Cards Down Kent State

Wednesday, April 9

Louisville, Ky.

12:00 PM

University of Louisville

7-8

Kent State

6-8

Kent State

Louisville

April 09, 2025 | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score Photo Gallery

Negai Nakazawa's four goals lead the Cards to a 17-3 win over Kent State

By: Sara Miller

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Junior Negai Nakazawa had four goals and an assist for the University of Louisville lacrosse team as the Cardinals cruised to a 17-3 victory over Kent State Wednesday afternoon in a mid-week matchup at UofL Lacrosse Stadium.

The Cards (7-8) took down the Golden Flashes (6-8) in a dominant showing where 12 players scored a goal with Nakazawa matching her career-high of four. Rian Adkins and Reese Whiteman each had a pair of goals with Whiteman adding an assist. Ashley Osborne, Sophie Macleod, Issy Leech and Ella Terrell each scored the first goal of their collegiate careers while contributing to the offense.

"Today was a great team effort, and a great team win," said head coach Scott Teeter. "It started with the draw control. We dominated it on the circle and really in all areas of the game, we were in control. It was great to get all players into the game today and really get back and working, working on our systems on our defensive end, having success and leading, leading to offensive chances and goals on the offensive end."

UofL earned the draw control to open up the competition and took the ball down the field to score on the first possession of the game. Kent State quickly responded with a goal of their own to tie the score at 1-1.

After a strong defensive effort on both sides, the Cards opened up the nine-minute-long stalemate as Nakazawa scored her second goal of the contest.

Using the momentum of a charge called on Kent State, Lauren Figas stormed down the field to score and extend Louisville's lead to 3-1.

Coming out of the quarter break, Louisville took control of the match and scored five unanswered goals, including scores by Abby Scully, Abigail Cole, Izzy Seikel, Rian Adkins and Nakazawa.

The Cards continued to drive the competition out of the half as the UofL took an 8-1 lead into the break. Louisville kept hold of the momentum by scoring back-to-back goals in the first five minutes of the third quarter.

Defender Ashley Osborne, who was competing her program-record 80^th game in a Cardinal uniform, earned her first career goal at 7:44 left in the quarter to push Louisville's lead to 11-1.

After Whiteman scored her second goal of the day at the eight-minute mark of the third, freshman Terrell pushed down the field to get her first goal on just her second shot of the season.

After a 12-0 scoring run by the Cardinals, Kent State broke its scoreless drought with a goal scored in the final two minutes of the third quarter before the two teams then traded goals to bring the score to 14-3.

Adkins notched her second goal of the day on a crafty behind-the-back move to earn her third game of the season with multiple goals.

Louisville closed out the game with three more goals in the fourth quarter to secure a 17-3 win over Kent State. While it was the first-ever meeting between the two teams, the win moves the Cards to 7-1 all-time against Mid-American Conference opponents.

Overall, Louisville outshot Kent State 37-17, landing a season-high 31 shots on goal while holding the Golden Flashes to 14. The Cardinals also held a 15-9 edge in draw controls with Olivia Scroggie earning a career-best eight in the game. Goalie J Pleck collected seven saves in the first half with Haley Richards registering four stops in the third quarter. Sydney Davis posted 14 saves for Kent State.

Louisville will wrap up the home season with an Atlantic Coast Conference matchup against No. 12 Duke on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the UofL Lacrosse Stadium. The game will be televised on the ACC Network.