Tuesday Cardinal Couple - All M&M Team

M&Ms are a favorite candy (and registered trademark of Mars, Inc...some legal blah blah here), but they also are the initials for some fantastic UofL athletes.

So, I present the Cardinal Couple 2015 All-M&M team.

First Team

Mariya Moore

Most Cardinal Couple readers will be familiar with Mariya Moore.  Currently in Russia playing with the U19 US National Team, Mariya is well known as a guard on the UofL Women's Basketball team with quite the shooting touch.  If the U19 play is any indication, she's been developing some defensive prowess as well.  A rising sophomore, we should be seeing Moore in the red and black for another three seasons.

Maya McClendon

Maya McClendon's older sister made quite an impact playing at perennial Volleyball powerhouse Penn State.  Maya is shorter, at only 5'9" compared to her sister's 6'1", but has more hops and may very well be a better overall player.  A rising junior, McClendon has another two years of play to build her legacy.  The McClendon's are from Louisville, and both sisters attended duPont Manual High School just across Cardinal Blvd from  UofL.  Maya typically plays the full rotation on the court, but may see a break from passing duties this year with Erin Fairs being expected to play full rotation as well.

Morgan Miller

Sticking with Volleyball, we have an incoming freshman from Magnolia Texas (Magnolia High School).  Sharing a hometown with last year's libero Roxanne McVey (but different high school), Morgan is just loaded with the "M"'s, with both first and last names, hometown, and high school all being "M"'s.  Miller is listed as a setter and right side hitter.  With a whopping four setters listed on the UofL Volleyball roster, and Katie George returning, I wouldn't expect to see Morgan taking the 2nd hit very often, but as the only player listed as right side, you may very well see her on the court quite a bit, depending on whether another player shifts over to the right side to play (I'm thinking the play-anywhere Janelle Jenkins might go to the right side this year).

Morgan Meyer

Morgan Meyer and Morgan Miller have already proven that they can make me stop and make sure I'm saying the right name when trying to talk about either of them because the names are so phonetically similar.  They are on totally different teams, though.  Meyer is a rising junior on the softball and is listed as an outfielder.  This past season, however, we mostly saw the speedster Meyer as a pinch runner, typically coming in to round the bases in lieu of slugger Brittany Duncan.  With two of the four graduating seniors this past year being outfielders, or at least occasionally in the outfield, I hope Meyer will get some more time in the field and at bat this year.  "Mo" Meyer is also a Louisvillian, having attended Mercy Academy.

Michelle Molodynia

Speaking of speedsters, Michelle is on both the Cross Country and Track teams.  Technically this makes her a three sport athlete as the NCAA considers Indoor Track&Field to be a separate sport from Outdoor Track&Field.  Michelle is the only women's athlete that I didn't know about before beginning research for this team.  A rising Senior, Molodynia hails from Niagara Falls, Ontario.  You would think, as a Cross Country runner, she would stick to the distance events for T&F, but she is listed as a middle-distance runner, competing in the 800meter to 1mile range of events.

Second Team

While Cardinal Couple is primarily about women's athletics at UofL, I'll add a second team honor for the M&M guys.

Mangok Mathiang

Another basketball name that you probably know already.  Mangok, joined with Montrezl Harrell to begin a trend of odd silent letters in names.  He also continued a trend of excellence.  Born in Sudan Africa, he is a resident of Melbourne Australia, Mathiang represented his home country down under in the World University Games.  While the Aussies didn't fair too well overall in the basketball competition, Mangok led the WUGs competition in rebounding and ended up 8th in scoring with five double-doubles.  A rising sophomore, he graduated in the same class with lock-down UofL soccer defender Chatham DeProspo from IMG Academy in Florida.

Marcus Motill

The only other name that I didn't know before beginning research for this team selection, Marcus is also a runner on the Track&Field team primarily competing in the indoor season.  He has run everything from 60meter to 1000meter in the indoor season, and has added in 60meter hurdles, high jump, long jump, pole vault, shot put and heptathlon in the indoor season.  Motill has also run the 400meter in the outdoor season.  A rising junior, he hails from Stamford, CT.

JMcA