Locals on the Squads -- MONDAY CARINAL COUPLE

 LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL TALENT ON FALL ROSTERS FOR CARDS 

As we get nearer to the beginning of the University of Louisville women's fall sports schedules, let's take a look at three of the activities we'll follow closely at CARDINAL COUPLE (Women's Soccer, Field Hockey and Volleyball) in terms of local high school athletes who have joined these three rosters. 

Here at CARDINAL COUPLE, we await to see what guidelines and implementations the ACC is going to hand down to UofL as far as how we'll be able to cover activities. Of course, we always love the chance to cover these in-person and live-on-the-spot --- but with the spike in the Delta Variant of the Coronavirus -- we're not sure yet whether we'll be doing that or just following events on our laptops and ACC Network broadcasts..

Either way, we'll do our best to get you the news. 

A Fall Sports Media Day from the past

We also haven't received any notification yet on a potential Fall Sports Media Day date and time for women's athletics. Yearly, this is a great event for us to get interviews, comments and talk to the coaches and student-athletes that'll be doing the work. We hope it'll occur after a pause last year because of the pandemic.  

Today, we'll look at women's soccer.

Either myself or one of our other illustrious writers will cover Field Hockey and Volleyball "locals" as their season get closer to a start.  

WOMEN'S SOCCER

Karen Ferguson Dayes' "Kicking Cards" get it underway first for the fall UofL women's sports squads on August 14th....when Ball State comes to town... so we'll start there.

WSOC has a roster of 26 student-athletes, as of the latest listing, and out of those, there are three "local" Cardinals we'll keep an eye on. 

Cassie Amshoff is no stranger to us or the program. The senior forward from Louisville's Sacred Heart Academy begins her fourth year as a Card. She was an integral part of the squad last season -- starting in nine matches for UofL. Although she did not score a goal in 2020, she was a major part of the offensive attack. As an aside, she was the Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year in women's soccer in 2017 -- her senior year at SHA. 

Savina Zamborini is a sophomore forward for UofL that played her high school soccer at Louisville Manual High School. As a freshman in 2020, she saw action in 10 games, with three starts. Although she did not score a goal, she did record five shots with three of them "on goal". Savina was named to the United Soccer Coaches All-South Region Team in 2019 -- her senior season at Manual -- and First Team All-State in Kentucky. She scored 40 goals in her final two seasons at Manual.

Incoming freshman Brooke Dardano joins Louisville as a freshman out of South Oldham High School. She's a midfielder and had outstanding campaigns in her final two years out in Crestwood. She tallied 11 goals and 27 assists in her junior season at South Oldham. Here senior season was shortened by the pandemic, but she was still able to get six goals and six assists. Her squad was an impressive 44-12-3 in her final three years. 

As a whole -- the Louisville women's soccer roster enlists 10 incoming freshmen, five sophomores, three juniors and eight seniors. 

One of the major questions for 2021 involve who will take up the scoring mantle now that Emina Ekic has graduated. To be sure, there is a wealth of experience returning that could step up and implement "goals" in Sarah Hernandez, Ravin Alexander, Taylor Kervin, Corienne Dente, Maisie Whitsett, Morgan Bentley, Delaney Snyder and Cassie Amshoff --- all who were on the field at forward or midfield for Louisville last year. The Cards also have transfer Mikayla Hampton on the squad, who comes in from Northwestern as a redshirt senior. And....who knows which freshmen might step up to provide the scoring punch. 

On the defense and back in goalkeep, Gabby Kouzelos returns as one of the best tenders in the ACC. She brings in 69 starts in her four years at UofL and had recorded 73 shutouts in those four years. Opposing ACC Coaches have to be shrugging their shoulders when it comes to figuring out ways to get the ball past "Gabby the Goalie"...

New Cardinals assistant coach Nick Stirrett will most likely have a say when in comes to "balls in the net" At his previous stop (Oregon State) he was part of a staff that saw the Beavers goal-scoring go from six goals in 2018 to 31 in 2019. 

Let's get it started at Lynn -- we can't wait to see what this 2021 version of Louisville women's soccer looks like !! 

Have a marvelous Monday! 

paulie