ACC FIELD HOCKEY TOURNAMENT -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

ACC FIELD HOCKEY TOURNAMENT UNDERWAY

Although Louisville did not qualify for the ACC Field Hockey Tournament, we will be watching with some interest in the results here at Cardinal Couple.. The Tournament is being held in Winston-Salem, at the Wake Forest Field  (Gentner Stadium). 

The home team, Wake Forest played the third game out of four gmes on Tuesday, and...as a #7 seed, was a prohibitive underdog to #2 Duke, coached by former UofL Field Hockey Coach Pam Bustin. And, the Blue Devils won this "satanic" match-up over the homestanding Demon Deacons 4-1

Earlier in the day, #1 UNC opened the tournament and had no problems in diposing the #8 seed squad from California (that beat out Louisville for the #8 seed). The Golden Bears got stuck in the TarHeels trap and fell 5-0. That one was a 10 a.m. start. Who knows, but maybe the Cards were lucky not to get in the tournament. UNC is playing with their hair on fire lately. 

Next up was #4 Virginia vs #5 Syracuse, and we got maybe a slight upset in this one, with the Orange downng the Cavailiers 1-0. So, it'll be #5 Syracuse facing #1 UNC Wednesday at 1 p.m. Boston College gets Duke after the opener. 

The day's activities ended with #3 Boston College facing #6 seed Stanford. The Eagles beat the Cardinal 3-2. 

So, the #1, #2, #3 and #5 seeds advance to the semifinals today. ACC Network is showing all the contests, in case you want to get away from election results, and they begin at 1 p.m when North Carolina goes up against Syracuse. 

My pick? I loved the job that Duke's Pam Bustin did when she was Louisville's head field hockey coach and have been a fan of her ever since. I'd like to see her knock off B.C. and UNC. They also have former Louisvllle star, Charlie van Oirschot, who transferred there as a junior and is now a graduate student. In this rare case, I will say, "Go Duke..." 

 A lot of good Field Hockey players come from the state of Pennsylvania, so...why doesn't Pitt play Field Hockey?  Mystifying,isn't it? Penn State, Penn and Villanova do.  

paulie

Field Hockey Welcomes Stanford -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards FH Open Conference Play at Home Against Stanford

Louisville Field Hockey has completed a majority of their non-conference schedule and will open up ACC play against Stanford today at 4:00. The Cardinals vs Cardinal will be aired on ACCNX.

The Cards enter the match 3-3 on the year having played one of the toughest schedules in the country including a pair of top-five opponents. Most recently, Louisville defeated Cornell 4-3 in what Coach Sowry called a "ripsnorter".

Stanford has started the year 5-1, their best start since they went 11-3 in the 2020 COVID-19 season. Two of the past three seasons were four-win seasons for the Cardinal. They have outscored opponents 17-3 so far this season but have not played anyone in the Top 25.

Coach Roz Ellis is in her fourth season as head coach of the Cardinal. She does have a Louisville connection from when she was an assistant coach under Sowry in 2014. That season, the Cards went 15-6 and made it to the NCAA Tournament.

Louisville leads the all-time series 5-2. Most recently. the Cards defeated Stanford 3-0 in 2019.

Happy Friday and Go Cards! (with an S!)

Jared

CARDINAL VS CARDINALS FIELD HOCKEY AT NOON TODAY -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

#5 vs. #16 AT TRAGER THIS AFTERNOON

At the exceedingly odd time of noon today, # 5 Louisville Field Hockey puts their 10-2 record to the test against the # 16 Stanford Cardinal over at Trager Stadium. Stanford is 9-5 on the season. 

First off, no, I don't know why they scheduled this game for this time. I don't think it can be to accommodate any network or on-line viewing of it, since the only source showing it is the ACC Network Extra. You want people in those seats at Trager? You ain't gonna get them there with middle-of-the-week noon start times, kiddos. 

Second off, no, I won't be in attendance. The change-in-climate-temperature "crud" still has me pretty dysfunctional (as if I wasn't already) and I'm sure a press box full of media and such doesn't want to hear me hack like a lung cancer ward patient or blow my nose with the regularity of a flock of geese getting ready to land in a field. Plus that, I've already spread it to Sonya and don't want to infect anyone else. 

Truth be told, I even didn't feel like writing this today, but none of my writers stepped up to take the day/article for me. It's all right. Payback is hell, boys.  

On to the game. 

Louisville will be facing the #1 scorer in the nation in Corinne Zanolli, who has found the net 21 times this season. She's coming off back-to-back hat tricks. Stanford has won three in a row coming into today's game, knocking off Ohio State, Ball State and Syracuse. 

Louisville fell to #9 Virginia Friday at Trager in a game that was moved to an earlier start to avoid rain (to no avail) and fell apart in the wet, rainy fourth quarter to the Cavs....losing 2-1 after shutting them out for three quarters. 


FAST FACTS


-- Louisville and the Trees have played six times and UofL was won four of  them.

-- Justine Sowry was an assistant coach at Stanford in 2003

-- Louisville leads the nation in penalty corners with 75. 

-- Bethany Russ leads Louisville in scoring with eight goals. 

-- Louisville has out-scored opponents 31-13 this season. 


Have a tremendous Tuesday! 

Paulie
xxxxx

Cardinals vs, Cardinal -- Louisville Field Hockey selected for NCAA Tournament...Volleyball falls to Notre Dame --MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

LOUISVILLE FIELD HOCKEY WILL FACE STANFORD IN FIRST ROUND OF NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

Nervous moments last night in the selection pairing announcement of the 2014 NCAA Field Hockey Championships...but Justine Sowry's squad will make their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2008. 

The Cards will face the Cardinal...#5 seeded Stanford...in Storrs, CT. on Saturday, November 15th. The winner will face the winner of the Connecticut vs. play-in winner game between Kent. St. and Delaware the next day. 

Louisville is one of six ACC schools to receive a bid...surprisingly Virginia, who was the #1 seed in the ACC Tournament and a team that defeated Louisville earlier in the season, was not selected as one of the nineteen teams to vie for the 2014 crown. Like Louisville, the Cavaliers were knocked off in the first round of the ACC Championships.

The league claimed five of the eight at-large spots in the tournament and two of the four host sites were awarded to ACC programs.

ACC Tournament winner WAKE FOREST will host Albany in the first round. NORTH CAROLINA, selected #1 seed by the NCAA will host the winner of the Richmond/Liberty play in game. Liberty comes in after defeating Stanford in the title game 1-0 of the NorPac championship game Saturday. DUKE will travel to Northwestern for their first game...BOSTON COLLEGE heads to Penn State and SYRACUSE stays home to play Boston U in the round of sixteen. 

Justine Sowry is grateful for the chance:

" I am so excited and proud of our women young right now. This is a well-deserved honor. A lot of great teams miss out on making the NCAA Tournament...I was hoping our resume would speak for itself. This is the result of the last four years of work and all of the student-athletes that were a part of our program. We are excited to be matched up with Stanford. We don't know a lot about them other than they are a great team, but we'll be watching a lot of video the next few days. There is certainly  a lot of work to be done this week." 

Stanford was #4 ranked in the latest National Field Hockey Coaches Association Poll and sports a 18-2 record. Besides both losing to Liberty, the Trees and UofL had five common opponents. New Hampshire, California, UC Davis, Northwestern and Michigan all lost to Stanford and UofL. 
Stanford's first loss of the season came to Albany..who is also 18-2 and in the tournament. 

The NCAA does not officially seed any of the teams in the Field Hockey Championships after the first four. Unofficially...by looking at the brackets...we figure the Cards got a #11 seed and were probably one of the last teams to be selected as an at-large. 

 The first round pairings:

1 *North Carolina (17-3)
 Richmond (12-9)/**Liberty (13-7)

 Duke (12-6)
#Northwestern (16-6)

#Penn St. (15-5)
 Boston College (13-6)

 Boston U. (13-7)
4 *Syracuse (15-5)

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3 *UConn (16-3)
 Kent St. (10-10)/**Delaware (13-8)

 Louisville (15-5)
#Stanford (18-2)

#Wake Forest (14-6)
 Albany (NY) (18-2)

 Princeton (7-10)/**Monmouth (13-7)
2 *Maryland (18-3)


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VOLLEYBALL FALTERS LATE AGAINST NOTRE DAME

Louisville Volleyball falls to Notre Dame yesterday in South Bend, IN in five sets. The Cards took the first two sets with apparent ease...25-16 and 25-17 before going on a skid and losing out 23-25, 22-25 and 13-15. 

A wrist injury to Katie George late in the second game could have contribute to the Cards dropping to 14-11 and 6-7 in conference play. Anne Kordes has her take on it: 

" A consistent theme for us is not having strong serve receive. I credit Notre Dame for changing their lineup and going after us. Katie George went down with an injury in the second set and she powered through the rest of the match in one of the guttiest performances of the year..playing three sets hurt. I am disappointed that we couldn't close it out after being up two sets. There was a moment in the third set when we had back-to-back service errors and then Notre Dame went on a run and we couldn't get the momentum back. We can't breathe life into the other team with unforced errors." 

The Cards continue the road trip woes with 7 p.m. matches at Clemson on Friday and Wake Forest Saturday. 

It's probably too early to speculate on this...but it looks like Kordes may have lost this team's motivation button for the season. The Cards have lost four out of their last five. Both Clemson (9th) and Wake Forest (13th) are lower than Louisville in the ACC standings...if the Cards can't get a couple of "feel good" wins next weekend on the road and get some momentum re-establsihed..the final three matches at home in Cardinal Arena against highly ranked UNC, Duke and Pitt might be a disappointing end to the season.

If the Cards can re-salvage the season with five wins...would a 19-11 record be enough to get them consideration for post-season play? And, will George's injury put her on the sidelines, creating a void in Louisville's inspirational leader and main setter for kills? 

paulie