University of Louisville
Saint Joseph's
Louisville Lacrosse Drops Double-Overtime Heartbreaker at St. Joseph's
March 07, 2008 | Women's Lacrosse
March 7, 2008
PHILADELPHIA - Lindsey-Kate McCool scored the game-winning goal as time expired to lead the host St. Joseph's Hawks to a 9-8 double-overtime victory over the Louisville Cardinals on Friday afternoon at cold and rainy Finnesey Field. The loss is the first for the Cards in their inaugural season following a 3-0 start.
After the teams played through a scoreless six-minute stretch in the first overtime period, St Joseph's (3-2) held possession of the ball for much of the second overtime period before a flurry of action occurred in the final seconds.
After it appeared the Cards had forced a turnover with a check and gained possession inside the final 10 seconds, the Cards were called for a foul away from the ball and possession was giving back to the Hawks. With about 5 seconds remaining, Jenna Martino had an open look but hit the crossbar with her shot. The loose ball bounced to McCool who slapped at the ball, which hit the ground, struck the crossbar again and fell in the net as the horn sounded giving the Hawks the win.
"I hate to see a game, where both teams played extremely hard in some challenging weather conditions, be decided on an off-ball call where our kid was just defending herself," said Cards' head coach Kellie Young. "All-in-all, it's an important learning experience for our team because we battled hard, but we didn't play as well as we should have. We have a lot of young players and we're going to have a tough road ahead of us, so we have to learn from this and learn to close a game out when we have a chance."
After trailing 5-4 at the half, the Cards (3-1) opened the second half by scoring three straight goals to take a 7-5 lead with 21:32 left in regulation. After the Hawks battled back to tie things at 7-7, the Cards regained the lead at 8-7 on first-year attacker Bergan Foley's second goal of the day with 10:54 left.
St. Joseph's came back less than two minutes later to tie things at 8-8 on a Martino goal with 9:36 left in regulation. Neither team would score over the final 9:30 of regulation setting things up for the overtime finish. Foley was joined by first-year midfielders Emily Dashiell and Sierra Smith-Hart with two goals each to lead the Cards, while Foley and Smith-Hart each had assists on the day.
Overall, the Cards had only 15 turnovers on the day compared to the Hawks 23. Louisville controlled 11 of the 21 draws and had 22 ground balls compared to St. Joseph's 20.
Up next, the Cards, which opened the season with straight wins at home, will stay in Philadelphia to face La Salle on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET, in the second of six straight road games.
