Monday Cardinal Couple -- Softball, Lacrosse get wins... Golf leads in BIG EAST

MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Softball victorious over Villanova

-Lacrosse defeats Bearcats

-Golf leads BIG EAST Championships

-Rowing gets win in Clemson Regatta


A busy Sunday in Louisville women's sports...with four squads engaged in action. Let's get to the action!

Louisville 8 - Villanova 1


UofL's softball sluggers improved to 15-1 in the BIG EAST with a 8-1 trouncing of the Villanova Wildcats in Philly Sunday. The Cards maintained a share of the lead in the BIG EAST conference race with the win and also secured a spot in the BIG EAST championship tournament by knocking off VU. The Cards have now won 15 games in a row.

The teams battled in a scoreless affair for three innings before the Cardinal bats got untracked. Louisville opened the fourth inning with Whitney Arion receiving a base on balls. She was safe at second when Hannah Kiyohara reached on a grounder. Kayla Soles drove Arion home with a single to left and Katelyn Mann filled the bags full of Cardinals after getting hit by a pitch from 'Nova starter Kate Poppe. Katie Keller's single plated two more Cardinal runs and Jordan Trimble's base hit made it 5-0 UofL.

Villanova countered with a run in the fifth and had the bases loaded against starter Caralisa Connell with no outs....but Rachel Le Coq entered the game and got the next batter to line out to Arion, and then forced a ground ball double-play to get the Cards back to the dugout with no further damage.

Louisville added their final three runs in the sixth. Mann and Keller singled and Trimble's double returned Mann safely home. Alicja Wolny's single drove in Keller and Trimble...giving the Cards the 8-1 lead and eventual win.

Carl gets the "W"...going to 25-2 on the season. She went 4.1 innings and allowed the lone run on four hits. Rachel Le Coq picks up the save with 2.2 innings of one-hit pitching.

The Cards travel to Lexington on Wednesday to face The University of Kentucky.

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Louisville Lacrosse got back on the winning track by defeating Cincinnati 18-10 Sunday at the UofL Lacrosse Stadium. The Cards struck early with a 4-0 offense attack to begin the game. Goals from Colleen O'Malley, Nikki Boltja, Cortnee Daley and Monica Negron in a dizzying 180 seconds propelled the Cards to a comfortable lead after four minutes had passed with no scores.

After UC pushed a goal past Ashley Herbst, Louisville responded with a three-goal streak...O'Malley getting her second score of the day, Boltja also finding net and Jamie Redding pushing the Cardinal lead to 7-1.

The Bearcats managed two goals in the final 10 minutes of first half play to send the teams to halftime with Louisville enjoying a 7-3 lead.

The action picked up in the second half. Scores from Daley and Laura Patterson gave UofL a 10-4 lead. UC responded with two goals within 20 seconds of each other to cut the Cards' lead to 10-6. Louisville responded with a three-goal run, though...Patterson, Kaylin Morissette and O'Malley all scoring to make it 13-6 Cards.

UC went on a run after that, their three-goal run had them within four at 13-9. Louisville was able to outscore UC 5-1 the rest of the way, though...Morissette, Botja and a couple of Faye Brust goals ensured the eight-point Cardinal win.

Louisville is now 9-6 and got their first BIG EAST win of the season.

The teams gathered at midfield before the game for a moment of silence to honor the tragedy in Boston and also the passing of a member of the Cincinnati womens' lacrosse family.

Louisville stays home to play their next two. Rutgers comes in Friday for a 5 p.m. contest and the Cards end the regular season on Sunday when Villanova visits.

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Louisville women's golf leads the BIG EAST Tournament at Reunion Resort in Orlando, FL. after one round. The Cards fired a -1 under par 287 to take a seven stroke lead over Norte Dame after 18 holes Sunday.

Four Cards golfers are in the top ten scorers. Tara Lyons and Katie Petrino are tied for second place with a 71. Emily Haas carded a 72 and Laura Restrepo fired a 73.

St. John's Harin Lee leads the pack with a 70.

Seven BIG EAST teams are participating. After Notre Dame (294)...Seton Hall (301), St. John's (302), Cincinnati (304) Rutgers (304) USF (305) and Georgetown (305) make up  the first day order of finish.

They tee off day two today, beginning at 8 a.m.

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#18 Cardinal Rowing took a big win in the Clemson Regatta Sunday in Day 2 of action on Lake Hartwell. The varsity eight crew defeated five other competitors (Clemson, Cornell, Duke, Michigan State and Oklahoma) winning the event by 1.2 seconds over the #14 ranked Tigers.

Second Varsity +8 gave a strong fourth place performance also in the activities earlier in the day. 

Because of strong wind conditions, four other Louisville crews competed but the results were deemed unofficial.

Next up, BIG EAST Championships on May 19th. in Princeton, NJ.

-Paulie

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