Challenges ahead for Louisville women's soccer -- Monday Cardinal Couple

SECOND YEAR IN ACC AND NON-CONFERENCE SLATE DEMANDING

Having the advantage of being the home team in the best college soccer stadium in the nation is a plus for Karen Ferguson Dayes women's soccer team. Facing the schedule that lies ahead for the Kickin' Cards, though, is a task that will test her young squad. 

Louisville will have 10 regular season games and one exhibition in Lynn Stadium this fall...five of them ACC teams and also four non-conference opponents. Things get started on Aug. 12th. when the Cards travel to NKU for an exhibition match and host Indiana on Sunday Aug. 16th.

A Friday night season opener in Lynn brings in Wright State on Aug. 21st. and Washington visits on the 23rd. The Huskies were an NCAA Tournament participant in 2014. 

After hitting the road to face Kent State and Kentucky (Fri. Sept 4th.) UofL returns home to face SE Missouri State on Sunday Sept. 6th. A three-game road trip ensues with stops at UAB. Ole Miss and the conference opener against Boston College on Sunday, Sept. 20th.   

The ACC is one of...if not the toughest...conferences in the ACC in women's soccer. Dangerous NCAA tournament entry from 2014 Miami comes to town Thursday, Sept. 24th. Pitt visits on the 27th. and then the Cards will seek a little revenge in Lynn against Morehead State for last year's loss when they battle the Eagles on Thursday, Oct 1st.

October looks to be a month of tough challenges for the Cards. They head to Syracuse on Oct. 4th. before returning home for a brutal three game stay against UNC, Duke and defending national champion Florida State on Saturday, Oct. 17th. 

Louisville will end the ACC slate and regular season with three on the road...journeying to Virginia, NC State and Wake Forest on Halloween night. 

Fourteen teams play ACC women's soccer. Louisville will face ten of them and the top four teams qualify for the ACC Championships on Nov 6-8.

The Cards may be young (just 5 seniors) but they bring back a ton of experience from 2014. Goalkeepers Paige Brown and Taylor Smith return and the strong defensive unit of Chatham DeProspo, Rachel Avant, Inger Katrine Bjerke and Hannah Konermann (Louisville Mercy) will help defend the net. 

Mid-fielders Lexie Niedoba, Kari Weinland and Victoria Martinis saw valuable field time last year and the forwards will feature Allison Price, Casey Whitfield, Isabella Habudu and Shannon Dennehey (Louisville Manual). 

The Cards may not be ACC Top-4 material just yet...but an improvement over 2014's 7-9-2 (3-5-2 ACC) record is certainly expected by the players and coaching staff. 

Coach KFD is optimistic about the season:

"We pride ourselves on playing a tremendous non-conference schedule as we feel it helps prepare us for the rigors of the very prestigious ACC Conference and the NCAA Tournament....our first year in the ACC allowed us to gain valuable experience that we will look to build on this season and we are excited for the challenges we face."  

paulie
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Field Hockey Honors -- Tuesday Cardinal Couple

Field Hockey Honors

With Field Hockey's appearance in the NCAA tournament, we now have word of All-Region honors for Cardinal Field Hockey players.  Five Cards have received the honor.

Elisa "Chile" Garcia, Paige Monsen and Allysa Voelmle were tabbed for the first team, while Sydney King and Mallory Mason got nods for the second team All-Region.

None of the Cardinal All-Region team honorees are attackers, a testament to the Cardinal defending this season.  Garcia and Monsen are midfielders, while Voelmle and Mason are defenders.  Three of the five, Monsen, Voelmle and Mason, are seniors, while the Field Hockey team will still have the services of Garcia and King for another year.

Sydney King is the Cardinal GoalKeeper and also got a nod on my Cardinal Couple/Worldwide All-Syd team back in September.  King is somewhat unusual by being a west-coast Field Hockey player, hailing from Newport Beach, California.

Garcia was not nicknamed after this delicious
meat, beans and tomato dish 

Garcia earned the nickname "Chile" due to Santiago, Chile being her hometown, part of a significant contingent of international players on the Cardinal squad.  I suspect there was also a desire to more easily distinguish between "Elisa" and "Alyssa" which sounds somewhat similar when spoken.

The other three honorees all came to Louisville from the New England area, with Monsen being from Marathon, NY; Voelmle having come from Hershey, PA; and Mason claims Simsbury, CT as her hometown.

Volleyball Time Correction Correction

Last week we brought news of a time change for the Volleyball match vs Duke this Friday the 21st.  There's now a correction to the correction.  The match is now set for a 6pm start at Cardinal Arena.

-jmca-

Giant Killers strike again -- Louisville Field Hockey downs #4 Duke 2-1 --- Saturday Cardinal Couple

FIRST HALF SCORES ENOUGH...CARDS NUKE DUKE 2-1


The Giant Killers strike again.

For the second time in two weeks, Louisville Field Hockey has defeated a top five program in NCAA Field Hockey...knocking off #4 Duke 2-1 in a rainy Trager Stadium Friday night. The Cards win streak on the home turf increases to 15 straight on an evening where ESPN3 was on hand to chronicle another upset dealt out by Justine Sowry's stick swingers. 

Louisville started out in a defensive struggle with the Blue Demons for the first 12 minutes before Erin McCrudden returned a missed Alyssa Voelmle shot into the net on a penalty corner play. It was McCrudden's first score of the season.

Sowry and Bustin enjoy a pre game chat

Three minutes later, the Cards capitalized on another penalty corner attempt...Chile Garcia getting the feed from Paige Monson and Mallory Mason to put the Cards up 2-0 with 20 minutes left in the first half. Louisville's defense held strong to put the Cards in the locker room with the two goal advantage. 

Duke came out strong in the final half...getting off two shots and a penalty corner attempt in the first 10 minutes. They cut the UofL lead to 2-1 when Martine Chichizola took one into the circle and fired one past goalie Sydney King.

Mallory Mason and Alyssa Voelmle celebrate the win

It would be the last the the Blue Devils were heard from, though...Louisville's defense holding strong and King closing the net with six saves for the game. 

Things got a bit chippy near the end of the game...Alyssa Voelmle drawing a yellow card and sitting for five minutes. The Dookies could not capitalize on the player advantage, though...and Louisville goes to 9-2 and 3-1 in the ACC. 

Justine Sowry recaps the win:

The coaches exchange post game handshakes

"We were nervous in the beginning. I think both teams were a little jittery. As we started to get in a rhythm, we starte to play to our strength and our identity. It was a very impressive first half. In the second half, Duke came out really strong. They're a very good team, so we knew they would come out strong. It was a gritty win. We has to be disciplined and we're happy with the win." 

The Cards outshot Duke 11-10 but the visitors had a 8-6 edge in corners. 

The game also marked the return of former UofL Field Hockey coach Pam Bustin to Louisville for the first time. Four years ago, she probably never dreamed she would be back here playing and losing in an ACC match against her former assistant. 

The Cards return to the field Sunday for a 1 p.m. match against #15 Michigan. 

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CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO AIRS TODAY! 

Worldwide and Paulie will be back in the studio this morning at 11 a.m. for another exciting edition of CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO on Crescent Hill Radio. 

The lads will discuss the big Field Hockey win, Worldwide will offer Volleyball musings and women's soccer, cross country and other UofL women's sports will be on the docket as well. 

They probably won't discuss Paulie's colonoscopy...but you never know. It's a good thing they don't use a video feed...he has pictures. 

Link below:

CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO IS ON THE AIR !!!!


paulie
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Tuesday Cardinal Couple - All Syd/Sid Team

(WORLDWIDE JEFF MCADAMS REVEALS HIS "ALL SYD/SID TEAM" TODAY. I CAN'T WAIT FOR HIS "ALL MERCEDES TEAM" WITH MERCEDES BINNS AND MERCEDES RUSSELL...)

Paulie likes to talk about his all-name team, with Hall of Fame All-Namer Precious Person who was with the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team (she's transferring, no word as to where she has landed).  I thought I'd go with a bit more specific team, though.

I'm not sure what it is about the syllable "Syd" (or Sid or other variants), but it seems to have been popular 18-20 years ago.  So here is the Cardinal Couple/Worldwide All-Syd Team.

Brackemyre

We have to, of course, start with Cardinal Couple favorite Sydney Brackemyre.  Syd the Kyd is a 6'1" freshman forward for the women's basketball team out of Clinton Massie High School in Wilmington, OH.  Perhaps the youngest of the All-Syd Team, having arrived on campus this year as a 17 year old, Syd joins a packed house of talent with Jeff Walz, but is the only Syd on the team.  Don't despair for the Basketball Team, though, Sam seems to be the popular name on the hardwood.

Syd may also be the only UofL WBB player that has worn two sets of braces at one time on the team...a set on her teeth and a set on her knee after surgery. Thankfully, both have been removed now.

King

From the youngest, to the oldest.  Sydney King is a Redshirt Junior goalkeeper on the Field Hockey team
.

Still likely celebrating a program-changing victory, Sydney gets plenty of attention by being a veritable wall in front of the goal at Trager Stadium, including two stops in the win over top ranked UNC.  Field Hockey also sports just the one Syd, but they do have a couple of DuFours, twins Anna and Rene.

(Be sure to hear her post-game interview after defeating UNC @ CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO this Saturday)

Cooper

Sophomore Sydney Cooper graces the Volleyball team as a Middle Blocker out of Woodward Academy in Atlanta, GA.  At 6'0", she has the height and the hops.  She has plenty of competition in the middle though, a position where UofL Volleyball is deep and powerful.  Volleyball doesn't have any duplicate names, though I expect another Georgiafandis to join the team any day now.

Szydlowski, Melton and Benz

The mother load of Syd names is found on the Softball team, and they're all freshmen.

Alison Szydlowski

Up first is Alison Szydlowski, the "Szyd" is pronounced "Sid", and she uses "Sid" as her nickname, because....
of course she does.  A 5'5" infielder out of Seckman High School in Imperial MO.  Szydlowski clearly earns the Most Creatively Spelled superlative of the All-Syd team.

Next is Sidney Melton, the only Sid on the All-Syd team.  Also an infielder, Melton is a 5'7" infielder out of Bishop Hartley High School in Columbus, OH.

SIDNEY MELTON

Last, but certainly not least is Sydney Benz.  Yes, Sydney is an infielder as well.  Benz is 5'5" and hails from Carol Stream, IL, just outside of Chicago where she attended Glenbard North High School.  Benz played and contributed well in fall ball for Softball Sunday, taking a line drive to her left shoulder while playing first base, knocked down a line drive with her bare hand to make a play, and advanced in one of her at-bats by being hit by a pitch.  We here at The Cardinal Couple hope the bruises fade soon.

SYDNEY BENZ

In an effort to corner the market on duplicated names, Softball also sports two Brittanys, Sims and Duncan.  Sims is listed as a 5'2" junior outfielder but was, I believe, spotted playing second base Sunday.  Duncan is a 5'9" senior first baseman and slugger who joined the Cardinal squad last year as transfer from Valparaiso.

Other non-Syd Duplicate Names

While the Rowing squad doesn't have any Syds, they do have an interesting name duplicate.  We mentioned on the Cardinal Couple radio show in the spring the presence in the third varsity eight boat of Lauren and Nicole Ditommaso.  Nicole and Lauren are unaware of any family relation between them.


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FIELD HOCKEY TODAY

Looking for a little afternoon delight today? Why not head down to Trager Stadium and watch the UofL Field Hockey team in action against Ohio State? Game time is 3 p.m. The Cards are coming off the monumental upset of #1 UNC Saturday. The Cards will most certainly move up from their #14 ranking in the NCAA polls due to be released later today. Although Ohio State isn't currently ranked, they always play Louisville tough. Admission for Louisville Field Hockey is free. GO FLOCK!!!!

Ohio State
Tuesday, Sept. 23, Trager Stadium - 3 p.m.
Series Record: OSU leads 16-7
Last Meeting: Oct. 1, 2013: Louisville won 6-3 at Ohio State. Alyssa Voelmle had two goals and an assist and senior Erin Schneidtmiller added two goals to help lead then-No. 17 University of Louisville field hockey team to a 6-3 win over host Ohio State.
Scouting the Buckeyes: Ohio State (3-4) is coming off of a 9-1 win over Appalachian State. Prior to that, OSU fell 4-3 to No. 16 Michigan State in overtime in their Big Ten opener.
• The Buckeyes are led offensively by Maddy Humphrey who has 19 points (7G, 5A).
• OSU is coached by Anne Wilkinson who is in her 19th season at the helm.

Series Note:

In four of the last five meetings between Louisville and Ohio State, the game has been decided by one goal and has gone into overtime three times.

Last five meetings:

Oct. 14, 2009 - at Ohio State: Ohio State 2 - Louisville 1 (OT)

Sept. 8, 2008 - at Louisville: Ohio State 4 - Louisville 2 (2OT)

Oct. 4, 2011 - at Ohio State: Ohio State 2 - Louisville 1

Oct. 22, 2012 - at Louisville: Louisville 4 - Ohio State 3 (OT)

Oct. 1, 2013 - at Ohio State: Louisville 6 - Ohio State 3

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Louisville women's golf is hanging in there after the first day of competition in Colorado. Fore (or four) is the Cardinals' standing after 18 holes. 

TEAM STANDINGS (top five) 
1. Pepperdine - 284; 2. Tennessee - 285; 3. Campbell - 290; t-4. Louisville - 293; t-4. Denver - 293

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS 
t-9. Laura Restrepo - 72; t-13. Katie Mitchell - 73; t-21. Katie Petrino - 74; t-21. Shannon Gramley - 74; t-43. Emily Haas - 77

jmca

Monday Cardinal Couple -- Field Hockey, Soccer gain wins on Sunday

Nicole Woods scores winner for UofL against William & Mary

Louisville Field Hockey improved to 5-1 and gave Justine Sowry her 100th. win as a head coach with a 4-3 overtime win at William and Mary on Sunday. 

The Cards had trouble getting out of the gate in this one, falling behind 1-0 at the 18:00 mark of the game. The Tribe (1-5) would hold that lead into halftime.

Louisville finally scored seven minutes into the second half when senior Alyssa Voelmle connected on a penalty corner. W&M was not going down without a fight, though...and regained the advantage six minutes later.

The Cards evened it up at the 51 minute mark when Mallory Mason corralled  a Louisville missed shot on goal and pushed the orb in. UofL took their first lead of the contest when Voelmle recorded her second goal of the half on a penalty corner.

The Tribe knotted it at 3-3 with seven minutes left in regulation and it stay that way...forcing the extra session. Louisville was the sudden death session when Elisa "Chilly" Garcia found Nicole Woods with a pass and the Beverly, MA freshman slammed home the game winner. 

Louisville outshot the Tribe 15-9 and finished the four game road trip going 3-1. The Cards will host UNC in Trager on Sat. Sept 20th. @ 1 p.m.

Coach Sowry commented on the win: 

"Today was not pretty in the slightest. William & Mary was relentless in its work ethic, hustle and support for each other and we were not," said UofL head coach Justine Sowry who earned her 100th career victory. "Our first half was very disappointing where our ball carrier was isolated almost every time. We were sluggish and lazy in our effort and discipline all over the field. The good news is our second half was much improved and we started to play to our strengths. Again we have learned a ton this weekend from both an individual and team perspective. It was important to get the win today and we must continue to grow and improve. "


On a side note...it was great to see the Field Hockey squad

supporting the Louisville football team Saturday at Scott Stadium. Despite the heartbreaking loss to Virginia the night before, the girls seemed ready to go take the fight to The Tribe and we were able to talk a bit with Coach Sowry and a couple of players before we entered the stadium and start a preliminary investigation on why there was no limousine waiting to take me from the Waynesboro Best Western to the Field Hockey game in Charlottesville when I arrived on Friday afternoon.   


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Alison Price delivers game-winner for Women's Soccer


Meanwhile...back home in Louisville at Lynn Stadium, the Louisville women's soccer team overcame a 2-0 Kent State lead to beat the Golden Flashes in overtime 3-2. 

Down 2-0 at the half, Louisville used excellent defense some timely shots on goal to get back into this one. Kaela Dickermann scored her first goal just eight minutes into the second half. Isabella Habudu tied the contest with five minutes remaining. 

In the overtime session, Chinyelu Asher fed Alison Price for the game winner just two minutes into the extra session. Louisville outshot the Golden Flashes 22-4 in the contest.

The kickin' Cards return to action Friday night @ 7:30 to open the ACC schedule against Syracuse in Lynn. 

KFD talks about the win: 

"We had to get adjusted to a lot of new kids in our lineup," said head coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes. "When we worked in practice on the defensive side of the ball, we were great defensively in games. Then when we worked on the attacking side of the ball, we were great offensively. I think the second half today was indicative of layering the both defending pieces with the attacking pieces. I think that's why we saw I think 17-0 (shots) in the second half."

paulie
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Tuesday Cardinal Couple

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Tennis Doubles Team advances

Julia Fellerhoff and Rebecca Shine have been representing Louisville Tennis quite well downstream in Memphis.  The team was seeded 5th in the USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Regionals hosted by Memphis.

Advancing against unseeded teams from Vandy, Ball State and Memphis, the due met up with the top seeded team in the tournament, Krisztine Kapitany and Mara Schmidt from Purdue in a Monday evening match and dispatched them easily in an 8-3 win.  The finals will be played today with a chance to play in the National Indoor Championship on the line.

Their competition will either be a team from UK or one from Memphis.  We here at the Cardinal Couple are spoiled by the prompt and informative updates from the Louisville Sports Information Directors.  A check of both UK's and Memphis' website at the time of this writing reveals nothing about which team won the other semi-final matchup.

Paige Brown Saves Another Award

Soccer goalkeeper Paige Brown picked up another weekly honor from The American Conference by picking up the Rookie of the Week award.  Brown had previously earned the GoalKeeper of the Week award from the conference on September 30th.

Rachel Melhado was named on the Honor Roll for the week for her defensive efforts.

Louisville holds a precarious lead atop the conference soccer standings with a 7-1 record in conference for a total of 21 points.  2nd place is held by UCF at 6-0-1 for 19 points.  The last regular season game for UofL is Friday evening at Cincinnati.  Cincinnati sits in 4th place in the conference with a conference record of 4-3-1, and an overall record of 8-9-1.  With a win over Cincinnati, Louisville would need UCF to not win at least one of their two remaining games (against SMU and Houston, both in the bottom half of The American Conference rankings) in order to secure the regular season conference championship.  The first two rounds of the conference tournaments will be played at campus sites (presumably as either the number one or number two seed, Louisville will host) with the semi-finals and finals being hosted by UCF in Tampa, Florida.

Volleyball in action

Volleyball heads down to Murfreesboro, TN to take on the always dangerous Middle Tennessee State University Blue Raiders.  MTSU sports a 13-7 overall record.  They will then continue their road trip with matches Friday and Sunday at Rutgers and UConn.


King of the Hill

University of Louisville goalkeeper Sydney King was named BIG EAST Field Hockey Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 21. Erin Schneidtmiller was selected to the league’s weekly honor roll.

King, a sophomore from Newport Beach, Calif., helped the Cardinals to a 2-0 week, which included a 2-0 win against No. 11 Northwestern. She made a career-high 10 stops in the win over the Wildcats. King posted seven saves in a 2-1 double-overtime win against Rutgers, including two critical stops in overtime. She currently has a 1.52 goals against average for the season.

Schneidtmiller, a senior from Louisville, Ky., scored the game-winning goal in a 2-1 double-overtime triumph versus Rutgers and added an assist in a 2-0 win over No. 11 Northwestern.

The 17^th ranked Cardinals have a 12-4 overall record are tied for second with Old Dominion in BIG EAST standings with a 4-1 mark in conference play.

 

 

-Jeff McAdams

 

Monday Cardinal Couple -- Cards take Soccer, Field Hockey Wins

MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Corral's goal downs UConn 3-2

- Field Hockey downs Northwestern 2-0

-Golf takes third in Hoosier Fall Inv.

-Cardinal Couple Radio on Soundcloud


CORRAL'S LATE SCORE BEATS HUSKIES

Charlyn Corral's unassisted score with less than seven minutes left in regulation gave Louisville the 3-2 lead against UConn in Marrone Stadium Sunday afternoon in AAC play.

With the win, Louisville goes to 11-4-1 overall and 7-1 in the AAC. UConn falls to 10-7 and 4-3 in the conference.

UofL opened the scoring with 27 minutes left in first half action when Erin Yenney booted a 30 yard attempt from the center of the field. The Huskies countered with five minutes left in the first session and the teams went to the half deadlocked at 1-1.

UConn's Stephanie Riberio notched her second goal of the game after nine minutes of second half play but the Cards were able to respond five minutes later...Corral getting a pass to Christine Exeter to tie it at 2-2.

Corral's game winner came with 6:20 left...a shot that bounced off the inside of the left goalpost and into the net. Strong Cardinal defense kept the Huskies without a shot on goal the rest of the way.

The regular season comes to an end on Friday, Oct 25th. at 7 p.m. with the Cards travelling to Cincinnati.

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KING'S SHUTOUT IN THE PIPES HELPS CARDS 2-0


In a battle of top 25 schools...a career high 10 saves by sophomore goalie Sydney King kept #11 Northwestern at bay and #17 Louisville closed out the weekend with a 2-0 win over the Wildcats in Trager Stadium.

Louisville grabbed their first score eight minutes into action...a penalty corner sequence that saw Becca Maddock returning a missed attempt by Alyssa Voelmle. That score would take UofL into the halftime break in charge...despite Northwestern holding a 5-3 advantage in shots.

Another penalty corner opportunity gave the Cards the 2-0 lead...Victoria Stratton connecting on a set by Paige Monson from a Erin Schneidtmiller pass.

King got seven of her 10 saves in the final 35 minutes to take Justine Sowry's squad to 12-4 on the season. A road trip to Villanova is next for the Cards.


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RESTREPO, PETRINO LEAD WAY FOR WOMEN'S GOLF

Cardinal women's golf finished third in the Hoosier Fall Invitational which ended Sunday in Greenwood, IN at the Hickory Stick Golf Club. Laura Restrepo lead the Cards "A"
squad with a 217 for the three day event...good for sixth place overall. UofL fielded two squads for the event.

Winner was UC Davis who downed Illinois by 16 strokes. The Cards were three shots behind the Illini for show honors.

Katie Petrino was four strokes back of Restrepo...carding back to back 72's in the final two days. The complete Cardinal results:

LOUISVILLE (A) 887

Laura Restrepo  73-73-71=217
Katie Petrino      77-72-72=221
Louise Oxner     77-75-73=225
Emiy Haas         76-72-78=226
Tara Lyons        77-73-79=229

LOUISVILLE (B) 913

Sara Karlsson       77-75-75=227
Shannon Gramley 78-73-77=228
Meagan Theiss     81-74-75=230
Emily Kurey           81-77-74=232
Haley Andreas      79-75-80=234


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MAMA, THOSE TWO BOYS ARE ON THE RADIO AGAIN!!


We did miss co-host Jenny O'Bryan on our Saturday Radio show...but managed to struggle through it and deliver credible (if not somewhat mundane) sporting reports on Cardinal women's athletics. All this despite an ailing Paulie and sleep-deprived Jeff.

You can decide for yourself. Link below:

DEAD AIR AL SERVES COFFEE FROM 11-NOON


-Paulie


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