Tuesday Cardinal Couple -- Volleyball, Hoops and Hatchell

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

*** Volleyball News and Honors

*** Basketball Media Day ***

*** Best Wishes to Sylvia Hatchell ***

 

Maya gets another

Volleyball Freshman Maya McClendon may have lost a last name, but she's gained another nod for American Conference Freshman of the Week honors.  Maya scored double-doubles in both matches this week against USF and UCF.This is the third time she has picked up the honor in the inaugural season of the conference.  

Randi Ewing earned a spot on the honor roll for her efforts on the weekend.

Conspicuously absent from the conference honors list are any Defensive Specialists or Liberos.  Which leads us to...

Caitlin Welch sets UofL Dig Record

We've been keeping an eye on Caitlin Welch's dig numbers with anticipation of her breaking the 2,000 mark.  As was mentioned last week, she had 1,604 at the end of the 2012 campaign and is on a
solid pace to surpass the 2,000 number by the end of this regular season.

With her current pace of just over 17 digs per match, she will break the 2,000 mark early in the match against Houston on November 8th.  The simplistic statistical analysis that I'm doing leaves a lot to be desired, though.  For example, it doesn't take into account outliers, which might include the UCF match from Sunday.

Welch tallied 40 digs in the match against UCF, which puts her one up on the current Director of Volleyball Operations, Sarah Petkovic (formerly Drury).  I'll also point out that Sarah set the previous record in a 5 set match during the 30-point scoring era of Volleyball, while the UCF match only went 4 sets with 25-points being the winning score.

Basketball Media Day

The American Conference held its Women's Basketball Media Day at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut yesterday.  The conference tweeted a picture of all ten coaches at midcourt in the arena and amusingly, of the male coaches (4 of the 10), Jeff Walz was the only one that wasn't wearing a suit and tie, opting instead for one of his now-nearly-trademarked red and white checkerboard-striped shirt.

In addition to Coach Walz, the Cardinals were represented at the Media Day festivities by Shoni Schimmel, Sara Hammond and Bria Smith.

The American Pre-Season All-Conference Team was announced during the festivities and UofL had three selections on the list.  Shoni Schimmel was selected as a unanimous selection, and she was joined by Nita Slaughter and Sara Hammond.

Louisville was picked to finish second in the league in the preseason Coaches' poll behind...you know
who...the Huskies of UConn. Could this finally be the year the Cards top the Dogs? UofL gets two shots at them this season...Sunday, Feb. 9th. in Connecticut and Tuesday, March 3rd. at the YUM!

It is interesting to note that four of the five former members of the BIG EAST are atop the preseason poll. As for Cincinnati, probably a welcome relief for them not to be listed as 9th. or 10th in the poll.

We also have to wonder just how the BIG EAST Preseason WBB poll looks....now that Louisville, Connecticut, USF, Rutgers, Norte Dame, Syracuse and Pitt are gone. Could Doug Bruno and his DePaul Blue Demons actually contend for a BIG EAST WBB title this year? And does Seton Hall finally climb up from the basement?

Does anyone really care?  

Best Wishes for Sylvia Hatchell

The head coach of The University of North Carolina Women's Basketball Team, Sylvia Hatchell has
announced that she is temporarily stepping back from on-court coaching duties in response to a recent Leukemia diagnosis.  Hatchell will continue to serve as head coach and will still be involved in day-to-day operations of the program while undergoing treatment.  She was recently inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame alongside UofL Men's Basketball coach Rick Pitino.

The Cardinal Couple media empire sends our best wishes to Sylvia Hatchell and looks forward to seeing her on the sidelines in Chapel Hill and at the KFC Yum! Center as conference foes starting next year.

-Jeff McAdams

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