Friday, November 3, 2017

Field Hockey and Hoops -- Friday Cardinal Couple

As Paulie has mentioned in previous articles, November is our one month of the year when we ask for your help in running this site.

Cardinal Couple is a labor of love for all of us.  We don't get paid, we do this because we're UofL fans, and we want UofL to be awesome.  We realize that for UofL Athletics to be its most awesome, we need to help bring about awesomeness across the board.  UofL officially plays 23 sports, most sports media covers, on a regular basis, only 2 or 3 of them.  No, we don't cover all of them as well as they deserve, but we try, we do our best, and I think we do a great job of spreading the coverage across many of the sports at UofL that don't typically get as much attention.

Paulie is regularly down on Trager field getting post game comments from Justine Sowry...the latest were quite positive, more on that in a bit.  I'm regularly getting post-match comments from Dani Busboom Kelly after volleyball matches...many of which have been quite positive this year as well.  Our coverage of UofL Women's Basketball is the most extensive in town.  In the spring, we're fixtures at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium and Ulmer Stadium for Softball.  We bring you the successes, and again there are many, of Swimming and Diving, Tennis, Golf, and Cross-Country and Track and Field.  We've brought you the highs and lows of Soccer, and we've down our radio show from the Red and Black Regatta with Rowing (I'm still bummed we couldn't make that happen this year).

There are costs involved in running Cardinal Couple.  They're not huge, but they are real, and they are there.  Website hosting, Domain name registration, and other incidentals all add up.  Consider a donation.  I cannot say enough how much I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of Cardinal Couple, please help us keep it going.

Field Hockey Tournament Play


It's hard to believe we're already into post-season play for fall sports, but here we are, and already the results are positive.

In a later start than was originally planned (show of hands, who's surprised at that?  No one?  Yeah, I thought so), UofL matched up with Syracuse in the last game of the first round.  Syracuse struck early, in the 6th minute, and probably less than a minute after the ACC Network Extra commentators were talking about the importance of getting the first goal on the board.  Nothing else found the back of the cage on either end of the field, and the teams went into halftime with Syracuse leading 1-0.

Louisville attacked aggressively in the 2nd half, and found the goal in the 2nd minute.  Marisa Marin Pelegrina inbounded the ball from a corner, and then corralled the rebound from Katie Walsh's shot to get the goal.  This was Pelegrina's 5th goal to equalize the game at 1-1.  Another corner 4 minutes later gave Louisville their first lead at the 41:25 mark.  Credit the assist to Taylor Stone, and the goal to Madison Walsh on the corner play.

Syracuse equalized less than 2 minutes later, and then the scoring went quiet.  For 25 minutes, the teams battled back and forth, though Louisville mostly kept the upper hand in attacking, getting of 4 shots to the 'Cuse's 1.

In the last minutes of the game, though, senior Nicole Wood fired a nice pass over to Marigrace Ragsdale who was able dodge defenders, dribble into the circle and fire the shot home for the 3-2 lead with 2:07 left to play.  An ensuing timeout and Syracuse pulled their Goalkeeper to bring more attacking firepower onto the field.  The Cards were able to run the clock out, however to advance with the 3-2 win over Syracuse to the 2nd round of the ACC tournament.

That game will be today at around 2:30pm (again, earlier games could delay this).  They will be matching wits with Duke, again, as they beat Boston College with a similar 3-2 score.  On the other side of the bracket North Carolina also put a 3-2 win up over Wake Forest.  They advance to play Virginia.  UVA got into the 2nd round by defeating that perpetual doormat of a team, Bye.

Play starts today at noon with the Virginia vs UNC game.  My guess is they won't need the water cannons during halftime and in between games with this soggy day.

Volleyball


Volleyball is back in action with a little less strenuous of a week than last week.  Starting with an odd start time of 3pm today, they will be playing at Wake Forest.  There is no video listed for this one at any site that I can find, but we've been surprised with last minute links in the past, so stay tuned.

Sunday sees Volleyball in Durham to match up with the Blue Devils.  This one is a more typical 1pm start, and ACC Network Extra is listed.

In the 3-way tie at the top of the ACC that UofL is a part of with Pitt and NC State, Pitt will be tangling with Miami at 7pm, perhaps worthy of a view on ACC Network Extra as there is a very good chance that Miami could knock Pitt out of the tie.  NC State also starts at 7 on ACC Network Extra.  NC State should have an easier time of it, but they are playing in the Carrier Dome, so don't count out Leonid Yelin's team, yet.

Conference and National Attention Getters


While the Women's Soccer season at UofL is essentially over, Emina Ekic was named ACC Co-Freshman of the year.  That's quite an honor for a player on a middle-of-the-pack team, and harkens well for next year.

Also, yesterday, Asia Durr was one of 6 players to head up to ESPN for Women's Basketball National Media Day.  Again, quite an honor, and I'm sure a lot of fun for the Junior.

Congratulations to these Cardinals, representing the school and city so well.

-- 
JMcA

17 comments:

  1. It is confirmed, there will be no streaming of the Volleyball from Wake Forest this afternoon. That's a bummer, but check the Twitter widget down on the right side of the site to see tweets from @UofLVolleyball with updates.

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  2. Go card's, beat Duke watching feild Hockey.
    MLW

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    1. Yup, FH on one monitor, vball stats on another, and twitter/random other stuff on laptop screen. Glad to have lots of screen real estate today.

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  3. Cards up 2-1 9:05 to go.

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  4. Over time game tied up 2-2
    MLW

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  5. Cards field hockey tesm win the shoot out,cards advance.
    MLW Go Cards!!!

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    Replies
    1. Oops field hockey team.

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  6. Big win Field Hockey!!! Amazed, honestly with all those shots McFerran kept taking. Denied. I love this girl.

    -- The Real Joe Hill --

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  7. I'm checking the site...after 11 p.m. and after a 16 hour day covering UofL stuff. A radio show, two field hockey games and interviews and side work on Handicapping Heroes. We have received $0.00 in donations. My disappointment is huge.

    Paulie

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    1. Paulie,

      I've gotta be honest. I wasn't planning on contributing to CC this year, not as a reflection of your efforts but more due to the general level of BS that has been going on at UofL over the past several years.

      Upon reflection that doesn't seem particularly fair on my part. You folks have really developed your operation recently and improved your product during a difficult time. Your new contributors seem knowledgeable and enthusiastic which says a lot for the team and your leadership.

      So I'd like to help get this fund raising party started. I'm sending you a hundred bucks. I'm also challenging other CC readers to donate another $500 by the end of November. If they can hit that threshold I'll pitch in another hundred bucks. That'll be $700 total which should help the cause. Just let me know if you get that additional $500.

      Hope your recovery is going well.

      Burn

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    2. Burn, like you I was a little iffy on what and how much or whether to donate for 2018. I had a long talk with Paulie a couple of weeks ago. Most of you have no idea the hours he puts into this website during the week. And, he is coming off hip replacement and currently undergoing knee regeneration.

      With this kind of effort, plus the great contributions from Worldwide Jeff, Jared, Case and their occasional guests, I have no problem with $100.

      Like you, Burn, I will challenge the readers also. If you other readers can get the total of donations over $500, I will add another $100. I'd just putt it away on the golf course, anyway.

      Paulie, it's a old term, but -- the check's in the mail. Keep on keeping my friends! I love you guys,

      -- The Real Joe Hill --

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    3. Thank you Real Joe Hill and Burn. What is going on at the University shouldn't have any impact on how we support the women's sports program. I can attest that Worldwide Jeff McAdams, aka my son, buys his own tickets and parking to volleyball and basketball as well as for his parents. His volleyball media pass is so that he can meet/interview the coach afterwards.

      The people of Cardinal Couple put in a lot of time and energy and even spend their own money when they go to out of town events.

      Paul, I forgot to send our check by giving it to Jeff yesterday but I will send next week or will mail. (Put another $100 in the tiller)

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    4. Hey Vivian - I hear you but it's a bit of a package deal when it comes to UofL's public image. In any case you must be proud of Jeff...as I recall he was the first "newby" on board some time ago and has always done an amazing job.

      Many Thanks to Joe, Mike and Vivian...at $100 a pop we're up to $300 on my challenge. I'm hoping that some more folks will pitch in a couple hundred more bucks so I can throw in my challenge dollars.

      It looks like Joe is gonna throw in another hundred also when we hit the incremental $500 so that would help even more. Pretty cool of Joe to be stepping up given his recent weather challenges down South.

      Impressive. It's all Good.

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    5. If UofL's public image is a package deal, then everyone should be factoring in the academic side of the school and not linger over bad press from one half of one sport - men's basketball.

      https://louisville.edu/scholars

      Thanks for the kudos about Jeff. We think he is pretty special.

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    6. Yep...although considering that UofL's Athletic Dept is the most profitable in the NCAA and MBB brings in most of the money it's a bit of a problem for most objective folks. MBB pretty much funds everything at UofL Athletics so when there are continual character issues with the ULMBB program it's gonna leave a mark.

      I've never been particularly impressed by formal academia but I somehow escaped it before jumping into the real world. I think I succeeded in life more in spite of my degree than because of it. I'm afraid that since I exited formal academia almost forty years ago the politicization of the academy has become even more problematic...but that isn't a conversation for CC.

      Those of us that are parents are justifiably proud when our progeny become successful adults. I have a couple sons and now that they've graduated, have careers, bought houses and entered formal adulthood I'm pretty damn happy that they're part of solution instead of being part of the problem. Jeff is clearly part of the solution so kudos to you and your better half.

      In any case my donation and challenge are due specifically to the honest efforts of CC and it's staff. I'm looking the other way on MBB because I think CC comes by what they do by virtue of good character and hard work, which is always in fashion.

      We need a couple hundred more bucks to make the challenge!

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  8. I just donated $100. Keep up the good work, Paulie.

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  9. Very sincere and special Thank You's to Mike, Joe, Burn and Vivian who have contributed generously to our November fund raising campaign.

    YOU are CARDINAL COUPLE and WE never forget that.

    Paulie

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