Field Hockey Wins on Senior Day -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Ride Big Second Half to 6-0 Win

Louisville celebrated three seniors Sunday afternoon prior to their game against Ohio University. Abby Grimes, Marigrace Ragsdale, and Nicole Woods have been huge factors since arriving on campus, especially this season, and their presence will be missed going forward. There is still time to enjoy them this season, though, and they continued their contributions this weekend. I mentioned on Saturday's radio show that Louisville field hockey needed a big win to get a confidence booster going into the postseason. After only a 1-0 lead at halftime, it looked as though the Cards would be in for a tougher challenge than previously anticipated. 

The first half goal was scored by Minout Mink, her ninth of the season. Mink came up well short of Jared's prediction of two goals per game, but her nine tops the team. Louisville was relentless in that first half, despite only the one goal, with 10 shots on frame and 8 corners. Ohio got only two shots in the half. In the second half, the pressure kept up and the floodgates opened. Whena Munn got the second half party started in the 41st minute. She was followed by Alli Bitting, Marigrace Ragsdale, Abby Grimes, and Madison Walsh on 17 second half shots. 

The big win was mostly expected, with Ohio's rough season thus far, but it is still good for the Cards to accomplish what they needed to. A six goal, shutout performance is a great end to the regular season for Louisville after last week's frustrating losses. This will be a big confidence boost as the Cards look to begin postseason play. Louisville will shoot for it's first single game win in the ACC tournament since joining the conference when they face Syracuse on Thursday evening. An important part of postseason play is the ability to be streaky, and Louisville has shown that they maintain that capability, having gone on a seven game win streak earlier in the season. As long as they can shake last weekend's rough outings and focus on the things that they did well during their streak, the Cards could be poised for a big postseason.

(Editor Note) 

Jared Anderson handled the post-game interview with Coach Sowry in true CARDINAL COUPLE fashion! Good work, Jared.   LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x769d7yAMwU&feature=youtu.be

He also took all the photos you see here today.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

PS: I intended to talk about women's soccer a bit today, but life has pulled my time in other directions. Look for my thoughts on the issue in the upcoming days. Sorry for the brief article today!!


OTHER JARED PICTURES FROM SUNDAY'S GAME

Senior Nicole Woods

Senior Marigrace Ragsdale

Senior Abby Grimes

Vince Tyra was there. Talking to Carole Banda before match

Volleyball Scores Big Win, Field Hockey Senior Day -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Defeats ACC Leading Pitt, 3-2

PC: Jared Anderson

In what was ultimately a match that you might expect to see out of two of the top teams in the conference, Louisville was able to hold on to a narrow lead in the fifth set to knock off the number one team in the ACC, Pittsburgh. The first game was back and forth, with both teams trading runs of around 4 points for the entire game, before Louisville finally shut the door at 25-23. Both teams hit very poorly (-.026 for Pitt and .025 for Louisville) with 9 errors for the Panthers and 10 for the Cards. It wasn't all that pretty, but it was exciting, as errors were coming on big hits just missing the line. Fortunately, Louisville was able to squeak out the win. In the second game, Louisville's erroneous woes continued (9) while Pitt cleaned their act up (3). What followed was a game in which Louisville could do almost no right, and they lost 15-25. 

After halftime, the two teams battled once more. Neither team got further than 2 points from the opponent for the first 30 points of the game. Louisville was able to string together some runs after that point, though, and won the game 25-18. In this game it was Pitt's turn to be extremely outhit. The Panthers mustered only .088 hitting in game 3 with the Cards posting a cool .400. For the first time in the match, in the fourth game, both teams were able to exert a bit more control. Louisville hit only .214 but was able to stay with Pitt's .370 for most of the game. In the end, Pitt won 19-25 and set up the fifth set for the conference lead. 

Early in the final game, it looked ugly for our heroes, as Pitt took a 5-2 lead right off of the bat. Louisville quickly turned things on their head with a whopping 10-1 run to take a 12-6 lead in a game that goes only to 15. Pitt wasn't going to go down without a fight. They righted the ship and pulled back to 14-12 before Jasmine Bennett finished them off with a kill. The win moved Louisville to 10-2 in the conference and 16-6 overall and the loss put Pitt at 9-2, just a half game back. 

PC: Jared Anderson

Tess Clark was Louisville's hitting queen last night, posting 19 kills with a .340 hitting percentage. That's pretty good stuff. Amanda Green also had 11 kills and hit .320. Melanie McHenry split the two with 13 kills, but Pitt was clearly trying to keep her out of the offense as she ended up with 12 digs. Wilma Rivera (who else?) led the team in assists with 53 and Molly Sauer shored up the back line with 13 digs. Alexis Hamilton was back for the Cards and made her impact clear with 10 digs of her own. 

Now, after taking the lead in the conference, Louisville will have to sit back and watch as NC State and Pitt get the opportunity to rejoin them at the top, as the Cards have an entire week off. They'll get the opportunity to maintain their status atop the standings when they travel to Winston-Salem, NC to take on Wake Forest on Friday 11/3. More on that game when it gets closer.

Cross Country Finishes 2nd in ACC Championships

In their best ever finish in the conference championship, Louisville women's cross country took home (well, they were already home) 2nd place at EP Tom Sawyer Park. The Cards were led by Dorcas Wasike, who ran a personal best in the 6K and nearly won the race. Wasike was beaten by Paige Stoner, a senior from Syracuse, but as a sophomore, it is clear that Wasike will be a huge factor for Louisville cross country in the years to come. Three other Cardinals (Kassidy Manning, Mia Ross, and Aurilla Wilson) posted personal best times in the race and the Cards finished with 5 runners in the top 50. NC State won the event. The Cards will travel to Panorama Farms, Virginia for the NCAA Southeast Regionals on 11/10 and hope that they can have some qualifiers for the NCAA Championships which will be hosted back at EP Tom Sawyer on 11/18.

Field Hockey Celebrates Senior Day

Picture per gocards.com

After an unfortunate weekend last week at Trager Stadium, Louisville will hope to finish the regular season with a much better taste in their mouths. The Cards fell to Virginia and Michigan last week, hurting both their ACC standing and their resume with the NCAA. Louisville will play host to Ohio University tomorrow, looking to get back on a winning streak at Trager, where they could play a bunch more important games this year. Louisville will honor Abby Grimes, Marigrace Ragsdale, and Nicole Woods today for senior day as they'll play their last regular season games as Cardinals this afternoon. The game begins at 1PM and is available on the ACC Network Extra if it's too chilly for you to make it out to Trager.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

As Jeff mentioned yesterday, they've still not kicked us off of FM radio, yet. Tune in to the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour at 11AM today brought to you by our gracious hosts at WCHQ, Crescent Hill Radio. In the area, you can find the show on 100.9 FM but you can listen anywhere from the WCHQ app or crescenthillradio.com. Unlike ESPN, these streaming options aren't subject to blackouts. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Positive Road Results -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Restarts Win Streak

If you listened to the very end of Saturday's radio show, you heard me mention my concerns about Louisville's volleyball wins earlier in the season being "flukish" and the upcoming rematches being extremely important. I've had these concerns since Louisville won those matches in the first half of the ACC and their loss on Friday to Miami only amplified the concerns. Fortunately, the Cards took a step towards proving their mettle yesterday against Florida State as they picked up a road sweep. 

The sweep didn't come easy (27-25, 25-21, 25-20) as Louisville trailed deep into the first set. They were able to come back and win that set in extra points, and downed FSU without significant fear in the second and third sets. Florida State is still a team that has confused many this season. The Seminoles started the season in the top 25 but fell out shortly after losing to Louisville earlier this year. Since, they haven't been able to muster much to show what the pollsters thought of them in the preseason. However, a road victory over a conference opponent is tough, especially in a rematch setting. Florida State has talent (that's what gets you preseason votes), but Louisville was able to hold that talent at bay for the second time this season. 

Melanie McHenry, as usual, paced the Cards with 11 kills, 2 aces, 4 digs, and 3 block assists Unfortunately, she also had 9 errors and hit an abysmal 0.059. The only thing that helped Louisville win while hitting only 0.188 for the entire match was the fact that FSU hit only 0.092. Sometimes you show up and you play ugly ball. Sometimes the other team does. When both teams do, and you come out on top, you thank the sports gods for letting you get away with your mistakes and you move on. There isn't much Coach Dani Busboom Kelly can do about an abnormal amount of errors. It is up to the players to put whatever happened out of their heads and execute better next time. The Cards look to extend their new winning streak to two when they take on Notre Dame in South Bend at 7PM on Wednesday.

Women's Soccer Picks up Another Draw

After finishing the home season with a draw against the 15th ranked Demon Deacons from Wake Forest, Louisville was able to get the same result yesterday morning against the fifth ranked UNC Tarheels in Cary, North Carolina. Sunday's tie was huge for the Cards as UNC was on an 8 game win streak and was 8-0 in the conference. Outside of being a big result because of UNC's standing, the draw gives Louisville an ever important point in the conference standings, moving their total to 11. 

Louisville is tied with Clemson for the 8th and final spot in the conference tournament. A win over NC State would improve their chances dramatically, but would not guarantee them a spot, as far as I can tell. I did some digging and was unable to determine what the tiebreaker rules for the conference standings are. Louisville holds the head-to-head victory over Clemson, but the Tigers have the better overall record. We just need to hope that Louisville can pull out a better result than Clemson on Thursday. Boston College is also important, as the Eagles sit only a point behind and could play the spoiler.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Per UofL assistant SID for WSOC Kim Pemberton: "The Cards would get the tiebreaker (if it's a two-way tie with Clemson) based on the regular season win if they are tied."

It gets complicated if Boston College, who has ten points...one behind Louisville and Clemson...wins. They would pass Louisville and Clemson, if both these schools lose or tie. If the Cards win, they get the 8th spot no matter what Clemson or B.C does. If B.C. gets a tie and Louisville and Clemson lose...Boston College beat Louisville during the regular season and would hold the tie-breaker advantage. Boston College and Clemson did not play each other during the regular season.  B.C. (3-5-1 in conference) faces Pitt (0-8-1) to end the season. Clemson (3-4-2) ends with Florida State (5-4). A Clemson win, combined with Louisville and B.C. ties or losses gives them the 8th. spot. Confused enough?  Go Cards, get the win and secure your fate! 

While it was Louisville's offense that was unable to finish against Wake Forest, it was the defense
that stood strong against UNC. The Cards turned away 19 total shots by the Heels, including 6 saves for Gabby Kouzelos in goal. The most important came on a UNC breakaway with time ticking down in regulation. Louisville's offense was able to muster only one shot on goal, making their defensive efforts all the more important. Louisville will need a similar defense to show up on Thursday against NC State and they'll hope their strong offense makes a return after a couple of games off. The final game of the regular season kicks off at 7PM and is available on ACC Network Extra.


FIELD HOCKEY FALLS TO #4 MICHIGAN 

A tough one for Louisville Field Hockey yesterday at Trager Stadium with a 6-2 loss to Michigan.

What is this? First correct answer gets entered into the
Panera Card drawing. 

The Cards gave up two quick goals in the first nine minutes and went into the halftime break trailing 3-1. Michigan pushed that to 4-1 early in the second half before Louisville got their second goal from Abby Grimes to get within two before UM added two goals for the final 6-2 finish.

Disappointment, certainly. After a close loss Saturday to #3 Virginia, Louisville came out flat and was out shot 9-4 in the first half.

Justine Sowry was frank about the defeat.



"Michigan is a very good team, make no mistake about it." 

The Cards ended up with six shots on goal for the contest while Michigan had 11. Goalkeeper
Ayeshia McFerran did have five saves in goalkeep for Louisville but the breakdowns from the normally strong defensive backs kept her busy for most of the entire contest. Michigan got three of their scores off penalty corner attempts.

Al Greener's Pep Band could not
spur the Cards on to victory. 

Louisville (11-6) has a week to think about it and prepare for their final regular season game Sunday against Ohio. The Cards already know their fate in the ACC Tournament -- a #3 seed in the action that will take place here in Louisville at Trager beginning November 2nd.

A windy post-game interview with Coach Sowry below:

COACH SOWRY DISCUSSES MICHIGAN LOSS

Once again, the full interview edited by UofL sports information.

I've upload my own personal audio here. It's on Soundcloud,
so you may need to sign up to hear it there (and here).

PAULIE'S AUDIO FROM THE COACH SOWRY INTERVIEW

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Worldwide Looks On The Bright Side -- Sunday Cardinal Couple

First off...

You might have figured out that many of us here at Cardinal Couple like musical references and borrowing themes from songs.

Today's theme: "Always Look On the Bright Side of Life" from Monty Python's Life of Brian.

You can listen to the tune HERE....be advised there is one "potty" word in the lyrics...if that kind of thing brings you down. There were plenty of potty words out at PJCS yesterday...

To that end, we're going to keep this first section really short.

Football

Boston College, who is, let's face it, the traditional doormat of the ACC Atlantic division, came in to
PJCS and hung an L on the Cardinal Football team, 45-42.  Novels could be written about this one, and I suspect, if you combine the output of various sports media properties associated with Cardinal Athletics, essentially one has already been written.

Paulie reports that Louisville played
 "efense" quite a bit  ( no "D") 

Moving on.

Swimming and Diving

The SMU Classic has wrapped up and UofL Swimming and Diving finished the competition in 2nd place.  8th ranked USC just narrowly edged UofL out of the top spot, by half a point.  UofL came into the competition ranked 7th, and beat out 6th ranked Michigan by 8 and a half points.

Mallory Comerford won all 3 of the events she entered, the 500 free...she's not just a sprinter, folks...the 100 free, and the 200 free relay.  Beyond those victories, there were a lot of 2nd and 3rd place finishes.

The other victory for the Cards last night was in the 200 medley relay, with Alina Kendzior, Maria Astashkina, Grace Oglesby, and Lainey Visscher.  Molly Fears, who won the 1-meter springboard event Friday evening, came in 4th in the 3-meter event.

This meet was a great showing, in a unique format, by one of the most successful teams at UofL right now against very high level competition.

Field Hockey

Minnie

We've said it many times before.  ACC Field Hockey is mind-bogglingly good.  UofL met the latest
challenge in the conference gauntlet with the #11 Cardinals squad meeting the #5 North Carolina squad.  

While it was a bit of a lackluster first half, they did go into halftime tied with the TarHeels at one apiece.  The Cardinals goal came on a corner with 12 minutes left in the first half.  Marisa Martin Pelegrina inbounded the corner, Katie Walsh provided the stop, and Minout "I score goals" Mink fired it home.  If you're keeping track, and I think Jared has given up at this point, that's a team leading nine for her on the season.

The Cardinals would score again early in the 2nd half on another corner.  Abby Grimes gets the tally on this one off the stop by Marigrace Ragsdale.  The insert came from Marisa Martin Pelegrina.  UNC would tie it up again at 2-2 on a rebound from a shot.  The final, game winning, score of the game came just a couple of minutes later with just under 10 minutes left in the game when Taylor Stone to the rock to the hole unassisted.

Ayeshia

With about 8 minutes left in the game, UNC called a timeout and lifted their GK to get a little more offense on the field.  The Cards were able to hold off the extra attacking and finish out the game with the 3-2 win.

This is another huge positive result for the Field Hockey squad.  After their woes early in the season on penalty corners, it's good to see them pull that part of play together and get two goals out of their corners.

In ACC standings, this win leaves the Cards tied for 1st with only Virginia, dropping UNC to 3-2, compared to the 4-1 records of UofL and UVA.  Duke also holds a 3-2 record to hold the tie with UNC in 3rd.  Beyond that, the standings are Wake Forest at 2-3, Syracuse at 2-4, and Boston College at 0-5. The Cards face the Hoos next (at Virginia) for top spot in the conference. 

Next Up

On tap today, all four of the golf and tennis squads are in action.  Only Men's Tennis is here in the 'Ville, at Bass-Rudd hosting the Louisville Invitational.

For a entry in the  Panera Card drawing...be the FIRST
to identify this guy in front
 (by name in movie) in the
comments section.

In team sports, Volleyball finishes the weekend at home with a 3 o'clock start (note the later than
typical start time!) against Georgia Tech.  I've said in past articles and on the radio that GT really shouldn't be a major challenge for this UofL team the way the Cards have been playing, Dani Busboom Kelly, after the Clemson match Friday, disagreed, and GT really is something of an enigma.  In one week of play, they lost in four to Boston College, who isn't an absolutely awful team...but they're not very good, either.  Then they go in Friday and beat Notre Dame in 4.  OK, Notre Dame isn't the powerhouse they used to be, they're rebuilding (and rebuilding fast!), but they can put up some stiff competition and GT rose to the challenge.  Admittedly, Notre Dame is also a bit of an enigma this year, having split a two match home and home weekend with Ohio State, though that's somewhat explicable by pointing out that each team won on their home floor.  Then they went 1-1 on a weekend at home losing to Miami and beating Florida State.  And, ok, you can kind of explain that by pointing out that FSU isn't nearly as good as we thought they were early in the season, but they are still a good team.

The takeaway from all of this I think can only be, if you're trying to predict outcomes in ACC volleyball right now, Good Luck!  If UofL shows up and plays the way that we know they are capable of playing, this should be a win today, but things are topsy turvy enough around the conference that it's really hard to get a good feel of how good various teams are, and that certainly includes the engineers from Atlanta.

This one will be on the ACC Network Extra. Could we possibly get out buddy Cortnee Walton doing some audio?

CCRH

Julie JC Sullivan also goes by the
moniker "Bird Lady".  

The recording of The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour is up on the Soundcloud.  You can listen to the replay, here.  I was able to catch most of the broadcast via TuneIn in my car on my way to Indianapolis where I joined my mother for a zany 20 minute dash in and out of an opening weekend Ikea store.  What I will say is that the Swedes (did you know that they're actually headquartered in The Netherlands, now?) know how to do traffic and crowd control really well.  Over 7,000 had entered the store as we were going in at around 1pm, and yet we were able to make it in, pick up what we needed and get out in 20 minutes.  Impressive!

Back on topic, I was able to hear Jared, JC, and Case cover the latest, and deal with the tense confusion of pre-recorded shows ("This event will have been played by the time you hear this.").  They did a fine job, and it was an excellent show, please check it out if you didn't hear it at broadcast time.

-- 

JMcA

Fall Sports Underway in Earnest -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

After yesterday's competitions, all three major women's fall sports at UofL have officially gotten underway. Cross country, along with the major attention grabbing football, get their seasons started next Saturday. Women's golf hits the road for their first outing in the middle of September and rowing has yet to post their schedule. They'll likely get underway near the end of September if last season is any indication. Let's see how our Cardinals fared yesterday.

Field Hockey (like soccer) Takes Down Hoosiers

While the women's soccer team headed north to Bloomington to take on IU on Thursday night, they likely passed the bus of the IU field hockey team traveling south to face off against Louisville in a mid-afternoon affair yesterday. Like the women's soccer team, field hockey handled the border battle and started their season 1-0. The Cards were led by a new face in their first game. Freshman Marisa Martin Pellegrina earned a point on each of Louisville's four goals, scoring two of her own and assisting the other two. If yesterday is any indication, Martin Pellegrina is a name that you should get used to if you follow Louisville field hockey, because she is likely to continue making noise. Despite the lopsided final score of 4-1, Louisville didn't truly dominate yesterday's game statistically. The Cards finished ahead by only 3 in shots (13-10) and finished tied in shots on goal (7), penalty corners (6), and fouls (0, hooray for a clean game) although an IU player was given a green card in caution, so I'm not sure about the fouls number. It was Louisville's goalkeeping play that won them the game, with Hollyn Barr providing 6 stops to IU's 3. The Cards are still without Ayeisha McFerran, but it is promising that Barr has been able to provide solid play as the last defender. 

The game was never really in doubt for the Cards, as they scored their first goal on a penalty corner finish by Abby Grimes less than four minutes into the game. Martin Pellegrina scored her two goals within five minutes of one another near the middle of the first half. Taylor Stone finished the scoring for the Cards four minutes into the second half on yet another penalty corner goal (3 on the day for Louisville) and Louisville led 4-0. Indiana marred the clean sheet with a penalty corner goal of their own with 15 minutes remaining, but could do no further damage. Scoring on and defending set pieces with consistency is key, as I pointed out after the women's soccer opener, so if Louisville can continue to score on 50% of their penalty corners (unlikely) and defend at a 16% conversion rate (also unlikely) they will be in a good position this season. However unlikely those numbers may be to maintain, that the Cards came out fresh and ready for true gameplay is encouraging. Unfortunately for Jared, Minout Mink was held out in a limited role yesterday, entering from the bench. She was unable to score, which puts her well behind on her quest for 2 goals per game. She'll have some ground to make up if Jared is to be named Nostradamus. Louisville is back in action tomorrow at noon against Delaware. The Blue Hens are No. 3 in the country (Louisville is 9) and are the defending national champions. A win here could set the Cards up with a huge confidence boost and a hefty bump in the rankings.

PAULIE talks with Coach Sowry after the win   (featuring an impromptu walk-by from Minnie Mink).

PAULIE and Abby Grimes discuss the win over IU

Volleyball Falls in Hard Fought Match

The final scoreline, 3-0, wouldn't show it, but the volleyball team started their season with a tough match against a familiar foe to new head coach, Dani Busboom-Kelly, in No. 7 Wisconsin. Like most other Big Ten teams, the Badgers are tough. However, Louisville actually only lost these three sets 18-25, 19-25, and 24-26. The first set was the only one in which the Cards failed to tie or take the lead, and there were actually 11 ties and 5 lead changes throughout the second two sets. Despite a 3-0 loss, Louisville played an encouraging match last night, supported by the fact that they took the third set to extra points. This match is likely one in which last season's team would have been rolled over, especially after taking the painful loss in the first set with a very poor hitting percentage. I'm not one for moral victories, but I can find items about which to be positive in a loss against a superior team. Bouncing back to play hard in the next two sets with significantly better hitting percentages in those sets are some of those positive items. Jeff listened to every minute of this one on the radio last night and I'm sure he'll have quite a bit to add about his thoughts today. Louisville is back in action this evening at 5PM against Minnesota, another tough Big Ten team. DBK likely had a lot of teaching moments for her team after last night's loss, and it will be interesting to see (hear?) how they respond against a similar opponent. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

You can't keep me away for too long! I'm back in the studio with Paulie and Jeff (and maybe Jared? I'm actually not sure. You'll have to tune in to find out.) today and we'll have plenty to talk about with sports finally underway in real competition. There will be post game interviews, thoughts and observations, and plenty of statistical chatter from my end. Tune into 100.9 FM WCHQ in the Crescent Hill area or on the website or WCHQ app at 11AM for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour, and be sure to comment below or on any article when you've got questions or topics you'd like to hear our thoughts on. We're always happy to send a reply, or fill some air time with a conversation. The replay is HERE

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Late Edition - Fall Sports Media Day -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Paulie and I have just finished up approximately an hour and a half of interviews and remarks from various members of UofL fall sports programs.  An event now three years strong that always makes for a pleasant day and a chance to catch up with Volleyball, Field Hockey, Women's Soccer, and an addition this year, Cross Country.

The remarks got started with the four coaches making opening remarks.  Dale Cowper lead the pack with remarks about the chance to host the NCAA Championships at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park.  He mentioned that they have re-arranged the course at the park this year, and expects the event to be better than ever.  In perhaps a little bit of one-upmanship, Justine Sowry went next and spoke about how strong the ACC is as a Field Hockey conference (a refrain repeated numerous times, with reason, here on Cardinal Couple), and mentioned that they get to host both the ACC Championships, as well as the NCAA championships.  Karen Ferguson-Dayes came next, talking up the experience of the senior class, as showing some excitement in the attackers, who were mostly freshmen last year, coming back with another year of experience under their belts.  Dani Busboom Kelly spoke about the move of all of the Volleyball facilities to Cardinal Arena, and how it is now a dedicated facility.  She also spoke of how much of a difference the renovation of Cardinal Arena has made and how great it is to be on-campus where they hope to get more student support, and to have a "Volleyball Compound" where they don't have to share court time and access to other facilities with other programs.

In questions from the media, we heard of the challenges that both Sowry and Ferguson-Dayes have with some number of their players not yet returning from International play over the summer.  Busboom Kelly was asked about being picked "sixth or seventh" in the conference (actually eighth) and what that meant to the team, responding that they expected to finish better than anyone expects in conference, showing some confidence that it would be better than sixth as the question alluded to.  Asked about her favorite part of the newly renovated Cardinal Arena, she said that it was the balcony seating in the end-zones, as that should be expected to up the energy level of the crowd.  She did mention that it limits their ability, due to the closeness of all of the seating to the Volleyball court, of chasing down shanked balls, so it ups the importance of digging and passing cleanly, and overall ball control.

Asked about stand-outs that maybe aren't so well known so far in practice, Busboom Kelly mentioned Wilma Rivera, a transfer setter from Penn State who will be competing for playing time with last year's main setter, Kali Eaken.  Also, freshman DS/Libero Alexis Hamilton got a shout-out for her outstanding play so far.  Karen Ferguson-Dayes mentioned some names we already know, in Inger Katrine-Bjerke, and Gabbie Vincent, both Cardinal Couple favorites from interviews in past years, she named a couple of other names, that I didn't catch (listen to the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour tomorrow to hopefully hear more of them), as well as Brooklynn Rivers.  Sowry mentioned Meg Schneider and Mercedes Pastor, both freshmen, as having contributed well so far in practice.  She also mentioned Hollyn Barr, the backup goalkeeper, as having been playing extremely well, and that she would likely be starting in the cage for the first few games due to unavailability of Ayeisha McFerran.  She also spoke of the depth of the roster, and mentioned the likelihood of going 17 deep, which is unsurprising given her penchant for rapid-fire substitutions.

After the session with the coaches broke up, the media moved into the next room to speak with representatives of the various teams.  We first got the opportunity to speak with Tess Clark and Molly Sauer, of the volleyball team.  They re-iterated coach Busboom Kelly's thoughts of Wilma Rivera and Alexis Hamilton being the stand-out newcomers to the team.  Tess confirmed that she will be playing as a left side hitter, and does have some passing and digging duties.  She mentioned that Sauer helped her out a lot by taking a lot of the passes from her.

Moving on, we spoke with Inger Katrine-Bjerke and Gabbie Vincent from the Soccer team.  Paulie asked about KB's trip to China, then her further globetrotting back home to visit with family in Norway before returning to Louisville.  They talked about the importance for the backs in the game of Soccer, how they were most responsible for communication on the pitch, and how they had the best vantage point to see the whole field of play and thus were in the best position to communicate what needed to be done.

Finally, visiting with Marigrace Ragsdale, Abby Grimes, and Taylor Stone on the Field Hockey team, we heard about their excitement for hosting both the ACC and NCAA Tournaments at Trager.  We also learned that Marigrace and Abby, both being from St. Louis, have played field hockey together since they were twelve.  We learned how the recruiting process worked to get both of them to Louisville (Abby committed first, Marigrace later asked if it was ok if she also came to play with her at Louisville, an exuberant affirmative being the answer to that.)

Paulie will have much of the audio from these interviews tomorrow on The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour, so be sure to tune in at 11am on Crescent Hill Radio, 100.9 on the FM dial in the central area of Louisville, to hear the recorded audio.  On the plus side, you won't have to listen to us knuckleheads nearly as much as most weeks.

-- JMcA

Louisville Field Hockey releases schedule -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

18 Games...11 top 20 opponents

No one could ever accuse Louisville Field Hockey head coach Justine Sowry of choosing an easy path. The 2017 Louisville Field Hockey schedule has been released and the StickCards will have nine home games out of the 18...and face 11 teams that finished in the top 20 last year. 

The Cards will also host the 2017 ACC Tournament plus the NCAA D1 Field Hockey Championships. They may have to do some serious sledding to reach the finals in Trager Stadium in each event.  Louisville brings in National Champions Delaware for a match and will travel to runner up North Carolina for an ACC contest. 

Sowry is optimistic: 

"There's a lot to be excited about this season. We're coming off a great spring with a lot of development and maturity both on and off the field. We bring in a talented and versatile freshmen group who will add depth and dimension to the roster. 

Things get underway when Louisville brings Miami (OH) for an exhibition game on Aug. 19th. The regular season starts Aug 25th. with Indiana visiting and two days later Delaware comes to town. UofL takes to the road for two after that...visiting Ohio State and Kent State. American comes to town on Sept 8th. and then the Cards take off for a three game road trip...facing Maryland, Duke and Northwestern. 

Late September features the Cards home for four contests...bringing in Wake Forest, James Madison, Syracuse and Central Michigan. They'll travel to Boston College, New Hampshire and North Carolina after that and end the regular season hosting Virginia, Michigan and Ohio. 

The ACC Tournament begins Nov. 2nd and goes through Nov. 5th. Two weeks later, the NCAA Final Four takes place at Trager. 

Springtime was successful for the Cards. With 14 returning players, Louisville went 6-0-2. It seemed like an audition for the Big 10 in some ways...the Cards defeating Indiana, Michigan State, Ohio St. and Iowa and tying Northwestern and Michigan. The Cards also beat Kent St. and Miami, OH. 

Returnees for Louisville include All-American goalkeeper Ayeshia McFerran and All-Regional team performers Minout Mink and Nicole Woods.  Other key elements for Louisville in the upcoming season are Abby Grimes, Carter Ayars and Taylor Stone.

Sowry was pleased with the overall effort in the spring: 

"All of the players contributed and showed growth while gaining confidence," said Sowry. "All three seniors stepped their leadership to another level. I'm sure there is the extra motivation that we are hosting the ACC Championship and the NCAA Championship. Everyone truly believes that we have a team that can win a championship, but also understands that there is a long way to go between now and then, but everyone is on board to do something very special next season."





paulie
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