By Dalton Ray–

Louisville’s conference opener for lacrosse was an overtime thriller. Kellie Young’s team was able to rally back and defeat Boston College 7-6 in overtime. The winning overtime goal came from junior Hannah Koloski.

Last season, the Cardinals fell to Boston College 16-15 in Chestnut Hill, Mass. U o f L returned the favor in this time around and Young spoke after the game about the match.

“They play us close every year, last year I feel like we played up,” Young said. “This year I feel like we played a little nervous to start but we finally started executing and playing with confidence. The second half was much better.”

The Cards played somewhat of a sluggish first half. Five minutes in, Kaylin Morissettee scored the game’s first goal. Over the next 15 minutes the only goals scored were by Boston College. Louisville fell behind 3-1 until Cortnee Daly and Kelli Gerding netted two goals before halftime. Boston College tacked on a goal before intermission to a take 4-3 lead.

To start the second half, Louisville scored three goals in ten minutes. Morissettee and Gerding added their second goals and Stephaine McNamara also found the back of the net. Then, the Golden Eagles responded with the two final goals of the half. Boston College’s final goal came with 4:56 left in the second half and sent the game into overtime. After trailing 3-1 and 4-3 in the first half, Young said her team made adjustments to their style of play for the second half.

“One of the big pieces we focused on was our defense,” Young said. “We had a scout coming in our defense step back which allowed them (Boston College) to find some nice shots so we wanted more pressure on that. And our attack just needed to get back to focusing on ball movement, we were trying to do a one hit wonder but once we moved it around we found open players.”

Heading into overtime, U of L and Morissettee continued their draw control dominance as they have all year and took the opening possession. After Boston College had two yellow cards, Louisville held the advantage. With nine seconds remaining in the first overtime period, Koloski was awarded a free shot and nailed the game-winning goal. Afterwards, Koloski gave all the credit to her practice.

“I do the eight-meter everyday,” Koloski said. “I tried to calm my nervous and I heard Julia (Wood) say, ‘You got this Hannah’ so I just took a second, worked on my placement and took the shot.”

Young was very proud of Koloski and said, “for her to have that game winning shot under that pressure is awesome.”

The shot by Koloski stretches U of L to an undefeated record of 5-0 and 1-0 in the ACC.

The next two games won’t come easy for Louisville as they host two top ten teams in three days. No. 5 Northwestern will travel to play the Cards on Thursday, Mar. 3rd. Two days later, Saturday Mar. 5th, no. 6 Notre Dame will visit Louisville.

Photo by Wade Morgan / The Louisville Cardinal