FH Cards Move Up in NFHCA Poll, Win ACC Awards -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

FIELD HOCKEY NOW #5 IN NFHCA POLL

Not a bad Tuesday for Louisville Field Hockey...

After a successful Labor Day weekend in North Carolina, the Cards moved up four spots in the National Field Hockey Coaches Poll (NFHCA) from #9 to #5.  The Vards benefitted from  their wins over Penn and Princeton in their last two matches. 

Louisville Field hockey probably should have gone to #4, they were just eight points behind 2-1 Michigan. How a 2-1 squad gets a #4 ranking is something I'd probably need the coaches to explain to me, I guess...but, so it goes. The sport still allows overtimes and shootouts to settle tied contests after regulation, and that's OK by me.

Northwestern remains #1 in the poll and North Carolina remains at #2. Both are 4-0, just like Louisville. Northwestern has wins over Maine, UMass, Duke and Boston College -- knocking the latter two off in the BIG Ten/ACC Challenge in Boston. North Carolina's four wins are against Michigan, Iowa, Princeton and Penn.

The top nine in the poll are from either the BIG Ten or ACC. After Northwestern and North Carolina, Maryland checks in at #3, then Michigan and Louisville round out the top five. Iowa, Syracuse and Penn State check in at #6, #7, and #8 and Virginia and UConn fill out the final two spots. 

The remaining three ACC schools that play Field Hockey -- Duke, Wake Forest and Boston College, check in at #16, #18 and #20, respectively. 

The Cards will face unranked JMU at Trager Stadium on Friday before the showdown against  #4 Michigan Sunday. Admission is free for Cards Field Hockey. 

KOUIJZER, SCHNEIDER TAKE ACC AWARDS

Two Louisville Field Hockey stars have gathered ACC Player awards for the week that ended Sept 6th. 

Katie Schneider was named ACC Offensive Player of the Week and Julie Kouijzer got ACC Defensive Players of the Week honors. 

Schneider scored twice in Friday's 4-1 win over Penn and had an assist and a goal in the 2-1 win versus Princeton. She has four goals on the season for the Cards so far. She led Louisville in scoring last year with nine goals and has 23 in her career at Louisville. From San Diego's Serra High School, the graduate player red-shirted in 2019 and played on the squad with her sister Meghan Schneider for several years until Meghan graduated after the 2020-21 season. 

Julie Kouijzer is from Amsterdam and a senior back on the 2022 Louisville squad. She helped the Cards hold Penn and Princeton to a goal apiece over the weekend, and a total of just 12 shots in the two games. Julie is one of three student-athletes on the squad from the Netherlands and has earned the nickname "Jules" on the squad. 

Congratulations to these two Field Hockey stars and to the squad as a whole. !!

paulie

 

More Offseason Awards -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Schneider Earns Another Academic Accolade

Meghan Schneider can't stop being awarded for her academic achievements. After earning the 2020-21 NFHCA Scholar Athlete of the Year Award, the 2020-21 Elite 90 Award for the field hockey championship, and being a finalist for the 2020-21 Honda Award, she's back again with a prestigious honor. Schneider has been named to the Academic All-American Division 1 At-Large First Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America. The team is comprised of 92 players from across all sports in Division 1 athletics. Schneider is one of 21 women on the team to post a 4.0 GPA. She's the first player from UofL field hockey to be named to an Academic All-American At-Large Team since 2009 (Heather Bustanoby, second team) and just the fourth honoree from the program. Jessica Javelet holds the other two, being named to the first team in both 2005 and 2006. 

Though Meghan graduated with a degree in biology while minoring in Spanish, we may still see her around Trager in the years to come as her younger sister Katie continues to play for the Cards. As the NCAA commercial says (this is literally one of the only things I'll give them credit for), most college athletes will go pro in something other than sports. It is great to see UofL provide the resources needed to players to achieve their goals off the field as well as on.

Verhulst is National Athlete of the Year

After being named as the Kansas Female Athlete of the Year and Girls Basketball Player of the Year by USA Today last month, Payton Verhulst became eligible for a larger award. On Thursday night, that eligibility came through. While Verhulst was not named the National Girls Basketball Player of the Year by USA Today, she was instead named the Female Athlete of the Year, a heck of a consolation. Verhulst's awards come after she was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in basketball and the Volleyball Player of the Year in Class 4A in Kansas. Bishop Miege won the state championship in both sports this season, with Verhulst at the helm for both. In basketball, she averaged 19.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game while she averaged 3.7 kills per set with a 0.239 hitting percentage in volleyball. I'm sure Coach Dani Busboom-Kelly isn't done trying to convince her that there is space on the roster sheet over in Cardinal Arena. 

Verhulst's offseason activities will continue today as Team USA kicks off their U19 World Cup run against Italy at 2:30PM Eastern Time. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We're back this week with another podcast, and we've had plenty to cover throughout the week. We'll continue to look back on the week that was while preparing for the fall sports that are just around the corner. Join us as we bring you the joy and excitement of UofL women's athletics on this week's Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. As always, you can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

Cardinal Couple YouTube: Link
Anchor (podcast host): Link
Apple Podcasts: Link
Breaker: Link
Google Podcasts: Link
Overcast (free account required): Link
Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link
RadioPublic: Link
Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Cards Nominated for Honor -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Forrest and Schneider are NCAA WotY Nominees

Each year since 1991, the NCAA has named a "Woman of the Year". The award is based on academic achievement, athletic excellence, community service, and leadership. Each school nominates its own athletes to their conference office. Each conference office around the country will select one nominee to advance to the next round. At that point, the NCAA Selection Committee (hopefully not the same one as the basketball or baseball tournaments) picks the top-ten from each of the three NCAA divisions. The "Top 30" will all be honored at the final announcement ceremony in October. From the Top 30, the list is trimmed to a Top 9, three from each division, prior to the ceremony. The overall winner will be announced at the ceremony on October 17th in Indianapolis.

Louisville's nominees this season were Makenli Forrest and Meghan Schneider. Forrest will have a good claim at the athletic excellence portion for sure. She's a national champion in the Indoor Weight Throw after claiming gold this year. She also won the event at the ACC level. Adding to her athletic performances, Forrest was named the ACC Indoor Track and Field Scholar Athlete of the Year and was a 2021 Postgraduate Scholar. She sits on Louisville's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee as well.

Schneider graduated with her bachelors degree in May with a 4.0. This came while studying biology with a concentration in subcellular genetics and minoring in Spanish. For her studies, she was named the NFHCA Scholar-Athlete of the Year and received the Elite 90 Award for the NCAA Field Hockey Championship. She was also named a finalist for the Honda Award. On the athletic side, Schneider helped the field hockey team reach their first ever ACC regular season title and their first NCAA Final Four appearance. She was the NFHCA Defensive Player of the Week in October and was named to the All-American Third Team.

Both Forrest and Schneider are excellent candidates for the award, as their community service and leadership don't show on the page but have been evident in their time on campus. We'll keep you updated as the process develops. 

No CCRH This Week

For a variety of personal reasons, and a lack of topics to really dig into, we'll be taking this week off from the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. In the meantime, come up with some topics you'd like to see us cover in a quiz or dig deeper into on the site. We should be back with the show next week so keep checking the site for updates.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

CARDINAL STUDENT-ATHLETE FIELD HOCKEY NFHCA AWARDS -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 PASTOR, BITTING, SCHNEIDER HONORED AGAIN

When I exchanged conversation and pleasantries with Louisville Field Hockey asst. SID Lori Korte Harmon earlier this month about the awards being bestowed on Louisville Field Hockey student-athletes, she assured me that there were more on the way. 

And, she was right ! 

We found out yesterday that Mercedes Pastor, Alli Bitting and Meghan Schneider earned 2020 National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFCHA) All-American honors and that Pastor made the first team. Schneider received an additional honor -- being named the 2020-21 NFCHA National Scholar-Athlete of the Year. 

This makes the fourth straight year that the Cardinals have had three NFCHA All-America selections and that matches a program record set in 2017. 

As you might well surmise and guess, the head coach of Louisville Field Hockey Justine Sowry was pleased: 

"Meghan garnering Scholar Athlete of the Year honors represents the first time this prestigious award has been received by a Louisville Cardinal. I am incredible proud of thse three young women and to have been a part of this truly unforgettable season." 

Sowry went on to discuss the program's season: 

This year, our program continued to build on last year's historic season. Despite the challenges of COVID and navigating both a fall and spring campaign, Louisville Field Hockey achieved unprecedented success both on the field and in the classroom. In a year that demanded so much, Mechi, Alli and Meghan anchored our team and demonstrated the resiliency that was instrumental in helping our program continue to reach new heights." 

Yes, incredible things are happening at the facility that's sandwiched in between a McDonald's and a Speedway. Even with several seniors "opting out" for the spring, the Cards still made the Field Hockey Final Four and were runner-ups to powerhouse UNC in the fall's ACC Tournament. And, of course, a fall victory in conference play over the Tar Heels that snapped their 47 game win streak. 

The obvious next questions are -- What can the Field Hockey squad do to top what has already been accomplished? And...who will be on the Trager turf to do it? The Cards return nine freshmen and seven sophomores from last season (that we know of) this fall --plus a couple of junior and maybe even a couple of senors. And, we have yet to hear about Sowry's incoming freshmen class in any great detail.

The obvious goals for the Cards FH contingent would appear to be winning the ACC  regular season and conference tournament outright and then going to the NCAA Tournament and winning it.. It's not something that is a mere pipe dream or unattainable. The Cards have performed well in the toughest Field Hockey conference in DI. They return a multitude of starters, and backups who are poised to try and become starters.  

I can remember looking at the the incoming freshmen last year and wondering what potential help could come from that class. As it turned out...plenty.  The Cards got significant contributions from Sofia Pendolino, Charlie van Oirschot, Aimee Plumb and Paulina Mayer. 

And, in the words of the late basketball coach Al McGuire -- the best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores. We saw last season the impact sophomores Sam Minrath, Julie Kouijzer, Katie Schneider and Mattie Tabor had on the squad. 

The Cards could use a little depth at goalkeeper -- sensational sophomore Sam Minrath was the lone goalie on the roster this spring -- and a higher rate of success on penalty corners is every coach's dream -- and something Sowry would applaud, as long as it is her team putting up the improved numbers and not the squad trying penalty corners on the Cards. . 

It'd be good to see the schedule return (hopefully) back to an elongated fall season with plenty of non-conference opponents as well as a full ACC slate participating.

Before you know it, it'll be time for me to trudge the steps leading to the Louisville Field Hockey offices and sit down with Coach Sowry to discuss the 2021 season. 

I can't wait !!!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

paulie. 

Field Hockey Lands Six on the NFHCA All-West Region Team -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

On Bitting, Pastor, Schneider, Kouijzer, Plumb and Van Oirschot...

For the third straight season, the Louisville Field Hockey squad has placed at least six players on the post-season NFCHA All-West Region Team. 

Alli Bitting, Mercedes Pastor and Meghan Schneider were named to the first team and Julie Kouijzer, Aimee Plumb and Charlie Van Oirschot received second-team honors. 

Bitting

Bitting, a senior midfielder/back out of Hummelstown, PA, earned her third straight naming to the prestigious team. A Cards co-captain and two-time All ACC selection, Alli also was named to the NCAA Tournament team this year for UofL. She was an integral part of a defense that created four shutouts in a 14-6 season, NCAA Final Four appearance and defeat of North Carolina. She is expected to return for the upcoming season. 

Pastor

Pastor may be one of the most recognizable players in UofL Field Hockey history. The Buenos Aires, Argentina senior led the Cards in goals on the season(13) and five of those were game-winners. She was named ACC Player of the Week four times during the season and NFHCA National Player of the Diego, CA and was another stellar part of the Cards defense. She stick handling skills are a true work of beauty, skill and art -- the term "you've been pastored" was stuck on many a NCAA defender after "Meche" baffled them with her ball control. Pastor is also expected to return to the team in the fall. 

Megan Schneider

Schneider, a senior out of San Diego, CA, was a stellar back in the the Cards defense and started three years for the squad. It's her second time on the NFHCA All-West squad and she was also named the NFHCA National Defensive Player of the Week a couple of times. Her younger sister Katie is also on the Cardinals squad and she went through her time at UofL with a 4.0 GPA. Meghan was also a co-captain on the 2020-21 squad. Her six goals in 2020-21 tied her for second-best on the squad.  Meghan is headed to medical school in the fall. 

Kouijzer

Kouijzer (pronounced "cow-wiser) is a sophomore defender out of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and she's been a starter both years with the Cardinals  She's earned ACC Defensive Player of the Week honors during her time at UofL and was also named to the ACC-All Tournament team in 2019 and 2020. 

Plumb

Plumb comes to the Cards from Canterbury, England and is a freshman forward who came in and had immediate contributions to the Louisville offense. She recorded six goals and two assist in 2020-21, second best on the squad. She also made the NCAA All-Tournament Team. Plumb was a member of the England U 18 squad for two years. She also had six goals for the Cards in 2020-21

van Oirschot

van Oirschot hails from Haarlem, The Netherlands and the freshman  came in and started right away for the Cards. She was named to the All-ACC second team. The mid-fielder was fourth leading scorer for the Cards in the 2020-21 season.

We here at CARDINAL COUPLE congratulate these excellent student-athletes that were a part of Justine Sowry's record-breaking squad. The future is bright for the "Cards on the pitch" and, in the words of Sowry...Louisville will be more that ready to "give it a go" this upcoming season 

have a wet Wednesday (if you're in Louisville)   

paulie

Meghan Schneider Field Hockey Finalist for Honda Sport Award -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 SENIOR MEGHAN SCHNEIDER SELECTED FOR SPORTS AWARD

If you followed Louisville Field Hockey in the 2020-21 season, you'll well remember the Cards sparkling 14-6, NCAA Final Four appearance, a first in Louisville Field Hockey history, You might also remember that the Cards were very stingy in surrendering goals. Out of those 20 games, Louisville recorded four shutouts and allowed just one goal in 10 matches. 

A big part of Louisville's defensive success came from the stick of senior defender Meghan Schneider.  The elder sister on the UofL squad (her younger sister Katie is a redshirt sophomore forward) from San Diego, CA started all 20 games for Louisville and was one of the key components in allowing opponents just 1.2 goals per contest. 

Her defensive efforts have been recognized by a panel of coaches and those in the know from the National Field Hockey Coaches Association.(NFHCA)/ They are the ones who come up with the Honda Sport Award each year for the ttop women athletes in Field Hockey -- an award that is also presented in 11 other NCAA sanctioned sports. It is "the best of the best" and the finalist in each category becomes a candidate for Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and the Honda Cup. 

Consider that Meghan also had to work with two different goalkeepers during the 2020-21 split Field Hockey season. Hollyn Barr was in goal keep for the fall 2020 season, opted out for the spring, and Sam Minrath tended goal. 

Meghan is the third Cardinals Field Hockey student-athlete to be named as a finalist. Last season, Mercedes Pastor got the call and back in the 2005-06 season Jessica Javelet was on e of the four named to the finalist list. 

For this season, Schneider is joined by UConn's Sophie Hamilton, North Carolina's Erin Matson and Stanford's Corinne Zanolli as finalists. Matson won the 2019-20 award. In the women's basketball division for the award, Cards fan might also remember that Cards  Dana Evans was a finalist in the 2019-20 Honda Award for Women's Basketball. Sabrina Ionescu was the award winner. 

Schneider has also been named to the NFHCA DI Senior Team. She earned the Elite 90 Award for the 2020=-21 NCAA DI Field Hockey Championship -- which means her GPA of 4.0 was the highest of all the participating semi-finals teams student athletes. 

Meghan was a co-captain of the UofL squad last season and earned NFHCA All-West Second Team honors in 2019. She's been a three-year starter for Louisville and was a huge part of the successes that former Cardinals great Ayeshia McFerran (2015-18) had at Louisville. 

Off the pitch, Meghan Schneider is a biology major who has plans to attend medical school once her undergraduate days are over. 

Back in the days when media member could actually sit down and do interviews face-to-face with Cardinals coaches and student-athletes, I remember interviewing Ayeshia McFerran. She contributed a lot of her success at goalkeep to the strong defensive line in front of her during matches. Meghan was a part of that defensive back line back then, with standouts Carter Ayars, Taylor Stone and Maria Gomez.

Defending the opposing squad's forwards and keeping them from getting shots on goal is a huge part of the Field Hockey game and "d-backs" also get the ball to their own forwards to initiate the attack. Because of the low-scoring nature of Field Hockey, just one goal can prove to be a huge difference in the outcome of a contest. If you can "keep the goalkeeper clean" and limit an opponents' offensive attack, it creates more opportunities for your attack. 

Meghan Schneider has been exemplary at reversing the course of the ball during her time at Louisville and it has translated to a 57-24 (.700) win percentage for Louisville Field Hockey since she came to campus.   

A huge CARDINAL COUPLE CONGRATULATIONS to Meghan for making a difference on and off the pitch for Louisville Athletics!!

Have a wonderful Wednesday! 

paulie

Cards get ACC recognition -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

After a weekend that saw both Louisville Field Hockey and Women's Soccer score big wins on Floyd Street -- the ACC has taken notice and three Louisville women's sports student-athletes have received conference honors. For Louisville Women's Soccer, Emina Ekic has been named ACC Offensive Player of the Week and in Louisville Field Hockey, Mercedes Pastor was selected ACC Offensive Player of the Week and Meghan Schneider ACC Defensive Player of the Week.  

EMINA EKIC

The preseason All-ACC star was a part of all five Louisville goals this past week. Louisville defeated Syracuse 3-0 and Ekic had an assist and two goals against the Orange. In a 2-0 win over Boston College on Sunday, Ekic assisted on the Cards first goal and she scored the final goal in the match at Lynn Stadium. 

Ekic, a senior, who attended Louisville Manual High School, has now been selected ACC Offensive Player of the Week three times in her time at Louisville. 

She is second in the ACC in points (13) in 2020. The scoring for that is based on goals scored (two points) and she's had five of those. Ekic has three assists as well and receives one point for those. 

Louisville women's soccer (3-1) was most recently ranked #13 in the United Soccer Coaches poll, one of seven ACC squads in the top 15 of the poll. 

The Soccer Cards return to the pitch when they travel to Virginia next week for a Thursday, Oct 15th. battle against the Cavaliers. 

MERCEDES PASTOR

The ACC Offensive Player of the Week goes to Mercedes Pastor for the second straight week in a row. 

Pastor has the Cards second goal and the first assist of the match against the North Carolina TarHeels last Friday in Louisville 3-1 upset of the perennial powerhouse. She had an assist to help Louisville grab a 1-0 lead over Boston College in Louisville's 2-1 win on Sunday. 

A senior who hails from Buenos Aires, Argentina...Pastor is a three-time All-ACC First Team selection for Louisville Field Hockey. Nicknamed "Mechi" she has scored 17 goals and recorded 10 assists in her three-year stint as a Cardinal student-athlete. 

MEGHAN SCHNEIDER 

Meghan Schneider was an integral part of a Louisville defensive that allowed just two goals last weekend. She's also a member of the Cards penalty corner unit and picked up assists against Boston College and UNC. 

The senior from San Diego, CA also has a sister on the squad (Katie) who is a redshirt-junior. 

Schneider's defensive work against 2019 NCAA leading scorer Erin Matson (UNC) on Friday was impressive. She held Matson to just one goal. Against Boston College, Meghan scored a goal to give the Cards a 1-0 lead. 

Louisville Field Hockey (4-0) has completed their fall home slate of games and will travel to Winston Salem, NC this weekend for a coupe of matches against Wake Forest. 

SEATTLE STORM THE 2020 WNBA CHAMPS

The Seattle Storm took the WNBA Finals playoff series last night with a convincing 92-59 win over the Las Vegas Aces. 

Las Vegas had an early lead over the Storm, but behind Breanna Stewart, the Seattle squad came back to take a 23-21 first quarter lead over Las Vegas and outscored the Aces 69-38 in the remaining three quarters. 

Louisville women's Basketball G.O.A.T. Angel McCoughtry saw 20 minutes of action in the final game of the season and had seven points for the Aces. 

Stewart was one of four Seattle players in double figures and led all scorers with 26 points. 

Have a wise Wednesday!

paulie

Big Win for FH; Volleyball Returns -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Field Hockey Upsets UNC

For the first time in nearly three years, UNC Field Hockey has been beaten. The last loss for the Tarheels came in the NCAA semifinals in 2017, the same year that Louisville last beat them (though the Heels got revenge in the ACC championship). Louisville came into this one an underdog, as anyone does when they go up against a two-time defending champion that is on a 47-game winning streak, but they came out on top, and now sit 3-0 (2-0) on this shortened season.

Unlike the first two games against Duke, in which Louisville took until the final minute of the first half to score, the Cards set the tone early against UNC. In the first quarter, Louisville earned a penalty corner which saw Mercedes Pastor score her third goal of the season, assisted by Alli Bitting and Meghan Schneider. Late in the first half, in the final minute in fact (funny how the Cards like scoring then), Louisville doubled their lead. Again, Meche was involved, as she assisted Margot Lawn on a goal from open play. It was Lawn's first goal of the season, but not her last of the game.

The second half saw play tighten between the two when UNC pulled a goal back in the third quarter. Five minutes after the half, UNC's Erin Matson found space in the circle and put a reverse shot past Hollyn Barr. Based on the nearly 1-on-1 nature and the placement of the shot, Barr had little to no chance. Up until that point, Louisville had been fairly dominant defensively, and they were for nearly the whole game. The Cards led in both shots and corners, so it was good to see them take advantage of the strong offensive game they were having and put balls in the back of the cage. There is nothing more frustrating than beating your opponent on the offensive end but being unlucky and losing a close match. Fortunately, Louisville was playing from ahead, which allows you to play a bit looser, especially against a Goliath like UNC.

In the fourth quarter, with UNC pressuring significantly, Louisville was unable to capitalize on back to back corners. In the first, Alli Bitting was the recipient of her own corner after a scrum in the circle, but her shot went just wide off of the post. After those two corners, the Cards were on the back foot for much of the final period. UNC refused to go down quietly, and they were willing to be aggressive. The Heels went so far as to pull their goalie with more than seven minutes remaining in the game. With that extra field player, they were able to keep Louisville from getting on the break and kept the ball in the Louisville half for much of the remainder of the game. As time wound down, it looked like Louisville might be able to pull it off with some great defensive play to prevent UNC from scoring with their advantage. As the seconds clicked toward zero, the Cards found their way on a quick break, and Margot Lawn found herself standing alone in the UNC circle. Louisville went up 3-1 with 6 second remaining and that was that. After the game, Paulie sat down for a postgame interview with Coach Sowry, which you can watch here.

After all we talked about in the preseason about the challenging field hockey conference schedule and Louisville's lack of non-conference games to get warmed up, the Cards have come out on fire. With already 9 goals scored in three matches and a 2-0 conference record after facing Duke and North Carolina, Louisville is in a bit of a driver's seat. While every conference match is a tough one, Louisville has now knocked off two of their biggest problems to open the season. The Cards will get a chance at revenge over Boston College, who knocked them out of the NCAA tournament last year, tomorrow when the Eagles come to town. Louisville won the regular season matchup in Chestnut Hill last year 3-2. If the Cards can get a victory tomorrow, they'll be sitting with a worst possible record of .500 in conference. That's a pretty nice place to be when you're only playing conference games against the toughest conference in the country. Tomorrow's game gets underway at 1:30 PM, and it will be available on ACC Network. Paulie will cover that one while I head over to Lynn to watch soccer take on BC as well. I wonder if they traveled together.

Volleyball Gets Back on Track with Sweep

Since it is apparently Louisville vs BC weekend, Cardinal Volleyball is taking on the Eagles as well. Louisville traveled north yesterday, without starting setter Tori Dilfer, for a two game set against Boston College. The Cards were just 0-1 on the year, having taken the loss to Notre Dame and then postponing the second match, but had still found themselves ranked 11th in the coaches poll. In the matchup against BC, Louisville showed why voters had so much faith in them.

As I mentioned they were playing without normal starting setter, as Tori Dilfer did not travel with the team (draw your own conclusions), but that didn't slow down the Louisville attack. Rachael Demarcus stepped in to fill the void and assisted on 29 of Louisville's 34 kills. The Cards managed to hit a crisp .474 on the night with Demarcus in relief, and it seems clear that there may be a setter battle for Coach Busboom-Kelly now. 

While Boston College not being particularly strong at the net (just two blocks) may have helped Louisville's attack efficiency, the Cards were also doing a great job finding open space with their shots. With only 7 errors on the night, Louisville managed to have a third set with none, hitting .667 in the 25-9 trouncing. Freshman Anna DeBeer had 8 kills in 12 attempts with no errors, Claire Chaussee went 11/18 with just one error, and Aiko Jones, who is typically keyed on, managed 8/16 with just three errors. The Cards were hot yesterday and we'll see if they can keep it up today.

Despite the strong offensive showing, Louisville still has work to do on the serve. The Cards had just four aces compared to six errors. Serving issues were part of the reason they lost to Notre Dame last week, and they need to find a way to get that to a positive ratio. Giving away points is not a great key to success. Fortunately, it didn't matter in the match last night, but it would be good to see improvement against the outmatch Eagles in tonight's match. Louisville and Boston College will get underway at 7:30PM, with the match listed as an ACC Network Extra production once more.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We're back on our regular schedule this morning, with no Saturday home game to get us off track. We've got plenty of results to talk about, with Louisville women's soccer joining in on the big wins this week. We'll also talk about other news around campus as well as the WNBA Finals getting underway. Tune in to the Cardinal Couple YouTube for this week's live show at 11AM or stay tuned for the podcast to come to your phone following the recording. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Volleyball Gets Road Win; Field Hockey Takes Home Loss -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Sweeps Duke

In the first match of a four match road trip, the Louisville volleyball team got off to a pretty good start with an easy sweep of the Duke Blue Devils in Durham. Duke was only 8-9 on the season up until last night and only 1-3 in conference, so a clean win was to be expected. However, it was still the first conference road match of the season for the Cards so it was good to see them put together a solid performance. 

The Cards wins in last night's sets were progressively more lopsided as they completed the match at 25-21, 25-17, and 25-14. Louisville's biggest struggle came obviously in the first set as they worked to get their feet under them. The Cards had only 3 errors in the set, but Duke was able to stay around throughout the first set, even taking a lead past 15. Louisville's only other real trouble came in the third set when the Blue Devils went on a five point run to tie the set at 7. That would be short lived, though, as Louisville ultimately ran away with the set and the match.

Louisville's hitting last night was fantastic, as the Cards finished with a .430 percentage and had just 7 errors in the match. Noting that Duke had 3 blocks, that means the Cards hit the ball out of bounds just 4 times in the match. One of those just barely clipped the antenna. Louisville finished the final set with no errors and hit .630. The Cards were truly dialed in, as the Duke block number could have been much higher, had Louisville not shown excellent recovery ability on numerous block attempts. On the flip side, Duke also had some pretty good recoveries, as Louisville was only able to muster four total blocks. The Blue Devils would go on to finish with 20 errors, though, as they struggled to keep the ball in play.

As you might have guessed by the stats in this one, Louisville's primary standouts were on the offensive side. The Cardinal leading the way yesterday may come as a bit of a surprise, as Anna Stevenson paced the team in kills with 11. Stevenson also finished with just one error on her 17 attempts to finish with a whopping .588 hitting percentage. Other strong offensive performers were the usual suspects, with Melanie McHenry and Aiko Jones combining for 17 kills and 4 errors on 38 attempts. Tori Dilfer also assisted on 34 of the team's 36 assisted kills and had 4 kills on 4 attempts of her own. Claire Chausee returned to the floor in the final set and put down 4 of her 5 attempts with no errors. 

The one blemish for the Cards was one that has been ongoing throughout the year: service errors. Louisville finished with 7 of them, compared to just 3 aces, and they came from unusual servers. Four players had an error and no ace, and they aren't the ones you'd expect. Alexis Hamilton, Mia Stander, Tori Dilfer, and Claire Chausee couldn't put the ball in play, and Dilfer, uncharacteristically, added three assisting errors. These are certainly things to clean up, but in such a dominating match, they're a fairly small portion of the game film to have to correct.

Louisville is back in action tomorrow as they'll travel just up the road from Durham to Wake Forest to take on the Demon Deacons at 1PM. The match will be available on ACC Network Extra and should be another important road match for the Cards.

Field Hockey Falls to Virginia in Rain Adjusted Match

With last night's field hockey match due to start at 6, I thought Jared had made quite the error when he texted the group to say that Louisville had fallen 2-1 at around 6:30. As it turns out, the Cards and Cavs had made the decision to move the match start time to 5PM to try to avoid the worst of the rain. That would have been a great plan for Louisville, had it have worked. Unfortunately, as the rain began to fall in the fourth quarter, so too did Louisville's handle on the game. The Cards gave up two goals in the final period to lose their slim lead and drop the match 2-1 to 9th ranked Virginia.

This one was truly a tale of two halves, as Louisville fairly well dominated in the first half, and the script flipped in the second. The Cards scored their only goal off of a penalty corner in the first quarter as Mercedes Pastor knocked home the goal with assists by Meghan Schneider and Alli Bitting. They'd go on to earn four more corners in the half but would score none of them as their only other "goal" was waved off by the referees. Virginia did pick up two shots on goal in the first half, but both were saved away by Hollyn Barr. Louisville led in overall shots, penalty corners, goals, and, presumably, possession.

The second half, though, saw the Cards fall away. The offense was unable to continue to apply much pressure, earning only 3 shots in the entire second half. While all three were on frame, Virginia was able to keep the Cards out of the cage. The Cavs, on the other hand, put up 8 shots with 5 on frame, only three of which could be saved by Louisville. Hollyn Barr played well, earning four saves and nearly blocking the last goal as it was off of her legs, but she ultimately took the loss. Sam Minrath saw her first action for the first time in awhile as she was called upon early in the fourth quarter to act as the goalie for a penalty stroke. She saved the shot, at the time keeping Louisville ahead 1-0, but was immediately subbed back out for Barr. 

Yesterday's match put the two teams virtually even, as the Cards are now 10-2 (2-2) and Virginia moves to 10-3 (2-2). While a top ten conference win would certainly be nice, it doesn't hurt too badly to lose it. Louisville will likely drop from their fifth spot this week in the rankings, but they should stay in the top 10. The Cards will get their chance to get back on track on Tuesday when they take on the Cardinal of Stanford at 12PM at Trager. The match will be aired on ACC Network Extra.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Jared and Paulie have left us to our own devices yet again, so Jeff and I will do our best to bring you the show on our own. We'll be as in the dark as everyone else about whether or not Daryl will join us, so tune in to the show for a surprise. We'll talk about the continued strong starts for Louisville's fall sports and preview the next couple of games for the Cards. The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour is brought to you each week by the fine folks at WCHQ FM. Tune in at 11AM as we bring you the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics. WCHQ is available at 100.9 FM, the WCHQ App, wchqfm.com, or on Facebook Live.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Another Undefeated Friday -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

For the second week in a row, I'm bringing you a column talking about three wins for Louisville women's athletics teams. Two of the three are the same, and soccer did still win their Thursday game, but this week we've added swimming and diving to the list. Let's get into yesterday's goings-on. 

Field Hockey Downs Wake Forest 3-0

For the second night in a row, a Louisville team on Floyd Street defeated Wake Forest to move to 9-1 on the season. Thursday, it was the women's soccer team in a comeback victory that Jared wrote about yesterday. Last night, it was the field hockey team handling the Demon Deacons with little opposition. The final score doesn't show a huge domination, though 3-0 is a strong victory, but the game stats indicate a lopsided game.

Louisville finished yesterday with only two more total shots than Wake, with that battle ending 8-6, but the Cards amassed 6 shots on goal while the Deacs could muster none at all. Even after earning four penalty corners, Wake was unable to pressure Hollyn Barr, who played the whole game and finished with no stats. Louisville scored in the first, third, and fourth quarters to keep up consistent pressure and converted on one of their three penalty corners. Barr's full game is her second in a row, perhaps indicating that Coach Sowry has made a decision about the position going forward. With Minrath on the bench, the team still has a solid option in the event that things go sideways, but Barr appears to have snagged the starting spot for the time being.

Yesterday's first goal came off of a penalty. With just two minutes left in the first quarter, Carter Ayers took the ball downfield and ended up earning a corner. She and Meghan Schneider would start the play and ultimately set up Mercedes Pastor to score her fourth goal of the season. The teams held onto the 1-0 score for about 19 minutes, going through the rest of the first, the entire second, and just the start of the third without any other goals. Madison Walsh changed that when she picked up her fifth goal of the year by tapping in a deep pass from Margot Lawn about a minute and a half into the second half. Three minutes into the final quarter, Walsh picked up a brace when she scored another tap in, this time from Bethany Russ.

All in all, Louisville had a stranglehold over Wake for the majority of the game and made sure to put away their chances. Scoring on 38% of your total shots and 50% of your shots on goal is a pretty efficient day. With Louisville's high volume offense, converting at that rate is going to continue to win a lot of games. Sprinkling in a defense that is capable of shutouts never hurts either. Louisville is back in action on Sunday when Penn State comes to town at Noon. That match will be available on ACC Network Extra.

Check out Paulie's interviews with Coach Sowry and Madison Walsh below. Videos of the interviews are available at gocards.com.

Coach Sowry Recaps the Win

Madison Walsh Talks About Her Double

 Volleyball Makes Short Work of Georgia Tech with Sweep

After pretty much dominating the first two sets, Louisville weathered a comedy of errors that took the third set to extra points before claiming victory over the Yellowjackets of Georgia Tech. After only a pair of errors total in the first two sets, Louisville committed 10 in the final set and hit negative in the third en route to a 27-25 set win. The Cards were saved only by even worse hitting by the Techies who committed 13 errors and also hit negative in that final set. Despite that final set, Louisville still managed to finish with .278 hitting for the night, showing just how strong those first two sets - .433 and .484, respectively - really were.

Louisville finished the match winning in every major category. The Cards won blocks 11-4, aces 4-2, had fewer service errors at 7-8, and fewer overall errors at 12-25. The teams finished tied at 39 kills, but the efficiency of Louisville's hitting was ultimately the difference. As was typical, Anna Stevenson was a brick wall, assisting on 5 Louisville blocks, and Emily Scott and Nena Mbonu got in on the block party as well by snagging a combined two solo and five block assists. Alexis Hamilton reliably led the team in digs, but also added a pair of unlikely receiving errors. Hot on her tail in digs were Melanie McHenry and Aiko Jones with 8.

Offensively, McHenry didn't have the best night, hitting only .125 on 24 attempts, earning 6 kills. Stevenson also finished with 6 kills on 20 attempts. Mbonu was second on the team last night with 8 kills on 18 attempts, a bit of a breakout night for her. Tori Dilfer continued to hold down her starting setter position, earning 30 of the Louisville's 34 assists on the night. The star of the night was undeniably Aiko Jones. Jones had the previously mentioned 8 digs, added 3 block assists and a solo block, and hit a whopping 13 kills with no errors on 18 attempts. She also chipped in with one of the four remaining assists for an all around outstanding night. Only one blemish came out of her night, and it has been one that has haunted for much of the season. Jones finished with 4 service errors and no aces. Despite that, I think when a player is pretty much unstoppable above the net, you'll live with some serves to Nowheresville.

Louisville's win pushes them to 10-3 on the season and 3-0 in conference. The Cards will have one more match at home against Clemson on Sunday at 1 before they hit the road for a massive four game road trip. Louisville will face Duke, Wake, Notre Dame, and Virginia Tech over that stretch before coming home for a big pair of matches against Virginia and Pitt. It's a bit early to be predicting such things, but the Pitt match 7 opponents away could be huge for the conference championship race. Louisville will need to show a bit more consistency and close out against weaker opponents to stay on track this season, but an ugly third set victory last night is still a victory. Cards and Tigers will get underway tomorrow at 1PM in L&N Federal Credit Union Arena and the match will be available on ACC Network Extra.

Swimming and Diving Opens Third Straight Season with Win

Louisville swimming and diving hosted Xavier in a one-on-one meet yesterday and both the men's and women's sides easily claimed victory. The women earned more than three times as many points as the Musketeers and won every race en route to a 194-62 victory. The Cards are beginning their first season without a "superstar" swimmer on the women's side since before Kelsi Worrell arrived, but there are plenty of swimmers ready to take up the mantle. In addition to every winner in the pool, Molly Fears showed yesterday that she still intends to be a champion from the board. She won the dives from both the 1 and 3 meter boards yesterday. Listing every winner for the Louisville swimmers would take quite some time, so let me just say that you should check out the overall results and see how balanced the winners for the Cards were yesterday. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Due to the early start time for football, we will be without Jared and Paulie in the studio today, but Jeff and I will be joined by Daryl Foust to help keep us on track for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. We've got plenty of wins (our favorite thing to talk about) to discuss so we'll break down the weeks in soccer, volleyball, and field hockey before looking ahead to the upcoming weeks and a bit about the upcoming basketball season. Tune in at 11AM on WCHQ FM for the show. WCHQ is available at 100.9 FM, the WCHQ App, wchqfm.com, or on Facebook Live.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Defense Does It -- Field Hockey Downs Northwestern 1-0 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

RUSS'S SCORE ENOUGH AS FIELD HOCKEY BLANKS NORTHWESTERN FOR SOWRY'S 100TH WIN AT UOFL 

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

Louisville Field Hockey takes on top 10 competition in Trager Stadium, gets a lone score by Bethany Russ and wins 1-0. Coach Justine Sowry gets her 100th. win as head coach of the UofL Field Hockey squad. 

Not exactly a carbon copy of the Cards win over Boston College on Friday, but Louisville "held pitch" and the defense looked spectacular in defeating #11 Northwestern Sunday afternoon during their final game of the four-game home stand. 

This win started as a tightly played defensive struggle for the first 20 minutes. Then, the Cards got their second penalty corner opportunity of the first half, Whena Munn in-bounded to Russ, who powered a shot toward the net that glanced off a Northwestern player's stick and into the goal. The second straight week she's scored and it ultimately proved to be all Louisville needed offensively. 

Jared Anderson' catches the strength
of the Trager water cannons. 

Northwestern was relentless on the attack in the first half and earned six penalty corners. Senior, best-in-the-world goalkeeper Ayeshia McFerran got one save in those attempts and defender Meghan Schneider was there to prevent another scoring attempt from the Wildcats. The Cards took a tenuous, single goal advantage into the water-cannon break at the half. 

The Cards intensified their offensive pressure in the second half and had eight shot attempts, compared to the Evanston, Illinois opponents one. Louisville also got three penalty corner attempts in that final 35 minutes and the Wildcats none. The ball wouldn't go in for either side, though, and Northwestern pulled their goalkeeper out of the contest with about five minutes remaining to gain the attack advantage on the Cardinals. 

It didn't matter. 

Louisville's defensive held strong and true and preserved the lead to go 6-2 on the season.  Coach Justine Sowry offered this about the second half: 

"I thought it was a little better in the second half. The game management was very impressive. They (Northwestern) had it coming at us. The biggest piece for on the day for me was our defensive play in the defensive 30 and our red zone tackling of the ball outside the circle. We didn't want to give up corners today and, besides a couple of undisciplined moments, we did a tremendous job.


We offer you the UofL, You Tube post game interview below, as well as our longer, uncut version: 

JUSTINE SOWRY POST GAME VIDEO

CARDINAL COUPLE'S POST GAME SOWRY AUDIO


We also got audio and video from red-shirt sophomore Meghan Schneider, whose big defensive stop helped preserve the shut-out: 


MEGHAN SCHNEIDER POST-GAME VIDEO


MEGHAN SCHNEIDER POST_GAME AUDIO FROM CARDINAL COUPLE


As an added attraction, we also offer this highlights clip of the contest: 


HIGHLIGHTS FROM NORTHWESTERN VS. LOUISVILLE



Louisville hits the highway for three out of their next four. First stop, a visit to Winston-Salem, NC to face Wake Forest on Friday, Sept. 21st. We're not sure just how much damage that Hurricane Flo is going to drop on that area of North Carolina, and our thoughts and prayers are with those residents (including a significant number of Sykes family members who live in the Burlington, Haw River and Durham, NC areas). 



(Special thanks to Jared Anderson on the field hockey and football pics for today's article. Need a great and inexpensive photographer? Jared IS YOUR MAN!! Find out more about him and his work at his website...https://www.jdaphotos.com/ ) 



NOBODY ASKED ME, BUT...(WELL, ACTUALLY THEY DID).

It seemed like Sunday was a day to ask Paulie about Louisville Football wherever I went. Mind you, I don't cover football, I'm a fan and sit in my seat and try to stay positive. We're a UofL women's sports site. A LOT of UofL women's sports fans were asking me questions, though...so here's my 26 cents worth :

MY FIVE POSITIVES ON THE WESTERN KENTUCKY GAME: 

-- Malik Cunningham led the Cards to 14 - 4th. quarter points. He may not be quite ready for prime time football yet, but he's 2-0 and showed some sparkle.

-- Dae Williams looked pretty impressive running the ball in the few opportunities he got. Why the Cards didn't go to him in the red-zone more often is anyone's guess.

-- We got a kicking game. Two nice field goals from Blanton Creque. 

-- Rodjay Burns got a chance to shine again at punt return and broke one for 36 yards.

-- Tabarious Peterson looked OK at outside linebacker with six tackles. 

MY FIVE NEGATIVES ON THE WESTERN KENTUCKY GAME: 

-- The Cardinal defensive secondary needs a lot of work. Not an exemplary showing Saturday night for those guys.

-- Pre-Season, it was mentioned that this might be the best core of wide-receivers Louisville has had in a decade. I don't think so, at least not yet, from what I saw in the stands. Too many drops. 

-- After spending the entire off-season building an offense around Puma Pass, that's been a disappointment so far. Whoever said we might be a better football team this year without Lamar Jackson...uh, time to take your meds again. I don't see it. 

-- The Cardinal offensive line is playing pretty badly. 

-- UofL needs to extend the $3 beer until halftime. 

Our buddy Charlie Springer, over at UofL Card Game, always has a unique and informative take on Cardinal Football. Check out his thoughts at his site. Link below:

www.uoflcardgame.com

If you want another great insight to Louisville football, please check out Mike Gilpatrick's fine site....RIVER CITY CARDS...for his takes and analysis on the quarterback battle and his "grade" for the Cards: LINK below.

(Picture is of Mike doing his best "Bobby" impression from the stands...only "Gilly" would think of trying something like that.)

http://www.rivercitycards.com/


Carry on, Cardinal fans! 





paulie
xxxxx