By Derek Brightwell–

The 13th ranked Louisville women’s lacrosse team opened their season at home with a 17-8 victory over former Big East rival Cincinnati on Sunday.

Sophomore Hannah Koloski led the Cards in goals scored with six, while junior captain Cortnee Daley added five to the effort. Senior captain Faye Brust, junior Kay Morissette and senior Cat Gordon rounded out the scoring effort with two goals each. Junior Kelli Gerding’s five assists led the team in that category.

Koloski’s effort marked the second consecutive home opener in which a sophomore led the team in scoring with six goals. Last season, she only managed four goals on the year.

“We kept investing in her and telling her to invest in herself and look at her today. She’s more confident, challenging on the right side and the left side of the goal, putting the ball in the back of the net, recovering from mistakes that she made to be able to continue to challenge,” coach Kelly Young said of Koloski’s growth since arriving at the University of Louisville. “She’s what we want: come in here, let us coach you, give yourself some time because there’s greatness in you. We’ve just got to get it out of you.”

Louisville has dominated the series against the Bearcats, pushing their record against them to 8-0. The familiarity with Cincinnati was one reason why coach Young scheduled them to open the season.

“We were able to prepare the team, there were no surprises, and it allowed the players to focus on their structure and they did that. They did that really well,” she said of the strategy going in.

Obviously, coach Young was excited to open the season with a victory, but she admitted that there were several things that the relatively young Cardinals can look to improve.

“Our defense was too individual. We were spread out too high. We gave them lanes to go to goal,” she said. “We didn’t work together; we had slides coming up from the crease, but nobody sliding across the crease. It wasn’t our structure. They dismantled us.”

She also noted that their press allowed too many passes overhead, but acknowledged that it may have been a fatigue factor.

“I purposely kept people on the field today longer than I would have on a normal day to push their fitness. Because of that, they weren’t getting back to their lines on their press and Cincinnati literally just passed it over our heads every single time and got into their attacking and that was frustrating.”

The Cards enter a loaded ACC this year, with seven of the eight teams ranked in the top 20, five of which are in the top eight. The preseason projection is for Louisville to finish the season ranked seventh in the conference. Coach Young doesn’t take that as an insult on her team.

“It’s a testament to the conference, 100 percent,” she said. “We’re actually very flattered that we were placed ahead of Virginia Tech because we played them this fall and they’re a solid team. That’s a compliment to us. The ACC, seven of those eight teams went to the NCAA Tournament last year. It’s the best conference in the country, hands down. We feel that we’re exactly where need to be and we need to earn the right to move up in the ACC.”