Frankie Tagliaferri

Classroom

Tagliaferri graduated from Penn State last May, earning a degree in kinesiology. She was an Academic All-Big Ten honoree three times.

In 2020-21, Tagliaferri was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America third team and the All-District first team.

She is now a member of the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers.

Character

Tagliaferri elected to return to her home state for her final year of collegiate soccer. Even though the move was to be closer to her family after not seeing them as much in the last year, it was also a thank you to her former coaches. She returned to give back to head coach Mike O’Neill and associate coach Meghan Ryan Nemzer for their effort in starting her collegiate career. It was intended as a thank you to their gesture of helping her be recruited to Penn State.

Tagliaferri has come to Rutgers as a leader on and off the field, though she is still learning from all of those around her. She is working to earn her spot in this program and her focus is to do everything she can to bring a Big Ten and National Title to Rutgers.

Last season, Tagliaferri earned the United Soccer Coaches 2020-21 College Player Award of Distinction.

Community

Tagliaferri is already eager to become a part of the Rutgers community.

While at Penn State, she took part in multiple Helper Helper initiatives. Included in those were child clinics after games, where the team trained kids for two hours after at least one game a year, as well as an athlete trick or treating with younger children.

Penn State’s biggest community initiative was THON, the largest student ran philanthropy organization in the world. Its goal is to raise money and awareness for the fight against childhood cancer. Every year, Tagliaferri and her teammates tried to be the team that raised the most money. There was a 46-hour dance marathon, which students competed to dance in. She would also help run a 3-4 hour athlete hour with children and their families that were suffering from childhood cancer and diseases during THON.

Competition

Prior to Rutgers, Tagliaferri had an extremely decorated career at Penn State. She was named an All-American, a two-time All-Region selection, and a four-time All-Big Ten selection. In her four years as a Nittany Lion, Tagliaferri started 64 of 90 games, totaling 27 goals and 25 assists for 79 points.

Heading into 2021, she was named to the MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List.

In her first six games as a Scarlet Knight, Tagliaferri leads the team with 15 points. She has a team-high five goals and five assists. Through the first four games, Tagliaferri contributed at least three points, aiding Rutgers in establishing a program streak of four straight games with five or more games. In accordance with her play, the Scarlet Knights rank second in the nation in scoring offense and lead the Big Ten in total points, goals, and assists through the start of the year.