Paulie was out performing as a master chef at a birthday celebration most of the day and that, sadly, kept him and Sonya from campus. He also seemed to master his craft of grilling without catching anything on fire so hit him up for your burger and brats needs. With Paulie out for the day and myself practically living on Floyd Street for the next few weeks it was easier for me to go on and recap both games. He'll take my Tuesday article in exchange.
Field Hockey Shuts Out New Hampshire
There was a Wildcats team on campus yesterday but they weren't from down I-64 and they weren't from East High with their singing and dancing. It was the Wildcats of New Hampshire that visited Trager Stadium to take on Justine Sowry's squad.
The #5 ranked Cardinals cruised to a 3-0 victory to improve to 2-0 on the year. Each goal was scored by a different player in a different quarter.
Late in the second quarter, Alli Bitting inbounded the ball on a penalty corner. Aimee Plumb took a shot that was deflected the goalkeeper, but the ball bounced straight to eye level of Bitting who had an open goal to work with. Like in basketball, this is why you are taught to follow a shot.
After carrying a 1-0 lead into halftime, Louisville scored a second goal from a set piece. The inbounds pass went to Julie Kouijzer, whose shot was more of a pass to Katie Schneider standing at the foot of the goal. Schneider used her stick as a ramp to send the ball into the air and the back of the cage.
The final goal came late in the fourth quarter as an insurance goal more than anything. After a pressing Cardinals attack forward, the ball got knocked around and deflected until the freshman Filippa Niebuhr came face-to-face with the ball and cage for her first score of the year.
Louisville pulled off penalty corners like it was a rabbit in a magic hat, but the keeper for New Hampshire had herself one heck of a day and limited to the scores off the corners to just two. She tallied double-digit saves on the day and kept the Wildcats in the game for much longer than anticipated.
On the defensive end for the Cards, Louisville's Mila de Kuijer had little action in goal. She saw one shot on goal the entire day and easily saved it. Besides that, she was hanging out by the grill with Paulie.
We got a chance to speak with Coach Justine Sowry following the win. You can check out her interview here.
Following our interaction with Coach Sowry, we got a chance to speak with Alli Bitting and get her thoughts on the game. You can check that out here.
Louisville hits the road to Princeton next weekend to take on Penn and Princeton. They'll return home the weekend after.
Women's Soccer Improves to 3-0 with Win
After a short break at home to cool down for me, I went back to campus to Dr Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium. The weather cooperated a lot better this time than the last go-around.
Louisville was fresh off a somewhat surprising close match against James Madison on Friday and bounced back with a 3-0 victory over instate opponent Northern Kentucky.
Unlike Friday's match, the Cards found a way to maintain position a majority of the night and continued to press forward without ever pulling off the reins.
It was fairly early into the game when Abby Baldridge lined up to send a free kick into the box. The ball connected with the head of fellow freshman Hayley Howard, who knocked the shot in for her first career goal.
Roughly 12 minutes later, Delaney Snyder broke loose from a defender hot on her tail to send a shot across the box and into the left corner of the goal for her second score of the year.
Midway through the second half, Emma Hiscock worked her way around a couple defenders to get a shot past the NKU keeper into the upper part of the goal for her team-leading third of the season.
It was the offense the proved to be the best defense for the Cards as their 18 total shots and eight shots on goal kept the Norse on their heels much of the night. NKU did find a little wiggle room on a couple occasions for a pair of shots on goal, both which were handled cleanly by Gabby Kouzelos.
With her save in the first half, Kouzelos recorded 200 career saves. Another save in the second half put her at 201 and a spot in the top five all-time in program history. After a rough game on Friday, Kouzelos looked back to her normal self in goal and was noticeably more vocal as she corralled her team and back line of defenders into position all night.
Louisville still has some work to do as they were heavy on the fouls on the night and are still figuring out the kinks with working on scoring opportunities, but you run into those issues with a young team that played seven freshmen and five sophomores (18 players saw minutes).
I wasn't able to stick around for postgame on this one but Coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes seemed much more pleased with her team following the match.
The Cards improve to 3-0 on the year and head to Saint Louis on Thursday before returning home Sunday night to take on Western Kentucky.
Happy Monday and Go Cards!
Jared
A mighty fine start for these two and Volleyball. Hope it continues.
ReplyDeleteNick O