That said, she couldn't help but be proud of her Central Michigan lacrosse team on Friday after it dropped an 11-8 nonconference decision to 19th-ranked Louisville at the CMU Soccer/Lacrosse Complex. "I am way too competitive to tell you that I'll ever be OK with a loss, but this game showed that this team is capable of taking on most teams in the country and coming out with a win," Tisdale said. "We'll hang our hat on this game and say that this is the style of play that we need to have, and this is the intensity and the preparation that we need to have. I'm very proud of them." The Cardinals (3-2) scored the final three goals of the game to break an 8-8 tie. Louisville seized a 3-1 lead with under 14 minutes to play in the first half, but the Chippewas scored twice to tie it. From there, the teams were never separated by more than one goal until the Cardinals scored three unanswered goals in the final 4:20. "Louisville's a very good program, they made adjustments and we recognized them, but unfortunately we were not able to execute our counterpunch," said Tisdale, whose team was coming off a 17-4 Mid-American Conference win over Detroit Mercy on Sunday. "I think we did a really nice job of preparation. We had a quick turnaround to get ready for a big-time opponent like this. "The fact that you can play consistently game to game to game and get better as the opponents are getting better heading (back) into conference play is encouraging." Natalie Karlen had four goals and Tyra Prince added two for the Chippewas, who stayed right with the Cardinals despite a 38-20 disadvantage in shots and a 28-14 deficit in shots on goal. CMU goalkeeper Sierra Savage, a freshman, made a career-best 17 saves in just her sixth game in a Chippewa uniform. "Give a lot of credit to Sierra Savage," Tisdale said. "She came out and probably had the best game of her career so far. "Defenders who made big plays in the draw was huge. We only won (the draw total) 11-10, but we did very well there. We use the term, understanding the urgency of the moment – what the moment means. We did that well sometimes but just not enough." Karlen, a senior from Hagerstown, Md., also had an assist to bring her season point total to a team-leading 23 and her career total to 184. She is tied with Jocelyne Lemay for the top spot on CMU's career point list. "One thing I saw that Natalie did well this week is she did a lot of teaching," Tisdale said. "Louisville plays a pressure zone and she really did a nice job this week of stepping outside of maybe what her natural comfort zone is and really taking players under her wing. "She's evolved so much as a player throughout her career and watching her grow has been really special. I know that she'll overtake Jocelyn in that points category; those two players really helped put this program on the map." The Chippewas plays host to Cincinnati in a nonconference game on Sunday (noon).