By Derek Brightwell–

Kari Weinland’s goal in the 17th minute off an Erin Yenney corner kick was enough to lift the Cardinals over the Northern Kentucky Norse on a rainy night at Dr. Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium on Wednesday. The win improves Louisville’s record to 6-6-2 on the year.

The goal came on the third consecutive corner kick for the Cardinals in a game that saw them amass 18 to NKU’s one and a total of 21 shots to NKU’s four. Despite keeping the Norse offense, which had 25 goals on 191 shots going into to Wednesday night’s game, in check, coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes was not pleased with her team’s defensive performance.

“I didn’t think we played well at all defensively. So I don’t think we executed our strategy at all,” she said. “Number three (NKU freshman forward Macy Hamblin) is an excellent player. I thought with a little bit of room she could’ve tied the game if not had an opportunity to win the game at some point. So trying to close in on her and we never did that. So I’m disappointed completely with our back four. I thought we were very, very poor tonight.”

Louisville had several quality looks at the goal that didn’t find their way to the back of the net. Perhaps the best of which came in the 11th minute when junior Rachel Avant managed to beat Norse keeper Brooke Shocker on a shot from the right side that bounced off the left post. Another came three minutes later when senior Yenney missed high.

“I’m definitely glad we got the win, but looking at the 90 minutes, it showed we still got a lot of work to do,” said Ferguson-Dayes. “In the first half, I was pleased with the performance, but not with our efficiency. In the second half, I was not happy with our discipline at all.”

Sophomore keeper Paige Brown had saves on both of NKU’s shots on goal, while Norse keeper Shocker had nine saves.

The Cards will resume ACC play on Sunday at 1:00 PM when they host third ranked Virginia.

Photo by Austin Lassell / The Louisville Cardinal