No. 4 Cardinals Will Face No. 11 Harvard in First Round of NCAA Tournament

The fourth-ranked University of Louisville field hockey team will travel to Ann Arbor, Mich., to take on No. 11 Harvard in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament on Friday at 2:30 p.m.

In the other first round game, host Michigan, the overall No. 3 seed in the tournament, will face the winner of the play-in game between Miami (Ohio) and Maine on Friday at 12 p.m. The winners of the first round matches will meet Sunday at 1 p.m.

Sunday's quarterfinal winner will advance to the NCAA semifinals which will take place Nov. 19 at Michigan's Phyllis Ocker Field. The national championship game will be held on Nov. 21 at 2 p.m.

The Cardinals (16-3) won the 2021 ACC regular season title after posting a 6-0 record in league play and reached the semifinals of the conference tournament which resulted in a 2-1 in a sudden-victory shootout loss to Virginia. This marks UofL's 10th NCAA tournament appearance and its seventh at-large bid in the last eight years. Last season, the Cardinals advanced to the NCAA semifinals for the first time in program history. In 2019, UofL reached the quarterfinals.

"I'm really proud of what we've accomplished this year," said UofL head coach Justine Sowry. "To be selected to the NCAA tournament is quite an honor and it's not easy to do, so to be able to do it again this year, we're just really excited for the opportunity. Looking at every bracket, it's going to be tough. It's probably the deepest NCAA tournament that we've been part of – that any team can win on any given day. We're familiar with Michigan's turf, and matching up against Harvard, to be honest, I'm not that familiar with them yet, but we'll be working diligently as a staff over the next couple of days to put game plan together."

Friday's matchup against Harvard will mark the first ever meeting between the two teams. The Crimson (15-1) earned the Ivy League's automatic bid after winning the league title with a 7-0 mark in conference play. Harvard is making its seventh appearance in the NCAA tournament.

Louisville played at Michigan's Phyllis Ocker Field earlier this season on Oct. 10 when the second-ranked Wolverines prevailed 2-1.

In addition to Louisville, three other ACC teams earned NCAA bids including Virginia, Syracuse and ACC Tournament champion North Carolina.

"This is a more interesting year, because we were pretty confident that we were going to be in the tournament and there was a lot of anticipation to see who we would be matching up with in the first round," said fifth-year senior Alli Bitting. "We don't know much about Harvard right now, so we're just really focused on practice before we head to Michigan. We know our coaches will give us the best game plan possible and then it's our job to execute it when we play them."

Louisville Notes
The Cardinals are coming off of a 2-1 sudden-victory shootout loss to No. 14 Virginia in the semifinals of the ACC Championship. Alli Bitting and Julie Kouijzer were named to the ACC All-Tournament Team following their performances in the semifinals.
•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.
• At 16-3 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 10-3 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 and No. 14 Virginia in the semifinals of the ACC tournament.
• 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 47-17 with 11 different players contributing goals.

The Rest of the Field
Miami (Ohio)
Miami (Ohio) will host the play-in game against Maine on Wednesday, November 10. The RedHawks (11-10, 6-1) won the Mid-American Conference tournament title on Sunday with a 2-1 win over Longwood.

Miami owns a 23-19 edge in the series between the teams, the bulk of which dates back to when both teams were members of the Mid-American Conference (1994-2004). This season, Louisville posted a 4-1 win against the RedHawks when the teams met on Oct. 4 at Trager Stadium.

Maine
America East regular season and tournament champion No. 25 Maine enters Thursday's play-in game with a 15-6 overall record and a 7-1 mark in league play. The Black Bears have won their last six games, a run which includes a pair of wins in the America East tournament. Maine is coming off of a 2-1 shootou win against Albany in Sunday's Championship game.

Louisville and Maine have only met once and that contest took place on Sept. 30, 1989 with the Black Bears winning 3-2.

Michigan
Second-ranked Michigan received the overall No. 3 seed and an at-large bid to the tournament after posting a 15-4 overall record and a 5-3 mark in Big Ten play. The Wolverines reached the finals of the Big Ten tournament where they fell 1-0 to Rutgers on Sunday – the Scarlet Knights went on to earn the top seed in the NCAA tournament. Michigan is making its seventh straight and 18^th overall NCAA appearance.

The Wolverines lead the all-time series with Louisville 12-4 and won this year's meeting 2-1 on Oct. 10, 2021 in Ann Arbor. The teams have met twice in the NCAA tournament, most recently, the Wolverines defeated the Cardinals 2-1 in a sudden-victory shootout in the 2020-21 NCAA semifinals at North Carolina. In the 2019, Louisville prevailed 2-1 in overtime in the first round which was played at Trager Stadium.

University of Louisville Athletics

No. 4 Cardinals Will Face No. 11 Harvard in First Round of NCAA Tournament

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Players Mentioned

Alli Bitting

Mila de Kuijer

Julie Kouijzer

Aimee Plumb

Katie Schneider

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