Monday Cardinal Couple -- Volleyball rolls over Georgetown
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MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE
-Lola's 21 kills spark Cards
The University of Louisville, led by Lola Arslanbekova's 21 kills, handled Georgetown easily in the KFC YUM! Center Sunday in straight set triumphs 25-10, 25-18, 25-12. With the win, the VolleyCards go to 23-3 on the season and 12-1 in the BIG EAST.
Louisville discovered that Georgetown isn't exactly the best team in the league at returning service and used that to their advantage in front of the home crowd, stretching their lead to 18-5 and winning the first game going away by 15. Lola picked up 10 kills in the set and the Cards were off to a flying start.
The Hoyas did make a game of it in the second set, actually grabbing a 12-11 lead midway through the contest before a 8-1 Cardinal surge put Louisville in the driver's seat at 19-13. The Cards kept the momentum rolling and jumped to a 2-0 game advantage with a seven-point victory.
Anne Kordes' Cards kept that momentum alive in the final game. Up 12-3, UofL gave the bench some valuable minutes and they produced very well, especially Davionna Holmes, as the Cards went up 20-8 and coasted in with the match-ending 13-point win.
Great play by Brooke Mattingly, Gwen Rucker, Kaitlynn James, Caitlin Welch and Emily Juhl added to the Cardinal domination in front of a crowd announced at almost 2500. James had eight kills and Juhl seven for Louisville.
Louisville gets two at home this weekend. A return match Friday at 4:30 p.m. against Marquette and a Sunday noon contest against Cincy. Both will be played at Cardinal Arena...on the UofL campus.
Watching the matches on television, we were pleased with the play-by-play and color commentary coverage by Sean Moth and Jennifer Hoffman. Besides providing accurate and descriptive account of the play-by-play, they went into detail with explanations of offensive set strategy and different formations.
The Cards back in the cozy Cardinal Arena will keep the crowd attendance down a bit this weekend but it is an intimidating place for an opponent to come in and play. Basketball occupies the YUM! Friday and Sunday.
We wonder if a possible WBB/Volleyball double-header in the YUM! could ever be a possibility...maybe for next season? The logistics of floor removal and re-installation of the proper court the probable drawback here, we suppose...but how long would Cards' fans of both sports hang around while this would be swapped? Imagine 12,000 for a hoops game and then...say 90 minutes later...Volleyball? Or maybe temporary lines could be put in place and a net set up? The Cards are 10th in the nation in Volleyball attendance this year. Introducing the game to 10,000 potentially new fans
might be a way to boost that fan attendance further up the top ten ladder.
Yep, always thinking here at the Couple..
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Just checked results around the league this week...and the only word for it is, "Whoa."
ReplyDeleteMatches between two ranked teams had no upsets, but ranked teams versus unranked? That's a very different story:
#2 Oregon lost to California
#4 Nebraska lost to Michigan
#4 Nebraska lost to Michigan State
#5 UCLA lost to Arizona
#6 Southern California lost to Arizona State
#11 Florida State lost to North Carolina
#13 Florida lost to Tennessee
#20 Kansas lost to Baylor
#23 Miami (FL) lost to North Carolina
The Florida, Kansas and Miami (FL) losses don't impact us for coaches poll matters (at least not directly) as we were sitting at #12 in last week's poll. The loss by #11 Florida State suggests we'll get a bit of a bump. I'm skeptical that the UCLA and USC losses will drop them enough to give us a bump, but I guess its possible. I'm cynical enough about coaches polls to think that, despite Nebraska dropping 2 matches, that they'll get punished enough to move us up. I've certainly been wrong before, though.
The Miami (FL) loss does have a bit of an impact on our RPI, as I've mentioned previously, but that's minimal.
The coaches poll is released mid-afternoon timeframe. RPI comes out around close of business timeframe.
Moved up a spot in the coaches poll to #11. I was hoping for a Top 10 spot, but am not surprised that we didn't get it.
DeleteRPI still to come. I suspect we'll sit tight at #7 there.
With the PAC and Big 10 being the power conferences, how many can the BIG EAST expect to get in the NCAA Tournament?
DeleteKeith
Hopefully Jeff will jump in and share his thoughts on this too...but right now I'd have to say Louisville, Norte Dame and Marquette are qualified and UConn on the bubble. The BIG EAST Volleyball tournament winner gets an automatic bid. It's har to see anyone else beside the four mentioned here winning the tournament, and it is in Milwaukee with Marquette hosting, but you never really know...
DeletePaulie
The only way I see anyone other than Notre Dame, Marquette and us getting in is if they can put a great Big East tourney run and get that automatic bid.
DeleteThe automatic and at-large bid breakdowns are roughly the same as for basketball, and beyond the above three, the highest RPI in the Big East is Cincinnati at 90, with UConn sitting at 118.
So, yeah, if someone other than UofL, ND or MU gets the automatic bid, then we probably get 4, otherwise, just those three, as I don't see anyone else getting in on an at-large bid.