Monday Cardinal Couple - Busy Sundays

The three main Cardinal fall sports that we follow here at Cardinal Couple were all in action yesterday, and all with a 1pm start time.  We divided our forces and covered everything as best we could.

Field Hockey

Coming off of a 3-1 loss against conference foe Boston College Friday, the Cards were ready to come out, play aggressively, and get back to the winning ways.  It was an unusual weekend in that the non-conference foe was considered the stronger opponent compared to the conference matchup.

The Northwestern Wildcats came to Trager stadium and tangled with a rejuvenated Cardinal squad.

They left with their tail between their legs after losing 2-0.  Nicole Woods and Taylor Stone were the two that got on the board.  The early goal by Woods was a deflection on a shot by Bethany Russ.  So Woods gets credit for the goal, and Russ gets the assist 7 minutes into the game.  The other goal, by Taylor Stone came off of a penalty corner with assists to Stephanie Byrne and Marigrace Ragsdale 20 minutes into the 2nd half.

The Cards played good possession Field Hockey for most of the game, able to mostly keep the ball in the attack third of the field and keep the pressure on Northwestern and that shows in the stats.  The Cards managed to get 9 shots, with 6 on goal, while Northwestern only got off 4 shots, with only 2 on goal.

Sowry's team looked like a much better team than the one we saw Friday vs Boston College, and the
results show it.  Nicole Woods fired 3 shots, Taylor Stone attempted 2, and individual shot attempts were taken by Bethany Russ, Erin McCrudden, Lizzie Gittens, and Lotta Kahlert.

Northwestern did pull their goalkeeper near the end of the game, going with an open goal to try to push some offense.  Paulie has refused to comment.

( Editor's Note -- No need to ruin Coach Sowry's mood with my controversial stance on pulling goalies. I've been instructed in the reasoning and strategy behind it and we'll just agree to disagree. Did it win the game for the Wildcats? Did they score? )  -Paulie

Listen to The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour this Saturday for the post game interview with Coach Sowry...she opines briefly on the open goal strategy and the efficacy of the prevent defense in American football.

After the game, the Field Hockey squad celebrated two new All-American banners at Trager for last year's honorees.  New Zealander, and current volunteer assistant for the Cards Vic Stratton was honored, and her parents were able to be in attendance as well.  The other honoree was for Ayeisha McFerran.

Field Hockey continues their homestand with a somewhat unusual Saturday conference game against UNC.  This one is a 1pm start, and then they play Kent State to wrap up their homestand on Sunday with a noon start.

Soccer

Soccer tangled with conference foe Clemson, and the felines came away with the victory on this one.

Paulie was in attendance for this one, perhaps we can get some of his comments chipped in on this one.  The over/under for the number of trains passing by Lynn was against set at 4, and again the under takes it with 2.  It may be time to move that line slightly.

In more important matters, Clemson does come away with a 1-0 win.  At about 34 minutes into the game the Clemson attacker was able to get in behind Taylor Bucklin, always a bad situation for the defenders, and was able to finish the shot.  Otherwise, Bucklin tallied better overall stats with 7 saves, while the UofL team is credited with one as well.  Clemson got the better of the offensive attempts with 13 shots, and 9 on goal, while UofL had a respectable 10 shots, but only 4 on goal.

This was senior day for the Soccer squad.  While the Cardinal women's soccer team does have another home game, it's a Thursday night tangle (against Virginia), which is less conducive for family to be able to make the trip to Louisville to be part of the honors.

Soccer heads back out on the road for a Sunday game at Virginia Tech, with a 1 pm start.

( Another Editor's Note -- Save for a mistake on defense that led to the Clemson goal, I thought Louisville played well enough to win. I did chat briefly, off-the-record, with the Clemson head coach after the game. He seemed more excited about both Louisville and Clemson's football teams than women's soccer. Clemson had a nice contingent of fans at the contest. I got him to chuckle when I asked him if the visitor's attendance was normally this big or if it was weather-related. Got a chance to talk (once again, off the recorder) with a couple of Clemson fans. They loved Lynn Stadium and Louisville fans and our fans hospitality. They were there because of a daughter on the team but traveled in from North Carolina and were expecting the worst, weather wise, around their home. )   -Paulie

Volleyball

The only squad on the road this weekend was the Volleyball Cards.  They were able to gut out a 5-set
win over Boston College Thursday, but weren't able to repeat the feat vs Syracuse.  I was able to watch this one, somewhat distractedly, on my phone in the press box at Trager Stadium while I was watching Field Hockey as well.

This one was a battle and the scores generally remained close throughout the whole match.  Syracuse takes this one 22-25, 25-23, 25-20, 23-25, 15-10.

Despite the Cards hitting percentage ending up lower than I would prefer, this appeared to be some of the best volleyball I've seen this play since the first weekend at Bowling Green State.  I'm quite willing to accept some lower hitting numbers thanks to the ever-excellent blocking of Syracuse.  The head coach at Syracuse is, of course, Leonid Yelin, the previous head coach at UofL.  He always has a good blocking team...he did when he coached UofL, and he does again in Syracuse almost always with a strong dose of eastern European/western Asian players, though his numbers seem to be a little down from usual in this area this year with "only" two Russians and an Uzbekistani.

In any case, Syracuse totaled 14 blocks, compared to UofL's 5.  The bulk of our blocking gets credited to Morgan Miller, who was a part of 3, and Jasmine Bennett, who got a piece of the action on 4.  Miller and Bennett really were the heart of the squad in this match, leading the team in hitting averages and in total kills.  Miller put 23 down, but she was busy, with 73 attempts (.192 avg).  Bennett is becoming one of my favorite players on the squad, putting 14 down on 27 attempts for a very respectable .370.  Melanie McHenry got 13 kills, and Tess Clark collected 10.

Missing in action in this match was Janelle Jenkins, who was on the trip, and did play against Boston College.  We have no word on the reason for her absence in this one.

Remember this early article header for the site? 

On the defensive side of things, we always have to give our due to Molly Sauer, putting up 22 digs in
this one, and anchoring this team.  Gabbie Wiley, Kali Eaken, and Morgan Miller each had 11, giving Miller a double-double.  Melanie McHenry continues to show some all around prowess with 9, Tess Clark got a pleasantly surprising 8, and Nikki Koval got in for 6.

Volleyball returns home for a Thursday evening match against middle-of-the-pack NC State at 7pm, and then number 9 in the country, and leading the ACC, UNC comes into town Sunday the 16th for a 1pm start.

-JMcA