Soccer Loses to Notre Dame
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| Anouk Denton is back with the Cards |
Notre Dame did leave the pitch with the 2-0 win, with a goal in each half of play, but there are some bright sides, here. If you looked at the stats without the final score, you might be hard pressed to figure out who won.
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Offensive shots were 13-12 in favor of Louisville, four of those were on goal for ND, two for Louisville. Both goalkeepers came up with a pair of saves, and Louisville had significantly more corner opportunities, at 7-2. The foul numbers were roughly even, with Louisville picking up two more than the Irish 15-13.
When you look at the play, Louisville had some real opportunities to get the ball in the goal and it just didn't happen for them. Raven Alexander made a run up the field after a great defensive play, but was thwarted by a good save the ND keeper.
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| Maisie Whitsett goes forward |
Mackenzie Geigle and Maisie Whitsett both had opportunities late in the game to pull one back, but one shot was just high of the crossbar, and the other was deflected by a ND defender.
The Cards will head on the road to visit NC State on Thursday. The Wolfpack sit just barely ahead of Louisville in the conference standings, at 2-4-1 compared to Louisville's 2-5, so this has the looks of being a competitive and fun game. You'll be able to check it out on ACC Network Extra streaming.
Wake Up for Volleyball
After the Cards seemingly slept through their win Friday against Virginia Tech, let's hope they got that out of their system and are fully awake for Wake Forest today.
Wake typically isn't all that great in Volleyball, but this year, well, they're tied for 5th in conference with Florida State and Syracuse. They are a team that need to be taken seriously, or we could be looking at a surprise upset.
Wake is coming off of a 5-set loss at Notre Dame on Friday, so they'll be looking to salvage some success on the weekend. Their conference wins so far are over UNC, NC State, Boston College, and Clemson with the losses to Georgia Tech, Syracuse, and Notre Dame. Their non-conference schedule was nothing special. A win over Ole Miss is interesting, but otherwise, they didn't particularly impress with their scheduling.
The kills leader for the Demon Deacons is Paige Crawford, with Peyton Suess close behind. Emmy Ogogor and Olivia Franke will also consistently be on the court for offensive roles.
Based on Wake recaps of previous matches, and the statistics I see on their site, it appears that Wake runs a 6-2 offense. This isn't seen too often in college play, but it can be pretty effective as it essentially boosts the offensive firepower available to the team. The way it works is that the team will have two setters, but they will only ever be in the back row. As the in-play setter is about to rotate into the front row, they'll be subbed out and a right side hitter will enter. The other right side hitter, who would be about to rotate into the back row, will be subbed out and the other setter will enter to serve. This allows the team to have two right side hitters alternating much like we see middle hitters alternate, and it gives the team three front row attackers at all times.
There are downsides however. Because the setters are always in the back-row, the setter dump is never a threat, making the blocking assignments for the opponent a bit easier. With Louisville's blocking prowess it could be a field day for Amaya Tillman and Cara Cresse or PK Kong in the middle. The swapping of setters and right sides also consumes a significant number of substitutions during a set, meaning the rest of the lineup needs to be relatively static. You basically need your left sides to be six rotation players because you may not afford to be able to constantly sub them out in the back row for a defensive specialist.
As of last evening there were still a few tickets available for L&N FCU Arena, but I wouldn't count on being able to walk up and get one as I would expect them to be sold out by that point. Otherwise, you can catch this one on ACC Network Extra streaming at 1pm. Hopefully it'll be Steph Cantway on color again for you. She played for Louisville as Steph Marsh back in the mid-2000's and was an excellent pin hitter. She does a great job explaining and providing color, on the commentary.
Field Hockey
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| All-Americans |
Staying on Floyd Street, though not quite as busy of a Floyd Street as it was Friday, Field Hockey will also be in action this afternoon. Hosting the Ball State Cardinals, yes, its the classis matchup of Cardinals vs Cardinals.
Louisville is coming off the edge of the seat double overtime plus shootout plus epic challenge review resulting in Friday's win over Duke. Will there be an emotional let down facing the UofL Cards? Let's hope not.
Ball State comes into Trager 7-6 overall, but when you look at their losses, you see teams like Michigan, Iowa, Michigan State, and Kent State. None of those losses are terrible losses. On the flipside, though, they don't really have any signature wins over great teams. Villanova, St. Louis, and Ohio may be the best wins on their schedule so far.
The main offensive threat for the Hoosier Cardinals, Fleur Knopert is responsible for nine of Ball State's 22 goals on the season. The next highest is three for Emma Hilton and Michela Graney.
In the cage, Ball State seems to split goalkeeping duties. Statistically, Hannah Johnston comes off slightly better, with Ally Butler being the other option.
ACC Network Extra streaming is available for this one, though of course, admission to Trager for regular season games is always free.
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast
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The Fearsome Foursome was back for the CCRHP again, Case, Jared, Paulie, and myself made the call. We cover the joy and excitement of UofL women's sports, and we had mostly wins, but there was plenty of room for critique in some of the play.
It was a great discussion, as it usually is, and we covered a lot of territory.
Check it out at it's anchor.fm home at:
and as always, it's available at nearly all podcast directories.
-- JMcA
(Soccer photos thanks, as always, to Jared Anderson)
I would have been interested in hearing Coach Ferguson-Dayes comments after the game but couldn't find them anywhere?
ReplyDeleteWe don't usually do a post-game interview after a loss with the coaches or players. WBB does, but that's more of a multiple media representative deal. It's always been our stance that the coaches and team feel bad enough after a loss and they don't need us recalling the factors with them after a loss.
Deletepaulie
(From John Feinstein)
ReplyDeleteThe NCAA, in its never-ending quest to add billions of dollars to its billions of dollars, is getting ready to expand its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. The only questions are exactly when the announcement will be made and when the expanded format will kick in.
The guess here is that the tournaments will expand from the current 68 teams to 96. This will add 28 more games to the menu for the television networks. It will be applauded in all corners of the coaching world, and I’m guessing most fans will like the idea because it will increase their teams’ chances of making the field.
OK, this is crazy talk. Leave the Tournament alone. Increase the number of schools that can compete in other sports' tournaments, like Field Hockey and Lacrosse.
Curtis "Be Kind" Franklin