Cards picked to finish 7th in Lacrosse...4th in softball

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TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Pearsall's sluggers picked fourth in pre-season BIG EAST

-Lacrosse gets seventh slot in pre-season BIG EAST poll.

-Watson words

Coach P. has power,
speed and pitching
returning. Yup!

The University of Louisville softball team has been picked to finish fourth in the BIG EAST Pre-season coaches poll. Five teams received first place votes in the polling...where the top five teams were seperated by only 19 total votes.

The Cards return five BIG EAST All-Conference selections. First baseman Alicja Wolny, infielders Katie Keller and Hannah Kiyohara, outfielder Jennifer Esteban and pitcher Caralisa Connell. They also get talented Jordy Trimble back after sitting out last year with a broken ankle. Coach Pearsall had recruited well and has a talented group of freshmen vying for positions on the squad.

Here's the vote breakdown, with first place votes in ( ).

1. DePaul  (3)        130
2. Syracuse (4)      128
3. Notre Dame (3) 121
4. Louisville (2)    120
5. USF (1)              111
6. Pitt                    85
7. Rutgers             74
8. UConn              64
9. Providence       57
10. St. John's        51
11. Villanova        45
12. Georgetown    23
13. Seton Hall       20

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Katie returns as a
mid-fielder

The BIG EAST women's lacrosse coaches have also been busy and released their preseason picks and pre-season All-Star team. We're not as happy with those prognostications....no UofL players made the 16-player squad and the Lacrosse Cards were picked 7th. Katie Oliverio returns as a mid-fielder and Ashley Herbst at goalkeeper for a team hit heavily by graduation. The roster shows nine freshmen, eight sophomores, two juniors and four seniors. Youth movement underway down on the Belknap campus.

The pre-season rankings...


1. Georgetown  (5)    60
2. Syracuse  (3)         59
3. Loyola  (1)            51
4. Notre Dame          44
5. Rutgers                 34
6. UConn                  27
7. Louisville             26
8. Villanova              12
9. Cincinnati             11.

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(David Watson is a special correspondent for CARDINAL COUPLE. Rumors that he is a "plant" by Notre Dame athletic officials is entirely false. He owns no green or gold sports jackets. Here's today's Watson words.)

I just finished watching Notre Dame dis-mantled a top ten Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team a few hours ago. Eee-gads! Is there anyway Louisville can remove them from the schedule? They are scary good. I think even their program assistants could come off the bench and ring up double figures. Hate to say it, but there isn't going to be a whole lot of happy in the KFC YUM! Center when the Irish come to visit unless you're wearing green and gold.

Poor Pat Summitt. Gone is the fiery sideline nature. The fierce stare that could dismantle officials better than a Star Wars laser. I back Pat. I feel for Pat. Maybe it's best to go quietly into that good night at times. Maybe she was just demoralized that the Irish blew her Vols out without much effort. Maybe Tennessee isn't all they're cracked up to be this year. Is Kentucky the best team in women's SEC basketball? Is this the sign of the apocalypse?

How about those Lady Cards hoopsters? Winning on the road against a top-twenty opponent, on ESPN 2 and showing some grit and perserverance while doing so. Sugar Rodgers did not disappoint either. 24 points and they even tried to slip her an extra one.

Bria Smith, meet what you could become. 

I, too, wonder about the MIA status of Sara Hammond. I realize that Coach Walz can only play a certain number of paint players at a time. And, he's got quite a few to shuffle into that mix. Never know which one is going to provide the spark. I just wish Hammond would get a few minutes to try and become one of them. If you think her playing time is diminished now, wait until Reid and Gibbs return next year. Might want to put one of those ankle-tracking devices on her so we'll know her whereabouts. With that being said, she'll probably log 20+ minutes against Villanova. UofL women's basketball with coach Walz is like a box of chocolates.

You never know just what you're going to get. (Sorry, Forrest Gump.) 

(Any rumors that the real Forrest Gump was modeled after David Watson are absolutely false. David is horrible at ping pong and abhors jogging.) 
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