Louisville WSOC douses Blazers 3-1 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

WSOC CARDS DOMINATE ACTION OVER UAB

(photos by Jared Anderson)

Louisville women's soccer got goals from Mackenzie Geigle, Karsyn Cherry and Fina Davy, plus two assists from Emma Kate Schroll in their Sunday night win over Alabama-Birmingham 3-1 at Lynn Stadium. 

Louisville never trailed in the contest and got on the board first when Mackenzie Geigle got a nice feed from Emma Hate Schroll and got a shot past UAB goalie Anika Toht to give the Cards the 1-0 lead with 26:03 gone in the first half of action. The score would be the only goal in the first 45 minutes, the Cards defense doing an exemplary job on the UAB offense and allowing no first half shots by the Blazers. Geigle's score was her second of the season

Louisville increased the lead to 2-0 22 minutes into the second half when Schroll set up Karsyn Cherry for the score.  it was Schroll's second assist of the night and Cherry's second goal of the season. 

13 minutes later, with 79:49 gone in the game, freshman Fina Davy scored her first goal of the game and in her career on an assist from sophomore Miami transfer Gianna Angellilo. It would be the Cards final score of the evening. About a minute later, the Blazers drew a penalty kick opportunity, and got their lone goal of the game. 

It was a game dominated by Louisville offensively. The Cards outshot UAB 11-2 and had a 5-2 shots on goal edge. The Cards did have six offsides calls though, where UAB was just flagged  for two. 

We caught up with Emma Kate Schroll post game for some remarks (and an impromptu "Crashing of the interview" by Coach Karen Ferguson Dayes, as you'll see). Coach did not do a post game with us, no problems or anything, she felt that Emma pretty well summed up the action. She was quite hppy about the win, and Case and I decided to let her enjoy her celevraton with the team, insteaad of interviewing her. And "KFD" was in full agreement

Emma Kate Schroll Post Game

Thanks to Jared for his photo work and also to Case for joining Sonja and I in the press box and helping with spotting and the calls being made on the pitch. . 

paulie

Women's Soccer Looking to Improve This Season -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

CARDS HOPE ADDITIONS WILL BOOST SCORING AND BOOST 2023 CHANCES

There weren't many satisfied with last season's 6-8-2 record for Louisville women's soccer. Louisville managed only 13 goals, while allowing 22. A 3-7 ACC mark kept them out of the conference tournament and they went 3-4-1 at Lynn Stadium. 

So, head Coach of the Louisville WSOC program, and her assistants went to work. Job #1 was to find some scorers. Gone were Maisie Whitsett and Karson Cherry, who was the leading scorer in 2022. The coaches brought in five transfers and five freshmen -- roughly 1/3 of the roster we'll see in 2023. Two Europeans -- Viktoria Wik and Fiona Gai(ss)er.. My keyboard doesn't have the weird "b" ...which, in German sounds like "ss", so we'll go with the pronunciation spelling. (Good luck with that one, ESPN and ACC TV announcers.) She's one we'll be developing or seeking out a nickname for pretty soon, I expect. Fiona had seven goals for her German squad Bayern Munich and has been on the German Women's Youth National team. Victoria represented Denmark on their U-17 National squad. 

They sound like they could be scorers and play forward (Fiona) and midfielder (Viktoria). We'll watch them closely. 

Karsyn Cherry does return. She's the defender who was the Cards second-leading scorer and the only other Card who scored more than one goal last season beside the departed Whitsett.

Consider this...Louisville WSOC lost four games by just one goal last year. So, eight more goals in those four games and the Cards are 10-4-2 Allowing just 1.38 goals a contest, the defense took care of business for the most part, and -- don't forget -- the ACC had five schools in the top ten . There's not a tougher conference in women's soccer than the ACC and North Carolina, Florida State, Duke, Noter Dame, Virginia and Pittsburgh all promise to be challenging foes in 2023. 

Only three of the 14 schools that play ACC WSOC had losing overall records last year and North Carolina defeated FSU in the national semifinals to face UCLA. The Bruins took the title. Only four ACC squads made the 32 team tournament. 

The Cards do get FSU in Lynn Stadium year. It'll be one you don't want to miss. 

I'll be interviewing head coach Ferguson-Dayes Tuesday and will run the interview (along with my Justine Sowry interview) in my Wednesday article....so, don't miss it !  "Coach KFD" begins her 24th season at the helm of the program...she's got seniority over all the Cardinals coaches on campus. 

paulie