Favorite Pictures from the Soccer Season -- Pick Em -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Jared's Favorite Soccer Photos

The soccer regular season recently concluded and the Cards are one of eight teams gearing up for the ACC Tournament.  This season went about as expected, with Louisville finishing 4-4 and earning the 6-seed. Like the field hockey photos from last year, the soccer photos range from action to celebration to pregame activities.  You may have seen some of the photos already while others may be new.

Louisville gears up for a first round match against 3-seed Virginia tonight at 8:00 p.m., on the ACC Network.

The Wahoos come into the match ranked #10 in the country, boasting a 7-2-1 record and 5-2-1 in the ACC.  They are fresh off back-to-back wins against Boston College and Syracuse.   Alexa Spaanstra leads Virginia with five goals.  Both goals in Virginia's regular season over Louisville came from Spaanstra.  Lia Godfrey leads the team with five assists.

Emina Ekic ranks second in the ACC and fourth in the NCAA with 1.88 points per match.  Her 0.75 goals per match is also second in the ACC and sixth overall in the NCAA. Louisville is 0-8 against Virginia all-time, including this year's 2-0 loss.

The match is scheduled for 8:00 p.m.  However, with three matches scheduled before the Cards play it is likely kickoff may be later.  Field conditions are also expected to be rough with no team to even the grass between matches.

Pick Em

We had six entries for field hockey.  Currently, there are six entries for soccer with one of them being a new face from the last Pick Em, but you still have until 12:30 p.m. today to submit those!

Paulie and Sonya each went 3-3 in the field hockey Pick Em, never able to fully recover from 1-2 starts on the first day.  Nick O and Arthur each went 4-2 with mirroring brackets.  Curtis was rocking a 5-0 bracket going into the championship game, where he had the Cards downing North Carolina again.  Jared edged out Curtis in the end by going 6-0 after picking UNC over UofL.  I think I'll pass on the prizes, although finding a way to take selfies on a camera would be quite interesting!

Soccer is a chance to redeem yourself or join in on the fun!  It always adds a little extra excitement when watching the other matches.  I will provide an update on Thursday.

Feel free to leave your picks in our comments section. In case of tie, you might want to leave a guess at the final score of the championship game also with the, You can also e-mail your picks to the Cardinal Couple e-mail address.... cardinalcouple@twc.com   or directly to me eupherjared@gmail.com

As it was in Field Hockey, no official prize is being awarded except for a date with Paulie, technology discussion with Case and Jeff or a photo shoot with Jared.,,,but if you win you can proudly boast about your prowess on social media outlets and those lengthy Zoom and Skype meetings a lot of us have to endure weekly.  

As an example for you, here are Sonya's picks: 

Quarterfinals: FSU, Duke, UNC, Louisville

Semifinals: FSU, Louisville

Finals: Louisville  1-0 

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Louisville WSOC falls to Virginia 2-0 -- Friday Cardinal Couple

 UVA SHUTS OUT CARDS IN CHARLOTTESVILLE

A rough night, offensively, for the Louisville Women's Soccer on the road last night as #11 ranked Virginia got two first half goals from Alexa Spaanstra and shut out the visiting Cards 2-0. The game action was Spaanstra's first -- since twisting her ankle against Clemson in the Cavs third game of the season.  

Louisville got outstanding goal-play again from goalkeeper Gabby Kouzelos against the attack-oriented Cavaliers, Kouzelos had 10 saves for Louisville against the UVA attackers -- and made several diving deflections and stops of Cavalier goal attempts...otherwise, the score could have been a lot higher for the home-standing Cavs. 

Ball possession was definitely in favor of Virginia in the first half against a Louisville defense that was trying to get the ball back for some semblance of offense for the Cards but largely unable to do so. The Cavalier's attack finally paid off when Spaanstra, back from injury, took a cross during the UVA attack and sent a rocket past Kouzelos in the 24th. minute of play. 

The Cavs would score again ten minutes later when Spaanstra was award a penalty kick in front of goalkeeper Kouzelos for alleged interference from a Cards defender. Kouzelos dived to her left as the shot was fired but Spaanstra sent the ball in the other direction and it found the top corner of the net for the game's final goal. 

Virginia held a 12-0 shot advantage after 45 minutes of play and the combo of Emina Ekic and Delaney Snyder for the Cards had been held in check.  

 

Although the Cards came out with an improved offensive intensity in the second half, they could not get the ball in the net. Louisville's best chance to score came when Nadage L'Esperance drilled a shot toward net midway through the final half but the ball bounced off the crossbar and UVA retained possession. 

Delaney Snyder played just 46 minutes of the contest. No immediate reason was clear or provided why she played just half of the game and Snyder did not seem to be injured. It could have been Louisville head coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes trying to shake things up on the attack for the Cards. Ferguson-Dayes did use freshmen Jessica Camken (53 minutes) and Savina Zamborini (45 minutes) as replacements on the field. Camken was responsible for Louisville's only other shot-on-goal in the contest.

Possession time was clearly in favor of UVA with a 64% to 36% advantage and the Cavs took 24 shots, compared to Louisville two.  

With the loss, the Cards fall to 3-2 on the season and will try to right the ship when they travel to Blacksburg, VA for a Sunday contest against Virginia Tech. A VT squad that scored a Hokie-history high eight goals in their 8-2 win over Miami last night to improve to 2-6 on the season. 

Have a Fortunate Friday...

pauiie

  

Full Sunday on Tap - SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Full Sunday Schedule

The normal trio of women's fall sports are all in action today as we are approaching, or are already started into, post-season play.

Soccer

The women get the post-season underway first.  They are playing Virginia in Charlottesville in the quarterfinals (also first round) of the ACC tournament.  This is the first appearance in the ACC tournament for the Cards.  Of course, UofL has only been in the ACC for a handful of years, now, but it speaks to the quality of this year's team to even make an appearance in the conference tournament of one of the best women's soccer conferences in the country.

It also speaks to the quality of the conference that the last regular season game of decided for the Cards between a 3rd seed in the tournament, or the 6th seed that we ended up with.  Yes, the conference standings were that bunched up near the top.  Virginia ended up with that 3rd seed, and the two will tangle today at 1 p.m..

If the Cards advance, they'll move to Cary, NC where the rest of the tournament will be played.  The potential opponents for that one are Florida State and Duke.

UVA did claim the regular season victory over the Cardinals this season, in a 1-0 Thursday night matchup on October 4th.  The Cards did have several good shots during the game but were unable to keep them on-frame and slip by the UVA GK.

Field Hockey

Justine Sowry's squad wraps up their regular season today with a non-conference matchup at Kent State.  This one is a noon start.  There is a streaming URL listed for this one:

https://boxcast.tv/view/kent-state-field-hockey-vs-louisville-102818-420314

It does not appear to require any subscription.

Kent State is a decent mid-major team.  They 7-10 overall, 5-1 in the MAC, but don't let that record fool you, 6 of those 7 loses were to teams that were top 25 ranked.

This one faces off at noon.

Despite the overall regular season being concluded, the regular season conference play has all been completed, so the ACC tournament seedings are already known.  Louisville will be going into the tournament as a 3 seed, playing 6 seed Wake Forest.  Wake Forest took the regular season tilt 4-2.  Potential 2nd round opponents are Syracuse and Duke.  Both of these matches gave us plenty of drama, including some bonus field hockey.  The match against Syracuse was a victory for the Cards, the game winning coming with 23 seconds left on the clock in 2nd sudden-victory overtime period.  The match against Duke was a barn-burner, completing both 7v7 overtime periods, and going into an extended shoot-out to decide.

Volleyball

Unlike field hockey and soccer, volleyball still has several weeks of regular season play.  Part of this is because the ACC doesn't have a post-season tournament, so there's an extra week of regular season play.

Today, the wide netters will be facing the Syracuse Orange.  Former Cardinals head coach Leonid Yelin is at the helm of Syracuse these days, so he will be visiting a familiar location in Cardinal Arena for the 1 p.m. start.  This will be on ACC Network Extra.

Syracuse sits at 8-3 in conference, which puts them in roughly the top quarter of the conference.  Overall they're 12-7.  Notable loses are to BYU, Southern Cal, Marquette, and Pitt, all ranked teams (BYU is still undefeated and sits as the #1 team in the country).  They also lost in a sweep to Notre Dame Friday, so they're coming in to Cardinal Arena off a loss, which is never ideal.

Syracuse, courtesy of Yelin, is a very "at the net" sort of team.  Expect their emphasis of play to be at the net with blocking and hitting.  There is a single player listed on their roster as a DS, everyone else is listed as a hitter (middle, rightside, outside), or setter.  Also, as typical for Yelin, there's a strong international aspect to this team, with players from the Ukraine, Israel, Greece, Yelin's native Uzbekistan, Canada, and Russia.

I imagine UofL's goal in this match will be to be strong in defense (both blocking and digging), stay in system, and get good swings on the ball, with the intent of putting Syracuse out of system so they can't bring their offense to bear.

-- 

JMcA

Soccer Bows to Virginia -- Weekend Schedule -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Women's Soccer Bows to Virginia

Coming off a rough 5-1 loss at North Carolina last Saturday the Louisville women's soccer team hosted #8 Virginia with hopes of pulling off the upset.  Those hopes were denied in the sixth minute in the first half when Virginia scored the lone goal of the match to win a close one 1-0.

The Cavaliers took advantage of an early offensive attack.  Meghan McCool received a pass off a cross into the box from the far side six minutes into the match and knocked it into the back of the net.

Defensively, Louisville looked strong despite the early goal.  Virginia was held to one other shot on goal, which Gabby Kouzelos handled with ease.  They were limited to only five shots total.

Even the midfield seemed to hold their own for most of the match.  It was a battle for possession in the middle of the pitch between the two teams and Louisville never backed down.  Sadly, anything past the midfield was poor.

The offensive front could not get anything going.  At times, Louisville looked lost up front and appeared to have no game plan.  They struggled to penetrate the box against the Virginia defensive line.  Turnovers were common as frustration overcame the Cards.  The Cards managed one shot on goal from Taylor Kerwin in a late first half push, but it was to no avail. Passing effectively just wasn't in the cards.

Overall, the match wasn't too bad for Louisville.  Virginia (10-2-0, 3-2-0) was held to one goal or less
for the fourth time this season.  The Wahoos were averaging a little over 2.6 goals per match going into the night.

Louisville falls to 9-3-0 and 3-2-0 in the ACC after losing their second straight conference match.  As in past years this is about the time of the season for a hopeful season falls into another average year.  This team plays together better and has more talent than any other women's soccer team to play at Lynn and could potentially break the curse.  The Cards host Miami for Senior Day at noon on Sunday.

Still, in retrospect, I have to believe that very few Cardinal fans expected Louisville to be 9-3 at this point of the season. The losses have come to two top 10 teams in college women's soccer and to Purdue, who is 6-3-4. Two of the losses are just by one goal. Two of the losses have been on the road.  The Cards have five matches left in the season and two are at home.

THE KNUCKLEHEADS

The entire A-team was in attendance for the match last night.  Paulie hung out with our good friend and River City Cards personality Mike Gilpatrick in the press box.  Worldwide made his first appearance at Lynn Stadium this year and joined Case and his fiancee Lindsay in the stands near midfield.  I spent some time on the pitch taking pics before moving to the Louligans section.  You'll also get to see all four of us in studio together for a second straight week.

 Yes, I'm serious!

In the post-game interview, you'll easily notice that the railroad industry makes a cameo appearance several times. They also prevented Case from getting to the stadium earlier than he and Lindsay would have liked.

You'll also hear Coach KFD defend her team's performance, which is what a good coach does in close affairs. Paulie did not address a rumor that surfaced before the game started. An item that we'll wait for official confirmation on. More as it develops.

LINK: Postgame with Coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes


Looking Ahead at the Weekend

Friday, October 5

Men's Tennis is split in half with some of the crew at the All-American Championships in Tulsa and the rest in South Bend for the Notre Dame Invitational.


Volleyball hosts Duke at 5:00 p.m., for their first home ACC match of the year.  The Cards are
currently 4-0 in the conference and went undefeated at home in conference play last year.  Worldwide will be present for this event.

Football hosts Georgia Tech in a Black Out at 7:00 p.m.  The slumping Cards will have their hands full against a triple option offense (who do they think they are, Army?).  Plan for some rough traffic on your way home from work if you pass through the area.

Saturday, October 6

Rowing hosts their Red and Black Regatta beginning at 10:30 a.m. and will last for two- to- two and a half hours.  This is their only home event of the season.

Men's tennis continues both of their events in Tulsa and South Bend.

Swimming and Diving has their first event of the 2018-19 school year when Xavier visits the Ralph Wright Natatorium.  Both men and women will compete in the event starting at 2:00 p.m.

Men's soccer will also be up in Irish territory for a Top 15 showdown and another big ACC match-up.  The Cards hope to remain undefeated in conference play.  Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m.



Sunday, October 7

Women's soccer will help kick off the busiest day of the weekend with their Senior Day at noon.  Miami will visit town and the Cards will hope to halt the losing streak.  You can catch Paulie and maybe Case at the event.

Field hockey also starts at noon and will host Duke.  The Cards are hoping to get their third conference win.  The last time these two teams played featured at penalty shootout victory in the ACC Tournament semifinals last year.  This is a Pink Out.

Men's tennis continues their split time in Tulsa and South Bend.

Mens's golf heads down to Tennessee for the FAMC Intercollegiate for an all day affair.

Volleyball will host Wake Forest at 1:00 p.m.  If all goes well the Cards will be 6-0 in the ACC following this match and will continue to climb the rankings.  Worldwide will be present.

Softball will host a double header against Morehead State for their first home event this fall starting at 1:00 p.m.  This is an opportune time to go see what Coach Holly Aprile has to offer and a chance to meet her.

This is another jam-packed weekend for Louisville sports and the Cardinal Couple crew.  I will attempt to make it to WSoc, FH, VBall, and softball all on Sunday, but four games in about 3-4 hours is a lot easier said than done so we'll see.

Make sure to catch us on The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m.!

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

-Jared-


MORE PICTURES FROM JARED FROM LAST NIGHT'S WOMEN'S SOCCER GAME BELOW: