No. 11 Field Hockey Set for NCAA Tournament

The No. 11 University of Louisville field hockey team will open 2015 NCAA tournament against the overall No. 4 seed and third-ranked Connecticut on Saturday, Nov. 14 at 11:30 a.m., at UConn's George J. Sherman Family Sports Complex.

No. 8 Albany and No. 9 Boston College will meet in site's other first round matchup at 2 p.m. The winners of Saturday's games will play Sunday at 2 p.m. to earn a spot in the NCAA semifinals. The semifinals and finals will take place Nov. 20 and 22 in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Cardinal Quick Hits:
• Louisville (13-6, 1-5 ACC) is ranked No. 11 in the most recent NFHCA Coaches Poll released on November 10.
• This marks Louisville's second straight at-large bid and fifth overall NCAA appearance and the second consecutive season the Cardinals will travel to Storrs for the first round of the NCAA tournament.
• The Cardinals closed the regular season on a six-game win streak.
• Louisville posted a perfect 12-0 record against non-ACC opponents.
• The Cardinals are led offensively by sophomore Nicole Woods who has 22 points (9G, 4A), fellow sophomore Stephanie Byrne has eight goals and 16 points on the season.
• Freshman goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran (13-6) carries a1.14 goals against average with a league-best nine shutouts in 19 games.
• Senior Elisa Garcia stands third on Louisville's list for career assists with 36 and needs two more to tie for second. She also ranks seventh on the Cardinals' all-time points list with 74.
• Garcia and sophomore Nicole Woods were named to the 2015 All-ACC second team.
• Head coach Justine Sowry is in her fifth season at the helm for the Cardinals. She has compiled a 65-34 record at Louisville and has an overall 123-65 record while in her ninth season as a head coach.

Cards against the opponents
No. 3 Connecticut
Series Record: Connecticut leads 15-2
Last Meeting: Oct. 11, 2013 – UConn won 6-0 in Storrs. The Huskies have won the past six meetings.
• Louisville's last win over the Huskies came on Oct. 2, 2010 when the Cards won 3-2 in overtime at Trager Stadium.
Note: The bulk of the series between Louisville and UConn spans from 2005 to 2013 when both teams were members of the BIG EAST Conference.
Scouting the Huskies: Two-time defending national champion UConn (20-0) earned the overall No. 4 seed in the tournament after capturing its fourth-straight BIG EAST Conference Championship with a 7-3 win over Temple on Sunday.
• The Huskies are ranked No. 3 in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association poll released on Nov. 10.
• UConn is currently on a 32-game winning streak, dating back to the 2014 season.
• BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year Charlotte Veitner leads the nation with 38 goals on the season.
• Nina Klein leads the nation with a 0.56 goals against average with nine shutouts. Rosie Upton is the 2015 Defensive Player of the Year.

No. 9 Boston College
Series Record: Tied 1-1
Last Meeting: Oct. 16, 2015 - Then- No. 9 UL defeated No. 13 Boston College 3-2 at BC's Field Hockey Complex.
•Nicole Woods scored a pair of goals and sophomore Stephanie Byrne added another to help the Cardinals overcome a 2-0 deficit and beat No. 13 Boston College 3-2 in the Cardinals' ACC regular season finale at BC's Field Hockey Complex.
Scouting the Eagles: Boston College enters the weekend with a 12-8 overall record. The ninth-ranked Eagles finished the regular season on a four-game win streak. BC posted its first ACC tournament victory when the Eagles defeated Wake Forest 4-3 in overtime in the quarterfinals.
• Sisters Emily and Eryn McCoy lead the Eagles offensively with 10 goals apiece. All-ACC selection Emily McCoy has also dished out six assists for a total of 26 points while Eryn McCoy adds four assists for 24 points.
• Leah Settipane carries a 1.90 goals against average with four shutouts.

No. 8 University at Albany
Series Record: Tied 1-1
Last Meeting: Sept. 30, 2012 - Albany won 3-1
• Daphne Voormole scored twice and Jessica Longstreth added another goal to give the Great Danes a 3-0 lead in the second half. Amber Thomas scored Louisville's lone goal.
Scouting the Great Danes: Eighth-ranked UAlbany enters the weekend with a 19-2 overall record. The Great Danes captured their second-straight America East title with a 2-0 win over No. 20 Maine on Sunday.
•Last season UAlbany reached the NCAA semifinals for the first time in school history.
• America East Midfielder of the Year Paula Heuser leads the Danes and stands second in the nation with 33 goals on the season.
The University of Louisville field hockey team will travel to Storrs, Conn. to face the overall No. 4 seed University of Connecticut in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Field Hockey Championship on Nov. 14. Boston College and Albany will meet in the other first round matchup.
• The winner of the first and second rounds will advance to the NCAA semifinals which will take place in Nov. 20 in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Last weekend
Then-ninth-ranked Louisville fell short against No. 3 North Carolina in the ACC Quarterfinals at Virginia's Turf Field.
• The Tar Heels scored a pair of goals within a 45-second span in the first half to go up 2-0.
•Stephanie Byrne's eighth goal of the season cut the lead to one goal with just over seven minutes remaining, but the Cardinals pressed, but the score remained 2-1.

ACC Power
All seven ACC field hockey teams were selected to the 18-team 2015 NCAA Field Hockey tournament field, matching a league-record set previously in 2013. The league claimed six of the eight at-large spots in the tournament and three of four host sites were awarded to ACC programs.

Garcia, Woods Earn All-ACC honors
Elisa Garcia and Nicole Woods have been named to the All-ACC second team as decided in a vote by the league's head coaches.
• Garcia, a midfielder from Santiago, Chile was a 2015 preseason All-ACC selection. She leads the Cardinals in assists with eight and stands second on the team with 16 points.
-The team co-captain is currently ranked third in career assists and seventh in career points. She is also fourth in single season assists. She is a two-time All-West Region selection and also earned All-BIG EAST honors as a sophomore. Garcia was selected to play in the 2015 NFCHA Division I Senior All-Star game.
• Woods a forward/midfielder from Beverly, Mass., leads Louisville with nine goals and 22 points. The 2015 preseason All-ACC selection has started every game this season.

McFerran tabbed ACC Defensive Player of the Week
Ayeisha McFerran was named ACC Field Hockey Defensive Player of the Week as announced by the league office on November 3.
• The freshman goalkeeper from Larne, Northern Ireland, registered a 0.57 goals against average and an .833 save percentage to help the Cardinals to a 2-0 record on the weekend. She posted four saves in Louisville's 1-0 win over Rutgers en route to her ninth shutout– tying the school record for goalkeeper shutouts in a season.
• McFerran leads the ACC in shutouts with nine.

Senior Salute
• On Nov. 1, the Cardinals honored the senior class of 2015. As a class, Megan Anstotz, Elisa Garcia, Katharine Gwynne-Wood and Victoria Stratton have won 55 games while compiling an impressive 40-7 record at Trager Stadium including a perfect 10-0 mark in 2013.
• This class has helped the program reach several milestones while leading the transition into the ACC. Their teams have been a mainstay in the national top 20 rankings, while spending 14 weeks among the top 10, reaching as high as No. 5 in 2014.
• As juniors, they each played a part in Louisville's victory over top-ranked North Carolina, notching the program's first ACC win and first victory over a No. 1 team. As sophomores, they played an integral part in winning a share of the 2013 BIG EAST regular season championship.

Garcia, Stratton Selected for NFHCA Senior Game
Elisa Garcia and Victoria Stratton have been selected to play in the 2015 Victory Sports Tours/National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division I Senior Game.
• The Division I Senior Game will be played on Saturday, November 21 in Ann Arbor, Mich., on the campus of the University of Michigan at 2:30 p.m.

Louisville ranked No. 11 in NFHCA poll
The University of Louisville field hockey team is ranked No. 11 in the Penn Monto/NFHCA National Coaches Poll released on Nov. 10. The Cards dropped two spots after losing to then-No. 3 (and now No. 1) North Carolina in the quarterfinals of the ACC Championship. The Cardinals spent seven weeks among the top 10 in the nation after opening the 2015 season at No. 12.
• This marks the 31st straight week the Cardinals have appeared in the top 20 rankings dating back to the 2013 season. The Cards finished 2014 ranked 10th in the final poll. Last season, Louisville spent six weeks in the top 10.
• On Oct. 7, 2014, Louisville appeared at No. 5 in the coaches' poll marking the second top-five appearance in program history with Louisville achieving a program-best No. 4 ranking in the 2002 season.
• All seven ACC teams were included in the NFHCA's top 11. It marks the 34th consecutive poll that the entire league has been ranked, a streak dating back to October 2012.

How the Cards stack up nationally
The Cardinals rank among the top 20 in shutouts per game (3rd/0.47), goals against average (6th/1.16), penalty corners per game (13th/7.58), save percentage (20th/.750), scoring margin (18th/1.05)
• Freshman goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran stands seventh in the nation with a 1.14 goals against average. Her .747 save percentage stands at No. 21 in the nation.

Balanced attack
The Cardinals have outscored opponents 43-24 on the season with 10 different players recording goals and eight players with multiple goals.

Stingy defense
The Louisville defense has produced nine shutouts this season, the most since the 2001 team recorded nine. The Cardinals need one more shutout to tie the school record (10) which was set in 1980.

Tough stretch
The Cardinals recently finished a stretch in which they faced eight ranked opponents in 10 games.
• The slate started Sept. 11 against then-No. 6 Virginia (L, 3-4) and continued with No. 17 Liberty (W, 2-1). Louisville then traveled to No. 3 North Carolina (L, 0-5) and No. 19 James Madison (W, 5-0) before returning home to face No. 8 Wake Forest (L, 1-2). The past two weekends Cardinals traveled to No. 5 Duke (L, 2-0) and fell 2-1 to No. 1 Syracuse. They ended the stretch with a 3-2 win at No. 13 Boston College on Oct. 16.

Louisville No. 12 in the NCAA RPI
The Cardinals are currently No. 12 in the RPI released by the NCAA on Nov. 9. Nine of Louisville's 2015 opponents are included in the top 20 with all six ACC teams listed in the top 10. Below is a list of Louisville's opponents in the top 20 of the NCAA's RPI.
1 - Syracuse
2 – North Carolina
3 - Virginia
4 - Duke
5 - Wake Forest
8 - Boston College
9 - UConn
15 - Liberty
18 - James Madison

Youth Factor
With the graduation of seven seniors from the 2014 team, Louisville had some experienced shoes to fill. This year's team features 12 underclassmen, five of whom have started multiple games for the Cardinals. Among the more significant underclassmen contributions:
• Freshman Ayeisha McFerran has started every game and leads the ACC with nine shutouts.
• Sophomore Nicole Woods leads the team with 22 points (9G, 4A) to tie for the team lead.
• Sophomore Stephanie Byrne is second on the team with eight goals.
• Freshman Tess Hannah has played in every game with seven starts and has five goals on the season.

Home Sweet Home
Louisville posted a 7-3 record at Trager Stadium in 2015 and is now 25-4 at home since the beginning of the 2013 season.
• The Cards were 8-1 at Trager in 2014. On Oct. 17, 2014 Louisville fell 2-1 in overtime to No. 17 Boston College, snapping a 16 -game home victory streak dating back to the 2012 season.
• Prior to the Boston College loss in 2014, the Cards' last home loss came on Nov. 2, 2012 when they fell 2-1 in overtime to then-No. 5 Connecticut in the semifinals of the BIG EAST Championship.
• In 2013, UofL posted a perfect 10-0 record at Trager Stadium, going undefeated at home for the first time in school history.

Garcia among Louisville's career leaders
Senior Elisa Garcia has moved to third on Louisville's list for all-time assists. The midfielder currently has 36 career assists and needs two more to move into a tie for second. Nicole Youman (2007-10) owns the career assists record with 52.
• Garcia also currently has 74 career points, placing her at No. 7 on the school's all-time list. Assistant coach Olivia Netzler (2001-03)ranks sixth on the list with 91 career points. Jessica Javelet (2003-06) owns the all-time record with 176 points.

University of Louisville Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Megan Anstotz

Stephanie Byrne

Elisa Garcia

Katharine Gwynne-Wood

Tess Hannah

Ayeisha McFerran

Victoria Stratton

Nicole Woods

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