So, Professor Jared has adjusted his glasses, sharpened his pencils and turned his reading lamp on high to look at Cardinal Field Hockey, women's Soccer and Volleyball today.
Field Hockey
Of all the sports I was disappointed with field hockey the most. Their exclusion from the NCAA Tournament is debatable but they shot themselves in the foot and can't complain too much without looking back at how they closed he year.
The Cards went 13-6 and finished ACC regular season play 3-3 for a third place finish. Before the selection show Louisville was ranked 12th.
The first loss was the home opener against Ohio State, where the Cards were up 2-0 at halftime and lost 3-2. It was an ugly collapse where the defense fell apart. Their 4-2 loss on the road at Wake Forest was one of the worst losses on the season according to Coach Sowry. Their chance to avenge that loss in the first round of the ACC Tournament went south fast after leading 2-1 and losing 3-2.
Offensively, the Cards often relied on one player to get hot at the right time including Bethany Russ' streak of game-winners or Erica Cooper's four-goal performance. The offense lacked consistency.
Compared to expectations the final results weren't as great. Event the high ranking and the third place finish in the conference still wasn't anything other than slightly above average. The Stick Girls get a C+.
Women's Soccer
Women's soccer did something they hadn't done in half a decade by making the NCAA Tournament.They also made their first ACC Tournament appearance.
Louisville ended the year 12-7 with a 6-4 conference record. It was their best results since they moved into Lynn Stadium.
The Cards nearly doubled up opponents in scoring, 37-20. Only 15 of those came against ACC opponents, the 10 regular season games and sole conference tournament games. That leaves 22 goals for the eight games including an 8-1 victory to open the season. Conference play continues to be an uphill battle.
Louisville's defense, led by keeper Gabby Kouzelos, allowed roughly one goal per match. When you look at how dangerous opponents in the ACC can be and you take away the five-goal performance for UNC that is a good figure to have.
A three-game losing streak to close the year and losing four of the final five turned what could've have been a stellar season into just a great season.
Let's remember that there are a lot of freshmen and sophomores on this squad and the Cards lose just two seniors. The future is bright.
Women's soccer gets a B+.
Let's remember that there are a lot of freshmen and sophomores on this squad and the Cards lose just two seniors. The future is bright.
Women's soccer gets a B+.
Volleyball
With two regular season games left and a potential NCAA Tournament berth remainingvolleyball can't quite get a final grade quite yet.
Louisville is 20-7 on the year and 13-3 in conference play as of right now and are currently just outside the Top 25.
This season has been up-and-down and has been plagued by injuries. Alexis Hamilton went down before the season, Kelly O'Neil went out for the year early on, Jasmine Bennett spent much of the year injured, Melanie McHenry is now suffering an injury, and Emily Scott just went out for the year.
Some early season road and neutral site losses to ranked opponents weren't bad. The first ugly loss was being swept at home by Kentucky. They went quite some time without another loss until they went on the road to an undefeated Pittsburgh team and fell. Home losses to Syracuse and Florida State recently knocked Louisville out of the rankings and also were just poor performances all around.
Bright spots in the game have included Claire Chaussee stepping up recently to prove to be one of the best freshmen in the ACC, Amanda Green's all-around play, Wilma Rivera's consistency, and being able to lean onto Molly Sauer on the back row. Players have stepped up when called upon.
The .261 attack percentage is well above opponents' .183, but could still be better. If you take away the 526 attack errors that percentage goes up to .415 for the Cards. Most of the errors have appeared to be mental mistakes rather than mishits or slip-ups.
If Louisville cleans up their errors all-around and can win their final two regular season games they'll be back in the rankings and will solidify a spot in the NCAA tournament. The ACC doesn't host a conference Volleyball Tournament and that's been a subject of debate on The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. I can see both sides of that fact.Although this team doesn't appear to be set to advance past the Sweet 16 at best, there is still a chance they could make a Cinderella run. Right now, volleyball sits at a B.
Got a take on the grading? Agree or disagree? Let us know in the column section. WE always welcome your thoughts and comments! After all, YOU are CardinalmCouple and we never forget that...
OKC Challenge
Their fall challenge consists of a Red team vs a Black team. The groups compete in physical activities ranging from running stairs at the football stadium to a dodge-ball challenge and everything in between. Part of the goal is to build up physical strength and stamina while the other part is team bonding.
The team captains are Danielle Watson (Black) and Sidney Melton (Red). However, come regular season time I would expect to see Megan Hensley and Celene Funke take more of team captain roles.
Donation Month
Thank you to everyone who has donated so far! If you have not had the opportunity to give yet
there's still plenty of time.
Donation month is closing in on the halfway mark. Whether you can give a dollar or a hundred dollars we will graciously accept anything you have to offer. Cardinal Couple currently accepts cash, checks (payable to "Cardinal Couple"), or PayPal.
Cash and checks can be mailed to
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Happy Wednesday and Go Cards!
- Jared -
Donation Month
there's still plenty of time.
Donation month is closing in on the halfway mark. Whether you can give a dollar or a hundred dollars we will graciously accept anything you have to offer. Cardinal Couple currently accepts cash, checks (payable to "Cardinal Couple"), or PayPal.
Cash and checks can be mailed to
CARDINAL COUPLE
P.O. BOX 91521
LOUISVILLE, KY 40291
Happy Wednesday and Go Cards!
- Jared -
Very nice article and subject matter today, Professor Jared! I will debate the FH grade, though. A top 15 finish, spectacular play by the world's best Field Hockey goalkeeper, overall winning record and being in the same conference with power house North Carolina, who is still undefeated and headed to Louisville for the Final Four...I'm going to give them a B.
ReplyDeletePaulie
I have to agree with Paulie. A "B" or maybe "B-". The ACC has two of the final four teams (UNC and Wake Forest) in the Final Four but will only advance one to the title game, since they play each other in the semis. With Princeton or Maryland coming out of the other side of the bracket, I don't see either of them knocking off what will mostly likely be the Heels in the final.
ReplyDeleteNow, about the tournament.
It's high time that this NCAA Tournament become either a 24 or 32 team format. I like the 24-team concept. You have a play-in game to advance a team to the "Sweet Sixteen"...where this play-in winner would face a seeded team that has a bye. 16 goes to 8, then, where they would face one of the top eight seeds (two per region). Under this format, Louisville, who ended up #20 in the final rankings, gets in with other over .500 schools such as Ohio St, Stanford, VCU and Pacific.
And, on Volleyball, I think conference tournaments need to be developed. It gives the chance for a underdog, like in the NCAA WBB tournament, to win tournament title and advance to the dance, where they could get on a hot streak.
Curtis "Never comments this much, must be the coffee" Franklin
It might just work Curtis. Currently, there are 10 automatic qualifiers, based on their respective conference tournament title wins. That leaves eight "at large" teams. Four of these came from the Big 10 -- a bit surprising. Three were ACC, including the questionable inclusion of Virginia, who was selected over Louisville. One came from the Ivy League Conference (Princeton).
DeleteSo, why these four Big 10 schools? And just (3) ACC schools in the "at-large". MAybe because the NCAA headquarters are in Indianapolis, and, as we know, Indiana is a Big 10 state, with Purdue and Indiana participating in that conference.
Also, Cards FH actually was #20 in RPI and #14 in the final coaches poll, just a slight correction there, sir.
Maybe it's a numbers game. There are 77 schools listed under the RPI rankings in DI. Maybe they think putting more than 25% of the total DI Field Hockey schools in the Tournament is too many. Current they take 18 out of 77. 23%. Including 24 out of 77 would put that number at 31%.
Yeah, it's a mess, all right.
Paulie
Most conferences *do* have tournaments in volleyball. The ACC is the oddball here. But, I agree, I do wish the ACC would add a volleyball championship tournament.
DeleteToday is World Kindness Day. Keep that in mind as you go about your day. Let's lay off the Bobby bashing and criticism of officials who call way too many fouls for a day, OK? Try a little kindness today in your actions and deeds. I will. Will you?
ReplyDeleteNick O.