Cards Field Hockey Brings in 10 New Players -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 NINE FRESHMEN, ONE GRAD TRANSFER JOIN FIELD HOCKEY ROSTER

With women's soccer underway, the next fall women's sport we'll wait for to get started is Cards Field Hockey. It'll be a fun team to get to know, with 10 new faces on a 23-player roster. 

Let's start with the grad transfer. The Cards were looking for goal keeper help and went out and got a good one when they landed Sasha Elliott from VCU. Elliott helped lead VCU to a Atlantic 10 title her senior season and was a two-time NFHCA All-South Region selection. She's one of three student-athletes on the squad from The Netherlands and Sasha was a four-year starter at VCU. 

The Cards also brought in a freshman goalkeeper in Logan Jancerak, out of Danville, NJ. She gathered a lot of honors while in high school, being named to the 2020 US Under-16 National Team and the 2021-22 U-15 National Indoor Development team. 

Three forwards join the squad and one of them is a name well-known in the Louisville high school Field Hockey circles in Ella Martin. Martin, from Assumption High School and IFHCK club team, scored 54 goals in her high school career. She was ranked among the top 100 in Max Field's 2022 list and a top 40 in the  West/Midwest High School Players to watch. 

Jane Ramsey is another new forward and is out of Brisbane, Australia. She helped her team win the U18 Hockey Australian Championship.  The third forward is Sophia Parker, from Doylestown, PA. She was a first team Pennsylvania High School AAA pick in 2021. 

The four midfielders are Izzy Bianco (Berlin, NJ), Chloe Cuzzupe (Woodstown, NJ), Tatum Kroon (Den Bosch, The Netherlands) and Rylie Wollerton (Gibsonia, PA). Cuzzupe was a four-time All-Regional selection in high school, Bianco had 104 assists in her career, a New Jersey record. Kroon was the captain of the Dutch National Under 16 team and Wollerton had 139 goals in four years of high school. 

Luciana Carpenter is a defender that was a three-time all state selection in Pennsylvania. 

The newcomers join a roster that has a wealth of returning talent that includes Sofia Pendolino, Aimee Plumb, Emilia Kaczmarczyk, India Reed, Filippa Niebuhr, Katie Schneider, Mattie Tabor and Julie Kouijzer. The Cards were 16-4 last year and lost to Harvard in the NCAA Tournament. Louisville was 6-1 in ACC play, winning the regular season conference title with a 6-0 mark. The Cards won all six of their overtime contests. 

Scoring shouldn't be a problem for Louisville, unless it takes awhile to get familiar with the new turf out at Trager Field. There should be a strong defense also in front of the new goalkeepers...Kouijzer and Pendolino have seen extensive playing time at defender. 

Louisville opens the 2022 season with a couple of exhibition matches, at Miami (OH) on Friday 8/19 and hosting Bellarmine on Sunday 8/21. The Cards return their top four scorers from last year in Schneider, Kouijzer, Plumb and Tabor. Starter Charlie van Oirschot from last year did transfer to Duke, but the midfielder only scored one goal last year for Louisville. 

An extensive search by me failed to find any preseason DI or ACC Field Hockey polls or pre-season rankings. Hopefully I can learn more about that at the Fall Sports Media on Wednesday. 

paulie