Kianna Smith Back with Sparks -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Kianna Smith Re-Signs with LA Sparks

Several weeks after being released by the LA Sparks, Kianna Smith has re-signed with the team the drafted her 16th overall in the 2022 WNBA Draft.

Smith, who spent her final two collegiate seasons with Louisville, made her rookie debut the same day that she rejoined the Sparks. The California native came off the bench to see eight minutes of play. She logged three rebounds, two assists, and one steal while missing her only field goal attempt.

Not much information has been released on the contract other than Smith is on a 7-day contract after being granted a hardship exception by the WNBA. The WNBA only allows 7-day contracts in the back half of the season and are for base minimum salary. A team can only sign a player to a maximum of three 7-day contracts in one season. Hardship exception contracts require a team to have multiple players out due to illness, injury, or other emergency-related events in order to sign a free agent.

LA would go on to defeat the Phoenix Mercury at home 78-75 to improve to 10-11. The Sparks host the Seattle Storm on Thursday, which will be the final game in the stretch of Smith's current contract.

In other news, we are 44 days away from the first regular season women's sporting event of the regular season- Louisville women's soccer hosting UIC.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Happy 4th !! -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

  HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

From all of us at Cardinal Couple, a happy and safe 4th of July to you. Be respectful of your neighbors, if you're one of those "set off a bunch of fireworks at midnight" types, remember, they may have to work Tuesday and get up early. 

Independence Day means a lot of different things to a lot of people. Enjoy it and treasure the freedom of not being oppressed and ruled by an aggressor or having to suffer war. 

paulie 

Sunday Cardinal Couple - Soccer Alumnae Inaugurate a Venue

NWSL Turning Left?

Allison

Will Racing Louisville FC's game plan today involve attacking up the left side?  Emina Ekic has been playing as a left side attacker, and they'll be playing in a venue well known for left turns, so let's hope the strategy brings success.

Yes, Racing Louisville FC is playing in a special game against the Orlando Pride today.  It's an away game, so don't head down to Lynn Family Stadium to watch.  If you're in Orlando, well, it's not going to be there, either.

Instead, the teams will be matching up inside the Daytona International Speedway, to take part in The Daytona Soccer Fest.  It is being billed as the "first ever", so there seems to be some expectations that this is an event that may occur again.

Emina

Racing will be playing with two Louisville alumnae on the roster, with Allison Whitfield joining the club after having played for the organization's USL W League team, their pre-professional development side.  Whitfield played in every game for the side until she was signed to the international replacement contract with the main Racing Louisville FC team.

This is a great opportunity for our the NWSL as a whole, not to mention Racing Louisville, and the Orlando Pride, to get some prime-time exposure on CBS Sports at 8pm.  The game will immediately follow the New York Liberty vs Los Angeles Sparks game on the station.  Alas, no UofL rooting interests in that one anymore.

Will we see Whitfield get on the pitch?  She was added to the roster on a short term contract to help replace several players who have been called up to international duty, including Nadia Nadim, Emily Fox, Rebecca Holloway, and Satara Murray.  

WNBA Check in

Dana Evans played a little over seven minutes with the Sky yesterday in their matchup with the Phoenix Mercury.  She hit a pair of three pointers, got a defensive rebound and a pair of assists in Chicago's 91-75 win over the Mercury.

Emily Engstler and the Indiana Fever are not in action until Tuesday night.  The Fever seem to be showing all of their games on their Facebook page, which is nicely accessible.

For today's UofL rooting interests, you've got a 1pm game with Myisha Hines-Allen and the Washington Mystics and the Connecticut Sun on ESPN, and a 3pm game with AD Durr and the Atlanta Dream hosting the Seattle Storm and the Sue Bird farewell tour on NBA TV and maybe Amazon Prime?

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

( I do what when who gets the what where? Why?)  

Paulie returns, but Case had an early alarm to go watch boats go fast on the Ohio River, so it was a foursome yesterday on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast.  Daryl, Jared, Paulie and myself covered the news of the week, which was largely dominated by official fall sports schedule releases.  We got a sneak peak of Volleyball last week, but we got a look at Field Hockey and Women's Soccer this week.

You can check out the lightly edited audio at it's podcast home on anchor.fm at:

https://anchor.fm/cardinal-couple/episodes/Schedule-Announcement-Season-and-a-Tall-Basketball-Player-e1knu0a

or at any of your favorite podcast sources.

A Way Too Early Look at the Louisville WBB Roster -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

First off, this is Saturday and, no I'm not Case.  He was compromised by an early departure date this Saturday to enjoy a traditional weekend event with family and friends, so he sent out the "Bird signal" (not the bat signal from the series "Batman" that starred Adam West and Burt Ward}. Since I was apparently the only Cardinal Couple writer up at 7:15 this morning, I am assuming the position and taking the write for Saturday. 

So, on this celebration weekend of the fourth of July, let's talk a little hoops. Why not? There's not much else going on in Louisville women's sports besides schedules for the fall and rosters for the teams playing.  Although we do not know  the UofL WBB schedule yet , we recently found out about a roster addition -- 6'5" grad transfer Josie Williams from Utah Valley State. 

Williams boosts the Cardinals numbers to 15 student athletes. Seven played for Louisville last year (Van Lith, Robinson, Cochran, Dixon, Russell, Verhulst and Konno), five are freshmen  (Walker, Harris, Brown, Mobley and Lester) and three are recent "transfers-in" (Jones, Carr and Williams). 

Breaking down the roster by "position" (although this doesn't always play out as designed and I still wish the "wing" players would be designated with a "W") the Cards have nine guards, five forwards and no position designation for Williams yet. She was a center for four years at Utah Valley State, but that means nothing in the Walz system. 

By class?  We mentioned the five freshmen...there are also one sophomore (Verhulst), three juniors (Van Lith, Russell and Cochran), one senior (Konno) and five "Grads" in Robinson, Dixon, Jones, Carr and Williams.  

Sydni Schetnan was not listed on the 2022-23 roster for basketball, we can only assume is following through with her plan to play basketball one tear, see how it went and then going to Volleyball.  

Are you one that likes to identify your favorite players by their jersey number? Well, here you go! 

#1 -- Zyanna Walker  #2 Nyla Harris  #3 Chrislyn Carr  #5 Mykasa Robinson  #10 Hailey Van Lith  #11 Norika Konno  #12 Payton Verhulst  #13 Merissah Russell  #15 Javin Brown  #22 Liz Dixon  #23 Alexia Mobley  #24 Morgan Jones  #32 Imani Lester and #44 Olivia Cochran. We've seen pictures of Josie Williams in #40 and that was her number at Utah Valley St., so we'll assume that'll continue at the 'Ville". 

The Cards by height?  We'll start at 6'5" with Dixon and Williams. 6'3" goes to Cochran and Lester, and 6'2" includes Jones, Mobley and Harris. Verhulst checks in at 6'1" and at 6'0" we have Brown. Under 6 feet? How about Russell at 5'11", Konno at 5'10" Walker at 5'8", Robinson and Van Lith at 5'7"  and Carr at 5'5"  In the long standing Cardinal Couple tradition of "Attack Yorkies" on the WBB roster, Carr qualifies and joins a heralded list of 5'5" and under that includes Shelby Harper, Dakota Weatherford and Jess Laemmle. 

It was way too early to speculate on starters, who'll get key minutes and such, but, I'll leave you with five "teasers" 

1) Expect Hailey to "Van Lift" her stats and importance this season. Kianna is gone, So is Chelsie. It's Hailey's team now at guard. 

2) You're gonna love Morgan Jones, She's a player, y'all. She tried to blow up Louisville in a visit to the KFC YUM! Center when she was a Seminole and if she can get close to that as a Card, look out. 

3) The battle for the boards. The Cards should pound the rebounds with Mobley, Cochran, Dixon, Harris and Lester. 

4) Dude, Where's my Carr?  Playing off the movie title from 2000. Chrislyn Carr is a steady point guard that'll keep defenses in a state of disarray and feed her teammates. Oh yeah, she's a scorer. too

5) Mi Casa es su Kasa.  Mykasa Robinson will be her usual brilliant self on the court and be invaluable to the Cards defensive efforts and fast breaks. .  

It should be a really fun season. Is Walz through gathering players for the 2022-23 squad?  I guess only he and the staff know that for sure, and they ain't talkin' about it...but you gotta love what's on the roster so far. 

paulie

WSoc Schedule released -- WBB lands 6'5" grad transfer -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 FRIDAYS WITH DARYL 

Welcome to July and the holiday weekend, readers.  We are six weeks away from the opening of the 2022 fall sports seasons.  But who's counting?

Fall sports have released their schedules for the coming seasons as has been repeated on Cardinal Couple all week.  I know the guys are really looking forward to covering another season of matches as we can expect Jeff to dive deeper into the Volleyball schedule and Case to dissect the Soccer schedule and rosters and what we can hope to expect in the fall.  

We can finally get some names and dates on our calendars to look forward to.  

Women's Soccer

The Cardinals 16-match slate features eight regular season home games and 1 preseason exhibition at Dr. Mark & Cindy Lynn Stadium. Nine of the sixteen matches are against teams that reached the NCAA Tournament last year.   

To start, UofL will host a preseason exhibition against Cincinnati on August 12 before the season opener on August 18 against UIC. The Cards will then host reigning Big East regular season champions Xavier a week later on August 25.

UofL will hit the road and travel to Northern Kentucky on August 28 before a neutral site match against 2021 AAC Tournament champions Memphis on Sept. 1 followed by a Labor Day weekend match with James Madison on Sept. 4.

The Cardinals return home to take on Indiana on Sept. 8 and then open ACC play on their home field with Miami on Sept. 17.

Louisville hits the road on Sept. 22 to play reigning national champions Florida State and follows it up with a Sept. 25 stop at Virginia, which won the ACC regular season title last season. The three-match road swing concludes on Oct. 1 at Pitt.

The Cards play the next three matches at home against Clemson (Oct. 6), Boston College (Oct. 9), and Notre Dame (Oct. 15).

The road portion of the regular season schedule concludes with trips to NC State and Duke on Oct. 20 and 23, respectively. Louisville then closes out the regular season by hosting North Carolina on Oct. 27.

Louisville posted a 7-7-2 overall record in 2021 and has won 194 matches during Ferguson-Dayes' tenure.

Women's Basketball

Photo: Coach Jeff Walz' twitter

Coach Walz and staff picked up veteran center, Josie Williams, from Utah Valley State on Thursday, the program announced.  In four seasons with the Wolverines, Williams is one on the top players in school history, finishing in the top 10 in many of the school's statistical categories. Williams closed her tenure at Utah Valley State, sixth in scoring with 1,221 points, third with 783 rebounds and 110 blocks, and second with a 52.1 shooting percentage. Her 7.4 rebounding average per game and 77.6 free throw percentage ranks third in school history.

Give the newest Cardinal a follow on socials!

IG - @j_williams40

Twitter - @j_williams40   

Cardinal Couple Podcast - The whole gang show be in tow for Saturday's show unless you know something I do not.  Tune in live at 11 a.m on Saturday or catch the recording on Sunday's edition of Cardinal Couple.

As Always

Go Cards! 

~Daryl 

Whitfield to Racing Louisville -- Gabriela Leon to World Championships -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Allison Whitfield Signs with Racing Louisville

Louisville women's soccer alum Allison Whitfield has signed with Racing Louisville FC. Whitfield joins the club on a national team replacement contract while Racing Louisville has a few members with the US National Team, Jamaican National Team, and Northern Ireland National Team.

Whitfield will join her old duPont Manual High School and Louisville teammate Emina Ekic.

Most recently, Whitfield has spent time with Racing Louisville as a key member of their W league squad. She has logged 567 minutes in 10 matches this season after recovering from ACL surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The outside back will dress for Sunday's match against the Orlando Pride and will be with the club through at least the end of July.

Gabriela Leon to Compete in 2022 World Championships

NCAA Champion and Louisville track and field star Gabriela Leon has qualified for the 2022 World Athletics Championships.

Leon was originally listed as an alternate but was called up when Alina McDonald had to withdraw from the event.

The event will take place at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. from July 15-24. The Cardinals pole vaulter won the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships, you might remember. 

Women's Soccer Schedule Released

As Paulie mentioned yesterday, this week has been "Schedule Week". We reviewed the Louisville volleyball schedule on Tuesday and the Louisville field hockey schedule yesterday.

Louisville women's soccer is the latest team to release their fall 2022 schedule.

The regular season will consist of 16 matches- eight at home, seven on the road, and one neutral location match. The Cards will face six non-conference opponents while the final 10 matches will be against ACC opponents.

Admission is free during the regular season at Dr Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium.

Daryl will break down the schedule and opponents more tomorrow.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

FIELD HOCKEY RELEASES 2022 SCHEDULE -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 LOUISVILLE FIELD HOCKEY 2022 SCHEDULE

Maybe we'll have to rename the final week in June "schedule week" for Louisville women's athletics. Jared discussed the Cards 2022 Volleyball schedule yesterday and today, I'll review the Field Hockey slate. Women's soccer should be out by Friday, too. 

18 regular season games, a couple of exhibitions and the ACC Tournament and, hopefully, another NCAA appearance for Justine Sowry's "flock"...who went 16-4 last year and a perfect 6-0 in ACC regular season competition. We'll try to forget that UofL ended the season on a two-game losing streak -- falling to Virginia in the ACC Championships and Harvard in their opening NCAA match. 

The season begins with a couple of exhibition matches --- at  Miami (OH) on Friday, Aug 19th and at Trager hosting Bellarmine on Sunday Aug 21st. The Cards faced both in 2021, although Miami (OH) was a regular season contest, and beat the Knights 10-2 and Miami 4-1. Then, it's off tp the Keystone State to face Bucknell (Fri 8/26) and Penn State (Sun 8/28)...both matches on the Penn State turf.

Next up, in an interesting move, The Cards travel to Chapel Hill, NC to open September, but won't face the TarHeels -- playing Penn ( Fri 9.2) and Princeton (Sun 9/4).in the ACC-Ivy League Challenge. The Cards defeated both squads last year, downing Penn 3-1 and Princeton 3-2 in overtime. 

The Cards get the home slate of regular season matches started on Sept 9th when JMU comes to town for a Friday night contest and Michigan visits on Sun 9/11. Louisville remains home for the following weekend with UNC coming in on Fri 9/16 for the Cards first ACC Conference tilt and Fairfield stops by Sunday  9/18. The home streak concludes with Indiana crossing the river to play Cards -- Louisville won that 2021 match 1-0 at Trager. 

The Cards end September at Virginia on Fri 30th and jump from Charlottesville to Richmond to face VCU on Sun Oct 2nd.  Louisville was 1-1 against the Cavs in 2021 and did not face VCU. The Cards remain on the road game sequence with visits to Wake Forest on Fri Oct 7th and then it's back to Virginia for a Sunday, Oct 9 contest against Liberty. Louisville beat both last year -- 2-1 over Wake in overtime and 3-1 over the Lynchburg Flames. 

Pam Bustin brings Duke in for a visit to Trager on Fri Oct 14th and UofL will have a quick turn-around with Ball State coming to Trager on Saturday Oct 15th

Louisville ends the season on a northeastern swing with trips to Syracuse on Fri Oct 21st, Cornell (Sun Oct 23rd) and the regular season finale vs Boston College on Friday Oct 28th. 

The ACC Tournament begins Nov 1st and will be held in Duke in 2022.

The Cards lost both goalkeepers from last year, in Mila de Kuijer and Sam Minrath, so that's a position we'll be watching closely for developments. 

Key returners for Sowry's squad include Sofia Pendolino, Aimee Plumb, Mia Duchars, Emily Kaczmarczyk. India Reed, Minna Tremonti, Katie Schneider, Mattie Tabor and Julie Kouijzer.

Now that the schedule is out, the next step for this intrepid, elderly reporter is to venture to campus and interview Coach Sowry.  It'll be the first in a while for me doing this with her, with COVID precautions and my own particular health issues preventing me from being active, but, it should be a fun one -- it always is with Justine.  

paulie

. .   

Volleyball Announces 2022 Schedule -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Announces 2022 Schedule

As we discussed on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast this past Saturday, the Louisville volleyball schedule is released. Although we believe Saturday was an accidental early release, UofL officially made the announcement Monday.

Jeff McAdams hinted at a few expectations on air and will give a much more in-depth breakdown on Sunday, but for today we'll look at the schedule itself.

Louisville will host their annual (and presumably free admission) Red and Black Scrimmage on Saturday August 20 at 2:00 p.m. This is a great chance for fans to get out and get a taste of what the team should look like going into the season.

The Cards officially start their season in South Dakota against Northern Kentucky, South Dakota, and Missouri over the final weekend in August. They'll then squeeze in a quick trip to Western Kentucky on Wednesday August 31 before the move into September.

Louisville will host San Diego and Ohio State over Labor Day Weekend in the Cardinal Classic.

The following weekend will be the Louisville Invitational where the Cards will play Purdue and either Xavier or Lipscomb.

The always-exciting Louisville vs Kentucky match will be in Lexington on September 14 before the Cards head out west to square off against Stanford on September 17.

ACC play will begin when the Cards visit Miami on September 23 and Florida State on September 25.

To close out September and kick off October, Louisville will welcome Clemson and Georgia Tech to L&N FCU Arena. 

A trip to Boston College and Syracuse is next on the schedule for Louisville before they return back home to host Virginia Tech and Wake Forest in the middle of October.

Louisville will hit the road again for matches against Virginia and Pitt on October 21 and 23.

UofL will have its longest home stretch to close out October and open up November featuring Notre Dame, Duke, NC State, and North Carolina.

The last multi-game road trip will be at Georgia Tech and North Carolina on November 11 and 13.

Senior Day will be on November 18 when Pitt makes a visit to Louisville.

Louisville's regular season will conclude at Notre Dame on November 23, the day before Thanksgiving.

Louisville will 12 opponents that were in the 2021 NCAA Tournament and will some of them twice.

Currently, the entire coaching and support staff from last year returns: Dani Busboom Kelly, Dan Meske, Todd Chamberlain, Linda Hampton Keith, and Sarah Drury Petkovic. Coach DBK will also have Baby Busboom Kelly cheering her on this coming season.

You can expect to see Jeff and his mom leading CARDS cheers from their regular seats and I plan to be inside the arena with my camera again. Will we get Paulie, Case, or Daryl out this year? If the Cards are riding a hot streak like last year we'll probably bar them from the premises for good mojo.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

CARDS in WNBA action Sunday -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

SUN DOWN DREAM, SKY SINK LYNX

Three of the Cards in the WNBA saw action on Sunday.

In Atlanta, it was the visiting Connecticut Sun defeating the Atlanta Dream 72-61 and in Chicago, the Sky held home court advantage with an 88-85 win. Connecticut is 13-6 on the season after their win, Atlanta 8-10, Chicago goes to 13-5 and Minnesota 5-14. 

Connecticut broke open a close first quarter (19-17) and outscored the Dream 20-5 to amass a 39-22 halftime lead. Jazmine Jones played two minute for the Sun and hit a free throw. For Atlanta, Asia (AD) logged 26 minutes and contributed eight points and two assists. 

Chicago lead Minnesota 72-60 after three quarters but had to battle to hang on and win by three over the Lynx. Dana Evans saw eight minutes and had three points for the Sky. 

All of our Cardinals WBB greats play in the Eastern Conference and the conference is a real battle as we draw near to the end of June. 

Chicago Sky            13-5

Connecticut Sun      12-5

Washington Mystics 12-9

NY Liberty                 8-10

Atlanta Dream           8-10

Indiana Fever            5-14

Emily Engstler and the Indiana Fever play tonight at Phoenix (10 p.m. ET) and the Mystics and Myisha go Tuesday against AD and the Dream in Washington. 

paulie

Sunday Cardinal Couple - Don't Call It a Slump

Basketball - 3x3

FIBA 3x3 World Cup

Don't call it a Summer Slump, we've got plenty to talk about.  Starting with Basketball.

We'll start with the FIBA Women's Cup Competition in Belgium.  We've been covering this a fair bit as Hailey Van Lith is one of the players for the US.

Yesterday's game, in the Quarterfinal round saw a great matchup between the US and Canada.  Canada lost one game in pool play to Spain, but it was enough to advance to the knockout rounds where they first defeated Germany to match up against the US.  The US team waltzed through pool play with an undefeated 4-0 record, earning the bye to skip the round of 16.

Alas, the Americans did not play well in this game.  Canada came away with the win 14-10.  A defensive battle early with a number of blocked shots and steals, but USA's shooting was ice cold early.

Both teams shot better as the 10 minutes game progressed, but obviously neither reached the 21 mark to end the game early.  Van Lith did have a number of shot opportunities that didn't fall, shots that we know she's quite capable of routinely making.

This does eliminate USA from the competition.  Regardless, it was an impressive event for the American's, if just for the absolute dominance they displayed during pool play with wins over Brazil, France, Austria, and New Zealand, all respectable teams on the international stage.

Force 10 3x3

Force 10 manages a professional 3x3 basketball league in partnership with the WNBA as a chance to expand playing opportunities for women and as a sort of development league for the WNBA.

The league is expanding this year with added partnerships with the Connecticut Sun, Dallas Wings, and Indiana Fever.

The Indiana squad picked up Kianna Smith to play on their team.  She'll be playing alongside Juliunn Redmond, Kathryn Westbeld, and Khiarica Rasheed.

Volleyball National Teams

This week will begin the third week of the Volleyball Nations League event for the women.  This will be the last week of pool style play with the fourth week being a knockout tournament.

Anna Stevenson was named to the Volleyball National Team to be part of this event and has been contributing well to the competitions so far.  VNL does allow team rosters to change between each week of play, so no guarantees that she will be on the roster for this week of play, but I would expect to see her there.

Matches this week will be against Belgium, Serbia, Türkiye, and Germany, and this pool will be played in Calgary, Canada.

Volleyball Schedule not Announced

The Fall Volleyball schedule wasn't announced, and it wasn't even updated on the Volleyball schedule page of https://gocards.com, but it was available on UofL sport composite schedule.

Thanks to Case for alerting me to this during the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast yesterday, we got to take a look through it some.

This schedule is very similar to last year's in a lot of ways.

Of course, it starts off with the Red and Black intra-squad scrimmage, that'll be August 20th.  Then the season opens in South Dakota with two matches on Friday the 26th against Northern Kentucky, and South Dakota and then a match Saturday the 27th against Missouri.  If you'll recall, this was the same line-up that we had for the Cardinal Classic in L&N FCU Arena last year.

That will be followed by a mid-week matchup on the 31st against Western Kentucky in Bowling Green.  This should be a great match as WKU, under the leadership of Travis Hudson continues to develop into a solid team that despite being in a mid-major conference, is competing well at the national level.

The home opener will be Friday, September 2nd vs San Diego, with another match on Sunday, September 4th against Ohio State.

The next weekend will be the Louisville Invitational.  This will start with a Friday, September 9th match between Xavier and Lipscomb, with the nightcap being Louisville vs Purdue.  Of course, you should never overlook a team coached by a Shondell, and Purdue with Dave Shondell at the helm for many years is always competitive.  Saturday the 10th will be a matchup between the winners and losers of Friday's matches, so Louisville will play either Xavier or Lipscomb.  Again, hearkening back to last year, this was the same exact setup and teams that we saw on Xavier's home floor in Cincinnati.

Next up is the traditional match against Kentucky.  This one will also be mid-week and it's in Lexington this year, on September 14th.  Following up from that will be a road-trip out to California to meet up with a perennial national volleyball powerhouse in Stanford.  Some similar echoes to last year as well with the Purdue, Xavier/Lipscomb (it ended up being Xavier last year), Kentucky, Nebraska stretch of schedule.

Also like last year, after that stretch begins conference play.  In week one we do the Florida visit with Miami and Florida State on the 23rd and 25th.  We host the non-Florida southern contingent, Clemson and Georgia Tech on September 30th and October 2nd.  Next up is the northern end of the conference with a trip to Boston College and Syracuse on October 7th and 9th.

Returning back home, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest come to visit October 14th and 16th.  That's followed by the awkward travel pairing on October 21st and 23rd with visits to Virginia and Pitt.

As travel partners with Notre Dame, we see them mid-week, October 26th.  ND is a huge question mark this year.  After a dismal, sub-.500 year last year, they have changed coaches and seen about half of their roster turn over by way of the transfer portal.  Who knows what sort of team will show up in late October.  Hopefully we'll have some sort of sense by then, but right now, all bets are off.

Duke and Wake Forest are going to be checking out L&N FCU Arena on Friday and Saturday the 28th and 29th.  The homestand continues November 4th and 6th with NC State and UNC.

Finally, at the end of the season, we have some traditional highlight, and non-travel-partner, matchups.  Louisville visits Georgia Tech and UNC on November 11th and 13th.  Pitt comes to Louisville on the 18th, and finally we wrap up the regular season, and here's to hoping another ACC Championship, at Notre Dame on the 23rd.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

A Paulie-less CCRHP this week as our leader takes a nice summer vacation.  Daryl was busy with the Bats as well, left the trio of Case, Jared, and myself to cover the show.  We got a pleasant surprise with the sneaky release of the volleyball schedule to the composite calendar so we discussed that with first thoughts as we looked at it for the first time.

Plenty of other news to cover with basketball and more.  You can check it out at it's anchor.fm home at:

https://anchor.fm/cardinal-couple/episodes/A-Surprise-Schedule--News-and-Notes-e1kec12

JMcA