Saturday, August 11, 2018

The Season Opening -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Women's Soccer Takes on Morehead State in Exhibition





Tonight will mark the first event of the fall sports season for UofL as the women's soccer team kicks off against Morehead State in an exhibition game at Lynn Stadium. Tonight will be the first time that Karen Ferguson-Dayes' team plays in an organized game together since their last spring exhibition against Northern Kentucky in mid-April. The roster for tonight's game will look a bit different than that one, with freshmen having been added and Mollie Rouse still in France with the English National Team. Tonight's game will be the only tune-up for the Cards, as the season will get underway on Thursday at 7:30 against Wright State, a team which Louisville did not take on last season.

We've talked a bit about this women's soccer team multiple times on the site, so I'll save you another season preview today. Jared did write a pretty nice preview piece for River City Cards yesterday, though, that you may be interested in checking out. Despite our differences in opinion on the potential of this year's team, I think we would agree that the Cards should not have much trouble with Morehead State today. Coach KFD will look to test out her new defensive leaders and see what lineups work now that some of the key players that missed time last year are back and ready to contribute. Though the team is without Rouse, who figures to be an important player in the midfield, they should be able to see how the formation will stack up against future opponents.

Morehead State will come into tonight already warm. The Eagles took on the Thundering Herd of Marshall on Thursday and chased the stampede straight off of a cliff. MSU won that game 5-0 in Huntington. Louisville will need to watch out for freshman, Abby VanHoeve, who scored two goals in the rout. MSU also deployed two goalkeepers, both obviously holding Marshall to a shut out in their respective halves. If MSU's offense is truly as good as they looked against Marshall, it will be a great night to test the new look Louisville defense.

If the Eagles are to be as good as they looked against Marshall, it would be a massive turnaround from last season. Morehead State finished 2017 in second to last in the Ohio Valley Conference with a 2-7-1 conference record and an abysmal 3-13-1 overall record. Earlier this week, the Eagles were again picked to finish second to last in the conference, ahead of only Eastern Illinois, the team that finished in the bottom spot last season. All that said, there is room for improvement for Morehead State, though, as they graduated only one senior last season and added seven freshmen this year.

We'll know much more about this Louisville team and how they might stack up for the rest of the season after tonight's game. The match gets underway at 6PM at Lynn Stadium. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour


As we are nearly every Saturday, we're back in the studio today to take on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. The season is nearly upon us and we can just about declare the summer slump over. We'll see if we have one more quiz to wrap up the year before there is more to talk about next week or if Jeff will finish this quiz season as the defending champ. Tune into WCHQ FM at 11AM using any way you can imagine to listen to the station. We're also streaming on Facebook Live if you feel you need to see if we look as ridiculous as we sound (the answer is usually yes).


Until next time, Go Cards!
-CH-

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