NICOLE WOODS ON USA FIELD HOCKEY WORLD CUP SQUAD
To represent your country on the International stage. To be considered one of the best 18 players in the nation and making one of the 16 squads that will compete for the World Cup. It is a very prestigious and high honor in Field Hockey and Louisville's Nicole Woods will be one of the Americans participating in London, England beginning July 21th to vie for the title.
Woods, who graduated in 2017 from UofL, is the second Cardinal to be selected for the event. Goalkeeper Ayeshia McFerran will play for the Irish squad. Both the USA and Ireland are in the same pool and will meet each other in first round competition on July 19th.
Louisville head coach Justine Sowry must be bursting at the seams with pride for the two.
In a recent interview, she indicated to Cardinal Couple that she'd be traveling to the event as a spectator to see her two play.
Woods has had a storied career at Louisville. The Beverly, MA. native has earned 24 caps in her Field Hockey career. She helped the USA squad qualify for the World Cup when USA won the 2017 World League Semifinals. She also went with USWNT for matches against The Netherlands, Chile and Argentina.
At UofL, Woods was selected for NFHCA All-American honors in 2017. In her career, she was a three-time NFHCA All-West Region selection. A three-time ACC selection, Woods finished her student-athlete time with the Cards as the ninth-highest in history in career points and assists. Louisville advanced to the ACC Championships in 2017 with an upset win over Duke at Trager Field.
For Nicole, it came down to either Field Hockey or Ice Hockey as she entered her junior year at Beverly High School. She ultimately chose the "un-frozen" sport and one of the reasons was because of having "to put on that wet and cold ice hockey suit."
A life-long New England Patriots fan, Nicole made no effort to hide that in her four years at Louisville...often seen in a Pats hat, sweatshirt or Brady or Gronk jersey. She's also a big fan of musical rockers U-2. Unlike Bono or The Edge...it does look like Nicole has found what she's searching for...she got her degree in middle and senior high school education and aspires to teach.
The USA will compete in one of four pools in the World Cup. Each pool has four participants. In Pool B, the USA squad joins #10 India and #16 Ireland. With a #7 World ranking, USA is also in the pool with #2 England, who took the 2016 Olympic Gold in Rio.
The USA squad returns six players who competed in the 2014 World Cup. The Netherlands drew the #1 ranking for the 16-team format. Those Dutch have an impressive record in both the World Cup and Olympics....winning seven World Cup titles since 1974 and three golds in the Olympics since 1980. As assistant UofL coach Lucas Piccioli once expained to me...Field Hockey is...in The Netherlands what the NCAA College Football season is here in the United States.
The World Cup format consists of one game against each of your pool opponents. The USA faces Ireland on Saturday, July 21st, England on July 25th. and India on Sunday, July 25th. The quarterfinals begin Aug. 1st. and the final is set for August 5th.
We'll monitor the USA's progress here at Cardinal Couple and hope that Nicole and her teammates can advance out of their pool play and make Field Hockey's Final Four in 2018.
paulie
xxxxx
THE JUSTINE SOWRY INTERVIEW
This week's "Catching Up" interview focuses on Louisville Field Hockey. We were able to catch up with head coach Justine Sowry on Tuesday afternoon and spend some time with her reviewing last season, discussing the players and their accomplishments over the spring and summer and looking ahead to the 2018 season.
I appreciate Coach Sowry for allowing us to get our readers prepared for what looks to be a very promising and exciting 2018 UofL Field Hockey season! The Cards start action with an exhibition against the alumnae on August 18th. before travelling to Michigan on the 19th.
Some listening points as you listen to the linked interview below:
-- How did Coach feel about the 2017 season?
-- Which players have been participating on tournament and national squad this summer?
-- What has UofL goalkeeper Ayeshia McFerran been doing in Ireland?
-- How did Coach Sowry critique Ayeshia's game against Duke in the ACC semifinals?
-- Who are some of the players that will have an impact on the 2018 squad?
-- What message does Coach have for the UofL Field hockey fans?
A great interview with the delightful Justine Sowry on an afternoon that started out cloudy and turned into one of the most fierce and severe thunderstorms over the UofL campus that this columnist can remember in quite a while. Watching the storm from Sowry's second-floor office window at Trager Stadium, we were amazed to see the field below was actually coated in several inches of water. A field that normally drains quite rapidly and needs the use of water cannons at halftime during most games was so soaked that one could have gone tubing on it.
The first photo of Coach (and doesn't she look absolutely adorable?) in today's article was taken right after I entered her office. Note how bright the skies are outside her window. Several minutes later, all hell broke loose.
As we concluded, due to the weather, I remained in the offices for a brief while and chatted amicably with Coach, Field Hockey S.I.D. Lori Korte, assistant coach Erin Schneidtmiller and Director of Operations Debbie Bell. Thanks to Lori for setting up the interview and all of them for keeping Paulie entertained while he waited for the skies to clear.
It may have been stormy and blustery yesterday afternoon outside Coach Sowry's office but the future and promise of UofL Field Hockey is quite bright and sunny for 2018!
The interview LINK below:
CATCHING UP WITH JUSTINE SOWRY 6/26/18
AYESHIA MCFERRAN NAMED TO IRELAND'S WORLD CUP ROSTER
While we're on Field Hockey, we also found out yesterday the Cardinal rising senior goalkeep Ayeshia McFerrran was named to Ireland's World Cup roster.
It's the first appearance since 2002 for the Irish squad "The Green Army" in World Cup action. They are ranked #16 in the world and will have their first pool match on July 21st against the U.S.A. in London, England...home of the 2018 Field Hockey World Cup.
Congratulations to Ayeshia for this prestigious honor and chance to compete against the world's best Field Hockey players and teams!
paulie
xxxxx
At UofL, Woods was selected for NFHCA All-American honors in 2017. In her career, she was a three-time NFHCA All-West Region selection. A three-time ACC selection, Woods finished her student-athlete time with the Cards as the ninth-highest in history in career points and assists. Louisville advanced to the ACC Championships in 2017 with an upset win over Duke at Trager Field. 
The USA will compete in one of four pools in the World Cup. Each pool has four participants. In Pool B, the USA squad joins #10 India and #16 Ireland. With a #7 World ranking, USA is also in the pool with #2 England, who took the 2016 Olympic Gold in Rio.
