Field Hockey and Hoops -- Friday Cardinal Couple

As Paulie has mentioned in previous articles, November is our one month of the year when we ask for your help in running this site.

Cardinal Couple is a labor of love for all of us.  We don't get paid, we do this because we're UofL fans, and we want UofL to be awesome.  We realize that for UofL Athletics to be its most awesome, we need to help bring about awesomeness across the board.  UofL officially plays 23 sports, most sports media covers, on a regular basis, only 2 or 3 of them.  No, we don't cover all of them as well as they deserve, but we try, we do our best, and I think we do a great job of spreading the coverage across many of the sports at UofL that don't typically get as much attention.

Paulie is regularly down on Trager field getting post game comments from Justine Sowry...the latest were quite positive, more on that in a bit.  I'm regularly getting post-match comments from Dani Busboom Kelly after volleyball matches...many of which have been quite positive this year as well.  Our coverage of UofL Women's Basketball is the most extensive in town.  In the spring, we're fixtures at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium and Ulmer Stadium for Softball.  We bring you the successes, and again there are many, of Swimming and Diving, Tennis, Golf, and Cross-Country and Track and Field.  We've brought you the highs and lows of Soccer, and we've down our radio show from the Red and Black Regatta with Rowing (I'm still bummed we couldn't make that happen this year).

There are costs involved in running Cardinal Couple.  They're not huge, but they are real, and they are there.  Website hosting, Domain name registration, and other incidentals all add up.  Consider a donation.  I cannot say enough how much I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of Cardinal Couple, please help us keep it going.

Field Hockey Tournament Play

It's hard to believe we're already into post-season play for fall sports, but here we are, and already the results are positive.

In a later start than was originally planned (show of hands, who's surprised at that?  No one?  Yeah, I thought so), UofL matched up with Syracuse in the last game of the first round.  Syracuse struck early, in the 6th minute, and probably less than a minute after the ACC Network Extra commentators were talking about the importance of getting the first goal on the board.  Nothing else found the back of the cage on either end of the field, and the teams went into halftime with Syracuse leading 1-0.

Louisville attacked aggressively in the 2nd half, and found the goal in the 2nd minute.  Marisa Marin Pelegrina inbounded the ball from a corner, and then corralled the rebound from Katie Walsh's shot to get the goal.  This was Pelegrina's 5th goal to equalize the game at 1-1.  Another corner 4 minutes later gave Louisville their first lead at the 41:25 mark.  Credit the assist to Taylor Stone, and the goal to Madison Walsh on the corner play.

Syracuse equalized less than 2 minutes later, and then the scoring went quiet.  For 25 minutes, the teams battled back and forth, though Louisville mostly kept the upper hand in attacking, getting of 4 shots to the 'Cuse's 1.

In the last minutes of the game, though, senior Nicole Wood fired a nice pass over to Marigrace Ragsdale who was able dodge defenders, dribble into the circle and fire the shot home for the 3-2 lead with 2:07 left to play.  An ensuing timeout and Syracuse pulled their Goalkeeper to bring more attacking firepower onto the field.  The Cards were able to run the clock out, however to advance with the 3-2 win over Syracuse to the 2nd round of the ACC tournament.

That game will be today at around 2:30pm (again, earlier games could delay this).  They will be matching wits with Duke, again, as they beat Boston College with a similar 3-2 score.  On the other side of the bracket North Carolina also put a 3-2 win up over Wake Forest.  They advance to play Virginia.  UVA got into the 2nd round by defeating that perpetual doormat of a team, Bye.

Play starts today at noon with the Virginia vs UNC game.  My guess is they won't need the water cannons during halftime and in between games with this soggy day.

Volleyball

Volleyball is back in action with a little less strenuous of a week than last week.  Starting with an odd start time of 3pm today, they will be playing at Wake Forest.  There is no video listed for this one at any site that I can find, but we've been surprised with last minute links in the past, so stay tuned.

Sunday sees Volleyball in Durham to match up with the Blue Devils.  This one is a more typical 1pm start, and ACC Network Extra is listed.

In the 3-way tie at the top of the ACC that UofL is a part of with Pitt and NC State, Pitt will be tangling with Miami at 7pm, perhaps worthy of a view on ACC Network Extra as there is a very good chance that Miami could knock Pitt out of the tie.  NC State also starts at 7 on ACC Network Extra.  NC State should have an easier time of it, but they are playing in the Carrier Dome, so don't count out Leonid Yelin's team, yet.

Conference and National Attention Getters

While the Women's Soccer season at UofL is essentially over, Emina Ekic was named ACC Co-Freshman of the year.  That's quite an honor for a player on a middle-of-the-pack team, and harkens well for next year.

Also, yesterday, Asia Durr was one of 6 players to head up to ESPN for Women's Basketball National Media Day.  Again, quite an honor, and I'm sure a lot of fun for the Junior.

Congratulations to these Cardinals, representing the school and city so well.

-- 

JMcA