University of Louisville
BALL STATE
No. 23 Field Hockey Shuts Out Ball State 5-0
September 03, 2012 | Field Hockey
Sept. 3, 2012
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - - Senior Amber Thomas scored a pair of goals as the 23rd ranked University of Louisville defeated Ball State 5-0. Louisville improves to 3-1 while Ball State drops to 1-3 on the season.
"It's definitely nice to get a good win on the board and score five goals, but more importantly keeping a clean sheet - one of our goals was to have a strong defensive structure and we were able to achieve that," said U of L head coach Justine Sowry. "The first half was absolutely outstanding with our patterns of play. We tried to change things up in the second half. We were definitely a little scrappy, but we finished strong and an overall a great day of hockey. We hope to build for this coming weekend."
Thomas put Louisville on the scoreboard just two minutes into the game when she dribbled into the circle and sent a shot between the pads of Ball State's Maddi Elliott. Sophomore Becca Maddock scored on a pass from sophomore Alyssa Voelmle to increase the lead to 2-0 at the 13:09 mark in the game. The lead quickly moved to 3-0 just two minutes later when junior Michelle Amon collected a rebound off of Elliott's pads and sent the ball into the cage. Junior Erin Schneidtmiller connected on a penalty corner shot from Maddock for the final goal of the first half.
Louisville outshot Ball State 14-1 and held a 4-1 corner advantage to take the 4-0 lead into halftime.
Following the break, U of L continued to create scoring opportunities and outshooting Ball State 8-2 and holding a 4-3 edge in corners. Thomas capped the scoring with her second goal of the game when she sent a pass from freshman Elisa Garcia over the glove of Ball State goalkeeper Shelby Henley.
Louisville senior goalkeeper Erin Conrad (3-1) registered three saves en route to her first shutout of the season.
Ball State's Elliott collected nine saves while Henley had five stops.
U of L will embark on its first road swing of the season next weekend when the Cards travel to Bloomington, Ind. , to face Indiana on Sept. 7 and Ohio University on Sept. 8.
