Another Split Friday -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Field Hockey Takes Top-10 Match-up

After a tough weekend last week with a hard loss to North Carolina and a narrow overtime win over Cal, UofL field hockey bounced back with a 1-0 win over Number 9 Boston College. It was a closely contested match, as you might expect between teams just one ranking apart in a sport so compact as field hockey. As we've mentioned many times before, nearly the entire ACC is ranked in the top 25 and the rankings for field hockey are quite good. Where teams are ranked is almost always a great indicator of their quality and there are not many major upsets. This might be best shown by Louisville's lack of movement in the rankings following a loss to a highly ranked North Carolina and a win over unranked Cal.

Last night's match was as close as one can be and still be decided in regulation. The Cards and Eagles went the full 70 minutes without scoring and it was an untimed penalty corner that was the deciding factor. Bethany Russ scored on the shot assisted by Maria Gomez and Katie Walsh. It was Russ's second goal and the Cards second untimed game-winner of the season. It was Louisville's fifth corner of the match, giving them a less than desirable corner percentage, but 20% is better than the 0-9 that Boston College converted.

Besides the corner disparity, the match was very close statistically. Boston College played only one less player than the Cards and both teams finished with 11 shots. Louisville had better chances, putting 8 of their 11 on goal. Boston College was only able to put 5 shots on goal, all of which Ayeisha McFerran saved. Neither team committed a foul, leading to an exciting and clean game. 

Despite the lack of finishing, this offensive outburst was a bit better for Louisville than the past couple of games. Eleven shots is higher than Louisville has been able to compile recently and 8/11 shots on goal is a strong indicator of good passing and chance creation. Boston College was still able to get chances of their own, but the Louisville defense was up to the task. The next step for Louisville will be get back to converting more of their chances into actual goals. The Cards have not been shut-out this season, but they have also not scored more than two goals in any game. With three losses so far, it is clear that the defense is not quite as stout as it has been in years past. Louisville may have a few more games this year where the opponent scores two or more goals, and the Cards' offense will need to be able to respond. 

Louisville is back in action tomorrow at noon against Northwestern. If you've kept up with the site or with the field hockey team at all, you'll know what a bugaboo the Wildcats are to the Cardinals. Louisville will be looking to pull the all-time series closer to level. NU currently leads the series 7-3 and took the last match almost exactly a year ago 2-0. A strong performance on Sunday could give the Cards their second perfect weekend of the season, the only other so far coming against UMass-Lowell and Delaware. Tune in to ACC Network Extra or head out to Trager for what should be an exciting matchup on a nice day. Our after-game links below:

Coach Sowry Post-Game

BETHANY RUSS POST-GAME

Ayeshia McFerran post-game

Volleyball Thrashed by Kentucky: 3-0

It was a night to forget for Dani Busboom Kelly's squad as Kentucky took a sweep off of the Cards in Cardinal Arena and took the lead in the 2018-19 Battle for the Bluegrass. Louisville's largest lead of the night was at 7-4 in the first set, and they held a 4-3 lead in the second. Both times, Kentucky took extended runs to put the sets a bit too far out of reach for the Cards. In the third, Louisville looked absolutely helpless, falling behind 9-2 with their only two points coming from Kentucky service errors. I tuned into the match just in time to see a challenge go against the Cards for the first point of the third set and it was all downhill from there.

Louisville's wounds were mostly self inflicted in this one, as the Cards racked up 21 errors over three sets. Their final hitting percentage was just 0.080. The Cards committed at least as many errors in each set as Kentucky committed on the whole night (6). That's most definitely not a winning formula. To make matters worse for a woefully hitting Louisville team, Kentucky was swinging lights out. The Cats were led by Leah Edmond, who finished with 14 kills and hit .600. Alli Stumler and Brooke Morgan had 8 and 7 kills, respectively, and neither committed an error. Louisville couldn't hit, and they had no answer defensively for Kentucky. Again, not a winning formula. 

Louisville was led in kills by Melanie McHenry with 8, but she also led the team in attack errors with 7. Jasmine Bennett was the biggest threat on offense, finishing with 7 kills and .308 hitting, but even she had three errors. The cleanest hitter for the Cards was Piper Roe, who finished with 4 kills on 6 attempts with no errors. It was a rough night for Wilma Rivera, who finished with 3 digs, a service error, and was 0/3 with three errors in attack. She did finish with 24 of the team's 25 assists, but the Cards were outscored by 30 points on the night so the shine comes off a bit. 

As I said from the jump, this was a night to forget. Kentucky looked good. They certainly did not look like the team that we've rattled off as having a bunch of losses so far this year. Even at 4-4 on the year, the Cats were ranked in the top 20 coming into last night. They showed last night why they were a top 5 team in the preseason. Coming into a hostile environment and absolutely dismantling the hosts was tough to watch as a Louisville fan. Quite frankly, I hope the Cards don't have to play Kentucky again this season. That said, Louisville looked bad. They were caught out of system numerous times, the attacking errors were inexcusable, and the defense was sorely lacking. 

There will not be much to glean from film of this match, so it will be important for Louisville to move past this match mentally before they go into a conference season where they have a legitimate chance to make some noise. Sometimes the ball doesn't go your way. It's important for the Cards to not let one bad performance snowball into a season killing skid. Louisville takes on Chattanooga today at three with a chance to get the sour taste out of their mouths. The match will be on ACC Network Extra, or you can head down to Cardinal Arena to see the Cards bounce back yourselves. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

We're back on the air this morning bringing you the joy and excitement of Louisville women's sports. Even after tough losses, there is always something positive to find and we'll be sure to find it and deliver on today's Cardinal Couple Radio Hour.

No Jared this morning, so we'll be without his insight, but Mike Gilpatrick of River City Cards joins us and we'll bring you coverage from the all of the contests over the last week and previews of those upcoming. Tune in to WCHQ FM at 100.9, wchqfm.com, the WCHQ App, or on Facebook Live at 11 AM and sit a spell with us

We'll be happy to have you.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Pictures for today's article once again come from our own Jared Anderson. As always, check out his full portfolio at jdaphotos.com