University of Louisville
Cincinnati
Women's Soccer Wins BIG EAST Division Title
October 22, 2011 | Women's Soccer
Oct. 22, 2011
Box Score | Photo Gallery 
2011 BIG EAST Women's Soccer Championship Bracket (PDF) 
2011 BIG EAST Women's Soccer Championship Central
CINCINNATI, Ohio - The Louisville women's soccer team clinched its first ever BIG EAST Conference National Division title with a 1-0 victory at Cincinnati on Saturday night at Gettler Stadium.
With the win, the Cardinals (10-5-3, 8-1-2) will be the No. 1 seed from the National Division in the upcoming BIG EAST Championship and will earn a first round bye in the tournament. Louisville will host the winner of Thursday's Providence-Rutgers first round game in a quarterfinal matchup on Sunday, Oct. 30 at 1 p.m., ET at Cardinal Park. The winner of that game will advance to a BIG EAST semifinal game on Nov. 4 in Morgantown, W.Va. The BIG EAST Championship title game is set for Nov. 6.
"I am incredibly proud of this team. Winning a BIG EAST regular season title is something we've never done before and it doesn't surprise me that this group did it with leadership of seniors Kaitie McDonald and Jennifer Jones," said Louisville head coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes. "All of the lessons we learned from the non-conference losses early in the season helped make us a better team and allowed us to learn how to win close games. The overtime loss to Central Michigan helped us to learn how to win in overtime and the loss to Illinois, who really got after us, showed that our fitness needed to be better.
"The credit for all of that goes to the kids because they're the ones who came out of those early games and never wanted to lose again the way we lost early in the season. We continue to push forward and we have an incredible belief. We have a trust within the team that has put us in a position to win games."
The eight BIG EAST wins in 2011 are the most conference wins in school history for the Cardinals, who have won six straight games overall and have lost just once in their last 12 games after starting the season 1-4-1. The victory was also the 100th of the coaching career for Ferguson-Dayes, who is Louisville's all-time winningest women's soccer coach.
"First off, it took way too long to get to 100 wins," Ferguson-Dayes said with a laugh. "To see where the program has come from to where it is now, I am very proud. I do think we have only scratched the surface of how good we can be, but when I took over the program (in 2000), we won just one game. To be standing here and celebrating a BIG EAST regular season championship feels really good. And to be honest, I couldn't think a more appropriate team to celebrate this with. These kids are awesome."
After the two teams played a scoreless first half on Saturday, the Cardinals connected for the only goal of the night in the 59th minute when sophomore forward Christine Exeter (Pickering, Ont., Canada/Pickering HS) took a through ball from McDonald (Nashville, Tenn./Franklin Road Academy) on a breakaway and scored into the lower left corner of the goal from 15 yards away. For Exeter, it was her 19th career goal and her team-leading 12th of the season, the most for a Louisville player since former All-American Jamie Craft scored 14 goals in 2004. Exeter has scored 11 goals in the Cards' last 10 games, all in BIG EAST action. The assist for McDonald was her first of the season.
That was all the scoring the Cardinals' needed as senior goalkeeper Chloe Kiefer (Whitefish Bay, Wis./Divine Saviour HS) and the Louisville defense made the lead stand. Kiefer finished with six saves, including the final one as time expired to finish off her second straight shutout and the sixth this season.
"This certainly wasn't the most attractive game because there wasn't a lot of possession either way and we've played better, but it's a win," Ferguson-Dayes said. "We'll take it. We'll move forward from this one and we look forward to hosting a BIG EAST quarterfinal game."
Overall, Cincinnati finished with a 12-11 edge in shots, while shots on-goal were even at 6-6. The Bearcats finished with a 6-2 advantage in corner kicks. Louisville has won eight of the last nine in the series against UC, including four of the last five at on the road at Gettler Stadium.
