WSOC Takes on Wake Forest -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Face #13 Deacs in Winston-Salem

Louisville women's soccer continues the brutal portion of their schedule with another top-15 opponent on the road tonight. Following a tough match against Notre Dame in which the Cards held on for 45 minutes but were outmatched in the second half, Louisville is right back into the frying pan with a match against #13 Wake Forest tonight at 7PM. Tonight's match will be shown on ACC Network Extra. 

Gigs spots Jared snapping a photo

Historically, Wake has been a team that Louisville matches up well against in conference play. Overall, Louisville has a 3-4-1 record against the fourth school on Tobacco Road, but two of those losses came before Louisville joined the ACC. Since 2014, the Cards are 3-2-1 against the Demon Deacons. Working against Louisville in this matchup, though, is that the Cards are 1-4 all-time in Winston-Salem, and Wake won the last meeting in 2023 1-0. 

This season, Wake is 9-2-2 overall and 3-1-1 in conference play. They sit one spot ahead of Louisville in the ACC rankings (fifth over sixth). Alarmingly, they're unbeaten at home, with a 7-0-1 record. Somewhat surprisingly, that home draw was a 1-1 score against Brown on September 7th. Wake hasn't lit the world on fire this year, but they've been consistent. Their three conference wins came over Miami, Virginia Tech, and at Duke, and they drew against Boston College on the road. Interestingly, they opened the season with a 2-0 win over SMU, but that doesn't count in their conference record for reasons that are unclear to me. That said, we've seen UNC and Duke play multiple times in a season in various Olympic sports, so it must be a North Carolina thing. 

Louisville and Wake Forest are 3-0 against common opponents, with those teams being Virginia Tech and Miami in conference and USC Upstate in non-conference play. Both teams played all three of those matches at home. Louisville beat USCU 9-0 and won the conference games 3-0 on aggregate. Wake had a less impressive performance against USCU (6-1), but they won the conference games 5-2. Miami and Virginia Tech are tied at the bottom of the conference with Syracuse all on one point. They've played one more game than the Orange. If Louisville can play as well on both sides of the ball as they have proven to be capable of, we could be in for a ranked road win for the Cards. If not, Wake could run away with it.

Perhaps the Wake Forest result that should most concern the Cards is their most recent one: a 2-1 loss on the road at NC State. NC State is a bit of an enigma this season. They are 2-1-2 in conference and their only loss was a 2-1 loss in South Bend in their conference opener. They drew Florida State 1-1 and drew VT 4-4 before the win over Wake. However, they were awful in non-conference play. They opened the season with a 3-0 home loss to James Madison and proceeded to start 0-5-2 before earning their first non-con win over Campbell at the last opportunity. All that is to say, Wake is probably not thrilled to have taken their first conference loss against the Wolfpack, and they may have something to say about it in a return to home play.

For Louisville's part, the Cards are 3-2 in conference play and are coming off a match in which they conceded the most goals all season. Granted, it was only three goals and it was on the road against one of the best (or at least highest-rated) teams in the country. Still, it's not the confidence builder you want to see in the middle of a tough swing such as this. 

Louisville does still have Amelia Swinarski at the helm of the offense, though, so things could be worse. Swinarski was recently named to the Julie Hermann Midseason Watch List, making her one of 35 players considered to be in contention for the top individual award in women's collegiate soccer. Swinarski's nine assists are fourth in program history for a single season and they see her atop the ACC and tied for second nationally in the category. She has 23 total points, which is third best in the ACC and tied for 11th nationally. Swinarski has been quieted in ACC play, though, as she has just two total points on a single goal. Louisville has not been the offensive powerhouse that we saw in non-conference play since the ACC season got underway. Wake's defense appears to be a bit porous, so tonight could be a great time to get back on track. 

A win would be critical in Louisville's battle to make the ACC tournament, as only the top six make the event. It would also be a big resume builder in the hunt for an NCAA tournament bid as well as for seeding. There are four games left to play after this one, but every point matters now. As I mentioned, kickoff is scheduled for 7PM on ACC Network Extra.

Until next time, Go Cards!

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