Field Hockey Cruises Past Miami (OH)
In a rare Monday night game, Louisville Field Hockey welcomed Miami (OH) to Trager Stadium. The Redhawks fell at home to Wake Forest on Sunday, which is the reason for the Monday match.
The Cards cruised along to a 4-1 win over the Redhawks to improve to 11-1 on the year.
Due to my church dart ball league starting up last night, I was unable to make the match, but did catch in on ACC Network. Thankfully, this one was easy to catch on TV or online unlike the snafu with Louisville Volleyball at Wake Forest the other day.
We recently questioned if the offense had the firepower to pull off a high-scoring affair. The Cards answered with a four piece as Louisville threw a volley of shots at Miami- 11 total shots with nine on frame- to tally four goals.
Julie Kouijzer, who has made a name for herself on the stat sheet recently, put the Cards on the board in the second quarter. Penalty corners have been better this year than in recent years and Louisville showed why again last night. Aimee Plumb inbounded the corner to Charlie Van Oirschot, who halted the ball in position for Kouijzer's shot to break through the charging defense.
Less than three minutes later, Camryn Pichea dribbled the ball into the circle and near the baseline to the left of the cage. Pichea found an opening for a shot, but her shot got deflected ever so slightly and wound up making contact with the stick of Katie Schneider. The connection was small, but enough to hit the back of the cage for the 2-0 lead right before halftime. It confused the scorekeepers for awhile, with credit to the goal going to Pichea, but eventually Megan got the official "goal mcored" stat.
Schneider wasn't done, as just three minutes after intermission, the senior scored her seventh goal of the season. A pass got tipped and made its way towards Schneider, whose powerful swing would not be stopped and Louisville would race ahead to a 3-0 lead.
The crowd was rocking and the time was ticking down to just under four minutes remaining in regulation. Mackenzie Karl was ready for her second career goal (both this season) when a rebounded shot came her direction. Her swing from the left side of the circle went across to the opposite side of the cage and the Cards held a comfortable 4-0 lead with just a few minutes remaining.
By this time, Coach Justine Sowry had switched out a few players for reserves who don't see as much playing time. With 39 seconds remaining, the Redhawks managed one final corner. Their fifth corner proved fruitful as Miami prevented being shutout with Claudia Negrete Garcia's 11th goal on the season.
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| Sacred Heart players on the Cards and RedHawks roster |
Besides the lone goal at the end of the match, Louisville kept Miami at bay much of the night. In fact, goalkeeper Mila de Kuijer saw only two shots on frame prior to that and saved both of them. The Cards maintained possession for much of the match... to the point de Kuijer pulled out a lawn chair to look at the stars.
Louisville remains out of conference for another match as they head to Ann Arbor on Sunday for a noon match against #2 Michigan. The Cards fell to the Wolverines 2-1 in sudden death (golden goal) overtime in the Final Four last year so they'll be looking for revenge.
POST GAME JUSTINE SOWRY
It took two people to replace Jared and his post-game questions for Coach Sowry -- but it is a nice and lengthy session with the coach. Listen below:
COACH SOWRY POST MIAMI REDHAWK MATCH
VolleyCards Remain #3
Despite two more sweeps, both on the road, and one of them against a ranked opponent, Louisville Volleyball was not able to move up in the rankings. The Cards remain #3 in the AVCA Poll.
Texas stayed atop the rankings and were a unanimous #1. Pitt held their #2 ranking after sweeping Virginia and Duke during the week.
Purdue dropped from #4 down to #6 while Wisconsin and Kentucky moved up to #4 and #5, respectively. Georgia Tech stayed put at #18 while Florida State made the receiving votes category.
Louisville's RPI remains high due to a tough strength of schedule that has so far featured wins against now-#5 Kentucky, #6 Purdue, #10 Nebraska, and #18 Georgia Tech.
The Cards return home to L&N Federal Credit Union Arena this weekend to host Boston College on Friday and Syracuse on Sunday.
Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!
Jared
That's a nice FH win. This upcoming road trip, though. What in the heck was Sowry thinking?
ReplyDeleteIn the the "c'mon you know it's funny category":
What is the difference between Dubai and Abu Dhabi?
The people from Dubai don't like the Flintstones but Abu-Dabby-Doo.
Nick O