Successful Sunday for WSOC, FH and VB !! -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Three squads. Three different venues. Three wins yesterday for Louisville women's athletic squads.

With a combined record of 26-5 this fall, Louisville Field Hockey, Women's Soccer and Volleyball are, to use an old phrase, "spanning the globe bringing you the constant variety of sports, the thrill of victory and the human drama of athletic competition". 

(Props to Jim McKay for an opening sequence to a show that I always enjoyed. I wonder whatever happened to that skier who "lost it"?) 


Let's take a look at where, when, and how the three got their "W"'s on Sunday. 



WSOC FLIES PAST EAGLES 2-1


We'll start in the northeast, to the scenic Boston area we go, where the Louisville women's soccer squad -- ranked 22nd nationally -- faced ACC foe Boston College and clipped the Eagles wings 2-1.

An early start (noon) for this one, something the Cards seem to be good at, having began their Friday match against Syracuse at 10 a.m.

The Cards came out firing in Beantown and Maisie Whitsett tested the B.C. defense and goalkeeper twice in the first ten minutes of the action. She was denied on both attempts to score, but set the precedent for how to attack the Eagles. 14 minutes into the contest Nadege L'Esperance started an attacking set and sent the ball to Allison Whitfied. She, in turn, set up Emina Ekic in the middle of the box with a cross and the Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year in 2015-16 booted the ball over the goalkeepers head and into the net. 1-0 Cards

You know how Emina rolls, she's always looking to be part of the party, and she was part of the attack a bit later when she saw Delaney Snyder sprinting into the box with 13 minutes left in the first half. An epic Ekic pass found the streaking Snyder and her shot into the lower left side gave UofL a 2-0 advantage. 

B.C. held the 13-4 advantage in shots and a 3-1 advantage in corner kicks after 45 minutes but the score read 2-0 Louisville at the half. Gabby "the goalie" Kouzelos didn't have time to catch up on any texting in the first half, occupying herself with three saves. 

Brooklyn Rivers gave Eagles fans a scare early in the second half with a well-placed shot in frame that was barely denied by B.C. keeper. With 25 minutes to go, Gabby was called on again to deny a B.C. opportunity and she performed a miraculous save on a shot that looked to be a sure score for the Eagles. The home team was able to get on the board with two minutes to play...getting a dubious "penalty kick" awarded to them but the Cardinals were able to maintain possession after that and improved to 9-1 with the win.

A road trip the roster will probably not forget anytime soon, with a team wide illness, early start times and two ACC wins.  

Louisville WSOC comes home  for their next outing to face Wake Forest Thursday night at 7:00 p.m.


FIELD HOCKEY BLANKS THE FRIARS

Another venue, another win for the Flock. Cooking the Friars 2-0.


The penalty corners were in the Cards favor 11-2 in Providence and, by divine providence, the "Pastor" connected on one and Carter Ayars found success on a second one to give UofL Field Hockey all the scores they needed in the win over P.C. 

Hisses to Providence College for wanting to charge viewers for this event on-line. Fortunately, ol' Paulie found a way around that and watched the feed. 

Meche Pastor ended up on the shooting end of the penalty corner sequence with about three minutes left in the second quarter and, after the set by Ayars, drilled one deep into the net for the 1-0 Cardinal advantage.  Meche was also involved in the other penalty corner that yielded a goal. With about four minutes to go, her shot was deflected by Ayars successfully into the goal for the second and final score. 

Hollyn Barr seeing all 90 minutes between the pipes for the Cards but a light day for her, relatively speaking, with just two Friar shots in the four quarters and none of them on goal. The Cards had an 11-2 advantage on corner attempts and the win was the third shutout of the season for Justine Sowry's squad.

A road trip finally ends after five weeks for UofL. A road trip for the #6 Cards that took them to five states for six opponents and five wins. 

A rarity for Louisville Field Hockey (8-1-1) next.  A Friday with a night game. The #6 Cards will host #21 Wake Forest under the lights at Trager Stadium on Oct 4th. A 6 p.m. start. 

Go check the lights, Stanley. 

A revenge game? Yeah, you betcha...it was the loss to WFU in the ACC Tournament last year that, at least in my thinking, put the Cards on the wrong side of the fence for the NCAA Tournament. 

The Pastor and her congregation battle the Demon Deaconess. Bring your rosary beads and Bible. 


VOLLEYBALL COMPLETE SWEEP OF THE CAROLINAS WITH 3-1 WIN OVER UNC.

After a five set thriller Friday night in Louisville's contest against NC State, you hoped it would be a bit of an easier "go" against the 3-8 UNC squad on Sunday.



No easy time or walk in the park for the VolleyCards yesterday, though, in the "arena formerly known as Cardinal" (to quote our quirky and snarky com-padre Worldwide Jeff) but a win, nevertheless. A 3-1 set advantage over the TarHeels. (Maybe a "walk after the park" given the parking conditions for Volleyball on Floyd Street).

23-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-22 were the set scores...Melanie McHenry with 18 kills and Emily Scott, plus Anna STEVENSON with six blocks each. 

The VolleyCards will eventually get the "setter-to-middles" scenario worked out and it'll be a joyous day in the L&N Federal Credit Union arena when they do. 

Cardinal errors ended up being the deciding factor in the first set. At 23-22, with UNC holding the advantage, two UofL miscues in a row gave the set to the Chapel Hill visitors.

The second set was a back-and-forth affair for most of the way. A 4-0 UNC run gave them a 17-15 edge before UofL called a time-out, regrouped and put together a 6-0 run to take a 21-17 advantage. The Cards maintained the four-point edge and evened the match at 1-1 with the 25-21 win.

Louisville came out energized after the half and grabbed a 11-6 edge early. UNC roared back with a 9-4 run, though, to tie the contest at 15-15. That evolved into a 20-20 and 23-23 tie.  It was UNC's turn to commit a few miscues, though, and two straight errors put this one into the win column for the Cards 25-23. 

Close sets? Sure, let's have another one in the fourth session.

 Back and forth this one went and the score was 20-20 when Dani Busboom Kelly's squad finally said "enough of this foolishness" and scored five of the next seven points to take set and match. Aiko Jones a huge part of the final set, recording seven kills for the victorious Cardinals.  

Huge moments throughout the match and mega-props to freshman outside-hitter Amber Stivrins. I'll vote in favor of seeing more court time for the Scottsdale (AZ) sensation. 

Next up, the Cards (9-3) will also play a Friday night affair on Floyd Street, engaging the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at 7 p.m.

Jared Anderson found a bit of time to leave his smartphone alone and snap a few photos of the action. We feature those in today's article. 


Have a marvelous Monday! 


paulie
xxxxx