Late Goal Lifts Louisville over Virginia, 2-1

CHARLOTTESVILLE – The Virginia field hockey team (3-5) closed out the home portion of the fall schedule with a 2-1 loss in a non-conference match against Louisville (7-0) on Saturday (Oct. 24) at Turf Field.

Louisville scored the game winning goal with nine seconds remaining in regulation. Sophomore striker Laura Janssen (Nijmegen, Netherlands) scored her team-leading fifth goal of the season to provide the offense for the Cavaliers.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The two teams were scoreless at the half. Louisville got on the scoreboard first, scoring off a penalty corner seven minutes into the second half. Janssen tied the game when she corralled a pass from freshman striker Anneloes Knol (Utrecht, Netherlands) that was bouncing through the circle and struck it into the net with 9:04 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Cavaliers had a good opportunity a few minutes later when a pair of Cardinals were issued back-to-back yellow cards, giving UVA a two-player advantage, but Virginia could not capitalize on the opportunity. The game seemed destined for overtime when, in the final seconds, Madison Walsh picked up a steal and headed off towards the goal on a breakaway, firing off a shot that went through the Virginia keeper and into the net with nine seconds left on the clock.

FROM HEAD COACH MICHELE MADISON
“We definitely raised our level today over yesterday. We still need to capitalize on our attack opportunities, especially against a really good Louisville team. The only thing our team should be disappointed about is that we didn’t bring that game yesterday, and that we didn’t stick at the very end with what had worked in the whole game.

“There’s been a lot of growth by the first years. The team, they’re still trying to find themselves. There is chemistry there, but we’re just not firing on all cylinders. But kudos to them for coming back and the leadership for bringing the team back to where they are.”

NOTES

• Laura Janssen has scored a goal in three of the last four games, including both games this weekend
• Louisville had a 10-8 edge in shots. Eight of Louisville’s shots were on goal while two of Virginia’s were
• Junior goalkeeper Lauren Hausheer (West Windsor, N.J.) logged six saves
• Louisville won yesterday’s game by a score of 5-2

UP NEXT

• Virginia will head to Duke next weekend, taking on the Blue Devils at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31 in Durham, N.C., in the final game before the ACC Championship
• The game will stream live online on ACCNX