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Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Louisville Field Hockey --- IT'S AROUND THE CORNER ! Wednesday CARDINAL COUPLE


LOUISVILLE FIELD HOCKEY -- CAN THE UPSETS CONTINUE?


It was the intention to get down on campus this week and grab a Cardinal Couple preview of Louisville Field Hockey. 

Coach Sowry is on vacation, though. Well deserved, no doubt. She's been busy with summer camps and preparing for the 2015 season. Still about a month before the season. We can wait. We're hearing rumors of a combined preview with FH and WSOC on the same day in mid-August.

So...where would one hold this and who gets to go first? 

We'll offer today an unofficial prognostication on UofL Field Hockey. Subject to correction when I get in to talk to Coach....of course. 

First off, the upsets over Duke and UNC happened here last year. Significantly tougher to do that on their turf in 2015. 

The good news is that there will be 10 home games at Trager this year. Based on a preview of the schedule and Louisville's incredible win percentage at Trager over the last three years  (35 wins in 39 games for 90%)...these could end up 10-0 or 9-1....depending on how well they handle Virginia...who beat them in Charlottesville last year.

Add in a couple of road wins...maybe a sweep in California against
Cal and UC Davis (hint...West Coast Field Hockey hasn't caught up with East Coast yet)...and this could be a 13-14 win team entering the tough-as-nails ACC Tournament.


There are key scorers and defenders back from 2014...and a few names missing. A 2015 roster review shows the DuFour sisters missing.  We'll let Coach go into that when we catch up with her. 

What is impressive is that Chili Garcia, Shannon Sloss, Lotta Kahlert, Nicole Woods and Stephanie Byrne all return to provide Louisville a potent scoring attack. 

The defense returns starters Vic Stratton and Gianna Perrone but goalie Sydney King is graduated...leaving backup Elina Pereira as the only listed "keeper in the net." Only four defensive backs are listed and one is a freshman. 

At first glance, a roster of 18...compared to 24 from last year. 

Another NCAA run? We think so. Success on the road against UNC and Duke? Hopeful. 


Rare photo of a blonde
Justine Sowry
Playing in the "best by far" conference for D1 field hockey and already with the reputation of being a giant-killer...Justine Sowry is in the enviable and potential "mad scientist" role Jeff Walz enjoyed a couple of years ago. 

How well she mixes the test-tubes and applies the experiments remains to be seen... 

I think she'll produce a monster...Tobacco Road should be scared.

paulie
xxxxx

3 comments:

  1. 90% is impressive. How does that compare with other sports -- like volleyball, WBB, lacrosse, etc -- over the past 3 years.

    -- The Real Joe Hill --

    ReplyDelete
  2. looking at FH schedule i don't see any more that 12 wins going into the ACC Tournament.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LAX lost only one in 2013 and none in 2014 at home but they were 5-3 at home in 2015. The win % is 19-4 over three years. About 83% Being in the ACC now is going to drop those high win ratios at home in all of UofL sports.

    ReplyDelete

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