Super Sunday for Louisville women's sports -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

Cards go 3-0 on Sunday...record three shutouts.

It's always good to see Louisville victories, but three in one day for the women's sports squads Field Hockey, Women's Soccer and Volleyball made it an extra special Sunday for Cardinals fans. Two on the road, one on Floyd Street...let's look at the "W's". 

WOMEN'S SOCCER BLANKS BOSTON COLLEGE 1-0

My original intent and purpose was to be on campus at Lynn Stadium for this Cardinals win Sunday. Unfortunately, my bum knee informed me that I wasn't walking on the Sabbath, so, I hit the comfy chair and got the TV and laptop working. 

Louisville women's soccer (5-5-2, 2-4-0) hosted the Boston Eagles at Lynn Stadium in a noon start that was televised on the ACC Network and the teams immediately evolved into a mostly defensive struggle with not many scoring chances in the first 20 minutes or so. The Eagles did get a shot off on Erryn Floyd, who was in goalkeep for the Cards but she made the stop and save.  So, it came to pass that the first half of the first half went scoreless and neither team looked to be in a threatening mode of operation. 

That changed in the 23rd minute. Savina Zamborini got a pass to Sarah Hernandez, who worked her way past Eagles defenders and knocked one past BC net tender Wiebke Willebrandt for the first (and as it turned out only) score of the match at the 23:38 mark. It was defender Hernández's first goal of the season. That lone score held firm to the end of the first half. A half where only seven shots were attempted (Louisville 4 - B.C. 3). 

If Karen Ferguson Dayes emphasized defense for the second half in the locker room at the halftime break, she got what she asked for. The Eagles got off only one shot in the final 45 minutes and that came with about a minute left in the match. The Cards got five second half shots off, but none of them were goal scorers. And, as she'll tell you, EVERYBODY plays defense on the Louisville squad, not just the back four and goalie. 

Hey, a 1-0 win works when you're needing wins...

A win Louisville desperately needed to keep post-season hopes viable and possible. They'll get a visit from Notre Dame next Saturday, an Irish squad that shocked FSU 4-0 on Sunday. The Notre Dame contest will be Louisville's final home game of the season -- the Cards will end up with trips to NC State, Duke and North Carolina. 

Jared Anderson caught up with Coach Ferguson-Dayes after the win for these words: 

LINK:  Karen Ferguson Dayes after Boston College

(Soccer photos by Jared Anderson)

LOUISVILLE FIELD HOCKEY 2 - LIBERTY 0

#7 Louisville Field Hockey stepped out of conference play to take a trip to Lynchburg, VA to visit the Liberty University campus and face the Liberty Flames. And (on a blue turf) the Cards doused the Flames 2-0 on a match shown on ESPN+ . 

The Cards got the first of their two goals in the sixth minute of action. Louisville was awarded a penalty corner and Julie Kouijzer took the shot. That effort was blocked, but  Aimee Plumb was there for the rebound off the stick and sent the ball back and successfully into the net  It was Aimee's fifth goal of the season. 

The Cardinals were not done with first half scoring. Early in the second quarter, Kelsey McCrudden intercepted a Liberty pass and worked the ball toward the Flames goal.  As she worked her way into the circle, she sent a pass to Rylie Wollerton and the freshman fired and scored the first goal of her collegiate career 

The 2-0 lead was how the first half ended and the Cards held a 9-4 edge on shots, 5-3 advantage with shots on goal and had four penalty corner attempts, compared to none for Liberty. 

Louisville continued to shut down any Flames offensive threats in the third and fourth quarters and, although the Cards took some great shots at Liberty goalkeeper Iritxity Irigoyen, they failed to add to their goal total. 

A good, quality win for the Stick Girls against a top 20 DI squad who was 8-4 coming into the contest. Louisville returns home and will face Duke on Friday at Trager. 

Not a bad announcing crew on ESPN+ for this one, except they kept trying to identify Cards Director Of Operations. Debbie Bell as Coach Sowry. 

Highlights here: Field Hockey v Liberty

VOLLEYBALL CRUSHES THE ORANGE IN SYRACUSE

Louisville Volleyball got the broom out on home-standing Syracuse with a straight-set 25-16, 25-18, 25-17 match win to close out Sunday action.  This one was shown on ACC Network Extra and featured a unique, non-moving view of the match from one of the end-zones. 

I tuned in a little late for it, and after awhile, just imagined myself sitting with Louisville's swim team watching a home match. 

The stationary viewing did not affect the Cardinals on-court play one bit, though. 

#2 ranked Louisville got 13 kills from Claire Chaussee and Aiko Jones in the sweep.  

In set one, the Cards jumped out to an early lead on Chaussee's serving prowess and stretched that out to 9-5. Syracuse whittled that lead down to 12-10, but Louisville regrouped and went on a 10-4 run to lead comfortably 22-14. Chaussee led the Cards with seven first-set kills. 

Louisville jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the second set and, like in the first set, the Orange battled back to get within two at 9-7. The Cards used three straight kills to pull out to a 18-13 lead and went on a 5-0 run to allow them to take the second set 25-18. The 'Cuse hit only .154 in that second set.

After the break, Syracuse came out determined to prevent an early blowout and actually led the Cards 9-8 in the third set. The Cards pushed out to a 17-12 lead after that, but Syracuse has one last run in them and battled back to get within two at 18-16. The Cards regrouped, however, and went on a set-ending 7-1 run to take the set 25-17 and the match in three sets. 

Louisville returns home to face Va. Tech on Friday. 

paulie