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Women’s soccer splits weekend play
The No. 21 Louisville women’s soccer team finished up regular season play over the weekend, splitting their final two conference games.
Friday’s match up featured seniors Amy Seng and Jaime Craft pacing the Cards to a 1-0 defeat of Big East foe Seton Hall. In the 60th minute of play, Seng crossed to Craft who put the ball into the back of the net. It was Craft’s team -leading eighth goal and fourth game-winning score on the season. Head coach Karen Ferguson’s team controlled the tempo all afternoon, out shooting the Pirates 20-4. The shutout was junior Joanna Haig’s fifth on the year and eighth overall for the Cardinals. The victory was Louisville’s 12th of the year, tying a school record set by the 2004 team for wins in a single season. “It’s nice to see us get the sharpness back that we had in the beginning of the season,” said Ferguson.
The Cards finished out regular season play, taking on No. 25 Rutgers in New Jersey. They came into the game with a chance to break the school record for wins in a season Louisville came up short, dropping Sunday’s game 1-0. The Scarlet Knight’s Kristie Lang scored in the 41st minute which ended up being enough for the win. Fending off a great scoring opportunity by Craft early in the second period and last ditch shots attempts by Seng and junior Monique Gniji, the Knights goal keeper, Erin Guthrie, secured the shutout win. “We defended well today and created a couple of great chances but couldn’t get the result,” said Ferguson.
The loss put an end to one of the best regular seasons in school history as Louisville finished the year with a 12-4-1 (7-4 Big East) record. The Cards ended the year as the fourth seed in the Big East’s National Division and will host Pittsburgh, Thursday at 7 p.m. at Cardinal Park. Thursday’s winner will travel east to take on American Division #1 seed West Virginia in Morgantown on either Saturday or Sunday.
Double overtime game ends in 0-0 tie
The Louisville men’s soccer team finished out their regular season on Saturday night, playing Rutgers to a scoreless tie in two overtimes.
The Card’s goal keeper David Simolike came up big for head coach Ken Lolla, repeatedly stopping an ongoing Rutgers attack. With time winding down in the regulation, the freshman keeper from Philadelphia stopped the Scarlet Knight’s Sean Cameron shot to force things into overtime. After a near breakaway goal by Louisville junior, Frank Jonke, in the first overtime, Simolike again saved the day for the Cards. Rutgers’s Kyle Grato drilled a shot from just outside the penalty area towards the top center part of the goal. However, Simolike got a hand on it and knocked it off the crossbar and out of play.
The Cardinal defense continued on with its solid play, notching its second shutout in three games despite being out shot 19-12 and 4-3 on corner kicks. Simolike finished the game with five saves while his counterpart, Matt Vanoekel saved two potential goals for the Knights.
The Cards 5-9-3 (4-5-2 Big East) qualified for the Big East tournament for the first time and will travel to Providence tomorrow for a 2 p.m. kickoff against the Friars.
Rowing has strong showing at Head of Charles
Louisville rowing finished off a strong weekend, placing third and fifth respectively in the Head of the Charles Regatta.
The event put on annually in Boston, Mass., draws almost 300,000 spectators a year while also welcoming nearly 7,000 athletes to the waters of the Charles River. The Cards landed a third place finish in the Women’s Youth Double event, a fifth place finish in the Women’s Championship 4+ race and was also the top finishing collegiate crew in the Women’s Club 4+ race.
“To be the top U.S. university in the Women’s Championship 4+ and second in the Women’s Youth Double represents an awesome job by our team this weekend. We beat some very good schools today. It was certainly a good weekend for us in Boston,” said U of L head coach Richard Ruggieri.
The Cards now look to next weekend’s Head of the Schuylkill in Philadelphia, Pa. Following the trip to Philadelphia, the team will travel to Tampa, Fla. for their winter training trip. They will resume their season in March against Minnesota and Tulsa.
