Lax Completes Comeback; Softball Splits Friday -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Big Second Half Leads Cards to 14-9 Win

Louisville lacrosse welcomed Marquette into the LLS for the Cards' first home game of the season. Sitting at 0-2 after their road trip to Colorado, Louisville needed a shot in the arm to get their season on track. Despite trailing 5-4 after a low scoring first half, the Cards turned the offense up to 11 in the second to win the half 10-4 and take the game 14-9. 

With a final total score of 23, you might expect early scoring, but that wasn't the case yesterday. Louisville scored the first goal of the game with just five minutes remaining in the first quarter. Negai Nakazawa was the one to get things started, scoring her fourth goal of the season off an assist by Ava Peers. The Cards' lead held for about four minutes before Marquette leveled the game on a power play goal. Coincidentally, it was Negai that earned the yellow card to give the Eagles the advantage. 

That penalty was Louisville's only in the first half. They earned five in the second half, but ultimately were the less penalized team in the game by a wide margin. Marquette earned 11 cards, leading to three powerplay goals for Louisville. Louisville's offense was so in tune in the second half that the Cards actually scored a goal while on the penalty kill as well. 

Marquette scored the first two goals of the second quarter to put Louisville in a hole, but goals by Nicole Perroni and Kokoro Nakazawa tied the game with 8:37 remaining in the half. Two more goals in a row by the Eagles gave Louisville another deficit to overcome, but they were able to only claw back one on a power play to set the halftime score of 5-4. Perroni scored her second unassisted goal of the game with sixteen seconds remaining for that one. 

After the half, the game seemed as though it would go the same way as the first half. It took five minutes for either team to find the back of the net, and it was Marquette striking first in the second half to double their advantage. Kokoro scored a minute later to bring the deficit back down to one (unassisted) but Marquette responded once more. At that point, Louisville grew a bit tired of the back and forth game. The Cards scored the final three goals of the third quarter to take the lead for the first time since the opening goal, with Negai, Kokoro, and Perroni continuing their unassisted runs. The third quarter ended with Louisville taking an 8-7 lead.

The Cards weren't done. Their run continued with the first four goals of the final quarter. Perroni and Negai scored a couple more unassisted goals before Kokoro assisted a Kylea Dobson goal with eight minutes to go. Dobson's was the first goal of the game for Louisville that was not scored by Nicole Perroni or a Nakazawa sister. Izzy Seikel scored the last goal of the Cards' seven goal run with 5:44 remaining (assisted by Tiffany Natoli) to put Louisville ahead 12-7. It was mostly academic at that point. Marquette finally broke the Louisville run by scoring with five minutes left, and they scored the last goal of the game with 52 seconds remaining. Even though those two goals wouldn't have threatened Louisville's lead, the Cards decided to add a bit of insurance with a pair of power play goals to push their score to 14. Dobson and Natoli each scored and assisted the other on those two goals.

Louisville finished the game with five players scoring at least three points. Three players had hat tricks (the Nakazawa sisters and Nicole Perroni) and Perroni finished with four goals. She was 3/4 on free position shots and put all seven of her shots on frame. Dobson finished with two goals and an assist, while Natoli inverted those stats. Perroni's free position shots were critical in the game, as Louisville was 5/10 on their opportunities and Marquette was 0/5. The other stats were largely level. Each team finished with 12 draw controls, Louisville led in turnovers (11-15) and clears (11-10), and Marquette led in ground balls (15-12) and shots on goal (27-24).

Now is a good time to mention Sara Addeche. Addeche talked about how important this full year as the established goalie would be, and she's showing that she deserves the spot. She finished with 18 saves and nine goals against. Being positive in that category is quite good. Doubling up that category is incredibly impressive. Her counterpart for Marquette finished with 10 saves and 14 goals against, showing how important the goalkeeping can be even if the other team can put up more shots. Louisville's offense also did a good job of keeping the ball on the Marquette side of the field (the penalty situation helped), as the Cards took 37 total shots compared to just 35 for Marquette. While Louisville's goal percentage on shots on goal was good, it would be nice to see more of their shots be on frame. An accuracy of 65% isn't bad, but it could be better.

The Cards are back on the road today, as they'll take on Lindenwood tomorrow. Louisville defeated the Lions 14-7 almost exactly a year ago in the first ever meeting of the two programs. Lindenwood went on to finish the year 8-10 last season, with their final game being a 17-11 loss to Coastal Carolina in the ASUN tournament. The Lions are off to a hot start this season, with victories over San Diego State (20-6) and Radford (18-5). The Cards will look to display more offense than the Lions' previous opponents, and Addeche will likely be called on quite a bit again. Tomorrow's game is at 1PM and is available on ESPN+.

Postgame with Scott Teeter and Nicole Perroni

Softball Wins Early; Suffers First Loss Late

Louisville softball opened the Joan Joyce Classic on Thursday evening with a win over the hosting FAU Owls. They followed that win up with a mercy rule victory in six innings over Seton Hall yesterday morning to remain undefeated on the season at 8-0. Unfortunately, the loss column picked up a tick mark in their rematch against FAU last night, as the Cards took a 3-6 loss into the last day of the invitational today.

Cards Beat Seton Hall 12-4

Bailey Richardson reached on a two-out single for Louisville in the first inning and advanced to third when Riley Frizell singled to follow her. Gabby Holloway, batting fifth in the lineup and trying to do her best Taylor Roby impression, unfortunately struck out to end the inning. Sam Booe took the circle in this one and began her efficient (but short) outing. Two groundouts and a strikeout moved things along quickly. 

After a groundout opened the second for the Cards, the offense began to get to work. Vanessa Miller walked and came around to score on an Ally Alexander double down the line. Chelsea Mack singled to bring Alexander home, and Kylie Goff (leading off in the first game) moved Mack up 60 feet on a ground ball. Daisy Hess hit a ball deep into the shortstop's zone, and was credited with a single. She and Mack both got 60 more feet when the shortstop subsequently botched the late throw to first and Louisville's lead moved to 3-0. Another groundout (neither team got the ball off the grass much early) ended the Cards' second. Booe opened the second with another strikeout before a pair of singles gave the Pirates a runner in scoring position. You guessed it, though: back-to-back groundouts ended the inning.

The third saw Louisville go three-up, three-down in the top half and Jac Hasty replace Kylie Goff behind the plate. Seton Hall managed to keep the ball off the ground in the bottom half, with the exception of their only hit being a single through the middle of the infield. Unfortunately for them, their other batters hit liners to second and first and then flew out to end the inning. The fourth was another exciting inning, with six batters stepping to the plate, and six batters heading back to the dugout. Booe picked up her third and fourth strikeouts in the bottom half of the inning.

With Hasty replacing Goff, she stepped up to the plate in the leadoff spot of the fifth. She then walked back to the dugout with her bat on her shoulder, striking out looking. Hess followed her with a strikeout swinging, but Louisville's offense rallied with two outs. Richardson walked and an error on a Frizell grounder put runners at first and second. Mia Forsythe replaced Frizell on the basepaths and Maddi Grant replaced Holloway at the plate. Only one of those substitutions turned out to be necessary, as Grant smoked a triple to score both runners and move the Louisville lead to 5-0.

Lindsey Mullen replaced Sam Booe in the circle, which turned out to be the wrong call. Seton Hall opened with a double and a single to score their first run. The description is a bit odd, with an error being charged to Hasty and the run scoring on the throw from left field. The hitter also advanced to third on the throw so whatever happened was rather unfortunate. A pop-up gave Mullen her first out, but a single scored a second run, and a double scored a third. Booe and Goff returned as the battery, but the rest threw Booe off, as a wild pitch advanced the runner and a single scored the fourth run for Seton Hall. The fourth run was still charged to Mullen giving her four runs (three earned) in one-third inning pitched. Booe cleaned up the inning to finish her day with 4.2 innings and no runs while giving up four hits and striking out four. She finished with the win, as Louisville still led 5-4.

Louisville's offense responded in a big way to open the sixth. Miller was hit by a pitch to open the inning and stole second. Alexander walked to backfill the base and Madison "Pickle" Winkler had a pinch-hit bunt single to load the bases. Kylie Goff grounded into what should have been an out, but instead reached on a fielder's choice that was too slow by Seton Hall. The Pirates got no outs and Miller came home to score. Daisy Hess singled through the middle, scoring two runs and advancing to second when the centerfielder booted it. Seton Hall made a pitching change, and the Richardson walked on the green pitcher. A sac fly by Frizell gave the Cards a 9-4 lead and Richardson stole second to keep two runners in scoring position. Grant struck out to give Louisville a pair of outs, but Paige Geraghty singled to score a pair. Vanessa Miller, back up after the Cards batted around, singled to score Geraghty and Alexander kept the party going with another single. Winkler tried to score one more for the Cards but her liner was right to the pitcher. Louisville headed to the bottom half with a 12-4 lead, which would be the final. 

Izzy Harrison took over in the circle and closed out the game. A fly out opened the inning, but a walk and single made things interesting. With eight runs in hand, there wasn't much danger. A fielder's choice put the Cards in position to win it with one more out, and Harrison took care of business with a strikeout. 

FAU Gets Revenge 6-3

Following the first game, Louisville was the away team in the evening matchup as well. They got to work early on offense with a Goff single and a Hess double to take a 1-0 lead. Hess was picked off at second, which was unfortunate, since Frizell homered to give Louisville a 2-0 advantage. The third run would have proved to have been useful. A flyout and a single followed, but a batter's interference call ended the inning. Alyssa Zabala started for Louisville and got off to a bumpy start. A bunt single opened the inning and a two-run homer tied the score. Two more fly balls were fortunately caught for outs, and Zabala settled in to close the inning with a strikeout. 

Louisville tried to get back up to speed offensively in the second with two singles split by an error to load the bases with nobody out. Goff reached first, but it came at the expense of an out at home. Hess was able to score one on a single, but a grounder ended the side with Louisville holding a 3-2 lead. Zabala seemed to be back in the swing of things with a groundout and lineout split by a single to open the inning. Unfortunately, a triple tied the game and a walk ended Zabala's day. Brooke Gray took over in the circle, but for the second time yesterday, a cold pitcher gave up a wild pitch. Gray's gave up Zabala's fourth run of the game, and she finished the at bat with a walk. Gray collected herself and got a flyout to end the inning. FAU led 4-3, and Louisville would not recover. 

The next two innings saw a combined three runners reach base. Louisville picked up a single and FAU earned a walk and single. Technically FAU singled twice in that time, but the runner was thrown out after the single to end the third inning. Louisville opened the fifth with a single and had two runners on after a walk, but a flyout and a groundout ended their threat. Gray was relieved by Sam Booe in the bottom of the fifth, but opened with an HBP. She was able to clean it up, weathering a later single to get out of the inning with no runs.

Louisville put a runner on to open the sixth and tried small ball to tie the game. Unfortunately, a sac bunt with one out gives you a runner on second with two outs. A pop out ended the inning. FAU started the sixth with a single and Booe picked up two quick outs, with the runner advancing to second. Holly Aprile tried to ensure the out to maintain the one-run deficit by bringing in Gabby Holloway to pitch, but it didn't quite turn out. A single scored the runner from second and a walk and single scored another. Down 6-3 with one inning to go, Louisville had the top of the order up, but a strikeout and groundout opened the inning. Richardson tried to start a two-out rally with a single but a popup ended the game. 

Louisville was back in action early this morning, taking an 8-0 win over Maine in a 9am start. They're taking on Michigan in a second morning matchup immediately after to close the invitational. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We'll have four on line for this week's show, as Daryl fights off a late-winter bug. We'll talk the up(?) and down week for Louisville women's basketball and the wins for the spring sports.  As always, you can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

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Until next time, Go Cards!

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