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Karen Ferguson-Dayes Hometown: Holbrook, N.Y. Position: Head Coach Experience: 12th season at UofL Alma Mater: Connecticut '93

In her 11 seasons, Karen Ferguson-Dayes has taken a soccer program at the University of Louisville and molded it into a team that has finished near the top of the BIG EAST and advanced to the NCAA Tournament twice in the last five seasons.

Ferguson-Dayes, the winningest coach in Cardinal history, has improved the team's record nearly every season she has been at the helm and rewritten the record books.

During her tenure she has guided the Cardinals to not only its first NCAA Tournament berth, but consecutive trips to the dance.

Four of her teams have won more games during the season than the previous school record, including 13 twice.

She has coached a pair of All-Americans in Jamie Craft and Joanna Haig and a pair of Academic All-Americans in Haig and Amy Seng.

The superlatives are nearly too numerous to list completely. Needless to say Ferguson-Dayes has been the most successful coach in UofL women's soccer history and is one of the top coaches in the nation.

Chris Petrucelli, head coach of the University of Texas women's soccer team, is in the top 10 In NCAA history in career wins and winning percentage and recognizes Ferguson-Dayes' place in the coaching world.

"Karen is a rising star in the coaching world. Her passion for the game is unmatched and she has shown that she can win on a high level. She has proven to be a quality coach in both the international arena and the college game. I expect that we will be hearing great things about her accomplishments in the future."

In 2010, the Cardinals were led by freshman Christine Exeter, who was selected as the BIG EAST Rookie of the Year, and redshirt freshman Angelika Uremovich, who was named to the league's All-Rookie Team. U of L opened the season with a school record seven straight wins, which included victories over No. 13 South Carolina and rival Kentucky, and then closed the season by advancing to the BIG EAST Championship for the fifth time in six seasons.

Prior to a disappointing 2009 season where injuries limited the Cardinals' success on the field, the 2008 season served as a learning experience for a team that featured only three seniors. Even with the loss of All-American goalkeeper Joanna Haig and three other key starters, UofL advanced to the quarterfinals of the BIG EAST Tournament for the third straight season and won nine games overall against one of the toughest schedules in the nation.

Seniors Jessica Mello and Shannon Smyth earned Third Team All-BIG EAST honors and were joined by senior Mallory Lampson as NSCAA Academic All-Region selections.

In 2007 a trip to the BIG EAST semifinals was a new plateau of success for the program, as were the five players honored on All-BIG EAST teams. In tying the school record with 13 wins and advancing to the NCAA's for the second consecutive season, the team collectively posted a 3.416 GPA in the classroom.

Haig established five school records, and finished the season third in the nation in save% (0.893) and fifth in GAA playing in Ferguson-Dayes' defensive brand of soccer.

The 2006 squad became the first in school history to earn a national ranking, peaking at 15th in the nation. It was also the first team to advanced to the coveted plateau that is the NCAA Tournament. Success was not limited to the field, as the team set marks in the classroom with the second-highest team GPA, a record number of Red and Black Scholars and members of the AD Honor Roll, as well as the first Academic All-American in school history (Amy Seng). Six players earned All-Region honors, three found their name on the All-BIG EAST squads and two players were named All-American (Jamie Craft and Joanna Haig), just the second and third such honored in Cardinal history. Craft moved on to a career in professional soccer, enjoying a solid season with the W-League Boston Renegades.

The fall of 2005 meant the first foray into the BIG EAST, a conference that Ferguson-Dayes had spent seven years in as a player and assistant coach. With the jump into one of the elite conferences, it was expected that the Cardinals might stumble in making the jump, but under the guidance of Ferguson-Dayes, the team notched double figure wins for the second consecutive season. Three team members were honored by the BIG EAST, lead by junior Jamie Craft, a first-team selection who was also named to two difference All-Region teams.

Ferguson-Dayes' appointment and success here at Louisville has not gone unnoticed.

University of Louisville Director of Athletics Tom Jurich knew who he wanted to lead the then-struggling women's soccer team when Ferguson-Dayes was hired to be the eighth head coach of the U of L women's soccer team in 2000.

"Her name kept rising to the top during our national search and she came to us with incredible recommendations," noted Jurich.

Nobody believed the process of turning the Louisville women's soccer program into a winner is one that would occur overnight, as evidenced by the tough first season for Ferguson-Dayes and staff, but growth and success wasn't measured by wins and losses. Not initially.

Now the ante has been upped. Under the guidance of Jurich, the Cardinals opened a new era as members of the BIG EAST, and will now take the pitch for the seventh season as a member of the league.

"The University has provided us with the resources we feel are necessary to become an elite program, and that is our goal," said Ferguson-Dayes.

Her tenure is the longest in the program's history. She has already watched assistant coaches Jen Mead and Carmelina Moscato move on to pursue a career in professional soccer, former assistant Carole Dutchka is now the athletic director at Louisville's Presentation Academy, and former assistant Tim Nowak departed for a head coaching opportunity at Eastern Illinois.

Achieving at a high level is not something new for Ferguson-Dayes. She is currently the ODP Girls 1993 age group head coach. She previously worked as the Region II liaison for the US Soccer National Teams, in charge of tracking and following the progress of members of the US Soccer Youth National Team system.

She served as an assistant coach of the USA U-21 team for their 2004 season.

The team had three different training sessions at the US Soccer's National Training Center in Carson, California, where they had the opportunity to scrimmage the US National Team. Training preceded trips to China in March, Brazil in May and Iceland in July to complete the Nordic Cup. It was there that the team won its sixth consecutive Nordic Cup title with a 3-0 win over Sweden.

During the summer of 2003 she served as an assistant coach for the U-19 Adidas Youth Team.

Three years ago she served as the head coach of the Region II 87 girl's team which competed in the Adidas ESP event and the November Interregional event in Boca Raton, Florida.

In 2003 she worked with the Region II girls U-15 team, and accompanied the team to numerous interregional events.

Prior to accepting her position at U of L, she was the assistant coach at the University of Connecticut for three seasons. The Huskies were 60-12-2 during the three years she spent as an assistant, advanced to the final eight twice (1998 and '99), and were national runner-up in 1997.

A 1993 graduate of UConn, Ferguson-Dayes coached under and played for legendary soccer coach Len Tsantiris who has not missed the NCAA Division I soccer tournament during his tenure.

Before coaching at UConn, Ferguson-Dayes served as an assistant at Boston University during its first two seasons of soccer where the team was an astonishing 24-7-2 overall.

In her playing career at UConn as a midfielder, she was named first team All-America in `91, `92 and `93. The Huskies were 63-24-3 during her four-year career and she tallied 53 points (18 goals and 17 assists.)

In 1990 as a freshman, the Huskies competed in the national semifinal where she was named to the NCAA All-Tournament team. Soccer America Magazine selected her as a Team MVP in 1992, an award given to 11 players nationally.

Ferguson-Dayes' playing career was not limited to the collegiate level. She played for the U.S. National Team in 1992 and 1993.

While at UConn, she was involved in the Connecticut Olympic Development Program and served as staff coach in Region One. Ferguson-Dayes holds an NSCAA Advanced National Soccer license, as well as a USSF B license.

A native of Holbrook, N.Y., and a graduate of Sachem High School, Ferguson-Dayes is married to Hylton Dayes and the couple has one son, Brandon, who was born in December, 2008.

	Karen Ferguson's NCAA Record
	Season	Team	Role		Record	Postseason
	1990	UConn	Player		15-8-1	NCAA Runner-up
	1991	UConn	Player		16-5-0	NCAA QF
	1992	UConn	Player		15-5-1	NCAA 1st Rd.
	1993	UConn	Player		17-6-1	NCAA QF
	1995	Boston	Asst. Coach	10-3-2	none
	1996	Boston	Asst. Coach	14-4-0	none
	1997	UConn	Asst. Coach	23-4-0	NCAA Runner-up
	1998	UConn	Asst. Coach	21-2-2	NCAA QF
	1999	UConn	Asst. Coach	17-8-0	NCAA QF
	2000	U of L	Head Coach	1-18-1	none
	2001	U of L	Head Coach	4-13-0	none
	2002	U of L	Head Coach	5-12-1	none
	2003	U of L	Head Coach	7-9-2	none
	2004	U of L	Head Coach	12-5-3	C-USA SF
	2005	U of L	Head Coach	11-8-0	BIG EAST QF
	2006	U of L	Head Coach	13-4-3	NCAA 1st Rd.
	2007	U of L	Head Coach	13-6-2	NCAA 1st Rd.
	2008	U of L	Head Coach	9-7-3	BIG EAST QF
	2009	U of L	Head Coach	5-11-1	none
	2010	U of L	Head Coach	10-9-0	BIG EAST 1st Rd.
		Overall: 238-147-23
		U of L (11 seasons): 90-102-16