No. 10 Louisville Falls to No. 2 Northwestern in 3-2 Heartbreaker in NCAA Quarterfinals

Sunday, November 12

Evanston, IL

2:00 PM

University of Louisville

(15-7)

Northwestern

(20-1)

Louisville

Northwestern

Photo by: Rachel Klotz | Louisville Athletics

No. 10 Louisville Falls to No. 2 Northwestern in 3-2 Heartbreaker in NCAA Quarterfinals

November 12, 2023 | Field Hockey

Box Score

Wildcats score the game winner with 1:07 left in the fourth quarter

By: Lori Harmon

EVANSTON, Ill. – The 10^th-ranked University of Louisville field hockey team lost a 3-2 heartbreaker to No. 2 Northwestern in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship Sunday afternoon at Northwestern's Lakeside Field. Louisville closes the season with a 15-7 record after playing in its third NCAA quarterfinal in the last five years.

Lauren Wadas' penalty corner goal with 1:07 remaining in the game lifted the Wildcats (20-1) to the win, capping fourth quarter that saw Northwestern score a pair of penalty corner goals after Louisville took a 2-1 lead in the closing seconds of the third quarter.

"This was a championship game," said UofL head coach Justine Sowry. "It was incredible, I'm sure it was fun for everyone to watch as well. Hats off to Northwestern, a great opponent, great team, well-coached and extremely talented. I thought we prepared our team very well today on both sides of the ball. We definitely had great opportunities. We capitalized on some and at the end of the day, they were able to capitalize on one more than us, but I'm just so really proud of our team right now. It does suck that we came that close to going to a final four, but I'm just incredibly proud our team."

In the evenly-contested game, Louisville took the lead twice and Northwestern (20-1) countered each time. The teams tallied seven shots on goal with Northwestern holding an 11-7 edge in overall shots and a 7-5 advantage in corners, including four in the final quarter. Merlijn van der Vegt finished the contest with four saves while Annabel Skubisz had five stops for the Wildcats.

The Cardinals attacked early, delivering the first two shots of the game and converted on their third corner of the contest. Lara Niebler pushed the ball to Izzy Bianco whose shot was tipped by Minna Tremonti to give Louisville a 1-0 lead in the 10^th minute of play.

Northwestern answered less than two minutes later, capitalizing a penalty corner of its own when Ilse Tromp connected on a pass from Lauren Wadas to even the score at 1-1.

Louisville held possession throughout much of the second quarter, outshooting the Wildcats 4-1, with Northwestern goalkeeper Annabel Skubisz picking up three saves and Louisville's Merlijn van der Vegt turning back one shot on goal. Louisville earned a penalty corner with three minutes left in the frame, but the Wildcats' defense withstood the attack and the teams entered the break deadlocked at 1-1.

In the third quarter, Northwestern increased its offensive presence, firing off four shots and earning a pair of penalty corners, it was the Cardinals who would capitalize on its lone corner opportunity of the frame. Plumb's initial shot found the stick of freshman Tyler Everslage who sent the ball pas Skubisz to put the Cards back on top 2-1 with 10 seconds left in the quarter.

The teams continued to battle in the fourth quarter as Louisville withstood three Northwestern corners before the Wildcats earned their seventh corner of the contest with 1:13 on the clock and Wadas' direct shot found the back of the cage for the Wildcats' go-ahead goal.

In the final minute of the game, van der Vegt was lifted for an extra field player as the Cardinals played the ball to their attack circle but were unable to generate a shot on goal.

The contest was a rematch of the Aug. 27 game which saw Louisville come away with a 1-0 win over the host Wildcats at Lakeside Field. Northwestern has since won 20 straight as it heads to its third consecutive NCAA semifinal appearance.

NOTES:
• The contest was a rematch of the Aug. 27 game which saw Louisville come away with a 1-0 win over the host Wildcats. Northwestern has since won 20 straight as it heads to its third consecutive NCAA semifinal appearance.
• Sunday's matchup pitted two of the top defenses in the nation against each other. Northwestern led the NCAA with a 0.48 goals against average and 13 shutouts while Louisville stood fourth with a 1.01 goals against average.
• With a 15-7 record, Louisville tallied the most victories since 2021 when the Cards tied a school mark for wins at 16-4.
• With her assist in the game, Aimee Plumb now has a team-best eight assists on the season. The senior also has 74 points in her career, moving into a tie for seventh with Elisa Garcia (2012-15) on Louisville's all-time list.
• Minna Tremonti scored her second goal in as many games during Louisville's run in the NCAA tournament. The fifth-year senior stands second on the team with a career-best four goals.
• Merlijn van der Vegt finished the season with a 1.08 goals-against average, good for fifth on Louisville's all-time list.

JUSTINE SOWRY POSTGAME QUOTES
(Opening statement)
"This was a championship caliber game," said UofL head coach Justine Sowry. "It was incredible, I'm sure it was fun for everyone to watch as well. Hats off to Northwestern, a great opponent, great team, well-coached and extremely talented. I thought we prepared our team very well today on both sides of the ball. We definitely had great opportunities. We capitalized on some and at the end of the day, they were able to capitalize on one more than us, but I'm just so really proud of our team right now. It does suck that we came that close to going to a final four, but I'm just incredibly proud our team."

(On the team's resilience in the game and throughout the season)
"We always try to have a really tough schedule to prepare for these moments. When I compare this season to last season, we hit a slump last season and we carried that into postseason and we did not want that to happen this year. It did not happen this year. We hit that slump, we dug a little deeper, we showed incredible resilience, we had great leadership and we recovered from that and put some really impressive performances together leading up to this weekend. We have played great hockey this year, but we have struggled to score. We addressed those issues in the second half of the season and I'm really happy that we were able to put ourselves in a position to win this game. Our leadership learned from the experience of last year and I'm just really proud of what we did out there on the pitch today."

(Earlier this season when you played Northwestern, you didn't have a shot in the first half, what allowed you to attack so early in this game?)
"I remember that game pretty vividly. Northwestern couldn't score and we put one on the board and defended a lot. You never know what you're going to get on any given day. We knew that we were going to be a different team… throughout the course of the year, our style of hockey just got better and better it's two-touch, it's the passing game, it's change the point… and we were able to open up those gaps between the lines. I guess I didn't think that we would get as many opportunities, but again, I'm just really happy with how we played and we stuck to the game plan pretty much through. Sure, we had to absorb a lot of pressure in certain points of the game, but overall pretty happy with the performance on both sides of the pitch."

(On the senior class and what they've meant to the program)
"It's going to be a tough one to move on from, because this group is special. Good things did come out of the pandemic – we had the opportunity for a bunch of kids to come back. Julie Kouijzer, Emilia Kaczmarczyk, Minna Tremonti, India Reed – just absolute tremendous leaders and captains. They really have shown tremendous pride in our program. In addition to our four-year seniors, and of course they have opportunities to come back, not really sure where the wind will take us with that just yet. And we had two graduate transfers in Niamh Gowing and Merlijn van der Vegt, our goalkeeper who was absolutely phenomenal for us this year. We couldn't have gotten ourselves to this position if they didn't choose Louisville and did a really great job. To have that many seniors or grad seniors, that really shows a lot and puts us in a position to get that close to a final four. Equally, Northwestern has that seniority as well – those are the teams that get to the final four and the championship. I really thought we had that team this year, really a bit of a bummer that we came up against Northwestern and again, just really proud of that group."

(Northwestern's goals came minutes after Louisville's goals, was that a case of Louisville letting up a little or Northwestern executing?)
"We've been in situations all year and I think the group on the pitch can handle those situations, it just shows you how great Northwestern is with that senior group, with those core players that can turn it on. When they put their foot down on the gas pedal, they really put their foot down on the gas pedal. And they executed their corners today as well. That's a championship team right there."