Cardinals Defeat Virginia 5-2

Friday, October 23

Charlottesville, VA

2:00 PM

University of Louisville

(6-0, 5-0ACC)

Virginia

(3-4, 2-2ACC)

LOU

Virginia

Photo by: Matt Riley

October 23, 2020 | Field Hockey

Box Score

Cards clinch at least a share of the ACC regular season title

By: Lori Harmon

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Mercedes Pastor scored two goals and delivered an assist while Hollyn Barr collected a season-high seven saves to help lead the University of Louisville field hockey team to a 5-2 win over host Virginia Friday afternoon at Turf Field. The Cardinals improve to 6-0 on the season and 5-0 in ACC play, earning at least a share of the ACC regular season title.

Additionally, Friday's victory matches the best start in program history and sets a new UofL record for ACC victories in a season.

"UVA set the tempo from the beginning and gave us a lot of trouble structurally and also with the 1v1 battles," said UofL head coach Justine Sowry. "We started to play our game in the last quarter or so to finish strong. Fortunately, we were able to capitalize on attack and held strong for the most part defensively. This is a great game to analyze and learn from as we look to improve."

The teams fired off 13 shots each with Virginia owning a 9-7 edge in shots on goal and Louisville holding a 9-4 advantage in penalty corners. In addition to Pastor's offensive output, freshman Aimee Plumb registered her first career goal and senior Madison Walsh and sophomore Margot Lawn also scored as the Cardinals tallied a season-high in goals and the most since August 30, 2019 in a 5-0 win over Indiana.

Pastor got the scoring started when she converted on a penalty stroke for her team-best fourth goal of the season midway through the first quarter. Four minutes later Plumb deflected Pastor's penalty corner shot to make the score 2-0.

Virginia cut the lead in half early in the second quarter when Adele Iacobucci connected on a feed from Rachel Robinson.

Louisville took the 2-1 lead into halftime after Virginia held a 9-6 edge in shots and each team earning one corner.

As the third quarter opened, the Cardinals attacked early and after earning three straight penalty corners in third minute of the quarter, Pastor's shot found the back of the cage to increase Louisville's lead to 3-1.

Three minutes later, UVA responded behind a goal from Laura Janssen to make it a 3-2 game.

Louisville countered with 34 seconds left to play in the third quarter when sophomore Katie Schneider sent a pass from outside the circle and Walsh sent her first goal of the season into the cage, putting the Cardinals on top 4-2.

The Cards completed the scoring in the fourth quarter when freshman Embry Jane Imorde's pass in front of Virginia goalkeeper Taylor Henriksen found the stick of a diving Margot Lawn to give Louisville the 5-2 win.

Barr (6-0) registered a season-high seven saves in the contest while UVA's Lauren Hausheer and Taylor Henriksen combined for five stops.

Louisville and Virginia (3-4, 2-2) will meet again Saturday at 2 p.m. in a non-conference matchup.