Mixed Sunday for Cardinals Women's sports -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WSOC AND FH TAKE LOSSES ON ROAD, BUT VOLLEYBALL WINS ON CAMPUS

Not the best of days for Louisville women's sports on Sunday, as Field Hockey went to Charlottesville and took a tough 1-0 loss to the Wahoos, WSOC fell at #2 Duke 3-1...but Volleyball defeated a good Georgia Tech in for sets at the LNFCU. Let's see how each sport ended up the way they did: 

FIELD HOCKEY

Yes, a road match on the blue turf. Must be in Charlottesville...

Louisville and Virginia were engaged in a scoreless battle for three quarters in this contest, but the Cavs got a goal two minutes into fourth quarter play when Taryn Tkathuk took a feed from Suze Leemans and fired her attempt from above the circle into the goal for the game's only scoring action on Emily Young.

The Cavs led the Cards in shots (7 to 6) but Louisville had a 4-2 saves advantage and also drew four penalty corners, compared to just one for UVA

The win takes UVA to 10-1 on the season and 4-1 in conference, while the Cards drop to 5-7 overall and 1-3 in ACC play. 

Justine Sowry was philosophical about the defeat:  "A tough day today. Sports and life can sometimes feel unfair. Another contest where we left it all out there and you could say we let it slip for 12 seconds.. I am proud of the performance and effort we put on the field today. aw have to be more consistent and be ready to play every game. We have such a great group of young people and we have to keep growing and getting better with every effort..."

Louisville had their chances, including three straight corner oppotunities in the third quarter...but could not convert. The Cards head home and prepare for UNC Friday at 3 p.m.

WOMEN'S SOCCER

The Kickin' Cards had another test on the road against a top 5 opponent on Sunday and, fell to Duke in Durham 3-1. 

Louisville was able to battle their foe to 25 scoreless minutes to begin the contest, but Duke broke through when they converted on a rebound from a corner attempt. 

Three minutes later, the Blue Devils add their second goal when they capitalized off a Cards turnover and kicked one in the net. Mia Minestrella had the scoring kick on a assist from Mia Olitia. 

The first half ended with the 2-0 Duke edge. dule also had a 9-1 hots edge on the Cards and also led the way in corners with three. 

Duke picked up their third goal fifteen minutes into second half action when they scored on a free kick opportunity by Maggie Graham. 

Louisville got their lone goal at the 68:38 mark, when Brooke Dardano snuck one past the Duke goalkeeper for her second goal of the season. 

The loss drops the Cards to 6-5-2 overall and 1-4 in the ACC. Duke improves to 9-1-0 and 4-0 in the ACC . Their lone loss was to Ohio St at Ohio St 1-0 in their second game of the season. 

The Cards come home to start their final home stand of the season with four straight at Lynn Stadium. They'll start the home slate with Notre Dame Saturday at 5pm ET.

VOLLEYBALL

The VolleyCards salvaged the day for the Louisville women's sports squads when they defeated #19 Georgia Tech in straight sets at the L&N Arena on campus. 

The  25-20, 25-16, 27-25 sweep was a tough as expected test against the Georgia Tech squad. Charitie Luper had 15 kills for the Cards and Anna DeBeer added 12.

SET ONE

The squads were evenly matched to start the match off and were tied at 9-9 after a Reese Robins kill. The Cards then went on a 5-1 run to grab a 14-10 lead on a Luper block...and were then buoyed by two DeBeer kills on a 5-0 run. A Cara Creese block extended the lead to 21-13, but Georgia Tech never quit in the the remainder of the set and got back within three at 22-19. Two Luper kills made it 24-20 and 25-20 to end set one in Louisville's favor. 

SET TWO

The Cards flew out to an early 6-1 lead in set two and were able to push that to 11-4  A Cresse kill made the score 14-5 and necessitated a GT time out. But the Cards refused to slow down and got a stuff from Payton Peterson to increase the lead to 11 at 20-9. GT would briefly battle back to get with seven at 22-15, but they would get no closer than that and took the nine-points 25-16 defeat. 

SET THREE

After the break, it was the Tech squad that came out with the hot hand and jumped to a 6-2 lead. Louisville cut that to a 6-5 Tech lead, but GT took charge again and led 17-14. The Jackets added a 3-0 run to that and had a seemingly insurmountable 20-14 lead in the set. But, the Cards cam battling back. They responded with a 9-2 run to take a 23-22 lead on a block from Allie Sherman. The squads were tied at 25-25, but UofL "turned to DeBeer" and got two straight kills from Anna to end the match and give the Cards a 27-25 win.

Louisville improves their record to 12-2 and 4-0 in the ACC. Pitt, North Carolina, and SMU are also undefeated in conference play. The VolleyCards travel to #16 Florida State and RV Miami next weekend.

Volleyball photos by Jared

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