Cardinals Pick Up Exhibition Win Against Bellarmine

Sunday, August 22

LOUISVILLE, KY

1:00 P.M.

University of Louisville

BELLARMINE (SCRIMMAGE)

Charlie van Oirschot dribbles the ball down the field against Bellarmine

Photo by: Jared Anderson

August 22, 2021 | Field Hockey

By: Lori Harmon

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Louisville field hockey team wrapped up its first weekend of scrimmages with an exhibition win against Bellarmine University Sunday afternoon at Trager Stadium.

After Saturday's win against the alumnae, the Cardinals again battled through the heat to pick up their second straight preseason victory.

"To play back-to-back games under these conditions is always going to be tough, but we were looking to show some improvement with the ball and without the ball," said UofL head coach Justine Sowry. "I was really pleased seeing different combinations working a little bit better today – anything from our backfield shape outletting to our attacking numbers. They are responding to things that we are asking of them and that's all that I can ask of them. We need to stay diligent in trying to improve – with these scrimmages, the score doesn't matter, it's about the process. Today I was fairly happy. It was great to play against Bellarmine – their second year in Division I, I would love to be able to do this every year to help them out and help this rivalry get stronger and stronger for the city, which I think is pretty cool."

Mattie Tabor, Charlie van Oirschot and Mackenzie Karl each tallied a pair of goals to lead the Cardinals. Aimee Plumb, Katie Schneider, Mia Duchars and Filippa Nieburh also scored as Louisville shutout the Knights 10-0 in regulation.

The scrimmage then moved to a sudden-victory 7v7 overtime period which Bellarmine won behind a goal from Peyton Hobson with four minutes left to play.

The Knights also prevailed 5-3 in a shootout to end the scrimmage.

The Cardinals will officially open the season on August 27 when they play host to Ohio University at 3 p.m. New Hampshire will visit Trager Stadium on Sunday, August 29. Admission is free.

"It's always great to finally get to play a real game, but we've still got a lot of work to do," said Sowry. "We're missing a couple of key players, but to play against non-conference opponents when we played the majority of our game last year against ACC teams is going to be fun, but we're definitely going to have to adjust and adapt to whatever they throw at us. Our focus will entirely be on ourselves, but we'll see what happens on Friday. We've got some work to do this week."