Cards open WBB season vs UCLA in Paris -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 2024-25 WBB SEASON STARTS TODAY FOR WBB

Believe it or not, the start of women's college basketball season is upon us. The Louisville Cardinals squad will start it up in Paris,France..of all places...against a UCLA Bruins squad  that has been selected either #5 or #6 in preseason polls, depending on which source you want to believe. Louisville checks in at #17, in jeff Walz's 18th season as the Cards head skipper. 

Alice Cooper, who we seriously doubt will be there af or the contest

I guess the old Alice Cooper classic. "I'm Eighteen" won't be played in the pre-game warm ups by the pep bands for Jeff Walz. Let's just hope they don't decide to break into another Cooper classic "Welcome to My Nightmare..." And, I wonder if any of the four schools sent a pep band over for the event?  

Game time is 2:30 pm and ESPN2 will have the broadcast. We have no firm grip or insight on who Coach Walz will trot out to start this opener...but I'll venture a guess and say Olivia Cochran, Nyla Harris, Merissah Russell, Elif Istanbulluoglu and Jayda Curry.

Lauren Bettts

UCLA looks to be a powerhouse on paper.  They return 6'7" center Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Charlisse Leger-Walker, Charisma Osbourne and Angela Dugalic. Transfer Janiah Barker will add depth to the Bruins and head coach Cori Close enters after their 27-win season last year.  

One of the big questions for this opener is how heavy a role will the eight freshman and transfer Ja'Leah Willams play for the Cards. A lot of it could depend on how close this contest is and how the refs call the contest. Or maybe Walz wants to see how different combinations look against a challenging, top #5 foe. No one knows for sure how he'll approach this one, except him and maybe his associate and assistant coaches. And, they may not even know..

Ja'Leah Williams

The contest will be the first ever between UCLA and UofL WBB. The contest is the opener in the Aflac Qui Play event, USC and Ole Miss will do battle after the Cards and Bruins. 

We'll recap the contest in the Tuesday Cardinal Couple. 

paulie

Volleyball Cruises Past Notre Dame - Sunday Cardinal Couple

The Irish Unlucky in Meeting Louisville

The Cards were casually dominant in the second half of the home and home meetings against Notre Dame, winning the sweep; 25-12, 25-16, 25-12.  The Cards advance to 19-3 overall and 11-1 in conference.

For the moment, that puts the Cards in sole possession of first place in the ACC, but that's only because our matches were Wednesday/Saturday this week rather than the ty
pical Friday/Sunday of conference play.  Pitt and North Carolina will be playing later today to return to the tie for 1st place.  Pitt should have an easy time at Virginia Tech at 1pm, but North Carolina has their work cut out for them with Georgia Tech paying a visit at noon.  If you're itching for some volleyball to watch this afternoon, UNC/GT should be a good one to catch.  Of course, lots of eyes will also be on Stanford at FSU after Stanford's loss to Miami Friday.  UNC/GT is on ACCNx, while Stanford and FSU are getting the prime ESPN 1pm slot.

Back to the Cards, though.  I initially thought to say that the Cards were in control from the first point of the game, but the reality is that the Irish won the first two points of the match, led at 6-4 and it wasn't until the match was tied at seven that the Cards really began to assert themselves.  Starting at 6-7 the Cards ran off a 5-0 run to 11-7, and really never looked back.  The rest of the match featured ND scores between another 5-0 run, a pair of 4-0 runs, and a final 2 points to win the set.

In a moment of amusement during the first set, the score graphic overlay for the jumbotron in the arena flashed up near the beginning of the set, about three points in, showing a score of 25-12 with Louisville in the lead.  It would take the operators a few minutes to work out the glitch and get the correct current score displayed.  And then Louisville won the set by that same 25-12 score.  Maybe a little bit of left over Halloween spookiness?

 

The second set was the closest by the Irish, as you can see from the set scores, but Louisville was able to steadily gain and increase the lead throughout the set, with the exception of a 5-0 ND run that brought them back into semi-competitive score at 16-13.  Louisville would get their foot back on the accelerator pedal, including a 5-0 run of their own, to take the set 25-16.

 

By the third and final set, the crowd had grown very quiet.  Even the Louisville crowd (about half of which were friends and family of Cara Cresse, who hails from Fort Wayne, IN, an under two hour drive to South Bend) couldn't muster up much motivation to cheer too terribly loud as the match took on the proverbial air of beating a dead horse.  The Cards jumped out to a 7-2 lead and that just seemed to take the fight out of the Notre Dame squad.  It just continued from there, with Louisville lead checkpoints at 16-6 and 20-8 on the way to the 25-12 win. 

 

It was a pretty easy victory over the Irish at Purcell Pavilion.  Louisville held ND to a whopping 0.000 hitting percentage...meaning they had as many hitting errors as they had kills.  Some credit there does go to Louisville's block, with six in the quick three set match that clocked in at a mere one hour and 15 minutes of playing time.  Louisville hit at a respectable .321 clip with a very well spread offense.

Charitie Luper led the Cards with 12 kills, hitting .417.  Anna DeBeer had six kills, Cara Cresse and Hannah Sherman balanced each other well with five kills each, as did Reese Robins and Sofia Maldonado Diaz with four each.  Sherman tallied a pair of solo blocks and shared a pair with Cresse getting a solo and a share of her own.  Luper, Robins, and Alanna Bankston all got in on the blocking as well.  While we're singing Sherman's accolades, it's only fair to mention the efficiency of her kills, chalking up an eye-popping .714 percentage.  Cresse was a bit less efficient, but still very good .417.  Maldonado Diaz, who never gets enough attention for her contributions, in my opinion, hit at a very fine .429 clip as well.

Kamden Schrand shone from the service line as well as doing a fine job digging, claiming three points through aces.  That eclipsed Elle Glocks pair with Luper, Elena Scott, and Sam Untiedt each getting one as well.

The Cards stay on the road for the coming week traveling to the northern extremities of the ACC, visiting Syracuse on Friday, and Boston College a week from today, and back to the familiar pattern of Friday/Sunday play.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

(the c.c. crew...pre daryl)

As I was on the road heading to South Bend, we didn't have the live broadcast of the CCRHP, but Jared, Case, and Paulie did get together for the recording and posting to podcast directories as Case typically takes care of that side of the CCRHP technical duties.

I have not yet had a chance to listen to it as I was tuned in to the big Louisville Football win last night (Clemson fans really rushed the field after a loss?  That's weird.  Hat tip to Mike Rutherford for that multi-year running gag that continues to pay dividends.)

Check out the trio podcast at:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Two-Fall-Sports-Wrap-Up-e2qfdtf

 

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JMcA

Volleyball Set for ND Return Trip -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Face Irish for Second Time in Three Days

With two seasons seeing somewhat premature ends and basketball right around the corner, it could be easy to think that the fall sports season is coming to a close. Volleyball still has quite a bit of time remaining in their schedule, though, and it is filled with big matches. One of those matches, though it might not seem that way on paper, comes today. Louisville is coming off a sweep of Notre Dame in L&N FCU Arena Wednesday night, and they take on the Irish again this afternoon. 

I know you're thinking, "That was a pretty simple sweep on Wednesday. I'm not too worried." But allow me to remind you that Pitt's first loss of the season came in a similar situation. They swept their travel partner (SMU) at home on Wednesday, then headed down to Dallas and lost in five sets on Saturday. SMU is a fair shout better than Notre Dame this year, but the Cardinals and Irish have had some scraps despite presumed dominance in recent seasons. 

The Irish managed to take a set off of the Panthers themselves on Sunday in Pittsburgh, so their 9-11 record could belie their ability to jump up at anyone on any given day. After starting the conference season 2-2, they are in the midst of a seven-game losing streak, so you can bet that they'd like nothing more than to end that skid with a big upset of a rival. 

For the Cards, the stakes remain high. Louisville is currently third in the ACC's three-way tie for first. They sit at 10-1 with Pitt and UNC. UNC has a better overall record than Louisville, but they have still not played Pittsburgh, Louisville, Stanford, or SMU in conference. Pitt holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Louisville, obviously, but the Cards will have a chance to get that game back. With two games remaining against Stanford and Pitt, Louisville can ill-afford to drop a game against the teams outside the race for first. 

Miami handed Louisville a gift last night when they beat Stanford in five sets. Stanford is now at 8-3 with SMU, Georgia Tech, and Florida State. That makes Louisville's case for a top-4 finish in the country even better, but Louisville will need to take care of business. Splitting with Pitt and sweeping the season series with Stanford to take first in the ACC outright would be a nice feather in the cap. 

Today's match against ND will get underway at 3PM and will be available to watch on ACC Network Extra. Jeff will be in attendance, so be sure to check out his article tomorrow to learn all about the sights and sounds. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

With Jeff on the road and Daryl off doing Daryl things, we'll have three on today's show. Paulie, Jared, and I will take you through the joy and excitement of Louisville Volleyball women's athletics as we look at the past week of play. Unfortunately, there will be some negatives to cover, but we'll do our best to look forward to the things to come. With Jeff out, there won't be a live version of the show, but we have there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

Cardinal Couple YouTube: Link

Spotify: Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

End of Week, End of Season - Friday Cardinal Couple

Two Sports Seasons End

Field Hockey and Soccer both saw their seasons end yesterday.

Field Hockey was waiting on results from other competitions in the conference to decide their fate, and the results weren't what was desired in Trager Stadium.

Specifically, the results came down to the Stanford vs Cal game.  UofL was in a tie for last place in the conference with the two California teams, and the conference tournament takes eight out of the nine teams in conference to the conference tournament.  The first tie breaker in standings is the results of the head to head game between two teams.  Louisville had beaten Stanford, but lost to Cal, so needed Cal to win this game, leaving the last place tie between Stanford and Louisville, allowing Louisville to advance with the tie breaker.

Alas, Stanford took the win in the game, 3-1, putting them in, at worst, sole possession of 7th place, but more likely in a tie with Wake Forest for 6th place (2-5 Wake plays 5-2 Virginia later today).  Regardless, that leaves Cal and Louisville tied for 8th.  And with Cal having the tie breaker head-to-head, that leaves Louisville out in the cold for the conference tournament.

                                                           (Use my chair...it's OK!)

With an overall record below .500, Louisville is ineligible for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, definitively wrapping the season for the Cards.

On the Soccer side of things, the team played Clemson to a scoreless draw yesterday.  With regular season play in the ACC being wrapped, UofL ends up 12th in the standings, considerably short of the cut to make the ridiculously small six team tournament draw.

The team's overall record of 7-6-5 does, technically, leave them eligible for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, but with an RPI ranking of 62, that's not going to happen.

For what it's worth, the Cards showed some strong defense in the game yesterday, with Erynn Floyd recording six saves in the 90 minutes of play.

The offense did put some pressure on Clemson, particularly Mackenzie Geigle who had two shots on goal in the final minutes of the game, but nothing was able to break through.

Both teams will now start looking towards spring exhibition play, with an eye towards development of players and tactics for next season.

Volleyball Gets an Extra Rest Day

The typical volleyball schedule, particularly during conference play, sees games on Friday and Sunday, but this week has been and continues to be a bit different for the Cards.

This week is the week that the Cards play their ACC "travel partner", Notre Dame.  The league office saw fit to schedule travels partners with "home and home" arrangements this year, and to make those home and home exchanges happen in the same week.  In past years, the home and home involved a random extra Wednesday match somewhere in the middle of the conference season, and then a late season match.

The Cards took the opportunity to rest Charitie Luper during the Wednesday match, giving Payton Peterson her first career start, which she took great advantage of with 9 kills, a service ace, a block and a half, and five digs in LNFCU arena.

So Louisville, instead of playing the normal Friday+Sunday schedule this weekend, gets an extra day of rest after the mid-week match, and will head up to South Bend for the second half of the home and home tomorrow at 3pm.

Basketball Teams

Yes, plural.  While the basketball season doesn't get started until Monday, we do have a couple of tidbits on teams of local interest.

The Cardinals are in Paris France, exploring the city of light.  Social media placed them at the Louvre yesterday, where they were certainly sporting bigger smiles than the Mona Lisa.  They'll have the weekend to explore still, though I'm sure they're getting some practice time is as well before their Monday game against UCLA. And they're dining at the Eifel Tower tonight...something that has to be on most people's "if I only could" list...

Perhaps less cool than a trip to Paris, or maybe moreso, depending on your mindset, I ran across much of the Bellarmine Women's Basketball team yesterday while I was early voting at Immanuel UCC church on Taylorsville Road (just down the road, and shorter lines than at Bowman Field yesterday, also the church that our wonderful photographer Jared attends).  They were there, and also apparently had a contingent at Bowman Field, to assist with the voting location in whatever way they could.  They primarily were arrayed at the stairs from the parking lot down to the level where the voting is setup.  There are accessible ramps, but they do take you a bit out of the way, so the Bellarmine folks were assisting folks that were perhaps a bit uncomfortable with the steps to negotiate them.  Good deeds by a good team that we should be proud to have representing our city along with the Cards.

I was informed by Assistant Coach, and UofL alumnae, Mo Reid that Bellarmine also begins their season on Monday night at 6:30 at Knights Hall on the Bellarmine's campus.  Their opponent will be Indiana University SouthEast, which is also, of course, also a Louisville area team.  I also go the chance to be meet Head Coach Chancellor Dugan, which was a pleasure.

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JMcA