No. 12 Field Hockey Shuts Out Indiana 3-0

Sunday, August 30

LOUISVILLE, KY

1:30 PM

University of Louisville

(2-0)

INDIANA

(1-1)

Indiana

Louisville

August 31, 2015 | Field Hockey

Box Score

Cards win third straight 'Battle of the Border'

By: Lori Korte

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Sophomore Stephanie Byrne score a pair of goals to help lift the No. 12 University of Louisville field hockey team to a 3-0 win over visiting Indiana Sunday afternoon at Trager Stadium. The Cardinals improve to 2-0 on the season while the Hoosiers drop to 1-1.

"We're happy with the end result, there's no doubt about that," said Justine Sowry. "To win against a quality opponent with a new coaching staff, we're very pleased with the end result. We're continuing to improve. Some of the pieces that we looked at from Friday night, we addressed them and you can see that we're trying. You can see that we're working hard."

The teams were locked in a midfield battle to start the game before the Cardinals opened the scoring in the 14^th minute. Senior Victoria Stratton took possession of the ball around the 50-yardline, dribbled the ball and sent a pass into the circle where sophomore Stephanie Byrne was waiting to connect on her second goal of the season.

Five minutes later, Louisville capitalized on a penalty corner to increase the lead to 2-0. Senior Katharine-Gwynne Wood got the corner started and Nicole Woods provided the stop to set up senior Elisa Garcia's shot. Byrne tipped the shot for her second goal of the game.

The Cardinals struck again with just over five minutes remaining in the first half. Junior Lotta Kahlert slotted a cross from the left side of the cage to freshman Tess Hannah who netted her second career goal.

UofL took a 3-0 lead into the break after holding a 5-4 edge in shots with both teams drawing two penalty corners apiece.

The score held in the second half despite Louisville outshooting Indiana 7-2 and holding a 5-2 edge in corners. Freshman goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran collected three saves en route to her first career shutout.

"Indiana had a really good structure in place," said Sowry. "They were short on numbers, so the way they defended really congested the middle of the pitch, so it changed the way that we had to attack and we didn't do a very good job in the first half… so we made some adjustments in the second half and we were able to get more opportunities. Give a lot of credit to them, they were very well-structured."

Louisville will hit the road for the first time this season when the Cards head to the West Coast to face California on Sept. 4 and UC Davis on Sept. 6.

NOTES: For the third straight year, the Cardinals have claimed the annual "Battle of the Border" with a 3-0 win.