By Pierce Feltner–

 

The Louisville Cardinal Field Hockey team lost at home yesterday against number 17 ranked Boston College. The seventh ranked Cardinals fall to 3-3 in conference play and 10-4 overall. This marks the first time they have lost at home in the last 17 home games at Trager Stadium. This is also the first time the Cardinals have lost two games in a row this season.

Louisville got off to a very slow start allowing Boston College to score at the 7:41 mark in the first half. They also allowed three shots on goal in the first half. The Cardinals offense stepped up in the second half putting five shots on goal, while just putting one in goal. The Cardinals forced overtime with a goal from Elisa Garcia, her fifth goal of the season, at the 57:13 mark of the game.

Boston College scored an unassisted, breakaway goal just four minutes into overtime. Sydney King, the Cardinals’ goalkeeper, had five saves on the day, but could not keep the overtime goal out of the net.

“You cannot come out slow against a quality opponent like Boston College. We started out very slowly. We were nervous. We weren’t there for each other. We weren’t supporting the passes. We weren’t passing the ball around so that was really disappointing. The second half was definitely better. We started to work hard for each other and started to create upward movement and then came the opportunities. Ultimately at the end of the day they were able to put the ball away and we weren’t. We can learn lessons and tomorrow we will recover and hopefully put together a good performance.” Head coach Justine Sowry said.

With just two home games left the Cardinals are in a fight to make the NCAA tournament.

“We said to the team that we have to physically recover and mentally recover. They’ve got a responsibility physically to hydrate, put the right stuff in their bodies, ice bath, and do some stretching. Then mentally we reevaluate it and put it to bed very, very quickly and start focusing on the next game. We know how to do it. They just have an individual responsibility now,” Sowry said.

The Cardinals quickly turn around to play California-Berkley on Saturday and try to come back from their second straight loss and get a win. This game marks a break from a grueling conference schedule that boasts seven teams in the top 20 of the country.

Louisville has six games remaining on the season, none of which are conference games. After this stretch they will go directly into the ACC conference tournament in Durham, North Carolina for a chance to go to the NCAA tournament.

Photo by Rachel Essa / The Louisville Cardinal