Field Hockey Cards defeat heat and Delaware 2-1 -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

TWO SCORES LEAD CARDS TO WIN

Louisville Field Hockey completed a successful early season road trip with a 2-1 win yesterday over Delaware in Newark, DE. A match played in hot and humid conditions, with "feels like" temperatures hovering in the 100's. 

Coach Sowry discussed the match post game: 

“The conditions were pretty challenging today with the heat, but we have a fit team. We also kept grinding, so from a defensive point of view, I’m really, really pleased with the entire team from the forward line all the way through to the backfield,” said UofL head coach Justine Sowry. “The defensive effort was fantastic. We controlled the play for most of the game, I thought we possessed the ball. Delaware came hard at us in the end and we didn’t have good pressure on the ball and our defensive positioning is not as clean, but it’s still early in the season.”

Both squads battled through a first half where the action started out in Louisville's favor in terms of ball control but the Cards weathered a late first half onslaught of Delaware offense to keep the Blue Hens scoreless.  The Cards came out of a official-called water break halfway through the first session and found success when Meghan Schneider sent a pass into Mercedes Pastor and the Buenos Aires, Argentina sophomore relayed that to Louisville Assumption star Biz Allgeier..who slipped by a Blue Hen defender and fired a reverse shot at the net that bounced off the Delaware keeper and into the goal at the 17:46 mark. 

That score held through the half. The Blue Hens got a few attempts off near the end of first half action but All-American goalkeeper Ayeshia McFerran successfully protected the goal and no score was rendered. 

Delaware held a 4-2 shot advantage after the first 35 minutes of play.

The second half remained scoreless for the first 24 minutes -- both defenses holding court on the turf -- but Louisville got a penalty corner opportunity with 10:43 left in the match and the in-bounds from Delaware native Carter Ayars arrived to senior Katie Walsh...who provided the perfect stop for Taylor Stone. The Herndon, VA. midfielder blasted a shot past Hens goalkeeper Sydney Rhodes for the Cards final goal of the contest. 

Delaware was able to cut the lead in half late when a ball deflected by McFerran fell in front of a UD attacker who tapped it into the goal. Louisville's defense held strong the remaining five and a half minutes and the #8 Cards got the 2-1 win over #9 Delaware. 

Louisville goes to 3-1 on the season and Delaware drops to 2-2. Both teams had to compete in the grueling conditions and viewers on the Blue Hens sports network had to endure a mediocre feed that included a camera operator who had no idea where the action was headed quite often and occasionally just kept the view on mid-field and didn't move the camera. The audio was varying and muted at times. The excuse from Delaware was that the heat was creating technical difficulties. I'm no technical guru (ask the Cardinal Couple crew) but things appeared to get better when they re-booted the feed. I guess I should just be happy they provided the feed. Maybe I'll apply for the Delaware Athletics camera operator job...   

Road wins are good. Road wins over top ten opponents even better. 

Louisville hosts ACC opponent North Carolina next. The Friday, Sept 7th. match is scheduled for 5 p.m.


IN OTHER NEWS...

-- Cards men's soccer participates in the second "Battle of the Bluegrass" this season when they visit the Kentucky Wildcats. The 7:30 match will be shown on the SEC Network.


-- Rick Pitino's book MY STORY goes on sale today. The Courier-Journal is fired up about it...with five different articles in today's paper. Maybe they could quit caring about a ex-coach and devote a little time to UofL women's sports? That bridge has crumbled now, apparently, since Danielle Lerner of the C-J has been given a larger assignment base and will be covering men's sports primarily. 

-- All quiet on the Cards WBB front...with limited but regular training sessions and coaches working with the squad under NCAA guidelines. We do know that Jeff Walz and his wife Lauren took a little time off to go watch tennis' US Open recently. That was probably a good call...instead of heading to Orlando to watch Cards football. 

-- We're working with the Louisville S.I.D. crew to get a fall report from lacrosse coach Scott Teeter and could possibly have that for you Thursday. Coach recently had family in town to show off the new addition to the family. 

-- Today's "light reading" suggestion: Breanna Beal is the real deal in the class of 2019 high school hoops. Louisville is one of her final five.  At the link below, she talks about her game and the type of team she's hoping to land with (which sounds a lot like what the Cards are doing). 

LINK:  https://www.njhooprecruit.com/the-dribble-drop/2018/7/23/running-the-wings-a-sitdown-with-breanna-beal


Have a terrific Tuesday and be cool in this heat. 



paulie
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