By Dalton Ray–
Avenging the loss from last season, women’s lacrosse (7-2, 1-1) upset No. 15 Duke (6-3, 1-1) 11-8. Senior Hannah Koloski and sophomore Meghan Siverson scored four goals each, propelling the Cardinals to their first ever win over the Blue Devils.
“We just beat Duke, so that’s pretty awesome,” coach Kellie Young said. “Duke is a very good team and they have one of the best coaches in the game. It was exciting to see our defense play. They were phenomenal.”
Louisville jumped up early with goals from Siverson and Koloski.
The Blue Devils responded by scoring two goals in 12 seconds. Siverson followed with her second goal of the match, giving Louisville a 3-2 lead with 22:29 in the first half.
Following the scoring outburst, both defenses dug in. Louisville’s Brittany Read and Duke’s Jamie Lockwood accounted for four saves over the next 14 minutes.
“Our defense was great and Brittany had some great saves. Our shot execution wasn’t great on our end. We had a couple turnovers on our end,” Young said. “That’s the lull that we have to surf through and we did.”
Madison Hoover’s third goal of the year broke the dry spell with 8:25 in the half.
With under 90 seconds to play in the half, Siverson scored her third goal to make the Louisville lead 5-3.
Koloski wasted no time in the second half to score, finding the net three minutes into the half. After freshman Elise Koehl’s goal, Koloski’s free position goal pushed the score 8-3.
The Blue Devils scored back-to-back goals from Maddie Crutchfield and Kyra Harney to make the Louisville lead 8-5.
The teams traded goals then junior Jillian Balog and Koloski scored back-to-back goals to give Louisville an 11-6 lead with six minutes remaining.
Duke scored two goals in the final to minutes, bringing the final to 11-8.
U of L travels to Coastal Carolina on March 15.
Photo by Nancy Hanner / The Louisville Cardinal
