After a 5-3 win against Ball State, Ohio’s offense is searching to carry momentum against a quality opponent in nationally ranked Louisville.
Coming off its best offensive performance of the season, Ohio’s matchup against No. 7 Louisville could be a good experience for the Bobcats.
In the past two games, Ohio has scored eight of its 13 goals this season and will look to carry the momentum from Sunday’s 5-3 win over Ball State.
“(Louisville) is very fast, very athletic. I like their coaches style of play, how they move the ball,” coach Neil Macmillan said. “That will be a very nice challenge.”
Going in, Ohio’s moral has been surging after jumping Longwood and Ball State for the fourth spot in the Mid-American Conference.
Redshirt senior Lauryl Desch, Ohio’s leading scorer who has five goals in two games, and junior Adele Sammons have been reliable for the Bobcats, as Desch has 12 total points and Sammons has recorded three goals and four assists.
Ohio (3-8) kept pace with a Ball State team that has scored 26 goals this season. Senior goalie Brittany Walker had five saves and the backline made multiple stops within their own circle to shutout the Cardinals in the second half.
Macmillan and the Bobcats are somewhat familiar with playing top-20 teams. Earlier in the year, Ohio played No. 13 Syracuse and No. 20 Indiana, as well as California, Liberty, Ohio State and Richmond, which all ranked in the top 40 of the poll’s 78 teams.
“We take each game one at a time,” Desch said. “Louisville is a great team and we’re gonna take a day off, get our bodies going, but really mentally re-evaluate ourselves. We need to recompose, get ourselves together and get ready to attack Louisville.”
Louisville (11-4) is coming off a 4-0 win over California at Trager Stadium to push its home record to 7-1. However, its road record is just 3-3.
Louisville senior Mallory Mason scored the Cardinals’ first goal against the Golden Bears off a corner, as the Cardinals have scored 46 goals this season for an average of three per game.
Macmillan said Ohio will have an opportunity to challenge themselves against a valuable opponent in Louisville and it will be another test to see how the Bobcats look against non-conference teams as just four games remain in the regular season.
“It’s interesting stepping out of conference this late in the season,” Macmillan said. “But we have these weekends where we only had one game and we do with the rest of the season in terms of the MAC. So, picking up games this late in the season just helps.”
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