Wildcats Fall in Home Finale to No.

14 Louisville
Smillie scores for Villanova

Sophomore forward Heather Smillie scored her first goal of the season as the Villanova field hockey team (3-11, 0-6 BIG EAST) fell, 6-1, to No. 14 Louisville (13-4, 5-1 BIG EAST) Sunday afternoon. Smillies goal came at 65:18 as the Wildcats began pushing offensively. After taking four straight penalty corners, junior forward Jessica Swoboda dished to ball to Smillie, who tapped it into the net. The Cardinals began the game attacking, and Becca Maddock scored the teams first goal at 5:07 as she took the ball on a breakaway and sent it past senior goalkeeper Alex Diekmann. Shannon Sloss scored for Louisville at 8:50 with a tip-in goal to the left side of the net. Sloss scored again at 36:34 with a shot to the left of the cage off a rebound. The Cardinals were awarded two penalty strokes in the contest and were able to capitalize off both of them. Mallory Mason and Alyssa Voelmle each scored a stroke at 23:01 and 44:40, respectively. Erin Schneidtmiller scored at 47:05 from the left wing to put the Cardinals ahead, 6-0. Villanova began pushing offensively after the goal, getting the ball into the arc and taking more shots. The Wildcats were awarded for their efforts as they took five straight penalty corners, one of the resulting in Smillies goal to break the shutout. Diekmann made nine saves in net as the Cardinals took 20 shots, 15 on goal. Louisville also finished the game with a 21-10 advantage in corners. Villanova took 10 shots, eight of them coming in the second half. Junior back Maddy Harding took three shots. Swoboda leads the team in assists (6) and points (16) for the season. Seniors Diekmann, midfielder Keira Zambon and forwards Jenna Allen, Celise Feller and Christine Lafferty were honored prior to the game. The Wildcats take short trip to Philadelphia to take on Penn Wednesday at 3 p.m.