Justine Sowry Interview -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FIELD HOCKEY PREPARING FOR THE CHALLENGES AHEAD

I had the great opportunity to sit down with Louisville Field Hockey head coach Justine Sowry yesterday to catch up on things with her and the program. The entire interview will play on our Saturday morning CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR...which begins at 11 a.m. 

Here are some of the highlights: 

-- On Camps:

" It's the summer season and with Field Hockey we have had a lot of young kids on campus, teaching them the ropes and the skills of Field Hockey. We just finished our second week of our 'kiddies' skills camp. The numbers are growing...we had over a hundred at each camp. We had a really great time and our staff had really great energy with these kids." 

-- On The Five Players selected for the USA Young Women's Championships: 

"I am really proud and two of the rising seniors in Shannon Sloss and Erin McCrudden...they've been doing it every year since they've been here at UofL. It's really going to help them with their leadership skills and bringing back to our program for this year. The other three are getting a taste of it as well. Nicole Woods just got back from winning a silver medal in the Pan American Games. Taylor Stone just got back from a USA U 19 tour and has aspirations to move up to the next age level group."

-- Ayeshia McFerran:

"She had an outstanding freshman year...becoming our first freshman ever to earn All-American honors. She'll be getting her banner up on the wall along with Victoria Stratton this fall. Ayeshia has continued to be involved and we're working with the Irish Federation Field Hockey Association...so she's able to do both right now. She had a really successful tour in a tournament in New Zealand. She did great! It went to one-on-one penalty shootouts multiple times...and it turned out well. She's got her summer planned with international hockey and is on track to being a long term international star." 

-- The season ahead:

"Being part of the ACC, the best conference, it's always going to be challenging. When we look at the average RPI of the conferences...the average for the ACC is 5.5 and the next strongest is the Big 10...which was something like 26 or 27, so we're crushing the other conferences. We've also got teams like Michigan and Northwestern back on the schedule...teams that are top 10 in the nation. It's a schedule that is stronger than it was last year, incredibly challenging...but this is where we want to be." 

-- On Acdemics:

"We recently had the best semester academically in the five and one half years I've been here. They're great, incredible all-around student-athletes. 

Be sure to catch the entire interview to find out: 

-- What did the Field Hockey squad receive a national award for recently?

-- Where does Coach Sowry see that the squad will be much stronger at this year? 

-- Which players will be expected to step it up for Coach  Sowry this fall? 

-- Just how much help will the team be getting from the incoming freshmen and graduate students? 

All in all, a wonderful afternoon spent with the energetic and eloquent Justine Sowry looking at Louisville Field Hockey. My sincere thanks to Coach for spending a few minutes with me to catch us up on things in Trager and beyond. Get more on this interview Saturday when we play it on The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour! 

paulie
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