Fall Sports Media Day -- Angel out -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FALL SPORTS PREVIEW DAY

A chance to interchange with four of the fall sports at UofL. Field Hockey, Volleyball, Women's Soccer and Cross Country met with the media Thursday afternoon at the Lynn Stadium office complex and training facility to preview their seasons. 

A bit of difference in the format from previous years, with each squad -- complete with coach and selected players going to the interview room and fielding questions after opening statements. No breakout session with they individuals afterward. Part of that change because of a delay in the proceeding since a football media opportunity went long and a lot of the media were covering that. 

Field Hockey went first with head coach Justine Sowry and student-athletes Katie Walsh and Taylor Stone. You can hear them in their entirety at the link below: 

https://soundcloud.com/user-748907999/dr0000_1446mp3




Next up was Louisville Volleyball. Coach Dani Busboom Kelly took the stage with players Molly Sauer, Jasmine Bennett and Wilma Rivera. That session linked up below: 

https://soundcloud.com/user-748907999/dr0000_1447mp3

Coach Karen Ferguson Dayes and her Louisville women's soccer contingent were next. Emina Ekic, Gabrille Vincent and Gabby Kouzelos fielded media questions. Their session is available below: 

https://soundcloud.com/user-748907999/dr0000_1448mp3



Closing the session was Cross Country with head coach Dale Cowper and runners Dorcas Wasike and Daniel Fleace. Our audio quality isn't the greatest there, so I did not include ours here....but Cross Country's words and a UofL recap of the entire event can be found at: 

https://gocards.com/news/2018/8/9/field-hockey-cards-host-fall-sports-media-day.aspx

Fall sports. They're right around the corner...starting with a WSOC exhibition Saturday at 6 p.m. against Morehead at Lynn Stadium. 

We're excited! How about you? 

ANGEL FALLS

Atlanta Dream all-star forward Angel McCoughtry will miss the rest of the season and the playoffs with torn ligaments in her knee, the team announced Thursday. McCoughtry suffered the injury in the fourth quarter of the team’s win over the Las Vegas Aces on Tuesday.

Here's a vid of the injury and a good read on what it means to the Dream at the link below:

https://www.sbnation.com/wnba/2018/8/9/17672720/angel-mccoughtry-knee-injury-wnba-dream

A tough break, no doubt, for the Dream...so close to playoff time. We, at Cardinal Couple, wish her a speedy and complete recovery. 


paulie
xxxxx

Amanda Green and Molly Sauer Interviews -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cardinal Couple Sits Down With Amanda Green and Molly Sauer

Have you ever wondered what candy players prefer: M&Ms or Skittles?  What about either Beyonce or Rihanna for musical favorites?  Yesterday, Paulie and I took some time to ask these questions to UofL volleyball stars Amanda Green and Molly Sauer. It was the VolleyCards first day of practice and we wanted to talk to these two and discuss their overseas adventures and competition over the summer, review the past season and look ahead to the 2018 season.

A special thanks goes out to Dani Busboom Kelly, head coach of the UofL Volleyball team and Nancy Worely, associate sports information director of Volleyball for setting the interviews up.

2017 has not yet been added

The questions about snacks and music were not the only reasons we went down to Cardinal Arena, of course. Both Green and Sauer spent time this summer on Collegiate National teams. Sauer visited China about two months ago while Green was part of the CNT (Collegiate National Team) coached by Dani Busboom Kelly that visited Europe recently.


Molly Sauer has spent her entire career wearing a red and black uniform.  The Louisville native is a graduate of Assumption High School where such players as Katie George and Alexis Hamilton also hail.  Our libero in the #1 jersey has played a key role every year.



Amanda Green transferred in from Marquette and enters her redshirt junior year.  Hailing from Skokie, Ill., Green joined the Cardinals when Coach Kelly took the reigns as head coach.  She immediately made an impact on the court and wears #18, a popular number in the NFL among Colts fans.

When asked about what they got most of their time across the oceans,  the two teammates had different answers.  Molly and the CNT in China spent some time working with elementary and middle school volleyball players, having the chance to interact and communicate with them despite the language barrier.  In Europe, Green enjoyed the opportunity to continue playing volleyball with some of the best players around the country and improve her skills.




There are nine players on this year's roster that were not part of the 2017 team.  Both seniors gave us some input on the new faces and each listed two incoming players to keep an eye out for this year.  Three are incoming freshman while one is a sophomore transferring returning to her hometown where she attended Mercy High School.

These dual interviews are something you do not want to miss.  The interviews contain a healthy mix of fun with the CNT recap and 2018 preview.



You can check out the Amanda Green interview here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxA8X540YzQ

You can check out the Molly Sauer interview here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3BPWsW5Kn8





Fall Sports Media Day

Big doings today down on the Belknap Campus. Representatives of four squads-- plus lots of media will swarm the Lynn Stadium offices for the Fall Sports Media Day.  Field hockey, volleyball, women's soccer and cross-country will all be present for the event.  Due to its size the football media day is its own event this coming Saturday.

Have you seen this man?

Paulie and Worldwide Jeff McAdams will be in attendance to hear from  coaches Sowry, Kelly, Ferguson-Dayes and Dale Cowper -- plus selected players from each squad.  Besides interviews with the trio of coaches you can expect to hear from a few players from each team as well.

These media days (they hold one also for spring sports and women's basketball conducts one also prior to the start of their season) are a great opportunity to catch up what's been going on with the programs since their seasons ended, things the players and coaches will be working on for upcoming season and any additions to staff or roster.

We've also built a little fun into the player segment. In past interviews, we found out that Molly Sauer loves a particular type of bread stick with her pasta, we learned that Jordan McNary was considering a run for Kentucky Governor, discovered that Arica Carter has a future as Paulie's assistant interview specialist, it was revealed what shampoo Worldwide uses and we've been a part of many other humorous and delightful tales and revelations.

Yeah. We're a little goofy at times. But...we have fun with it and the players seem to enjoy it. We hope you do, too.

What Day Is It?

Grab a seat, pick up a book, and enjoy Book Lovers Day!  If reading isn't your style I'm not sure why you're reading this. Other "National Days of" include the chance to turn some polka on the radio or snack on rice pudding.  If none of those suit your style grab a buddy or significant other for National Hand Holding Day.

I won't be in the studio Saturday for The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour on WCHQ 100.9 FM but you can experience the other three knuckleheads back at the Magnificent Majestic Media Mansion on Mellwood (or whatever this week's name is). Be sure to listen at 11 a.m. or watch them live on Facebook Live.

Since I won't be able to put my sly joke on the white board I will leave one here for you- "What do you call a cow that cannot produce milk?"

"A milk dud."


And then there's...

"whoa...what a concept....pizza, man!" 

Don Mueller, a New York physicist, has composed a song about the decline of "Papa John" Schnatter. The musical section is the old "Popeye The SailorMan" tune. The vocals quite interesting. 

Check it out at the link below at your own risk and make your own conclusion. No dirty words, just some rhymes. 

Maybe it's time just to put the Schnatter ordeal on the shelf and move on to UofL fall sports and positive-type things. A lot of potentially great things ahead for Cardinal Athletics. From the words of another song:
  

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Send gloom and doom to the minimum

Papa The Pizza Man



Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

- Jared -

USA U 18 women advance to FIBA Americas final -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

CLOSE BEGINNING BUT STRONG FINISH FOR USA OVER COLOMBIA

Give the Colombia FIBA U 18 squad credit.

They came out fired up in their semifinal match against USA and gave the Jeff Walz coached squad a competitive game for 15 minutes. The Colombians actually led USA 26-25 with five minutes left in the second quarter. Turnovers by USA and some incredible play from Colombia's Yuliany Paz in the post and Maria Alvarez from three-point range had the Americans shaking their heads...but Walz and the players got things straightened out and a 17-0 run to end the first half got USA out of danger. 

With a 19-18 lead at the end of the first quarter, USA was finding out that Colombia was not going to roll over for them. Colombia capitalized well off USA mistakes and Paz was punishing USA inside. But...the depth and the talent of Walz's squad finally kicked in and they took a 42-26 halftime lead. Colombia would make one final attempt to upset the Americans...cutting the lead to 11 at 51-40 with 4:54 left in the third quarter but it was all USA after that. A 58-41 lead after three and a strong 25-6 fourth quarter advances USA to the finals tonight against Canada. 

The Canadians, also 5-0 now in FIBA Americas play, downed Chile 98-52 last night to get to the finals. All four teams (USA, Canada, Chile and Colombia) advance to the FIBA World Cup Championships. 

Jeff Walz on the contest: 

"It was a great basketball game. We knew it was going to be competitive and it was one we needed, because we needed to understand that when you have breakdowns -- physically or mentally -- good teams take advantage of that. And that's what Colombia did a fantastic job of - they really hurt us when we had breakdowns. And then we had different players step up for us and that's what's so exciting about this. Everybody is capable of playing big for us.  I thought that the group that was out there for us at the end of the first half really gave us the big boost we needed and then we were able to continue". 

That half ending group mentioned by Walz included three players that did all the scoring in the 17-0 run. Ashley Joens nailed two threes during the stretch, So did Rhyne Howard. Naz Hillmon-Baker contributed the other five points. 

Jenna Brown led USA in scoring with 17 points...which included three threes. With 14 points were Joens and Howard. USA shot 10-23 from beyond the arc (43.5%) and out-rebounded Colombia 55-29. Maori Davenport collected 11 of those grabs. Sharpshooting Colombia guard Alvarez ended up with 19 points, hitting six three-pointers, and Paz added nine points and 10 rebounds. 

USA and Canada face for the finals tonight at 9:30 and it can be viewed at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTsl5yjE0Q0

These two squads faced in a scrimmage before the actual FIBA tournament got underway and USA took a 72-42 decision. It may not be as easy tonight for Walz and company. It should be a fun game to watch.

Maybe. 

Let's hope for a better viewing tonight. Last night's internet broadcast was marred with "freezes", loss of signal and inadequate audio. From what was audible, you do have to acknowledge the Spanish-speaking crew that's calling these contests for their unfiltered and exciting emotion-filled delivery and comments anytime anyone but the USA does something good. They're trying to help grow the game in the Central and South America regions and that's good for all of basketball. 

Facebook Live can be tricky....we get that. Ask our Cardinal Couple producer "Worldwide" Jeff McAdams about it. What is puzzling is that these games aren't being shown on any of the sports-themed television stations that dot other cable, dish or app-type viewing.  Isn't there a ESPN, Fox, Univision or some other channel that could provide a feed?

Maybe trick billiards, underwater boxing, scrabble tournaments, miniature golf national championships and paraplegic tennis matches are deemed more important. I get e-mails about the "nothing-to-see-here" attitude that the "sports leaders" have toward the FIBA's. I guess it all has to do with ratings. Maybe competitive lawn-mowing will include me in their amateur bracket. I'm pretty quick with "turns" and my "straight-line cut" skills rank pretty highly here in the neighborhood for accuracy and length.  

But, I digress. Go USA! Go get some tonight.  

Some very pressing questions answered in the link below by USA U 18 players and coaches.

https://twitter.com/usabasketball/status/1024309204516052994?s=19


EMINA EKIC NAMED TO ALL-ACC PRESEASON WOMENS SOCCER TEAM

Women's soccer is the first fall sporting event we'll be covering live this season and it comes up on Sunday...with a 6 p.m. "friendly" against Morehead. There is a women's sports Fall Media Day going on Thursday and we'll report coverage of that on Friday. One of the teams that will be represented at the media event is women's soccer and UofL received great news that sophomore defender Emina Ekic was named to the preseason squad...as voted on by the 14 ACC coaches. 

She also was chosen for the 2017 first team All-East Region Team at the end of last season, a team that is selected by the United States Soccer Coaches Association. 

Ekic had a very impressive freshman campaign for the Cards...who were voted to finish ninth in the preseason ACC poll. She led the 2017-18 Kickin' Cards with seven goals and was named co-Freshman of the Year in the ACC. Ekic, who attended high school locally here at Louisville Manual, had 17 starts for Louisville last season. Hopefully, she'll be at Fall Sports Media Day Thursday so we can get a few comments from her. 

Congratulations to "E squared" and Uofl women's soccer! 


paulie
xxxxx

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

Women's Soccer scrimmages Ohio State...THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

LOOK ON THE SCOREBOARD AND SEE...NEVERMIND.

Activity actually got underway for fall sports at UofL last night...the women's soccer team traveled to Columbus, OH to face the Buckeyes in an exhibition match. We're trying to piece information together about how it went in Ohio...not a lot out there. Exhibition games are just that...many times the stat crews and assistant SID's aren't keeping any official numbers or statistics. The scoreboard isn't on at times. Sometimes they are without public address announcers as well. The games don't go in the records. 

Ohio State had their scrimmage against Louisville on the Internet last night but I couldn't figure out how to download the platform from a viewing device named Stanza that they use. It seemed more interested in trying to get me to set up a calendar on-line and gather personal information than showing soccer...so I gave up on it after awhile and kept searching Twitter for updates. I'm pretty sure it would have cost me something to watch it...but I never got that far in the process. Allegedly, a lot of BIG10 schools use Stanza. I'm glad Louisville is in the ACC. 

There were only a couple of mentions on the Ohio State women's soccer Twitter account. They announced the game would be starting soon. They show the Ohio State players doing the O-H-I-O for the fans after the game. No scores, no highlights...no "so-and-so looked good or "so-and so didn't do this" quotes. 

There was also a quote from the OSU coach Lori Walker Hock after the game. 

"It was great to get out and play. We were able to see where our returners were and we had a lot of young players out on the field. It was a productive scrimmage and it was a benefit for us to get experience against a physical team." 

That as vanilla as it gets in post-event comments. What do we gather from that? That Louisville is physical...which is probably a good thing for the Cards...and coach knows where her returners are. I've seen similar quotes from coaches who've been drubbed by 30 points and from coaches who were up by 5 going into the second half.  

They posted a few pictures. Those are posted here.

I also checked the Louisville women's soccer Twitter feed to see if any mention was made on the scrimmage. 

Blank.

Articles about Saturday's double header, reasons why players chose Louisville and a motivational Monday hashtag but no recap, no score. In fairness, UofL may not have had a sports information person on hand for the contest. Those folks are really busy on campus right now. 

Searching by coach name, I checked the Karen Ferguson-Dayes twitter feed. Nothing there since late September 2016. I get it. It's an exhibition, Paulie. The team has been practicing less than a week (ridiculous...when you consider football and basketball get months and months of preparation for the season). How much can you read into the first scrimmage of the year? 

As you have probably deduced by now...I didn't make the trip to Columbus to watch the action. I have gone to WSOC away games in the past...but this one just wasn't in the wheel-well for me yesterday. And, once again, it was just a scrimmage after only a couple of days of practice. I expected maybe just a brief mention of a score, maybe who scored...but I tend to set my expectations way too high at times, I suppose. To paraphrase Allen Iverson...

"Scrimmage. Scrimmage? We talkin' 'bout scrimmage?"  

(From last year's Fall Sports Media Day) 

We'll find out more about women's soccer and other sports at the Women's Fall Sports media day Friday at Lynn Stadium. WSOC, Field Hockey and Volleyball coaches and players will be on hand for interviews. This is a fun event. After they feed the media, they're gathered into a room and the coaches talk about the programs and then the media given access to another room and allowed to talk to specifically picked players from each sport. We've gotten some great interviews out of this event since they started holding it a couple years ago. We've found out what shampoo Worldwide uses (one of the best questions ever by a player -- Molly Sauer -- directed to a media member... The answer was Pert Plus...). We found out where Maya McClendon prefers to eat (her parents house).  Based on last year...the Field Hockey girls are usually pretty serious, the WSOC girls open and humorous (thank Inger Katrine Bjerke for that...) and who knows what we'll get out of Volleyball this year? New coach and all...

We'll have those interviews on THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR Saturday morning at 11 a.m. They'll consist of our "Catching Up" sequence...normally we'd bring you a former UofL WBB player but we'll catch up with the fall sports instead. 

So...let's recap. We know that one UofL women's fall sports team (WSOC) has faced someone else. Louisville is an aggressive team. We also know that Jeff Walz has safely arrived in Tokyo with Asia Durr and the rest of the USA U23 squad and they went to practice shortly after the plane landed. We know that Field Hockey had their first practice yesterday and so did Volleyball. We even know the UofL women's golf schedule for the season. 

Things are happening. The doldrums of summer have passed. Fall sports have begun. We'll be here to tell you about what we see (or don't see). 

paulie
xxxxx

Fall Sports Newbies - Monday Cardinal Couple

We're just talking about new additions all over the place here on Cardinal Couple.

First, let me welcome, in written form (electronic? text?...well, not radio'ish), Case Hoskins to the Cardinal Couple writing stable.  It's always good to have another voice, and I look forward to your contributions.  In the discussion on The Cardinal Couple Radio Show on Saturday, you said you were a Soccer fan, so I'm hopeful we can get some more in-depth coverage of our Women's Soccer team.  I went to the Saturday exhibition against Morehead, which The Cards won 5-0, and while I always enjoy watching soccer, I don't feel like i know the game well enough to really analyze it intelligently.

While we're talking about new additions to squads, let's talk about some of the new players that we heard about Friday at the Fall Sports Media Day.  Paulie turned off his recorder before all of the questions, including mine, were heard, so if you were listening Saturday, you missed the question to the coaches about which new players to the squad we should be watching for to make an impact.  I did, however, take notes, so here's a bit about what to look for in the fall team sports for impact from new players.  If I know something about them, I'll add it as well.

Volleyball

Anne Kordes answered first and mentioned one freshman, and one returning player.

Jasmine Bennett - will be a sophomore middle hitter/blocker out of McCracken County Kentucky.
Kordes mentioned Bennett not as a truly new player to the team, but as one that didn't get much playing time last season and so will be relatively unfamiliar to some of the fans.  If you've saw a Volleyball game last season, you saw Winston Bennett (Male High School, University of Kentucky, Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat) in the front row being a huge cheerleader for the team, swinging his towel and cheering, even when his daughter wasn't on the court.  Jasmine will likely see quite a bit of time in the middle this year as it appears that Maggie DeJong will be shifting to an outside hitter role.  Incoming freshman Piper Roe will probably be competing for this spot, but for the moment, it appears to be Jas's position to lose.

Melanie McHenry - An outside hitter, (and only 6'2" as Tess Clark reminded me), McHenry comes to us from the Speedway High School SparkPlugs (I love that mascot) in Speedway, IN.  Melanie is an outside hitter, and as is appropriate for someone from Speedway, she plays with power.  She is an outside hitter and I saw her drive a ball right into Lindsay Palmer's chest.  Lindsay was upset with herself for not being able to play it, but it was one of the harder hit shots I've seen.  Particularly as she gains some attention to targeting and placement of her shots, and ability to read the defense a bit more, she will be a potent weapon in the Cardinal offense.

Soccer

Karen Ferguson-Dayes answered next and listed several players.

Arianna Ferraro - A defender and midfielder out of Manalapan HS, in Manalapan, NJ

Brooklynn Rivers - A forward out of Highlands HS in Fort Thomas, KY

Allison Whitfield - A hometown forward out of duPont Manual HS here in Louisville, KY.  This is the younger sister of UofL Soccer alumna Casey Whitfield who graduated last year.  Allison got a goal and at least an assist (official stats aren't available) in the exhibition game against Morehead State Saturday.

Sarah Feola - from Lester B. Pearson HS in Quebec, Canada.  Sarah will be playing with Team Canada in the Junior World Cup and as a result with miss a few games late in the season for that commitment.

Field Hockey

Justine Sowry was handed the mic last, and I think she may have lost the thread of the question a little bit.  She did mention a few new players, but she first mentioned several key returners.  That's OK, we love hearing about them as well.

Ayeisha McFerran - is a sophomore GK from Larne HS in Larne, Northern Ireland.  Ayeisha, as we've heard previously has had some experience in the past couple of years with the Irish National Team in international play, and proved to be very capable in goal last year in her freshman campaign.

Lizzie Gittens - comes to us as a graduate student from Toynbee School, in Southampton, England.  She is a defender ("B" for "back" I believe on the roster).

Abby Grimes - returns as a Junior defensive back out of Visitation Academy in St. Louis, MO.  She has had an impact on games in the past years and I suspect we'll be writing her name a number of times again this season.

Lotta Kahlert - one of the captains this year, and a player for which I continue to be grateful for her impromptu 1-on-1 skills session with me a couple of years ago at the Fall Sports Fan Day.  Lotta is a senior from Hamburg, Germany, and splits time between midfield and forward.  Lotta made it very clear that she doesn't think she is as fast as alumna and US Olympic Rugby player Jessica Javelet.

Eric McCrudden - the other captain for the year, also a senior, from Putnam Valley HS in Putnam Valley, NY

Nicole Woods - a junior forward/midfielder out of Beverly HS in Beverly, MA.  She's listed as 5'2" on the roster...that may be a bit generous.

Bethany Russ - the international flair continues with Bethany hailing from Wesley College out of Melbourne, Australia.  Coach Sowry spent several moments speaking about Russ's skills.

Minout Mink - I believe Sowry pronounced this as MEE-noe Meenk, comes from Assink Lyceum (Lyceum is roughly equivalent to a combination of middle and high school in the US) and will be playing as a forward.

Whena Munn - Sowry continues the international recruiting, and ensuring that we'll be referencing the roster every time we write about Field Hockey, with this forward out of Wellington East Girls College, in Wellington, New Zealand

We're looking forward to Fall Sports, from big crowd draws like Football, to the smaller crowds at Trager Stadium for Field Hockey and everything in between.  Hopefully this primer helps you get a jump on getting to know the newer players this year.

-- JMcA