Tuesday, July 5, 2022
Kianna Smith Back with Sparks -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE
Monday, July 4, 2022
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, July 3, 2022
Sunday Cardinal Couple - Soccer Alumnae Inaugurate a Venue
NWSL Turning Left?
WNBA Check in
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast
Saturday, July 2, 2022
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"
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
Friday, July 1, 2022
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
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.
Thursday, June 30, 2022
Whitfield to Racing Louisville -- Gabriela Leon to World Championships -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
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
. .
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Volleyball Announces 2022 Schedule -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE
Monday, June 27, 2022
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