Volleyball Remains Undefeated -- Field Hockey Falls in Overtime -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 A split day for Cardinals women's sports

A mixed bag of results for UofL women's athletics Sunday, as Volleyball travelled to Miami and blew past the Hurricanes in four sets, and Field Hockey took their sixth loss in a row,  a double-overtime defeat by Wake Forest in Winston-Salem 3-2. Let's see how both got there.. 

FIELD HOCKEY

The Cards and Demon Deacs took it to double overtime before a winner emerged, unfortunately for UofL fans, it was Wake Forest that scored the sudden victory goal when Faye Janse connected four minutes into the second extra session to give the home squad the win. 

"The game had a lot of momentum shifts, and we were unable to captialize in the crucial moments. " said UofL head coach Justine Sowry. "Again, it came down to inches, and we came up second best." 

Aimee Plumb had both of Louisville's goals in the contest. 

Wake led after one quarter 1-0 , and a wild second quarter ensured, with three goals being scored and a 2-2 tie developing, as they went into the half. . 

Although both squads had several scoring oppotunities in the second half, neither could break the deadlock and end of regulation rolled about with the score still 2-2.  The Cards had three penalty corner opportunities in the first overtime session but could not convert on any of them. Wake got the win in the second bonus session, to go to 5-7 overall, pick up their first ACC win and are now at 1-3 in conference.  The Cards drop to 5-9 overall and are now 1-5 in conference action. 

Louisville returns home for a Friday 5 p.m. match against  #11 Duke. 

VOLLEYBALL 

The VolleyCards travelled into Miami with a #4 national ranking and leading the ACC with a 5-0 record.  Miami didn't exactly roll over for Dani Busboom Kelly's squad, but UofL was able to jump out to a 2-0 set lead and remained undefeated in conference play with the four set triumph. 

SET ONE

This first set started out with the Canes jumping out to a 5-2 lead, before the Cards battled back and tied things at 8-8 on a Charitie Luper kill. The squads went back and forth on the lead and were still tied up at 15-15. UofL jumped out to a 17-15 lead after Anna DeBeer and Luper kills and built the lead to 23-19...but Miami hung tough and got it back to a slim 24-23 Louisville lead before DeBeer ended the set with a kill  25-23 Cards in the first

SET TWO

Another close set to begin with the teams tied at 3-3 and 6-6. Louisville finally broke awy when they got two Elena Scott services aces to take a 11-7 lead. The Cards went uo 16-10 on a PK kill and was still in control at 19-14 after a Miami service error. A DeBeer kill made it 22-16 Cards and they took the 25-17 win on a Miami hitting error. 

SET THREE

Miami wasn't quite ready to turn the lights off in the gym and go home, though, as they came out strong in the third set and grabbed a 4-2 lead. The Cards battled back, though and went up 7-6 on a Sofia Maldonado Diaz kill. A back and forth match developed with the squads tied at 10-10 and 12-12. It was 16-16 after a Luper hitting error but Miami sprang to life and a 8-1 Canes run had them at set point with a 24-17 advantage. A Daila Wilson kill gave Miami a 25-18 third set win 

SET FOUR

Another back and forth start to the final set with the teams knotted in a 5-5 tie early-- on a Cara Cresse kill. The Cards went on a 5-1 run, though, benefitting from a couple of Miami attack errors and kills from Luper and deBeer. The Canes got within two at 12-10, but the Cards rolled off four straight points and built a 16-10 lead..deBeer getting three kills in that stretch. Another deBeer kill made it 19-14 Louisville.  The Cards got to set and match point at 24-18 on a Cara Cresse block and won the set and match when deBeer got a kill to end the action at 25-20

deBeer had 18 match kills to lead UofL,..Grace Lopez led UM with 25. 

The Cards return home to face Wake Forest on Friday,

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

paulie

Volleyball Tops the ACC - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Soccer Draws Against Notre Dame

Erynn Floyd emerges from the locker
room with Ella Kane

There probably was not a lot of expectation that Soccer would get any points in the standings against 13th ranked Notre Dame yesterday, but they did get a result, a scoreless draw, worth a point... against the Irish.  Jared was there for at least part of the game and got some pictures.

Given the challenges this squad has seen, getting a point vs Notre Dame is a good result, although it's short of the pace that the team needs to sustain to make the miniscule six-team ACC tournament.

This was the first shut out that Notre Dame has been dealt this season, and it improved the Cards record to 5-1-2 at Lynn Stadium.  Overall the Cards are now 6-5-3

Fina Davy on the attack

.  Much of the credit for that shutout goes to Erynn Floyd, who was back in goal for the Cards and ended up tallying 10 saves.

The road doesn't get any easier for UofL, of course, considering the gauntlet that ACC play is.  Notre Dame was the beginning of a four game homestand.  Next up is 7th ranked Stanford on Thursday, followed by 17th ranked Cal on Sunday.

Field Hockey at Wake Forest

Sowry's squad looks to end a five game losing streak with a visit to Wake Forest.  The Demon Deacon have yet to win a game in conference and are 4-7 overall.  Neither team is ranked nationally at this point.

With a 1-4 conference record, the Cards are only a single spot ahead of Wake Forest.  The Deacs are only ahead of 0-4 in conference Cal, and 0-5 in conference Stanford by virtue of having few loses and having a game or two in hand over the California contingent.

Today's game starts at 1pm in Winston-Salem as .is viewable on the ACC Network Extra.

Volleyball Advance in Conference

I'll talk about Louisville Volleyball here in a second, but first a quick look aside.

 

There's now only  a single undefeated team in Division I volleyball.  Care to take a guess?

.

South Dakota State holds that honor.  Now, the Jackrabbits don't have the strongest strength of schedule in the country, they don't have any opponents that have been ranked at any point in the season, but they are rolling through the competition they have, and the only challenge I see ahead of them is South Dakota, who took a set off of us up at the Northern Kentucky tournament.

The Jackrabbits are led by Sydni Schetnan, who spent a year here at Louisville, and was set to be a dual-sport Basketball/Volleyball athlete.  After her first year, where she only played basketball, she decided her future lay elsewhere and transferred, much closer to home, to SDSU.  We wish her and the Jackrabbits well. One wonders what she would have added to the UofL squad had she stayed? She and current Cards star, PK Kong were teammates in high school in South Dakota. 

So what happened to Pitt?  The Panthers, who had lost only a single set all season, dropped a close five setter against SMU yesterday in Dallas.  This was after they easily handled the Mustangs in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.  Clearly, the Mustangs learned from their first encounter.

I watched a little of this match and the Mustangs had success over Pitt when they got their blocking engaged, which bodes well for Louisville's matchups against the Panthers, with Louisville being the 2nd best blocking team in the country.

This development gives Louisville, at least for the time being, sole possession of first place in the ACC in volleyball.  The Cards are undefeated so far in conference, with Pitt, SMU, Standford, Virginia, and North Carolina all right behind with a single loss.

The Cards will play Miami today in Coral Gables.  The Hurricanes are 2-3 in conference and 11-5 overall.  They're a good team, and were ranked earlier in the season before falling off a bit.  Their biggest win of the season was in the 2nd weekend of play, where they knocked off defending National Champs Texas in five sets.  They have losses against a good Ohio State team, and lost both of their travel partner home and home matchups against Florida State.

Overall, Miami is a fairly good team, but more importantly, they have a lengthy history of reaching up from mediocrity and punching some top teams in the face.  All the numbers say that Louisville should win this, but of course, we've seen how this Cards team can suffer from some inconsistency.  Against a potential giant killer like Miami, UofL needs to be at the top of their game today.

This is also a 1pm start, and is available on ACC Network Extra.

Lacrosse Fall Ball

Lacrosse was in action yesterday in exhibition fall play.  They played two mini games and won both.  Jared was there to get pictures.

Freshman Lilly Boyle on the attack.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

And finally, Case, Paulie, and I were on the call for the CCRHP yesterday with a late, surprise, appearance by Jared.  We covered Soccer, Field Hockey, and Volleyball, results and expectations.  Paulie also gave us a rundown of the Basketball luncheon.

A good time, and a good show.  Check it out:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Volleyball-Rolls-Others-Still-Slump-e2pircn

 

-- 

JMcA

FH/VB Split Close Matches -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Beats FSU in 5 Sets

Louisville volleyball hit the road to take on 21st-ranked Florida State last night and took down the Seminoles in a back-and-forth five set match. Louisville dropped the first before taking the next two and losing the fourth to lead to the tiebreaker. The Cards won the fifth set going away, 15-9. The victory was Louisville's fifth in ACC play, keeping them undefeated in conference, and it broke a 17-match home winning streak for FSU. The Cards take on FSU's travel partner Miami on Sunday at 1PM. 

FSU came out of the gates hot, hitting .417 in the first set en route to a 25-16 victory. Louisville hit just .200 with five errors, matching their high for the match, which they'd repeat in the third and fourth sets. Despite the higher error number in the third, Louisville still outhit the 'Noles .235-.207 in that third set. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Louisville responded to the opening punch from FSU with a .429 hitting percentage of their own in the second. They had just two errors compared to FSU's 8, which gave them a .182 for the set. Despite the hitting dominance, Louisville won just 25-21. They'd go on to win the third 25-21 as well. 

The match swung back in FSU's favor in the fourth, as the 'Noles outhit the Cards once more and inverted the score of the previous two sets, taking it 25-21 themselves. Neither team hit the ball out of the gym in the fourth, but FSU had enough juice. Part of what kept FSU so scrappy was the serving line. The Seminoles had nine aces compared to Louisville's four. They were also even at the line, matching the number of aces with the number of errors. Louisville was -11, as they had 15 service errors. Yikes. Those errors helped push the momentum squarely to FSU for the fifth set. After Louisville tied the fourth at 19, FSU had just one kill to score their last six points. Louisville had three attacking errors (including two of their nine blocks) and two service errors, including set point. 

FSU came out and won the first point of the fifth, but Louisville was about done playing games. At least, that's what they thought. The Cards won four of the next five points before FSU took three straight to regain a 5-4 lead. At the second time of asking, though, they were able to put it away. Louisville won the next four points to make the score 8-5 and alternated points until 11-9. All the past errors went by the wayside, then, and Louisville won the last four points of the match on four straight kills by Sofia Maldonado Diaz and Anna DeBeer. 

DeBeer led all hitters with 23 kills in the match (narrowly beating FSU's Audrey Koenig who had 22). DeBeer had six errors as well, but with 51 attempts, she finished with a solid .333 hitting percentage (outhitting the team's .295). Charitie Luper joined DeBeer in double figures with 12 and Sofi finished with nine. The Cards had two players finish with no errors, as PK and Reese Robins each had seven kills and hit over .500. 

Defensively, the Cards finished with one more block than FSU, picking up 10, all assisted. The Seminoles were keen to avoid Elena Scott, as Louisville's star libero had only 12 digs. DeBeer had a double-double with 11 digs and Luper narrowly missed it with nine. Elle Glock and Nayelis Cabello were each forced into five digs of their own. 

Louisville moves to 13-2 (5-0) on the season and they'll take a five-set road victory and run. That win is especially difficult in Tully Gymnasium, where FSU last lost on November 6th, 2023 to then 10th-ranked Georgia Tech. Louisville heads down to Coral Gables next, where they'll face the Hurricanes who are coming off of a five-set win themselves. Miami beat Notre Dame 3-2 last night to move to 11-5 (2-3). They've already played FSU twice and were shockingly swept by Virginia on the road last weekend. Tomorrow's match is at 1PM on ACCNX.

Field Hockey's Skid Continues with 2-1 Loss

Louisville field hockey brought in the top-ranked team in the land yesterday afternoon, and despite their best efforts, dropped their fifth straight match. Louisville was under immense pressure throughout the match but maintained a 1-1 tie until just under seven minutes remaining. UNC scored the game winner to move to 9-0 on the season and push Louisville down to 5-8. The Cards get no time to lick their wounds, as they hit the road for Winston-Salem to face Wake Forest tomorrow. 

Sophomore goalkeeper Emily Young has continued to split duties with Brandelynn Heinbaugh this season, and she has drawn difficult opponents. Young started the last two games and showed pretty well. Against UVA and UNC, Young played just under 60 minutes in each match as the Cards pulled the goalie, and she finished with a combined 11 saves and just three goals allowed. That's a combined save percentage of over 75%, which is pretty nice. Her season save percentage in 7.5 games is .694, which is still no slouch. 

As I mentioned last week, Louisville field hockey needs to find the offense. One or fewer goals per game isn't going to get it done against the quality competition they're facing. In addition to the lack of goals, Louisville isn't threatening much at all. The Cards were outshot 21-4 and 10-3 in on-target attempts. They gave up six penalty corner attempts and had just two. In the end, it was an incredible defensive effort that kept the match as close as it was. 

Louisville's lone goal in this one came as an equalizer in the middle of the second quarter. Chloe Plumb scored the unassisted effort, her fourth goal of the year. Other shots came from her sister Aimee, Chloe Cuzzupe, and Rylie Woolerton. 

UNC is very good, don't get me wrong. However, we've seen some real flashes from this Louisville team, and it seems like there should be more to them than what they've shown in conference play. The Cards have four games remaining and they'll have to win out to finish above .500. Three of those four matches are on the road, with the lone home match coming against a tough Duke team next Friday. They are back in action tomorrow against Wake at 1PM on ACCNX.

Other News and Notes

Louisville softball played two against Indiana last night as they continued their fall ball schedule. The Cards won the first game 5-4 on a walk-off single. Our correspondent had to leave midway through the second game so we've got no reporting on the final from Ulmer. Louisville athletics, as usual, are tight-lipped on the results of scrimmages, so let's just think positively and assume they won. Softball looks to be having fun and can hopefully break through once spring comes around. 

Louisville soccer is back in action at home tonight, but most of us will miss the rare Saturday evening event. The Cards are taking on Notre Dame, who is currently ranked 13th, and we'll hope to see an upset. Louisville has lost five of their last six but they've played pretty tough competition. After the brutal trip to Tobacco Road (losses to UNC and Duke by a combined 8-1 score), the friendly confines of Lynn Stadium will hopefully turn things around. Tonight's match is at 5PM and will be carried on ACCNX. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

There will be just three of us this week as Daryl and Jared are otherwise occupied. As has become a disappointing norm, we'll look forward to talking about volleyball and try not to spend too long commiserating about the others. You can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

Cardinal Couple YouTube: Link

Spotify: Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Floyd Street LIVE as FH welcomes #1 UNC and SB hosts IU -- VB at FSU -- WGOLF -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Cheers to the weekend everyone.  I hope it is a calm one for everyone as we are heading into the holidays full speed.  It should be a crisp fall evening over on Belknap Campus so grab some hot chocolate or apple cider and head over to Trager and/or Ulmer for some Cardinals athletics ! 

Field Hockey

Louisville looking to knock off the undefeated and defending champs North Carolina Tarheels as they are in town for a Friday afternoon bout scheduled to start at 3 p.m. 

UNC is 8-0 and 3-0 in the ACC.  Ryleigh Heck leads the ACC with 10 assists and Charly Bruder stands second in goals with 10 on the season.  Abigail Taylor has started all eight games for the Tar Heels and carries a 0.443 goals against average, which ranks second in the ACC.

Photos: Jared Anderson

Louisville's fifth straight top-20 opponent with two of their last three games coming against top-five teams including No. 4 Ohio State and No. 3 Virginia.

North Carolina leads the series 12-6 with the Tarheels winning the last matchup 2-0 in Chapel Hill. This match will be on ACCNX

Volleyball

The Cardinals are heading south to Florida for a couple bouts in the Sunshine state this weekend.  First up, UofL is facing #21 Florida State Seminoles.   First serve is set for 7p.m. and should be available on the ACC Network Extra.  Louisville has not lost to the Seminoles since 2019.   

The Seminoles are 11-3 overall and 3-1 in the ACC. FSU is on an 18 game winning streak at home.   As a team, FSU ranks 15th in the country and fourth in the ACC with a .284 hitting percentage and also ranks 27th in the country and fourth in the ACC with 13.68 kills per set. FSU ranks 46th in the country and fifth in the ACC with 12.52 assists per set.

 

Softball

 

Indiana enters the fall looking to build off a strong 2024 campaign in which they went 40-20 overall and 12-11 in Big Ten play. The 2025 season will be the Hoosiers' eighth under the leadership of head coach Shonda Stanton.

Golf

The women's golf team is headed to North Carolina for the Ruth's Chris Tar Heel Invitational. The last time they competed in this tournament in 2022, the Cards finished tied for fifth out of 14 total teams. Back in 2022, Carmen Griffiths led the way with a tie for sixth place finish. She also carded a hole in one during the second round of action.

Griffiths leads the team with three par or better rounds this year and has tallied one Top-5 finish and two Top-10 finishes. She has the best individual finish of any player this season after her tie for second at the Cardinal Cup.

Millie Cottrell, Thienna Huynh, Veronika Exposito, Beatriz Barrios and Gabbi Bentancourt will round out the UofL squad.

The first round will get underway at 8:30 a.m. ET for the Cardinals as they will all begin the round on hole 10.   Fans can follow along with the live stats here 

As Always, 

Go Cards!

~Daryl 

Current ACC Standings for Fall Sports -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

ACC Fall Sports Updated Standings

As we continue to inch closer to the end of the regular season for fall sports, the ACC standings continue to take shape. For two of our major fall sports- field hockey and soccer- there is a conference tournament at the end of the regular season to determine a champion. For the third- volleyball- the conference champion is determined by the regular season results.

Field Hockey

North Carolina 3-0

Boston College 3-0

Virginia 4-1

Duke 3-1

Syracuse 2-2

Louisville 1-3

Wake Forest 0-2

Cal 0-3

Stanford 0-4

Louisville's ACC win came against Stanford while their losses are to Virginia, Syracuse, and Boston College. Only eight teams make the conference tournament. With the ACC now having nine teams, the last place finisher will not make it.

Soccer

North Carolina 5-0-0 (15 points)

Wake Forest 4-1-1 (13 points)

Virginia Tech 4-1-1 (13 points)

Duke 4-0-0 (12 points)

California 3-0-1 (10 points)

Stanford 3-1-1 (10 points)

Notre Dame 2-0-2 (8 points)

SMU 2-2-2 (8 points)

Florida State 2-2-1 (7 points)

Boston College 2-2-1 (7 points)

Pitt 2-2-1 (7 points)

Louisville 1-4-0 (3 points)

Virginia 1-4-0 (3 points)

Clemson 1-4-0 (3 points)

Miami 0-3-2 (2 points)

NC State 0-4-1 (1 point)

Syracuse 0-6-1 (0 points)

The Cards took down NC State but have suffered losses to Pitt, Virginia, Duke, and North Carolina. The only team below the Cards left on Louisville's schedule is Clemson. 

The ACC chose not to expand the ACC Tournament beyond six teams so the bottom 11 teams will not make the cut. With the newly-expanded conference of 17 teams, a six-team tournament seems awfully silly. What I would personally recommend is expanding to 12 teams with the top four teams earning a first-round bye in the conference tournament.

Volleyball

Louisville 4-0

Pitt 4-0

North Carolina 4-0

SMU 4-0

Stanford 3-1

Florida State 3-1

Virginia 3-1

Duke 2-2

NC State 2-2

Notre Dame 2-2

Wake Forest 2-2

California 1-3

Georgia Tech 1-3

Miami 1-3

Boston College 0-4

Clemson 0-4

Syracuse 0-4

Virginia Tech 0-4

Louisville's only win against a team with more than one ACC win is against Stanford whom the Cards swept. They will see the Cardinal again at the end of the regular season. Pitt is also still on the schedule twice. Go figure that Louisville has to face two of the best teams in the ACC twice each.

There is no ACC Tournament for volleyball so the top finisher earns the automatic qualifier for the NCAA Tournament, although it wouldn't be surprising to see 9-10 teams make it in.

A rarity today that none of the three mjor sports ate in  action this Thirsday.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

WBB Tipoff Luncheon a Big Success -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CAPACITY CROWD PACKS GALT HOUSE GRAND BALLROOM FOR WBB TIPOFF LUNCHEON

For me, there is one event each year that signfies to me women's college basketball is right around the corner...and it was held yesterday. UofL WBB tip-off lucheon, at the Galt House Grand Ballroom iin downtown Louisville again this year is that yearly chance to see old, friendly and familiar faces again, to talk shop with other fans on what to expect and hope for this season and to hear from the coaches, players, administrators and even get a lunch in the process.

Sonya and I made the journey for yet another one of these, We have been going to them since their inception. and been to several different locales for them. Hampered by a kidney' flare up, I wasn't my usual bright and cheerful self to start, but still was able to greet friends and fans before we went to the media tables to dine and listen. That may have been the only slight disappointment at the event, the "press" didn't roll out for this one...we were the only ones at our table..sitting.beside our temporarily assigned liasion of fan communiations -- Tom Nolan. The other media table was just half-full. But,the paying crowd was capacity and ready to hear about the Cards. 

The pep band was blaring prior to Nick Curran's opening remarks. A Nick that was on the DL, with a voice that was reflecting the high pollen count in the area as of late. Allergies had him on the ropes, but he gallantly struggleed through.

As Nick's opening address, AD Josh Heird also welcomed the crowd and it was time to meet the team. As in past years, the squad and coaches were dressed to kill and looking fine. In keeping with a years-old tradition at this event, I ate my dessert right after my salad. A nice chocolate mousse. 

Jadya Curry delivered the invocation pre-meal and did a great job with it. 

A little question and answer session was held o stage with two of the returnees...Olivia Cochran and Merissah Russell, whic was informative and comical at times. Then, as we dined on breaded chicken, mashed potatoes and asparagus, it was time for the main event. Jeff Walz went to the podium for his words. 

UofL WBB Tipoff Luncheon

(Thanks to WDRB for th hightlight clip) 

And Walz made it clear, as he has several times this preseason...this group is going to be fun to watch. They love to get after it in the gym, they ae a bunch that has each other's back and they don't have to be   told to practice, they love to practice..and that is huge. 

But the are young, the eight freshmen and one transfer will undoubted oly like it some nights. But a veteran crew of Cochran, Russell, Curry, and Elif istanbullouglu are back..so Walz has his options. 

So, after a few Curran closing remarks, it was over. There was no post-luncheon chance to go interview the players individully...they were off to practice. I missed o my old traditional post-luncheon interview with Sam Purcell, too. 

The crowd, estimated at over 500, was hanging on every word. And long after the lunch had concluded, they were still walking up to Walz and and chatting. I hobbled back down the long hallway to where the elevators awaited to take me to parking and was waiting on my wife when Coach Walz walked by me, headed to the elevators.

"I gotta get to practice, Paulie" he smiled, waved and mentioned as he walked by me. 

He walked with a purposeful stride, a man on a mission. Going into his 18th year as the Cards skipper, one thing is abudantly clear..Win. This was Godzilla, seeking his next challenge after capturing the crowd on the banks of the Ohio. A benign Godzilla, seeking to destroy the enemy that is known as Kentucky. And UCLA . And UConn. And the ACC and Notre Dame. 

After a 26-12 season last year and the stunning defeat to MTSU in the NCAA Tournament, two weeks after Notre Dame eliminated the Cards from the ACC Conference Tournament. Cards fans are hungry for wins, too. 

 Are you ready, dear readers? it's almost here...2024 Louisville women's basketball begins in a month, over in Paris, France...against UCLA.  Jouer a un jeu. 

(Photos by Paulie)

paulie 

Panic Mode for Field Hockey and Soccer? -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Panic Mode Time or Stay Patient?

As we venture into the back half of the respective fall sports seasons, one Louisville women's sports squad finds themselves below .500 and another is headed in that direction.

Field Hockey

Field hockey has lost four straight and is now 5-7, two full games under .500. All seven losses have come against ranked opponents and the most recent four losses were by one goal each, three of those on the road. Those last four losses have all come against teams ranked in the upper 15 and two of those teams are currently top four.

Even at 5-7, Louisville is still 29th in the RPI. The latest Coaches Poll has not yet been released, but it is safe to assume the Cards will drop from those rankings this week. 

Things won't be getting any easier with top-ranked North Carolina visiting on Friday. Wake Forest (rpi #28) and Duke (rpi #10) follow suit on the schedule. Louisville then closes out the regular season against California (rpi #17) and UC Davis (rpi #59).

The Cards lost a ton of talent and experience with last year's graduating class and a good chunk of the minutes played this year has come from freshmen and sophomores. 

Defense has been the killer this year as Louisville has allowed 1.67 goals per match. That doesn't come as much surprise after a majority of last year's graduates came from the back defensive line or a defensive midfield position. Offense has proved to be doing alright at 1.75 goals per match, but has been shut out four times in 12 matches this year.

The season is far from over, but the Cards need to pull off a couple upsets down the stretch if they hope to be playing in the NCAA Tournament. The good news is that nearly all of the roster is returning next season at the moment.

Women's Soccer

This is a familiar tune for women's soccer. Louisville has historically had great success in the non-conference portion of the season before limping to the finish line due to the brutality of the ACC slate. This year appears to be the same. We saw the Cards go 5-1-2 out of conference but have started 1-4 in conference play. 6-5-2 doesn't look too hot, but it is over .500.

There are five games remaining on the schedule and four of those are at home. Louisville has a noticeably good home record at 5-1-1. Unfortunately, the next three teams are all currently ranked- Notre Dame, Stanford, and California.

Scoring has slowed way down the last few games. The Cards have scored four goals over the last six games. They scored 19 goals in the first seven games this season (12 goals in six games if you exclude the Bellarmine game). Defense has also taken a hit as of late. After allowing four goals in the first seven games, Louisville has allowed 17 goals over the last six games including giving up five goals in a game twice.

This is another squad that has a fair amount of youth and will return a major chunk of the team next year. Amber Jackson and Brooke Dardano are in their final year of eligibility. Everyone else is of junior status or less. Five freshmen have seen a respectable amount of playing time so far. 18 of the 23 goals scored so far this season have come from players who are eligible to return next year. We could possibly be see Jackson return next year if the NCAA grants her an extra year due to injury and the COVID-19 season.

Only six teams make the ACC Tournament. The Cards are far from the top six right now. Cal and Stanford are tied for 5th/6th with 10 points each. Louisville has three points in the ACC from their lone victory over NC State.

The Cards are back home for an unusual Saturday match this coming week. They will play Notre Dame at 5:00pm on ACCNX. 

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards

Jared

Mixed Sunday for Cardinals Women's sports -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WSOC AND FH TAKE LOSSES ON ROAD, BUT VOLLEYBALL WINS ON CAMPUS

Not the best of days for Louisville women's sports on Sunday, as Field Hockey went to Charlottesville and took a tough 1-0 loss to the Wahoos, WSOC fell at #2 Duke 3-1...but Volleyball defeated a good Georgia Tech in for sets at the LNFCU. Let's see how each sport ended up the way they did: 

FIELD HOCKEY

Yes, a road match on the blue turf. Must be in Charlottesville...

Louisville and Virginia were engaged in a scoreless battle for three quarters in this contest, but the Cavs got a goal two minutes into fourth quarter play when Taryn Tkathuk took a feed from Suze Leemans and fired her attempt from above the circle into the goal for the game's only scoring action on Emily Young.

The Cavs led the Cards in shots (7 to 6) but Louisville had a 4-2 saves advantage and also drew four penalty corners, compared to just one for UVA

The win takes UVA to 10-1 on the season and 4-1 in conference, while the Cards drop to 5-7 overall and 1-3 in ACC play. 

Justine Sowry was philosophical about the defeat:  "A tough day today. Sports and life can sometimes feel unfair. Another contest where we left it all out there and you could say we let it slip for 12 seconds.. I am proud of the performance and effort we put on the field today. aw have to be more consistent and be ready to play every game. We have such a great group of young people and we have to keep growing and getting better with every effort..."

Louisville had their chances, including three straight corner oppotunities in the third quarter...but could not convert. The Cards head home and prepare for UNC Friday at 3 p.m.

WOMEN'S SOCCER

The Kickin' Cards had another test on the road against a top 5 opponent on Sunday and, fell to Duke in Durham 3-1. 

Louisville was able to battle their foe to 25 scoreless minutes to begin the contest, but Duke broke through when they converted on a rebound from a corner attempt. 

Three minutes later, the Blue Devils add their second goal when they capitalized off a Cards turnover and kicked one in the net. Mia Minestrella had the scoring kick on a assist from Mia Olitia. 

The first half ended with the 2-0 Duke edge. dule also had a 9-1 hots edge on the Cards and also led the way in corners with three. 

Duke picked up their third goal fifteen minutes into second half action when they scored on a free kick opportunity by Maggie Graham. 

Louisville got their lone goal at the 68:38 mark, when Brooke Dardano snuck one past the Duke goalkeeper for her second goal of the season. 

The loss drops the Cards to 6-5-2 overall and 1-4 in the ACC. Duke improves to 9-1-0 and 4-0 in the ACC . Their lone loss was to Ohio St at Ohio St 1-0 in their second game of the season. 

The Cards come home to start their final home stand of the season with four straight at Lynn Stadium. They'll start the home slate with Notre Dame Saturday at 5pm ET.

VOLLEYBALL

The VolleyCards salvaged the day for the Louisville women's sports squads when they defeated #19 Georgia Tech in straight sets at the L&N Arena on campus. 

The  25-20, 25-16, 27-25 sweep was a tough as expected test against the Georgia Tech squad. Charitie Luper had 15 kills for the Cards and Anna DeBeer added 12.

SET ONE

The squads were evenly matched to start the match off and were tied at 9-9 after a Reese Robins kill. The Cards then went on a 5-1 run to grab a 14-10 lead on a Luper block...and were then buoyed by two DeBeer kills on a 5-0 run. A Cara Creese block extended the lead to 21-13, but Georgia Tech never quit in the the remainder of the set and got back within three at 22-19. Two Luper kills made it 24-20 and 25-20 to end set one in Louisville's favor. 

SET TWO

The Cards flew out to an early 6-1 lead in set two and were able to push that to 11-4  A Cresse kill made the score 14-5 and necessitated a GT time out. But the Cards refused to slow down and got a stuff from Payton Peterson to increase the lead to 11 at 20-9. GT would briefly battle back to get with seven at 22-15, but they would get no closer than that and took the nine-points 25-16 defeat. 

SET THREE

After the break, it was the Tech squad that came out with the hot hand and jumped to a 6-2 lead. Louisville cut that to a 6-5 Tech lead, but GT took charge again and led 17-14. The Jackets added a 3-0 run to that and had a seemingly insurmountable 20-14 lead in the set. But, the Cards cam battling back. They responded with a 9-2 run to take a 23-22 lead on a block from Allie Sherman. The squads were tied at 25-25, but UofL "turned to DeBeer" and got two straight kills from Anna to end the match and give the Cards a 27-25 win.

Louisville improves their record to 12-2 and 4-0 in the ACC. Pitt, North Carolina, and SMU are also undefeated in conference play. The VolleyCards travel to #16 Florida State and RV Miami next weekend.

Volleyball photos by Jared

paulie

 

Just About Everyone in Action - Sunday Cardinal Couple

A Full Calendar

It's a full calendar today for Cards action.  Of the various teams that we primarily cover here at Cardinal Couple, only Basketball doesn't have some sort of competition today.

Lacrosse

Lacrosse gets an early start, kicking off at 9am for an exhibition tournament at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium.  These fall ball games for Lacrosse are typically not full scale Lacrosse games, but they will play multiple of them today.

The 9am start will be against Kennesaw, then the Cards will sit for a bit as some other teams square up, but will be back in action at 2pm against Xavier, and against Alabama Huntsville at 3:15pm to end the day off.

While all of the mini-games will be free and open to the public, no video coverage is expected.

Field Hockey

Field Hockey, being a Fall sport, will be in regulation play, of course, and continues their conference slate of games.  Again, the competition is fierce in ACC Field Hockey, and today is no exception as the Cards have traveled to Charlottesville for a clash against 3rd ranked Virginia.

The 16th ranked Cards are in a three game skid at the moment, and will be looking for an upset win to straighten out the season.  The three latest losses have all come to team ranked higher than Louisville, those being #12 Boston College, #4 Ohio State, and #15 Sy, racuse.

Other than return back to Trager Stadium, it's only to get harder for the Cards before it gets any easier, as the next opponent is top ranked North Carolina.

ACC Network Extra has the coverage for today's game at noon.

1pm Soccer and Softball

As we continue in order through the day, we have 1pm starts for both Soccer and Softball.  Soccer, of course, is in season, while Softball is playing exhibition fall ball.

Both are on the road, as Soccer has made the treck to Durham to match up against 2nd ranked Duke.

Softball, meanwhile, are probably on the bus on their way to Richmond, KY for their opponent for the day, Eastern Kentucky.  Softball played a double header against Bellarmine last week, but this will only be a single game, albeit they do plan to play a 10 inning game, so it will be one long one, instead of two regular ones.

Soccer will be on ACC Network Extra at 1pm should you wish to watch that, but alas there is no video coverage of the softball game expected.

Volleyball

S

tarting last today, Volleyball has a pretty big match against 19th ranked Georgia Tech.  The rankings, with Louisville ranked 4th, makes the Cards the favored team, but Georgia Tech is a very good team (with one of the "Killer B's" still playing, Biana Bertolino), that is certainly capable of some surprise upsets.

GT is 9-3, 1-2, their losses have come to a reasonably competitive UCLA team, a surprisingly good and now 17th ranked SMU squad, and rampaging Pitt.  (Pitt finally lost their first set...not match, just set...of the season Friday at Boston College).

The Yellowjackets don't have much in the way of signature wins on their record at this point.  They do have a sweep over a weaker-than-expected-but-still-18th-ranked Florida team.  Needless to say, a win over Louisville would be a signature win for Buzz.

The Cards are playing host today at 1:30pm at LNFCU Arena.  If you're not one of the lucky thousand or so fans to be able to get a ticket, it will be televised on ACC Network, the linear channel.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

The Cardinal Couple Crew was a bit small in number on the CCRHP call yesterday, with only Paulie and Jeff making the call.

We did carry on, though, covering the latest from Soccer, Field Hockey, and Volleyball, with a smattering of Basketball news from Friday's Louisville Live included.

Check it out:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Some-Teams-Strugggle--but-Volleyball-Continues-to-Win-e2p9u93

 

-- 

JMcA