No. 11 'Cats Travel to Face Indiana and No. 8 Louisville

9/12/2018 2:49:00 PM | Field Hockey

2018 NORTHWESTERN FIELD HOCKEY
DATE	OPPONENT	TIME (CT)	LOCATION	WATCH	LIVE STATS
Friday, Sept. 14	Indiana	2 p.m.	Bloomington, Ind.	BTN2GO	StatBroadcast
Sunday, Sept. 16	No. 8 Lousiville	11 a.m.	Louisville, Ky.	ACC Network Extra	Sidearm
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EVANSTON, Ill. – No. 11 Northwestern opens conference play this weekend with a matchup at Indiana on Friday before traveling to No. 8 Louisville for a showdown on Sunday.

The Wildcats are 4-3 on the season, coming off a weekend in Evanston where they defeated Miami of Ohio 4-2, but fell to No. 24 Boston University 4-3 in overtime.

Senior Puck Pentenga leads the team with 16 points on six goals and four assists while scoring in each of the last four games. Junior Kirsten Mansfield leads the squad with seven assists and has three goals as well.

Junior Saar de Breij, sophomore Lakin Barry, and first year Maren Seidel each have two goals for the 'Cats. Senior Eva van Agt, sophomore Christen Conley and first year Kayla Blas all have tallied three assists so far this season.

The 'Cats have split time between goalkeepers Annie Kalfas and Florien Marcussen this season. Kalfas started and played the entire matches in wins against No. 15 Stanford, No. 13 Boston College and Miami. Marcussen earned her first collegiate win against Kent State after playing the second half, and also started against No. 3 Duke, making a career-high ten saves.

Northwestern leads the all-time series against Indiana 14-9. Last year the 'Cats defeated the Hoosiers 4-1 in Evanston, bolstered by goals from de Breij and junior Lily Gandhi.

The Wildcats face a familiar foe in Louisville, having matched up against the Cardinals twice last year, first in a 2-0 win in Evanston and then in a 3-2 overtime win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Ann Arbor, Mich. for the program's first tournament win since 1994.

Mansfield scored both goals in the first meeting between the two teams, and scored a 61st minute equalizer in the second game. Pentenga scored off a penalty corner two minutes into overtime for the walk-off win.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS

Indiana

The Hoosiers are 2-4 this season, taking down Ball State and Saint Francis. In their two ranked matchups, they fell to No. 8 Louisville, 2-1, and No. 20 Stanford, 4-1.

Sophomore forward Kelsey Giese leads the team with six points and is one of three two-goal scorers this season along with junior Claire Woods and freshman Bente Buwalda.

Indiana has split time between goalkeepers Shelby Querry and Sachi Ananias, but Querry has played about 75% of the minutes while keeping a 2.13 goals-against-average.

No. 8 Louisville

The Cardinals have posted a 4-2 record so far this season with a ranked win over No. 13 Delaware and losses to No. 1 North Carolina and No. 22 Ohio State.

Lousiville has used a balanced attack to start the season, with no player recording over four points and 14 different players registering at least a point. Sophomore Mercedes Pastor, and first years Katie Schneider and Erica Cooper each have two goals.

Senior Ayeisha McFerran has played every minute in goal this season, sporting a goals-against-average of .643 and a save percentage of .643.

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