By Derek Brightwell–

The seventh ranked Louisville field hockey team closed out their home season with a 3-0 win over UC Davis on Senior Day. Improving their record to 13-4, finishing 8-1 at home.

“Very happy that we came out with a win on Senior Day and our last game here at Trager,” coach Justine Sowry said. “UC Davis were a very tough opponent, they marked us tight and were very physical with us. We struggled with that but I’m really happy that we ended the day with a win and we look forward to our game on Sunday.”

Louisville outshot the Aggies 18 to two on the game and had 12 penalty corners, which led to all of their goals, to UC Davis’ one. Despite the staggering difference in shots, the Cards managed to put only three in the net. Sowry attributed that to the physical play of the Aggies’ defense.

“Definitely give a lot of credit to UC Davis,” she said, noting that they were not concerned about the lack of points. “They’re a very tough, physical team and they mark you very tightly and we’ve not had that before. We can take lessons from that and take a look at it on film.”

The first goal of the match came with 18:34 left in the first half with an assist from Elisa Garcia by sophomore midfielder Lotta Kahlert for her seventh of the season, making her the Cards second leading goal scorer. The second goal was by senior Rachel McCarthy for her first goal on the year in a shot that found the upper left of the net. Mallory Mason and Paige Monsen combined for the assist on that goal and the Cards took a 2-0 advantage into the half.

With 6:45 left in the game, the Cards ran a tricky play to score their third goal. Junior Vic Stratton scored from the top of the circle on an assist, the second of the day from Elisa Garcia, whose 23 points leads the team. But Stratton was not the intended goal scorer of the play.

“We were actually trying set up Hannah Boyle on the play, one of our senior backfielders who’s never up there,” Sowry said, laughing. “So it’s called a Double Dummy Reverse, so it went through two hitters and we were really protecting deflections up there and it came back across and Vic Stratton ended up scoring and she actually felt really bad that Hannah didn’t get a touch on it. You could see her disappointment in scoring the goal. We scored; it was great, but we were trying to set up Hannah.”

As time expired in the game, UC Davis had their lone penalty corner, which was thwarted by goalkeeper Sydney King’s lone save in the shutout effort. It was Louisville’s third straight shutout.

Louisville will close out their season with two road games against Big Ten opponents; number 19 Indiana on Sunday and Michigan State on November 1st.

Photo by Austin Lassell / The Louisville Cardinal