no. 13 louisville shuts out virginia tech

Patrick Campbell

October 19, 2020

BLACKSBURG — Louisville held on to beat Virginia Tech 1-0 at Thompson Field on Sunday afternoon. The Hokies outshot the Cardinals 18-5 and led in corner kicks 9-3 but couldn’t find the equalizer.

The Hokies took one more shot than their last outing, an 8-2 thrashing of Miami, but were unable to capture their momentum seized on Thursday evening to produce a goal. Though, to Tech’s credit, the offense fired away at Louisville’s goal immediately — attempting five shots before Louisville’s first.

Tech had a chance in the 17th minute on a through ball from midfielder Emily Gray that was just out of reach from forward Karlie Johnson and was quickly recovered by the Cardinal defense.

Virginia Tech head coach Chugger Adair made his usual substitutions in the 30th minute, subbing in forwards Molly Fieghan and Allyson Brown for Tori Powell and Johnson, respectively.

The move didn’t pan out, however.

Louisville had three corners on the day and the second one proved to be the game winner in the 32nd minute. Tech keeper Alia Skinner made the initial stop punching the ball out of the air, but it found the feet of midfielder Morgan Bentley who punched it home from 17 yards out.

Going into the half and already down a goal, Virginia Tech needed some sort of a spark. The attack struggled scoring at various points this season, after all. Coming out of the break, the Hokies came out with urgency. A quick strike from Powell 12 seconds into the half seemed to be the spark Tech needed.

But it wasn’t. Powell’s goal was quickly stopped and corralled by Louisville goalkeeper Gabby Kouzelos.

Tech took seven more shots at the goal — all either ending up in the arms of Kouzelos or off target.

Powell had the one last gasp for the Hokies in the 89th minute. Powell’s first touch bounced back to her off a Cardinal defender but her shot was stopped by a diving Kouzelos, as she preserved the shutout for Louisville. Alia Skinner finished with three saves on the night, moving her to 57 saves on the year, which is the second-most saves in the nation. Tech’s 18 shots were a season-high.

Virginia Tech (2-7-0, 2-4-0 ACC) will face Navy for the first time in program history on Saturday at 4 p.m. for the Hokies last home match of the season. Louisville (4-2-0, 4-2-0 ACC) will return home to face Notre Dame at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.