Women's Soccer Opens 2008 Season Friday At Butler

August 21, 2008 | Women's Soccer

Aug. 21, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The University of Louisville women's soccer team will officially open the 2008-09 season for the Cardinal athletic department when they play their season opener at Butler Friday at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Louisville opened the exhibition season with a scoreless tie at Northwestern on August 15 before blanking Morehead State 2-0 at Cardinal Park on Sunday.

The 2008 edition of the University of Louisville women's soccer team will play quite possibly the most difficult schedule in the history of the program, as they face seven teams that competed in the 2007 NCAA Championship over the course of its 19-game slate that includes a pair of exhibition matches to open the 2008 season.

Head Coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes is excited about the challenging schedule.

"Our 2008 schedule will be extremely competitive for what will be a young Cardinal team and we are excited about the challenge."

In goal the Cardinals will need to fill the void left by the graduation of Joanna Haig, who rewrote the record books on and off the field in her two years as a Cardinal. The competition to step into the goal should be a good one, pitting junior Katie Zoeller, sophomore Katie Kuric and freshman Chloe Kiefer in a three-way battle. Zoeller and Kuric both had a solid spring and grew with the experience of spring competition. Kiefer is a two-time All State and All Region player from Wisconsin who is blessed with tremendous athletic ability.

Much of the success of the Cardinal soccer program under Ferguson-Dayes has been predicated on a strong back-line. Senior co-captain Jessica Mello will take her place in the middle to anchor a defensive corps that allowed just 11 goals in 21 matches. Mello was a third team All-BIG EAST selection, second team All-Region and All-BIG EAST Tournament last season starting 20 matches for the Cards.

Mello will be joined in the back by a group of experienced returning starters. Junior Katie Owen started every game of the 2007 campaign and is coming off of a strong spring season. Sophomore Meredith Tolley had a solid stretch run in 2007 and will look to build on that this coming fall. Also returning will be redshirt sophomore Sara Scharoun, who sat out the 2007 slate after a freshman campaign in 2006 that earned All-Region freshman team honors.

True freshman Caitlin Beck, an NSCAA/adidas High School All-American will compete for playing time. She was the NKY Defensive Player of the Year as a junior and a senior and was a three-time First Team All-State Selection, helping Fort Thomas Highlands to consecutive state titles.

With seven matches under her belt as a freshman last season, sophomore Shannon Leamy will provide depth in the back along with freshmen Sarah Berginski.

Leading the midfield this season will be Senior co-captain Mallory Lampson, who played in all 21 matches last season. A Third Team All-Region selection in 2006, Lampson has the versatility to play in the back or the midfield.

Kate Cunningham, who gained valuable experience during her freshman campaign while playing in 20 matches and starting the final seven, should also be a major contributor for the Cardinals. Also vying for time in the midfield will be fellow sophomores Erin Davis and Chelsea Spencer, as well as two talented incoming freshmen in Abbey Hirschenberger from New Lenox, Ill. and Jennifer Jones from Louisville, Ky. Both Hirschenberger and Jones are strong technical players and could compete for the Cardinals right away.

The Cards attack will be led by a core of returning players in Shannon Smyth, Kelsey Hunyadi, Lindsay Boling, and Caitlin Rehder. Smyth was second team All-BIG EAST and showed a knack for scoring the big goal, tallying a BIG EAST-leading five game winners. She led the team with six goals and 15 points, tying for the team lead with three assists.

Hunyadi had a tremendous freshmen campaign in 2007. She was named Third Team All-BIG EAST and Freshman All-Region, finishing the season second on the team in scoring with five goals and adding three assists in just 16 starts. She plays with an unrelenting fire that makes her versatile on both the attack and the defense.

Boling, a junior who picked up two goals and an assist in 2007, will look to add to the scoring punch from the midfield or up front. Boling had as good a spring as any Cardinal on the roster and will look to keep that rolling into the fall.

A sophomore, Rehder battled the injury bug during her freshman season, but when healthy she showed flashes of her dynamic scoring ability which should bolster the Louisville attack in 2008.

Emily Prokopik and Caley Egan combined to see action in 28 matches during their freshman season last year and will compete for minutes in the attacking third.

Also available at forward will be high school All-American and Gatorade and IHSCA Indiana Player of the Year, Ashley Auld, who capped her prep career with 16 goals and 11 assists. Auld scored 44 goals and added 28 assists in her four seasons of high school soccer. She will be joined by fellow freshman Giselle Mangal, an athletic player from Canada that will provide the Cardinals with another option up top.

The regular season opener will be followed by a trio of matches at Cardinal Park.

Texas, who advanced to the 2007 Sweet 16, will face the Cards for the first time on August 31 at 1:00 p.m. ET. Purdue, whom the Cards defeated 1-0 in West Lafayette last season, will make the return trip to The Ville on September 7, and the Cardinals will meet Oklahoma State in the first meeting between the two teams on September 12.

The BIG EAST season opens at home against rival Cincinnati on September 19 at 7:00 p.m., and then they head to Columbus, Ohio for the final non-conference match of the season against Ohio State. The Cards blanked the Buckeyes 2-0 in Louisville last season.

Louisville has home matches against DePaul, UConn, Providence, Georgetown and Villanova in league play. The Cards will travel to Notre Dame, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Marquette and USF.

The BIG EAST Championship opens on October 30 at campus sites, with the semifinals and finals taking place in South Bend, Indiana on November 7 and 9.

NCAA First Round Action is scheduled to begin on November 14.

The Cardinals return four of their top five scorers from last season's team and return 14 of 19 letterwinners. Four of the 11 starters from last season will have to be replaced.

While the team has experience, it will be one of the younger squads in recent memory, with 18 of the 24 players being underclassmen. Ferguson-Dayes understands the challenge, but is hopeful that the squad can play into November for the third consecutive season.

"Returning only three seniors and three juniors, our youth will inevitably be a critical part to the team's success. Our upperclassmen have been with the program for its most successful years and we will rely on their leadership and experience to compete for a BIG EAST Championship and return to the NCAA tournament."