No. 8 Cards Fall to No. 13 Syracuse

Friday, October 20

LOUISVILLE, KY

6:00 PM

University of Louisville

(12-4, 2-3ACC)

Syracuse

(10-5, 2-3ACC)

Syracuse

Louisville

Photo by: Rachel Klotz | Louisville Athletics

October 20, 2023 | Field Hockey

Box Score

Louisville falls 4-1 to Syracuse in an ACC showdown

By: Lori Harmon

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The eighth-ranked University of Louisville fell 4-1 to No. 13 Syracuse in an Atlantic Coast Conference matchup Friday evening at Trager Stadium. With the loss, the Cardinals drop to 12-4 (2-3 ACC) while the Orange improve to 10-5 (2-3 ACC).

"This was a tough night here at Trager," said UofL head coach Justine Sowry. "Syracuse came to play, that's the bottom line. Impressive play, impressive unit, great individual efforts, but collectively they were clearly the much better team for the first three quarters. We obviously gave up several goals and nine corners. It doesn't help when you play down a person for 12 minutes of the game, but they got us on our heels and it was really difficult for us to recover. For us, we're obviously good enough, but we've reached a place in the season where we've reached a fork in the road and we can go down one road or we can go down the right road and come back collectively and work together to be able to bounce back. We've got a quick turnaround for our game on Sunday."

In the game, Syracuse outshot Louisville 16-8 with a 10-5 edge in shots on goal and carried a 9-3 advantage in penalty corners. Merlijn van der Vegt posted six saves for the Cards while Abby Neitch had four stops.

The Orange wasted little time getting on the scoreboard with a goal by Hattie Madden in the fourth minute of play.

Late in the second quarter a yellow card gave Syracuse an advantage and they capitalized when Cato Schreinemacher connected on a penalty corner assist from Lieke Leeggangers to give the Orange a 2-0 lead with 50 seconds remaining in the half.

Syracuse continued to attack in the third quarter, adding two more goals – both courtesy of Pieke van de Pas – to take a 4-0 lead.

After being unable to deliver a shot on goal through the first 45 minutes, the Cardinals gained momentum on offense, firing off eight shots and earning three penalty corners. Louisville broke through with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter when Julie Kouijzer rifled a penalty corner shot past Neitch with assists from Lara Niebler and Mia Duchars.

Louisville will return to action on Sunday at 12 p.m. when Appalachian State visits Trager Stadium for the Cardinals' regular season home finale.