No. 9 Field Hockey Set for ACC Championship

The ninth-ranked University of Louisville field hockey team will travel to Charlottesville, Va. for the 2015 ACC Championship.The Cardinals are the No. 6 seed and will face third-seeded and third-ranked North Carolina in the quarterfinals Thursday at 4 p.m. All games will be shown on ESPN3/RSN.

Cardinal Quick Hits:
• Louisville (13-5, 1-5 ACC) is ranked No. 9 in the most recent NFHCA Coaches Poll released on November 3.
• The Cardinals closed the regular season on a six-game win streak. In their last six games, the Cards have outscored opponents 14-3 with four shutouts.
• Louisville posted a perfect 12-0 non-conference record this season.
• The Cardinals are led offensively by sophomore Nicole Woods who has 22 points (9G, 4A), fellow sophomore Stephanie Byrne has seven goals and 14 points on the season.
• Freshman goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran (13-5) carries a 1.09 goals against average with a league-best nine shutouts in 18 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.
• Ayeisha McFerran is the current ACC Defensive Player of the Week (Nov. 3). She registered a 0.57 goals against average and an .833 save percentage to help the Cardinals to a 2-0 record on the weekend.
• Sophomore Nicole Woods has scored in the last three games and has at least one goal in four of the last five games.
• Head coach Justine Sowry is in her fifth season at the helm for the Cardinals. She has compiled a 65-33 record at Louisville and has an overall 123-64 record while in her ninth season as a head coach.

Last weekend: The Cardinals wrapped up the regular season with a pair of wins, defeating Michigan State 5-1 and Rutgers 1-0.
Louisville 5 - Michigan State 1
Five different players scored as ninth-ranked University of Louisville field hockey team defeated Michigan State 5-1 Friday evening at Trager Stadium.
•Nicole Woods, Tess Hannah, Erin McCrudden, Victoria Stratton and Katharine Gwynne-Wood each provided a goal for the Cardinals.
Louisville 1 - Rutgers 0
The ninth-ranked University of Louisville field hockey team celebrated senior day with a 1-0 win over Rutgers in its regular season finale Sunday at Trager Stadium. Sophomore Nicole Woods scored the lone goal of the game and freshman goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran collected four saves en route to the Cardinals' ninth shutout of the 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 (13-5) leads the ACC in shutouts and stands second in the conference – and sixth in the nation - with a 1.09 goals against average on the season.

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.

Cards No. 6 seed in ACC Championship
Louisville earned the No. 6 seed and will face third-seeded North Carolina in the quarterfinals of the 2015 ACC Championship November 5 at 4 p.m. at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va.
• Syracuse earned the No. 1 seed and will receive a bye to the semifinals where the Orange will face the winner of the game between second-seeded Wake Forest and seventh-seeded Boston College.
• The Cardinals are ranked No. 9 in the most recent NFHCA national coaches poll while the Tar Heels are ranked third in the nation. In the teams' regular season matchup, North Carolina defeated Louisville 5-0 in Chapel Hill on Sept. 18.

About the ACC Championship
• All six games of the championship will be televised live by the league's Regional Sports Networks, live online on ESPN3, and available on the WatchESPN mobile application.

Up Next
The NCAA selection show will take place November 8 at 10 p.m. (EST) on NCAA.com.

Louisville ranked No. 9 in NFHCA poll
The University of Louisville field hockey team is ranked No. 9 in the Penn Monto/NFHCA National Coaches Poll released on Nov. 3. The Cards stayed in the same spot nationally after beating Michigan State and Rutgers last weekend. This marks the seventh week Louisville has appeared in the top 10. The Cards opened the 2015 season at No. 12.
• This marks the 30th 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 33rd 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 (2nd/0.50), goals against average (6th/1.11), penalty corners per game (12th/7.83), save percentage (19th/.753), scoring margin (17th1.17)
• Freshman goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran stands sixth in the nation with a 1.09 goals against average. Her .750 save percentage stands at No. 19 in the nation.

Balanced attack
The Cardinals have outscored opponents 41-36 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 stretch 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. 10 in the RPI released by the NCAA on Nov. 1. Eight of Louisville's 2015 opponents are included in the top 20 with all seven 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 - Duke
4 - Virginia
5 - Wake Forest
9 - Boston College
14 - 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 seven goals.
• Freshman Tess Hannah has played in every game with six 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

Erin McCrudden

Ayeisha McFerran

Victoria Stratton

Nicole Woods

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