No. 4 Cardinals Set for ACC Field Hockey Championship

WEEKEND INFORMATION
No. 4 Louisville vs. No. 14 Virginia
Date: November 5, 1:00 PM
Location: Syracuse, N.Y.
Venue: J.S. Coyne Stadium
Television: ACC Network
Announcers: Mike Corey, Leah Secondo
Game Links: Live Scoring | ACC Network
ACC C hampionship Central
Louisville Game Notes

The fourth-ranked University of Louisville field hockey team and 2021 ACC regular season champion will travel to Syracuse, N.Y to take on fifth-seeded Virginia Friday at 1 p.m. J.S. Coyne Stadium in the semifinals of the ACC Championship.

The Cavaliers (12-7, 3-3) defeated fourth-seeded Boston College 2-0 in Thursday's quarterfinal matchup.

NOTE CARDS
• Alli Bitting was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, while goalkeeper Mila de Kuijer was selected as the conference's Freshman of the Year and Justine Sowry was tabbed as ACC Coach of the Year in a vote by the league's head coaches.
• In addition to earning the league's major awards, Bitting and de Kuijer joined teammates Julie Kouijzer and Aimee Plumb on the All-ACC first team while Katie Schneider was selected to the second team. The Cardinals led all schools with four first-team selections.
• With a 6-0 mark the Cardinals clinched the 2021 ACC regular season championship outright (co champions with UNC in 2020-21 - but Louisville earned the ACC tournament top seed. This marks the second straight regular season title for the Cardinals, but the first time they have gone undefeated in league play.
• The Cardinals are coming off of a 2-1 win over No. 9 Syracuse on Friday. Filippa Niebuhr and Erica Cooper gave Louisville a 2-0 lead and Mila de Kuijer collected four saves to help Louisville hold on for a 2-1 win.
• At 16-2 on the season, Louisville tied a program record for victories. The record was set with a 16-5 mark in 2001 and matched in 2019 when the Cards finished the season at 16-6.
• UofL is 10-2 against top-25 teams with its only losses coming at the hands of then-No. 2 (currently No. 1) Iowa on Sept. 19 and No. 2 Michigan on Oct. 10.
• Julie Kouijzer was named ACC Defensive Player of the Week on November 2 marking her third weekly honor of the season.
• Aimee Plumb has registered at least one goal or an assist in the last five games.
• Katie Schneider leads the team with a career-best nine goals and 21 points on the season. She is also second in the ACC in goals and stands third in points.
• Louisville has outscored opponents 46-16 with 11 different players contributing goals.
• Louisville is 8-1 in games at Trager Stadium this season with its only loss coming on Sept. 19 against No. 2 Iowa - which snapped a 12-game home win streak.
• The Cardinals started the season with a 7-0 record for the second straight year, matching a school record start before falling 2-0 to the Hawkeyes.
• The Iowa loss also marked the first time the Cardinals were shut out since March 27, 2021 when Louisville fell 1-0 at then-No. 16 Boston College.
• The Cardinals are 6-0 in overtime games this season – including a 2-0 mark in double OT contests.
• Mattie Tabor has six goals on the season, five of her scores have been game-winners - she leads the ACC in that category.
• Freshman Mila de Kuijer carries a 0.85 goals against average, leading the ACC and standing in third in the nation in that category.
• de Kuijer also leads the league with seven shutouts and ranks seventh on Louisville's all-time single season list for shutouts.
• Alli Bitting and Charlie van Oirschot were named to the Preseason All-ACC Field Hockey Team.
• Head coach Justine Sowry achieved her 200th career victory on Sept. 10 when the Cardinals defeated Indiana 1-0 at Trager Stadium.

Head Coach Justine Sowry
Justine Sowry is in her 11th season at the helm. During her time at Louisville, she has guided the Cardinals to 153 wins, six NCAA tournament appearances reaching the quarterfinals twice and advancing to the semifinals for the first time in program history in the 2020-21 season. Under Sowry's tutelage, Louisville has tallied three conference titles, including back-to-back ACC regular season crowns (2020, 2021) as well as a pair of runner-up finishes in the ACC Championships.
• With UofL's 1-0 win against Indiana on Sept. 10, Justine Sowry reached 200 career victories in her 15th season as a head coach.

UP NEXT
The NCAA Field Hockey Championship selection show will take place on November 7 at 10 p.m. (ET) on NCAA.com. The first and second rounds will take place November 11-14 on selected campus sites with the semfinals and championships held November 17-19 at Phyllis Ocker Field in Ann Arbor, Mich.

KOUIJZER TAKES HOME THIRD ACC DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONOR
Julie Kouijzer was tabbed as the Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Week on November 2. This marks Kouijzer's third weekly nod of the season and the sixth selection for a Louisville player.
• Kouijzer was instrumental in the Cardinals 2-1 win over No. 9 Syracuse, ensuring a 6-0 mark in conference play along with the top seed in the ACC Field Hockey Championship.
•The junior defender delivered a penalty corner assist to give Louisville a 2-0 lead in the eventual 2-1 victory. She also helped limit the Orange to five shots on goal in the contest.
• She now leads the team with a career high eight assists and stands tied for first in the ACC in that category. She is also tied for second on the team with 18 points (5G, 8A).

CARDS FOURTH IN NFHCA COACHES POLL
UofL stands at No. 4 in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Coaches poll released on Oct. 26. The Cardinals slip one spot after last week's overtime wins at then-No. 10 North Carolina and No. 25 James Madison
• Louisville has spent 15 of the last 16 weeks ranked among the top five in the nation. Last season, the Cardinals spent all seven weeks in the top five after debuting at No. 2 – the highest ranking in program history – on March 16, 2021. After two weeks in that slot, UofL remained in the top five throughout the rest of the season, finishing the year at No. 5. The Cardinals also concluded the 2019 campaign at No. 5.
• The Cards have been ranked among the top 10 for the last 28 weeks spanning back to the 2019 season when they appeared at No. 8 on Sept. 10.
• Louisville has now spent 93 consecutive weeks in the top 20 in the nation dating back to the 2013 season.

ACC STRONG
• Six ACC teams appear in the top 25 with Louisville leading the way at No. 4. In addition to the Cardinals, the ACC holds three of the top 10 spots with Syracuse stepping in at No. 9 and North Carolina at No. 10. Rounding out the other ACC schools are No. 13 Boston College, No. 14 Virginia and No. 21 Wake Forest.

UP LAST
#5 Louisville 2 - #9 Syracuse 1
The fifth-ranked University of Louisville field hockey team defeated No. 9 Syracuse 2-1 to clinch the 2021 ACC regular season title. With the win, the Cardinals improve to 16-2 on the season – tying a school record for wins and close out the conference season with a 6-0 mark in league play for the first time in program history.
• Freshman Filippa Niebuhr put the Cardinals on the scoreboard in the first quarter and senior Erica Cooper extended the lead to 2-0 with an early third quarter score.
• The tightly-contested game featured a total of seven cards issued including three green cards – two for Louisville and one for Syracuse and four yellow cards with each team receiving two. Louisville outshot the Orange 15-11 with a 9-5 advantage in shots on goal. The Cardinals also held a 6-5 edge in corners. Syracuse goalkeeper Brooke Borzymowski collected seven saves while Louisville freshman Mila de Kuijer had four stops in the game.

LOUISVILLE NO. 4 IN NCAA RPI
Louisville stands at No. 4 in the latest edition of the NCAA RPI, leading all seven ACC teams. The Cardinals moved up two spots following a 2-1 win against Syracuse in Friday's season finale.
• The Cardinals have a 4-2 record against teams ranked in the top 15 of the NCAA RPI:
No. 1 Iowa, L, 0-2
No. 6 Michigan, L, 1-2
No. 8 Liberty, W, 3-1
No. 9 North Carolina, W, 3-2/OT
No. 11 Boston College, W, 3-2/OT
No. 12 Syracuse, W, 2-1

SENIOR SALUTE
Prior to Friday's game against Syracuse, the Cardinals honored seniors: Alli Bitting, Erica Cooper, Mackenzie Karl, Sam Minrath, Camryn Pichea and Katie Schneider. As a group, the class helped the program reach numerous milestones while competing in arguably the toughest conference in the NCAA, in doing so, they have helped their team to three NCAA tournament appearances. The last two seasons, they played an integral role in earning back-to-back national seeds in the NCAA tournament.
• Last year, they helped the Cardinals to the program's first-ever Final Four appearance which came on the heels of a monumental 2019 campaign in which they helped Louisville reach the quarterfinals for the first time in program history while producing a 16-6 overall record, tying a program mark for wins. They have matched that win total again this season.
• They have helped the Cardinals to a pair of ACC regular season championships in back-to-back years.
• Their teams have been a mainstay in the national top 20 rankings throughout their careers, while spending 17 weeks among the top 10, finishing last year with the program's highest final ranking at No. 5 and then appearing at No. 2 this spring of 2021.
• The senior class has also excelled academically, earning the NFHCA Academic team award in each of their seasons here.

BALANCED OFFENSE
The Cardinals have outscored their opponents 46-16 this season.
• Eleven different players have contributed to the Cardinals' goal tally with Katie Schneider's nine goals leading the way. Aimee Plumb follows with seven goals while Mattie Tabor and Erica Cooper have six goals apiece.

STINGY DEFENSE
Louisville has posted seven shutouts in 18 games, standing second in the ACC and eighth in the nation with 0.37 shutouts per game.
• The Cardinals have produced a 0.85 goals against average which leads the conference and ranks third in the national standings.
• Mila de Kuijer is in the midst of an impressive rookie campaign which started with back-to-back shutouts in the first two games of the season. She leads the ACC ranks third in the nation with a 0.85 goals against average.
• Additionally, she leads the ACC and is sixth nationally with an .805 save percentage.

TABOR COMING THROUGH IN THE CLUTCH
After her sophomore campaign was cut short in the second game of the season due to injury, Mattie Tabor is back in the Cardinals' lineup and is tied for second on the team with six goals. Five of her goals have been game-winners to lead the conference in that category.
Tabor's game winning goals:
Aug. 27 vs. Ohio (6-0
Sept. 5 at Princeton (3-2/OT)
Sept. 12 vs. Liberty (3-1)
Sept. 17 vs. Virginia (1-0)
Oct. 1 vs. Wake Forest (2OT)

SCHNEIDER SHINES IN 2021
Katie Schneider in the midst of a career-best season. The forward from San Diego leads the team with 21 points (9G, 3A). She tallied three assists in the 6-0 win against Ohio, tying a school record.
• Schneider recently tallied a pair of goals in the 4-1 win against Miami (Ohio) to establish a new career single-season high, surpassing her previous mark of six in the 2020-21 campaign.
• She stands tied for second in the ACC in goals and third in points.

RETURNING PLAYER NOTES
• Alli Bitting - ACC Defensive Player of the Year - (team co-captain); Earned ACC Defensive Player of the Week honors on Aug. 31… Returning for fifth season... 2021 Preseason All-ACC selection... Two-time NFHCA All-American and All-ACC selection... Last year led the team with a career-high eight assists and scored the game-winner in the Cardinals' 1-0 NCAA quarterfinal victory against UConn... Earned 2020-21 NFHCA All-West Region and All-ACC honors, helping the Cardinals' defense to eight shutouts on the season and registering one goal and four assists... Named to NCAA All-Tournament Team.
• Erica Cooper - Scored the game-winner in OT at No. 12 Boston College... Tallied two goals in the Cardinals' season opener... Stands tied for third on the team with six goals... 2019 NFHCA All-West Region selection and is a two-year starter.
• Emilia Kaczmarczyk - Two-year starter... finished fifth on the team with 11 points (4G, 3A) in 2020-21.
• Mackenzie Karl- Scored her first career goal in the 3-1 win against No. 11 Liberty (Sept. 12)... Added another goal in the 4-1 win against Miami (Ohio) on Oct. 4.
• Julie Kouijzer - First Team All-ACC - In the midst of a career-best season with five goals, leads team with seven asissts... Stands second on the team with 16 points... Two-time ACC Defensive Player of the Week this season (Sept. 7, Sept. 28)... Scored the game-winning goals at No. 18 Duke and in overtime at No. 19 Ohio State... Tied for second on the team with 12 points (4G, 4A)... 2020-21 NFHCA All-West Region second team honoree... Two-time ACC Tournament selection (2019, 2020)... Three-year starter
• Aimee Plumb - First Team All-ACC - Two-time ACC Offensive Player of the Week (Oct. 19, Oct. 26)... Stands second on the team with seven goals... Registered the game-winning goal in the 1-0 victory at No. 25 James Madison... Scored two goals - including the gamewinner in overtime in the Cardinals' 3-2 win at No. 10 North Carolina... NFHCA All-West Region second team selection... Named to NCAA All-Tournament Team.
• India Reed – Has started every game in the backfield... Played in every game in the backfield in 2020-21. redshirted in 2019...
• Katie Schneider - Second Team All-ACC – Leads team with a career-best nine goals and 21 points… Tied a school record with three assists in the season-opening win against Ohio… Stood second on the team with six goals in the 2020-21 season.
• Mattie Tabor – Five of her six goals have been game-winners... Dished out an assist in the 1-0 win against Indiana... Scored the game-winner in the 3-1 victory over No. 11 Liberty.
• Charlie van Oirschot - 2021 Preseason All-ACC selection... NFHCA All-West Region and All-ACC second team selection... Stood fourth on the team with four goals, including one in the ACC Semifinal win against Virginia.

NEWCOMER NOTES
• All ACC Freshman of the Year Mila de Kuijer has played every minute in the cage this season and posted a career-high eight saves in the 2-1 double overtime win against No. 15 Wake Forest. She leads the ACC in shutouts, save percentage and goals against average.
• Fellow freshman Filippa Niebuhr has appeared in all of Louisville's games and has recorded four goals on the season - including the game-winners against Indiana and No. 9 Syracuse.

Tough Slate
Ten of the Cardinals' 18 opponents are ranked among the top 25 in the most recent NFHCA released on Oct. 5. In addition to its six ACC opponents, UofL will also take on, No. 1 Iowa, No. 2 Michigan, No. 8 Liberty, No. 15 Princeton, No. 23 James Madison and No. 24 Ohio State.
• Louisville is 10-2 against ranked opponents this season with its only losses coming at the hands of No. 1 Iowa and No. 2 Michigan.

how the cards stack up
• As a team, Louisville leads the ACC and stands third in the NCAA with an 0.85 goals against average.
• Louisville leads the ACC and stands third in the NCAA with an 0.889 winning percentage.
• UofL stands second in the ACC and nine nationally with 0.39 shutouts per game.
• The Cardinals' scoring margin of 1.59 is third in the conference and ranks 10th nationally.
• Individually, freshman Mila de Kuijer leads the ACC and stands seventh nationally with an .805 save percentage.
• de Kuijer leads the ACC and ranks third nationally with a 0.85 goals against average.
• Katie Schneider is second in the ACC in goals (9) and stands third in the conference in points (21).
• Julie Kouijzer has delivered a career-high eight assists which place her tied for third in ACC standings.
• Mattie Tabor leads the ACC with five game-winning goals.

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.
Alli Bitting - USWNT U21 Team (2019), Development Team (2020)
Erica Cooper- USWNT U21 Team (2019)
Mackenzie Karl - USWNT U17 Team (2015-16)
Filippa Niebuhr - German U16 Team
Sofia Pendolino - USWNT RISE Team
Aimee Plumb - England U19 Team (2018-19)
Katie Schneider - USWNT U19 Team (2019)
Minna Tremonti - USWNT U19 Team (2019)

HOMEGROWN TALENT
The UofL field hockey team features six players who chose to play for their hometown school: seniors Erica Cooper (Assumption), Sam Minrath (Christian Academy) juniors Camryn Pichea (Assumption) and Mattie Tabor (Sacred Heart), redshirt sophomore India Reed (duPont Manual) and sophomore Embry Jane (EJ) Imorde (Sacred Heart).

HOME SWEET HOME
Louisville has registered an 8-1 record at home this season. The Cardinals started the 2021 campaign with five straight wins, extending its home win streak to 12 games. On Sept. 19, the streak ended with a 2-0 loss to No. 2 Iowa. Prior to that, the Cardinals' last home loss was on November 17, 2019 against Boston College in the quarterfinals of the NCAA championship.
•The Cardinals compiled a 7-0 record in the 2020-21 season. 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. The Cards defeated No. 14 Virginia in the 2021 spring home opener.
• In 2019, the Cardinals were 8-2 on the season at Trager Stadium, bringing their home record to 63-13 since 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.

University of Louisville Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Alli Bitting

Erica Cooper

Mila de Kuijer

Emilia Kaczmarczyk

Mackenzie Karl

Julie Kouijzer

Sam Minrath

Filippa Niebuhr

Sofia Pendolino

Camryn Pichea

Aimee Plumb

India Reed

Katie Schneider

Mattie Tabor

Minna Tremonti

Charlie van Oirschot

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