Cardinals Ready for ACC Championship

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The top-seeded University of Louisville field hockey team will open play in the ACC Championship on Friday at North Carolina's Karen Shelton Stadium when the Cardinals take on the No. 4 seed Virginia. The Cavaliers defeated fifth-seeded Wake Forest in Thursday's quarterfinal matchup.

2020 ACC Field Hockey Championship
November 5-6, 8, 2020
Location: Chapel Hill, N.C.
Venue: Karen Shelton Stadium
Coverage: ACC Network
Play-by-play: Eric Frede; Analyst: Leah Secondo
Championship Central | Compete Louisville Game Notes

ACC Field Hockey Championship Schedule
Thursday, November 5
Game 1: #4 Virginia vs. #5 Wake Forest, 2 p.m.
Game 2: #7 Boston College vs. #2 North Carolina, 4:30 p.m.
Game 3: #3 Syracuse vs. #6 Duke, 7 p.m.
Friday, November 6
Game 4: #1 Louisville vs. Winner Game 1, 1:30 p.m.
Game 5: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3, 4 p.m.
Sunday, November 8
Championship Game, 12 p.m.

CARDINAL NOTES
• This marks the first time the Cardinals have earned the No. 1 seed in the ACC Championship since joining the league in 2014.
• Louisville sits atop of the ACC standings with a 7-1 record and a 5-1 mark in ACC play.
• The 2-1 victory at Virginia on October 24 gave Louisville the best start in program history (7-0), surpassing the previous mark (6-0) achieved in 2016 and 2019.
• Louisville is 5-1 in conference play, marking most single season ACC wins in program history. The Cards went 4-2 in the ACC regular season in 2017.
• The Cardinals are led offensively by senior midfielder Mercedes Pastor who has six goals and four assists for 16 points.
• Louisville has outscored opponents 21-9 on the season with nine different players contributing to the scoring total.
• Senior goalkeeper Hollyn Barr carries an ACC-best 1.00 goals against average with a shutout and 25 saves through eight games.
• Pastor was named to the Preseason All-ACC Field Hockey Team while the Cardinals were picked to finish fifth in the league according to a vote by the seven head coaches.

HEAD COACH JUSTINE SOWRY
• Justine Sowry is in her 10th season at the helm. During her time at Louisville, she has guided the Cardinals to 131 wins, five NCAA tournament appearances along with a conference title and a runner-up finish in the ACC Championship.

UP LAST
Louisville is coming off of its first loss of the season after falling 2-1 at Syracuse on Friday.
• After the teams entered halftime knotted at 0-0, Charlotte de Vries connected on a penalty corner goal in the third quarter and Laura Graziosi converted on a penalty stroke to give the Orange a 2-0 lead. It marked the first time the Cardinals had trailed in a game in the 2020 season.
• Aimee Plumb cut the lead in half with 2:55 left to play, but the Cardinals could not come up with the equalizer.
• In the game, UofL held an edge in shots (10-9, shots on goal (6-5) and owned a 4-3 advantage in penalty corners.

SISTER ACT
Meghan and Katie Schneider have been college teammates since 2018 when Katie was a freshman and Meghan was a sophomore. After Katie's redshirt season in 2019, the Schneider sisters are back on the turf together with Katie on the forward line and Meghan as a defender and team co-captain.

BALANCED SCORING
The Cardinals have outscored opponents 21-9 this season with nine players combining for the total. Senior Mercedes Pastor leads the way with six. Sophomore Margot Lawn follows with three goals while senior Madison Walsh, junior Erica Cooper, sophomore Emilia Kaczmarczyk and freshmen Paulina Mayer and Charlie van Oirschot have tallied two goals. Senior Meghan Schneider and her sister, sophomore Katie Schneider each have one goal.

NEW ADDITIONS
This season, Louisville has included five freshmen in the starting lineup.
• Redshirt freshman India Reed has stepped into a starting role in every game so far and has been joined by true freshmen Aimee Plumb, Charlie van Oirschot. Fellow rookies Paulina Mayer and Sofia Pendolino earned the starting nod in the 2-1 win against Boston College.

ACC STRONG
In the ACC's 38 years as an NCAA Division I Field Hockey conference, league teams have accounted for more than half the total appearances in the national title game (41 of 76).
• Last season marked the 20th time in the last 21 NCAA Field Hockey Championships – and the 28th time in the last 31 years – that the ACC placed at least one team in the title game.
• The ACC currently has a streak of 31 straight years with at least one team in the NCAA semifinals. Thirty-nine of the last 65 teams to reach the national semifinals have come from the ACC.

HOW THE CARDS STACK UP
Louisville finished the 2020 fall season atop the ACC standings. The Cardinals earned the tiebreaker for the No. 1 seed in the ACC Championship ahead of North Carolina (7-1, 3-1 ACC)
• Individually, goalkeeper Hollyn Barr leads the the league with a 1.00 goals against average and is third with a .758 save percentage.
• Senior forward/midfielder Mercedes Pastor is stands second in the league behind North Carolina's Erin Matson with six goals and stands second with 16 points, and three game-winning goals. She is also in a six-way tie for second along with fellow seniors Alli Bitting and Meghan Schneider with four assists.

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
The Cardinals' roster is bolstered by several players who have gained valuable experience within their countries' national programs. The following is a list of players and their national or developmental squads.
Hollyn Barr - USWNT National Development Squad (2019)
Alli Bitting - USWNT U21 Team (2019)
Erica Cooper- USWNT U21 Team (2019)
Mackenzie Karl - USWNT U17 Team (2015-16)
Margot Lawn - USWNT U19 Team (2019); U17 Team (2017-19)
Mercedes Pastor - Argentina U21 Team (2015-17); U18 Team (2013-14)
Sofia Pendolino - USWNT RISE Team
Aimee Plumb - England U19 Team (2018-19)
Katie Schneider - USWNT U19 Team (2019)
Meghan Schneider - USWNT U21 Team (2018-19); U19 Team (2017-18)
Minna Tremonti - USWNT U19 Team (2019)

HOMEGROWN TALENT
The UofL field hockey team features seven players who chose to play for their hometown school: senior Elizabeth (Biz) Allgeier (Assumption), juniors Erica Cooper (Assumption), Sam Minrath (Christian Academy) sophomores Camryn Pichea (Assumption) and Mattie Tabor (Sacred Heart). Redshirt freshman India Reed (duPont Manual) and freshman Embry Jane (EJ) Imorde (Sacred Heart).

HOME SWEET HOME
The Cardinals completed the 2020 fall season with a perfect 4-0 record in the friendly confines of Trager Stadium. Facing a daunting home slate in the Covid-19-altered season, Louisville defeated Duke twice in its opening weekend. The following weekend, UofL defeated two-time defending national champion North Carolina 3-1, halting the Tar Heels' 47-game win streak. Louisville wrapped up the home season with a 2-1 win against 2019 semifinalist Boston College.
• Last year, the Cardinals were 8-2 on the season at Trager Stadium, bringing their home record to 54-13 since the 2013 season.
•UofL owned a 5-3 record at Trager Stadium in 2018.
• Louisville compiled a 9-3 record at Trager Stadium in 2017.
• 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.
• The 6-2 loss to No. 4 Michigan snapped a 28-game win streak against non-conference opponents at Trager Stadium dating back to 2012. Prior to the Oct. 22 setback, the Cardinals had not lost to a non-conference opponent at home since Aug. 24, 2012 when they fell to Northeastern in their season opener. - Louisville also lost a 2-1 decision to UConn on Oct. 6, 2012 when both teams were members of the BIG EAST Conference.

PASTOR EARNS ACC PRESEASON HONORS
Mercedes Pastor was selected to the Preseason All-ACC Team and the Cardinals were picked to finished fifth in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championship in a vote by the league's seven head coaches.
• This marks the second straight All-ACC Preseason selection for Pastor. The senior midfielder from Buenos Aires, Argentina is a two-time National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) All-America selection, earning first team honors in 2019 and garnering second team accolades in 2018.
2020 ACC Predicted Order of Finish
1. North Carolina (6) - 48
2. Virginia - 37
3. Boston College - 30
4. Duke - 26
5. Louisville -25
6. Syracuse (1) - 23
7. Wake Forest – 7

TOUGH SLATE
The Cardinals' nine-game slate features four home games with the final five contests played on the road– all against ACC opponents.
• Two-time defending national champion North Carolina will headline a challenging ACC slate that also features all six teams ranked among the top 25 in the 2019 final 2019 National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) rankings. The Tar Heels finished last season atop the rankings while No. 4 Virginia, No. 7 Boston College and No. 8 Duke were in the top 10. Syracuse (No. 13) and Wake Forest (No. 21) round out Louisville's ACC opponents.
• Five of Louisville's opponents earned a bid to the 2019 NCAA tournament including national champion North Carolina, and semifinalists Virginia and Boston College.

LOOKING BACK AT A MONUMENTAL 2019 SEASON
• The 2019 Cardinals posted a 16-6 overall record, tying a program mark for wins and earned the overall No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament, serving as a host site for the first time in program history. Louisville also made its first foray into the NCAA quarterfinals after defeating Michigan 2-1 in double-overtime in its first-round matchup.
• UofL finished the 2019 season at No. 5 in the NFHCA Coaches poll - the highest final ranking in program history. The Cards 10 weeks of the season among the top 10 in the nation reaching as high as No. 5. National rankings for the 2020 season will not be released in the fall.
• Louisville returns 15 letterwinners and nine starters from last year's historic team, including Pastor and fellow NFHCA All-American senior defender Alli Bitting. Also back from last season are NFHCA All-West Region selections: seniors Madison Walsh and Meghan Schneider and junior Erica Cooper. Additionally, the Cardinals welcome eight talented newcomers to this year's squad.

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Players Mentioned

Hollyn Barr

Alli Bitting

Erica Cooper

Emilia Kaczmarczyk

Mackenzie Karl

Margot Lawn

Paulina Mayer

Sam Minrath

Mercedes Pastor

Sofia Pendolino

Camryn Pichea

Aimee Plumb

India Reed

Katie Schneider

Meghan Schneider

Mattie Tabor

Minna Tremonti

Charlie van Oirschot

Madison Walsh

University of Louisville Athletics