By Pierce Feltner–

Louisville’s 11-ranked field hockey team beat Ohio State University 6-3, Tuesday afternoon at Trager Stadium, to improve their overall record to 7-1.

The Cardinal’s sophomore forward Lotta Kahlert opened the scoring just two minutes into the game with a quick hitter off an opponent’s stick.

The Cards did have a scare early in the first half when starting goalie, Sydney King, went down with an injury and freshman, back-up goalie, Elina Pereira, had to replace her. This was the freshmen’s first action of the season. The Buckeyes scored twice while Pereira was in, but that would not be enough. King would return after more than 20 minutes of time on the sidelines.

“Well, you know, it is what it is. You have to control the controllables and there is a moment where you think ‘Oh what’s going on here?’ But we try to prepare both goalkeepers well, and the rest of the team, they just need to step it on up. You just got to adjust and adapt and thankfully our team did the job,” head coach Justine Sowry remarked.

Sophomore Shannon Sloss got the Cardinals back on track when she found the back of the net with 15 minutes remaining in the first half after the Buckeyes had tied the game. Senior Becca Maddock ended the first half scoring for the Cards when she added one off the assist from freshman Nicole Woods.

Hailey Netherton, Alyssa Voelmle, and Mallory Mason joined the scoring clinic for Louisville in the second half of the pull away victory.

“We had really good positioning in circle and we obviously covered all the scoring zones that needed to be covered,” Shannon Sloss said.

The Cardinals were coming off one of the biggest wins in program history after beating number one North Carolina on Saturday. A concern was weather the Cards would respect the quick turn around or still be holding on to the big win, but Louisville was strictly business come Tuesday.

“We moved on pretty quickly because we knew that if we didn’t take care of this game beating UNC pretty much would have meant nothing. We had to make sure we took care of today, especially against a regional opponent,” goalkeeper Sydney King said.

Louisville is moving into a very tough stretch in their schedule, where they will meet seven more ranked opponents, four of which will be in conference play.

“We have a pretty rough road ahead. We’re travelling; we have ACC games, so we just have to trust in the process, trust in our coaches and work hard for each other,” King said.

The Cardinals believe they can make this season one to remember and it should be fun to see what this team will do in the future.

Louisville’s next match is Friday at Wake Forest.

 

Photo by Rachel Essa / The Louisville Cardinal