Lacrosse Wins, WBB Gets Awards - Wednesday Cardinal Couple

Lacrosse Wins Over Longwood

Longwood University, the Lancers, came to the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium and took the loss 17-7.  A convincing win for the Cards, but a win that left Coach Scott Teeter sounding a cautionary tone.

The Cards jumped on the board in this one quickly and with early pace, scoring five times within the first eight minutes of play in a 7-0 opening game run.  UofL also used lots of scorers, with Hannah Morris being the first player to get her 2nd goal of the game with 2:44 left in the first half making the score 9-3.  11 players would score for the Cards in this one, led by Morris with 4, and Belle Dora also completing the hat trick.  Caroline Blalock got a pair, and then there were a whole mess of players with singletons.

Early in the game, it appeared that Longwood was just outmatched by the Cardinals, and perhaps that was the case to a degree, given the final score, but they did buckle down and start finding some success.  They were still losing the game, and UofL was still, slowly, stretching the lead, but the Lancers were able to stop the rapid fire patter of scores of the opening minutes, and really was able to control much more of the possession time in the 2nd half.  While they weren't able to generate too many scoring opportunities, they were in their offensive set more, taking up more time, thus slowing down the UofL attack.

Both teams used two goalkeepers in the game, with substitutions for both starting GKs at halftime.  Teeter expressed satisfaction with Rachel Florek's performance in the 1st half, but wanted to take the opportunity to get Jen Schaff some playing time and experience.  Both had two saves, with three getting past Florek and four getting past Schaff.

Teeter expressed some concern about effort and aggressiveness, pointing out that the team lost out on a number of 50/50 balls and draw controls.  Louisville did win in both of those statistical categories, although the draw controls were quite close (13 for UofL, 12 for Longwood).  There's no equivalent FRED report for Lacrosse, but if there were, I suspect there would be some lower case letters, and perhaps some not awarded at all.

The team was immediately preparing for a departure that evening to North Carolina to take on a very good UNC team Thursday evening at 7pm.  After UNC, Lacrosse will have a three game non-conference stretch, with Niagara, Delaware, and Butler on the slate.

Here what Scott Teeter, Hannah Morris, and Belle Dora had to say post-game, and please excuse the terrible post-game interviewer.

Lacrosse Post-game comments, Scott Teeter, Hannah Morris, Belle Dora

Post Season Conference WBB Awards

The ACC a dizzying array of post-season awards, but a few stand out for UofL.

Dana Evans picks up the Player of the Year award, and Kylee Shook won Defensive Player of the Year.  The Coach of the Year award, which some perhaps thought should go to Jeff Walz, was awarded to Joanna Bernabei-McNamee from Boston College.  While BC rounds out the regular season just a little above mid-pack, that finish was a dramatic change in fortunes for team.

Evans, Shook, and Jazmine Jones, all were named to the All-ACC squad by the Blue Ribbon panel, with Shook dropping to the 2nd team All-ACC in the coaches version of the All-ACC teams.  Shook and Jones would also be tabbed for the All-ACC Defensive team in the coaches awards.  The blue ribbon panel doesn't name an Defensive team.

Paulie is in Greensboro and will be bringing reports from the ACC tournament the rest of the week.

And be sure to get your picks in for the ACC tournament bracket challenge or Jared will be sad.  Mine will be forthcoming in the next couple of hours.



Cardinal Couple ACC Pick "em" 

You know the drill, most of  you, but if you don't -- now hear this.

We have an ACC Tournament Pick 'Em here at Cardinal Couple. You predict the 14 total games and if you do the best, you get a $25 gift card to Panera or Cracker Barrel. Second place gets a $15 gift card. 

Enter them by noon, today. In case of tie, earliest entry wins. 

These are Jared Anderson's Picks: 

Round 1:  UNC, Notre Dame, Miami
Round 2:  Virginia Tech, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Miami
Round 3:  Florida State, Louisville, NC State, Duke
Semi-finals: Louisville, NC State
Championship:  Louisville

Think you can do better? Enter your selections in the comments section by 1 p.m.

Good luck

-- 

JMcA