Synclair Savage Named ACC Women's Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Savage Joins Two Other Cardinals Over Last Four Years

Photo by GoCards

Following an incredibly successful outdoor spring season, Synclair Savage was named the ACC Women's Outdoor Athlete of the Year. Savage won the NCAA East Regional long jump with a mark of 6.64m. This qualified her for the NCAA Championships, where she set a program record in the same event with a 6.72m mark, winning the national championship.

Savage joined Jayden Ulrich (2024) and Gabriela Leon (2022) as recent UofL women's track and field athletes to earn the honor. 

She finishes her collegiate career having one of the most decorated seasons in Louisville history. Savage won six of the seven events she competed in this season. Five of the top 10 marks in program history came this season from the fifth-year senior.

As we have hit the halfway point of the 2025 and Louisville's fiscal year, we can now fully turn our attention to the upcoming fall sports season.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

UofL shifting structurally this week -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Good morning readers,

Last day of June already... its been 6 months since Wedding day!

On campus, changes are happening this week where financial systems are converting to new ones on July 1st and the HR dept is also restructuring so it'll be another busy one for me.

There was a budget meeting on campus this past week too in which resulted in the following email to be sent out to the UofL community resulting from decisions made by the board:

"Unfortunately, the challenges facing the university made a tuition increase necessary this budget year. Athletics also will implement a student fee beginning in fall 2025 in support of student-athlete services and student experiences. These were difficult decisions for us, understanding that finances remain the main obstacle to students pursuing higher education."

International Basketball

Elif Istanbulluoglu and the Turkish national team didnt win the FIBA championship but they did qualify for the World Cup.  Elif appeared in 3 games scoring 4 points, a steal, a rebound and an assist in 21 total minutes on the floor.  

As Always,
Go Cards
~Daryl

Jurich ceremony a good start...now lets get him reinvolved in the athletic program --SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 It'sTime To Bring Tom Home

While the Saturday ceremony on campus for Tom Jurich was long overdue and a wonderful sight to see, let's hope it is just the start of his re-introduction to Cardinals Athletics. 

The Tom Jurrich Ceremony

We were a powerhouse in athletics during the Jurich reign, and he certainly would be a huge help to Josh on campus in restoring the Cards to the top of the heap. 

True, we are in the ACC now, and the conference isn't going to roll over and play dead to Louisville athletics to establish superiority...but Jurich always had a knack of getting coaches who could get the best players and this coaching tree that women's athletics has now would no doubt be thrilled to have him back sharing ideas and helping Josh Heird continue to build this program. 

The federal investigation that eventually led to Jurich's termination was a witch hunt...there are so many program who have done far worse, and the board of trustees were idiots for getting rid of the architect of what we see today on campus. 

CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR PODCAST

We have much more on this on our weekly Cardinal Couple podcast. Give it a listen below: 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast 6/28/15

paulie

 

Tom Jurich Ceremony Today -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Ceremony Celebrating Jurich on Campus Today

We talked last week about UofL's announcement of Tom Jurich Way coming on a random weekday and how there should be more pomp around it. I'm sure that it's not because of that conversation, but UofL is having a ceremony to honor Jurich today. It's not a curtain call at a football game, but it's still a great celebration. 

Today's ceremony will begin at 10am, so there's still time to get down to campus if you're reading this early. Tom Jurich will speak, and he'll be preceded by John Ramsey and Mayor Craig Greenberg. The event will be held at the Lenny Lyles Plaza between Cardinal Park and Ulmer Stadium. The event is open to the public and fans are encouraged to attend free of charge. 

I spoke last week on the show about how Jurich was Louisville athletics to me growing up. I'm thrilled to see that the relationship between him and the University appears to be on the mend, and I hope that he can act as a somewhat of an advisor to Josh Heird going forward to continue to propel the program in the right direction. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We're back again this week with another threesome on the teebox. Jared, Paulie, and I will talk mostly about the schedules this week as we try to make our way through the summer slump. We'll be off next week for the July 4th holiday weekend, so tune in this week to stay up on the news before the break. Check out the show after it posts around 1PM, and be sure to subscribe so that it comes to your feed automatically. 

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Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

2025 Volleyball Schedule Announced -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Good morning readers, 

Welcome back to the weekend.   Hopefully some cooled off temps are in our near future as the week was a blistering one here in Louisville.  

Photo: Jared Anderson

Another fall sports schedule has been unveiled as the VolleyCARDS program announced its 2025 slate so lets take a closer look. 

What stands out to first is that the Cards will open the season hosting the annual Cardinal Classic where we welcome Auburn, Morehead State and St. John's to L&N Arena over Labor Day weekend with the final match tipping off at 3pm Monday afternoon.  

After that, they'll head downtown for a bout with the fighting Illini at the KFC Yum! Center.

Next, theyll head to Ft. Worth Texas for a 'neutral site' matchup with the Texas Longhorns in the inaugural Shriners Showdown.  Pitt and UK will also be in town for their own catfight. 

The following weekend, UofL heads to Omaha to face off in the Bluejay Invitational hosted by Creighton and then will head back to Louisville for some rivalry matchups with UK and WKU at the KFC Yum! Center.  

The Cardinals will then open conference play with 20 total matchups ending around Thanksgiving.    I did notice that UofL will face off with Notre Dame in back to back matchups in a home and away series on Halloween weekend. 

As Always, 
Go Cards

~Daryl 

WSOC Adds More Twins -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Sign Morris Sisters

Louisville women's soccer was already set to have one pair of twins on the roster in the 2025-26 season with incoming freshman Karina and Kiley Peat from Wilmington, North Carolina. If that wasn't enough, though, their quantity of twins will be twice as nice as the team announced the signing of Taylor and Trista Morris earlier this week. 

Photos from Racing Louisville via GoCards

The Morris sisters were committed to join UofL next year anyway, but Karen Ferguson-Dayes will get the talented local products a season sooner as the two decided to reclassify and leave high school one year earlier. Out of the J. Graham Brown School, the two play club soccer for Racing Louisville. About the two, KFD had this to say: "Super excited to add Taylor and Trista to our 2025 class. Taylor is a dangerous and elusive forward who has a knack for scoring goals and Trista is an excellent defender who has the ability to play centrally or wide at the back! Both Taylor and Trista are high level athletes and it just made sense to start their development now!"

In high school, Taylor scored 104 goals and had 23 assists. She was a second team All-State honoree and twice was named first team All-Region and first team All-District. Trista scored 36 goals and had 41 assists out of the back. She was All-State honorable mention, made the All-Region first team twice, and was named to the All-A Tournament team three times. 

As a former high school soccer player in Louisville, two talented players coming out of Brown caught me off guard. When I played (which was getting to be quite a while ago at this point), Brown fielded a co-ed team and were regularly run off the pitch. For them to have developed not only a girls program but a fairly good one is a testament to the growth of soccer in the city since Louisville City and Racing Louisville set up shop. 

As we get ever closer to opening day (August 14th), we'll soon see players wrapping up their summer club duties and getting together on the training grounds at UofL. The addition of the Morris sisters means that Louisville will have 11 newcomers to the squad this season, so the sooner they can start to gel as a team the better. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Report on Turkey women's national basketball team -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 TURKEY NARROWLY LOSES TO ITALY TO GO TO 2-1

They went to overtime, in this battle of two undefeated squads in the European Euroleague women's basketball quarterfinals, but Italy prevailed over Jeff Walz, Elif Istanbulluoglu and the Turks 76-74 in quarterfinal action. The loss drops the Turks to 2-1 in Group A and they are tied for fifth among the 16 teams participating. 

Elif, a 6'2" power forward on the Turkiye senior squad, hasn't exactly been leading the squad, but has played twice, according to the FIBA stats..with two points in two games. she did not see the court in the loss to Italy. One has to do a lot of searching to find the information on the European results and get a box score, I discovered, in the preparation of today's article

France leads Group A at 3-0, followed by 2-1 Turkey, 1-2 Greece and 0-3 Switzerland. 

Italy leads Group B at 3-0, Belgium leads Group C at 3-0 and Spain leads Group D at 3-0. 

Turkey defeated Greece and Switzerland before losing to the Italians. 

The 16 teams that compete in the league are Turkey, Italy, France, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Lithuania, Serbia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Portugal, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Great Britain.

The Turkey team also has on the roster a name Cardinals fans will remember in Teaira McCowan.She played at Mississippi State. She left the WNBA's Dallas Wings temporarily, as did a few other WNBA players, to go play in Europe, but will rejoin them when the tournament is over. We follow the Wings fairly closely here at Cardinal Couple since Myisha Hines-Allen and Paige Bueckers play for them, but...they are just 3-12 on the season, tied for the worst record in the league. 

Good luck to all our former D! American players in the FIBA games. 

paulie

Cardinal Closet Update -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Good morning readers, 

Daryl checking back in.   Appreciate Jared's willingness to jump in for me yesterday after the power went out for a bit.  

I'm not sure what possessed me to walk across the entire campus yesterday to head over to the bookstore to check out the merch and possibly update my UofL attire for the fall season.  I did end up getting something for Thomas' upcoming birthday so it wasn't a useless trek across campus in the scorching heat.   

(( For the record, this is not a paid advertisement... UofL pays me, yes.  But this was not an extra bonus, although that would be nice ))

In the summertime, I try to update my UofL closet and the bookstore has always had some gems as far as styles, design and price goes.  And they have definitely caught up with the times (holy crop tops) since when I was a student a decade ago.   

The store is located in the SAC (Student Activities Center) on Floyd Street.   I definitely have my eye on a few things I would like to score before fall sports return.  They have something for everyone; students, alumni, fans, parents, you name it!  

 You also never know who you may run into while browsing. :D Its located right next door to a very popular Starbucks and the Sports Administration program and the L&N Federal Credit Union Arena.

 You can also shop online at the following link UofL Campus Store

As Always,

Go Cards!

~Daryl

UofL Extends Contract of Mark Beckham -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Photo by GoCards

Hey, Cardinal Couple readers! Jared checking in here as Daryl and I are switching a couple days around this week. Tune back in tomorrow and she should be back.

We have definitely entered summertime here in 'The Ville' as 90-degree weather has arrived and is here to stay for a while. The 2024-2025 NCAA year has officially come to a close with LSU taking down Coastal Carolina in the baseball championship over the weekend. We do want congratulate the Louisville baseball team on a successful postseason run and a Final Four finish.

Photo by GoCards

In the world of UofL women's sports, things have been fairly quiet. We've seen a few folks transfer in and out for different teams. A couple transfers out to note include Char Lorenz (softball) and Maya Maxwell (women's soccer). We did see a contract extension for Louisville women's tennis coach Mark Beckham.

Beckham has been around Louisville for a few decades. He attended Eastern High School. He spent his entire collegiate career playing for the Cards and then joined the men's program as an assistant coach for 15 years. He then transitioned to the head coach role for the women's team in the fall of 2007.

The Cards posted a strong 2025 season. The finished with a winning record 13-10, a ranked win over #35 Clemson, and winning their opening round of the ACC Tournament. UofL rose up to #60 in the rankings.

Beckham's extension runs through June 30, 2028, keeping him at the helm for at least three more years. He joins four other coaches to receive contract extensions recently including rowing coach Derek Copeland and lacrosse coach Scott Teeter.

Happy Monday and Go Cards!

Jared

Honoring Tom Jurich Long Overdue -- SUNDAY CARDNAL COUPLE

 CEREMONY TO TAKE PLACE SAT. JUNE 28TH ON CAMPUS

The architect of the successes we see in Louisville women's athletics these days can be traced back to the hiring of Tom Jurich, back in 1997. 

Coming in from Colorado St., Jurich took a look at the sleepy UofL Belknap campus and affected change. A drive down Floyd Street is a testimony to that. Starting at Soccer's Lynn Stadium, across the street at football's Cardinal Stadium and headed northbound all the way to Softball's Ulmer Stadium, the facilities that stand there today are almost all Jurich planned and pushed through into reality. When I was an undergrad at UofL, once you got past the Eastern Parkway overpass, the was a small bar where students could occasionally get away with under age of 21 drinking , if the right bartender was on duty. That spot, today... is Denny Crum Hall, a facility where the dormitory sits for mostly college scholarship athletes. Each room has a fully furnished kitchen, washer /dryer and living room. It's a far cry from the old Threlkeld Hall, where I lived for a couple years, before moving in the fraternity complex that are now renovated and no longer houses the Delta Upsilon, Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Kappa Tau and Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternities. I even spent one night locked in a sorority house on campus, but that is a different story for a another time. 

And, let's not forget the KFC YUM Center

He also stressed the academic excellence that changed the program's attractiveness in athletics...increasing the graduation rate to 63%.

Under his leadership, the Cards won 87 conference championships and 43 conference tournaments. He took the Cards for Conference USA to the ACC. 

And...the coaches. On the women's side, Jeff Walz, Justine Sowry, Karen Ferguson Dayes and Sandy Pearsall are just a few of the coaches that Jurich brought to campus. Coaches that have shaped their programs during their time at UofL.

 

Arguably, Jurich has been the most significant figure in college sports this century. 

The recognition for Jurich is long overdue. The man was treated very unfairly in his firing back in 2017  and it took eight years for UofL to finally realize what he did and, now, finally he is being honored for what her did here. 

On a personal note, when I decided to start a website about UofL women's sports, Tom Jurich was one of the first two people I talked to get an opinion on how it might be perceived. He gave me a enthusiastic  "thumbs up" on the idea...and without his confidence and encouragement on doing a site about women's sports, I probably never would have made the leap. That was way back in 2009. 

It's been long overdue, Tom, but congratulations and... thank you.

paulie