Cards Take Care of Business -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WSOC Wins 3-0 on Senior Night

Although it wasn't the last home game of the women's soccer season, Louisville honored their seniors before their game against Pittsburgh. The Panthers came into town winless in the conference with only a 3-8-3 record overall. This was one of the games I picked as a definite win for Louisville in the preseason, and they did not disappoint. The Cards jumped out ahead early, taking the lead in the first three minutes of the game with a Brooklynn Rivers goal. Rivers would get another point later in the game as she assisted Gabi Vincent's goal in the second half. Rivers' goal wasn't the end of the early start for Louisville, though, as Taylor Kerwin extended the lead with a goal in the eleventh minute. It was Kerwin's first goal of the season, and she looks to be a key member of this Louisville team going forward.

Louisville was in charge for the entire game, putting up 14 shots to Pitt's 2. Although the Cards were only able to parlay all of those opportunities into 4 shots on goal, it was the continued pressure that allowed Louisville to put a stranglehold on the game. In addition to the extreme shot advantage, Louisville also had a 9-2 corner advantage, and I would venture to say the possession difference was similar. 

It was a good night of celebration for the seniors, with the team getting a convincing win, a large
crowd there in support for the double header, and all four active seniors were able to see the field at the same time. The Cards still have 3 games left in the regular season and there is still a chance to finish at or above .500 in the conference. In fact, last night's game ensured that Louisville cannot finish worse than .500 overall. The Cards will host Wake Forest next Thursday before heading to North Carolina to face UNC and NC State in the final week of the season. I'm hoping to see some postseason action from the Cards but it has definitely been an improvement on last season for this team. We'll see how they can finish out the year.

PAULIE INTERVIEW WITH INGER KATRINE BJERKE

(Watch for Kim Pemberton's Style and Fashion show runway appearance at the start!)

HEAD WOMEN'S SOCCER COACH KAREN FERGUSON DAYES DISCUSSES THE WIN

( Kim makes a brief cameo appearance...)

THE UNCUT VERSION OF THE INTERVIEWS

(River City Cards got this uncut version of the Bjerke blooper and no Kim parade)

Volleyball Also Wins 3-0

Cardinal Arena also played host to a winless conference team as Clemson came to town with a 5-13 overall record. Louisville made short work of the visitors, not allowing the Tigers to score more than 16 points in any game of the sweep. The win pushes Louisville to 12-5, matching their win total from last season. It was an unusual off night for the Cards statistical MVP as Melanie McHenry had only 6 kills and hit .063 on the night. She did finish the night with 7 digs to pad her stat sheet, but it was definitely not what we've come to expect from McHenry. Fortunately, the rest of the team was up to the task with a very balanced effort. While the Cards did their job as a balanced team, it was quite clear that Clemson is not very good. The Tigers best hitting game of the night was only 0.095 with the other two being 0.000 and -0.042. 

This is mentioned on the radio show, but Coach Dani Busboom Kelly has done great work with this team in her first season at the helm. Louisville has plenty of time to make even more of a splash in the conference. The Cards will get plenty of chances to prove if they've truly turned a corner as they have a lot of rematches on the schedule. Louisville gets its first shot at beating last year's win total when they take on Georgia Tech tomorrow in Cardinal Arena. The match is at 3:00 PM, and if you're looking to make it out, be sure to plan for IronMan traffic.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

As Jeff mentioned yesterday, the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour was recorded Thursday night due to
some scheduling conflicts. Jared, JC Sullivan, and I had a good time down in the studio having casual conversations about Louisville women's sports and trying a bit too hard to pretend we were doing a live show. Paulie chimes in with a few prerecorded segments and it's all in all a pretty good show. Tune in at 11AM to 100.9 WCHQ FM or at crescenthillradio.com or using the WCHQ app. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-