Volleyball #2 in First Committee Rankings -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Committee Rankings

Similar to how we see the committees for women's basketball and men's basketball release their top rankings every so often leading up to the NCAA Selection Show, we saw the same with volleyball as the committee released their first top-10 of the season.

Texas (11-0) has been the unanimous #1 across multiple polls in this one is no different. Without a blemish on their record and four ranked wins, it's hard to argue that.

Louisville (13-1) comes in at #2. The Cards moved to 6-1 against ranked opponents with their win against Georgia Tech, a win total that's hard to top, but the loss to Ohio State prevents them from taking the top spot.

San Diego (13-1) is #3. This is probably the most surprising one to me when you compare it to their #25 preseason ranking. The only loss for the Toreros this season came to Louisville in the Cards' home opener. USD has looked quite impressive this year with three ranked wins already despite not being in a Power Five conference.

Nebraska (12-1) is #4. Last year's runner-up continues to be excellent year in and year out. They suffered a semi-surprising loss at home to Stanford, but has three ranked wins and has looked good in each of them.

Pitt (14-2) comes in at #5. The only other team in the ACC in the top-10 sits a bit high in my book. Their season opening loss to San Diego doesn't look so bad now. However, a 3-1 loss at home to an unranked Towson isn't good. To be fair, Towson is 16-0 on the year with a pair of Power Five wins, but nonetheless, a loss to an unranked team at home should knock you down further.

Ohio State (7-5) is #6. This has led to a bit of a debate across the volleyball world. The Buckeyes opened the season with back-to-back losses to Texas and followed it with a loss to San Diego. Their other losses are to Pitt and Nebraska, both ranked ahead of them. They do have ranked wins against Louisville, Georgia Tech, and BYU, all on the road or at neutral sites, which is quite impressive. But still, five losses is a lot to be a borderline top-four seed.

Oregon (10-2) is #7. The Ducks dropped back-to-back matches to ranked teams Minnesota and Penn State at Minnesota but bounced back by taking down Stanford shortly after. The toughest part of their schedule is over as the Pac-12 seems to be having a slightly down year so things should get easier for them.

Stanford (8-4) is #8. All of their losses are to ranked teams- Texas, Louisville, Oregon, and Penn State- but they also have wins against ranked Nebraska, Minnesota, Florida, and Washington. Their loss to Oregon seems to be the biggest reason their a spot behind the Ducks.

Purdue (13-1) is #9. Their sole loss came from Louisville. Their strength of schedule is a bit on the down side up to this point but did they did sweep Minnesota and have looked good in their non-conference matches. The Big Ten is always tough in volleyball so we'll get a better feel for the Boilermakers in a few weeks.

Minnesota (7-5) rounds at the top grouping at #10. Another team that causes some debate due to five losses, the Golden Gophers lost to ranked teams in Texas, Stanford, Pepperdine, and Purdue, but did lose at home to a receiving votes Northwestern team. Wins against Baylor, Florida, Oregon, Wisconsin, and receiving votes Washington State help build the resume back up. Still, five losses and one of them coming to an unranked team makes me feel they're ranked a tad high.

The committee seems to really emphasize matches against ranked opponents- even the losses- above everything else. Head-to-head records seem to make quite an impact as well.

Louisville still has three ranked matches remaining- two against Pitt and one against Georgia Tech- which appears to only help their resume further. Next on the schedule for Louisville is a trip to the northeast with matches against Boston College (13-5, 1-3 ACC) and Syracuse (8-6. 4-0 ACC).

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Field Hockey and Volleyball get Sunday Wins --MONDAY CARDNAL COUPLE

 

A good Sunday for a couple of Louisville women's sports squads, as #5 Cards Field Hockey went to VCU and emerged with a 3-1 win and #2 Louisville Volleyball defended the LNFCU with a four-set win over Georgia Tech. 

Let's look at them. 

FIELD HOCKEY RUNS BY RAMS 3-1

Louisville Field Hockey bounced back from Friday's loss at UVA with a 3-1 win at VCU. The rain from Hurricane Ian made things a little wet for both squads, but the Cards recovered from a slow start to outscore the home-standing Rams. 

Louisville's offense was slow-starting but their defense was solid, as the squads battled through a scoreless first quarter. The Cards got a penalty corner awarded with 9:41 gone in the second quarter, though, and Julie Kouijzer fired a shot past the VCU goalkeeper to put the Cards on top with a 1-0 lead. Aimee Plumb got the assist on the score. It was the Cards first shot on goal in the match. 

It looked as if that would be the lone score for the first half, but the Cards were awarded another penalty corner with 28 seconds left in the half. This time, it was Katie Schneider taking the shot and she fired one past VCU goalkeeper Sheridan Messier to give UofL a 2-0 lead. Mattie Tabor got the assist on the Cards second score. 

VCU cut the Cards lead in half with four minutes gone in the third quarter, but the Cards allowed no more scores for the Rams the rest of the way. 

Louisville picked up a third goal midway through the fourth quarter when Mia Duchars fired a shot at goal that was blocked. Aimee Plumb was there, though, to retrieve the blocked shot and fired it back at the goal with a reverse-stick shot for the match's final score. 

A good win for Louisville, in a game that was pretty much statistically even, except for the finally score. Both squads took eight shots, and each of them had six of those shots as shots on goal. The Cards goalkeeper Sasha Elliott had five saves, compared to Messier's three. 

Louisville goes to 9-2 with the win and will return to the road next weekend with a Friday trip to #17 Wake Forest and a Sunday visit to #14 Liberty. The Cards win broke a four-game VCU win streak and set the Rams record at 7-4. 

VOLLEYBALL DOWNS GA TECH IN FOUR SETS

(No, Jared did not show up at  the wrong facility Sunday.
It was the swim team's annual "shedding of the clothes" ritual.)

Maybe slow starts were the order of the day Sunday....as Louisville Volleyball dropped their first set to the Yellow Jackets but came back to take the final three sets in a 22-25, 25-14, 25-20, 25-21 win before a sold out crowd and clothes-shedding swim team in the LNFCU. 

Claire Chaussee had 16 kills for the #2 Cards and Elena Scott had a career high 26 digs to lift the Cards to 13-1 on the season, with a sparkling 4-0 ACC mark. Raquel Lazaro got the start and showed no ill effects with the ankle problem that sidelined her Friday, as she gathered 42 assists. 

The Cards looked a bit out of sync in set one and fell behind 5-3 early. Kills from Aiko Jones, Amaya Tillman and Nena Mbonu tied the contest up at 8-8, though. Tech, however, had amassed a 15-13 lead at the media break and stretched that out to 17-13, necessitating a Cards timeout.  Louisville tied it at 18-18 but Georgia Tech went from a 23-22 lead to score the final two points and pull of the 25-22 set win. 

Did that upset UofL? It sure seemed like it as the match progressed. The Cards trailed 7-4 early in set two, but they tied the set at 8-8 and then grabbed a 14-11 advantage. Louisville was just getting started and outscored the Yellow Jackets 11-3 the rest of the way. Aiko Jones had seven kills in the set and Ceci Rush had back-to-back service aces to even the sets at 1-1 with a lopsided 25-14 set triumph. That first set loss had become a distant memory. 

Louisville came out hot after the halftime break and jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third set, but GT rallied to turn the tables and take a 7-4 advantage. The Cards rallied to tie the set at 9-9 and then the squads bounced back and forth until the Ramblin' Wreck surged to a 15-13 lead at the media break. PK Kong helped spur a Cards rally with a block and kill to push them ahead 18-16 and force the Yellow Jackets to take a timeout. Tech battled back to trail by one at 20-19, and the Cards decided to stop the action and talk about it. After the pause, Jones had a kill for UofL and the Cards outpaced the visitors in points to take a well-deserved 25-20, with consecutive kills from Tillman and Chaussee closing out the set.. 

The Cards grabbed a 5-1 lead to begin the final, as it turned out, set and was up 8-5 before Tech rallied to tie things up at 9-9. Louisville and Tech battled to a Cards 15-13 edge at the media timeout. Louisville's defense and a Jones kill helped the Cards go up 20-16 after the media pause. GT had one last spurt in them and cut the Cards lead to 20-18. A  service error from the Atlanta institute and a Chaussee kill increased Louisville's lead to 22-18, though. A Jones kill made it 24-19 and Tillman ended the set and match with a kill to make it 25-20

A win before a national audience on ESPN and one that showed Louisville still had Georgia Tech's number.  Louisville did nothing to cause any doubt they shouldn't be #2 in the nation. #1 Texas swept Texas Tech in Lubbock to remain undefeated, so it's highly unlikely they'll lose the top spot in the standings

#2 Louisville begins a two-match road trip at Boston College on Friday  The Cards are atop the ACC with a 4-0 record, tied with Pitt and Syracuse. . 

(VOLLEYBALL PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON)

paulie

Rainy Soccer, Field Hockey and Volleyball on a Big Stage - Sunday Cardinal Couple

 Women's Soccer Loses to Pitt

Finishing out a brutal three game road trip against all top-15 teams, the Cards Women's Soccer team wasn't able to get it done against Pitt, losing 1-0.

It was a rainy one in the City of Bridges with the remnants of Ian making its presence felt.  Nothing severe, just quite a bit of rain.  The Cards had some chances to get on the scoreboard, including a late effort by the forward-pushing Ravin Alexander looking to equalize, but the Pittsburgh keeper made a great save.

Louisville did a great job blunting a high powered offense by Pitt.  The Panthers are averaging more than three goals per game and 20 shots with just short of 10 of those being on frame.  The Cards held them to 14 shots, with only four in the first half, and only three on frame.  Erynn Floyd had a great performance in goal for the Cards, with a pair of saves, including one that she was just barely able to deflect over the crossbar.

UofL was able to put two shots on frame, Savina Zamborini accounting for the other one alongside the Ravin Alexander effort mentioned above.

No coach will ever be truly happy with a moral victory but this might be about as close as you can get to that.  It would not have taken much falling Louisville's way to turn this into a draw, or even a win, against a top 15 team that's so well known for peppering the opponent's goal with shots.

Soccer returns home to Lynn Stadium for three games with Clemson, Boston College, and Notre Dame all making an appearance.  The Clemson game gets the homestand going at 7pm on Thursday.

Field Hockey

VCU is the opponent or Field Hockey today at 12:30.

Louisville is licking some wounds and looking to get back to wining after a mild upset by 7th ranked Virginia on Friday.

VCU is 7-3 on the season, have faced a pair of ranked teams, losing both.  The first was their season opener against then 17th ranked Delaware, and a couple of weeks ago against 13th ranked Saint Joseph's.  Both of those were 2-0 scores.  They have several wins against non-ranked teams that aren't exactly pushovers, including Columbia, Ohio, and Saint Louis.

Three main scoring threats for the Rams, Litiana Field has five goals in only eight games played, Bridget McCormick also has five goals, but has taken all 10 games to do it, while Camila Rosenbrock has found the back of the cage four times on the season.

Sheridan Messier will be the likely goalkeeper, and she has a decent statline with only 10 goals against on the season with 35 saves. She's a graduate transfer-in from University of Albany

Look for the Cards to come out angry after what felt like quite a lackluster performance at Virginia.  They'll have something to prove.  Richmond is still feeling some after affects from Ian, with some lingering drizzle and rain, but nothing severe is expected, hopefully better conditions than they experienced Friday.

It'll be a homecoming of sorts for Cards Goalkeeper Sasha Elliott, she spent four years as the Rams goalkeeper before coming to Louisville as a graduate student. 

Video for the game is only on ESPN+.

Volleyball

Once again, Volleyball gets the big stage, and I expect ESPN will again get what they're looking for with 11th ranked Georgia Tech coming in to L&N FCU Arena.  It should be an exciting match against the 2nd ranked Cardinals.

Georgia Tech arrives in Louisville with a 10-2 record.  Their loses were to Ohio State, which Louisville fans can certainly understand, and to Arkansas.  Now, before you scoff at a loss to Arkansas, a school not particularly known for Volleyball prowess, they are having a decent year.  The Razorbacks knocked off then 8th ranked Washington for the season opener, and GT was ranked 7th when Arkansas knocked them off.

GT did not play as stiff of a non-conference schedule as Louisville, but there are still some decent wins in there, with Illinois, Dayton, and BYU, all decent teams that were swept by the Yellowjackets.

Two of the three "Killer Bees" are still playing with Brambilla having graduated.  Bianca Bertolino does play second fiddle to Julia Bergmann with 89 kills on the season to 220.  Hanging right with Berolino, however, you also have Erin Moss who's put down 88.  The rest of the offense comes from Tamara Otene with 68 kills, and Breland Morrissette with 61.

The GT attack is not as potent this year, with the team only averaging .263 on the season, but they have held opponents to .182 hitting, so beware the Yellowjackets blocking.

Georgia Tech and Louisville are part of a 4-way tie for first place in the ACC, so this match will start to break that up.  To be technically correct, the best kind of correct, of course, Pitt currently holds the lead with a 4-0 conference record, but that's just because their conference matches were on Wed. and Fri. this week (wins over Virginia and Duke) and they'll be stepping out of conference today to play High Point.  The other contender at the top of the table is Syracuse.  They'll be playing Virginia Tech today, and hosting Notre Dame on Friday before we play them a week from today.  If they can handle VT today, it looks like it'll probably be up to us to hand them their first conference loss, because Notre Dame isn't looking great this year.

This match is part of a big push by ESPN this season of adding Volleyball into the programming on their flagship channel.  As mentioned last week, it started with what was clearly an experiment, and a successful one, at that, showing our match vs Kentucky, and quickly after more matches were elevated to the main channel, including two last Sunday and two today opposite NFL programming on Fox and CBS. 

 

Unfortunately, today is day two of a carriage contract dispute between Dish Networks (and its Sling subsidiary) and Disney so none of the Disney, ESPN, and some local ABC channels, are available on Dish or Sling right now.  We'll see how much that cuts down viewership numbers.

Start time at 1pm for this one, and I would say if you're a Dish or Sling subscriber, get down to L&N FCU Arena to watch it in person, but I believe it's already a sell out.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

"Turn up the daggone volume, them crazy Cardinal Couple boys are on !"

Case, Paulie, and myself were on the call for the CCRHP this week.  A good discussion of Field Hockey, Soccer, and Volleyball.  We were enjoying the fall weather, sharing our thoughts for those impacted by Hurricane Ian, and just generally enjoying being fans of UofL women's sports.

Check out the replay at anchor.fm or any significant podcast directory: https://anchor.fm/cardinal-couple/episodes/Volleyball-Continues-ACC-Reign-FH-and-Soccer-Stumble-e1olb6s

-- JMcA

Volleyball and Field Hockey Split Results -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Slow Start Dooms Cards at UVA

Hurricane Ian made its way toward the eastern seaboard yesterday, and the brass in Charlottesville took notice. As such, the field hockey match scheduled for 3PM was moved up a couple of hours to attempt to beat the weather. It seems as though the Louisville squad may not have gotten that memo, as a "conservative, passive, and reactive" start (per Coach Sowry in the postgame) allowed Virginia to jump out to a two goal advantage in the first quarter. Louisville would ultimately stop the bleeding, but they were unable to heal the wound. Louisville fell on the road 2-0.

The troubles started extremely early for Louisville, as Virginia got a breakaway attack just two minutes into the game. The rush resulted in a goal at the 2:26 mark, and Louisville found themselves facing the reality of playing an entire road game from behind. The response was... muted. Louisville was able to get a shot on goal later in the quarter, but not before Virginia had three more attempts, two requiring Sasha Elliott saves. Shortly after Louisville's unsuccessful attempt to tie the game, Virginia tried once more to extend their lead. Elliott was up to the task to save the shot, but she was unable to recover to save the rebounded effort. Virginia led 2-0 with four to go in the first quarter.

The second saw much of the same from Louisville's offense. That is to say, they didn't do a whole lot. To the Cards' credit, their shotless quarter was matched by Virginia's. The teams went into the locker room with nothing having changed over the previous 15 minutes. Louisville's locker room speech appeared to give the offense a bit of a boost, but it was short lived. After a saved shot resulted in a penalty corner which beget another shot, the Cards went cold once more, failing to register an attempt for the remainder of the third quarter. The defense, on the other hand, got busy again. Elliott was forced into a save on a shot from open play, and a later penalty corner saw Louisville face three straight attempts. Elliott saved two of three, with a third being blocked by a defender before it could make its way toward goal.

Louisville came out of the final break with a bit of desperation. That could be expected, as the score remained unchanged and time was running down. The Cards would put up six shots in the frame, with three coming on four corners and one coming on a penalty stroke, but they were unable to find the back of the cage. In the end, Louisville was outshot 12-9, and Virginia found the frame eight times compared to just four for Louisville.

Sasha Elliott continues to deserve praise. Although she comes away with two goals given up in this one, she also chalked up six saves. One of the two goals was on a rebound shot, which is always going to be tough. We talked about it on the show last week, but Louisville would be in one heck of a tough position if they hadn't landed Elliott as a graduate transfer. 

The loss drops Louisville to 0-2 in the ACC. While one match was against the second ranked Tar Heels and Virginia was ranked just two spots behind the Cards as of yesterday, the ACC is brutal. Louisville can now finish just 4-2 in conference. More alarming is the fact that Louisville has been outscored 5-0 in those two games. The Cards have outscored nonconference opponents 20-5. With the small format, Louisville is unlikely to find their way to a championship in the NCAA tournament without facing an ACC team. They'll need to show more against the league if they've got plans to go far in the NCAA tourney.

Louisville stays in the next commonwealth over for the remainder of the weekend as they'll take on VCU on Sunday. No ACC host means no ACC Network Extra, so this one will be on ESPN+. The whistle will blow at 12:30 PM.

Volleyball Sweeps Clemson with Rotated Side

With Anna DeBeer still out, Louisville would obviously be forced to make up the difference in another way, but the big surprise last night came in the form of a first start for Elle Glock in the setter position. Raquel Lazaro didn't play at all on Friday, so we'll have to see if Jeff has any more information about that. Louisville's site makes no mention of her absence, only that Glock did well in her first start for Louisville.

The Cards opened the match with a block, but Clemson responded with efficient play. As Daryl mentioned yesterday, the team was an NCAA leader in most offensive stats. That played itself out yesterday when Louisville had 18 kills and just one error while Clemson committed six errors but matched the Cards with 18 kills. The teams traded points early in the set before Clemson used a 5-0 run to take a 16-13 lead. Louisville was up for the challenge, though, calmly rattling off a 6-1 run of their own to regain the advantage. Short spurts continued for both sides before a Clemson service error halted any momentum they had and tied the set at 22. Louisville closed the door with three straight kills.

Louisville controlled the pace in the second set a bit more, getting out to an 8-4 lead early. Though the Tigers were able to close the gap back down to 8-7, the Cards held them to just two more instances of back-to-back points for the remainder of the set. On the other hand, Louisville put together another 4-0 run to stretch their lead a bit before ultimately going on to win the set a more comfortable 25-19. As has been common for the Cards, after an extremely crisp first set, they faltered a bit in the second and third. Louisville committed six errors in the second set and hit 0.303. That's still a fantastic rate, but it doesn't hold much of a candle to 0.531. The slide continued in the third.

Louisville once more committed six errors, and their kill number fell set over set again. The Cards hit 0.216 in the final set, but Clemson was unable to capitalize, hitting just 0.139 themselves. Like the first two sets, the third was a back and forth affair, but Louisville twice built a lead to match their largest of the night at six points. The Cards actually had that six point lead on three scoring occasions, but I hardly count the third as it came after trading one point. Ultimately, that traded point made the score 24-18 and gave the Cards six chances at match point. It would have been an uphill battle for the Tigers, but their fight was short lived. Louisville took the third set 25-20.

Claire Chaussee continued to light it up in DeBeer's absence. Chaussee finished with 19 kills on 31 assists and had just two errors. The rest of her stat line isn't much to write home about, but she did add six digs. That'll do just fine. Aiko Jones joined Chaussee in the double-digit club, scoring 11 kills on 19 assists. Jones also committed just two errors. Nena Mbonu made the most of her opportunity again, scoring nine kills on 21 attempts and committing just three errors. It was a quiet night for the Cards as far as blocks went, as the team finished with just five. No player had a solo block. It was a day to forget from the service line for both teams, as they went even on the serve. Louisville had one more ace (3-2) but leveled the playing field with one more error (7-6). 

Elle Glock impressed in her first start, getting 34 of the team's 41 assists, with six of the other seven going to Elena Scott when Glock was forced into a first hit. She finished with two assisted blocks and five digs while hitting 0.000 with one kill and one error on three attempts. Elena Scott wanted to get in on the offensive fun in addition to her normal duties, as she went for two attempts and earned two kills.

Overall, Louisville has taken care of business in DeBeer's (and now Lazaro's, apparently) absence, and the win gave them their 32nd straight ACC victory. They'll have a big test next, though, as the Techsters come to town on Sunday. One of the two teams will walk out of the L&N Federal Credit Union Arena tied with Pitt atop the ACC standings at 4-0. Syracuse will take on Virginia Tech on Sunday to see if they can remain undefeated as well. Georgia Tech has something in common with Louisville this season, as they've both lost to Ohio State at home. The 11th ranked Yellowjackets dropped their next match as well, falling to 24th ranked (at the time) Arkansas. Those are their only two losses, though they may match that number by next week as they'll host Pitt on 10/9. 

Louisville and GT get things started at 1PM on ESPN, where they'll be the first match of the day. It's always better to be first in this situation, as we've noted repeatedly, due to the volatile length of volleyball matches. Either way, head down to campus or tune in for what should be an exciting one.

(Clemson vs Louisville Volleyball photos by Jared Anderson}

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

(Another throwback picture of "the original three" Case, Jeff and Paulie) 

We'll be without Jared and no Daryl this week. It'll be a busy show, as we've had plenty of ranked matchups throughout this week. It's not all sunshine and roses, but I promise to try to be less down on the soccer team. It's easier when Paulie only gives me a couple of minutes to express my misery. 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!

Case

#4 FH and #2 VolleyCards GAMEDAY -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Good morning readers, and thanks for checking back in with Cardinal Couple.  

The weather has seemed to have caught up with the season -- hoodie season!! Baseball has officially ended for the year.   

It's game-day for a couple UofL squads looking to stay atop of the national rankings.. Field Hockey on the road and Volleyball at home.  Let's look into those matchups. 

VOLLEYBALL

#2 Louisville vs Clemson

7:00PM
L&N Arena

After a four-game series on the road, the Cards are back at home this weekend looking to improve to 12-1 on the season as they welcome ACC foe Clemson to town Friday night.

 The Cards have swept their last 2 opponents in 3 sets. Claire Chaussee was named AVCA and ACC Player of the Week finished the weekend with 26 kills, one ace, eight digs, and two blocks.

The Tigers are 9-5 on the season after dropping two matches at home this past weekend to Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.  As a team, Clemson is 14th in team assists (699) in the NCAA, 16th in kills (751) and 28th in service aces (98)
In the ACC, the Tigers hold the top spot in digs and total attacks as of earlier in the week. 

Against Virginia Tech, Junior Cate Long finished with a career-high 21 kills off 55 attacks surpassing her previous best of 15. She is second on the team with 15 aces and has had double digit kills in the previous four matches.

Sophomore libero Devan Taylor had a career-high 29 digs against Virginia Tech. She leads the team and the conference with 255 total digs and is 29th in the NCAA. 

Junior Camryn Hannah leads the conference in kills (220) and points (243.5), she is second in total attacks (485) and is third in kills per set (4.00) and points per set (4.43)  She’s tallied at least 20 attacks in 13 matches this season and had 11 matches with double-digit kills.

Louisville and Clemson have met ten times with the Cardinals leading the series 10-0. When they met in 2021, UofL swept the Tigers at Clemson.

This one will be available on the ACC Network Extra.

FIELD HOCKEY

#5 Louisville at #7 Virginia
3:00PM

ACCNX

The Cards secured a 2-0 victory over Indiana last Friday to bring an 8-1 record into this match. The win marked Louisville's second straight shutout and the third on the season. Friday's contest at Virginia marks the fifth time Louisville has face a ranked opponent - the Cards are 3-1 in those games with wins against then-No. 4 Michigan, No. 13 Princeton and No. 11 Penn State.

Virginia brings a 5-3 overall record and a 1-1 mark in ACC play into the contest with the Cards.

UVA leads the overall series 9-8, with Louisville winning the regular-season meeting last year 1-0, but Virginia topped the Cardinals in a shootout in the semifinals of the ACC Championship.

Goalkeeper Sasha Elliott leads the ACC in saves per game (5.11) and save percentage (0.852). Her save percentage is second in the NCAA.

This will be the fifth ranked opponent for the Cavaliers in a row, going 2-2 over the previous 4 matches which including a 3-2 win over #13 St Josephs and a 3-0 win over #11 Syracuse. They moved up three spots in the polls as result.

Senior Cato Geusgens scored two goals against Syracuse. It was the third multi-goal game of her career and the first since her freshman season. 

Senior Laura Janssen leads the Cavaliers with seven goals this season. She ranks fourth in the ACC in goals per game (0.88) and 13th in the NCAA.  Janssen has seven goals in eight games this season and has scored in all but two games this season.

Virginia has four players ranked in the top-10 in the conference in assists per game. 

Freshman goalkeeper Jet Trimborn was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Week, the first Cavalier to earn a conference Player of the Week honor this year.

It's a return to the unique Virginia Field Hockey blue turf. As they used to say in the old days, no need to adjust the color on your viewing device, yes, it's actually blue turf. Fraternity prank gone wrong? Clearance sale at Carpet World? We can't say for sure, but I bet the white ball really stands out on it. I expect a UK fan would be in heaven on this turf...

Lets wrap up the month of September on a high note! 

Go Cards!!

-Daryl 

Basketball TV Schedule Announced -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Women's Basketball TV Schedule Announced

Louisville women's basketball announced its tv schedule. Of the 30 regular season games, 18 are slated to be on national television. Five of those games are slated for ESPN/ESPN2/ABC.

The Cards open up the season at home against Cincinnati, which will be viewable on ACC Network. When UofL takes on Ohio State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge to close out November, ACC Network will be the host station again.

The Battle for the Bluegrass at Rupp Arena this year will command the ESPN spotlight. Remember the last sport that Louisville and Kentucky faced each other in? A certain UofL squad went to Memorial Coliseum and won in five sets on ESPN.

FS1 will be the host station when Louisville and DePaul square off right before Christmas.

Louisville opens conference play against Pitt, which you can catch on ACC Network. Most of the ACC schedule will be mixed between one of the ESPN channels, ACC Network, and the regional sports network. For UofL games, that often falls onto Bally Sports, a network that has caused plenty of controversy recently because of its limited access for a good chunk of the fan base.

NC State will be on ABC. North Carolina will be on ESPN2. The two-game split against Notre Dame will be on ESPN. I guess the Cards vs Irish rivalry continues to draw outside interest.

Although the non-tv schedule streaming options appear to be on ACC Network Extra, road games are beyond Louisville's control.

Louisville in the Bahamas has no tv or streaming listed at this time. The games at Middle Tennessee and Bellarmine (in Freedom Hall)) also don't have tv or streaming listed.

All tv game schedules are subject to change, but assuming Louisville continues to remain a top team, there should be no concern.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Women's Golf in Schooner Classic -- Mini WBB Ticket plans available -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

WOMEN'S GOLF FINISHES 12 IN SCHOONER CLASSIC

The Louisville women's golf team finished up play Monday in the Schooner Classic, out in Norman, OK and hosted by Oklahoma University. The Cards got a big effort from sophomore Carmen Griffiths and finished in 12th out of 16 squads with a total of +11 for the 54 hole match. . Griffiths led Louisville with a 8 under par 202 and finished in third place in the standings, after leading through 36 holes. 68, 65 and 69 was the breakdown off her three rounds.  

It was Griffiths career best total and single round scores, It was also her first time finishing in the top five of a tournament in the states. She's out of Aboyne, Scotland.

The event was won by Florida (-12 under par) by three strokes over TCU (-9 under par).

 

(Lauren Thibodeau)

The five Cards who participated were Griffiths, Gabbi Bentancourt (70-70-71=211) She tied for 27th. Lauren Thibodeau (77-72-71=220) T-66th, Mairead Martin (74-76-74=224) T-77th and Rylee Suttor 74-80-71=225) T-80th.

Other schools participating were Oklahoma St., Houston, Baylor, Oklahoma (two teams), Iowa St., Clemson, Tulsa, Va. Tech, North Texas, UTSA, Illinois, and Texas State. 

It's a younger group of Cardinals that started in the Schooner, with Sutton being the only senior of the five. Other golfers on the squad are Agustina Gomez Cisterna, Carly Haines, Ryann Honea, Molly Lyne and Hana Ryskova. 

The Cards return to action in the Blessings Tournament (Fayetteville, Ark) Oct  3-5.

WBB Mini-Plans

Louisville WBB has released a five-game mini plan available for purchase that costs $60 and includes Pitt (Jan.8th), NC St (Jan 22nd). UNC (Feb 5th), Clemson (Feb 12th) and Notre Dame (Feb 26th). All are Sunday games. Times haven't been made official yet. . 

It looks like it could be a decent outing for a family. A family of 4 could attend for $48, plus parking and beverages at the game. 

And, it includes some pretty decent ACC foes, including NC State, UNC and Notre Dame. 

You can still get season tickets as well. For more WBB ticket information, go to: 

www.gocards.com/wbbtickets

paulie