Field Hockey ready for changes, UofL WBB blog #2

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THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Field Hockey preparing for season

-Lady Cards WBB blog II

-BIG EAST well represented on 2011 USA Basketball Women's World team.

-Another Schimmel Story

Collins is a senior who will start
for her third year at midfield.

New field hockey head coach Justine Sowry has to be optimistic when it comes to the fortunes of her 2011 squad. Although seven out of the top ten scorers have graduated, UofL is still strong when it comes to producing goals...with forwards Amber Thomas, Haley Jurich and Erin Schneidtmiller returning and a strong mid-field contingent in second leading scorer from 2010 Hayley Turner, All-BIG EAST selection Caitlin Collins, Dominque Pasqualicho and Lacey Jurich.

The Cards also return goalkeeper Erin Conrad, who started all 20 games for "the flock" last season, recorded five shutouts and allowed only 1.76 goals per game.

Louisville will begin the 2011 season with an scrimmage match at Iowa on Friday, August 19th. The Cards return to start the regular season with two at Trager Stadium...hosting California on Friday, August 26th. and Michigan State on Sunday, August 28th. In addition to six conference games, the Field Hockey Cards will face tough challenges from Indiana, Ohio State, Wake Forest and Davidson.

A new era for field hockey with the departure of Pam Bustin to Duke. Under the capable hands of Sowry...expect the Cards to contend for the BIG EAST title and continue to pack Trager Stadium.

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Soaring above the
trees on a zip line...

The second entry on the Lady Cards trip to Oregon and Canada is now up at http://www.uoflsports.com/  Looks like the girls have been having some fun with zip-lining and karaoke while in Whistler, B.C. Canada.

It gets serious tonight with a 9:30 p.m. scrimmage exhibition game against the University of British Columbia. We'll talk about it in the FRIDAY edition of CARDINAL COUPLE. 



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Four BIG EAST WBB players are part of the squad that will look to defend the USA's goal medal at the 2011 World University Games, August 14-21 at Shenzhen, China.

Skylar Diggins (Notre Dame), Keisha Hampton (DePaul), Natalie Novosel (Notre Dame) and Devereaux Peters (Notre Dame) represent the BIG EAST on the court and Georgetown WBB head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy is one of the assistant coaches for the USA.

Other players selected for the squad include UT's Shekinna Strickland and Glory Johnson, Chiney and Nnemkadi Ogwumike (Stanford) and Elena Della Donna (Delaware).

They play Brazil in first round action Sunday, Slovakia on Monday and Great Britain Tuesday.
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Never can get enough stories on the Lady Cards WBB team or the Schimmel sisters. The Portland Tribune offers this one about the Lady Cards visit to Umatilla and some insights into the sisters. Click the link below to read a fascinating take on Jude and Shoni. Stephen Alexander is fast becoming one of our favorite sports journalists. Another great find by Jenny. Enjoy.

http://portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=131301028487860700

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Field Hockey looks to set record

THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:


-Field hockey faces #5 Connecticut


-USA defeats Australia 83-75


-Women's Golf this weekend

-McCune makes a choice

UofL has a score to settle. The field hockey team hosts #5 Connecticut Saturday noon at Trager Stadium and is looking for their second win lifetime against the Huskies in nine meetings. TEAM CARDINAL last defeated UConn in 2008 at Trager, a 3-1 win over a Husky team that was ranked #4 in the nation. Last year, a heartbreaking 3-2 loss on the road to UConn in overtime. #10 Louisville is 6-3 on the season, with losses to Duke, Syracuse and Ohio State...all by one point and all three in overtime. The Duke and Ohio State games went to double overtime.


The game is designated as a "white out". UofL is looking to set a field hockey single game attendance record on Saturday. Admission is free to the match and free t-shirts will be given to the first 500 fans thru the gates. Louisville is averaging over 1600 for home contests this year.


CARDINAL COUPLE will have interviews with Cardinal head coach Pam Bustin and several of the Cardinal player in tomorrow's report. The Cards also play on Sunday against St. Louis.


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Team USA went to 6-0 in group play with a convincing win over Australia yesterday in the Czech Republic. USA finished atop the group standings in the World Championship and heads to a quarterfinal matchup with South Korea on Friday.


It was Diana Taurasi leading the way for USA with 24 points, including several key hoops in the fourth quarter when it looked like the Aussies might make a run. USA got out early against the "down under" bunch...leading by 24 in the second quarter and 15 at the start of the fourth quarter. "Big Syl" Sylvia Fowles added 15 points and Tina Charles put back 14 in the win for Geno Auriemma's squad. Louisville's Angel McCoughtry saw limited action in the matchup and finished with 2 points. 19 year old Australian sensation center Liz Cambage led the losers with 19 points. Liz is projected to be one of the first picks in the upcoming WNBA draft. Gotta be pretty special if you bump Lauren Jackson out to power forward...


I wonder if Jeff Walz could talk her into four years of college first ?


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The UofL women's golf team heads to South Bend this weekend to participate in the W.K Warren Invitational. The two day event is hosted by Notre Dame. Sara Maude-Juneau, Anna-Karin Ljungstrom, Laura Anderson and Candice Wiley lead the wood and iron crew. There's also a freshman on the squad named Katie Petrino.

I wonder if Dad will take the weekend off and serve as her caddie for the event? The daughter of Bobby Petrino has yet to see action in any Cardinal events yet...but she was one of the top high school girls' golfers in Arkansas last year. Reports are she beats Pop regularly on the links and participated in several women's TPC events this summer as an amateur.


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Congratulations to men's soccer! They defeated the Kentucky Wildcats 2-0 yesterday in .A big win for Ken Lolla's crew...they go to 7-0-1 and are atop the BIG EAST standings. Dylan Mares followed up on a missed goal shot and put it in the back of the net in the first half and Austin Berry headed one in during the second half for the Cardinal scores.

It's always good to beat UK in anything...

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Fern Creek center Teonia McCune has committed to Wright State's women's basketball program. The 6'5" senior averaged 15 points and 15 rebounds as a junior for the Tigers. McCune holds the Fern Creek records for rebounds (33 against Male), blocked shots (17 vs. Scott County), and is 4th in the state in career blocked shots.

McCune caught the eye of UofL head women's basketball coach Jeff Walz when he arrived at Louisville and she was a freshman playing with current Cardinal Monque Reid. She slipped off the Cards radar, though...and Walz has been aggressively pursuing other post players...getting a verbal commitment from 6'5" Georgia star Quaneisha McCurty and landing UNC transfer Cierra Warren for the 2011-12 season.

Good luck in Ohio, Teonia. Having seen her play a few times, I can tell you...you don't want to drive and try the paint against her.

Volleyball falls in 5 games vs. Seton Hall

MONDAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Volleyball loses in 5 to the Pirates

-Women's Tennis @ Michigan State

-TEAM USA advances in World Championships Photo courtesy of ESPN

The University of Louisville Volleyball squad lost their first ever match to the Seton Hall Pirates Sunday in Cardinal Arena...falling 20-25, 21-25, 25-19, 25-17, 13-15. A slow start for Louisville in the final game proved to be the deciding factor. Louisville fell victim to a 6-0 Pirate run and despite tying the match 10 all...could not pass the Pirates in the final eight serves.

Anastasia Artemeva led the way for the VolleyCards with 16 kills and 4 blocks. They ran into hot hitting Pirate slammer Sarah Osmun, though, who had a game high 21 kills.

Emily Juhl and Lola Arsanbekova led the way for Louisville in the first game with a combined 11 kills but the Cards fell behind 6-1 and never led. In game two, Louisville managed to take a 20-19 lead late but surrendered six of the last eight points to Seton Hall.

The Cards came out slow after the break and didn't gain the advantage until midway thru the contest. Reserve Tanya Lukyanenko spured a Cardinal finish with three straight points and the Cards took game three by six points. Artemeva took over in game four for Louisville with four of her kills and the Cards looked ready to win the match in the fifth game.

Louisville (6-5) leaves the friendly confines of Cardinal Arena for their next two...visiting UConn on Friday and St John's on Sunday.

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Mark Beckham's UofL women's tennis team met with success in the Michigan State Invitational in East Lansing over the weekend. Sarah Miller and Becca Shine won the "B" flight doubles for the Cards...downing a team from Eastern Michigan 8-2. Freshman Julia Fellerhoff had a big tournament for the Cards..reaching the finals of "A" flight singles play before falling in three sets.

She and Mandy Brown teamed up for "A" flight doubles and reached the finals...losing to Akron 8-3 in the championship decider.

Amelia Harris performed well in "C" flight matches...reaching the finals before bowing out in three sets to BGSU's Nikki Chiricosta.

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Some catching up to do here on TEAM USA in the World Championships. They won their second game easily over Senegal 108-52 on Friday and outlasted France 81-60 on Saturday. USA was 3-0 in preliminary round action and faces Canada in the quarterfinals Monday.

The France game wasn't as easy as the score would indicate. Facing a tough France defense, USA managed only three points in the opening six minutes of the game. Six costly turnovers had the Americans reeling early but a Tina Charles jumper drew USA back to a 11-10 lead near the end of the first quarter. They never trailed after that but France stayed close in the first half...down only 36-29 at the intermission.

USA pulled away in the third quarter, helped by a 7-0 run featuring Angel McCoughtry and Candace Dupree and pushed the margin to 58-41. Diana Taurasi led the American scorers with 15 points.

Geno Auriemma discussed the difficulties of World Championship play after the US win:

"The difficult thing about this tournament is that you play three in a row early and the players are tired. You really can't practice very much because they're tired and they're not going to get much better because it's only a six game format."

Angel and company face up against 2006 winner Australia after facing Canada.