THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE
- Soccer Cards will miss first six games for UofL while at U 20 World Cup.
-Team USA WBB defeats Australia 86-73 to reach finals.
The University of Louisville women's soccer team will start the 2012 season without two of their top players as junior forward Christine Exeter and junior defender Rachel Melhado will play for Canada at the 2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Japan.
16 teams will vye for the title which will consist of group play before the quarterfinals on Aug 30-31st, semi-finals Sept 4th and gold and bronze matches on Sept. 8th. If they finish in the top four, the duo would miss two exhibition games and five regular season matches...including the UK game on Sept. 7th at Cardinal Park.
Exeter led Louisville last season with 14 goals and was the BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year. She's also a unanimous pre-season pick for 2012 All-BIG EAST.
Louisville opens the season Friday night with an exhibition game against Ohio State. Other games they could potentially miss are:
8/12 Wright State (exhibition)
8/17 at Butler
8/24 Purdue
8/31 SEMO @ Lexington, KY
9/02 UNC Greensboro @ Lexington, KY
9/07 Kentucky
'We are absolutely thrilled for Christine and Rachel as they pursue their dreams of winning a youth world championship. Although we will miss their presence in games and training, we understand the privilege that comes with playing for your country. We know they will represent both UofL and Canada exceptionally well." -- Louisville head coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes.
Imagine Louisville WBB without Shoni and Shawnta Dyer for the first six games. Or Anne Kordes without Lola Arslanbeckova and Gwen Rucker during the early season...if you're looking for comparative player losses. That's a tough road to travel, especially with a young team, as Ferguson-Dayes has.
For the 2012 season, the Cards haveonly three seniors and nine juniors are on the 30-player Louisville roster...six sophomores and twelve freshmen fill out the remaining spots. Louisville could look to Kim Sharo, Angelika Uremovich and newcomer Charlyn Corral to pick up the scoring void for the Cards that the absence of Exeter will create. Emily Cardell, limited to just four games last year because of injuries, could also be a key, early scoring factor for UofL.
Melhado started all 24 games as a defender for Louisville last year. The Cards do return veterans Courtney Holtz and Chelsea Hunter as defenders and goalie Chloe Kiefer will keep the Cards strong at the net when opponents have the ball.
Louisville begins the eleven-game BIG EAST regular season schedule Sept. 14th at Notre Dame.
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| #8 gets eight minutes against the Aussies |
A win today for Olympic USA women's basketball over a tough as advertised Australia squad....86-73 with defense getting the job done in the second half. USA with no answers for Liz Cambage in the first half, 19 points for the 6'8" Tulsa Shock center. USA down 47-43 at the half.
Tina Charles stepping up, taking it "very personal" and fatigue a factor to holding Cambage scoreless in the second half. USA using a 10-3 late third quarter run to lead 65-59 after three quarters, after trailing 56-55 with 3:55 to go in the quarter.
Disappointing use of Angel today...eight minutes, four points...sat the bench the entire fourth quarter...Geno preferring to go with Ashia Jones, Maya Moore, Mary Tyler Moore...anyone he could find instead of the leading scorer in the WNBA. Puzzling, for sure. Predictable, yeah. After all, it is Geno. Probably tough for Jeff Walz, who flew over to catch the semis and final.
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| "Yeah...Angel's still sitting." |
Whoever...the real title was won today, more specifically in the second half of today's game when the 'Dream Team' woke up from their slumber and shut down #2 in the world with defense.
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What a great honor for these two! Louisville should be OK until their return but to represent your country in international play is a very great honor! Congratulations Christine and Rachel!
ReplyDelete-- Joe Hill --
What a great honor indeed! Congratulations ladies for all your hard work and an opportunity to represent your country!
ReplyDeleteJenny
Where is Louisville soccer picked to finish in the Big East?
ReplyDeleteRobbie B.
Louisville is picked to finish 2nd in the BIG EAST National Division by the coaches in a pre-season poll. The full listings for the division are below. First place votes are in ( ).
ReplyDeleteNotre Dame (12) 109 pts.
Louisville (2) 98 pts.
Georgetown 83
Rutgers (1) 78
Villanova 52
Seton Hall 50
DePaul 33
Cincy 29
Paul
Watching geno's childish politics come in and fog up US Olympic basketball made me put the game on fast forward while reaching for tums.
ReplyDeleteI hope he enjoyed attempting to embarrass Angel and Jeff who came in to attend the game by sitting the highest scoring WNBA and highest scoring plus rebounding first round of 5 games US Olympic player on the bench while his favorite UConn daughter took plating time from others who have earned it by producing with only given 4 minutes at the time while his favorite struggled the entire game just to score 14 points while giving away four fouls.
The embarrassment is Geno's as the poor decision making and outright favoritism could have cost the US team the game. The non- starters, with the right coaching decisions, could have cleaned the Aussie house with no trouble but Geno could not figure out where the switch was for the vacuum. Sad!
I was trying really hard to understand why Geno was playing who he was playing. After all there are so many good players on the team. However, after checking out the stats for all of the games it is clear there is some bias. Three UConn players are averaging a lot more minutes than Angel, while she is leading or near the top in points, steals and rebounds. As soon as she makes a mistake she is on the bench, whereas the "chosen" ones get chance after chance. It is really frustrating to watch!
ReplyDeleteMy guess is Coach Walz would take the "high road" on this issue and comment on the overall team win and advancing. He's that kind of guy and is friends with Geno.
ReplyDeleteI am not friends with Geno...so I'll sum it up by saying that Geno is using the world stage to fete his successes as UConn head women's basketball coach and is showing extreme favoritism to his former players. Candace Parker, Angel McCoughtry, Tamika Catchings, Sylvia Fowles, Lindsey Harding and Seimone Augustus chose to attend other universities than Connecticut. They have very successful careers. Four SEC girls, A BIG EAST and BIG TEN girl.
I will also mention that USA is poised to win the Gold again. France, while surprising, can't keep up with USA. The real title game (#1 in the world vs. #2) was played Thursday.
It is my sincere hope that Geno is enjoying his limelight and exploitation of Olympic women's basketball to further his own cause. Sad, but predictable.
Paul
Pretty sure you meant Whalen there instead of Harding, Paul. Your point is well made, though. The USA team tryouts were by invitation. As they say in the lottery, can't play if you don't have a ticket. Many talented players didn't get that ticket, that invite.
DeleteI hope USA comes up with a different coach in 2016.
Down four points to Australia at half is embarrassing. What they got besides one washed up center and one inexperienced one?
Oops! Right you are. Lindsey Whalen. Lindsey Harding a pretty good player in her own right, though...ex-Duke and current Atlanta Dream. You know those Lindsey's...they all look the same...(tongue firmly planted in cheek). Lindsey Harding, Lindsey Whalen, Lindsey Lohan, Lindsey Wilson...
DeletePaul
Those making the invites and selections were well aware that Geno would be the coach - I am sure that he knows nothing and had nothing to do with why certain players were invited and then selected over others.
ReplyDeleteHow can the names of those in charge of inviting then selecting the players who made the team be made known?
I wish we could see the thoughts regarding playing opportunities not given to others of the Dream head coach/Olympic assistant coach who has to sit there each game looking supportive of his decisions.