Soccer Roster Takes Shape -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Return 14 from Last Season

Louisville women's soccer fans will have their work cut out for them this season when it comes to learning new faces and names. That's because the roster of 27 players includes just 14 returners from last season and sports 13 newcomers. The Cards are looking to recover after a string of tough years, and they've turned to the transfer portal in addition to the recruiting class to make that happen. Like softball last season, there were some surprising departures by players that were expected to be key contributors going forward. Louisville will have their work cut out for them to get on the same page, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Today is about starting that familiarization process. 

Departures

It wouldn't be fair to roll right into the new roster without covering who we lost. The roster was 26 last year, so that means an even dozen players won't don the red and black be Cardinals play for Louisville this year. Addie Chester, Louisville's top points earner last season, will continue her career at Ball State, indicating that it probably wasn't the aesthetic of UofL that she wasn't vibing with. 

In addition to Chester, Louisville looks to replace all but four players that tallied a goal or an assist for the squad last season. Emma Hiscock, Ravin Alexander, Lucy Roberts, Savina Zamborini, and Autumn Weeks all graduated. Fiona Gaiꞵer has returned to Europe to pursue her professional career, and Hayley Howard joined Chester in choosing to transfer. Like Chester (Muncie, IN), Howard (Brentwood, TN) returned closer to home(ish) by opting to play for the Tennessee Volunteers. 

Howard (1372) tallied the most minutes of any Cardinal not named Erynn Floyd (1575), and Chester (1152) was eclipsed by only Karsyn Cherry (1334) and Betsy Huckaby (1297). Seeing only a few minutes and joining the departures list were a pair of transfer goalkeepers. After being named as the best club goalkeeper in Quebec in 2018, Alyssa Zalac will move on to her 3rd school having not played any competitive minutes since 2019. After Vanier College's 2020 season was canceled due to Covid, Zalac redshirted at Ole Miss before transferring to Louisville and sitting for two seasons. Malene Nielsen decided that her year of backing up Floyd, which saw her earn just one half of play time, was not in her best interest and left Louisville after one season. 

Louisville also graduated Morgan Bentley and Maddy Ellsworth. Ellsworth was a transfer from Oregon State who started at right back and played 1031 minutes. Bentley was a four-year Cardinal who started in 11/12 games as a freshman before seeing her minutes decline. She played 336 minutes over 14 games last year with one start. 

Returners

While there are a lot of losses, especially on offense, Louisville does return 40% of their minutes from last season. That said, if goalkeeper minutes are excluded, that number falls to 33%. They bring back 64 field-player starts out of a possible 180. A fair amount of turnover was inevitable; Louisville was not a young team last year. They bring back just three sophomores from last year's team (there are six on the roster, but we'll get to the others later). I've mentioned Betsy Huckaby as a major contributor, and she's joined by Molly Cochran and Viktoria Wik. 

The rising junior class is large. Headlined by Floyd and Cherry, the class includes Mackenzie Geigle, Maya Maxwell, Lizzie Sexton, Hadley Snyder, Emma Kate Schroll, and Emersen Jennings. The Cards return just three players set to graduate this season: Amber Jackson, Ava Nielsen, and Brooke Dardano. 

The Transfers

Joining those last three on Senior Day will be just one senior transfer, Jolie St. Louis. JSL comes to the Cards from UAB after spending one season with the Blazers. Hailing from Atlanta, the forward started her career at Seattle. (Let me chime in here to say that the roster and player pages no longer include positions. I have no idea why. It's irritating, but we endeavor ever onward.) St. Louis also represented Trinidad and Tobago at the 2022 World Cup Qualifiers, playing in three matches and starting one. She led UAB in goals and points last year, scoring five goals in 748 minutes over 13 games. She played in 23 matches over two seasons at Seattle. 

Replacing the outgoing goalkeepers is Kailey Kimball. Kimball is a junior from Danville, California who played two seasons at Purdue. Kimball saw 810 minutes over 10 games as a freshman but struggled to find her footing. She allowed 21 goals over those games, giving up a score in all but one appearance (45 minutes in what was ultimately a 3-0 loss to Northwestern). Seemingly losing the position battle, Kimball played in three games in 2023, allowing one goal in 144 minutes (ironically, against Northwestern). She had a complete game clean sheet on the road at Maryland that finished in a 0-0 tie. 

The other three transfers are all sophomores. Berkley Patterson is a midfielder from Austin, Texas who comes to Louisville from Texas Tech. She played 148 minutes over six games and had two shots. She earned just five minutes in conference play, coming on in a 3-0 win over Cincinnati. While Patterson seems to be leaving home, the other two sophomore transfers went to school far from their hometowns and will stay rather far from them.

Gianna Angelillo is fairly familiar with Louisville, having played 37 minutes against them last season. The midfielder from Glastonbury, Connecticut started her career at Miami. She played 432 minutes over 11 games, earning three starts. She scored one goal on five shots, netting the game-winner against Syracuse. 

Ella Kane is also probably familiar with Louisville, although the Cards and Cats didn't play last season. Kane, from Macomb, Michigan, played 13 games for UK last year, primarily in reserve situations. Kane had 197 minutes and scored her only goal in her longest outing: 33 minutes against Belmont. If you exclude games in which she played fewer than 5 minutes, her average goes from 15.1 minutes per game to 24.1, a fairly large jump. She played 20 minutes against Florida, her largest showing in conference play. 

The Freshmen

That leaves just one group. If you're keeping track at home, 14 returners plus five transfers means that we have eight freshmen rounding out the 27-player roster. It feels like deja vu all over again to be talking about these freshmen, which tells me I'm pretty sure I've covered them before. We'll do a quick refresher in number order. Fun fact, Louisville's jersey numbers are nearly a clean count. The Cards wear 1-30 with 16, 19, and 29 excluded. (Ava Nielsen wore 29 as a freshman before switching to 13. I'm not sure why, since 13 was available at the time.) The freshmen this year are numbers 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 17, 20, and 24.

Grace Maddox is a defender from Statham, Georgia. Despite playing defense, she broke the school record for goals when she scored 29 as a freshman. She was a captain for six years with her club team. 

Piper Davidson comes from a town Cards fans might have heard of before: Wenatchee, Washington. The forward/midfielder scored 62 goals and had 46 assists in her high school career. She was all-conference with her club team. Funnily, Davidson wore #4 in promo photos before changing to #6 to yield the number to Jolie St. Louis. 

Lauryn Contini will inherit the mantle of the #10. The midfielder from New Philadelphia, Ohio was the 2023 district player of the year and was voted as Ohio's second best girls soccer player of the year. Contini won the Golden Boot in Ohio in 2022, scoring 55 goals in her junior campaign. 

Amelia Swinarski is another Ohioan, hailing from Madison. Swinarski is a midfielder that scored 30 goals and had 23 assists in her two years playing at Madison High School and was twice named first team All-Conference. 

Avery Oergel is a defender from Fulton, Maryland. As a lefty, it will be interesting to see whether she plays her dominant foot to the inside of the field or if Lizzie Sexton swaps sides. Oergel traditionally plays left back and her speed is an asset. She was a two-time first team All-Conference selection in the North Atlantic Conference of ECNL.

Brooklyn Lee and Davidson will have to remind each other of the Pacific Northwest. Lee, from Tacoma, will give Coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes options for who to pair alongside Karsyn Cherry in the middle of the defense. Lee scored 20 goals and had nine assists from the back as a senior. She and Maddox could also be options to take over in the defensive midfield, replacing Howard and allowing Huckaby to move forward.

Fina Davy amassed a hefty number of accolades at Olentangy Berlin High School in Delaware, Ohio. The forward/midfielder holds the school record for career goals, career hat tricks, and season assists. As a senior, she was first team All-Conference after a 20 goal, 18 assist year. 

Last, but certainly not least, comes the Louisvillian: AG Gibson. Gibson played high school ball for Assumption where she was twice named first team All-State and 7th Region Player of the Year. She clubs with Racing Louisville. Throughout her career at Assumption, the midfielder tallied 56 goals and 53 assists. AG fulfills a lifelong dream of playing for Louisville and we'll do our best to avoid comparisons to another highly touted Louisville native who played a commanding midfield position. 

The season is just a month away, and I'm looking forward to seeing the new look squad in action. Join me and the rest of the crew at Lynn for the season opener against Bellarmine on August 15th at 7:30. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case