Ekic Earns ACC Honors -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Emina Ekic Grabs First Team All-ACC, Offensive POTY

Louisville may have been soundly defeated by Virginia in the first round of the ACC tournament earlier this week, but that didn't prevent Emina Ekic from earning top honors in the conference. Conference awards were announced yesterday, on the day of the conference semifinals, and Emina Ekic picked up an unsurprising award and one that was a bit unexpected. The unsurprising award was Ekic's naming to the First Team All-ACC team. Ekic was tied for the league lead in goals scored in conference play with six and her seventh goal, the stunner against Virginia in the quarterfinals, tied her for third in the country. Ekic made Louisville go during the fall, so it was straightforward for her to be named to the First Team.

The Offensive Player of the Year Award, though, didn't seem so straight forward. Ekic's scoring was strong, and she had good assist numbers, but Diana Ordonez of Virginia (you know, the one who poured in a hat trick on Tuesday night) had, I believe, the same number of conference regular season goals and had one more assist. She was also on the 3rd seeded team rather than the 6th. However, the conference voters put Ekic on top, and didn't even add Ordonez to the first team. Shows what I know. Florida State picked up three of the five major awards, earning Defensive POTY, Midfield of the Year, and Coach of the Year. Freshman of the year went to Lia Godfrey of Virginia. Surprisingly, the top seeded Tar Heels were locked out of the major awards.

Were there a goalkeeper of the year award, UNC may have found themselves in the top awards, as Claudia Dickey was named to the first team. Cristina Roque of FSU earned the second team spot, as Florida State was so good defensively, and Gabby Kouzelos picked up the third team honor. No other Cardinals made it onto an all-conference team, despite Delaney Snyder sitting in the top ten in assists. I would have thought she or Sarah Hernandez might have had a case with the good season they put up, but the ACC voters thought differently. 

Unsurprisingly, the ACC fall soccer season will wrap up tomorrow at noon with the conference championship between undefeated UNC and undefeated FSU. It's the matchup most people have been wanting to see this year, and we'll finally see which team will blink. FSU has looked stronger recently, but UNC has been a very good team the whole year. Tune in to ESPNU for the final. Looking ahead, we'll see how the national landscape looks in the spring, but the ACC plans to continue their soccer season in 2021.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

We're back on the airwaves (internet waves?) this week with a full house as Jared returns to the show. We'll talk about the recent ACC tournament results in field hockey and women's soccer and take a look toward basketball season as it's next on the docket. Tune in to the Cardinal Couple YouTube channel at 11AM for the live show, or check out the podcast after the live show ends by searching for "Cardinal Couple" in your favorite podcast player. Be sure to subscribe to both to catch the latest show as soon as you can!

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-