Nov. 28, 2007

Greetings Cards Fans!

The Louisville Women's Soccer team's fantastic season has unfortunately come to an end. In a season of fiercely contested battle it was no surprise that our NCAA Tournament match vs. Illinois took overtime to settle. While we had seen our fair share of success in overtime over the course of the season, it was not to be our day. Illinois found an opening early in overtime, and we were left with that heart wrenching feeling of what might have been. But that is the nature of soccer, and despite the loss we are able to look back at what we accomplished throughout the year and know that we took another big step toward making this program a perennial Big East and National Championship contender.

It was another season of reaching new heights for the program, featuring our first ever trip to the Big East Final Four since entering the conference three years ago. We were able to tie last year's record of most wins in the program's history with 13. Our team's defense and goalkeeping corps ranked among the nation's best, sacrificing only 11 goals on the season while holding shutouts in 12 games. We finished second in the National Division of the Big East Conference, and we earned our second straight NCAA Tournament birth.

We also featured more players on All-Big East Teams than we ever have before. Senior midfielder Monique Gjini was named to the First Team, Senior goalkeeper Joanna Haig and Junior Forward Shannon Smyth were named to the Second Team, and Junior Jessica Mello and Freshman Kelsey Hunyadi were named to the Third Team. Joanna Haig was also named a First Team Academic All American, and more awards may be on the way as the All Region and All American Teams are announced in the coming weeks.

Our Senior Class of Jen Avila, Monique Gjini, Joanna Haig, Erica Robinson, and Laura Walker won more games in their four years than any senior class in the program's history. They will be sorely missed for their contributions both on and off the field. We hope to thank them in the best way that we can...by building upon the foundation they have laid and reaching even greater heights in the years to come.

Thank you for all of your support throughout the year,

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