PISCATAWAY — The Rutgers women's soccer team is off to its best start since 2006, ranked No. 7 nationally, and has proved to be one of the surprise contenders to win the Big Ten regular-season crown in its first season inside the conference.

It's no small feat for the Scarlet Knights in their first campaign under Mike O'Neill, a longtime associate head coach who had the "associate'' title removed last July when Glenn Crooks announced his retirement after 14 seasons guiding the squad.

"The thing Glenn did really well here was he utilized the coaching staff a lot, and never treated us like assistants,'' O'Neill said following a recent practice. "He allowed me to be in the day-to-day operation of the majority of things. So I think the only adjustment of going from the associate head coach to the head coach is I'm not on the side of the room anymore. I'm in the front of the room.''

He's enjoying the view from there so far, as the Scarlet Knights sit tied for third place in the Big Ten standings heading into their final home stand this weekend. With wins over Illinois and Northwestern, Rutgers could take another step toward becoming the first team in school history to raise a Big Ten championship banner.

"Our mindset in the preseason was not only competing in the Big Ten, but winning it and we've done a good job pulling some big upsets,'' said Stefanie Scholz, a senior forward who leads the team with five goals and 12 points. "We don't take any game lightly. We prepare the same way every week and we really focus on what we're doing. We don't focus too much on the opponent. We focus on our habits and the little details, and it's worked so far.''

Maggie Morash, who has anchored a defense that has posted nine shutouts and ranks fifth nationally in goals allowed (4), attributes the team's success to a selfless approach.

"Has this defied our expectations -- I don't think so,'' the junior backer said. "We went into the Big Ten kind of an unproven team. We hadn't really proven ourselves against this level of competition, especially this consistently before. But we knew we were quality. We knew we had good players, and we were even better together as a team.''

Rutgers had enjoyed plenty of success over the past decade under Crooks, advancing to the NCAA Tournament seven times and proving to be a perennial Big East/American Athletic Conference contender.

But winning in the Big Ten, O'Neill admits, holds added significance.

"Every game's a new journey because we haven't done it before,'' said O'Neill, who also directs one of the nation's top youth-soccer clubs -- the Franklin-based Players Development Academy (PDA). "Every game's a battle, and that's part of our development. The thing that's so important is where we started and where we are now, we've seen tremendous growth. And where this team has the potential to go, it's incredible. If our standards are high, then they'll go as far as they want to go.''

The Scarlet Knights have only tasted defeat once, but that 2-0 setback at Maryland proved to be a turning point for the 30-player squad that includes 20 New Jersey products.

"Our first Big Ten game against Maryland obviously was a bit of a disappointment,'' Morash said. "But we came off that field knowing we could hang with Maryland. When we came out the next weekend against Michigan State in Michigan, I think that was big for our season. We really stepped on to the Big Ten stage and made a name for ourselves. We proved to ourselves that we can hang with these teams and we can beat them.''

O'Neill, who is quick to credit his coaching staff (all of whom graduated from Rutgers) for his success, laughed when asked whether his first three months on the job have been easy.

"It's not,'' he said. "You have to have a good foundation. I have a great group of players to coach. We stress to them that it's hard work and fun. You always have to keep it in that order. When we practice, you want them to want to be here. You want them to work hard but when it's all said it done you want it to be an enjoyable experience for them, too.''

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.