Sister Act -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

LOUISVILLE WOMEN'S ATHLETICS HAS THREE SQUADS WITH SISTERS ON THE ROSTER

Don't let the article headline fool you. I'm not doing an article today on the 1992 movie Sister Act that starred Whoopie Goldberg. It is a pretty fun one to watch, though. 

The 2018-19 Louisville women's athletic programs had three teams with sisters on the roster. SOFTBALL, LACROSSE and FIELD HOCKEY might have confused the program printers for their sports when they did the final proof-read for accuracy and saw the same name twice on the roster. But, it's true...so let's take a look at the sibling similarities on the squads.

Riley Schindler

Let's start with Softball, since it just ended recently. Holly Aprile's catch and throw roster had both Riley Schindler and Paige Schindler on the 2018-19 squad. The sisters are twins and hail from Borden, IN and went to Borden High School and were on the 2016 Indiana State Softball Championship team there. They stand 5'7". Riley wore #4 and Paige #7. They just completed their sophomore seasons on the Cards softball squad. 

Riley played right field for Louisville and played in 41 games -- starting 34 of them. Known as a solid fielders with good speed on the base paths, she batted .200 on the season (4-20), scored four runs and had three RBI's.

Paige Schindler

Paige is listed as a right handed pitcher for Louisville but did not see the circle in 2019. She was a valuable pinch base runner for the Cards, though, and appeared in 23 games for UofL in that role. She successfully stole two bases in three attempts. 

It's always difficult to project of predict what a coaching staff has planned for their returning players in the next season. Louisville loses a good "arm" and hitter in Megan Hensley to graduation, so there are opportunities for the Schindler twins to fill in those gaps. Base running is also very key to the success of a squad and Holly Aprile demonstrated a bit of the "bold and daring" strategy there with the Cards in 2019, so opportunities present themselves for the Schindler's in 2020.

Let's move from Schindler's to Schneider's.  Louisville's Field Hockey squad had the sisters Meghan and Katie Schneider on the 2018-19 roster. The Schneider's come to Louisville from San Diego, CA and both played at Serra High School.  

Katie Schneider

Katie is a 5'9" forward who completed her freshman season starting four of Louisville's 19 games. She scored four goals for the Cards and saw 511 minutes on the turf at Trager Stadium. She wore #20.

I ran into a bit of confusion when looking at her high school career, the UofL Field Hockey website lists both her and her sister as playing at both Serra and Sierra High School and it happens that California has a Serra and a Sierra High School and both schools play Field Hockey. Serra is the correct school, though. 

Meghan is a sophomore at UofL and started all 19 games in her second season as a Card. Listed as either a back or a middle, the 5'6" Californian saw 1105 minutes on the turf and wore #5 on her back. She had the sixth most minutes on the squad and scored a goal in the 2019 season. 

Meghan Schneider

I would guess that both Schneider's will be an important part of the Cardinal's 2019 squad with four graduates....having seen plentiful time in 2018. We see changes occasionally in Field Hockey, as well as other "turf sports" in position changes for players. It would seem that both the Schneider's have the versatility to go wherever Coach Sowry and the staff need them to
play. Both Schneider's were on the USA U 19 Field Hockey squads and Meghan also played on the U 21 team twice. 

Field Hockey will have some gaps to fill in 2019, beginning with the graduation of All-Universe goal-keeper Ayeshia McFerran. The Cards also lost all-Conference middles in Taylor Stone and Katie Walsh...but Sowry gets back the rest of her starting lineup. 

Caroline Blalock

Finally, let's visit with the Blalock's. Caroline and Sarah arrived in Louisville to play Lacrosse from Marriots Ridge High School in Ellicott City, MD. They are twins, both are sophomores and both are listed as midfielders on Scott Teeter's roster. 

Caroline started six of the Cards 18 games in 2019 and had 20 goals and 10 assists. She was the fifth-leader scorer for LouLax. She had a season-high three goals against Mercer. She was named to the All-ACC second team in 2018, as well as  getting IWLCA second-team recognition 

Sarah started in eight of Louisville Lacrosse's 18 games and scored 11 goals with three assists. She also had nine draw controls against Ohio State, which was high on the Cards' squad for 2019. She set a personal career record with four goals in five shots against Virginia. 

Sarah Blalock

The LaxCards were not hit too hard by graduation, losing just Tessa Chad...but Chad was the leading scorer on the team and Teeter and staff have some really big shoes to fill to replace her in the lineup. It's not hard to see both the Blalock sisters picking up that slack and being integral players in 2020. 

So, there you have it. Three squads keeping it "all in the family" 

Here are some sister combinations you may not have been aware of. Most of us do remember the Schimmel sisters, so I won't go into detail there. 

There have been other "sister acts" in Louisville women's sports history, as well. Who could forget the Whitfield sisters Casey (2011-15) and Allison (2016-present) who never got to play together on the Lynn Stadium turf. 

Louisville WBB fans will undoubtedly remember the Slaughter's...Antonita (2010-14) and Toni (2006-07). They didn't play together either but both were excellent performers on Tom Collen's (Toni) and Jeff Walz's (Antonita) squads. 

Jamie Soles

Finally, there were the "sisters of Soles" --  ( a.k.a. "the pride of New Egypt, NJ and the new pride of New Egypt, NJ" as we referred to them here at CARDINAL COUPLE) -- Kayla and Jamie Soles. Their careers never overlapped at Louisville but both played college softball in 2015...Kayla as a senior for the Cards and Jamie a freshman at Hartford. Sensing a need to carry on the tradition at Louisville, Jamie transferred to Louisville her sophomore year (2016) and graduated in 2018. 

Do you know of any of sister combinations in Louisville women's sports that I might have forgotten?

Feel free to let me know in the comments section if you know of any other "sister acts".

Have a marvelous Monday !  


paulie
xxxxxx