Sunday, October 31, 2010

WBB: Lady Cards roll past Indiana Wesleyan 67-42

SUNDAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE

-Lady Cards win exhibition

-Field Hockey falls to Maryland

Despite the shaky start and obvious disappointment pictured here by the UofL cheerleaders, Louisville used a strong second half to vanquish the Indiana Wesleyan Wildcats in the KFC YUM Center 67-42 on Saturday afternoon. (Photo by Cardinalcouple)

This one probably didn't start out the way Jeff Walz anticipated. Asia Taylor will be the answer to the trivia question: Who scored the first UofL women's basketball goal in the new arena?...but the Cards couldn't get much going early on against the Wildcats. After Taylor's jumper 22 seconds into the game, it took Louisville six minutes before the next ball went through the net and Wesleyan sat on a 7-4 lead. Four IW steals and 5 Cardinal turnovers (four by Taylor) led to the embarrassing Cardinal start, a start that saw Walz begin the game with Shoni Schimmel, Becky Burke, Shawnta Dyer, Asia Taylor and Keisha Hines.

The Cards picked up the pace after substitutions and Monique Reid, Sherrone Vails and Antonita Slaughter led the Cards back to tie it at 13-13 and go to a 19-13 lead with 7:39 to go. Tia Gibbs played well in the stretch also..she and Schimmel buried threes in the run and Reid
added two layups.

Then, the train slowed down again. The next batch of Cardinals to try their fortunes on the court could only manage four points leading up to half...all from the free throw line. A Elaine Hessel three cut it to 23-21 and that's where the first half ended.

Walz said he stressed fundamentals and defense at halftime. I would have liked to have been a fly on that wall...whatever he said, the Cards responded in a big way in the second half and roared out scoring the first six points in the second half..all off of Schimmel assists...and led 36-24 with 13 minutes to go. A Hines layup off a Shelby Harper pass made it 43-26 with 11 minutes left. Two layups by Vails and a Dyer layup pushed the lead to 52-37 with six minutes to go. Burke's three put it at 57-37 with 4:18 remaining. That lead increased to 67-40 late in the game after a Vails jumper and Louisville got the win by 25 points.

Impressive for the Cards were freshmen Antonita Slaughter and Sherrone Vails. Vails had a strong second half...with 10 of her 12 points and 3 of her 5 rebounds. Slaughter nailed two threes in the game and committed no turnovers in 20 minutes of play. Gibbs, Schimmel and Burke also nailed trifectas for the Cards. Monique Reid led all scorers with 15 points despite not getting the start. According to Walz, the five hardest working players in practice got the starting nod. Based on the sluggish start, maybe he should consider starting the most awake five at game time.

Louisville outrebounded IW 34-28 and shot 49.1% from the floor on a 27-55 effort. 16 of the Cardinal hoops came from layups, which proves the transition game can be quite effective when run properly. Louisville held IW to 32.5% shooting and forced the Wildcats into 27 turnovers.
Slaughter had three steals to lead the Cards and each of the fourteen dressed for the game saw at least five minutes of playing time.

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Coach Walz was matter of fact in the post game press conference, discussing the early turnovers and surmising that the Cards may have overlooked the veteran and experienced Wildcats. He seemed genuinely pleased how Schimmel's game adapted to the pace of the action and had praise for how Vails took the fight to the opponent after being knocked around early in the game. Although displeased with Taylor's turnovers, he was happy with her hustle and athleticism but pointed out that Slaughter played only 3 more minutes, had zero turnovers, three steals and nailed two three pointers.

The Cards will go back to the practice floor for almost two weeks before their next game. The regular season opener against Tennessee on Friday, November 12th. will have a pre-tip ceremony where Angel McCoughtry's jersey will be hung from the Yum rafters. Ol' #35 is expected to be in attendance.

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UofL field hockey took a bad beat on the road Saturday, falling to the #1 Maryland Terrapins 8-0. The Terps jumped out to a 5-0 halftime lead and limited the Cards to just two shots on goal in the first half. Louisville finished the regular season at 13-5 and will head to Storrs, CT. for the BIG EAST Tournament next. The action there starts Nov. 6th. We've put some of Pam Bustin's post game comments in the Field Hockey blog here on the site.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Volleyball defeats Villanova


SATURDAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE


-We're Back!


-Volleyball rallies to down the Wildcats


-Women's swimming at SMU Classic


-WBB Today in the YUM!
Welcome to the Saturday edition of CARDINAL COUPLE. Yes, Sonja and Paul are back from their vacation in the Gatlinburg/Smokies area...well rested and ready to go. The photo above is from a hike we took to Henwallow Falls in the Great Smokies. Sonja and Anne encountered a bear during the hike...we'll share that story down the road on a slow women's sports day.
A great time, plenty of hiking and scenic trips in and around the area. The weather was ideal each day and we actually met a guy from UofL football kicker Chris Philpott's hometown, who had watched him play every game in high school and was on the way to Pittsburgh for the Saturday game.
A very special thank you to : Shannon Ruffra, the owner of CARDINAL DOMINANCE...Charlie "the observer" Springer, the owner of UofL Card Game and special correspondent David Watson for their excellent contributions to CARDINAL COUPLE while Sonja and I were away playing in the woods. The CARDINAL COUPLE site count actually went up per day during our absence...so maybe the readers would rather you guys do the articles...
WE really appreciate the efforts and topics that you provided the CARDINAL COUPLE readers and you guys are the best!
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The University of Louisville Volleyball team roared back from a 2-0 game deficit to defeat Villanova 3-2 in a sold out Cardinal Arena on Friday night. The Cards pulled out the win 15-13 in the fifth game, after starting out 22-25, 16-25, 25-23 and 25-22.
Louisville actually led in the first game 7-3 and was getting good play from Lola Arslanbeckova up front but the Wildcats took four out of the final five points in the game for their first win. Louisville started slowly in game two and could never seem to get in sync, actually trailing 19-7 before falling by 9 points to 'Nova. The Cards went into the halftime break looking for answers and needing the front line to step it up.
They narrowly took the third game in an exciting back and forth contest that had Louisville up 13-9, then tied at 13 and leading 24-21. Villanova climbed back to a 24-23 deficit before Amanda Simmons got a block at the net to give UofL game three. Game four was another nail biter...Louisville hustling to a 11-10 lead after kills from Anastasia Artemeva and then seeing 'Nova go up 19-18. At 23-22 Louisville, it was Lola to the rescue at the end with two kills in a row to get the Cards to the 25 point mark and the three point game victory.
The fifth game saw the teams battle back and forth, tied at four and the Wildcats actually grabbing a 8-5 lead before the Cards slammed home seven of the next eleven points to take command at 12-9. 'Nova was not done, though..and tied it at 13. The Cards got the final two scores of the game to win it, though...on a Arslanbeckova kill and Simmons block.
Louisville goes to 15-6, 9-1 on the season and Villanova to 19-5, 7-2. The Cards get eight days off before their next, at Pitt, on Saturday, November 6th.
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Louisville's women's swimming and diving team is 4th after the first day of the SMU Classic. The Cards got big efforts from Therese Bergstrom, who finished 2nd in the 100-breast and Fanny Lillestrom's 2nd in the breast and third in the 400-IM. Nicole Landisch took third in the 50-free and 1oo-fly.
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Jeff Walz will guide the Lady Cards onto the KFC YUM Center today at 4:30 for an exhibition game against Indiana Wesleyan. He'll have the benefit of a full roster of 14 players and I fully expect that he'll use them all and often in a multitude of combinations. What Walz is most likely looking for today is to see who works well together and who is ready defensively and on the transition game. Cards fans should get a treat from the multiple and versatile efforts of Shoni Schimmel and we expect Monique Reid is ready to pick up the scoring lead from where she left off last year.
Don't read too much into the starting lineups and rotations today. It will be 13 days after this one before the Cards do battle again and today's exhibition is pretty much just a tuneup to give Jeff and the coaches a look at their squad against someone else besides themselves and the practice boys.
Tickets are available. I have good seats behind the UofL bench that I'm trying to distribute for friends that are at the Pittsburgh football game and unable to use them. Call me at (502) 291-3651 if you want them...

10 29 2010 J-Town Interviews: C Zach Price, SG-SF Tony Kimbro Jr. and HC Jeff Morrow



By Shannon Ruffra - CC Writer and Managing Editor of Cardinal Dominance

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - David Watson says that Paul and Sonja are on the way home, so soon enough, the pros of Louisville women's athletics will be back posting and keeping us all informed with updates and insights for Louisville women's athletics.

For my final stand-in post, I have shared an exclusive interview I conducted yesterday with 2011 men's basketball commit C Zach Price, SG-SF Tony Kimbro Jr. and HC Jeff Morrow of Jeffersontown high school in Louisville.

I would like to thank the readers of Cardinal Couple for bearing with David, Charlie and myself as we stood in as contributing writers, while Sonja and Paul played Count and Contessa frolicking in the countryside of South Gatlinburg. I can see them now...... With Paul's fetish with bears, I was relieved to find out from David Watson that Paul was on the way home ALIVE......

Sonja and Paul are the best at covering the women. Sonja and Paul are my #1 and only source for Louisville women's athletics at Cardinal Couple.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Field Hockey and Women's Basketball on Saturday

The University of Louisville's women's basketball and field hockey teams will take to their respective courts and fields on Saturday.
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For the Jeff Walz led Lady Cardinals, it is an exhibition game against Indiana Wesleyan at 4:30 p.m. in the KFC YUM! Center. Although Walz has not named a starting lineup yet, he gave some indicators on who he had been pleased with when he addressed the media on media day.

Although Paul and Sonja are much better at predicting trends and doing analysis work of the Lady Cardinals, I would surmise that Burke, Schimmel, Reid, Hines and Taylor might take the court for the opening tipoff. Walz has praised the efforts of Tay, Gibbs, Dyer and Slaughter recently, though, so any of these four in there starting wouldn't come as much of a surprise.

You can find out for yourself by showing up. Tickets are still available and I picked up two really nice ones for $5 each. PAUL HAS A FEW TICKETS AVAILABLE BEHIND THE WOMEN'S BENCH that he is trying to distribute for friends that are up in Pittsburgh for the football game. You can e-mail him at cardinalcouple@insightbb.com if you would like them or leave a comment here in the comments section. He'll get back with you tonight or early tomorrow.

PAM BUSTIN takes the 13-5 Louisville field hockey team to Maryland for their regular season finale against #1 Terrapins. Louisville is on a four game winning streak but will have their work cut out for them against the 16-1 Maryland team. Maryland has only lost to #3 Virginia.

Game time is noon.

Best of luck to both UofL women's teams in action on Saturday. Let's hope the UofL football team can pull out a win in Pittsburgh on Saturday also!

I spoke to Paul just a few minutes ago via phone and they are on their way back from Gatlinburg and will be in Louisville this evening. He sounded great, well rested and says he has many photos to share and a great story about Sonja and sis Anne running into a BEAR while on a hike. Looking forward to seeing both you and Sonja at the women's game tomorrow.

David Watson
Special Correspondent to CARDINAL COUPLE

Thursday, October 28, 2010


Louisville Women’s Soccer Eliminated from BIG EAST Championship with Loss at UConn
Cardinals close 2010 season with 10-9-0 record overall

Official Louisville SID Release

Box Score and Play-By-Play

STORRS, Conn. – The Louisville women’s soccer team had its season ended on Thursday with a 3-0 road loss to Connecticut in the first round of the 2010 BIG EAST Championship at Joseph J. Morrone Stadium.

With Thursday’s loss, the Cardinals finished their season at 10-9-0 overall, while the Huskies improved to 9-8-3 with the win and will advance to a BIG EAST quarterfinal matchup against Notre Dame on Sunday afternoon in South Bend, Ind.

UConn opened the scoring in Thursday’s game in the 36th minute as Jessica Shufelt took a pass from Kacey Richards and found the left side of the net from the right side of the goal for the 1-0 advantage. The goal for Shufelt was her sixth of the season, while the assist was the third of the year for Richards.

The Huskies added to their advantage with only four seconds left before the halftime break as Elise Fugowski connected from near the top of the 18-yard box for her third goal of the season and a 2-0 lead in the 45th minute. The goal was setup by Megan Cunningham, who was credited with her first assist of the year.

In the second half, UConn added a final goal in the 87th minute as Devin Prendergast found the back of the net from 10 yards away for her second goal of the season and the final 3-0 margin.

Overall, Connecticut finished with a 26-5 advantage in shots, including a 9-3 edge on-goal. The Huskies also closed the game with a 5-1 advantage in corner kicks and were whistled for seven fouls to the Cardinals’ two.

UofL Women's Basketball Holds Annual Media Day Wednesday

Photo From UofLSports.com

Women's Basketball Holds Annual Media Day
Head coach Jeff Walz and Cardinal players discuss the upcoming season with the media

Official Louisville SID Release

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The University of Louisville women's basketball program officially opened the 2010-11 season on Wednesday by hosting its annual media day activities at the new KFC Yum! Center.

Head coach Jeff Walz, now in his fourth season at Louisville, and the Cardinal players met with reporters to preview the upcoming season. That was followed by an open practice session for the media inside U of L's new basketball home on the banks of the Ohio River in downtown Louisville.

The Cardinals return four starters and four letter winners along with a Top 5 recruiting class for the 2010-11 season. Last week the BIG EAST coaches selected Louisville to finish eighth in the BIG EAST Preseason poll. Junior Monique Reid was selected to the preseason All-BIG EAST team.

The Cardinals will face their first outside competition in an exhibition game against Indiana Wesleyan on Oct. 30 in the new 22,000-seat KFC Yum! Center at 4:30 p.m.

Volleyball falls to Tenn.

Wonder if Paul and Sonja drove up from Gatlinburg to see this one?

The UofL women's volleyball team fell to nationally ranked Tennessee yesterday in Knoxville, TN. The Cards won the first game 21-16 but couldn't take any of the remaining three games. UT took the rest of the matches 25-23, 25-22, 28-26.

The loss ended the Cards seven match winning streak.

David Watson
Special correspondent for Cardinal Couple

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

U of L fan needs your vote

Steve Springer, a huge fan of the University of Louisville, is in the running for the Biggest Fan of the Big East over at MyBigEastVolvo, and needs your vote.

The son of Charlie Springer, who runs Card Game, Steve is competing against fans from 15 other Big East cities. They haven't said what the winner gets but it's probably a trip to the Big East Tournament.

St. John's and Villanova are in front but they have a couple of days head start. Please vote for Steve at MyBigEastVolvo. Thanks Card fans.

UPDATE: Overnight, U of L fans have moved Steve up to No. 1. You can vote once a day, please keep voting.

Shelby Harper in the spotlight

Paul Sykes should know better than to take off for Gatlinburg and allow the observer access to his site.

Perfect opportunity to put Shelby Harper in the spotlight again. The Allen County walk on was an inspiration to Lady Card fans last season, with her incredible attitude and hustle.

One would hope that Shelby continues to see plenty of action with all the new talent that will be on display at the KFC Yum! Center this season.

She saw action in 29 games last season, starting in 17 of them. She earned the starting point guard spot in January. She scored a career high 15 points against Cincinnati and was credited with nine assists against Pittsburgh.

NEW K Philpott and WR Smith Interviews; BE Women's Soccer Championship Starts Thursday!

10 27 2010 JR K Chris Philpott and SO WR Andrell Smith Interviews

By Shannon Ruffra - CC Writer and Managing Editor of Cardina Dominance

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Hey Cardinal fans! Shannon Ruffra back again from Cardinal Dominance holding the fort down while Sonja and Paul grab some much needed R and R in South Gatlingburg.

Today we have SPANKIN' NEW interviews I conducted on Tuesday after practice with JR K Chris Philpott and SO WR Andrell Smith. Philpott nailed four straight FG in the UConn game and earned BIG EAST Special Teams Player of the Week, and Smith has been the leading receiver in the first two BIG EAST conference games with Cincinnati and UConn.

About the football..... It is my weakness. LOVE that Cards football!

I know you want the scoop on women's sports, so I have included an official Louisville SID release of UofL women's soccer starting play in the BIG EAST Championship Thursday at 3 p.m.

Also, I will have exclusive footage of Rick Pitino's Thursday press conference at the Yum! Center coming at you tomorrow. As a special treat for CC readers, if you have any questions you would like for me to ask coach for you, post them in the comments or shoot me an e-mail at shannon@cardinaldominance.net, and I will get your question answered tomorrow.

Louisville Women’s Soccer to Open BIG EAST Championship Thursday at UConn
Cardinals and Huskies to kick off at 3 p.m., ET at Joseph J. Morrone Stadium; winner to face Notre Dame on Sunday afternoon

Official Louisville SID Release

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Louisville women’s soccer team will open the 2010 BIG EAST Championship on Thursday at 3 p.m., ET against Connecticut at Joseph J. Morrone Stadium in Storrs, Conn. Live scoring for the game will be available through the Gametracker feature on the Cardinals’ schedule page at www.UofLsports.com.

Louisville (10-8-0, 4-7-0 BIG EAST) enters the BIG EAST Championship as the No. 5 seed from the National Division, while Connecticut (8-8-3, 4-5-2 BIG EAST) is the No. 4 seed from the American Division. The winner of Thursday’s first round game will advance to face Notre Dame, No. 1 seed from the National Division, in a quarterfinal match on Sunday at 1 p.m., ET in South Bend, Ind.

The Cardinals are making their fifth appearance in six seasons in the BIG EAST Championship and they enter this year’s event with a 3-3-1 record overall. In its most recent appearance in 2008, Louisville defeated Pittsburgh in the first round before losing at West Virginia in a quarterfinal match. The Cardinals’ best showing in the event came in 2007, when they were eliminated 1-0 in double overtime by WVU in a semifinal game in Morgantown, W.Va.

Thursday’s game will be the first ever post-season meeting between Louisville and Connecticut and just the third meeting ever between the two schools. The Cardinals trail the all-time series 0-1-1 and 0-1-0 in games played in Storrs. In their most recent meeting, the two teams played to a 1-1 tie on Oct. 3, 2008 at Cardinal Park, while the first meeting ended in a 2-1 home win for the Huskies on Oct. 2, 2005.

Following the quarterfinals on Sunday, Oct. 31 at campus sites, the BIG EAST Championship will conclude with the semifinals and final on Nov. 5-7 in Piscataway, N.J.

WBB lunch and practice delayed

The University of Louisville women's basketball luncheon and practice scheduled for Tuesday was delayed because of tornado warnings in the Louisville area.

According to Keith Conner, who was in attendance:

"The sirens and warnings went off in the YUM! and we were all asked to leave the third floor area and head to the court. We got the all clear, but then they went off again a short time later and had to leave the banquet a second time"

Because of the inclimate weather, the open practice scheduled at 7 p.m. Tuesday was delayed also.


David Watson
Special Correspondent to Cardinal Couple

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Moving into new digs

Okay, guys, are you ready?

The University of Louisville women's team is moving into the most modern basketball arena in the world, making the debut this Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center.

Jeff Walz is doing it right. The UofL coach has a group of seasoned veterans to go with a top five recruiting class and talented transfer talent. Eager to reverse the fortunes of last season when he was actually looking for players at times.

"This arena is going to be a showcase for Louisville women's basketball," he said last week. "We're looking forward to building the program and the fan base. All the elements are in place. We are eager to get started."

The Lady Cards face Indiana Wesleyan in an exhibition game Saturday. Tip off will be at 4:30 p.m.

Sonja and Paul: Simply the Best and UofL Women's Soccer Update

Paul Sykes Kissing His Favorite Stand-In Writer, Shannon Ruffra, Managing Editor of Cardinal Dominance After the UofL Massacre of UConn in Football 26-0 Last Saturday Night

By Shannon Ruffra - CC Writer and Managing Editor of Cardinal Dominance

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Well kids, Paul has let Billy D. Goat out of his pen, and has asked me to help to contribute to Cardinal Couple while he and the lovely Sonja are in dispose on the SOUTHSIDE of Gatlinburg. Hope it is not like the Southside of Chicago..... Letting me help with the site, is more like handing a monkey a handgun, but I will do my best.

I just got off the phone with Paul this morning, and they are having a great time. Paul stated he confirmed a Bigfoot and Pigman sighting already, so he was in stellar spirits. Who knows? With Paul's fetish with bears, it could have been Betty White from the Golden Girls having a bad hair day.....

I will start by getting my feet wet, letting the Cardinal Couple readers know exactly what kind of people Sonja and Paul Sykes are.

Great ones.

In the past I had some personal issues going on, and Sonja carried myself and Cardinal Dominance for well over a month, when I had no choice but to ride the pine. Cardinal Dominance may not have made it to where we are today without her. In my time of dire need, she stepped up. I am kissing her in my mind as we speak. Just don't tell Paul that......

Now for Paul, he has always been there as well, and currently, I am driving his old 1991 Toyota pick-up truck as transportation. He quickly offered his truck to me when I was in need, and I would not have HALF of the material that I have on Cardinal Dominance without the awe-inspiring gesture of Paul lending me his truck to attend to my Louisville football, basketball and baseball duties and responsibilities.

Friends? They come no better than Sonja and Paul.

I assume that is why they are such dear friends to me. They just don't make them like Sonja and Paul anymore.

Well, enough of the love-fest, so we are moving along to more exciting and greener pastures as mutual friend Billy D. Goat would like.
10 23 2010 Sonja and Paul Sykes at UConn @ UofL Football Game

Here is the dynamic duo in action at the football game last Saturday. Now I do not know what they will look like after coming home from the Southside of Gatlinburg, so use this photo for reference......

Louisville Women’s Soccer Closes Regular Season with Loss at Rutgers
Cardinals finish fifth in National Division and will open BIG EAST Tourney at UConn on Thursday night

Official Louisville SID Release

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Louisville women’s soccer team closed the regular season with a 2-0 loss at Rutgers on Sunday afternoon at Yurcak Field.

With the loss, the Cardinals dropped to 10-8-0 overall and 4-7-0 in BIG EAST Conference games, while Rutgers improved to 10-8-1 on the season and 5-5-1 in league action.

Louisville finished fifth in the BIG EAST National Division and will play at Connecticut, the No. 4 seed from the American Division, on Thursday night in the opening round of the 2010 BIG EAST Championship. The winner of Thursday’s game will advance to a Sunday quarterfinal game at Notre Dame, the No. 1 seed from the National Division.

In Sunday’s game, the two teams played through a scoreless first half before Rutgers opened the scoring in the 61st minute as Tricia DiPaolo took a pass from Gina DeMaio and connected from 15 yards out for the 1-0 advantage. The goal for DiPaolo was her third of the season.

Less than three minutes later, the Scarlet Knight added to their lead as April Price took a cross from DiPaolo and headed it into the goal from 17 yards away for the 2-0 lead in the 63rd minute. The goal for Price was her fifth of the season.

Rutgers added to its lead in the 81st minute as Ashley Medcalf took a cross from Ashley Jones and scored her second goal of season for the final 3-0 margin.

Overall, Rutgers finished with an 18-10 advantage in shots, including an 11-4 edge in shots-on-goal. The Scarlet Knights also finished with a 6-3 lead in corner kicks.

Along with the Cardinals’ game at UConn, Thursday’s opening round of the 2010 BIG EAST Women’s Soccer Championship will also feature Pittsburgh (American Division #5) at DePaul (National Division #4) and the event will continue on Sunday with four quarterfinal games at campus sites. The tournament will conclude with the semifinals and final on Nov. 5-7 in Piscataway, N.J.

Angel has another fan site

Angel McCoughtry's No. 35 jersey will be the first jersey to be hoisted to the rafters in the new multi million dollar 22,000 seat arena, saluting her numerous contributions while at the University of Louisville.

"Angel is greatly loved by the students and the city of Louisville", says L Johnverrell of Angel35fans.com, a fan site dedicated to McCoughtry. "There have been a lot of great Cardinals mens and womens basketball players, but her jersey will be the first to hang over every single game."

Following the jersey ceremony, the Lady Cards will host Tennessee in their season opener.

Field Hockey defeats New Hampshire 3-2

The University of Louisville Field Hockey squad finished their two day trip with a 3-2 win over New Hampshire on Sunday. Hayley Turner scored twice in the second half for the Cards. Louisville is now 13-5 on the season.

New Hampshire had the first score in the game but the Cardinals came back quickly to tie it when senior Nicole Youman got one in the goal. 1-1 was the halftime score.

The second half belonged to Turner, a junior and UofL. The Cards face Maryland next.

Congratulations to Pam Bustin and her field hockey team.

Talked to Cardinal Couple Co-Owner Paul last night and they are doing fine and having fun on their vacation. He reminded me to tell Cardinal Couple readers that UofL Women's Basketball has an exhibition game Saturday at 4:30 and tickets were still available. He and Sonja will have press row coverage of the women's first game in the KFC YUM Center.

If anyone attends the Tip Off Lunch for women's basketball on Tuesday, Paul would love for you to give the readers a summary of it in the comments section. I could not get tickets before it sold out and Paul and Sonja won't be able to attend.

David Watson
Special correspondent to Cardinal Couple

Monday, October 25, 2010

Good Morning Cardinal Couple

Hi,

David Watson here and reporting that the Cards won their volleyball match yesterday against USF in five games. The Cards were led by the strong serving of Lola Arslanbeckova and Emily Juhl.

Louisville is peaking at the right time and has won their last eight contests. For more details, you can check out:

http://www.uoflsports.com/

Congratulations to Coach Yelin and the team!

David Watson
Special correspondent for Cardinal Couple

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Field Hockey downs Providence 2-1

SUNDAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Field Hockey prospers over Providence

-Volleyball today in the Arena

-Football cages the Huskies

-About next week...

Erin Conrad, pictured here...had seven saves and allowed only one goal in the Louisville 2-1 win over the Friars.

The first half of this one was a defensive battle. Providence actually outshot the visiting TEAM CARDINAL 9-4 in the first half but neither team could find the back of the net. It was the Friars who ended the deadlock early in the second half off of a penalty corner play.

Louisville wasn't ready to head back to the Holiday Inn Express just yet, though. The Cards capitalized on a penalty corner a few minutes later...Nicole Youman getting the goal on nice setups from Hayley Turner and Tuli Lim. The score remained deadlocked until Lim stuck home the game winner on a pass from Kelsey Rossenmeier with less than nine minutes to go in the game.

With the win, the #10 ranked Cards (12-5, 5-1) end their BIG EAST conference play. They'll take on New Hampshire Sunday and then back to the 'Ville.

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Louisville Volleyball takes center stage Sunday with a match in Cardinal Arena against South Florida. This one will be televised on WHAS TV locally if you can't get to the 1 p.m. first serve.

Volleyball is on a roll lately. Seven wins in a row and Lola Arslanbeckova spiking everything in site expect for the sideline Gatorade.

Also, women's soccer remains on the road with a Sunday showdown at Rutgers.

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How about those football Cards? A 26-0 caging of the UConn Huskies yesterday. Charlie Strong has got it going on for the guys in helmets. Louisville (4-3, 1-1) got four field goals from Chris Philpott and an electrifying 74 yd. punt return from Doug Beaumont.

And, Sonja and I decided to climb Mt. Everest at halftime. We left our "crunch zone" seats at the end of the first half and our objective was to walk to the very top of the east side seating area. Accompanied by a couple of friends, we started the journey by going up the steps behind the "crunch zone" to the UPS Observation Deck. Then, it was weeding our way through the packed deck to the ramp that leads up to the new east side addition. We negotiated the ramp and then the never ending steps that lead to the top of PJCS east side.

The view is incredible from up there. Churchill Downs in the distance. The players look so tiny from up there. It took us the entire halftime intermission to get there. We stayed long enough to watch Doug Beaumont run a punt back for a score...then it was back down. We avoided the still crowded deck this time and did the ramp all the way to the bottom of the Pizza Bowl. We were back in our seats with eight minutes to go in the third quarter.

It's a taxing hike to get up there, for sure...but well worth it when you get to the top. Not ready to give up my fifth row seats in the southwest corner of the "crunch zone", though.

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Have we got a treat for you! Cardinal Dominance managing editor Shannon Ruffra and UofL Card Game owner Charlie Springer will be supplying the daily topics here at C.C. over the next several days while the staff at CARDINAL COUPLE takes a few days off. You're gonna love both these guys and we encourage you to check their sites daily as well as reading their submissions here this week.







Saturday, October 23, 2010

Soccer, Volleyball triumph on Friday

SATURDAY @ C.C.

-Lola leads Cards to win over the Hoyas

-Soccer qualifies for BIG EAST tournament with a 1-0 win

-BIG EAST WBB Media Day observations

Lola Arslanbeckova continued her torrid net domination with 22 kills yesterday in Cardinal Arena as the Volleyball team downed Georgetown in four games 21-25, 25-14, 25-18 and 25-18. Seven in a row now for the streaking Cards and they improve to 7-1 in league play.

It didn't start easily for Yelin's netters. Georgetown came out fired up in the first game and stunned the Cards with determined and impressive team play to take the first contest by four points. Louisville led most of the way but the Hoyas were able to tie the match at 17-17 and capture eight of the final twelve volleys to ground the Birds.

Arslanbeckova took control in the second game and powered five kills over the net to lead Louisville to a 15-10 lead and eventual 11 point win. The Cardinals kept up with the hot hitting after the break and sunk the Hoyas in the third match by 10 points. The final was Louisville's all the way and key blocks by Gwen Rucker and Amanda Simmons assured the Cards would win the game and match. Rucker had seven blocks on the afternoon and setter Taylor Brauneis was spectacular with 40 assists for Louisville.

The Cards (13-5, 7-1) take the floor again on Sunday against rival South Florida at 1 p.m. This one will be televised locally on WHAS-TV.

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Jennifer Jones sent a first half penalty kick into the net for the only score in Louisville's 1-0 win over Seton Hall yesterday in South Orange, NJ. Louisville goes to 10-7 and 4-6 with the win and more importantly, qualified for the BIG EAST tournament with the victory.

Taylor Vancil turned in a strong net guarding performance for Louisville, recording 12 saves. the Pirates actually outshot Louisville 16-13 and 12-5 on shots on goal, but they could not get the ball past the sophomore from Chicago. Louisville has never lost to Seton Hall.

The Cards travel across state to Piscataway for a Sunday matchup versus Rutgers next. The BIG EAST Tournament starts Thursday, Oct 28th. at various campus sites and it was not known at the time of this article where, when and who Louisville will get in the first round. The Cards could actually finish as high as third in the National division of the BIG EAST with a win over Rutgers and a little luck in other games.

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The BIG EAST Women's Media Day took place at B.B. King's restaurant in New York earlier this week. No surprises here, UConn was picked to finish first by the coaches in the preseason poll, gathering 15 of the 16 first place votes. We're figuring Geno selected WVU, and the Eers came in second in the voting. Maya Moore swept the BIG EAST preseason Player of the Year award.

Louisville ended up 8th in the voting. The full results are below.

1. UConn 2. WVU 3. Georgetown 4. Notre Dame 5. St. John's 6. DePaul 7. Rutgers 8. LOUISVILLE 9. Syracuse 10. Marquette 11. South Florida 12. Providence 13. Pittsburgh 14. Villanova 15. Cincy 16. Seton Hall

I can't see too much out of kilter with the coach's decisions. I do think Louisville might be a little low here...I did my own preseason prognostication and had the Cards at seventh. Rutgers I had sixth. DePaul in the eight hole. Can't argue with the top three and honestly I could have gone with St. John in 4th. It really doesn't matter. These preseason bashes are all about the publicity and Connecticut anyway. I hope the meal was good, the beverages cold and that Quentin Hillsman, Syracuse head coach, wore one of his flashy suits. the guy knows how to style out.

I'll go out on a limb here, though and predict that someone will end the Huskies win streak this year and that they'll also suffer a BIG EAST loss. Moore is all that but graduation losses will make the difference. You don't replace a Tina Charles easily. UConn has a brutal pre-conference schedule with Baylor and Oklahoma on it. Can't wait to hear what a Geno post game press conference sounds like after a Husky loss.

Gotta love him. Harry Perretta returns for his 33rd season as the Villanova skipper. He gets seven letterwinners back and forward Laura Sweeney. Louisville could follow the Philadelphia school's example and sweeten Jeff Walz's pot to ensure he will be around for that long. Don't let this guy get away, T.J. You know how the S.E.C. loves to raid our coaching pool...

And, in a shocking development...the 2011 BIG EAST tournament will be held at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. Eight years in a row now. Hey, BIG EAST...why not give that beautiful complex down by the Ohio River a shot? And, I'm not talking about Cincinnati's Shoemaker Arena.

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Cards vs. Huskies in football today at 3:30. Be there. BE strong. Be early. Louisville wins 33-27. (I hope) GO CARDS!

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Anne Donovan is the new coach at Seton Hall and obviously has her work cut out for her on the South Orange campus. I like the choice. She's a former Olympic gold medalist and was coaching the WNBA's New York Ly the Liberty before taking the Pirate assignment. She is a winner, got royally screwed by the Liberty and is a class act. We're cheering for ya, Anne. Except for when you face the Cards on Feb. 26th in the Yummy Arena.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Travelling weekend for soccer, field hockey


FRIDAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE:
-Field Hockey travels to New England
-Soccer tags along to the East Coast
-Volleyball at Cardinal Arena this weekend
-Here come the Huskies
-That old Brass Hat
Welcome to the weekend! We're glad you made it! Kick off your dress shoes, have a beverage and put on some Skynyrd...we'll tell you all about what's happening with women's sports at UofL...and more! A great montage of some of Bustin's 'bust them up' stick swingers to the right.
Pam Bustin's Louisville TEAM CARDINAL Field Hockey squad is off to the northeastern part on the United States to face two foes. They'll grace the tiny state of Rhode Island Saturday to engage the Providence Friars in exciting college field hockey action. Then, it's off to New Hampshire for an out of conference affair versus the University of New Hampshire.
UofL is 11-5, 4-1 on the season and coming off a huge weekend where they took down Villanova and Iowa at the Trager. We fully expect Nicole Youman and crew to get the broom out and sweep the weekend games. We'll look forward to a blog entry from one of the girls after they return from the trip. Go, you Field Hockey Cardinals!
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Women's Soccer makes the East Coast swing as well this weekend. They'll close out the regular season in the Garden State with a 7 p.m. Friday night game at Seton Hall (6-9-1, 2-6-1) and then motor over to Piscataway for a match against the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers University (6-8-1, 3-5-1).
These two are huge. The Cards are in fifth place currently in the National Division of the BIG EAST. The top five teams in each division advance to the BIG EAST tournament, so Karen Ferguson Dayes team controls its own fate. Win both and you're in, ladies.
Louisville defeated the Pirates last year in Cardinal Park in overtime and tied Rutgers. The BIG EAST tournament begins Oct. 28th., with first round and quarterfinal games to be played at various BIG EAST sites. The higher ranked get the home field advantage.
Kick it in the net, girls and bring two "W"'s back to the Ville.
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Volleyball isn't travelling this weekend. Instead, they'll host Georgetown and South Florida in Cardinal Arena. Friday night they'll destroya the Hoyas at 7 p.m. The team encourages you to bring canned goods to the contest for their food drive. Each attendee will also get a raffle ticket for each canned good they bring and the winners will receive a UofL athletics gift package. Georgetown (13-10, 3-4) lost their last time out to USF in five games.
Sunday features South Florida. No love lost between these two opponents. The event is deemed to be a "Red Out" and also it is Awareness of Domestic Violence Day and Muhammad Ali Center Day. This one will also be shown on WHAS TV and begins at 1 p.m. Terry Meiners will not be doing the halftime interviews with Leonid Yelin.
Louisville is on a six game win streak and tied for first place in the BIG EAST standings. The defense is looking better each time out with Gwen Rucker and Amanda Simmons playing huge above the net and Lola Arslanbeckova, Anastasia Artemeva and Emily Juhl providing the spikeability on offense. Look for the Cards to extend that win streak to eight when the lights are turned off in Cardinal Arena Sunday night.
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Football at PJCS this Saturday when Charlie Strong's 3-3 Cards host the Connecticut Huskies, also 3-3. UConn has suspended their starting quarterback for the rest of the season and plans on starting a redshirt freshman who has thrown five passes all year.
Louisville has not suspended Bilal Powell, Adam Froman or Josh Bellamy and the Cards will shoo the Huskies off the sportsgrass in PJCS and win this one comfortably Saturday afternoon.
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Calvin Borel guided 9 yr. old BRASS HAT to a win in the feature race at Keeneland yesterday.
We absolutely love "The Hat" who has come back from two threatening, potentially career ending injuries over the years to stay in the game. A typical BRASS HAT victory...dead last in the backstretch, picking them off one by one around the turn and then barrelling down the stretch under the sure handed guiding of Calvin. "Hats off " to owner Fred Bradley and trainer Buff Bradley for keeping this senior citizen fresh, well cared for and at his best. BRASS HAT absolutely, positively loves running at Keeneland and those who recognized that fact we're rewarded with an $11.60 payout to win on a $2 win wager.
Yeah, this guy had it...WHEEEEEE!!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Volleyball sweeps Lipscomb



THURSDAY @ C.C.


-Volleyball downs Lipscomb in straight sets


-Louisville WBB update


-We look into the WBB schedule


Lola Arslanbeckova (pictured here) led the Cards with 14 kills as UofL took down Lipscomb 25-23, 25-21, 25-23 in volleyball action Wednesday night in Cardinal Arena. The Cards (12-5) had a surprisingly tough match against the visiting Bison in the first of four straight home matches. Lola was recently named BIG EAST Player of the Week in volleyball and came through in the clutch for the Cards last night.


Louisville battled in the first game in a defensive struggle and did not acquire the lead until Anastasia Artemova smashed a service ace to put the Cards up 24-23. Arslanbeckova then blocked a Lambuth spike to give the Cards the two point win in the opener.


Louisville jumped out early in game two behind the strong serving of Maci Wachtel and took a 6-1 advantage over Lipscomb. The game advanced to a 17-16 Cardinal lead when Artemeva and Gwen Rucker got busy...Anastasia delivering four kills and Rucker three timely blocks to give the Cards a four point victory.


The Cards motored to a 10-6 advantage in the third contest but saw Lipscomb go on a 10-3 run to grab a three point lead at 16-13. Louisville got the next three points, though, and took over to win by two.


Next up for the Cards is Georgetown on Friday night. South Florida visits on Sunday and the home stand ends on the 29th. with a match against Villanova. The Louisville win streak now stands at six straight games.


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Jeff Walz reports to CARDINAL COUPLE that practice is going great for the team in preparation for the October 30th. exhibition game against Indiana Wesleyan in the KFC YUM (no exclamation point) Center. Walz feels that the team will have many good choices for contributions this year and it's hard to believe that in just 10 short days the Lady Cards will be hooping it up.


Walz also tells us that it's way too early for him to have decided on a starting lineup for the exhibition opener. The battle continues and it will be interesting to see which five survive and advance.


The starting role, although prestigious and an honor, may not mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things for this Lady Cards basketball team. Walz likes to wear opponents down with defensive pressure and transition basketball and he's got 14 bodies to accomplish this with for the upcoming season. Just a feeling here...but WE feel that we will see a lot of different combinations in the exhibition game as Walz gives the girls equal opportunities to show what they've got when the lights come on and Sean Moth grabs the public address microphone.


Also, the WBB preseason tipoff luncheon on Tuesday, October 26th. is sold out.


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A little further delving into the women's basketball schedule for 2010-11. The Cards will have

16 home games and will play 15 games on the road. The longest home stand for Louisville will consist of (3) games twice...in November against Mississippi Valley State, Kentucky and Dayton and in late December-early January when Tennessee-Martin, St. John's and Pitt come to town.


Louisville will play three straight in three days in the Dual in the Desert in Vegas in mid,-December, facing Marist, Houston and Nebraska in a row. Another 3 game road trip happens in late Novemer when Louisville travels to Xavier, Old Dominion and IPFW. The Cards will have (2) times where they play two in a row on the road. Notre Dame and Cincinnati in January and Syracuse and USF in Feburary.


Eight of the home games will start at 7 p.m. this year. The Kentucky, Cincinnati and Seton Hall games are set for a 2 p.m. tip. Rutgers is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start, West Virginia 5 p.m. The exhibition against Indiana Wesleyan for 4:30. Dayton tip off is 4 p.m. UofL faces Pitt at noon.


The Cards will play (5) Saturday home games. On Sundays, they'll tip it up (3) times. Tuesday gets (3) appearances also. Wednesday (2), Friday (2) and Thursday (1) complete the days of the week designations. No Monday home games. Good. Won't interfere with my watching HOUSE on Monday Nights.


Louisville will travel to Ohio three times this year...facing Cincinnati, Xavier and Ohio U. They have three in a row in Nevada. Indiana gets the Cards twice (Notre Dame and IPFW). Once each to Virginia (Old Dominion), Connecticut (UConn), Wisconsin (Marquette), Pennsylvania (Villanova), New York (Syracuse), Rhode Island (Providence) and Florida (USF). Road trips to Ohio and Indiana, anyone?


Louisville will play 15 straight BIG EAST Conference games in a row. They'll begin BIG EAST play on 12/15/10 at Cincinnati...take a trip to Vegas and then host Tennessee-Martin and pick up the BIG EAST schedule again on Jan. 4th. against visiting St. John's
Going home. Out of the 16 players listed on the Louisville roster, four are from Kentucky (Harper, Slaughter, Reid and Gibbs). Two hail from Ohio (Dyer and Taylor). Two are from Missouri (Harrington and Johnson).
Then it's "onesies" for the other eight players. Those getting the chance to play in their home state are Dyer and Taylor, (from Ohio...at Cincinnati, Xavier, and Ohio U.), Burke (from Pennsylvania...at Villanova) and Story (from Wisconsin...at Marquette).
No home state appearances for Vails (Maryland), Tay (New Jersey), Johnson and Harrington (Missouri), Burton (North Carolina), Schimmel (Oregon), Robertson-Warren (California) or Hines (Michigan).
No trip to the "Big Apple" or anywhere near it this year for the travelling Cards. The games against St. John's. Seton Hall and Rutgers are all in the YUM Center.
Now, repeat all that back to me. Quiz at 11.


Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Women's Basketball releases game times



WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:

-WBB releases game times for 2010-11 schedule

-Angel arrives in Hungary

-Some thoughts on 2011 recruiting

-And then there is this from UofL...




With the cool air this morning, thoughts turn to basketball. The Lady Cards have released game times for their 2010-11 schedule. Let's look at some of the highlights. Junior Becky Burke (pictured here) and the rest of Jeff Walz's squad will take to the KFC YUM! Center floor for their first opponent, Indiana Wesleyan, at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 30th. The exhibition game shouldn't interfere with UofL football on the road against Pittsburgh later that night. Might be a good time to check out the surrounding restaurants and bars surrounding the arena following the contest and make it a downtown Louisville afternoon and evening. The regular season kicks off on November 12th. against Tennessee. The Friday night contest begins at 7:00 p.m. and will be shown nationally on CBS College Sports. Louisville will also appear on CBS College Sports in a match up versus St. John's on January 4th.

ESPN has the Lady Cards hooked up for two contests. They'll show the January 9th. game against Pittsburgh on ESPNU at noon. The West Virginia game gets ESPN2 at 5:00 p.m. on Feburary 13th.

The BIG EAST network has the Cards appearing once. They'll face Rutgers at 6:00 p.m. on January 29th. It'll be shown locally on WHAS-11. WAZOO Sports Network will televise Shoni Schimmel and the gang four times. They've booked Southeast Missouri State on November 19th. at 7:00 p.m., Kentucky on December 5th. at 2:00 p.m., Cincinnati on January 22nd. at 7:00 p.m. and DePaul on Feburary 23rd. at 7:00 p.m.

WKRD Radio (790 AM/101.7 FM) and their network affiliates will handle all of the Cards on the radio. We're assuming Jim Kelch will return for the play-by-play and Adrienne Johnson continues handling her unique stylings of color commentary. Love these two!



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The Angel has landed. She's arrived for Euro hoops in Hungary and will suit up for MKB-Euroleasing Sopron. McCoughtry will team up with former Middle Tennessee and WNBA standout Amber Holt. They play their first game October 28th. Hopefully, Angel will still be able to return to the 'Ville for the hanging of her jersey in the KFC YUM! Center during the November 12th. game against the Tennessee Lady Vols. If you are good at translating Hungarian, you can read more about it at http://www.wb-sopron.com/ There are a lot of pretty pictures on the site.

Frankly, though...it gave me a headache. And Angel & Amber will most likely give opponents the same.

The team is excited about the addition of the two and re-taken the team photo to include them. McCoughtry and Holt engaged in one of the most exciting battles between two scorers that I can remember in Freedom Hall a couple of years ago. Pairing them together should make Sopron unstoppable.

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Who is Jeff Walz recruiting for the 2011 class? A reader recently asked this question. Here's what we know. Quaneisha McCurty and Sara Hammond have verballed to the Cards. Walz has also recruited players from Seattle, DesMoines, France and Germany but no word on them yet or what year they'd be arriving. We wonder what the interest level is on Jude Schimmel...Shoni's younger 5'5" sister who will be the point guard at Portland (OR) Franklin this year. She's still uncommitted and may be waiting to see how big sis does here at the 'Ville before deciding. The synopsis on her is that she's a talented point guard who can direct the offense and fill up the hoop but her size might be a hindrance with some of the more elite D-1 programs. I don't buy it. Remember Sara Nord? Patrika Barlow? Angel Bradley? Jessica Huggins? They weren't giants but they were quite capable at Louisville.



What I do wonder about is how she'd fit into the current logjam on the Louisville roster at the guard position. The Cards lose only Toya Johnson to graduation after this year at the guard spot. That means Shelby Harper, Becky Burke, Nikki Burton, Rachel Story, Charmaine Tay, Tia Gibbs, Shoni Schimmel, Antonita Slaughter and maybe even Dez Byrd return to the front court.

Then, there is the transfer factor. The Lady Cards have had 2-3 players transfer out of the program each of the three years that Walz has been here. Girls looking for playing time. And getting it at programs other than Louisville. With Keisha Hines being the only other senior on the roster...one has to wonder just how many spots will be available in 2011-12? And, the Cards only have two juniors on the roster as well...Becky Burke and Monique Reid.

It's way too early to guess and speculate but I'll offer that McCurty and Hammond, plus one more (to be named later) restock the Walz roster to 16 jerseys. Don't forget Cierra Robertson Warren gains eligibility for the 2011-12 season and it's possible Byrd could return.

After last year, this multiplicity is a good thing to have. As long as it doesn't get into problems and attitudes about playing time and roles. As Denny Crum is fond of saying, it's better to go too long in recruiting than too short. With Walz's depth in this area, he's nailed one 350 yards down the middle of the fairway.

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Interesting things going on with the recent announcement that Rick Pitino is taking a year off from his televised weekly coach's show on WHAS TV and that Terry Meiners will no longer be doing the show or asking Pitino questions at halftime on WHAS TV broadcasts of UofL men's basketball games. Hey, I guess even Jay Leno and David Letterman take breaks from their shows occasionally. Of course, Pitino isn't quite as funny as those two. Rick knows what is best for Rick.

I'm still waiting for the phone call to step in and take the show over. Deener? Flash in the pan...

As far as it goes with Meiners, I used to contribute occasional entries to his web site under the alias of "Your friend -P" Even got the chance to talk with him once or twice, albeit briefly and very generally. Then, there was that whole messy incident with him and Bill the Goat last year at the St. Stephen Martyr summer picnic. Terry is a wonderful guy, dedicated to this community and our signature charity...The WHAS Crusade for Children. My late father loved that charity, loved the telethons each year. He even liked Meiners...'that guy on the radio who smokes a crooked pipe so he can blow smoke up his own a$$' according to Pops.

I doubt Meiners will have to apply for unemployment insurance because he lost this gig.

Meiners is a comedian. A funny guy. He has also been critical over the selection process for seats in the new KFC YUM! Dawntown Arena. What did he expect...for Jurich to grin broadly and welcome him to UofL related broadcasts with open arms? You catch more flies with honey that you do with...well, you know the saying. And, I'm getting tired of putting an exclamation point behind YUM! also...Eric Crawford and et al...

Sonja got in hot water once, at another site...because she made a remark in an article about a former coach's spouse. She was subsequently banned from doing the 'YMCA' dance during timeouts at UofL women's basketball games for 2 weeks. Fortunately, the Cards were out of town on a road trip during the suspension. And, she didn't win the John Deere riding lawnmower either last year when her name was drawn as a final participant at one of the games. She still carries a grudge. And I still have room in the garage for that elusive white whale. Oops, green whale. Are ya listening Hartland Equipment? Can you hear me now?

Coincidence? I think not. You see, there is this massive conspiracy plot down at UofL to silence all media and communications about the program unless Tom Jurich authorizes it with the secret handshake, word, repetition of the loyality oath and ceremonial "Cards First Down" signal. Been that way since he got here. Yes, I'm sure that's right. Doesn't matter if it is positive or negative. They've been spying on CARDINAL COUPLE for quite some time now...I see them out there in the taxus bushes. They tap my phones, follow me to work and tell fast food cashiers to give me incorrect change at the drive thru windows. They make it difficult for me to cross the street from the Parrish House before UofL football games. That guy who stopped by yesterday to give me an estimate on tree removal. He was a UofL secret service agent. I'm sure of it. We've been on double, secret probation with the university since John L. Smith took the head football coaching job. Oh, yeah...it's going on. Meiners is in on it, too. And so is Lachlan McLean. Maybe even Becky Burke. I may dig out my UK hat and t-shirt and wear them to Churchill opening day.

Please...people. Quit making this an issue. Things change. What once were vices are now habits. Terry Meiners will still continue to be the funniest guy and clown prince of Louisville media. Tom Jurich is still the best athletic director in the nation. And if Rick Pitino needs a break from TV, so be it. Quit wasting time on this. Randall Cobb is getting ready to tweet again....

I'm still waiting for that phone call to host the show. And why not offer the UofL women's gig to Meiners? I'd be proud to be his co-host. Even if I still have more hair than him. And Sean Moth.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Arslanbeckova, Youman earn BIG EAST honors



TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE PRESENTS:


-Nicole Youman named BIG EAST Player of the Week

-Lola Arslanbeckova named BIG EAST Player of the Week

-UofL Women's basketball season ticket plan


Two UofL women's sports athletes have been selected for top honors for their performances last week. Here's the details...

Nicole Youman, senior forward from Black Mountain, Austrailia, has been named the BIG EAST Player of the Week in Field Hockey for her efforts last week in the TEAM CARDINAL wins against Villanova and Iowa. She ended up with eleven points...scoring three times and dishing out five assists in the 6-0 whitewash of Villanova and 4-1 win over Iowa. Youman leads the BIG EAST with 15 goals and 18 assists on the season...good for 48 points.

This is her third BIG EAST Player of the Week honor this season. The Cards (11-5, 4-1) travel to Providence (4-11, 0-4) for a Saturday match against the Lady Friars (sounds strange, right) and a non-conference Sunday tussle with New Hampshire. The Providence game will end the conference schedule for Pam Bustin's squad. They are second in the BIG EAST standings currently.


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Lola Arsanbeckova, a sophomore outside hitter for the UofL volleyball team was named BIG EAST player of the week in Volleyball for her fine performance in the upset win over Cincinnati Saturday in Cardinal Arena. It's the first such award for Lola or any of the Volley Cards this season.

Lola was spectacular in the Bearcats vs. Cardinals showdown. She had 24 kills and seven digs in the 3-2 win for Louisville. She hit for an awesome .419 in the match. Currently she is fifth in the conference in hitting percentage and third in kills per set.

Louisville is tied for first place in the BIG EAST with the Bearcats at 6-1. They have the next three games at home, beginning with Lipscomb on Wednesday night. BIG EAST foe Georgetown
visits Friday night and the home stand ends with USF on Sunday afternoon. After that, the next five out of six are on the road and the BIG EAST tournament is in Pittsburgh this year. Louisville is 11-5 on the season and currently riding a five match win streak.


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UofL has announced a special women's season ticket basketball package for UofL Alumni and it is quite a deal. This new package includes 4 Women's Basketball season tickets for $160 total. If you purchase the package, you also get 4 additional tickets to the UofL vs. Tennessee game on November 12th. and 4 additional tickets to the UofL vs. UK game on December 5th.

All the UofL women's basketball home games will be played in the state of the art KFC - YUM! Center. The sections available for this special deal are all lower level.

Call Eric Clouse, director of ticket sales, at (502) 852-7254 to get in on the action.

Think about it. 16 home games. 4 tickets each, plus an additional 4 tickets each for two of the biggest games of the year. I didn't major in math but I come up with 72 total tickets here for slightly over $2 a seat. The best entertainment value in town, folks.
Make that call to Eric today and he'll be happy to fill you in on which sections and seats are open. Last I heard, the offer applied to Sections 101-104, 108-114 and 118-120. I've been to the new arena a couple of times now and there are no bad views from anywhere on the lower level.
You might even run into the co-owners of CARDINAL COUPLE during a contest...but don't let that hold you back from getting in the game. WE promise to be nice. Jeff Walz insists. Otherwise we have to run the steps in the arena and try to guard Asia Taylor.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Field Hockey sweeps weekend, tough Soccer loss



MONDAY @ THE COUPLE:


-Field Hockey produces on Senior Day.


-Soccer falls in O.T.


-New Field Hockey blog


Welcome to a new week. An exciting Sunday for UofL women's sports and we have a new entry for the Field Hockey blog. TEAM CARDINAL drove 10 of the orbs pictured here into the cage over the weekend while allowing only one to slip by them. WOOO HOOO! Let's get to the stories:


#10 Louisville Field Hockey sent the seniors off in style by rolling past Iowa 4-1 in Sunday action. The Cards are now 11-5 and assured a berth in the BIG EAST tournament.


The televised match started slowly for UofL. Iowa hit the scoreboard first just a couple of minutes into the game when Kim Scraper snuck one by UofL goalie Erin Conrad for the score. You know what they say about sleeping lions...and the rude awakening only served to fire TEAM CARDINAL up. Defensive pressure got Louisville the ball in good position and Kelsey Rosenmeier took a pass from senior Jenna Ahern to tie the contest 11 minutes into the game. The Cards tallied the second goal off a penalty corner when senior Nicole Youman found Karah Nall near the net and delivered a pass that Nall drove home for a 2-1 advantage. The Cards padded the lead near the end of the first half when Haley Jurich popped a Youman penalty corner past Iowa goalie Kathleen McGraw. The Cards took the 3-1 advantage into the locker room for halftime.


Both teams battled in a strong defensive effort thru the second half until Youman retrieved a Caitlin Collins shot and redirected it into the goal for the final margin. The CARDS out shot Iowa 17-6 in the game and Conrad had three saves.


Louisville takes it to the road for the next two. They'll visit Providence on Saturday, October 23rd. and face New Hampshire on the 24th. Enjoy the spectacular New England fall colors, TEAM CARDINAL and bring two "W"'s home...


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Heartbreak on the road for Louisville women's soccer Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee when the Lady Cards dropped a 4-3 overtime match to Marquette. Louisville (9-7, 3-6) got three scores from sophomore Emily Cardell but dropped to #20 Marquette (12-3-2, 9-0).


The Cards started strong against the Golden Eagles and hit the board first when Cardell was on the receiving end of a Shannon Leamy feed and flew one by Marquette goalie Natalie Kulla. Several minutes later Cardell made it 2-0 when Angelika Uremovich set up a pass that Cardell scored on. The Cards took the 2-0 advantage into halftime.


Marquette got untracked in the second half when they scored in the 57 minute mark and tied it at the 65 minute mark. Louisville regained a brief lead when Cardell scored her final goal of the game but the Golden Eagles came right back and tied it at 3-3 less than a minute later.


The teams took the 3-3 tie into overtime. Marquette secured the victory early in O.T. when Kerry McBride connected after receiving a corner kick. Marquette out shot Louisville 28-5 in the game and Louisville goalie Taylor Vancil had nine saves. The Cards stay on the road trip...appearing at Seton Hall on Friday to end the regular season.


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Lacey Jurich catches us up on the great field hockey weekend for TEAM CARDINAL. We will run Lacey's Field Hockey entry on the left side of the site as well until it is updated. Lacey writes:


October 16th.


"We had a huge victory over our competitors in the Big East, the Villanova Wildcats. Going into the game we realized that we have to get another Big East win under our belt to make sure we are still doing well in the conference. Villanova has a good reputation to keep fighting throughout the whole game. Our coaches prepared us all week to play our game and we were definitely prepared. We knew that in order to win this game we need to all play together and play 70 minutes. In the first few minutes, we set the tone. Nicole hit a rocket to Karah as she tipped it into the cage. After this goal we kept up the tempo on the field and also on the sideline. The energy was present throughout the entire game. Villanova stayed true to their reputation and they worked hard the entire game...but we outworked them. At halftime the score was 4-0. We knew that Villanova was a tenacious team and would still continue to work hard in the second half. The Cards came out strong again in the second half and ended up putting two more balls in the cage. Erin Conrad had another shutout game and we ended up winning 6-0. This Big East win is another game that will help us get closer to reach our goals."


October 17th


"Today may have seemed to be close to the end for some of the seniors, but all of TEAM CARDINAL knew that we still have a lot more left in this 2010 season. Today was Senior Day. We honored/celebrated our 7 seniors and our student manager before the big game versus Iowa today. This was the last regular season game that we play at Trager Stadium. TEAM CARDINAL was ready to go! We knew that we had to show all of our fans the things we were capable of. Many families were in town to support the Cardinals this week. With all the hype and distractions of Senior Day, we knew that we wanted to win this game badly! We did a great job of controlling our energy and excitement. This was an emotional day for many but also a thrilling day. In the beginning of the game, Iowa had scored a goal but we never got discouraged. When they scored, we decided that there was no way they will get momentum on OUR field. We fired back with a goal about eleven minutes into the game. Since it was a tied ballgame, we knew that we needed to score a few more goals for a sweet victory. We ended up scoring two more goals off of beautiful corner plays to end the half 3-1. We discussed what we needed to do to make sure we can seal the deal. Iowa is known to be a second half team and we knew that we had to work together. With the energy and focus still present, we scored one more goal and the final was 4-1. The 10th ranked Cards now have a record of 11-5. This victory was earned by everyone on TEAM CARDINAL. No one was out of focus and everyone was alert. This was a very memorable day, not only for the seniors, but to all the teammates and people that they have touched. "


Nice work by Lacey on getting us on the sidelines and in the huddles with TEAM CARDINAL. She and her teammates travel to New England this weekend for two games and we look forward to that report.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Volleyball upsets the Bearcats




SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:


-Volleyball knocks off UC 3-2


-Field Hockey rolls over Nova 6-0


-Harmonious romps in the QE II




Lola Arslanbekova led the University of Louisville Volleyball team to victory Saturday in Cardinal Arena over the #21 ranked UC Bearcats in front of a packed house. The atmosphere was charged and frenetic as the Cards battled tooth and nail with the Bearcats over the 5 game match.


The Cards started poorly in the first game and fell behind by six early but rallied to take a 18-16 lead. Back and forth it went until Stephanie Niemer sent one of her game high 29 kills past the Cardinal defense to win it 25-23. Louisville started the second game much better and held a five point lead early but UC fought back and eventually pushed their advantage to 21-15. The Cards gained the next four points and UC took a timeout to regroup. Whatever they discussed worked...they got four out of the five final points to put Louisville away 25-20 and lead the match 2-0.


The Cards and Bearcats began the third game exchanging hitting streaks and battled to a 9-9 tie. Louisville used a 7-1 final run, though...to get their first game win 25-17. The fourth game was a tightly contested one...Louisville finally using a 6-1 run to forge a 18-14 lead and they held off a late UC rally to even the match at 2-2 with a narrow 25-22 victory. Anastasia Artemeva stepped up huge for the Cards in the fourth game with seven kills.


In the deciding game, the Cards took it to the Bearcats early and jumped out to a 6-3 advantage. UC regrouped, though and took five out of the next seven points to tie it a 8-8. Arslanbeckova took over at that point, though and produced four kills to lead the Cards on a 7-2 run that gave Louisville a 15-10 win. Arslanbeckova had 24 kills for the Cards (11-5, 6-1). It was the first conference loss for Cincinnati (17-4, 6-1) and Louisville's first win over a top 25 foe since 2007.


The Volley Cards return to the floor Wednesday in Cardinal Arena with a 7 p.m. match versus Lipscomb.


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Nicole Youman led Team Louisville to a 6-0 whitewash of Villanova earlier in the day at Trager Stadium. For the Cards, it was a case of scoring early and often against the Wildcats. Karah Nall took a penalty corner pass from Youman for the first goal just two minutes into the game. Shortly after that, Rachel Hollenbach drove to the top of the circle and batted a shot past Nova goalie Megan Goetz for the Cards next score. With 10 minutes gone in the contest, Jenna Ahern followed up a Youman miss on goal and guided the ball into the next and the Cards led 3-0.


They finished the first half scoring when Youman set up Hayley Taylor with a perfect pass to the left post and Taylor easily tallied the fourth Cardinal score.


The second half turned into a defensive struggle early and Louisville continued to keep Villanova away from the Cardinal goal. Youman intercepted a Nova feed, took the ball down the field and outfoxed two Wildcat defenders to slap one past Goetz to make it 5-0 at the twenty minute mark. The Cards added a late goal in the final minute of the game when Youman was on the receiving end of some excellent passing from Tuli Lim and Ahern and slid one by Nova for the 6-0 final.


The Cards ended with a 18-4 shot advantage and 12-1 corner edge in the game. Goalie Erin Conrad had three saves as Louisville (10-5, 4-1) clinched a playoff spot in the BIG EAST Tournament with the victory.


Sunday is Senior Day for Pam Bustin's squad. The team will honor Ahern, Youman, Lim, Nall, Hollenbach, Nikki Auker and Simone Attles following the game against Iowa. The 1 p.m start will be televised on WHAS11 television.


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WE told you yesterday that we thought HARMONIOUS would stand tall in the Grade I Queen Elizabeth II feature race at Keeneland yesterday. We were right. Joel Rosario guided the filly to a drawing away 4 length win over the 1-1/8 mile course past EVENING JEWEL to win the race at odds of 5/2. HARMONIOUS motored past the contenders midway thru the Keeneland stretch very impressively and the John Sherriff's trained filly looked much the best knocking off seven very talented foes. Close but no cigar for us, though...in the late Pick 4. After winning the first three legs of the wager, we lost in the final to a first time starter named TWINSPIRED trained by Michael Maker and ridden by Shane Sellers. Two of our final leg entries PHILOLOGY and JOJO'MOJO ran 2nd and 3rd...honestly, we thought we had a chance midway thru the stretch but PHILOLOGY just couldn't gain on the eventual winner
.
The .50 Pick 4 paid $1674. Missed it by four lengths...
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