CARDS DEFEAT BC IN WOMEN'S SOCCER AND FIELD HOCKEY -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 TWO WINS ON FLOYD STREET SUNDAY

One of those rare afternoons yesterday where we had double women's sports action on Floyd Street on the University of Louisville campus. The Louisville women's soccer team started it off with a noon contest against Boston College in Lynn Stadium and 90 minutes later, Field Hockey entertained the Eagles in Trager Stadium. 

Two wins for the Cards in the matches! WSOC blanked the Boston visitors 2-0 and Field Hockey prevailed over the Beantown stick swingers 2-1. 

LOUISVILLE FIELD HOCKEY 2 - BOSTON COLLEGE 1 

The Cards were seeing their fourth win in four games against a Eagles squad that was playing in their season opener. It was Charlie van Oirschot delivering the shot that was the decider in Trager. The freshman midfielder from The Netherlands found herself in a position to shoot on a penalty corner attempt and took what could best be described as a softball player driving a line shot up the middle of the infield toward for a single. There was 1:07 left in the third quarter and the goal put the Cards up 2-1.

If van Oirschot gets bored this spring, she could probably spend a little time at the Cards' softball's Ulmer Stadium in the batter's box...it was a crisp hit from Charlie, while the ball was still in the air, that flew past Boston  College goalkeeper Jonna Kennedy into the net. 

You just don't see that everyday. 

Louisville started the scoring in the match near the end of the first quarter off a penalty corner when Meghan Schneider tallied her first goal of the season from a pass from Mercedes Pastor. That 1-0 lead held firm until almost halftime...BC tied it up when Elizabeth Warner got the ball inside the box and performed a nifty spin move to tap a shot past Cards goalkeeper Hollyn Barr with just 1:32 remaining in the first half.

The Cards and Eagles both had scoring opportunities in the fourth quarter but some strong defensive play by both squads kept the score 2-1 and Louisville moved to 4-0 on the season. 

If one were to take a look at the stat sheets without glancing at the final score, you might imagine that the point total would have been much higher for the Cards.  Louisville had 19 shots, compared to just four for Boston College, The Cards had 12 shots on goal, BC could manage just two. Louisville received nine penalty corner attempts, compared to four for the visitors.

Credit Boston College goalie Kennedy for some excellent save work Sunday afternoon. She recorded nine saves, Louisville goalkeeper Hollyn Barr was not tested nearly as much, recording one save. 

This one got a bit "chippy" at times...four yellow cards were dealt to the foes (two each) and both Erica Cooper and Mercedes Pastor were removed from the game late...fortunately, it didn't affect the final score.  

A nice win, though, and wonderful weekend for birthday gal Justine Sowry. She spoke with me after the contest and you can watch the post-game interview at the link below. 

LINK: COACH SOWRY POST-GAME COMMENTS

With the home slate of Cardinal Field Hockey now completed, the Cards take to the road for their final five matches. Next up, Louisville travels to Winston-Salem, NC to face Wake Forest for two contests -- the first scheduled for Saturday, October 10th. 

The Demon Deacons are 1-2 this season and most recently split a pair of games against Virginia last weekend, after an opening season loss to North Carolina. The matches are scheduled for noon on Saturday and Sunday. 

With a 4-0 record, one would have to think that the Cards are close to being the #1 team in the nation, if not the best performer in college women's Field Hockey.

Louisville is the lone undefeated team in the ACC.

CARDS WOMEN'S SOCCER KICKS PAST BOSTON COLLEGE 2-0 

Have we mentioned lately just how good Louisville Women's Soccer star Emina Ekic is? 

She scored one goal and provided the assist on the other UofL score yesterday, as the Cards improved to 3-1 with a shutout of Boston College. 

Louisville got their first goal in the 15th. minute of first half action when Ekic gained possession of the ball following a Eagles turnover and drove past her defender. Ekic sent a cross into the box that found Taylor Kerwin...and the senior mid-fielder popper a shot into the bottom right of the net to give the Cards a 1-0 lead. 

That completed the first half scoring. Louisville was, by far, the dominator offensively...outshooting the Eagles 7-1. 

The Cards added an insurance goal ten minutes into the second half. Following up on a Sarah Hernandez shot, Ekic took the deflected attempt and drove the rebound past the out-stretched Eagles goalkeeper to make it 2-0. 

It's not that the Eagles were silent the entire second half, they did out-shoot the Cards 8-3 in the final 45 minutes, but none of their shots were "on goal"...failing to test UofL goalkeeper Gabby Kouzelos...who recorded her third shutout of the 2020 season. 

Louisville head coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes had this to say about the win: 

"I am very proud of our team's performance today. I thought we were intentional and thoughtful on both sides of the ball and overall it was a great team win!" 

Our women's soccer expert here at Cardinal Couple, Case Hoskins, who was in-attendance while I was covering Field Hockey, came up with this observation on Ferguson-Dayes' remarks...

"The Cards were intentional with their passes but they didn't always go where they wanted. Louisville spent a lot of time thinking about what to do on offense... that took too long at times and that resulted in giving the ball away"

Nevertheless the Cards are now 2-0 in Lynn Stadium and take to the highway for their next two matches. They'll begin in Charlottesville against Virginia on Thursday, October 15th and then travel south to Blacksburg for a Sunday, October 18th match against Virginia Tech. 

Special "thanks" and a job well done for Cardinal Couple photographer and columnist Jared Anderson who attended both WSOC and Field Hockey yesterday and provided the great pictures you see here today!  

ACES FALL TO SEATTLE

A tough loss Sunday for the Las Vegas Aces to the Seattle Storm in game two of the WNBA Finals...104-91. 

Seattle now leads the best-of-five finals format 2-0.

A high-scoring first half that Seattle built a 48-42 lead in. The Storm put the contest away in the fourth quarter with a 29-23 edge and could get their fourth WNBA crown Tuesday night in the "wubble" in Bradenton. 

The Storm put five players in double figures, and although Las Vegas held high-scoring guard Jewel Loyd to just eight points...a trio of Seattle players (Breanna Stewart, Alysha Clark and Natasha Howard) scored 20 points plus in the game. Sue Bird had a double-double with 16 points and 10 assists. 

For Vegas, A'ja Wilson led the way with 20 points and Angel McCoughtry and Emma Cannon ended up with 17 each. 

Have a meaningful Monday! 

paulie