Louisville Defeats Rutgers In Field Hockey Action, 4-1
Oct 22 | Field Hockey
PISCATAWAY, NJ - Louisville scored three goals in a three-minute span during the opening minutes of the second half and earned a 4-1 victory over Rutgers (6-11, 1-5 BIG EAST) on Sunday afternoon at the Rutgers Stadium Complex.
"After the game I just mentioned to the players how proud we are, as a coaching staff, of how much we've improved," said head coach Liz Tchou. "We're learning every game and every week we're getting better. Whatever it was that we worked on during the week has showed in our games. That's a testament to the team on their hard work and dedication week in and week out in practice."
Janelle Avila, who finished with a goal and two assists, opened the scoring with 32:47 to play in the second half when she took a pass from Jen Kastelic. Less then a minute later, Kastelic tacked on a second goal for the Cardinals and Casey Diener finished the rally when she was set up by Avila just 1:03 later. Jessica Javelete, Louisville's leading scorer entering the contest, scored her 18th goal of the season with just 11 seconds to play that closed out the scoring.
Rutgers' Amy Lewis (Hainesport, N.J.) netted her team-high 20th goal of the season with just under 15:00 left in the second half. Lewis was in position to redirect a rebound off the pads of Louisville goalkeeper Marie-Claire Heller that drew RU within 3-1.
"One of Amy's personal goals was to keep herself involved in the play because a lot of times teams try to shut her out," Tchou said. "She did a good job helping the ball out of the backfield and coming up with some attacks of her own."
In goal, junior Rosalyn Wentko (Dallas, Pa.) made 11 saves and was relieved in the second half by freshman Leslie Kelly (Glassboro, N.J.). Heller made five stops for the Cardinals.
"The first half we had them scoreless, and they're the top team in the BIG EAST, so that was a really great showing for us and I thought we played very well," Tchou said. "I thought our intensity was really high and it really showed Louisville that we'll be a team to contend with in the future."
The Scarlet Knights return to action on Friday, Oct. 27 when they host Cornell at 7:30 p.m. in the final home game of the 2006 season. Rutgers wraps up the regular season next Sunday, Oct. 29 at Princeton.
