No. 6 Louisville Welcomes Indiana, No. 11 Liberty this Weekend

Friday, September 10

LOUISVILLE, KY

6:00 PM

University of Louisville

INDIANA

UofL field hockey player Camryn Pichea dribbles the ball down the field against Ohio

Photo by: Taris Smith | Louisville Athletics

No. 6 Louisville Welcomes Indiana, No. 11 Liberty this Weekend

September 09, 2021 | Field Hockey

By: Lori Harmon

WEEKEND INFORMATION
Battle of the Border
Louisville vs. Indiana
Date: Sept. 10, 6:00 PM
Location: Louisville, Ky.
Venue: Trager Stadium
Admission: Free
Television: ACC Network Extra
Game Links: Live Scoring | A CCNX

Louisville vs. No. 11 Liberty
Date: September 12, 2021, 1:00 PM
Location: Louisville, Ky.
Venue: Trager Stadium
Admission: Free
Television: ACC Network Extra
Game Links: Live Scoring | ACCNX
Twitter Updates: @ULFieldHockey
Louisville Field Hockey Game Notes

Parking: Fans attending games held at the University of Louisville may utilize the Floyd Street Parking Garage located across from the Don Fightmaster Playground for a $5 fee.

UofL C lear Bag Policy

After winning its first two road games of the season, the sixth-ranked University of Louisville field hockey team will return to Trager Stadium to take on Indiana Friday at 6 p.m. in the annual Battle of the Border. Louisville will wrap up the weekend against No. 11 Liberty Sunday at 1 p.m.

NOTE CARDS
• Louisville (4-0) has outscored its first four opponents by a combined total of 15-3 to start the season.
• Katie Schneider leads the team with nine points (3G, 3A). Erica Cooper also has three goals on the season.
• Freshman goalkeeper Mila de Kuijer carries a 0.74 goals against average with two shutouts on the season.
• Julie Kouijzer was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 7. Alli Bitting was named ACC Defensive Player of the Week in the league's first weekly honor of 2021.
• Louisville has won its last nine home games after going 7-0 at Trager Stadium in the 2020-21 campaign.
• Head coach Justine Sowry now has 199 all-time wins, needing one more to reach 200 in her career.
• The Cardinals return 18 players including nine starters from last season's NCAA Final Four squad.
• Alli Bitting and Charlie van Oirschot were named to the Preseason All-ACC Field Hockey Team.
• UofL finished the 2020-21 season with a 14-6 overall record and ranked No. 3 in the NFHCA coaches' poll and reached the program's first NCAA Final Four.

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 141 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 a pair of conference titles, including the 2020 ACC Fall Regular Season crown, and a pair of runner-up finishes in the ACC Championships.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Indiana
Series Record: Louisville leads 15-7 - The Cardinals have won the past seven meetings with their last loss coming in 2012.
Last Meeting: August 30, 2019 - Louisville won 5-0 at Trager Stadium.
About the Hoosiers: Indiana brings a 4-1 record into the weekend, most recently defeating Bellarmine 3-0 on Monday. The Hoosiers' lone loss of the season was a 4-0 setback at the hands of Lafayette on Sunday.
• Kira Curland leads the team with four goals of Indiana's 11 goals while Hailey Couch follows with two. Arabella Loveridge carries a 1.50 goals against average with two shutouts.

Liberty
Series Record: Tied 1-1
Last Meeting: Sept. 13, 2015 - Louisville won 2-1 at Trager Stadium.
About the Flames: Liberty enters the weekend with a 3-1 record following a 4-3 loss to No. 5 Northwestern on Tuesday. Prior to that, the Flames opened the season with wins against UC Davis, California and No. 25 Stanford.
• Liberty was picked to finish second in the BIG EAST preseason coaches poll behind Connecticut. 2020 NFHCA All-American Jill Bolton was named preseason Co-BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year while Azul Iritxity Irigoyen was the Preseason Defensive Player of the Year following her 2020 Conference Defensive Player of the Year honor. Jodie Conolly was also an all-conference preseason selection.

UP NEXT
The Cardinals will continue their challenging homestand next weekend when they play host to a pair of top-10 teams. On Friday, Louisville will open ACC play against No. 8 Virginia at 3 p.m. The Cardinals will take on third-ranked Iowa Sunday at 2 p.m.

KOUIJZER EARNS ACC WEEKLY HONORS
Julie Kouijzer has been named the ACC Defensive Player of the Week for the period ending on September 5 as announced by the league office today. This marks UofL's second straight ACC weekly honor this season.
•Kouijzer tallied two goals and dished out an assist in wins versus Penn and at Princeton, but her defensive effort may have been even more crucial in helping the fifth-ranked Cardinals to a pair of wins this weekend.
• In Friday's 3-1 win over Penn, Kouijzer helped the Louisville defense limit the Quakers to five shots, one on goal. She also put the Cards on the scoreboard and assisted on the game-winning goal. In Sunday's victory over No. 13 Princeton, Kouijzer's goal with 30 seconds left in the first quarter tied the score at 1-1. Louisville would eventually win in overtime after Kouijzer helped the defense stave off a fourth quarter surge of seven shots by the Tigers.
• Kouijzer has delivered a goal or an assist in each of Louisville's last three games.

CARDS SIXTH IN NFHCA COACHES POLL
The University of Louisville field hockey team stands at No. 6 in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Coaches poll released on Sept. 7. The Cards dropped one spot after picking up road wins against Penn and No. 13 Princeton.
• This snaps a streak of nine straight weeks that the Cardinals were 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 spending 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 21 weeks spanning back to the 2019 season when they appeared at No. 8 on Sept. 10.
• Louisville has now spent 86 straight weeks in the top 20 in the nation dating back to the 2013 season.

ACC STRONG
All seven ACC teams appear in the top 18 with Boston College leading the way at No. 3 and three-time defending national champion North Carolina ranked fourth. In addition to Louisville, the ACC holds four of the top 10 spots with Virginia standking at No. 10. No. 14 Wake Forest, No. 16 Syracuse and No. 18 Duke round out the ACC schools.

BALANCED OFFENSE
The Cardinals have outscored their opponents 15-3 in the first four games of the season.
• Seven different players have contributed to the Cardinals' goal tally with five players registering multiple goals in the early season. Katie Schneider and Erica Cooper delivering three apiece. Julie Kouijzer, Filippa Niebuhr and Mattie Tabor each have a pair of goals.

TABOR FINDING HER GROOVE
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. She has two goals on the season and one assist on the season.
• Last weekend, the Louisville native scored a goal and delivered an assist to help the Cardinals to a pair of road wins. She notched the game-winning goal in the fifth minute of overtime to secure a 3-2 win at No. 13 Princeton. Tabor also dished out an assist in Louisville's 3-1 win against Penn on Friday.

BITTING NAMED ACC DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Alli Bitting was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Week in the league's first weekly award of the 2021 season.
• The fifth-year senior from Hummelstown, Pa., helped the Cardinals to a pair of shutouts on the weekend. She was part of a Louisville defense which limited both opponents to a total of eight shots, five of which landed on goal. The midfielder also accounted for the game-winning goal against New Hampshire on Sunday.

SCHNEIDER SHINES IN THE EARLY SEASON
Katie Schneider is among the Cardinals' offensive leaders in the early season. The forward from San Diego tallied seven points - scoring two goals – one in each game – and dishing out three assists in the season-opener against Ohio. Her three assists against the Bobcats were a career single-game high and tied a school record.
• She registered four shots with three of them landing on goal for a .750 shots on goal percentage.
• Schneider currently leads the team with nine points and now has 13 career goals. She has scored a goal in three of the Cardinals' first four games.

BITTING, VAN OIRSCHOT EARN PRESEASON ALL-ACC HONORS
Alli Bitting and Charlie van Oirschot have been named to the 2021 Preseason All-ACC Field Hockey Team and the Cardinals were picked in a three-way tie to finish fifth in the regular season standings in a vote by the league's seven head coaches.
•Bitting, a midfielder/defender from Hummelstown, Pa., enters her fifth season with the Cardinals. The two-time NFHCA All-America selection turned in a career-best season in 2020-21 with eight assists and two goals, including one in the 1-0 NCAA quarterfinal win against No. 6 UConn. Bitting is also a three-time all-region honoree and a two-time All-ACC selection. Additionally, she was named to the 2020-21 NCAA All-Tournament team after Louisville's first-ever NCAA semifinal appearance.
• Van Oirschot, (Haarlem, the Netherlands) is coming off of an impressive rookie campaign in 2020. She earned NFHCA All-West Region second team honors and was an All-ACC selection. The midfielder tallied four goals and dished out two assists while starting all 20 games.

2021 ACC Field Hockey Predicted Order of Finish
1. North Carolina (6) - 48
2. Boston College - 30
3. Virginia (1) - 25
4. Wake Forest - 24
t-5. Duke - 23
t-5. Louisville - 23
t-5. Syracuse - 23
(First-place votes)

RETURNING PLAYER NOTES
• Alli Bitting (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... 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 two goals in the Cardinals' season opener... Stands tied for the team lead with three 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.
• Julie Kouijzer- ACC Defensive Player of the Week (Sept. 7)... Has registered a goal or assist in each of Louisville's last three games... 2020-21 NFHCA All-West Region second team honoree... Two-time ACC Tournament selection (2019, 2020)... Two-year starter
• Sam Minrath - Started every game in the 2020-21 spring season after serving a penalty stroke specialist in 2019. Started every game in the spring 2021 season and registered a 1.00 goals-against average.
• Aimee Plumb - NFHCA All-West Region second team selection... Named to NCAA All-Tournament Team... Tied for the team lead with six goals.
• India Reed – Has started all four games in the backfield... Played in every game in the backfield in 2020-21. redshirted in 2019.
• Katie Schneider – Leads the team with nine points… Tied a school record with three assists in the season-opening win against Ohio… Has scored a goal in each game this season… Stood second on the team with six goals in the 2020-21 season.
• Mattie Tabor – Scored the game-winner in OT in the victory at No. 13 Princeton.
• 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... Started every game of her career at UofL.

NEWCOMER NOTES
Freshman Filippa Niebuhr has appeared in all of Louisville's games and has recorded two goals on the season.
• Fellow rookie Mila de Kuijer notched back-to-back shutouts in the Cardinals first two games of the season. She recently posted seven saves in the 3-2 overtime win at No. 13 Princeton.

TOUGH SLATE
Eleven of the Cardinals' 18 opponents are ranked among the top 25 in the NFHCA preseason poll. In addition to its six ACC opponents, UofL will also take on No. 1 Michigan, No. 2 Iowa, No. 11 Liberty, No. 13 Princeton and No 24 James Madison.

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 is off to a 2-0 start in the friendly confines of Trager Stadium this season, extending its home win streak to nine games. 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.
• Last year, the Cardinals were 8-2 on the season at Trager Stadium, bringing their home record to 63-13 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.