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Cross country has strong weekend
Both the men and women’s cross country teams had strong showings Saturday at the Greater Louisville Classic. University of Louisville freshman, Tarah McKay, finished first overall among a field of 273 racers.
“I’m really happy with how I ran today and it’s a great feeling to get a win in my first big collegiate race,” said McKay.
The Ontario native ran the 5K event in a time of 17 minutes, 26.50 seconds edging out Chattanooga senior, Lanni Marchant, in the final 800 meters. The win is McKay’s second of her collegiate career in just three races. She paced the Cardinal women to a third overall, losing out to Georgia Tech and Chattanooga.
The men’s team took home the overall win placing four runners in the top fifteen. Wesley Korir finished fourth overall pacing the Cardinal men to victory. The junior from Kenya completed the 8K race with a time of 24:07.88 against a field 324 runners. Sophomore Corey Thorne finished sixth for the Cards with a time of 24:32.01 to go along with junior Soimo Kiplagat in seventh and senior captain Wes Seacat in 14th. Tennessee, Liberty, Eastern Kentucky and Clemson rounded out the top five among the men’s competition. Head coach Ron Mann and his team now look toward the Brooks Pre-Nationals event scheduled for Oct. 14, in Terre Haute, Ind.
Volleyball splits weekend road trip
Louisville volleyball split their matches over the weekend pushing their record to 9-6 on the year.
St. Johns took down the Cards 3-0 Friday night 28-30, 31-33, 26-30. Senior Stephanie Marsh tallied 10 hits and 14 digs while the entire team, despite the loss out hit (.256-.250) and out blocked (14-10) the Red Storm. St. John’s win moved them to 18-1 on the year.
Head coach Leonid Yelin’s team rebounded against UConn, taking down the Huskies 3-1 in Storrs. Ana Yartseva Stewart had 17 kills, 13 digs and eight of the teams 18 blocks to lead the Cardinals. U of L hit .221 as a team with six aces, holding their opponent to .119 with just eight blocks. Connecticut also shot themselves in the foot with 12 service errors on the night.
To go along with Stewart’s effort, Louisville got strong games from both sophomore Jana Matiasovska and freshman Tatyana Kolesnikova. Matiasovska chipped in with 10 kills and six blocks, while the freshman from Uzbekistan added 10 kills to go along with three blocks. Freshman setter Samantha Dabbs got into the mix with 48 assists and four aces.
The Cards return to the ‘Ville to begin a seven game home stand beginning Saturday against Rutgers. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. at Cardinal Arena.
Women’s soccer sweeps conference foes
Head coach Karen Ferguson and the Cardinal women’s soccer team continued on their record breaking start to the season with two wins over the weekend.
However, Friday’s game against St. Johns started poorly for Louisville. Despite out shooting the Red Storm 7-3 in the first half the Cards went into intermission down 1-0. Kelly McConnell put one past Joanna Haig in the third minute of the game to put her team on course for the upset. Despite the wet conditions U of L kept the pressure on, finally breaking through in the 72nd minute. Jaime Craft put freshman Lindsey Boling’s feed into the back of the net to pull even with St. Johns. The Cards closed the door on their opponent as junior Erica Robinson headed in Laura Walker’s corner kick at the 86:55 mark to seal it for the team’s eighth win of the year.
Match number two pitted Louisville against a struggling Syracuse team. The Orange entered the game with just one win on the year and still searching for their first Big East victory on the season. Junior Jen Avila put her team ahead 1-0 with time winding down in the first half. Heather Engel’s header put Louisville up for good 2-0.
The 23rd ranked Cards move to 9-1-1 on the year and will finish out their home schedule this weekend against Villanova and Georgetown.
