Soccer Asserts, While Volleyball and Field Hockey Prepare - Friday Cardinal Couple

Louisville Women's Soccer Asserts Themselves

Cards women's Soccer dominated the play against Boston College last night at Lynn Stadium, maintaining most of the offensive control, and making many more shots that the Eagles, but they had  trouble finishing.

The result was a game where the Cards outshot the Eagles 26-7, had an 11-1 advantage in shots on goal, and a 9-5 advantage on corners, that ended...in a scoreless draw.

Comments from Jared and Case, who were in attendance, suggests that the Cards were flummoxed when the ball got into, or just outside the BC, with lots of dribbling, and shots that didn't have much power on them.

The soccer squad will have one more chance to put up a result in the win column this season when they travel to Clemson next week for the final game of the season.

Field Hockey Heads West

The Field Hockey squad has headed west to take on one of the ACC newcomers in Cal.

Louisville is looking for a couple of wins to close out their season that has been surprisingly challenging.  They've got a real chance to pick up a couple.

Cal is 6-7 overall, but they haven't yet won a game in the ACC.  Welcome to ACC Field Hockey, Cal.

This will be the final game for the Cards in the ACC season this year, with another out of conference game, vs UC Davis, on Sunday.  The Cards are not in danger of not making the ACC tournament, but they're definitely looking to finish off the season in the win column.

The game starts at 4pm Pacific, 7pm Eastern and will be available for viewing on the ACC Network Extra streaming.

Volleyball Heads...To The Top

OK, directionally, it's a bit north, but mostly east.  The important aspect is that it's a trip to the top...of the volleyball rankings.

This is a match that has been circled on many volleyball fans calendars since the schedule was released.  It was expected to be a meetup of top teams, and, well, it is.  Pitt is ranked number one in the country, and has been most of the season.  Louisville is number one in the ACC standings, with the Cards being undefeated in conference.  The Cards are also number one in RPI, largely thanks to having one of the toughest strengths of schedule in the nation.

For nearly all of the season Pitt has looked like a pretty much unbeatable team, wading through about the first half of the season before they even dropped a single set.  Then SMU showed up and...well, they got thumped in Pittsburgh, but the 2nd half of the home and home for the travel partners saw them learn from the first meeting and giving Pitt their only loss of the season in Dallas.

In good news for the Cards, the sets that SMU won were where they were blocking well, and with UofL being one of the best blocking teams in the country, it could be great if that turns out to be a weakness of the Panthers.

As is typical for Friday matches, it's a 7pm start time, and coverage is on ACC Network Extra streaming.  It'll be contested at the Petersen Events Center, the bigger arena available to Pitt volleyball, and your scribe for the day will be in attendance.  (I suspect I've seen the inside of Fitzgerald Fieldhouse for the last time ever, and that's fine.  It's a fine arena, but the Pete is definitely a step up.)

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JMcA