Women Soccer and Volleyball win...Football with tough test today...Lady Cards hoops Sunday...

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SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Sharo and McIntosh lead Louisville to win over Tigers

-Volleyball advances in BIG EAST Tournament with win over Pitt

-Football against UConn today a crossroads for Cards

-Xavier visits the KFC YUM Center for WBB Sunday

(We apologize for the late edition of Cardinal Couple today. Friday night racing at Churchill Downs will do that to you, sometimes...)

The University of Louisville women's soccer team continued their magic in the NCAA Tournament by downing Memphis 2-0 last night to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. It's the furthest any UofL women's soccer team has ever gone in post-season play and a win over the #5 ranked team in the nation in Memphis...their first loss of the year.

Defense dominated the first half of the game...both teams with scoring opportunities but both goalies were playing big in the net. It wasn't until the 69th minute of the game until the Cards got a point on the board. Two freshmen were responsible for the score...Erin Yenney sent a cross-field pass to Kim Sharo...who headed the ball past goalkeeper Elis Kuhar-Pitters to give the Cards the lead.

Louisville added another point just seven minutes later and, once again, two freshmen were responsible for the goal. Casey Whitfield drove a kick toward
the goal that Zakiya McIntosh caught up with and headed into the net.

Chloe Kiefer had another outstanding night between the pipes with four saves and her ninth shutout of an opponent. Memphis had a 14-12 edge in shots...but Louisville led in the statistic that matters the most...goals.

Erin Yenney...one of the four
"diaper dandies" that led
Louisville to the win

"Our back line is a group that flies under the radar. It's not that there's one specific player that stands individually but the strength of the back line is the back line. They're really good one-on-one defenders." -Louisville head women's soccer coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes

With the win, Louisville advances to play Florida State, a 3-1 winner over Portland. Game time is 3 p.m. Sunday and it'll be free of charge again at http://www.ncaa.com/ and http://www.uoflsports.com/

The Cards are the only BIG EAST school left in the big dance. Marquette bowed out yesterday to Penn State and WVU and Notre Dame were first round casualties. The Cards have now lost only twice in their last 17 games and the 14 wins on the season are a new Louisville women's soccer record.

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Volleyball disposes of a stubborn Pitt team Friday afternoon 25-13, 25-20, 24-26, 25-20. With the win, they advance in the BIG EAST Tournament to play Norte Dame today at 2 p.m. in the Al McGuire Center on the Marquette campus.

BIG EAST Player of the Year Lola Arslanbekova led the Cards with 16 kills, Brooke Mattingly added 15 and Emily Juhl finished with 14.

The Cards romped out to a 10-5 lead in game one, pushed it to 22-13 and then got two straight kills from Mattingly and a game ending kill from Kaitlynn James to take the victory. Louisville saw an early 7-3 lead in game two evaporate when Pitt went on a 10-5 run to take their first lead of the contest. The teams stayed close and it was 22-20 before the Cards put Pitt away with a kill from Juhl, a slam from Lola and another game winner from James.

After the halftime break, one figured the Cards might sweep this one in three games...but Pitt wasn't ready to go home and led the Cards 22-14 before Louisville ran off eight straight to tie it up. With both teams at 24-24, Pitt's Mechael Guess (Louisville Manual H.S.) gave the Panthers a one point lead and a hitting error from James put the third game in the Panthers win column. The Cards battled back and forth with Pitt in a close one in the fourth game until Louisville started pulling away from a 12-12 tie to lead 18-12. The Cards saw Pitt rally to cut the Louisville lead to 22-19. Behind Juhl, though...Louisville managed three out of the final four points in the game to win by five.

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Cardinal football tries to get bowl-worthy today with a noon kickoff at Connecticut. With just two games remaining in the season, Louisville needs a win today against the Huskies or next week down in Tampa against USF.

Better get it today, gridiron gorillas...Louisville has never won a game against South Florida in Tampa and probably never will. Unexplainable, we haven't a clue, but something about seeing Cardinal jerseys on their field turns the South Florida football team into the Green Bay Packers.



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Jeff Walz's Lady Cards return to the KFC YUM! Center Sunday for a 2 p.m. tilt against the Xavier Muskies. It's a "red out" game and also an NCAA "Pack the House" promotion. Show your Kroger Plus Card at the ticket window and score $2 tickets for this one.

A promotion you may want to consider if you like watching the men's team also is the Cardinal Combo package UofL is offering. You can see both teams play on the same day for only $30 a ticket. Dates for this special are:

-Nov. 22nd. (WBB vs. Austin Peay and MBB vs. Ark.St.)
-Dec. 10th.  (WBB vs. Gardner-Webb and MBB vs. Farleigh Dickinson)
-Dec. 28th.  (WBB vs. UT Martin and MBB vs. Georgetown)

 No, this is not Cardinal
QB "Teddy" Bridgewater...

People fretting about the noon tipoff Tuesday against Austin Peay may not know that the Cards are bringing in over 6,000 grade school kids from around the area for  the contest. Great thing...get to leave school early, go to a hoops game and then back on the bus and home. Where was this stuff when I was growing up? We just went on field trips to a farm and got to pet cows and horses...

The Lady Cards are also hosting this year's Pink Game on January 18th. against Providence. Breast cancer survivors receive two free tickets and will be invited to participate in a special halftime show.

Louisville doesn't have to worry about those twin towers Amber Harris and Ta'Shia Phillips anymore...but Tyeasha Moss is still there and had 22 points and 12 grabs against EKU.