Gwynne-Wood Leads No. 11 Field Hockey Past No. 17 Liberty 2-1

Sunday, September 13

LOUISVILLE, KY

1:00 PM

University of Louisville

(5-1)

LIBERTY

(5-1)

Liberty

Louisville

Gwynne-Wood Leads No. 11 Field Hockey Past No. 17 Liberty 2-1

September 13, 2015 | Field Hockey

Box Score

Gwynne-Wood scores both goals in field hockey's 2-1 win over Liberty

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Senior Katharine Gwynne-Wood scored her first career goal and added another to lead the 11^th ranked University of Louisville field hockey team to a 2-1 win over No. 17 Liberty Sunday afternoon at Trager Stadium.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game," said UofL head coach Justine Sowry. "Liberty is an amazing opponent and they're just getting better every year. We knew after our game versus Virginia that this was going to be a mental battle for us and we would have to bring our best – not only physically, but mentally."

The Cardinals (5-1) broke through in the tenth minute of the game. After drawing their second penalty corner of the half, Gwynne-Wood inserted the ball and Nicole Woods provided the stop for senior Elisa Garcia whose shot found Gwynne-Wood on the post. Her first career goal gave Louisville a 1-0 lead at the 9:44 mark in the game.

Louisville took the lead into halftime after outshooting Liberty 7-3 and holding a 4-1 edge in penalty corners.

The teams traded shots and corners throughout the first 20 minutes of the second half, but the Cardinals' 1-0 lead held until the 55:04 mark in the game. Liberty's Natalie Barr fired a shot that glanced off the pad of Louisville's freshman goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran and into the cage to even the score at 1-1 with 15 minutes left to play.

The Cardinals answered three minutes later on another penalty corner opportunity. This time, after the initial shot was blocked and the teams scrambled in front of the cage, Gwynne-Wood took a rebound from Liberty goalkeeper Mallory Cuccio's pads and sent the ball back into the cage for her second goal of the game to put Louisville ahead 2-1 at the 58:12 mark.

The Lady Flames (5-1) continued to attack, firing off five shots and drawing one corner in the last 12 minutes of the game, but Louisville's defense held them at bay with two blocks and a pair of saves from McFerran. In the second half, Liberty outshot Louisville 9-5 while each team had three corners.

McFerran (5-1) posted five saves in the game while Cuccio (5-1) had six stops. Overall, the teams were evenly matched with 12 shots apiece in the game while Louisville held a 7-4 advantage in corners.

"I'm super proud of our team for the way they handled today's game," said Sowry. "They battled. We had some good leaders step up. Katharine Gwynne-Wood and Erin McCrudden stood out along with our really strong defensive unit. Even our strikers worked really hard and tirelessly from a defensive standpoint. They're a good team – in my eyes, this was a national championship-type game out here today and we had to dig deep and we got the job done. I could not be more happy."

Louisville (5-1) will return to action this weekend when the Cards travel to No. 2 North Carolina for an ACC matchup Friday and stay on the road to face James Madison Sunday.