Cards WSOC upsets Pitt 3-2 -- Field Hockey and Volleyball today -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDS OUTSCORE PANTHERS TO GET FIRST ACC WIN

It was a nice turn of events Thursday night for Louisville women's soccer. They jumped out to a 2-0 lead against a Pitt WSOC squad that had been outscoring opponents 21-7 on the season. Pitt made a run, you almost expected they would, but Louisville held firm in the final minutes and walked off the Lynn  Stadium turf with a "W"

How did Cards head WSOC Coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes and her players feel about the 3-2 win? Hard to say, since the team did not do any post game interviews. 

The win was Louisville's second of the season and one that the Cards never trailed in. A huge "thank you" is due goalkeeper Erryn Floyd, who was making some incredible stops out on the pitch and ended up with six saves. She'll also get my "Player of the Week" award...she was spectacular in holding Virginia to just one goal earlier in the week. Credit Emma Hiscock, Emerson Jennings and Mackenzie Geigle as well, all with their first goals of the season. And, credit a tenacious Cards defense that bent a few times but never completely broke. The 3-4-3 alignment seemed to work, and it definitely had the Panthers confused at times. 

If you saw this one as a "back against the wall" scenario for Louisville coming into the match, you weren't far off. The Cards needed a quality win or two to give them some inspiration and hope going into ACC play. The tie on Sunday against Virginia was a sign of things moving in the right direction. Last night's win added fuel to the fire. 

We, at Cardinal Couple, hear all the speculation and murmurs about it maybe being "time for a change" at UofL in WSOC leadership. I can't subscribe to the theory, though. We did see it as a rebuilding year for Cards WSOC and the rebuild has just taken a bit longer than we figured it might. And, the Cards are doing it without Maya Maxwell, Lizzie Sexton and Autumn Weeks....out with injuries or other unspecified situations. 

A long homestand stretch comes to an end, and...the rigors and uncertainties of the road begin, with a trip to Miami for a Sunday match.  Sebastian the Ibus' squad is at 2-4-3 on the season and took a shellacking at the hands of Clemson (in Coral Gables) 5-0 Thursday night. 

Let's wish the "kickin" Cards" the best of breaks and a few wins over the next four matches. Notre Dame, Florida State and Syracuse all have very, very good squads this season and the Cards defense will get a test in the next four. At least Syracuse and FSU are playing in Lynn. 

253 is a sad number for attendance, though, Cardinal fans. Especially for a free match. Maybe a bunch of would be fans were over at Louder Than Life over at the KEC, but the players do respond to and notice cheering crowds. If Dayton can bring in 2,000 for a home game, you'd think we'd could beat that. Maybe the 8 p.m. start played a role in the low attendance (it was a school night, after all)  but...what the ACC Network wants, it usually gets. 

After Friday's matches the Cards are alone in second place in the conference standing with four points. FSU, UNC and Notre Dame are tied for first with six points and 2-0 records. Overall the Cards are 2-1-4. I'm still not sure if I like this new rule about no overtimes until playoff or tournament season. Sure, it shortens a game up, but...maybe, just, maybe the fans who do show up would like to see a winner. Why not go to Field Hockey's reduced players on the pitch and a shoot-out to settle these ties?  The age-old cry of 90 minutes is enough to settle a contest doesn't appear to be holding water this season. There are 29 "ties" on the combined ACC schedule results so far. That's out of about 120 "results" (win, loss or tie)

I could never be a head soccer coach. The "tie" was something I never grew up with playing basketball and rarely encountered on the gridiron. 

I hope to see you out for WSOC on Oct 5th at Lynn. It's the Noles coming to call. With me, it's usually health-related if I don't show, these days. 

Don't lose those new home uniforms, equipment operations crew...they're on a one-game win streak.

( PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON)                                  

                   *****************************************

A doubleheader on Floyd Street awaits you today. Field Hockey starts it off with a 5 p.m. match against JMU over in Trager and Volleyball hosts Syracuse at 7 p.m. in the LNFCU. I hope to see you at Field Hockey and Jared will be dragging his bad back to both events, most likely.

paulie