Track and Field at NCAAs; Soccer Schedule Announced -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

New School Record for NCAA Qualifiers

After the second day of competition, UofL track and field has raised its number of qualifiers for the NCAA Championships in Austin to five in six events. On Thursday, Ivine Chemutai came in 12th in the women's 10,000m run, which was the final qualifying spot. Dorcas Wasike did not run in this event. While I'm still unclear about qualifications for the NCAA Championships, everything that I have seen points to needing to participate in the regional to advance. If that is the case, Wasike will not be looking to improve upon her finish in last year's championships.

Also advancing Thursday was Makenli Forrest in the hammer throw, where she placed ninth. Forrest would improve her weekend as Friday, she advanced to the championships in discus as well, placing sixth. Gabriela Leon placed ninth in the pole vault, Martice Moore finished second overall in 400m hurdles (setting his second school record in as many days), and Albert Kosgei set a new personal best on his way to finishing fourth in the 3,000m steeplechase. 

The regional event ends today with just a few more events with Louisville athletes looking to add to the number of school qualifiers. Field events will begin at 2:45 p.m. and track events at 6 p.m.. The NCAA Championships will begin in Austin, Texas on June 5th. 

Soccer Takes on 10 NCAA Teams in 2019

It must be schedule week, as women's soccer joined the teams announcing their opponents for the upcoming year. Louisville will take on ten teams that were in last year's NCAA tournament, while also pulling top-ten Duke and NCAA runner-up UNC out of the conference pot for the season. Working in the Cards favor for the overall schedule is that all but one non-conference game will be played in Lynn Stadium. I'm not certain how the NCAA lets a team get away with scheduling like that, but I won't complain as long as the Cards can take care of business at home.

Louisville will open the season in 86 days with an exhibition in Lynn Stadium against the Butler Bulldogs. Following that one will be the only away game of the non-con, as the Cards head to Columbus to take on Ohio State. Louisville then plays seven straight home games starting on August 25th with Morehead State and ending on September 21st with North Carolina. The Cards common non-conference opponents from last season are Morehead State and Dayton. Louisville beat MSU in an exhibition 4-0 and took down Dayton on the road 1-0. The non-conference schedule also includes St. Louis, Eastern Michigan, Indiana, and Vanderbilt. It will certainly not be a cakewalk.

In conference play, Louisville will take on eight common opponents from last season. Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh drop off the schedule in favor of Boston College and Clemson. In nine games against those eight opponents last season (Louisville faced Virginia in the ACC tournament), the Cards finished 5-4. All four losses came to UNC (5-1 on the road being the worst loss of the season), Duke, and Virginia. Both losses to Virginia were in Lynn Stadium while the others were on the road.  This year, Louisville will not travel to the Carolinas at all during the regular season as all four North Carolina teams and Clemson will head to Lynn Stadium. Those five ACC home games will be a ton of fun to watch, and the Cards will need some home field advantage in a couple of them. 

Louisville wraps the regular season this year on Halloween night against the NC State Wolfpack. It would be nice to have 6 or 7 conference wins already to that point, but I would also accept having three or fewer conference losses.

This is a tough schedule, both in and out of conference, but Louisville showed signs of a big leap offensively last season. Without losing a lot of offensive production, as Kennadi Carbin was out most of the season, all eyes will turn to the defense without Gabrielle Vincent. Sarah Hernandez was good in her freshman season as a centerback, but the question will be who steps next to her. Maisie Whitsett found herself in that spot during some spring ball, but she was tied for the team lead in goals last year and is still listed as a MF/F on the roster. I'd expect that we see Niamh Nelson slide in to the middle and allow a more attacking minded player to pick up outside back spot opposite Arianna Ferraro.

The roster is currently thin on defenders, so I suspect some of the incoming freshman will change that, but I don't know that Karen Ferguson-Dayes would like to put a freshman next to her sophomore in the middle. Either way, Gabby Kouzelos will look to improve upon her (already good) mark of 1.06 goals allowed per game from last season. We'll find out how it all shakes out in just a few short months.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

As Jared mentioned yesterday, the studio will be thin this morning as Jeff and Paulie hold down the fort.

I'm headed to Speedway, Indiana, where I'll be hoping desperately for a 6-8 hour window of no rain on Sunday. The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour this week will cover some track happenings, discussion about the released schedules, surely some WNBA news.

The Famous Worldwide Quiz will take a break this week, since it would be basically Jeff vs. the quiz.

A mid-show call to Jared Anderson is also on the agenda. He's currently in South Carolina doing recon work on Clemson basketball and boiled peanuts.

Tune in to the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour at 11AM on WCHQ FM. WCHQ is available on 100.9 FM, at wchqfm.com, the WCHQ App, and on Facebook Live.

LINK:  www.wchqfm.com

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-