Cards Take Down No. 19 California 3-1

Friday, October 17

LOUISVILLE, KY

6:00 PM

University of Louisville

(7-7, 1-4)

California

(6-6, 2-4)

California

Louisville

October 17, 2025 | Field Hockey

Box Score

Izzy Bianco scores a pair of goals to help lead Louisville to a 3-1 win over No. 19 Cal

By: Lori Harmon

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Senior Izzy Bianco scored a pair of goals to help lead the University of Louisville field hockey team to a 3-1 win over No. 19 California in an Atlantic Coast Conference contest Friday evening at Trager Stadium.

"It's great to get a win at home and our first ACC conference win," said UofL field hockey coach Justine Sowry. "Really very pleased with our performance today after last weekend we wanted to tweak the lineup a little bit and we asked for our team's trust in what we wanted to do and they did, and we were able to execute."

Back-to-back goals by Bianco and senior Rylie Wollerton within a 40-second span in the fourth quarter broke a 1-1 tie en route to the Cardinals' first conference win of the season. In the game, Louisville outshot Cal 11-3 with a 6-1 advantage in shots on goal and a 5-2 edge in penalty corners. With the win, the Cards improve to 7-6 (1-4) while the Bears drop to 6-6 (2-4).

Louisville held possession throughout much of the first half, but Bears' defense held strong to keep the Cardinals off of the scoreboard until the 20^th minute of the game when Bianco connected on a penalty corner assist from freshman Gracie Potter to give Louisville a 1-0 lead.

Cal answered with 1:24 left to play in the second quarter after Olivia Sharratt collected an aerial pass from Maya Hoepfner and fired a shot into the far corner of the cage to even the score at 1-1.

The teams entered halftime tied despite Louisville outshooting the Bears 7-2 with a 3-2 edge in shots on goal and a 3-0 advantage in corners.

After a scoreless third quarter, the Cards struck again midway through the final frame. After receiving a pass from junior Lauren Masters in front of the cage, redshirt freshman Mary Wordelmann found Bianco at the top of the circle and the senior fired a shot past Cal goalkeeper Delphine Ayitey-Hammond for her second goal of the game and third of the season.

Louisville kept the momentum after the ensuing push back as Masters intercepted a ball near the Bears' defensive 25 and delivered a long feed to Wollerton who notched her team-best eighth goal of the season.

A yellow card issued with 5:13 left in the fourth quarter forced the Cardinals to play short-handed for five minutes. The Bears immediately earned a corner and Maya Hoepfner's shot sailed wide. Cal lifted Ayitey-Hammond for an extra field player the final 3:43 to extend the advantage, but Louisville held the Bears in check for the remainder of the game to prevail 3-1.

"The first half we were able to control - it felt like 90 percent of the game - and then a mental lapse cost us so we had to regroup at halftime," said Sowry. "It was a bit of a battle in the third quarter and then we came strong again even with a player down and they took their goalkeeper out and I thought we did a really nice job on both sides of the ball to be completely honest we need to tidy up the penalty corners but it's great to be able to walk off with a win."

Louisville will continue its ACC slate on Oct. 24 when third-ranked Virginia visits Trager Stadium as the Cardinals face their third straight ranked opponent.

NOTES:

The win over No. 19 California marks Louisville's third win over a top-20 opponent this season and the Cardinals' first ACC win since Sept. 20, 2024 when they beat Stanford 2-0 at Trager Stadium.
Rylie Wollerton leads the team with a career-high eight goals and 22 points
Izzy Bianco posted the first multi-goal game of her career
Louisville improves to 5-3 at home this season