No. 16 Cards Fall 3-0 to No. 12 North Carolina

Friday, October 2

LOUISVILLE, KY

3:00 PM

University of Louisville

(7-4, 2-1)

North Carolina

(6-4, 3-1)

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
North Carolina	0	0	2	1	3
Louisville	0	0	0	0	0

Sophia Parker, Bibi van der Lande, Aubreigh Uba, Emily Young

Photo by: Pakhi Verma | Louisville Athletics

October 02, 2026 | Field Hockey

Box Score Justine Sowry postgame interview

Cards suffer first ACC and home loss of the 2026 season

By: Lori Harmon

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The No. 16-ranked University of Louisville field hockey team fell 3-0 to No. 12 North Carolina in an Atlantic Coast Conference matchup Friday evening at Trager Stadium.

With their first home loss of the 2026 season, the Cards drop to 7-4 (2-1 ACC). The Tar Heels move to 6-4 (3-1 ACC).

"Obviously when you compete against a team like North Carolina, it's always going to be difficult and a challenge," said UofL head coach Justine Sowry. "We thought our game plan was a good one, but we're going to have to play an almost perfect game to be able to come out on a positive end."

In the game, the Tar Heels held a 9-1 advantage in shots on goal and an 11-2 edge in penalty corners. Louisville goalkeeper Emily Young collected six saves and while Merritt Skubisz had one for UNC.

North Carolina held possession throughout the majority of the first half, outshooting Louisville 9-0 and Emily Young picking up three saves. The Tar Heels also earned six penalty corners, but were unable to convert as the Louisville defense held strong to enter halftime with the score 0-0.

The Cards threatened early in the third quarter, earning their first penalty corner of the game, but Aubreigh Uba's shot was blocked.

North Carolina broke through late in the third quarter with a pair of goals in a 90-second span. Ryleigh Heck put the Tar Heels on the scoreboard followed by goal from Reese Anetsberger. With just under three minutes left in the game, Charly Bruder completed the scoring to give North Carolina the 3-0 win.

"After last Sunday's game, very happy with the effort that we put in – and it was a collective effort," said Sowry. "You can tell from one week to the next that we're trying to figure things out together as a unit versus individually. And that's what we need to do as a team to be successful moving forward. It can't be put on the shoulders any one individual player, it has to be a collective thing and on both sides of the ball. Overall, I was very pleased with our effort and our improvements from last week. We just have to continue to just get better every single day. It's a short turnaround, so that becomes really important."

Louisville will stay at Trager Stadium for another ACC contest against Stanford on Sunday at 12 p.m. The game will air on the ACC Network.