Cards Win, Lose and Draw in Sunday action -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 FIELD HOCKEY WINS, WOMEN'S SOCCER TIES AND VOLEYBALL LOSES. 

First off, enjoy your Labor Day holiday, if you're fortunate enough to have today off !!

Three Louisville women's teams in action Sunday, in three different locations and three different results. Field Hockey was at North Carolina playing Princeton and got the 2-1 win. WSOC was facing JMU at JMU at the two defensed their way to a scoreless tie. And, here in Louisville, Cardinals Volleyball fell in four sets to winless Ohio State. 

Here's the details:

THE WIN:

Louisville Field Hockey got goals from from Katie Schneider and Mattie Tabor in the win and the Cardinals defense we've spoken so proudly about this season held on at the end when the Tigers tried their best to score and then tie the match in the final quarter. 

Neither team was racking up the goals in the early stages of this match, going through a scoreless first quarter and it looked like it might remain scoreless in the second quarter, too. But, the Cards were able to break through when Katie Schneider took a pass from Kelsey McCrudden with 3:23 left in the first half and found the back of the net. The teams went to halftime with Louisville holding a 4-0 shot advantage and neither team attempting a penalty corner. 

The third quarter remained scoreless until the final thirty seconds of action. Katie Schneider attempt a shot that was deflected by Mattie Tabor and the ball slid past Princeton goalkeeper Robyn Thompson for the Cards second and final score. 

Princeton kept battling, though. They had five shots on goal in the final fifteen minutes and Cardinals keeper Sasha Elliott stopped four of them. The Tigers got a goal off a penalty corner with about six minutes left in the game...but they would score no more the rest of the way.

Post game, Coach Sowry praised the game plan her assistants Will Holt and Malachi Mahan put together and how the team executed it. 

"The stick girls" go to 4-0 with the win and now returns home, after four on the road, for a five game home stand. That will begin Friday, Sept 9th., when the Cards face JMU. 

THE DRAW: 

Speaking of James Madison, the Louisville women's soccer team was on JMU's Soccer field Sunday and battled the Dukes to a 0-0 tie. With the rule changes, there are no more overtimes or shootouts in the regular season in collegiate women's soccer,, so the Cards pick up their first tie of the season and go to 3-1-1. 

Louisville did have nine shots in the contest, JMU eight...but make no mistake about it...this was a defensive battle from start to final tick of the clock

The Cards did get a close-in shot for a score in the 32nd minute of play when Ravin Alexander sent a pass to Morgan Bentley... who fed Corinne Dente, who was out in front of the center of the goal. Dente out-maneuvered a JMU defender and got a shot off, but it was high and over the center post. 

Louisville probably had their best chance of scoring with seven minutes left in the match when  Autumn Weeks forced a turnover in JMU territory and got the ball to Emersen Jennings, who drove to the goal and sent a shot from the right side that bounced off the left goalpost. 

It was a very good and impressive defensive effort from the Louisville squad against a JMU unit that battled #5 Virginia a few nights earlier tooth and nail in Charlottesville before falling 2-0. Freshman goalkeeper Erryn Floyd for the Cards has had three shutouts in five games and held #23 Memphis to just two goals on Friday. Sarah Hernandez, Anouk Denton and Karsyn Cherry have been excellent in their defender roles and the Cards have allowed just four goals in 450 minutes this season. 

Louisville begins a two game home stand Thursday Sept 8th when Indiana comes to Lynn Stadium. .  

THE LOSS

The #3 Volleyball Cards fell in four sets to visiting #9 Ohio State to cap off action for Louisville women's sports squads Sunday, 

The match started off pretty well, with UofL taking an early 10-6 lead and extended that to 15-11 after an Ayden Bartlett ace. Louisville made it 20-16 after an Anna DeBeer kill, and won 25-17 after two straight seving aces from Cece Rush. 

Then, the tide turned. 

Louisville fell behind 4-1 to start the second set and found themselves behind 15-11 at the media timeout. The visitors pushed their lead to 20-13, necessitating a Cardinals time out, but it didn't appear to help much, UofL losing the set 25-15. 

The third set was a back and forth affair with neither team grabbing a huge advantage. The Cards did lead 12-9 at one point and were tied at 23-23 with OSU after a Buckeye hitting error. Louisville Assumption High School grad Rylee Rader produced a kill which gave the match to the Columbus school 25-23.

With their backs to the wall...down two sets to one...the Cards needed a fourth set win.

 Louisville was able to eke out a 7-6 lead early, but a Buckeye 3-1 run leading into the media break set the tally 15-12. The Cards battled back to cut the lead to 17-16, but the wheels fell off after that and OSU scored eight of the final nine points in the set to get the 25-17 win and the 3-1 match win. 

The loss ended Louisville's 24 match-at-home win streak. OSU hit .372 for the match, the Cards .248.  Anna DeBeer had 19 kills for Louisville and Claire Chaussee added 13, but no other Cardinal added more than five. 

A tough loss for the Cards, but maybe some learning opportunities will come out of it. Louisville faces another BIG10 foe next, in Purdue. 

(Volleyball and some other of today's photos by Jared Anderson)

paulie

 

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