University of Louisville
LOYOLA (MD)
Louisville Lacrosse Falls at Home to Loyola 21-18
April 06, 2008 | Women's Lacrosse
April 6, 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - After trailing by as many as seven goals in the second half, the University of Louisville lacrosse team used a late rally to challenge the lead but it was not enough as the Cards dropped a 21-18 decision to future BIG EAST foe Loyola (Md.) on Sunday afternoon at the UofL Lacrosse Stadium.
Trailing 15-8 with less than 22 minutes left in the game, the Cards (7-4) pulled as close as 20-18 with 2:56 to go but couldn't get any closer as the Greyhounds (5-7) held on for the win with one final goal with only 12 seconds remaining.
First-year attacker Bergan Foley, ranked fourth in the nation in scoring entering the week with 4.0 goals per game, led the Cards on Sunday with six goals, including four in the second half during the late rally. The native of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., also added an assist to lead the Cards with seven total points.
"You can't win games in the BIG EAST or against BIG EAST level competition by only playing for 30 minutes," said Cards' head coach Kellie Young. "I'm proud of the way we kept fighting to the end, but our main obstacle right now is ourselves. We have to learn to put it all together for 60 minutes and once we learn to do that, we'll really be able move forward as a team."
Louisville, which will begin BIG EAST play in 2009, opened the day with all of the momentum scoring the game's first four goals to take a 4-0 lead with 22:28 left in the first half. But Loyola, a third-year member of the BIG EAST Conference in lacrosse, answered the challenge scoring the next four goals over a span of less than six minutes to tie the score at 4-4 with 16:14 left.
After the teams traded goals over the next five minutes, the Greyhounds closed the half with all of the momentum by scoring four of last five goals of the first period to take a 10-7 lead into the half.
The Cards opened the second half with a Sierra Smith-Hart goal, one of four on the day for the first-year midfielder, but the Greyhounds answered that goal by scoring five straight to build the 15-8 lead with 23:24 left in the game.
After going one-player down on the Greyhounds' goal with 23:24 left with their fourth yellow card of the day, the Cards started their rally by scoring back-to-back goals one-player down as Sammy Allen and Foley scored the first two of five straight goals overall for Louisville, which pulled to within two at 15-13 with 15:03 left.
Again, Loyola answered the challenge by scoring five of the next seven goals to take a 20-15 lead with 7:10 to go in the game. The Cards had one final rally scoring three straight goals from the 5:06 mark to the 2:56 mark to make it 20-18, and U of L had a couple of scoring chances in the final two minutes, including a goal by Smith-Hart with 49 seconds left that was disallowed by a dangerous follow through call.
Along with the scoring from Foley and Smith-Hart, the Cards got two goals each from Allen, Poist and Lianne Bobal, while Grace Gavin led the Greyhounds with a game-high seven goals.
The two teams finished with 15 ground balls each and 18 turnovers each, while Loyola controlled 20 of the 39 draws on the day.
Up next, the Cards will continue their six-game home stand against Connecticut on Saturday, April 12 at 1 p.m. ET, and on Monday, April 14 against UC Davis at 3 p.m. ET. Admission is free for all Louisville lacrosse games and all games are played at the UofL Lacrosse Stadium, located on S. Floyd St., next door to the Yum! Center.
