MIXED SUNDAY FOR UOFL WOMEN"S SPORTS -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 ONE WIN, TWO LOSSES FOR LOUISVILLE ON SUNDAY

A busy day for Louisville women's sports yesterday --with two events on Floyd Street and one in "the mitten" state of Michigan. The Cards emerged with a win -- Volleyball securing a 3-0 home sweep of Syracuse that wasn't easy at all, and two losses.  Women's soccer took a 2-1 loss to NC State.in Lynn Stadium. Up in Ann Arbor, #3 Louisville Field Hockey fell to #2 Michigan 2-1.  Let's have a look, shall we? 

VOLLEYCARDS SWEEP ORANGE

#3 Louisville Volleyball welcomed Syracuse and ex-Cardinals Volleyball coach Leonid Yelin into the LNFCU yesterday afternoon and emerged with a hard-fought 26-24, 26-24, 25-18 sweep of the now 14-4 and 3-3 in ACC Orange.  The old Cardinal Arena must have looked quite a bit different to the former VolleyCards skipper -- with the renovations and such since he was here -- but, nevertheless -- he did his best to highlight his return with a huge upset. 

Fortunately, the Cards have Anna DeBeer, the rest of the "A" team and Claire Chaussee. Louisville got 10 kills from the sophomore out of Assumption and showed a "never-say-die" attitude to remain undefeated. 

SET ONE: This was was close all the way, and the Cards eventually found themselves on the short end of a 24-22 score. A Cardinals timeout was called to stem the tide, and, it brought success. Claire Chaussee staved off game-point for the 'Cuse'. With the serve now belonging to Louisville, Ceci Rush entered for UofL to do the honors. She ran off three in a row -- three Syracuse attack errors made it possible for UofL to escape the initial set with the two-point "W". 

SET TWO: UofL started well against the Orange -- but this one eventually turned into another nail-biter. A 10-4 Cardinals advantage morphed into a 13-12 Syracuse lead.  Yelin's squad had a 24-23 lead after a kill, but Aiko Jones tied it up with a kill and two Claire Chaussee serves resulted in two Syracuse attack errors to give the Cards another 26-24 victory. 

SET THREE:  Louisville started strong (again) in the final set -- leading 12-6 early on -- and did not give any momentum back to SU. At 23-17 Cards, an Amaya Tillman kill and Syracuse serving error gave Louisville the two points they needed to close the door and take set and match over the New York state visitors 25-18. 

At 16-0, Louisville is four wins away from tying the best start in program history (20-0 in 2005) and most likely to climb to #2 in the AVCA polls -- since Pittsburgh lost to Georgia Tech yesterday in five sets and will probably lose their current #2 spot. 

WSOC TAKES 2-1 LOSS TO WOLFPACK

 
While things were going successfully on the north end of Floyd Street, things were not so good further south on Floyd at Lynn Stadium. 

The North Carolina State Wolfpack came into this one at 5-6-2 and 1-4 in ACC action. The Cards put their 7-3-1 and 3-2 conference mark on the line against a NC State squad riding an upset 2-1 overtime win over #4 Duke at Durham on Thursday. 

It would be the TarHeels striking first, with 12 minutes gone in the afternoon match. They would take that 1-0 lead to the locker room at the half and proceed to build on it 4 minutes into second half action. 

Louisville offered a response. Sarah Hernandez found success when Kiana Klein got a well-placed pass to the Moorpark, CA senior...Sarah's shot cut the NCST lead to one with 26 minutes to play in the match.

Try as they might, the Cards could not get an equalizer the rest of the way. The Cards did out-shoot the Pack 13-11 in the match and held a 5-3 shot-on-goal advantage. The number that mattered, though was the final 2-1 score....and the Cards fell short, while taking their second loss in a row and third out of four matches. 

In terms of ACC rankings, the stumble puts Louisville tied with Clemson (with nine points) just outside the cadre of schools that are in the top-six of the conference. Only six make the ACC Women's Soccer tournament. 

Louisville will host 6-7-1 (but more importantly 0-6 in the ACC) Boston College on Friday at Lynn. A  chance for gathering three points with a win over the rebuilding Eagles -- as the Cards try to battle back into post-season tournament contention.  

(NOTE: Jared Anderson was off from photography pursuits yesterday --so I had to do a little scrambling to find "relevant" pics for the Floyd Street Sunday action) 

#3 FIELD HOCKEY FALLS AT #2 MICHIGAN

This was most likely the most anticipated Field Hockey match Sunday in NCAA Field Hockey -- and the Cards lost a 2-1 thriller in the final three minutes to UM in AnnArbor. .

The contest was tightly contested in the first half -- Michigan getting the lone score of the beginning half six minutes into action. UM was awarded a penalty corner and Cards goalkeeper Mila de Kuijer blocked he initial shot attempt. The Wolverine were there for the rebound, though, and the goal. 

That 1-0 Michigan margin held as the team went to the half. Louisville was awarded a penalty corner midway through the third quarter. Julie Kouijzer fired at goal, her shot was deflected, but Katie Schneider was there for the rebound and guided the ball into the net to tie it up. 

It was another penalty corner that decided this one. 

UM drew one with 2:58 in left in regulation and Hallie O'Neil provided the winning stoke for the Wolverines. The Cards intensified their attack in the final minutes, pulled goalkeeper de Kuijer to give them an extra offensive weapon, but could not come up with the tying shot. 

The loss drops Louisville to 11-2 and most likely out of the #3 spot in the weekly Field Hockey polls. Michigan goes to 11-0 and should remain in second place in the rankings. Iowa is #1 and blew out Central Michigan yesterday 5-0.  Penn State and Rutgers, directly behind the Cads in the NFHCA poll, were idle Sunday.

A big match coming up Friday when Iowa and Michigan hook up in Iowa City. As for the Cards, the road trip continues -- they'll face #14 Boston College, in Beantown, on Friday. 

Have a marvelous Monday! 

paulie