Vanderbilt (2-4) fell at home for the third time in three contests, this time at the hands of Louisville (4-3) 13-9.  Though the Commodores put together a few runs offensively, they ultimately gave up too many on defense to take a lead.

Brooke Baker recorded her fourth hat trick of the season in six contests while Nancy Halleron added two goals of her own. But the true star was Louisville’s Rian Atkins, who scored four goals and added an assist in the contest.

“I was very impressed with [Atkins] going into the game,” said Head Coach Beth Hewitt. “Obviously there’s other people who have more stats…but she’s someone that I think is very eye-catching when you watch her on film…. We just have to do a better job of slowing up the hot hand.”

First quarter

Louisville was the first to gain possession in the match, winning the opening draw. The Cardinals ran a few wrap-arounds outside the fan until Atkins curled right and saw an opening to attack. She took a few steps inside and fired into the back of the cage for the first goal of the match.

Louisville then won the ensuing draw but lost possession when the ball got poked away. Vanderbilt hurried down to its offensive zone and after analyzing the defense for roughly a minute, Jaime Biskup saw an opportunity to attack and as the defense collapsed, Biskup drew a foul. Biskup set up for the free position shot on the right side of the 8-meter arc and made her way towards the crease, but her shotwas saved by Louisville goalkeeper J Pleck. Louisville would respond by scoring on its next position. 

Louisville continued to put the pain on about four minutes later, with Maggie McMahon scoring the third goal of the game and her third of the season. Louisville won another draw control and Atkins got a few feet from the crease, but her shot was saved by Molly Joyce for her first save. After yet another Joyce save, Negai Nakazawa’s spinning shot finally gave Louisville its fourth goal of the match. Hewitt called a timeout down 4-0.

With 2:41 left in the quarter, Halleron’s free position shot finally put Vanderbilt on the board. That marked Halleron’s seventh goal of the season and sparked the Commodores, who forced a shot clock violation on defense to end the quarter. Vanderbilt never won control in the first quarter, allowing Louisville to gain possession on all six draws

“I think there’s always a lot of movement going on in the draw circle,” said Hewitt, “and I think sometimes it’s getting called and sometimes it’s not…. I also thought our circle people had to help us with some of the ground balls as well. We were beating them to the place and we just weren’t coming out of it.”

Second quarter

Louisville once again won the draw control. It’s next possession was empty, however, as the Cardinals’ free position attempt led to Joyce’s fourth save of the match. Vanderbilt recovered the ball and, despite struggling to advance it for 30 seconds, found Baker outside the fan. The graduate hit some stutter steps, spun left to beat her defender, and cut right to get to the center of the crease. Falling right, Baker slung her crosse and buried the shot attempt, her 14th goal of the season.

The match went back-and-forth with both sides trading empty trips for the next nine minutes, until Halleron sat in the X and saw a cutting Molly Finlay. Finlay, a few steps behind the crease and to the right of the cage, faced the baseline to receive the pass. Seeing an opening, she flung her stick around her head and past Pleck. Finlay’s highlight play brought the Commodores within one, with Lousiville leading 4-3.

Finlay’s flash must’ve fired up the Commodores because they finally picked up their first draw control of the match. It didn’t take long for the fire to burn further when Baker finished strong for her second score of the game, furthering the Vanderbilt run to 3-0 since the introduction of the second quarter and 4-0 since Halleron’s score to end the first. For the first time since the opening draw, Vanderbilt and Louisville were tied.

When it looked like the Black and Gold would go into the half tied, they committed a foul inside the arc, allowing Atkins to retake the lead on the free position shot, which she did, scoring her second goal. Louisville headed to the locker room up one, a slim margin compared to where it was 15 minutes prior.

Third quarter

Louisville was refreshed after halftime, winning the draw control and immediately scoring on its possession, this time from Izzy Seikel. Reese Whiteman would lend a helping hand a few minutes later, scoring her team-leading 11th goal of the season to bring Louisville’s lead to 7-4. 

Halleron halted the Louisville run with her second goal of the game with 6:22 left in the quarter, thanks to an assist from Sammy Nuchow, but the Commodores couldn’t celebrate too long. Seikel struck a second time in the quarter, sending the score to 8-5. Lauren Figgus added extra insurance with her first score of the game and Atkins followed by securing her hat trick with a score, ending the quarter at 10-5; Louisville’s largest lead of the game.

Fourth quarter

For the second time this season, Hewitt subbed Joyce for first-year Emme Martin, who’d record her first save of the game soon after. Brooke would try to bring an extra lift with the first goal of the quarter, which also marked her fourth hat trick in six games. Kemper Robinson got in on the celebration, scoring her first goal of the game and seventh of the season, with Nuchow recording her second assist on the play.

Louisville scored off a free-position shot to bring the lead back to four to try to halt the Commodores’ momentum, but Biscup assisted Maddie Barkate cut her team’s deficit to three. Biskup joined the party with her second goal of the game, cutting Louisville’s lead to 11-9 with over six minutes left. 

Louisville won the draw and before even entering the offensive zone, drew a green card on Baker and, to make matters worse for the Commodores, drew another foul inside the arc. With the ball in Atkins’s hands — and her team up a defender — she nailed the free-position shot to calm the Commodore storm. Whiteman immediately followed with the dagger, her second goal flattening the home squad right when they were heating up. Whiteman’s goal extended the score to 13-9 Louisville, which is where it would stay until the final buzzer.

Vanderbilt will look to bounce back in Tempe, Arizona, against the Arizona State Sun Devils on March 8 at 12 p.m. CST.