Big Monday Game in Basketball
In what is certainly one of the biggest games of the year for Women's Basketball, UofL plays one of the perennial powerhouses in Women's Basket in Notre Dame. This one is in South Bend and is the ESPN2 Big Monday game with a seven o'clock tip.
I doubt we have to do too much scouting for Notre Dame as their lineup is pretty well known to the Louisville faithful. The biggest threat is likely 5'10" Junior sensation Jewell Loyd, but Notre Dame isn't a one-hit wonder in the guard position, with Loyd being joined with Senior Madison Cable (5'11").
You never want to play a powerhouse team after they come off an upset loss, and we narrowly avoided that with Notre Dame squeaking out a win over Georgia Tech. The final score was 10 points, but the game was much closer overall. Notre Dame trailed 34-33 at the half and with as little as 11 minutes left in the game, the scored was knotted up at 51. Jewell Loyd scored 31, with no other Irish achieving double-digits. Cable was the next highest scorer with 9.
I'll be in attendance, and hope to get some post-game comments from Coach Walz.
Tennis Loses a Heartbreaker
Tennis matched up against North Texas Sunday in a match that turned out to be quite a nail-biter. The serve and volley youngsters were tied at three points apiece with Ellie Stokes playing a third set in the last running match. Unfortunately the Birmingham England Sophomore was unable to pull out the match and the Cards dropped the overall match 4-3.
The Cards got the doubles point to start out with two of the three wins with Ellie Stokes and Freshman Ariana Rodriguez getting a win, and Freshman Jessie Lynn Paul teaming up with the lone Senior on the squad, Manuela Velasquez to clench the doubles point.
In the singles matches, Jessie Lynn Paul and Sophomore Olivia Boesing picked up points.
Tennis takes to the Southeast roadways next with trips to NC State, Duke (this time, it counts in conference), Georgia Tech, and Clemson. They return to the Bass-Rudd for a 4pm Friday start on March 13th against Wake Forest, and a 11am Sunday start versus North Carolina.
A Correction
Yesterday I mentioned the large contingent of Volleyball Cards invading Colorado Springs for the USA Volleyball tryouts, but the invasion was larger than even I realized as Maya McClendon also made the trip.
- JMcA
Looking forward to a good game tonight. I don't expect a win (although it's not an impossible task) but just hope that team plays well. Must get off to a good start. Does Walz try something "special" on Loyd or does he play her straight up and try to control the other ND players? Bria may be key on the defensive end. "For recreational purposes only" -- Irish are favored by 8 1/2.
ReplyDeleteFirst, a big thanks to Worldwide Jeff for filling in these past two days while Sonja and I have been on a mini-getaway with very limited internet access. We expect a tough battle tonight and the Cards must avoid a slow start, go to the boards and try to limit Loyd, Cable, Allen and Turner. Tough task indeed.
ReplyDeleteI marked this one as a "L" when I did my pre-season schedule evaluation. Nevertheless, I think Louisville can manage a win in South Bend if they:
1) Pass more and dribble less
2) Hit the mid-range, long range jumpers
3) Establish a significant board presence on both ends of the court
4) Convert at the charity stripe.
5) Get the transition game working.
Had a great conversation yesterday with a couple that are huge Notre Dame fans where we are. Follows the women quite closely and was actually leaving out early this morning to get back to South Bend for the game. They pointed out that both Notre Dame losses this year (UConn and Miami) the Irish shot 35% or less and both Notre Dame and Louisville were two of the least productive teams in the ACC in made threes.
Go Cards...we hope to be home in time to watch the game tonight and, if not, Matt and AJ will carry us to that point.
We'll have the write up in the Tuesday Cardinal Couple.
Paulie
I think we've got a pretty good chance at a win if we can hold Lloyd to < 20. Looking forward to seeing what Walz has cooked up to deal with her.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of the outcome it will be great experience for the freshmen in preparation for the conference and NCAA tourneys.
Good Luck Ladies!
I am in South Bend now...hanging out at my hotel for a couple of hours and will head toward campus for dinner and the game in a bit. Hope to get some use out of my digital recorder, but we'll see if that works out.
ReplyDelete