Lacrosse Gets Midweek Break -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Off for Spring Break

Louisville lacrosse has had a tough go of it so far this season, so spring break comes at a good time for them. The Cards are 4-5 overall and sit at just 1-4 in conference after taking a thrilling 11-10 OT win over Cincinnati on Thursday and then falling 14-16 in a heartbreaker at Duke on Saturday. The Blue Devils are ranked 15th in the country, so it is encouraging to see Louisville hang with them, but the game was ultimately another in a long line of "coulda, shoulda, woulda" games that the lacrosse program has seen since joining the ACC. 

Louisville opened the season with a pair of losses before taking their first win against Kent State. The good vibes from that victory were short lived as a trip to Chapel Hill loomed on the weekend. The Cards fell at the hands of the #1 Tar Heels 24-3 and moved to just 1-3 overall and 0-2 in conference. A win over Canisius put Louisville over .500 in non-conference play (2-1), but they continued their alternating wins and losses with a tough 13-10 defeat against Syracuse at home on the last day of February. The Orange were ranked 12th at the time.

The Cards started March with a bang, hosting a rare midweek conference game when they brought Florida State into UofL Lacrosse Stadium. Louisville beat the Seminoles 15-5 to get off the 0-fer mark in conference play. That set up the first winning streak of the season for the Cards when they defeated Cincinnati last week, but it was the shortest possible streak following the loss to Duke. Still, back-to-back wins is somewhere to start, and Louisville is now 3-1 in non-conference play. That they are 1-4 in conference is difficult, but there is still time to get some momentum in conference play. 

After this mid-week break, Louisville will host three straight matches at home. They'll play California this Saturday, Vanderbilt next Wednesday, and Virginia on 3/28. The Cards are guaranteed to finish above .500 in non-conference play, as the Vandy match is their final non-ACC competition of the season, barring an NCAA appearance. Vandy is also Louisville's penultimate mid-week game of the regular season, as they'll get breaks two weeks in a row before closing the season on the road at Notre Dame on Thursday, April 16th. Before that match, they'll face Stanford on the road and Pittsburgh at home. 

The Cards are currently tied for second to last in the ACC with Cal, so there is work to do if they want to make the ACC tournament. Only the top eight teams make it, and there are 13 competing schools. Fortunately for Louisville, most of their remaining opponents are directly competing for one of those eight spots. Unfortunately for Louisville, they still have to play Stanford, who is undefeated. The Cards missed a big opportunity against Virginia Tech in the ACC opener, as the Hokies are one of three teams at 2-3 (Notre Dame, Clemson). Virginia is 3-2 (losses to Stanford and Clemson) and Pitt is 2-4 (wins over Duke and VT). There's still way too much that can happen before we can look at scenarios, but winning on Saturday is a must. 

The Cards are led offensively this season by sophomore Ella Berg. Berg had six goals and three assists in the first five games of the season last year before suffering a season-ending injury. This season, she has started all nine games and scored 23 of Louisville's 103 goals. She also has five assists, tied with Reese Whiteman. Whiteman is second on the team in points, scoring one less goal than Berg. The two have taken the same number of shots (49), though Berg is slightly more accurate, with four more on target. 

Charlotte Jackson, Maggie McMahon, and Erin Nicholson are the other three Cardinals with double-digit goals, as Jackson has 14 and McMahon and Nicholson both have 11. Jackson leads the team with eight assists, while McMahon has six. Nicholson is a senior midfielder who takes deadly advantage of her opportunities, scoring 11 goals on just 27 shots, with 19 of those on target. Most efficient is Grayce Kitchen, who has eight goals on just 12 shots (11 SOG). Kitchen is also second on the team with seven assists. Senior captain Rian Adkins has eight goals and six assists. 

Sophomore Haley Richards has solidified her position as this team's goalkeeper. Richards has started all nine games and has played nearly every minute. Her only time out of the net during which Louisville had any goalie in the back was against UNC. She was pulled after three quarters when the score was 18-3 to give Campbell Murray the opportunity to get beat up by the Tar Heels. Coming off in that game gave Richards the opportunity to stay above 50% save percentage. She has allowed 107 goals and made 108 saves. 

It's all to play for with just a month left in the regular season, so let's see what this squad can do as they chase their first full season above .500 (they were 5-4 in 2020) since 2017. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Lacrosse Opens Season at Home -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Teeter's Squad Hosts Ohio State

Louisville lacrosse is off to the races this week in their season opener, which is no surprise based on past seasons, but the unusual part this year is that they won't open with their traditional Colorado opponents. This year, Louisville will open the season at home, and they'll take on the Buckeyes of Ohio State. Louisville and OSU meet regularly, with the home team winning the last two matchups. Ohio State leads the all-time series 8-4, and they beat the Cards 9-6 360 days ago. 

The Cards are 14-4 all-time in home openers, which is quite the impressive mark. They're 11-7 in overall season openers and they won last season's opener over the #15 ranked Denver Pioneers. The Cards finished last year 7-10 with a disappointing 1-8 ACC mark. Louisville seemed on the verge of a breakthrough in 2024 when they posted their best ACC record under Scott Teeter with three wins. Last season was a step back in that regard, and we'll be looking for the Cards to get back to a higher win total this season. 

Louisville is making a fair number of replacements, with perhaps the most critical of those being Ashley Osborne. Osborne was a sixth year senior defender who reached a program-record 82 games played last season. She had a team-high 25 ground balls last year in a season that saw her become the 8th player in program history to amass 100 career ground balls. The Cards graduated a total of eight seniors, which also included goalkeeper J Pleck. Pleck's 258 career saves were fifth all-time in the program. 

The Cards had a freshmen battle at the backup position last season between Hanna John and Haley Richards. John transferred out of the program, so Richards will look to win the spot over fellow sophomore Campbell Murray, who transferred from Mercer, and senior Aubrey Bagenstose, who has been a career Cardinal but has not seen action in a game since 2023. Richards had seven saves in five games last season. 

 

Louisville does return three of their top six scorers from last season and a pair of defenders who started all 17 games. Cate Kangas and Olivia Scroggie will continue to hold down the defense, while Rian Adkins and Reese Whiteman lead the offensive attack. Whiteman was the team leader in goals (26) and points (32) last year, while Adkins was third on the team with 23 points. 

Louisville and Ohio State will get underway at noon today, and admission to the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium is free. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Newcomers in the New Year; Part 2 -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Lacrosse Looks to Build Momentum

Last season, Louisville Lacrosse lost their first match of the season before winning a pair to go over .500. Those wins included one over a ranked Colorado team. After that, Louisville opened conference play with a loss, but beat Vandy and Pitt to sit at 4-2 (1-1). Not too shabby and certainly an upswing from previous seasons. Unfortunately, the Cards lost 10 of their last 11 games and we ended up feeling like another season of opportunity had been missed. Louisville will look to turn that around this season, but they'll do so without a couple of very familiar faces. The Cards do actually add two players to the roster over last season, and they return a lot of experience having lost only 8 players from the 38 player roster. 

Six of those players graduated and two transferred. Those eight departures included four goal scorers, including Hannah Morris, the third leading scorer on the team. Alexa Steffens, Rachel Lifson, and Izzy Holmes were the others, who combined for eight goals and four assists. Also lost is stalwart defender Maggie Foster, who started in 58 out of 59 games for the Cards in her career. Kristen Pezzullo, who did not play in 2023, was the sixth graduate, and Haley Reeck (sophomore) and Peyton Howell (freshman) were the two transfers. Reeck and Howell played in nine and eight games, respectively, with no starts, and Howell had one assist. 

Enough about who is gone. Let's look at the new players. Unlike softball, where we saw a fair number of transfers, lacrosse has ten new freshmen. As we did with softball, we'll go in order of the numbers. Information on these freshmen is a little harder to come by, so bear with me.

First is Catherine (Cate) Kangas, who replaces Steffens at #2. Kangas committed to UofL in October of 2021, selecting the Cards over James Madison. Kangas is a defender who played for the Hill-Murray School in Dellwood, Minnesota and the Lacrosse Monkeys Club team. In high school, Cate was a first team all-state selection, two-time all-conference selection, and was named to the Under Armor All-American Team three times. She was on the All-America Senior Game Watchlist and named to the Minnesota State High School Watchlist. 

Replacing Hannah Morris will be a tall task. Fortunately for Lauren Roach, Louisville's new #4, she doesn't play the same position. Roach is a midfielder from Dallas, Texas, and she was a two-sport athlete at The Hockaday School. Scott Teeter won her talents over Justine Sowry. Hockaday won two state championships, and in Roach's senior season, the school was ranked third in the South, second in the West, and top-20 overall by Inside Lacrosse. Roach was named to the All-State and All-District teams.

Ava Peers will wear #9. Another midfielder, Peers comes from Fairport, New York, where she was twice named to the first team All-Monroe County team and was named to the Class A All-Tournament Team as a senior. In 2021, Peers earned the All-Greater Rochester Honor. Scott Teeter says that Peers' main asset is her speed, which will be critical in the midfield for Louisville, who have suffered in transition in recent years.

Abigail (Abby) Cole hails from New Albany, but not Indiana. The Ohio native, who will wear #19, is listed as a midfielder but led her high school team in scoring last season. She was named the New Albany Offensive Player of the Year and led New Albany High School to the state championship game. Cole was also named to the Central Ohio Super-12 for girls lacrosse and was on the first teams for All-State, -Region, and -OCC. She was the All-Region Attack Player of the Year and was ranked first in the Midwest by USA Lacrosse Magazine.

Numbers 25, 26, 28, and 30 are all freshmen. Kelsey Commerford (no relation) is a defender from Long Valley, New Jersey. She took West Morris Central to a state championship in 2021. Commerford was named the team's Defensive MVP in 2022 and she earned first team All-Conference and All-County honors. Commerford, a defender, also played soccer in high school.

Reese Ryland is also from Dallas, so it will be interesting to see if she and Roach are familiar with each other. Ryland went to Trinity Christian Academy, where she led the team in goals, draw controls, and assists as a senior. She was a three-year varsity starter who also played volleyball and basketball. Ryland was named to the Adrenaline All-American watchlist and earned All-State and All-District honors. She was also a captain of her club team which was ranked first in the state.

Karli Kirchenheiter says that she chose Louisville because it had amazing facilities, was a fun city, and gave her an opportunity to play in the best conference. No mention of her sister, Sydney, a graduate defender for the Cards. Kirchenheiter led her team to a state runner-up finish in 2022 and Severna Park (her school in Maryland) was number 20 in the USA Lacrosse Magazine National Top-25. The younger Kirchenheiter is a midfielder who also played basketball and volleyball and was named MVP of the volleyball team.

Morgan Vasseur is another defender who comes from Dacula (fun name), Georgia. Vasseur was a three-time Scholar-Athlete and was ranked 11th in the country by Eagle Stix 2023 Blue. She was a 2020 Under Armour All-American. Mill Creek High School won three regional championships with Vasseur manning the back line. The defender also played basketball.

Reese Whiteman will wear 55 and comes to UofL from Brooklin, Ontario where she played for University of Western. The Mustangs won the 2023 Ontario University Athletics Championship in November. Whiteman netted a pair of goals in the championship game. Whiteman comes to UofL with some association to Scott Teeter as a member of the U20 Canadian National Team. Whiteman is listed as an attacker.

The last new player shares a number with Negai Nakazawa. Since Hanna John is a goalkeeper, it's unclear if both will be able to wear #77 or if John will change numbers. Hanna John is a splashy recruit, as she was twice the Wake Forest High School Goalie of the Year and was named a USL All-American. Her team won the conference championship in 2022 and she earned All-Conference, All-Region, and All-State honors twice as well. John was also on the Inside Lacrosse Power 100 incoming freshmen list. She lettered for the tennis team all four years as well. John joins a very crowded goalie room, led by Sara Addeche. Addeche, a senior, appeared to win the position battle she shared with J Pleck in 2022 as Addeche started all 17 games in 2023. Pleck appeared in 8 games for the Cards. John will be the fourth goalie in the room, as sophomore Aubrey Bagenstose (who would have played with Abby Cole in high school) saw three action in three games last year. John could very well win the job, but we'll see what happens.

Cardinal fans have been waiting for things to turn around at Louisville Lacrosse Stadium for quite some time. Despite the loss of a few key players, Louisville brings in an exciting class and has a ton of returning talent. The beginning of last season may have been an indication of what we can expect, so we'll hope that the Cards can keep that drive and get off to a fast start. The team gets their season underway against University of Denver and University of Colorado for the third year in a row. Each of those games will be the fourth in five years. The season starts on the road on February 9th.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Jeff and I will be on the air today, but with just two and a fairly light news week, we may not go a whole hour. Noon tipoffs for men's basketball will keep us without Jared for a couple of weeks, but we'll do our best to keep the show on track. 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

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Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

All photos official portraits from gocards.com with exception of Reese Whiteman, from Western.