Saturday Cardinal Couple - Defense dominates in Women's Soccer win over Butler

SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Corral, Exeter with goals in 2-0 Cards win over Bulldogs


The University of Louisville women's soccer team opened the regular season Friday night in Cardinal Park with a convincing 2-0 win over Butler. Seniors Charlyn Corral and Christine Exeter produced second half goals and the Cardinal defense limited the Bulldogs to just four shots on goal in 90 minutes in front of a rowdy and full contingent of Cardinal fans.

Karen Ferguson-Dayes:

OPENING REMARKS

" Definitely to get a win in the first game of the season is a nice to start off. I thought we were a little unfortunate in the first half because their was a penalty kick that the referees didn't call and we scored a goal that they didn't call....so it could have been 2-0 at that time...but to have the fortitude to fight back and get a goal about a minute into the second half and to get that second goal at the end of the game was really nice. I think Butler is a really good team...they double teamed Christine (Exeter) and Charlyn (Corral). It was obvious that anytime either of those two got the ball there were numbers around them but we were able to fight them off."

On any second half adjustments by the coaches:

"No, good players got it done. We told them we thought they were playing good and just stay aggressive. Really, I thought  if we could get a goal in the first ten minutes, it would give us a chance to settle into the game. We did get that goal but I don't think we ever settled into a good rhythm."

On Butler:

"I have a lot of respect for Terri and what she's done. We've played them regularly each season and I think what we saw tonight was what we expected we would get. They're a good team and they're going to win some games in the BIG EAST."

After a scoreless first half, Christine Exeter found the back of the net with a header just 53 seconds into the final stanza on a nice set-up pass from Corral. The defense stayed strong and with 5 1/2 minutes left in the game Corral took a pass from Hannah Konermann and performed a nifty cross to get open in the box and drive a kick past Bulldog goalie Julie Burton.

The kickin' Cards outshot Butler 20-9 and had nine attempts on goal...four by Corral. Louisville freshman goalie Paige Brown had her first shutout of her career and the Cardinal defense of Rachele Armand, Chelsea Hunter, Rachel Melhado and Megan Berberich frustrated Bulldog attackers for most of the evening.

The Cards return to action Sunday. Illinois visits Cardinal Park for a 1 p.m. contest.

You can see Paulie's hand and digital recording device in the post game interview...plus hear his brilliant questions at:

http://www.gocards.com/allaccess/?media=400888



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Coach Sowry lookin' chic in her ballcap!

Field Hockey begins their exhibition season with a Saturday game in Bloomington against IU. Start time is 1 p.m. We'll review the action in the Sunday edition of CARDINAL COUPLE.

The Cards split with the Hoosiers last year, winning the exhibition match and losing in the regular season.

You can follow the action on GAMETRACKER over at

www.gocards.com


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SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR has a jam packed 60 minutes with pre and post game comments from Coach Ferguson-Dayes, post game remarks from Charlyn Corral and interviews with Justine Sowry, Arthur Albiero and Kellie Young. We'll also cover the latest on basketball recruiting, volleyball news and the upcoming Saturday night Alumnae game.

Be sure to join us at:

BALLS, BUMPS, BREAKAWAYS and O'BRYAN

We tee it off at 11 a.m.

-Paulie

LouisvillemifielderCharlynCorralspentherfirsttwoyearsofcollegeattheUnversidaddeMexicoCityandhasonlybeenspeakingenglishforacoupleofyearsSheisadorable!

Thursday Cardinal Couple - Let's Get It Started

THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( JEFF McADAMS writes today about the weekend ahead, where three of the UofL women's sports squads take to the fields and courts to excel. It's been a long time coming, let's get it started!) LINK BELOW:

Let's Get It Started (Black Eyed Peas)

O frabjous day!  Callooh!  Callay!

With apologies to The Black Eyed Peas ("Let's Get It Started") and Lewis Carroll ("Jabberwocky"), its a great time for us here at The Cardinal Couple as we get to start writing about sporting events actually occurring again.

Women's Soccer

Women's Soccer starts their last season playing in Cardinal Park with a Friday evening season and home opener against Butler.  Our visitors from Indianapolis get to meet the Cards kickers coming off of two good warm-up exhibition wins against Vanderbilt and Purdue the past two weekends.  They had to go to overtime against Purdue to get the job done, but wins they were.

Of course, now the games start counting.  Coming off of a 12-5-4 season last year, and an early 2012 season loss to Louisville, it seems that Butler is not exactly a powerhouse of a soccer team, but not a team you want to take for granted, either.  This year, Butler claims a 3-2 win over Ball State in exhibition play.

Sunday sees Illinois joining us at Cardinal Park.  The Illini had a nine loss season last year, which would tend to suggest that they aren't all that competitive of a team, though all of their losses were to some pretty tough teams, so perhaps they just scheduled a really tough schedule.  One of the joys of the very early season is not really knowing how strong the teams are that you're competing against.

Friday's game is a 7pm first kick, and Sunday kicks at 1pm.  A slight chance of rain on Friday, diminishing towards the evening, and the forecast is for dry and warm on Sunday...early in the year is a good chance to check out Karen Ferguson-Dayes' team without having to dress like Nanook of the North.  It should be a good couple of days out at Cardinal Park.  Adult tickets are $5, under 18 are $3, and under 2 years are free.

Field Hockey

Justine Sowry's Field Hockey team has a scrimmage Saturday against IU in Bloomington, IN.  This is a great road-trip through the rolling hills of western Indiana.  The game is a 1pm start, which should leave you enough time after the game to make it back to Louisville for...

Volleyball

Saturday at 6pm is the annual Volleyball alumnae match.  Last year there weren't enough

alumnae willing to play to field a team so this event turned into a Red v Black scrimmage.  No word yet on whether enough alumnae have committed to playing to field a team, though I certainly hope so.  I would certainly love to see great players like Justine Landi, Lindsey Mango, and Maci Wachtel back out on the court.  Sarah Drury-Petkovick, Directory of Volleyball Operations, is also an alumna and could, in theory be on the opposite side of the net.  Of course, Coach Anne Kordes is also an alumna, but she'll be too busy coaching, and being pregnant, to play on the alumnae team.

The alumnae event is a free, ticketless event at Cardinal Arena and is great fun every year.  If you've never been to Cardinal Arena, its a fantastic, cozy arena that's great for watching Volleyball action.  Any seat you sit in gives you a great view of the action...well, maybe not if you're directly behind the Up Referee.

Volleyball Preseason Honors

Speaking of Volleyball, yesterday saw the announcement of The American Conference preseason coaches poll, and preseason All Conference Team.  Louisville claims the preseason conference number one ranking...which isn't all that much of a surprise, honestly...and placed 4 players on the preseason All-Conference team.  Hannah Kvitle was the only one of the four that wasn't a unanimous selection, though she is the only setter to make the team.  Caitlin Welch is the only Libero to make the team and did so as a unanimous selection.  Emily Juhl and Brooke Mattingly also were both unanimous selections, and also were tabbed as co-Preseason Players of the Year.

Louisville Volleyball is starting the season with a 19th rank in the AVCA preseason poll, a drop of only two positions from the end of season poll from last year after graduating approximately 70% of the offensive kills on the team.

Volleyball opens their season next weekend, the 30th and 31st, with matches against non-conference-foe-for-a-year Syracuse and host Penn State at the Penn State Invitational.

Jeff McAdams