia Calvert
The headliner of the class is forward Lilia Calvert, who arrives from Clarks Summit, Pa., after turning Abington Heights into a national scoring factory. Calvert finished her career with 173 goals and 60 assists for 406 points, was the 2025 Pennsylvania Player of the Year and a High School All-American after a senior season in which her 68 goals ranked first in the state and first nationally. She enrolled early for the spring semester and said the choice came down to feel as much as fit, noting that not one player on her recruiting visit had a single bad thing to say about the coaches or the program.
Marian Dunne
Forward Marian Dunne brings a different kind of pedigree out of Portland, Ore. A four-year varsity player at Jesuit High School, Dunne won two OSAA 6A state championships, scoring the lone goal in the 2022 title match and setting up the winner in 2024. She was a United Soccer Coaches U17 Youth Girls All-American in 2024 and spent her club career with the Portland Thorns Academy. Dunne was high school teammates with current Scarlet Knight defender Sophia Stiles, and her mother played collegiately at Gonzaga before a semi-professional career in Germany. Like Calvert, she enrolled early for the spring semester.
Gesare Omwenga
Defender Gesare Omwenga joins the back line out of Cary, N.C., where she played at Crossroads FLEX and competed at the club level for NC Courage, a group that ranked No. 11 nationally in 2024 and won the USLW U20 title in both 2023 and 2025. Omwenga cited Rutgers’ diverse campus and its location between major cities as part of the appeal. She has one brother, Ausar, who played Division II soccer at Chowan before transferring to Division III William Peace.
Amanda Thornton
Forward Amanda Thornton adds another proven New Jersey scorer to the mix. A four-year letterwinner and four-time Morris County champion at Chatham High School, Thornton scored 15 goals and added 15 assists as a senior in 2025, was named First Team All-County and Morris County Tournament MVP, and was selected to the High School All-American Game. She scored 16 goals and 18 assists as a junior. Thornton also played basketball and lacrosse in high school and came up through the PDA club pipeline, the same one that has fed several of her incoming classmates.
Tommi Rose Valente
Midfielder Tommi Rose Valente arrives out of Kearny, N.J., where she set DePaul Catholic’s program record for goals in a season, scoring 30 with nine assists as a senior in 2025 while leading the Spartans to Non-Public North B and Passaic County titles. She was named First Team All-State, All-County and All-Conference by NJ.com and selected to the High School All-American Game. Valente was teammates in high school with current Rutgers midfielder Gaby Sanchez and said the family environment around the
coaching staff and roster sealed her decision.
Dina Bojkovic
Forward Dina Bojkovic rounds out the New Jersey pipeline out of Livingston, where she was First Team All-Super Essex Conference in all four of her high school seasons. Bojkovic led Livingston to a state championship as a senior in 2025, scoring 39 goals with 12 assists and earning First Team All-State and All-Conference recognition from NJ.com. She scored 11 goals with seven assists as a junior. Like several of her classmates, Bojkovic came up through the PDA club program and cited proximity to home as part of what drew her to Piscataway.
Bea Tinoco
Forward Bea Tinoco joins the Scarlet Knights as the program record-holder for career goals at Middletown High School South, where she scored 83 in four years. Tinoco set the school’s single-season scoring record with 22 goals and 10 assists as a senior in 2025, was named a High School All-American by United Soccer Coaches, and was First Team All-Shore Conference all four years. As a junior in 2024, she led Middletown South to a Shore-A North championship and was named the division’s Player of the Year. Her older brother Sam plays soccer at DePaul.
The Transfers
Iris de Rouw
The more unconventional addition to the roster is goalkeeper Iris de Rouw, a Rotterdam, Netherlands native who joins Rutgers after a 2025 season at St. John’s. De Rouw came up through Sparta Rotterdam’s youth system before turning senior with the club, and she has since begun representing Indonesia at the international level through her mother’s Indonesian ancestry, making her senior national team debut this year and featuring at the 2025 SEA Games. She becomes the latest addition to a Rutgers program that has increasingly leaned on internationally sourced talent between the posts and across midfield in recent seasons.
Lily Ann Phillips
Midfielder Lily Ann Phillips transfers in after one season at Penn State, where she was part of the Nittany Lions’ nationally ranked 2025 signing class as a top-100 prospect out of Hockessin, Del. A four-year standout and team captain at St. Mark’s High School, Phillips finished her prep career with 78 goals and 75 assists, was named a Regional All-American, and played club soccer for Penn Fusion SA, helping lead the club to the ECNL Final Four in 2024. She was also a two-time ECNL All-Conference honoree and a Delaware Bankers Association scholarship recipient for an essay on financial literacy.
The Schedule
After the August 5 and August 8 scrimmages against Pittsburgh and Georgetown, both at Yurcak Field, Rutgers opens the regular season with a demanding three-game road trip: at Tennessee on August 13, at UConn on August 20, and at Fairfield on August 23. The Scarlet Knights’ first true home game of the regular season comes August 27 against Boston College, followed by Providence at home on August 30 and Princeton at home on September 6 to close out non-conference play.
With mine new faces, and only one significant loss to the portal, this group has the potential to gel together quickly in non-conference player. This well before most other programs at Rutgers have even opened camp, as they have the opportunity to start the chop party early.
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