Another busy Sunday for UofL women's sports, with four events at four different places for women's soccer, women's golf, field hockey and volleyball. Some good results, some not-so-good. We'll start with the win.
WSOC DEFEATS NC STATE 2-1
Defense wins games and it proved true yesterday in Raleigh, NC as the Louisville women's soccer team picked up a huge win over the NC State Wolfpack 2-1.
Points gained right now are worth their weight in goal in the ACC and the Cards gathered three to keep them tied for third place in the conference and assure that they would be participating in the ACC Tournament in November. Wins on the road a definite bonus, too. At 18 points, they are tied with Virginia and face one remaining regular season test, when Virginia Tech comes to town Thursday night for ACC action in Lynn Stadium.
The Cards grabbed a lead they would never relinquish in the 29th.
minute of the first half on a corner play. Allison Whitfield sent the in-bounds kick into the box and Maisie Whitsett headed the ball into the net.
After the second goal, where Ekic rebounded a deflected Nadage L'Esperance shot on goal back into the net, Louisville withstood a Wolfpack score in the 66th. minute and got the "W"....keeping the home team out of the net for the final 24 minutes. The Cards had a 9-5 shot advantage in the match but N.C. State held a 4-2 corner kick edge.
The Cards are 5-3 on the road this season and a stellar 7-1 in Lynn.
Roll out for action Thursday night for the Cards final home appearance of 2018!
VOLLEYBALL FALLS IN FOUR TO PITTSBURGH
A Cardinal team that looked good in stretches during the first two sets but couldn't quite grab the ultimate advantage or get the win. Louisville regrouped in the third set and won a tightly contested contest by two. Bonus Volleyball in that one, just like in the second set.
It certainly looked like the match was headed to a five set affair after the Cards jumped out 8-2 and pushed that to 16-6 advantage in set four. Then, the proverbial wheels fell off the Cardinal Express and Pitt used a 12-0 run to get back into the contest and take a 18-16 lead. The Panthers also grabbed seven of the final 11 points to put the Cards away an take game four and the match.
No doubt about it, # 6 ranked Pitt is a VERY GOOD team that found success with the front line blocking and the hard-hitting foursome of Layne Van Buskirk, Stephanie Williams, Kayla Lund and Nina Markewycz...who had a combined 50 of the 55 Pitt kills. The Cards got double-digit kills out of Amanda Green (16) and Melanie McHenry (15) but it wasn't enough to propel Louisville to victory. The Cards also got Jasmine Bennett back onto the hardwood in the Fitzgerald Field House for her first action in three weeks and she looked healed from the abdominal injury that had her sidelined.
Tough watching that fourth set failure on the ACC Network Extra. You could see the Pitt (22-0, 10-0) momentum building and the Louisville players were seemingly powerless to stop it. It had to be even tougher for our "A Team" correspondent Worldwide Jeff McAdams, who made the six hour trek to Steel City to view it live.
The 10 match win streak for Louisville comes to an end on an afternoon that got good news with the return of Bennett but a blow with the "L" to arch-rival Pitt...
ALBANY DOWNS LOUISVILLE FIELD HOCKEY 1-0
After a dramatic, double over-time 3-2 win at Syracuse on Friday, one would have thought that the UofL Field Hockey squad would have been riding a bit of momentum in the Sunday afternoon contest against the Albany Great Danes in Albany, NY. That wasn't the case, though, as the #10 Cards Field Hockey squad suffered a 1-0 loss to #22 Albany at the Danes home field. On the Great Danes Senior Day, and with the temperature reaching 65 degrees, it was the Cards who went cold on offense, with no goals and allowing the game decider 50 minutes into the 70 minute contest.
Justine Sowry's remarks:
"Albany came ready to play. They were stronger than us on the ball and on the tackles. Unfortunately, we were unable to get any rhythm established because of our fundamentals being off and our lack of connection between our lines."
Ayeshia McFerran with three saves in goal-keep. The Great Danes held a 7-6 shot advantage. UofL drops to 12-5 on the season and Albany improves to 12-3.
The Cards end the regular season with a trip to Kent State for Golden Flashes action on Sunday, October 28th. After that, Louisville plays in the first round of the ACC Tournament where they'll be the #3 seed and will face #6 seed Wake Forest on Thursday, Nov 1st. at 4 p.m.
GOLF FINISHES THIRD AT CARDINAL COUPLE
On a cool and slightly windy day at the UofL Golf Club, the chip and putt Cards climbed from sixth place to third in final day action Sundayin the Cardinal Cup Tournament. Gone were the high velocity winds from Saturday that blasted the Louisville and Simpsonville area and played havoc with the stroke counts. The Cards scores improved without Mother Nature blowing in from the west. Setting the pace for UofL was Irish freshman from Cork County Mairead Martin, who finished tied for sixth with a 219 three round total. Linage of the Sykes' genealogy roots also goes back to Cork County.
Did you know "Sikes" or "Sykes" is a Gaelic word for a small stream or creek? No wonder we ended up in Fern Creek...
TOP FIVE CARDS:
Mairead Martin 70-77-72 = 219
Lauren Hartlage 71-76-73 = 220
Lauren Thibodeau 73-79-70 = 222
Delaney Shah 77-75-71 = 223
Linda Trockel 76-77-71 = 224
Louisville heads to Atlanta next, where they'll tee it up starting Friday in the Alexa Stirling Women's Intercollegiate tournament.
paulie
xxxxx
######
Happy for WSOC! Got to watch most of that one. WTH Field Hockey? Sounds like they underestimated the big dogs. Saw the end of Volleyball. Ouch.
ReplyDeleteFelt better, at least enough to go to work last night. Think I caught this cold from a girl (I'll let you guess how.)
Go Cards!
Curtis "doesn't kiss and tell" Franklin
Yeah, the mystery remains on FH and the loss. And, I guess on just how you caught your cold. It's been suggested I do more on Instagram. Hmmm. Interesting concept. More to follow on that, possibly.
DeletePaulie
Don't succumb to the Instagram temptation Paulie. I was there for about three months. Never again. Ended up with a stalker following me and, well, I got some pics, e-mails and even phone calls that made my life a ordeal.
DeleteFinally had a face-to-face meeting with this weirdo chick. Thankfully, she got the message and hasn't bothered me since.
The more social media stuff you enlist in, the more complications you set yourself up for. Take my advice Paulie. Avoid the Instagram.
-- The real Joe Hill --
Thanks for the advice, Joe. I think I may have put a picture up from our time in Gatlinburg but not really sure. I need a social media liaison to do all the malarkey for me. Both my index fingers suffering severe strain from my "hunt and peck" journalistic and social attempts currently.
DeletePaulie
You could make that five events in five cities Paulie. Rowing was in the head of the Charles and had two squads. They finished 24th. in the Championship 8 and 11th. in the Club 8.
ReplyDelete