Soccer Stumbles, Volleyball Sweeps -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WSOC Falls to Boston College, 2-0

While Jared's Minout Mink goal prediction is in quite a bit of trouble, my women's soccer win total prediction took a hit yesterday when the Cardinals opened conference play with a loss. The Cards finished the preseason 6-2. That .750 winning percentage meant they only had to win six out of ten conference games to meet the twelve win mark. I was counting on Boston College being one of those games. That said, I may have underestimated the Eagles a bit.

BC came into yesterday's game at 6-3, although they hadn't really played anyone. When two teams are pretty even, the advantage will usually go to the home team, as it did yesterday. BC scored both of their goals late in each half. The first came on a free kick and was scored direct. Louisville was on their heels most of that first half, amassing only 3 shots with just one on goal and earning one corner kick. BC, on the other hand, had 5 shots, two on goal, and three corner kicks. Louisville fouled 7 times to BC's 3 (That's right, they put it on the stat sheet). In the second half, Louisville turned up the aggression, working 9 shots and earning five corners, but putting only 2 on goal. The Cards fouled only 2 times in the second half. 

The aggression never was able to pay off though, as Louisville couldn't find the back of the net, and BC put the game away by going up two goals with less than four minutes remaining. So the Cards drop to 6-3, still a respectable record, with a buzzsaw of a remaining schedule upcoming. Six of Louisville's nine remaining opponents are currently ranked in the top 25. This conference slate will be one to see what Louisville's team this year is truly made of. If the Cards can get 6 wins out of their remaining schedule, I'll be pleasantly surprised. We'll all find out together, and it starts on Thursday when the 16th ranked Florida State Seminoles come to Lynn Stadium. Kickoff is at 7PM, and the game will also air on ACC Network Extra.

VBall Sweeps Kennesaw State

After falling to Kentucky in straight sets on Friday, Louisville hosted Kennesaw State in an attempt to rebound. The Owls had the great misfortune of playing Kentucky on Saturday and Louisville on Sunday. Neither match went particularly well for them. After a poor hitting performance on Friday, Louisville was able to turn around their efficiency and hit .330 on the match. This was partially due to an outstanding .448 in the second game, but games 1 and 3 were both over .250. Louisville finished with 45 kills, only 14 errors, 5 total blocks, and 10 service aces.

Melanie McHenry was the statistical MVP with 11 kills (2nd), 3 aces (1st), 1 block (3rd), 1 assist (3rd, but Wilma Rivera won by a mile with 38), and 8 digs (2nd only to Molly Sauer). Tess Clark was the leader in kills in this one, with only one more than Ms. McHenry. Kennesaw State kept it close in the first game with a .444 game of their own but it ultimately wasn't enough, as Louisville was able to hold them off and put them down in the second and third games more easily.

Louisville returns to action this Friday against Notre Dame. The first hit will be at 7PM in Cardinal Arena and this one will be available on ACC Network Extra as well.

The Inevitable Football Mention

I got my start writing about football games. I wrote a column called "A View From the Student Section" and saw mild success, leading to my being asked to write as a columnist here at Cardinal Couple. Sometime around the finishing of my undergraduate degree, I made a mental health decision to not let sports outcomes affect my life quite as much. I used to be that guy that would be down for a week following a loss. I still get quite emotional during games, whether that be ecstatic or angry, but had I not made the active decision to cool it, I don't know how I'd have made it through last season's collapse. I mention all this to explain why I didn't volunteer to pick up yesterday's article.

Being taken off the Sunday slot this season means I don't write about football all that much, and that's OK. It gives me the opportunity to process a loss in a way I find healthy. For this weekend, that meant attempting to completely dump memory of the game shortly after starting my morning coffee yesterday. Fortunately, the Seahawks were able to put together some semblance of a game winning drive yesterday evening against the 49ers or I'd be even more sour. 

As Jared said, this season is not yet over. There are many more games to be played and an Atlantic title, while much less "in our hands" is still an attainable goal. Louisville's football team needs to scrap Saturday's game and move on. It happened. The Cards looked bad, but it was more a lack of execution than a lack of talent. Just like Louisville trounced FSU 63-20 last season, that could have been the case this year. Except it wasn't. And that's OK. Practice this week will be rough, but I can only imagine that Saturday's game, for Kent State, will be rougher. And don't worry, you'll all get the chance to at least hear me rant about football this year. Maybe I'll even pick up a Sunday article for once.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-