CARDS GO TO ACC QUARTERS WITH 13-11 WIN AT VIRGINIA TECH
The ninth seeded Louisville Lacrosse squad advanced in the ACC Lax Tournament with a well fought and hard earned win over eighth seed host Virginia Tech Sunday afternoon in front of a nationwide ACCN viewership
The Cards were led by Nicole Perroni's four goals in the match, The Cards now head to Charlotte to face #1 seed Syracuse on Wednesday at 11 a.m.
"Nicole was her steady self today." commented Cards head coach Scott Teeter. " She contributed all over the field and made some really big plays when we needed them."
Louisville jumped out to a 4-2 lead in the first quarter .led by two goals from Kokoro Nakazawa. A close ssecond quarter followed, the Cards losing the quarter 6-5 but taking a 9-8 lead into the halftime locker room . The Cards were never able to really pull away from the homestanding Hokies, but did hold an 11-9 lead after three quarters.
Virginia Tech narrowed the lead to 11-10 to start the fourth quarter ...but the Cards were not ready to fold like they did in the second half against Duke and Notre Dame in their last couple of regular season games. Perroni picked up her final goal of the contest in the fourth and was followed in the scoring by Izzy Seikel, to make it 13-10 Cards,advantage. The Hokies did score late for the final of 13-11.
It was Scott Teeter's first career win in the ACC Lacrosse tournament.
The Cardinals head coach spoke about the win::
"The girls battled for 60 minutes today,They had a response for every one of their mistakes. They were all contributing and supporting each other...which gave us a really great team win"
The win improves the Cards record to 8-10 on the season, Virginia Tech finishes with a 9-9 mark. The win avenges a 14-10 Louisville loss to the Hokies at the L.L.S. during the regular season.
Kokoro and Negai Nakazawa seemed to have an enthusiastic, "never say die attifude" during early play that quickly spread to the rest of the team. Kokoro ended up with three goals on the day.. The Cards also got a couple of goals from a couple of players we didn't hear much about during the regular season...with Maggie McMahon and Lauren Figas connecting twice. Also on the board for UofL was Paulie's favorite player...grad student Allegra Catalano and Izzy Seikel
The Cards had a 35-27 shot advantage over the home team and committed just eight turnovers, compared to 15 for Va Tech.
In other first day ACC LAX action, #7 seed Clemson took down visiting #10 seed Pitt 18-15
Syracuse will be next for the Cards.,The #1 seeded Orange and Cards will face off at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Charlotte. ACC Network will have the coverage. ..A nice win for Louisville on a higher seeded foe's home field, so in some circles, it is being called an upset..I'd just like to think of it a solid win that shows the Cards have improved since season end and hopefully, the trend will continue.
paulie .
The Japanese girls are the key to the success this year. Are they both back for next year?
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