Cards Guards Shoot Way to Win over UNC 62-55

 CARR, VAN LITH GO FOR 17 EACH IN WBB WIN.

We've seen a lot of good things.  this season,  out of the Cards guard contingent Hailey Van Lith, Chrislyn Carr and Mykasa Robinson . In Van Lith and Carr's case, it was a combined seven threes and  seven assists in leading the scoring punch. In Kasa's case, it was unyielding defensive pressure (add a black eye to her stats for today, too) and a team high four assists in the Cards win over a stubborn, un-willing to go away #11 UNC squad. 

This one had a lot of twists and turns, and, in the beginning...not much offense. Halfway through the opening quarter, it was a frigid 8-7 UNC lead, and then both squads decided to take a two minute hiatus from scoring. It was Nyla Harris leading the Louisville effort, with four points, but Louisville needed some additional boosts in the arm. 

Hello, Hailey Van Lith.

She'd changed from the prior-game, fan controversial blue shoes, she had the look in her eyes that said, "Let's Go!" and she went off on a two and one half minute, eight-point scoring run to take Louisville from a 10-7 deficit to a 15-10 lead as the end of the quarter drew near. It was vintage Hailey and the 10,000+ in attendance roared their approval. Louisville had a 15-12 end-of-quarter lead, and the Cards had avoided any stalls, sputtering or stop of offense so far. 

As in the first quarter, the second quarter didn't feature a lot of scoring early. Threes by Norika Konno and Carr helped the Cards to 21-14 lead with 5:46 until half, but the UofL scoring suddenly stopped..UofL would add just two points the rest of the half and UNC responded with a 10-0 run, led by Anya Poole and Paulina Paris' four points each. The Cards trailed 24-21 with 28 seconds left. Fortunately, Morgan Jones was there to put back a missed Van Lith shot to end the half. It wasn't an offensive clinic, but at least the Cards only trailed by one at 24-23. 

27% shooting by each squad for the half was less than inspiring. Louisville's 12 turnovers and 4-18 three-point efforts were less than encouraging.

The third quarter eventually took the Cards down the road to redemption. They scored two more points in the third quarter than they did in the entire first half. And. slowly but surely, Louisville caught up with UNC, took the lead and build upon it...after the Cards stumbled out of the gate.  

It was, as mentioned, a painful beginning to the second half, with UNC going on a 9-0 run that was aided by a phantom foul called on Norika Konno following a Deja Kelly three-point attempt. How can you call a foul on a defender for just standing there and getting crashed in to after the shot? It also drew a Walz technical for the protest, so UNC sank four of five free throws and scored a basket all in a 24 second stretch to go up by nine at 32-23. 

Louisville went to work, though. They had decreased the UNC lead to four just 30 seconds later after scores by Cochran, Carr and Robinson. It was a two-point game at 36-34 after a Carr three and tied with 4:27 to play in the quarter after a fast break layup.by Jones. Carr and Jones has Louisville's next six points and the Cards had assumed a 44-40 lead wit a little over two minutes to go in the quarter after a Van Lith free throw. Two Robinson free throws built the Louisville lead to 48-43 at the end of the third. 

How would the fourth go for Louisville was the question on a lot of Cardinals fans minds. 

UNC would make it an interesting one. A Paris three after a Cards turnover cut the Louisville lead to 51-50. Carr still had the hot hand, though, and her three made it 54-50 with half the quarter still to play. Free throw shooting was proving to be a dicey situation for Walz' squad, though and 1-2 efforts from Harris and Robinson had the Cards holding on to a 56-50 edge with 2:26 to play. UNC's Kelly would get the TarHeels within four with a jumper at 56-52, but, Merissah Russell sank two free throws in a row to push it back out to six.

And that's the way most of the quarter was played. The Cards were just 2 for 4 from the floor, but 9-12 from the stripe in the fourth. Carr's three at the 5:03 mark was UofL's last basket. The Cards went up 62-55 on two Van Lith free throws for the final scoring of the game.

A hard fought win that ended a eight-game UNC win streak, call it an upset of sorts if you want in this crazy Atlantic Crisis Conference, but the Cards took UNC's best shot several times and did not go down. 

(The question is, would Freddy Farm Bureau have considered it a huge win, given his stature?) 

THE FRED REPORT

FREE THROWS -- 16-24 equals out to 66.7% which is a bit under our acceptable standards OF THE 70% MARK., We won't "name names" but one Cardinals' 1-5 performance indicates to us she needs a little time at the stripe. NO LETTER

REBOUNDING -- 46-35 in Louisville favor and the Cards got huge performances from Van Lith (12) and Robinson (8). Neither girl is over 5'7". The clear winner for the Cards, though, was Nyla Harris and her 12. and, she's just a freshman. She just doessn't give up on any ball or chance. CAPITAL "R" earned.

EFFORT/EXECUTION -- Shooting was nothing to brag about at 33.9% nor was Louisville's lack of points in the paint (14). They also had a "head-held-in-the-palms-of hands" 22 turnovers. UNC had 11 steals, also. A strong bench scoring effort (28-11 edge) and second-chance points domination (18-8) make up for some of that, so we'll allow a small case "e".

DEFENSE -- The Cards did hold UNC to a lower shooting percentage than UofL and shutting down Paris, Todd-Williams and Kelly to 10 of 39 shooting is impressive. The defense was not dominating but it got the job done and that's worth a small case "d"

FINAL FRED TALLY _-R-e-d

The ACC WBB girls on the network made a big deal of the Card win, calling it an upset...but when you get this UofL team on their floor in front of 10,000 + , I guess I have a hard time calling this an "upset". After all, both teams are now 8-4 in conference and two of four teams that are at 8-4. With Duke knocking off Notre Dame, let's call second place in the ACC standings a wide open affair right now.  Seven teams are within two games of each other for the top conference spot. 

We're in for a heck of a ride, folks. Strap in, hold on tight and take nothing for granted..  

PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON

THEY SAID IT

Carr and Robinson post game presser:  KASA AND CC

Jeff Walz post game presser:  JEFF WALZ

paulie

. 

Basketball vs UNC - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Basketball vs North Carolina

After a "bye week" where they didn't play on Thursday, the Cards are back in action at the KFC Yum! Center at noon today with a tilt vs 11th ranked North Carolina.

UNC is currently riding an eight game winning streak, after losing their first three games straight in conference play.  Add on a non-conference slate ending loss to Michigan to make that a four game losing streak before finding their way in conference.  The only other loss they've taken this year is to Indiana who is proving to be quite a good team this year.  They've got non-conference wins over Oregon and Iowa State with the Cyclones currently ranked 12th, and the Ducks receiving votes.

The Tarheels did have a tough conference opening, with the three losses being against Florida State, Virginia Tech, and Miami, all top-half teams.  They started the conference winning against Notre Dame, and also picked up wins over NC State and Duke.

OK, so this is a pretty good team, let's see how they do it.  Mostly, they've got four players averaging over 10 points per game.  Deja Kelly with 16, Kennedy Todd-Williams with 14.1, Alyssa Ustby with 13.6, and Eva Hodgson with 10.2.

Kelly and Todd-Williams tend to get a lot of attention on this squad, but Ustby has the overall stat line that most impresses me.  She leads the team in steals with 44, more than anyone on UofL's squad.  She also, as a tall guard, leads the team in rebounding with 196, and 62 of those are on the offensive boards, again, outpacing anyone on Louisville's squad in both numbers.  About the only thing she's not much of a threat at is three point shooting.

So UNC is a very fine team, but this is the Atlantic Chaos Conference this year, so anything is possible.  We think Jeff Walz may stick with the new starting lineup, putting Kasa Robinson, Norika Konno, and Nyla Harris on the floor for the tip, which seemed to work well against Syracuse.

We also do expect to see Morgan Jones on the floor after her ankle sprain at Syracuse.  Despite looking scary at the time, it seems there was not serious damage done.  Certainly the bye week was timed well for her recovery.

Today is the annual "Pink Game/Play4Kay" game, to support research and work to help more people survive breast cancer.  The game honors those who have survived breast cancer, including a half-time recognition, but also honors Kay Yow, who was the long-time NC State head coach alongside Jim Valvano for whom the JimmyV Foundation is named.  The Kay Yow Fund is maintained by the JimmyV Foundation to specifically support breast cancer research in the overall cancer research mission of the organization.

The game is on ESPN2 today, with a noon tip-off, and of course, Nick and Cortnee have the radio call on 93.9FM.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

"Just" a trio on the CCRHP yesterday.  Case was recovering from travel, and Daryl was, hopefully, recovering from a water leak from an upstairs unit, leaving you with Jared, Paulie, and myself.

After our usual catchup and chat, Jared tackled the the schedule which includes the beginning of spring sports!  Mostly the discussion centered around basketball, and without a Thursday game, we gave a lot of attention to the Syracuse game, and discussion about today's upcoming game.

Check it out, as always, at anchor.fm or your favorite podcast directory:

https://anchor.fm/cardinal-couple/episodes/A-Basketball-break-and-Imminent-Spring-Sports-e1uf3j0

-- JMcA

Tennis at Vandy; T&F at Notre Dame; ACC Academic Awards -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Tennis Falls to #9 Vanderbilt

After a 2-0 opening weekend, Louisville split their second weekend to sit at 3-1. After a trip to Nashville on Friday, the best the Cards can hope for this weekend is a split as well. Vanderbilt is ranked ninth in the country, and three of their entries (two singles and a doubles pair) are ranked in the top-55. Louisville was unable to make much of a dent in the rest of the lineup as the Cards won two matches, a singles and a doubles, to fall 6-1. Louisville's pair of Jamilah Snells and Cici Xin grabbed a doubles win, and Tyra Richardson picked up Louisville's only singles win (scoring them their only point). The Cards were unable to push any matches to three sets, but they did make multiple sets go to seven games. 

Vandy is a strong team from top to bottom, hence their national ranking, but Louisville will have only a short time to regroup as they return home to take on James Madison tomorrow. Including that match, the Cards are at home for six straight events, including the first two conference matchups against Clemson and Georgia Tech. Things get underway at 11AM at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center and video is listed on the schedule, so be sure to check it out.

Track and Field in Meyo Invitational

Tennis wasn't the only team in action yesterday, as Track and Field took part in Day One of the Meyo Invitational, hosted by Notre Dame. The Cards didn't pick up any wins, but they will have plenty more chances tomorrow. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was Synclair Savage not placing in the long jump. However, it is less of a surprise that she didn't perform well when you consider that she didn't perform at all. Louisville had two top-ten finishers in Alba Cuns Iglesias and Ariel Lawrence, but Savage sat this one out. Those weren't the only positive results for the Cards, though, as they ended the day with four top-five finishes. Lawrence came in fourth in the long jump, Claire Bushur finished fifth in the shot put, and Soledad Jean and Tiriah Kelley both finished second in the high jump and 200m, respectively. Kiyah Yeast finished 8th in the 200m and also qualified for the 60m, along with Olivia Jenkins, and they'll join Taylor Herbert in the semifinals for that event today. Jourdin Edwards also qualified for additional competition today, as she advanced in the 60m hurdles. 

The event gets back underway at 11AM today with the women's triple jump. The triple jump is one of just three field events for the women, along with the weight throw and pole vault. The rest of the day will be filled out with track until the event wraps up with the 4x400m relays at around 3:45.

Plumb is ACC Scholar Athlete of the Year

The ACC Academic Awards are trickling out for the fall and Aimee Plumb highlighted the success of the UofL field hockey program. Plumb was named the Field Hockey Scholar Athlete of the Year by the ACC as she joined 17 teammates on the All-ACC Academic Team. The requirements for that distinction are a 3.0 GPA in the previous semester, a 3.0 cumulative GPA, and participation in 50% of the teams' contests. The 18 awardees mark a program record (there are only 23 players on the roster), and Plumb's award is the second straight for UofL, after Alli Bitting took home the crown in 2021. 

Along with field hockey, the cross country results were announced, and Louisville had six runners on the women's team make the cut. In addition to six individual honorees, the women's track and field team had a cumulative 3.557 GPA.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

The crew will be a bit light this week as Daryl and I will both be on the inactive list. Jared returns, though, so there will still be three on the call. The guys will discuss the WBB victory over Syracuse and look ahead to tomorrow's big matchup against UNC. The lack of a midweek game to recap means that they'll also have time to cover the ball mishap between Duke and FSU, so you can count on a WBB officiating rant from Jeff. As always, 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

Anchor (podcast host): Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Cas

Walz presser -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

 

Good morning readers!  Glad you took some time out of your day to check in with Cardinal Couple.   We appreciate your viewership and comments and continued support each day.  

The Groundhog saw its shadow so 6 more weeks of winter.  The temperatures have been pretty chill in the Ville but we should see some sunny skies over the weekend.   Women's Tennis and Basketball both host events at home on Sunday.  

Walz presser

Coach Walz had his press conference on Thursday and Paulie was able to hop on the call to ask Coach some questions about the squad.  

Status of Morgan Jones? She sprained ankle at the end of the game Sunday.  Took some limited reps today should be 100% by Sunday at noon.

Regarding the starting lineup:  Trying to switch things up.   Says the team is at a point now where they're willing to do whatever it takes to win games.  Will probably go with the same starting lineup from the Syracuse game. 

Looking ahead to UNC - North Carolina is talented top to bottom - they are defending well. The Cards have to limit multiple bad possessions in a row.  Have spurts of 6-7 possessions that result in turnovers and you go from up 12 to down 4.  They did the same thing in the 3Q vs Wake Forest.  UNC is on an 8 game winning streak. 

Final month of regular season - The Cards know that they have to come prepared every single night.  

Bye week - Coach thinks this break couldn't have come at a better time. Team was home by 5:30 on Sunday.  Took Monday off, Tuesday did some shooting, took Wednesday off and had a light Thursday.  Taking Friday & Saturday to ramp up before Sundays match up.

You can see and hear the preser at the link below: 

WALZ PRESSER 2/2/23

Around the ACC

Georgia Tech pulled out a win over the NC State Wolfpack while the rest of the league was chalk. 




Plumb Named ACC Field Hockey Scholar Athlete of the Year

from gocards.com - The University of Louisville's Aimee Plumb was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Field Hockey Scholar Athlete of the Year as announced by the league today.

The junior forward from Canterbury, Kent, England picked up her second-straight NFHCA All-America honor after leading Louisville in scoring with a career-best eight goals, seven assists and 23 points. Five of her eight goals stood as game winners, ranking third in the ACC in that category. Plumb is also a two-time NFHCA All-West Region and All-ACC selection. Plumb becomes the second straight Louisville student-athlete to earn the conference honor following Alli Bitting in 2021.

A three-time All-ACC Academic Team selection, Plumb has maintained a 4.0 career grade point average while majoring in Psychology and with minors in Art and Spanish. She is a five-time Dean's Scholar at Louisville, a two-time NFHCA Division I National Academic Squad Member and earned a place on the ACC Academic Honor Roll each of her first two seasons.

As Always 

Go Cards!

~Daryl 

National Girls and Women in Sports Day - Thursday Cardinal Couple

National Girls and Women in Sports Day

We've seen the day celebrated with multiple women's basketball teams in the past week or so, UofL WBB celebrated the day with a loss, alas, to NC State.  A week later, we visited Syracuse when they were celebrating the event, and then they lost.  But let's not get hung up on win-loss records associated with it.

NGWSD began as National Women in Sports day thanks to a joint resolution in Congress in 1986.  President Ronald Reagan proclaimed it the next year.  It was originally resolved and proclaimed to take place on February 4th and the first observance also served to recognize Flo Hyman, a volleyball player with the National Team that had died the previous year from Marfan's Syndrome.

(Duke got creative with their poster)

In 1989, the event was renamed to National Women and Girls in Sports Day, and over time, the order was reversed to be what we now call National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

Originally, the resolution and proclamation stated that it would be celebrated on February 4th, but again, along the way, it has now come to be the first Wednesday of February.

UofL Athletics social media put out various videos with players sharing what sports has meant to them, which you can find if you scroll down in the widget on the right side of the site.

I think I speak for all of us who are writers at Cardinal Couple in saying that we are proud to be at least a small part of supporting and highlighting girls and women in sports...as we say it, "Sharing the joys and excitement of UofL women's sports."

Volleyball International Trip

Hey, speaking of that WBB game vs NC State and celebrating NGWSD, as part of that celebration, UofL recognized the UofL Volleyball team's success during the game and they were in the lobby signing autographs before the game.  I took the opportunity to stop by and say hello to the squad and picked up a tidbit of news from Coach DBK.

The UofL Volleyball team will be taking an International trip in June to Brazil.  These types of trips are not uncommon for teams to take, they're allowed to do one of these every five years.  These trips typically include exhibition matches against various local teams.  In many of these trips, that can include the national team of the country being visited.  I don't know if the UofL squad will get to play against the Brazilian WNT, but that would be quite amazing if they do.  The Brazilian WNT in volleyball is traditionally at the top tiers of International Women's Volleyball.

We don't have many details at this point about the schedule and agenda.  It will be in June, and all five of the signed and incoming freshmen are going to be able to go on the trip as well.

The squad had been set to take an international trip a couple of years ago, but it fell victim to the Covid year.

If I understand correctly, this trip is in addition to the typical spring schedule that UofL plays in Volleyball, but we don't have any information about such a spring schedule yet, so no guarantees.

-- JMcA

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION FOR HAILEY -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

VAN LITH NAMED TO DRYSDALE TOP TEN LIST AND WOODEN AWARD LATE SEASON TOP 20 WATCH LIST

The honors continue to roll in for Louisville WBB guard Hailey Van Lith. 

She's been named as one of the top 20 for the first time in her career on the Wooden, and third time she's been listed on the Drysdale Top Ten list. 

We were unable to get in touch with her about these, but being listed on Beverly Hills banker Milburn Drysdale's list for three straight years is quite the honor and...what?...it's not that Drysdale...oops, never mind. We though Jed or Jethro might have arranged it. 

What it breaks down to.is this.. these recognitions on a national level for the junior guard out of Wenatchee, WA leads to her getting studied and evaluated a tad bit more than some of the other Cards by impending opponents. And, you know the adage if they study you harder, give 'em a ton more to study...or baffle them with the bizarre and the b.s.

And, when you have a successful career such as Hailey's, it makes you a focal point when Cardinals WBB fans convene and converse  . Just reviewing some of the stuff I saw about her at various media sites after the UofL win over Syracuse went like:

"Hailey gets too many minutes a game."

"Hailey isn't getting enough minutes a game."

"Hailey needs to shoot more!"

"Hailey needs to shoot less!"

"Why does Hailey take so many threes?'

"Why isn't Hailey shooting more threes?"

"She needs to get rid of the blue shoes she wears.'

"She needs to wear her hair differently. Maybe with a bluish tint to go with her shoes."

"Hailey needs to listen to the media"

"The best thing she can do is ignore the media."

Maybe Hailey needs to hire a spokesman and defer any and all questions to the spokesman. I'd choose Liz Dixon. Seriously, are you going to argue with Liz? Not this guy

You see where we are going here? I would expect that it's hard enough to take a full class load, study, practice, have some semblance of a social life, travel for games and watch your NIL proceedings without having to be the bobblehead that is expected to cheerfully answer any media dog that's just barking to hear their own voice. 

And, the questions are not always Einstein-like in brilliance.

(I recognized early on that Cortnee Walton just might be a fairly good radio personality. Do you recognize who we are talking to?) 

(My favorite from years ago was the "Myisha" look after a particular obtuse or idiotic query. MHA would look at you for a split second in her indomitable way and you usually wished you could sink through the floor boards....then, she'd slowly go into an answer that rivaled those of any kindergarten teacher explaining to a four year old that nap time is important, here to stay and will be observed daily). 

I suppose Hailey's chalking up the experiences here for later situations in life. After all, you supposedly go to college to learn, right? . 

So, I guess I'LL PUT HER UP for an award as well. Everyone else on the block is. 

Hailey, welcome to the "Dealing with stuff most people never have to deal with" watch list. Just to make it fair, let's add a few others to the list and we'll decide on a winner down the road. If not down the road, then off on a side street somewhere or perhaps on a busy interstate. 

Your other nominees are:

a) Paulie (for keeping all of the puppies in the box over here and still dealing with a life crisis).

b) Jeff Brohm (who would much rather, I bet) coach football and leave the philosophy to others,

c)  the operators at the "ask UofL" hotline. I can imagine some of the calls there... 

d) and Hailey. 

Keep collecting the awards, Hailey. It'll be something to share with the grandkids someday.. A peaceful Wednesday to you. We could all use one. 

paulie

Schatzel Era begins for UofL -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Hello readers, its Daryl popping in early again this week.   I hope you are safe and warm somewhere after the overnight storms came through. 

Jared is still with family mourning the loss of his grandmother, which is a tough one.  Grandparents are the best.  I lost my mom's mom almost 5 years ago now.. which seems crazy to me. 2018 was 5 years ago?  This time then, UofL WBB sported a roster of senior Myisha Hines Allen, junior Asia Durr, and freshman Dana Evans.  That team finished 36-3 and 15-1 in the ACC.  

When we lost my mom's dad, it was 2000 and the Cardinals were playing in Freedom Hall, they had a 19-10 record, were 14-2 and Conference USA champions and Martin Clapp 😵 was the head coach.  This is who I am named after, my grampa Darrell.   

My dad's parents live a couple states away and I try to call them a couple times a month to catch up.   They at least try to watch Louisville games when they are on the main channels because they know I will likely be watching too 💕 and then we can talk about them afterwards.   

CAMPUS NEWS

Hard to believe, February also begins this week which marks the transition for the Presidential administration... as UofL officially welcomes its 19th president, Kim Schatzel, to campus.   

Welcome Madam President!! 

WBB

The Cardinals WBB squad has the Thursday game off this week and will look forward to Sunday's matchup with North Carolina at 12pm on ESPN2.

What's the message here today, you ask?  The lesson here kids is, Time Flies!  Enjoy it! Spend it with people you love!  And gosh darnit, wear your sunscreen!

Have a great Tuesday

As Always, 
Go Cards!

~Daryl 

Strong second half leads Cards WBB past Syracuse 79-67 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

HARRIS HAS 18 TO IMPROVE CARDS TO 7-4 IN ACC CONFERENCE 

Louisville women's basketball got a big boost from freshman Nyla Harris in Sunday's win over Syracuse, Harris was one of several surprise starters for the Cards against SU, along with Norika Konno and Mykasa Robinson, as Jeff Walz looked for ways to shake things up a bit and end the Cards two-game losing streak. Walz was proud of the new-to-the-starting lineup trio, as well as who came off the bench for the Cards. 

Still, there were some lapses and areas for improvement. Louisville had expanded a two-point, end of first quarter lead into a 12-point lead early in the second quarter, but fell prey to a 19-2 run from Syracuse to trail by five late in the quarter. In this game of runs, the Cards responded with a 5-0 run to tie the contest at 34-34 with 24 seconds until half...going in at the break trailing 36-34.

The end of the third quarter was when Louisville statred the run that peeled the Orange for good. With the contest tied at 54-54, after a Syracuse three, Louisville got a Carr three, two Robinson free throws and two Harris free throws in the final two minutes of the quarter. That completed the quarter on a 7-0 UofL run and gave Louisville a 61-54 lead. 

How would the fourth quarter go? Would the Cards be able to avoid a scoring lapse and actually create some distance on their foe? 

Yes, they were. Quite convincingly, in fact, for awhile, at least. To start the quarter, two Harris baskets in the paint made it 65-54. A Harris follow up for a bucket and Morgan Jones jumper made it 69-56. Two free throws from Jones culminated a 14-2 UofL run and had the Cards comfortably in front and a Carr bucket pushed Louisville to a 75-56 lead with 5:29 left in the game. 

The Cards would gather only two more buckets the rest of the way-- baskets by Liz Dixon, but even a game-ending four minute, 9-0 Orange run could not catch the Cards and Louisville gets the regular season sweep over Syracuse. A scary ending for Morgan Jones, who sprained her ankle with 2:36 to play. 79-67, down from a 21-point lead at one time, but a nice, needed road win for the Cards Sunday.

A game of huge implications and proportions. Louisville goes into their bye week in a knot for fourth place with teams that have four losses in conference (NC State, Virginia Tech and Miami) and just two games back of league leading at 8-2 in Notre Dame and Duke. The Cards have yet to face the Irish. 

Sometimes, it's good to rest up a bit and watch the rest of the league beat each other up. 

Big tips of the cap for Sunday performances by Kasa Robinson (12 assists, seven rebounds and five steals ! ) and Liz Dixon (11 points in 25 minutes). 

(Walz put his cheaters on to go over the game plan with J. Fred Muggs )

THE FRED REPORT

FREE THROWS -- 13 for 14 from the charity stripe is going  to help you win a lot of games and that's how the Cards shot it from the stripe today.  CAPITAL "F". no question...

REBOUNDS -- the Cards squeak by here 39-37 and we've already mentioned the heroics of Robinson and Nyla Harris. You win the game, you win the rebounding battle and you win a CAPITAL "R".

EFFORT/EXECUTION -- 25 assists on 31 made baskets is excellent, Louisville also had a whopping 35-7 advantage on points off the fast break. They also won the points off turnovers 27-17. We proudly bestow a CAPITAL "E"

DEFENSE -- The Cards had 14 steals, six blocked shots and look good *most* of the time. Those periods where they couldn't stop the Syracuse runs were a bit anxious, though . I'll go with a small case 'd'

FINAL FRED REPORT :  F-R-E-d

 

A much needed road win in a lot of aspects. Does Walz stay with this new starting five? Can Kasa stay hot all over the court? Will Nyla Harris just get better and better? Things we'll find out next Sunday, when Louisville faces UNC in the KFC.

POST GAME WALZ:  JEFF WALZ POST SYRACUSE 1/29/23

POST GAME HARRIS: NYLA HARRIS POST SYRACUSE 1/29/233

paulie..

A Busy Saturday and Basketball Sunday - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Track and Field

Case shared some of the first day results of the Lenny Lyles Invitational Track and Field Event at the Norton Healthcare Sports and Learning Center at 30th and Market.  We've got a couple of good finishes to report, both in jumping events.

Louisville has traditionally fielded some pretty good throwers, but it seems recently that jumping seems to be where the excellence is happening.  Of course, last year Gabriela Leon competed at the national level in pole vault, and former volleyballer Emily Scott won the ACC in high jump.

Scott is back and competing well, but she's joined by Soledad Jean who was the top UofL high jumper, clearing 1.75m (Scott cleared 1.70m).

Another third place in the triple jump, with a personal best jump of 12.72m for Alba Cuns Iglesias.

Track and Field heads to South Bend next week for the Meyo Invitational hosted by Notre Dame.  The event will span Friday and Saturday, the 3rd and 4th of February.

Tennis

Two events for Tennis yesterday.  They started the day, at noon, against Ball State.

The Indiana Cardinals got the doubles point to start, winning on the first two courts.  They'd go on to pick up the first two single court points, putting the Louisville team on the verge of defeat.  Cici Xin would hold off the defeat with a win on court five.  They did need a tie-break in the second set to decide the match, but Louisville would get the point.

The rest of the courts all went three sets.  Andrea DePalma got the win on court one, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, to pull another point back in the overall.  Ball State would take the victory on court three to clench the overall match.  Tatiana Simova would get the comeback win on court six, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 to keep the overall close at 4-3.

The evening session would be better for the Cards.  With Eastern Kentucky entering the Bass-Rudd at 5pm.

UofL would get the doubles point with a pair of convincing wins at 6-1, and 6-1 on both courts two and three.  Jamilah Snells and Cici Xin got the win on court two, while Rhea Verma and Sasha Gorchanyuk won court three.  Andrea DiPalma and Tatiana Simova were in the lead at 6-5 on court one when they called it to got going on the singles courts.

EKU got on the board at court one when Andrea DiPalma had to retire from the match, and we're hoping it's not anything too terribly significant that caused that.  Louisville would then just run the rest of the board.  Rhea Verma winning 6-2, 6-1; Maria Campos winning 7-5, 6-0; Cici Xin winning 6-0, 6-3; Tyra Richardson winning 6-0, 6-0; and Sasha Gorchanyuk winning 6-3, 6-1.

The team heads to Nashville on Friday to take on Vanderbilt, with the time yet to be announced.

Swim and Dive

Coming off of a narrow loss to a well ranked Indiana squad, the Cards were looking for a win, and Cincinnati was the victim.

Swimming at the Ralph Wright Natatorium on Floyd Street, the Cards more than doubled up the score on Cincinnati, winning 198-92.

Some of the highlights include the 200 medley relay team comprised of Fernanda Gomes Celidonio, Gabi Albiero, Tristen Ulett, and Karoline Barrett touching the wall first.  Paige Kuwata touched first in the much longer 1650 freestyle.  The 200 freestyle individual was completely owned by the Cards with Julia Dennis, Christina Regenauer, and Ella Welch touching one, two, and three.

Paige Hetrick won the 100 backstroke, Madie Hall won the 200 fly,  Ella Welch (22.32), and Karoline Barrett finished one and two in the 50 free sprint, and Julia Dennis won the 100 free.  Fernanda Gomes Celidonio and Cecilaa Viberg took the top two spots on the podium in 200 breaststroke.  Liberty Williams topped the field in the 500 free.  Gabi Albiero set a pool record 51.40 in the 100 fly, and let's remember, there's been a pretty darn good butterflyers in this Louisville pool in years past.

Abby Hay finished off the individual events with a win in the 400 IM.  At the south end of the facility, Else Prassterink, Lindsay Gizzi, and Grace Leonard swept the podium in platform diving.  Also, Gizzi, Jiselle Miller, and Leonard took the whole podium in 3m springboard.

And finally, Julia Dennis, Ella Welch, Karoline Barrett, and Paige Kuwata finished first in the 200 free relay.

It was really just a dominating performance for the Cards on Senior Day.  The men's side of the competition also won in similarly dominating fashion.

Basketball Gameday

Now we get to look ahead to today's event.  Basketball is in Syracuse to take on the revamped Orange.  Gone are the days when you could hear crickets in the Carrier Dome with crowd of under 200 in a facility that seats 33,000 for basketball.  These days Syracuse are drawing anywhere from about 1,500 to 3,000 for WBB games.  Crowds that size are probably still lost in what is now called the JMA Wireless Dome, those are respectable numbers.

So where does Syracuse stand in the Atlantic Chaos Conference?  They're currently in 9th, with a .500 record of 5-5, 14-7 overall.  The two non-conference losses are to Penn State and Purdue, neither of which strike me as being particularly egregious, but looking at the non-conference win column, nothing really jumps out at me as being particularly impressive either.

In conference, a previous loss to us, along with losses to NC State, Notre Dame, and Duke are not terrible but a loss to Georgia Tech is starting to look a bit bad as Georgia Tech continues to settle towards the bottom of the standings.  The best conference win for them so far is against Clemson, who are at 4-6 in conference, so not spectacular, but not terrible, either.

The last time we face the 'Cuse, Hailey Van Lith went off for 24 points with a handful of rebounds and assists to boot.  Olivia Cochrane, Morgan Jones, and Chrislyn Carr all tallied double digit points as well.

On the Syracuse side, Teisha Hyman dropped 27 on us in that game.  The last time a Syracuse player played like that against us, she was wearing a UofL jersey the next year and went on to be drafted in the WNBA.  Dyaisha Fair is generally the scoring threat for the Orange, averaging almost 20 ppg, with Hyman averaging just shy of 12.

The ACC Network linear channel is carrying the game today with a noon start.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

It was back to four of a kind with Case, Daryl, Paulie, and myself for the CCRHP yesterday.  Lots of basketball discussion, as we picked apart what's going on with this team, and why it's struggling compared to what we typically expect from UofL WBB.

Check it out at anchor.fm:

https://anchor.fm/cardinal-couple/episodes/Basketball-Struggles-e1u4v8h

Another Track Record and a Tough Swimming Loss -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Successful on Day One of Lenny Lyles Invitational

After setting a school record in the long jump two weeks ago, Synclair Savage decided that it was rather fun and elected to do it again. Her 6.44 from a couple of weeks ago would have won the event again this week, but she pushed the jump to 6.52m (~21' 4.5") this week. The distance set a facility and meet record, as well, and Savage followed it up with a second place finish in the 60m dash. She was second only to teammate Taylor Herbert, who posted a time just 0.02 seconds faster. The top four finishers in the event broke the previous meet record of 7.47s, with Herbert finishing in 7.39s.

The Cards didn't see a  ton of success in other events, but they did finish second and fifth in the Open Pole Vault (Carly Pujol and Lily Fleetwood) and Aliyah Welter grabbed a podium in third in the seeded event. The Lenny Lyles Invitational continues at the Norton Sports and Learning Center at 11AM today.

Cards Fall to IU at Home

Louisville invited the Hoosiers into the Ralph Wright Natatorium yesterday evening and the men, at least, got splashed around. The Cards lost 193-10 on that side of the pool, while the women fared better but still came up short. The sixth-ranked Louisville squad was "upset" by the ninth-ranked team from Indiana by a score of just 155-145. Louisville's day opened with a victory in the 200 medley relay. They would go on to end the day with a victory in the 200 free relay as well, but Indiana was able to make up the difference in the middle. 

Despite the loss, Louisville had quite a bit of individual success. In addition to the two relay victories, the Cards got a win in the 200 fly (Tristen Ulett), had a podium sweep (Gabi Albiero, Christiana Regenauer, and Julia Dennis) of the 50 free, and had 1-2 finishes in the 100 free (Albiero, Ella Welch) and 100 fly (Regenauer, Ulett). 

It's a short rest for the Cards as they're back in action today against Cincinnati. Today's event begins at Noon in the Ralph Wright Natatorium, and the day will begin with Senior Day festivities.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We're back for yet another week, although the basketball conversations may be a bit more sour than last week. We'll be without Jared this week, but the rest of the crew will be on board to try to keep on track with the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics despite the recent results. As always, you can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. 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

Anchor (podcast host): Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case