FIELD HOCKEY KNOCKS OFF #2 NORTHWESTERN
It was a quick turnaround for the #9 Louisville Field Hockey squad.. After knocking off Northeastern Saturday morning, the Cards got on a bus and made the five hour drive to Evanston, IL to face the Wildcats.
Justine Sowry has been pretty proud of her defense so far this season and had all reasons to continue that pride Sunday, as the Cards blanked the Wildcats 1-0.
Sowry spoke after the game:
"I'm very proud of this group right now. This was a great win over a very good Northwestern squad. We absorbed a tremendous amount of pressure and our defense held strong throughout the entire game."
Emilia Kaczmarczyk. scored the lone goal of the contest six minutes into the third quarter off a penalty corner.
A look at the stats would give one the impression Northwestern won this thing if you hadn't seen the score. They outshot Louisville 21-3 and held a 10-1 shots on goal advantage. A ton of credit goes to Louisville goalkeeper Merlijin van der Vegt, who had some spectacular stops to preserve the shutout. Northwestern had eight corners, compared to just one for UofL
The Cards, now 2-0, will continue the road swing when they travel to Philly next week to face Princeton on Friday and Penn on Sunday.
VOLLEYBALL DOWNS WRIGHT STATE 3 GAMES TO 1
"When DeBeer is flowing, good things happen"
No, this isn't a quote from my debauchery-filled fraternity days, it's a reference to Louisville Volleyball senior outside hotter Anna DeBeer (Assumption H.S.) who had 14 kills in the 20-25, 25-18, 25-20, 26-24 win over Wright State to sweep the Cardinal Classic. DeBeer was named MVP of the Cardinal Classic and her hard-hitting style was the main key in the Cards win over a stubborn Wright St, squad.
The first set loss was a bit of a surprise. Cards were an 8-8 tie early but let that get away from them and trailed by six late at 24-18, A couple of nice kills from DeBeer and PK Kong got Louisville back within four but it was the first set the Cards have lost this season. 20-25.
Louisville looked much better in the second set, The Cards broke open a relatively close one with a four-point swing to make it 19-14, Hannah Sherman delivered the winning kill for the seven-point win. 25-18
After the halftime break, Wright State came out energized and led early in the set. At 12-10 Wright St., though, the Cards went on a 8-1 run to build a commanding 18-13 lead and DeBeer's kill was the final tally in the five-point victory 25-20
The final set prove to be the most exciting of the match. Louisville went from a 14-14 tie to a 20-15 Wright state lead, but the Cards regrouped and battled back to tie the match at 21 and 23. Who ya gonna call at this point? (No, not Ghostbusters...Anna DeBeer !! ) She got the final three points of the match for the 26-24 UofL win.
Wright St. earned the respect to be feared in the Horizon conference.
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The Cards travel next to play in the Mizzou Invitational, where they'll meet South Dakota on Friday, then NKU and Missouri to finish up the weekend.
(VOLLEYBALL PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON)
WSOC TIES NKU 0-0
In all honesty, there's just not a lot of good stuff to say about this one, except that it wasn't a loss.
Louisville dominated the stat-sheet, like they did in their other home-game tie earlier this year against Indiana St., but the ball just did not go into the net.
The Cards had a 21-4 shot edge and a 7-3 shot-on-goal advantage. They had a 5-2 corner kick advantage, Several near-miss opportunities on shots, but there just doesn't seem to be anyone on this team yet that is ready or chosen to step up, take control of the offense and be the go-to scorer. Ravin Alexander saw just 45 minutes of action tonight, she'd be my pick, but...obviously, I am not with the team every day and don't see all the play formation or strategy. Louisville has no problem taking shots, making them seems to be the major issue now. I think you can classify this as a rebuilding year.
It reminds me of the old Jeff Walz story of the youngster coming up to Walz and boasting..."Coach, I'm a shooter." and, Walz replied "Shooters are fine, I prefer makers."
Louisville has one "make" in four games. I'm not ever gonna try to add up the shot attempts.
The Cards are running out of easy opportunities to get wins and the road ahead had some challenges. Four more non-conference games remain.
Case, Jared, Sonja and I were at the match. It was decided we would not do a post-game interview with Coach Ferguson-Dayes. That was fine with us, we were trying hard to think of questions we could ask .after a tie .that wouldn't upset her and it appeared the team and the coaches were having a pretty intense meeting on the sidelines after the match.
Louisville (0-2-2) has one goals in 360 minutes this season. Chances are that won't get any better with Illinois coming to town Thursday.
(WSOC PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON)
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Happy Monday to you. Today is National Bow Tie Day. If you still have to don the neckgear at your place of work, why not "go with the bow"?
paulie
Field Hockey could do great things this year!
ReplyDeleteNick O
That's monumental, knocking off #2. Sowry has another powerhouse.
ReplyDelete