Friday Cardinal Couple --Field Hockey faces challenges in ACC

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FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Cards Field Hockey goes to premier conference.

- Hoopin it up!

With Louisville's entry into the ACC down the road, we've been giving reports over the past few days on what the Cardinal Women's athletic team will face there.

Louisville's field hockey team faces...without a doubt...the biggest challenges and upgrade of any of the Cardinal sports squads. Men or women. Consider these facts:

-- Since 2000, the ACC has had a representative in the championship game every year.

-- Since 2000, the ACC has won 10 national championships in field hockey. Maryland (who is leaving) has five, Wake Forest three and UNC two.

-- Since 2000, two ACC teams have played against each other for the national championship eight times in the final game.

Impressive (and quite scary) huh? In 2012, Princeton broke the ACC's 10 year hold on the national title by defeating UNC.

There are only six ACC schools that play field hockey. UNC, Wake Forest, Duke, Virginia, Boston College and Maryland. The conference adds Syracuse ( a perrenial powerhouse in BIG EAST Field Hockey) next year and then Louisville...to increase it to a seven team league. Pittsburgh does not field a team (surprising, when you consider what rabid regular hockey fans the Pittsburghian natives are). Neither does Notre Dame.

Louisville's Trager Stadium is familiar ground to ACC field hockey teams. The Final Four has been held here in 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2011. Each year an ACC school won and the last three title games in Louisville were an all-ACC final.

Louisville beat Wake Forest last year in field hockey. In Winston-Salem. The Demon Deacons finished fifth out of sixth in the league (1-4) and 9-11 overall.

Justine Sowry has her work cut out for her to increase the Cardinals talent and players to meet the level of competition. And, for added fuel on a already bright flame...former UofL field hockey coach Pam Bustin is the skipper at Duke.

Going to the elite conference should definitely help Sowry in recruiting. Hopefully, the Cards will hit the ground running in 2014 and have a great opening year. With Syracuse gone in 2013, the main competition left for Louisville grabbing a championship titile in the BIG EAST is UConn and Providence. ODU (Old Dominion) joins BIG EAST Field Hockey in 2013.  

Welcome to the big time, Cardinal Field Hockey!

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Whoa! Don't look now but the women's basketball regular season is close to being 1/3rds. over. At 8-1, the Cards are flying high....but just who is doing what?

Put your books and notes under your desk...it's time for a CARDINAL WBB Pop Quiz!

All answers come from the Louisville Cardinal WBB Official Stat Sheets, found at GoCards.com (except for the ones that Timmy the Intern tried to submit and were eventually shredded. He claims he got all ten questions correct...but had every answer circled on each question...)

1) Who leads the Cards in scoring average so far?

a) Monique Reid
b) Shoni Schimmel
c) Sara Hammond
d) Morgan Fairchild

2) Who has the most rebounds for UofL so far?

a) Patrice Gates
b) Shawnta Dyer
c) Monique Reid
d) Sara Hammond

3) Which of the following opponents has not played UofL yet?

a) Austin Peay
b) UT-Martin
c) Washington State
d) Oregon State

4) Which Lady Card has the highest shooting % so far?

a) Sherrone Vails
b) Monique Reid
c) Shelby Harper
d) Lola Arslanbekova

5) What is Louisville's record in the KFC YUM! Center so far.

a) 3-0
b) 3-1
c) 4-1
d) 0-9

6) Who led Louisville in scoring against Texas A&M?

a) Jude Schimmel
b) Sara Hammond
c) Sara Silverman
d) Monique Reid

7)  What is Louisville's home attendance average?

a) 759
b) 11178
c) 10178
d) 8998

8) Which Cardinal has the highest 3-point shooting %

a) Shoni Schimmel
b) Nita Slaughter
c) Starr Breedlove
d) Shelby Harper

9) Monique Reid has led the team in game scoring...

a) Once
b) Twice
c)  All nine games
d) Zero

10) Which combo has been the primary starting lineup?

a) Taylor, Deinies, Harper, Shoni and Rucker
b) Dyer, Hammond, Vails, Reid and Shoni
c) Smith, Deines, Shoni, Hammond and Dyer
d) Slaughter, Smith, Shoni, Sherrone and Shelby


Let's see how you did!

1) b. "Shake 'Em is at 13.2 ppg.a game
2) d. "The Hammer" has 70... good for 7.8 rebs.a game
3) c. Cards play Washington State on Dec. 18th.
4) a. Sherrone Vails is 14-21 which is 66.7%
5) b. Cards are 3-1 in The Bucket.
6) b. Sara Hammond had 20 pts. against A&M
7) c. 10178. We need to bump that up, fans!
8) a. Shoni at .355
9) a. Mo had a team high 14 against Austin Peay.
10) c. Smith, Denies, Shoni, Dyer and Hammond


Legend

All 10 -- Go grab your seat next to Coach Sam and Cam! You're up on things!
8-9 -- Very good! You know your Louisville WBB! WE salute you!
6-7 -- Not bad. Keep reading Cardinal Couple and you'll get that score up next quiz.
4-5 -- Could be better. Cardinal Couple's coverage of UofL Women's basketball will help you do better!
2-3 -- Welcome to Cardinal Couple. Keep coming back and watch that score zoom next time.
0-1 -- Obviously a UK or UT fan. Thanks for playing!

Just a reminder, the Lady Cards are back in action Saturday night against Valpariso at 7:30 p.m. in the KFC YUM! Center. Be there!

WE'LL have a preview of the contest in the Saturday edition of CARDINAL COUPLE and a full recap of the action after the game.
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