ROAD CALLS FOR WSOC AND FIELD HOCKEY IN FINAL THREE
Hard to believe, but we've seen the end of Field Hockey at Trager Stadium this season and Women's Soccer will spend time on the road before ending their season at Lynn on Oct 28th.
FIELD HOCKEY
Syracuse and the Cards face off on Thursday, Friday October 19th. Otto the Orange's squad is 8-5 on the season and currently ranked at #9 in the nation. The 'Cuse fell to Wake Forest 4-1 on Sunday...surrendering four straight goals after grabbing a 1-0 lead at Kentner Stadium on the WFU campus.
After that, the Flock travels about two hours east on I-90 Sunday, Oct. 21st to face the Albany Great Danes. Albany is ranked #23 in the nation and has been whipping up on northeastern schools as of late...knocking off Vermont and New Hampshire in their last two. They are 10-3 on the season. Head Albany Field Hockey coach Phil Sykes (no relation to me that I know of) picked up his 200th. career win versus New Hampshire.
The Louisville "stick girls" end the regular season on the Kent State campus to face a 5-10 Golden Flashes squad. KSU dropped a 4-0 decision to Ohio State last time out. The Cards are currently in third place in the conference standings with a 3-3 record against other ACC schools. UNC tops the league at 6-0 and Duke holds second with a 4-1 mark. The TarHeels have clinched the regular season crown already and the #1 seed in the ACC women's soccer tournament that starts on their campus beginning November 1st.
WOMEN'S SOCCER
First stop for WSOC is at Duke against an #11 ranked Blue Devils squad that downed Clemson in their last with a 3-2 margin. The Cards and Duke engaged in a two-overtime thriller last year in Lynn Stadium with the Durham school emerging the victor. Duke is 11-2-2 this year.
I reviewed this poignant and wide-ranged interview with I did with Coach Karen Ferguson Dayes after the heart-breaker against Duke last year and you can see/hear it at the link below:
LINK: KAREN FERGUSON DAYES AFTER DUKE LOSS SEPT. 2017
After Duke, the soccer squad travels to Raleigh, NC to take on Ms .Wuf's pack -- North Carolina St. on Sunday. The 'Pack played FSU to a 1-1 tie on Sunday and is 9-4-3 on the season. It's Senior Day for NC State WSOC on Sunday, so...the Cards will be facing an emotional and fired up Wolfpack crew. NC State is un-ranked but is #15 in the RPI listings and getting votes in the United Soccer Coaches poll. Karen Ferguson Dayes' kickers return home to end the season against Virginia Tech on Thursday, Oct 25th. The Hokies/Gobblers of Blacksburg are 7-5-3 this season and fell to #3 in the nation North Carolina last time out 2-0.
In the ACC race for the top spot, North Carolina tops the conference with 21 points. Boston College is tied with Duke at 16 points and the Cards are tied with Virginia at 15 points. Good showings so far for both the Louisville Women's Soccer and Field Hockey squads and they enter a very crucial part of the season now that will help determine where they start in conference tournaments and whether they'll get NCAA Tournament bids or not.
We'll update you here at "The Couple" on viewing options on these as they become available. For now, we know that the Thursday 7 p.m. match against Duke for WSOC will be shown on the ACC Network Extra. The Friday 7 p.m. Cards vs. Syracuse face off is also scheduled to be on ACC Network Extra also.
CARDS WBB TAKES TO THE LINKS
A new conditioning technique? An event designed to further the "mad scientists" coaching strategy? No and no. It was UofL WBB's annual golf scramble at the Cardinal Course at Covered Bridge yesterday.
Honestly, I had no clue it was taking place. I might have...probably would have ambled out to take a few pictures and commandeer a cart or two if we had known. (Maybe that's why we were kept in the dark about the event...and have been for the previous five years /outings).
Conspiracy theory? Nah, they know where the money is and it isn't with this non-profit.
Would we have covered it? Yeah, sure...if we'd known about it.
Then again, the prospect of seeing Sam Fuehring walking out of the woods with a stick in her hands just might have caused me to hide in the clubhouse.
Cold morning for "gripping and ripping" it, for sure. A fund-raiser, for sure and we don't have any money to send WBB way. Hope it went well, haven't seen any results.
paulie
xxxxx
Hoping for the best for both these sports. Golf? That's a good walk wasted by having to look for a little white object every 5-10 minutes, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI tried the golf once, on vacation, years ago. Played with my brother-in-law, who is pretty good at it. Used his "old" clubs and shared a cart for nine holes. He decided I needed my own cart after that for the final nine.
The beer was cold and scenery beautiful, as I recall. Never had the desire to return to the links. We let more people "play through" that drivers let cars merge on the Watterson during rush hour, if I remember right. Spent a lot of time searching the woods and rough for my shots.
Nick O
Winning out the rest of the season for field hockey would guarantee a spot in the Big Dance for field hockey no matter how they do in the ACC Tournament.
ReplyDeleteWomen’s soccer is on a roll and another win will just add to their resume. 64 teams make the NCAA Tournament for women’s soccer so another win or two would for sure put them in.
Ran into Coach Walz for a brief moment this morning but didn’t get a chance to talk to him about how the golf scramble went. He was in a good mood and energized.
Hopefully no one was injured when you ran into him
DeleteWalz is a tough guy and can manage a few bumps and bruises lol
DeleteTough task ahead for women's soccer. Though the AP poll hasn't yet been released, Louisville is "also considered" by TopDrawer, as is NC State. Duke is 9th in those rankings, and the Florida State team that NC State just drew is number 18.
ReplyDeleteAh, the heraled 2013 UNC class....Steph Mavunga ended up as a Buckeye. Diamond DeShields a Vol, Allisha Gray a Gamecock and Jessica Washington remains at Kansas, where she sat out 2017-18 with a knee injury.
ReplyDeleteA lot of this transition probably evolved around "the scandal" The departures came at a tumultuous time for the UNC women’s basketball program, which was staring at possible significant NCAA sanctions resulting from the paper class scheme.
The NCAA enforcement staff alleged that Jan Boxill knowingly provided women’s basketball players with impermissible academic assistance and extra benefits during her tenure as the team’s academic counselor.
That's the way the ball bounces. Hatchell remains as head coach. Hey, she's got Paris Key, right? Steph Watts has probably recovered from her knee injury.
Paulie
dont forget destinee walker back too after knee injury last year the heels are a sleeper team in acc
ReplyDeleteThat's a great philosophy and breakdown on things, Dave. Players come, players go. A fan base and support stays solid because of traditions and the people at the top.
ReplyDeleteWBB has that.
The five things that can destroy a program (or about any thing) are doubt, division, denial, defection and disillusionment. I don't see any of that at UofL WBB.
Blue Lou