Friday Cardinal Couple -- Soles second shot sends Cards to semis in AAC

FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

       ***** GAME FINAL UPDATE*****

Rachel Le Coq tosses a five hitter and Katie Keller slugs a grand slam homer to lead Louisville over South Florida Bulls 8-0 in six innings. We'll have more in the Saturday Cardinal Couple. CARDS WIN!!  CARDS WIN!!

- Softball slugs past Owls 5-3. Will face USF today

- Women's golf 15th after Day One of NCAA Regionals

- Lacrosse faces OSU today in NCAA Tournament

They were playing long ball yesterday in the ballpark in Houston...Louisville softball with four home runs and Temple with one as the Cards advance to the AAC semis with a 5-3 win over the Owls.

Kayla Soles two run bomb in the bottom of the sixth with Katie Keller on second was the winning hit...it was Soles' second home run of the day and her ninth of the season.

The Cards got two fence clearers in the first...solo shots by Brittany Duncan and Katie Keller to take a 2-1 lead. After one inning of pitching, Caralisa Connell gave way to Rachel LeCoq. The Louisiana senior went four innings...allowing two runs on one home run before giving way to Maryssa Becker in the sixth. The win goes to Becker.

With the game knotted at 3-3 in the bottom of the sixth, Keller singled and moved to second on Taner Fowler's sacrifice bunt. That brought Soles to the plate...her shot over the fence to left barely staying fair to put Louisville ahead.

The Cards get USF today at 5 p.m. The Bulls downed Memphis yesterday. Other winners were UCF and Rutgers.
Host Houston fell to the Scarlet Knights 5-1 and UCF blanked UConn 8-0 in five innings.

The UofL game against USF is at 5 p.m. All games are being shown on the American Digital Network...over at The American website

The network provided a short clip of the Louisville v Temple highlights and it is linked below:

http://theamerican.org/watch/sportfile.ashx?sports=/2013/12/28/WBB_1228131617.aspx&s=231630


( Is it just me...or does the Temple pitcher look like Sara Hammond?)


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Louisville women's golf finished the first round of the NCAA East Regional at the Southwood Gold Club in Tallahassee, FL shooting a 295. The Cards sit in 15th. place, tied with Kentucky, with 36 holes left to play. Atop the leaderboard is Vandy at 277.

Tara Lyons fired a 71 for the 18 holes. Katie Petrino carded a 73, Laura Restrepo 75, and Emily Haas and Shannon Gramley both finished at 76.

The top eight teams after 54 holes from the three regions advance to the NCAA Championships. The Cards hit it early this morning...teeing off at 7:45 a.m.

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Lacrosse is in Evanston, IL preparing for today's first round NCAA game against Ohio State. The team received a gala sendoff from the YUM! practice facility on campus yesterday and UofL Card Game observer Charlie Springer was there to catch some photos.

Lacrosse has accomplished some amazing things this season and Kellie Young has built the program in seven years into a force that will have to be reckoned with when they play in the ACC next season. Although senior leaders Ashley Herbst, Monica Negron and Nikki Boltja will be gone...Louisville still has a ton of talent returning.

FAYE BRUST

Against Ohio State today, UofL makes their first ever NCAA appearance. The Cards inexplicably weren't chosen for the NCAA Tournament last year despite posting a 11-6 record, winning their last three regular season, in-conference games and getting off to a 7-1 start.

Louisville (15-3) and Ohio State (13-6) met in Columbus earlier this season...the Buckeyes getting a narrow 12-11 win. It was the only time this season that Kay Morissette was bested in draw controls. Louisville led 6-2 in the first half but four consecutive OSU goals tied it after 30 minutes. Four in a row in the second half put Ohio State ahead to stay...the Cards scored the final two goals in the match but could not get the tying goal as time ran out.

OSU leads the series 6-1...Louisville win coming in 2013 at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium by a score of...you guessed it...12-11.  The Buckeyes enter the NCAA Tournament losing in the ALC semifinals to Northwestern 9-8. Attacker Katie Chase had five of the OSU scores in that one.

They play at 8 p.m. tonight. No TV that we know of...


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Touchdown Teddy goes to Minnesota

Finally, congratuatons to Calvin Pryor, Marcus Smith and Teddy Bridgewater from the UofL football team. All were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft last night.

Teddy was the last pick of the first round...which made for a late viewing night for those watching on ESPN. He was picked by the Minnesota Vikings. Louisville sending a fair share of athletes and coaches to that state lately...with Gorgui Dieng, Richard Pitino and Asia Taylor all in the land of 10,000 lakes (and 1,000,000 mosquitos).

paulie