Tuesday Cardinal Couple -- Lacrosse has tossed a excellent season so far.

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

Lacrosse Continues to Climb

...in the national rankings.  The progress is slow and steady, but gains continue to be made.

With the regular season and conference tournaments completed, there isn't much time for the Cards to continue the program-best progression up the rankings, but tournament appearances do have a tendency to make radical changes in the season ending polls.

In both of the major polls, the Cards climbed a spot this week to number 16, while the RPI has the Cards moving up to the 23rd spot.

I say it a lot, but this is an amazing accomplishment for a program that has only been competing for seven years here at UofL.  Part of this rise has to be attributed to...

Faye Brust

...who has picked up another honor - this time, the WomensLax.com Player of the Week.  This is on
the strength of her two goals against Rutgers in The BigEast Semifinal game and her amazing six goals in the tournament championship against Georgetown.

This impressive tally brings the BigEast Tournament Most Outstanding Player into a tie with Nikki Boltja for goals in the season at 67.  The pair take that tie into third place for goals nationally, and second place for goals per game.

Based on the success of those two, let's take a look at...

Some Other Stats

...where Nikki Boltja has more assists than Faye Brust and so has found her way into fourth place for points and points per game nationally (points are counted as goals plus assists).  Meanwhile Kaylin Morissette continues to dominate the center and holds second place in the draw controls per game stat.

As a team, Louisville ranks fifth nationally in scoring offense and tops the list in the draw controls.


The Louisville Lacrosse team will play in first round NCAA Tournament action on Friday, May 9th. against Ohio State in Evanston, IL. Game time is 8 p.m. Louisville (15-3, 7-0). The teams faced each other on March 4th in Columbus...Ohio State taking a 12-11 win. The Buckeyes scored five consecutive goals in the second half to take a three goal lead over Louisville but the Cards scored the final two goals of the game to make it a one-point win for OSU.

Louisville's defense looks to be playing considerably better than they were in March and with the scoring prowess of Brust, Morissette, Boltja and Cortnee Daley...we see the Cards getting the win and moving on to face Northwestern on May 11th.

The 26 team bracket can be viewed at:

http://www.ncaa.com/interactive-bracket/lacrosse-women/d1/2013

jeffmca