By Pk Bartley

On Friday afternoon, the University of Louisville women’s field hockey team hosted Ohio University at Trager Stadium. The Cards started the game off well keeping the ball on the Ohio side for much of the first half.

However, Louisville had three penalty corners in the first half, but were unable to capitalize on them. The Cards also had five shots in the first half, but again came up empty.

Ohio took advantage of U of L’s misfortune and scored a goal at the 4:24 mark giving them themselves a 1-0 lead which they kept going into halftime.

The Cardinals came out firing in the second half tying the game up with a goal by junior back Sarah Baum at the 37:15 mark. Just a minute later, U of L got their second penalty corner of the half. The Cards took the lead with a goal by senior back Danielle Barr at the 38:35 mark.

Louisville was unable to hold onto the lead for long. Ohio tied the game up about four minutes later with a goal by Elizabeth Holtzman at the 42:39 mark. Then seven minutes after, Holtzman scored again to give Ohio a 3-2 lead at the 49:38.

“We gave away easy goals,” U of L’s Head Coach Pam Bustin commented. “They didn’t have a lot of opportunities, but the opportunities they had, we were soft. So because we were soft at the final shot, that’s why they were able to come away with the game.”

U of L looked as though they were going to lose the game in regulation, until senior forward Joanie Frame scored a goal at the 59:59 mark. At that point it looked as though the Cardinals could possibly pull it out. However, senior midfielder Pip Sanders had to leave the game due to an ankle injury. Her status for the next game is unknown at this point.

Neither team was unable to score again in regulation, so the game went into overtime.

Overtime started out as good as possible for the Cards. They were able to get two penalty corners right off the bat, though they were unable to do anything with either of them. Then Ohio was able to get off their only shot in overtime.

Unfortunately for U of L, the shot was good, and Ohio got the hard fought win. This loss drops the Cards’ record to 10-6, and 4-2 in the MAC. Up next for the Cards is a home game against Kent State, Saturday afternoon at 1pm at Trager Stadium.