Monday Cardinal Couple - Women's Soccer falls to Illinois

MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-CARDS FALL IN OVERTIME TO ILLINI
    
     -Paulie's report
     -Jeff McAdams report


-JEFF'S VOLLEYBALL COLUMN


Despite a late goal that tied the contest with 91 seconds remaining, Louisville falls to Illinois 5-4 in overtime at Cardinal Park Sunday afternoon.

Coach Dayes on the loss:

"Anytime you give up five goals it's a difficult day for sure," said head coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes. "I thought we did well to get ourselves in a leading position but didn't do very well to hang on to the lead with some careless mistakes that allowed them to score some very good goals. No disrespect to Illinois, I thought finished some great shots, I just think we could have been a step earlier or we could have slid. Just some extra effort would have really been the difference today. It's kind of a difficult game to swallow because I thought it was a game we could have gotten and we let it slip away. Now we have got to refocus and go on the road against two very good ACC teams next weekend."


Louisville trailed 1-0 before Erin Yenney set up Casey Whitfield to tie the game 14 minutes into the contest. The Cards got another score when Charlyn Corral rebounded a missed Kari Weinland shot and found net 11 minutes later. That 2-1 Louisville lead carried the Cards into halftime.

It took Illinois only four minutes to tie it in the second half. The Cards responded less than a minute later...Corral picking up her second score of the game on a penalty kick.

Illinois battled back. Goals by the Illini four minutes later and then at the 60 minute mark gave them a 4-3 lead which lead until Rachel Melhado bombed a 30 yarder that bounced off the top crossbar and landed in front of Christine Exeter...who guided it in to tie it.

Corral narrowly missed the potential game winner a minute into overtime with a shot that just barely went wide. Two minutes later, Megan Johnston got loose on a breakaway and scored the game ender past Louisville freshman goalie Paige Brown.

The Cards outshot Illinois (1-1) 18-17 in the contest and Brown had four saves. Illini goalie Claire Wheatley had seven for the visitors.

Louisville returns to action Friday when they face Virginia Tech in the Wake Forest Invitational.

-Paulie

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JEFF MCADAMS files this report on the contest also and has his observations below from Saturday's Volleyball Red/Black match:

-Soccer In Action
 

The Women's Soccer team took on a good Illinois team yesterday afternoon on a sunny and warm day at Cardinal Park. There were several swings in momentum as Illinois mostly controlled the first 14 minutes or so, culminating in their first score in the 13th minute. After that, UofL played good possession ball for the rest of the first half. Gathering goals with the 15th (Casey Whitfield) and 26th (Charlyn Corral) minutes, the Cardinals went into the locker room with a 2-1 lead. A look at the other stats showed a very tight game at halftime, with Louisville maintaining a slim lead on shots taken at 9-8, Illinois with a slim lead on corners at 2-1, and both goalkeepers having made 4 stops.

The momentum swung back Illinois' way in the second half, and it seemed that Louisville was having a difficult time getting the ball out of threatening territory and and back downfield. When the soccer ball spends that much time in, or just outside of your box, the opposing team is eventually going to start getting some shots in. Illinois chalked one up in the 51st minute, though Charlyn Corral was able to capitalize on a penalty kick from hand call in Illinois' box to get the Cards back on top at 3-2. The momentum really stayed with Illinois, though, and they continued to press the ball down into territory threatening scores on the Cards and capitalized on that with scores in the 56th and 61st minutes to take their first lead.

With only a minute and a half left to play, Christine Exeter was able to gather a rebound off the bar and find the back of a net to tie it up for the end of regulation.

Still, the momentum really stayed with Illinois, though. They ended it in the fourth minute of overtime period and took home the 5-4 victory.

Karen Ferguson-Dayes squad takes to the road with a trip to North Carolina to take on future ACC conference foes Virginia Tech and Wake Forest next weekend. They come back closer to home the next weekend with games in Lexington, KY and Oxford, OH against Kentucky and Miami (Ohio).

The next chance to see them at home will be Sept. 13th against Morehead State, and the 15th against Texas-San Antonio.

-Volleyball Analysis

 

Paulie wrote up the coverage yesterday of the Alumnae/Red-Black scrimmage from Volleyball, but I wanted to share some of my observations from the day.

• Alex Wilharm is good. Alas, he's not eligible to play. The assistant coach did play in the scrimmage for his team as a player/coach. The roster from his college playing days has him listed at 6'2", but he is very athletic and provides a very good foil for our players to deal with very hard hit attacks and big blocks.
• Speaking of staff...Sarah Drury Petkovic didn't play, but she has definitely gotten back in shape after giving birth to her second child and looks like she could get out there and play with the best of them.
• Keeping score at this event is mostly pointless as players switch back and forth between the two teams depending on the what lineups the coaches want to most work with.
• The new black uniforms look really sharp. I'm looking forward to seeing the white and red variants.
• Emily Juhl is back. Her jump serve is a thing of beauty. Her front row attack (right side) is also really impressive. Thanks in part to...
• Hannah Kvitle and Katie George are spreading the ball around very well, including their back sets to Emily, and they are really on target this year.
• Randi Ewing and Janelle Jenkins really do jump as well as Coach Kordes has told us. Really, though, about the only hitter we have that can't put a lot of room between their sneaks and the ground is Carly Sahagian thanks to some ongoing knee issues.
• Even Brooke Mattingly looks like she's getting some extra space under her soles, and she's not exactly known for her jumping ability, though with an extra 2 inches in height on everyone else on the team, she's still making herself a very strong presence at the net.
• 2013 Haley Pouliezos is definitely quicker than the 2012 model. She ran down a second hit at the far back corner almost off of the Sport Court and put it solidly back in play. 2012 Haley never would've gotten to that shot.
• I don't want to play against Javoni Faucette...in any sport. She is a great athlete, and I suspect she's probably good at any sport she attempts.
• Brooke Betts is wearing a knee brace while she's still recovering from her ACL surgery but she does look like she's moving well and isn't really hindered by it much, or at all. Its a little hard for me to say since I don't what what 100% looks like for her having not seen her play before.
• What year is Hannah Kvitle? The roster on the website lists her as a senior, but she introduced herself as a junior. She played a year at SLU, sat out for a transfer year and played for us last year. That means she should have another year of eligibility after playing this year. I think the roster is listing academic years, with Brooke Mattingly and Randi Ewing listed as "GS" for Graduate Student, but then they have Janelle Jenkins as "RS FR" for Red-Shirt FreshMan.

Volleyball starts their season Friday with a match against Syracuse at Penn State. Remember that Syracuse, for this year only, is not a conference foe. They go on to play #2 ranked Penn State Saturday evening.

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