Cardinals Host Wildcats in Third Round NCAA Tourney Action

Sunday, November 25

Cardinal Park  7:00pm

NCAA Tournament, 3rd round game

Ranked #12, with the No.10 seed in the tournament, Louisville's Cardinals will take on Northwestern's Wildcats at home in Cardinal Park this evening.  UofL gave fans a memorable game and an impressive display of talent with last week's 5-0 win against Winthrop.  For many, the highlight of the 2nd round matchup was sophomore Dylan Mares and his first career hat trick.  In addition to the 3 goals from Mares, senior Greg Cochrane scored his 6th goal of the season and junior Zach Foxhoven made his 4th of the year.  Assists from freshman Jerry Ramirez and senior Ryan Smith also contributed to last week's shutout.  

The Northwestern Wildcats earned their trip to Louisville for 3rd round action by defeating W. Illinois 1-0 in the first round, and then shutting out 7th seeded Marquette 1-0 last week.  Northwestern was the only team to shutout Marquette this season, and the only team to beat them at home this year.  This means that Northwestern hasn't allowed their opponents a goal so far in tournament play, and has only had to deal with 3 shots on goal from their tourney opponents.  The Wildcats are led by freshman Joey Calistri, who has 9 goals on the season, and made last week's game winning shot.  

Three other Wildcats to watch tonight are #3 Layth Masri, #19 Kyle Schickel, and #7 Lepe Seetane- all former 'Ville high school players.  Seetane played for Trinity, Masri is a grad of Louisville Collegiate, and Schickel is from St. Xavier.  While Masri and Seetane are both looking forward to coming back home to Louisville tonight- Schickel may be the most excited to be back.  Schickel's former teammate from St. X, Ryan Smith, will be at the game this evening -wearing #4 and playing for the Cards!  

Tonight's game will be the first meeting ever between the soccer programs of Louisville and Northwestern.  

The winner will advance to Quarterfinals on December 1.