Defeated in Durham...Field Hockey now forced into waiting game -- Friday Cardinal Couple

2-1 loss to Wake Forest eliminates Cards from ACC Championships

Louisville Field Hockey's inaugural entry into ACC Tournament play turned out to be a short stay. Wake Forest used two second half scores to build a lead on the Cards and then held on late to advance to the semifinals with a 2-1 win and face #1 seed Virginia tomorrow.

The Cards got a late goal..a bit by accident...on a penalty corner with four minutes left in the contest. Chile Garcia's initial shot bounced off Alyssa Voelmle's stick to Erin McCrudden, who sent the loose ball past the WFU goalie to draw UofL within one.


Hoping to get the tying score, Coach Justine Sowry pulled Cardinal goalie with two minutes left to increase the offensive capabilities. The Cards could not capitalize, though...and Wake retained possession and ran the clock out. 

What does it mean for Louisville's chances to get an NCAA at-large berth? Consider the 2013 NCAA Championships when all seven ACC schools got selected. Maryland was ACC then. 

Also consider that Virginia was 15-5 (Louisville's current record), Duke 14-6, UNC 16-5, Wake Forest 11-6 and Boston College 12-7. Syracuse, Duke, Maryland and UNC were seeded in the top 4 and hosted first round games. Virginia hosted also. 

The fact that Boston College, ranked #3 in the tournament, lost 5-2 to #6 Syracuse today probably doesn't help the UofL chances. #2 UNC needed overtime to get by #7 Duke.


A look at last years' NCAA Sweet Sixteen shows (7) ACC schools, (2) Big 10 schools (Penn St. and Michigan St.) and automatic conference champ qualifiers in UConn, American, Princeton, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Delaware and Old Dominion. 

Stanford will most assuredly be in the mix this year. So will eight other conference qualifiers. Figure in at least four more (semifinal, maybe? participants) in the ACC and the numbers start to get tight.

The Cards were #8 in the most recent coaches poll and #11 in the NCAA RPI rankings. The Cards have quality wins over Duke, UNC and Wake Forest in the regular season. Add in wins over Michigan, Michigan St., IU and New Hampshire and the Cards look pretty good. Let's hope the loss to Liberty doesn't come back to haunt them.

We'll know Sunday night starting at 10 p.m., when the NCAA Field Hockey Selection Show will be shown on NCAA.com and the 19 teams announced. 

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Maybe the Field Hockey squad should take the pressure off,

head south and join Louisville Volleyball in Miami tonight. 

Louisville will face Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. on


 Friday night at 7 p.m. This will be the third time in history

 the two teams have faced off, with the Cards notching both

 wins. The Hurricanes (15-7, 8-3 ACC) are coming off a split

 as they notched a 3-0 victory over NC State and took a 3-0

 loss against No. 9 North Carolina. Senior Savannah Leaf led

 the Canes offensively in both matches with double-digit

 kills. Miami hit .323 against NC State while hitting .142 in 

the loss against North Carolina. 

paulie
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