#6 Seeded Cards face the Cavs at 8 p.m.
Kellie Young's Louisville Lacrosse squad begins ACC Tournament play tonight in Richmond, VA at Sports Backers Stadium. The Cards (11-6, 3-4) are #18 in the nation. They face the #3 seed Virginia (10-7, 4-3) which is #12 in the nation.
Louisville visited Virginia earlier in the season on April 15th and fell to the Cavaliers 11-7. The Cards had a 6-5 lead at halftime but a strong second half defense from UVA limited UofL to just one second half score.
For the Cards, Hannah Koloski leads the offense with 58 goals and two assists in 2017. She, along with Brittany Read made the 2017 All-ACC First squad. Meghan Siverson was selected for the second team. Koloski, a senior from Lakeville, MN leads the nation in free position goals with 1.53, is second in shots on goal with 6 a contest fourth in goals scored with 58. Coach Young on the trio:
"Hannah, Brittany and Meghan have been such significant parts of our success. Hannah has faced the top defenders from every team...game after game...she has battled face guards and double teams and still fond a way to score."
Read, a junior from Gibbsboro, NJ has been stellar in goalkeep after returning from a season ending injury last year. She's fourth in the nation with 10.06 saves per game and stops 51.7% of the shots she faces. She leads the ACC in saves, save percentage and saves per game. Read also owns the school record with 300 career saves.
Siverson has been a pleasant surprise this season. After a freshmen year of limited playing time, she stepped into center midfielder spot and produced 51 goals and eight assists. Another "Jersey girl" ...from Morristown...she averaged three goals made per game.
Madison Hoover (18) and Ashley Lynch (17) led Louisville in assists this season. Freshman McKayla Conti has also been a valuable contributor in the attack and senior Stephanie McNamara is one of the best defensive players in the nation.
All games today will be shown on the ACC Network Extra and action gets started at 11 a.m. when #1 seed North Carolina faces #8 seed Duke. #4 seed Notre Dame will face off against #5 Boston College at 2 p.m. #2 Syracuse goes against #7 Virginia Tech at 5 p.m.
25 teams participated in the 2016 NCAA women's lacrosse tournament. With a current rank of #18 or #19 (depending on which poll you look at) in the nation, you have to like Louisville's chances of getting a bid...but a win or two in the ACC Tournament would certainly secure the Cards a spot in the bracket.
Seven of the eight ACC schools are in the top twenty. The Cards RPI is #27.
Finish might be the most appropriate word to use when assessing the Cards chances over the next several days. Young's squad has held first half leads over five of the seven ACC schools they played this year (Virginia, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Syracuse and Duke). They lost three of these games (Virginia, Notre Dame, North Carolina). The Cards trailed Boston College at halftime and lost. Against Virginia Tech, Louisville was tied at the half and went on to win.
60 minutes. Finish as strong as you start. That is the key, if LouLax wants to pile up a few wins at the end of the season. That quest begins tonight, in what could possibly be the final game of the year for Louisville...if they fall.
paulie
xxxxx
CARDS PLATE 30 RUNS IN TWO GAMES IN VEGAS
If the Louisville Softball team was appearing as an act at one of the Las Vegas hotels, you'd have to say they were a "hit". Or, they'd be there for a long "run".
The Cards put up 30 runs on 24 hits and allowed just five in wins over Southern Utah and Cal State Bakersfield in the opening day of the Sportco Kickoff Classic...hosted by UNLV. (Why they call it a "kickoff" classic is beyond me...maybe the hosts were ready to kick Louisville off the field for wearing out the base paths...)
CARDS 17 - SOUTHERN UTAH 3
Louisville wasted no time in getting the scoring started in the opener...gathering three runs in the bottom of the first...a Maryssa Becker single scoring Sidney Melton, Megan Hensley single bring home Jordan McNary and Nicole Pufahl sacrifice fly getting Becker to the plate for a 3-0 first. While Becker was taming S.U.U. on the mound, Louisville added a deuce in the second...Hensley connecting on a two-RBI double to send Melton and Becker to the plate.
The top of the third was golden for the RedBirds...seven runs...which featured a Pufahl two-RBI single. When the dust had cleared on the infield...the Cards were up 12-0 and a five-inning affair seemed to be in the cards for the Cards over the Thunderbirds.
Louisville tacked on five more in the fourth...Pufahl knocking in two more with a single and Becker and Hensley also adding RBI's. Up 17-0, Sandy Pearsall started substituting freely in the fifth and freshman pitcher Sydney Warriner relieved Becker on the mound...who had compiled a four-hit shutout. S.U.U. touched Syd for three runs...but the Cards eventually collected three outs and the contest end with a 14-run, 17-3 five-inning win for the Ville over the Thunderbirds.
CARDS 13 - CSU BAKERSFIELD 2
Louisville returned to the field 30 minutes later to face CSUB. Hensley took the mound for UofL and the first inning went scoreless. The Roadrunners pushed a runner across the plate in the bottom of the second and one wondered if the Cards might have ran the scoring well dry.
Nope.
Louisville put together four singles and a walk for four runs in the top of the third and led 4-2 when they came up to bat in the top of the fourth. The Cards loaded the bases again, McNary's fielders choice scored Alison "Mike" Szydlowski and kept the bases loaded for the Cards first home run of the season...a grand slam shot by Becker over the left field fence.
That 9-2 advantage carried into the top of the fifth. Hensley was controlling the Roadrunners and the Cards were smelling another five-inning affair possibility. "Mike" doubled to start the inning and Melton and McNary followed...scoring "Mike".
That set the stage again for Becker...who planted another one over the left field fence...a three-run blast...to make it 13-2 Cards. Hensley sent CSUB away quietly in the bottom of the fifth and the Cards had an 11-run victory.
Becker had eight RBI's in the contest...McNary three and Hensley went five innings, allowing two runs on four hits. The Cards play two again today...getting Indiana State at noon and host UNLV at 2:15 p.m. The UNLV game will be available at the UNLV website...I bounced back and forth between StatTracker and Sidearms Stats to follow the the action last night. Once they got going, they did an OK job of coverage...I prefer StatTracker.
LACROSSE HOLDS ON AT MARQUETTE 13-12
The Jersey Girls are at it again.
McKayla Conti (Ocean Township) and Meghan Siverson (Morristown) netted five goals each and LouLax held on late for a challenging 13-12 win over a determined, home-standing Golden Eagles squad Friday afternoon.
The Cards fell behind early in this match 3-0 before Siverson got UofL on the board. Down 4-1, Louisville battled back to tie it at 4-4 with Conti, Ashley Lynch and Heidi Smith finding net success. Marquette held a 6-5 edge with five minutes left in the firsst half...but two straight goals from sophomore Conti...the final one with 24 seconds on the clock...gave UofL a tenacious 7-6 advantage after one.
Marquette started the second session strong with two goals to regain the lead. Conti gathered her fourth score to tie the contest, Hannah Koloski connected on her only score of the day to forge UofL ahead 9-8 and the teams went back and forth...Conti scoring her fifth goal to make it 11-10 Louisville with 6:43 to play. A minute later, the Golden Eagles knotted it back up. Siverson put in two shots in the next two minutes to send Louisville on to 13-11, but Marquette narrowed that to 13-12 with 90 seconds to play. With the shot clock off, the Cards played "keep-away" on offense and were able to hang on for the 1-goal victory.
A valuable win under challenging circumstances. The contest was played in Marquette's domed all-purpose facility...which provided an almost surreal white, parachute kind of glow to the background and made following the ball...at least for this viewer...fairly difficult. Kudos to the film crew...who just showed the action and didn't provide any background babble.
Louisville (2-0) returns home to face Robert Morris Sunday at 1 p.m. With WBB at 3 p.m....our coverage may be brief...but we'll have a recap, nevertheless.
THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR
Case, WorldWide and I will plunk ourselves down in front of the microphones and belt out another 60 minutes of Cardinal Athletics this morning at 11 a.m. on THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR. Coordinates are WCHQ 100.9 on the FM airwaves and CARDINAL COUPLE 2-11-17 via Internet.
We have a fine broadcast lined up for you! Case will catch us up on men's BB and preview the 2 p.m. game against Miami at the KFC YUM! Center today. We'll also discuss WBB, Softball. Lacrosse and other UofL sports...plus get a review from Worldwide on his test-drive and hear Paulie rant about on-line coverage of softball.
Punkin is waiting for her treat and Monk is grinning...since we have light audio this week for her to download and monitor. We'll muddle through somehow and you won't want to miss it.
Paulie
xxxxx
CONTI LEADS CARDS WITH SIX GOALS
One of the questions about the #18 Lax Cards going into the season was where was the scoring going to come from beside seniors Hannah Koloski and Heidi Smith? And, although the "H & H" girls did their part with three goals each...it was a pair of talented sophomores who found the most 'net' success in McKayla Conti and Meghan Siverson.
The duo combined for 11 goals (Conti six and Siverson five) in Louisville's convincing 19-8 win over un-ranked Vermont.
Conti, a midfielder/attack specialist from Ocean Township, NJ, got things brewing for the Cards early with the first score of the season just 72 seconds into the contest. Koloski, from Lakeville, MN followed that up with a goal at the 27:37 mark and it looked like the Cards were off to a furious start.
Vermont wasn't ready to climb back on the bus and head for Burlington, though. They countered with four straight goals over the next eight minutes...three of them from another sophomore on the pitch...Jenna James...and Louisville head coach Kellie Young decided to use a timeout with 19 minutes left in the half to talk things over. Young on the time-out:
"To be honest, it was a pretty calm timeout. It usually would be a time to light this team up but I don't think they needed that. We just needed to settle in. Vermont was using a consistent pattern and we needed to understand that pattern and make the necessary adjustment."
The adjustment worked.
Louisville shut down the Catamounts offensively and the Cards scored the final six goals of the half...two from Conti, three from Siverson and one by another sophomore in Elsie Koehl and took a 8-4 advantage into halftime.
Smith kept the Cardinal scoring spree going with an unassisted goal just 12 seconds into second half play. Vermont threw one last challenge into the LouLax
squad with a three-goal counter...two from Alison Bolt...and the Cardinal lead had been trimmed to 9-7 just five minutes into final half action.
Once again, the Cards would stiffen up the defense...limiting the America East Conference visitors to just one score the rest of the way. UofL scored eight times in the final ten minutes to put the contest away...Conti getting three in a row and Siverson tossing in the final for the 19-8 win. Freshman Ashley Lynch also picked up the first goal of her career in the second session.
Brittany Read had six saves in goal for the Cards and allowed all eight Catamount scores. She wasn't as busy as her net counterpart on the other end of the fiedl...the Cards put up 51 shots, compared to Vermont's 18...and Vermont goalkeeper Maddy Kuras allowed 19 goals and had 20 saves.
The Cards travel to Marquette for their next game...facing the Golden Eagles Friday at 3 p.m.
A Cardinal squad that looks to have a ton of attackers and scoring options. An impressive group of sophomores starting to reap the benefits of working hard and learning as understudy freshmen. And, an opening win on a day where two new names...a couple of Jersey girls (Siverson is from Morristown, NJ) popped into the Cardinal Lacrosse vocabulary for the fans.
And...the name Conti in Louisville now appears to have an additional description besides a coffee roaster. Someone in Louisville marketing/advertising needs to hop on that pronto, right?
Photos by Nancy Hanner / The Louisville Cardinal
QUOTES AND COMMENTS
I caught up with McKayla and Coach Kellie after the game for these comments on the victory.
MCKAYLA CONTI ON THE VICTORY
COACH KELLIE YOUNG AFTER THE 19-8 WIN
😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇
PAULIE PICKS
Even though Louisville women's basketball doesn't play until Monday night...along with Notre Dame, Miami and Florida State...the rest of the conference isn't taking Sunday off. Let's look at the Sunday contests first and then the Monday games.
Duke heads north to Wahooland facing a Virginia squad that has been on again and off in their last five games. The "off" button gets selected today for UVA against a Duke squad ensconced in the five-way tie for third in the ACC. DUKE
Syracuse goes east...something they don't do so very often in ACC play to climb the Chestnut Hill and face Boston College. Q has his oranges in that traffic jam for third-place and should beat Baldwin's bunch in Boston. SYRACUSE
North Carolina takes a southern sojourn to the Tigers den to face a Clemson squad that got dumped by Duke last time out. Things don't get any easier for the felines as they get it stuck to them by the TarHeels. NORTH CAROLINA
In a "tech"nical battle, the Virginia version heads to Georgia to roll with the Ramblin' Wreck. The Hokies haven't been able to find the formula recently but they solve the equation today against Georgia Tech. VIRGINA TECH.
Wake Forest defends the trees against a prowling pack of Panthers in Winston-Salem. A tough call here...but Pittsburgh hasn't won an away game in ACC play yet this year and it's not going to happen today for them. WAKE FOREST
On Monday...
A top-20 battle between the Florida entries in the ACC. Miami heads north to face Florida State looking to topple the tribe. These Noles aren't any wooden Indians and should take another scalp by beating Miami. FLORIDA STATE.
The Cardinals fly north to battle the Irish in a ESPN2 game. Notre Dame has had a few scares this season and, in my upset special, the Birdies take the fight out of the Fighting Irish and get the win in South Bend. LOUISVILLE.
ON THE ELECTRIC RADIO AND LAPTOP
We gathered in the basement on a hill Saturday for the weekly edition of THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR and had a lively time discussing Cardinal men's and women's hoops, lacrosse, Spring Sports Media Day and other topics of possible interest. A fun show where Case outlined how Louisville MBB would defeat Boston College (and they did convincingly) and WorldWide revealed his plans for going to Cincinnati and trying out for the baseball Reds.
OK, he's going for a test-drive on a new vehicle...not a quest to take over third-base...but the car conversations were inter-spiced with some great audio and observations. You can hear the replay at the link below:
THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR 2-4-17
Have a GREAT Super Bowl Sunday and we'll be back Monday to preview the Cards WBB squad's contest against Notre Dame.
paulie
xxxxx
