Woods Lifts No. 9 Field Hockey Past Massachusetts

Sunday, October 4

LOUISVILLE, KY

1:00 PM

University of Louisville

(7-4)

MASSACHUSETTS

(6-5)

UMass

Louisville

October 04, 2015 | Field Hockey

Box Score

Nicole Woods' goal with 6:10 left in regulation gives the Cardinals a 1-0 win over the Minutewoment

LOUISVILLE, Ky.- Sophomore Nicole Woods' goal with 6:10 remaining in regulation lifted the ninth-ranked University of Louisville field hockey team to a 1-0 win over the University of Massachusetts Sunday afternoon at Trager Stadium in the Cardinals' annual 'Pink Game'. The Cards improve to 7-4 while the Minutewomen drop to 6-5.

"I'm so happy with this result today," said UofL head coach Justine Sowry. "We were coming off of a really tough game in difficult conditions against Duke, plus travel back here. It's like welcome to the ACC and what comes next. Today against a really good and well-coached opponent, we had to dig deeper than we've ever had to dig."

The teams battled through a scoreless first half firing off four shots apiece while Louisville held a 5-2 advantage in penalty corners. UMass threatened in the opening minute of the second half when Sarah Hawkshaw's shot sailed wide. Louisville would go on to draw four corners and register three shots on goal before the Minutewomen earned their only corner of the half with under nine minutes remaining in regulation. Shauna Rankin-Byrne's shot was blocked and the Cards regained possession.

With about seven minutes left to play, junior Shannon Sloss, who had just re-entered the game, gained control of the ball around midfield and dribbled up the left side to the circle where she sent a pass to Woods who was waiting in front of the cage by UMass goalkeeper Sam Carlino. Woods connected on her fourth goal of the season to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead at the 63:50 mark.

In the second half, Louisville outshot UMass 6-2 with freshman goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran staving off several scoring opportunities. Ayeisha McFerran (7-3) picked up two saves en route to her fifth shutout of the season. Carlino (6-5) registered four saves for the Minutewomen.

In the game Louisville outshot UMass 10-6 and held a 9-3 edge in corners.

"I talked at the beginning of the game that you have to choose between one of two pains it's either discipline or regret," said Sowry. "Today we had to dig deeper and be a very disciplined unit. We were fatigued, you could tell that, but we stayed together and we were able to get it done. It was not pretty, but I'm just really proud of the effort that our team put forward and that we got it done."

The Cardinals (7-4) will return to action on Oct. 9 when No. 2 Syracuse visits Trager Stadium for an ACC matchup at 6 p.m. The game will be shown on ESPN3.