2024 Recap -- Jared's Favorite Photos -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

2024 Recap

Happy New Year's Eve! What a wild 2024 it has been for Louisville Athletics. While it may not have been the most successful year across women's sports at Louisville, there was still plenty of joy and excitement across the board.

Women's basketball made the NCAA Tournament again. Their regular season was packed full of ranked ACC opponents- Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, NC State, and Syracuse. The Cards have a winning record to start this new season despite facing a plethora of ranked foes again.

Lacrosse had one of its best seasons in the Scott Teeter era. They upset ranked Clemson, set a program record for regular season ACC wins, and advanced to the second round of the ACC Tournament for the first time ever.

Softball finished the season above .500. We saw the return of alumnae Carmyn Greenwood and Taylor Roby, who are coaching for Western Kentucky and Clemson, respectively. The Cards had upset wins over Arizona, Duke, Florida State, and Clemson.

Field hockey, relying heavily on younger classmen, had a down year. Their strength of schedule remained in the top 15. A majority of the starting roster is eligible to return next year.

Women's soccer finished above .500 and had a much improved offensive production from the previous year. They did get an upset win over ranked Cal.

Volleyball had a majorly successful season. The Cards opened the season with a win over top-10 Wisconsin at the KFC Yum! Center in the AVCA Showcase. Their season concluded as National Runner-Up at the KFC Yum! Center. The season saw wins over ranked opponents in Pitt (a big Final Four win), Stanford, Purdue, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Creighton, Tennessee, and Georgia Tech. Anna DeBeer, Elena Scott, and Charitie Luper were all taken in the Pro Volleyball Federation draft.

2024 also saw Paulie take a short hiatus from Cardinal Couple following a medical procedure. The rest of the crew stepped up to cover games in his absence and welcomed his return with open arms. 

Jared's Favorite Photos

I take thousands of pictures each year, partly due to covering over 100 Louisville games each year. 2024 was no different. While it would be impossible to share every picture I've taken over the last year, I do want to share a few of my favorites.

Volleyball celebrates a trip to the Final Four

Elena Scott gets a kill during warm-ups

Women's soccer celebrates a goal

Field hockey scores a goal

A rainbow shines over Trager Stadium

Anna DeBeer gets air time for the kill

Field hockey celebrates a goal

Louisville stretches out for a goal

A runner is tagged out at the plate

A plane flies over the lacrosse stadium before Thunder Over Louisville

The Cards celebrate a walk-off victory

The Ladybirds show off their Daytona routine

Co-Ed Cheer shows off the Daytona routine

All-Girl Cheer shows off the Daytona routine

Softball celebrates a home run

RBI hit for softball

Player intro "selfie"

Finger roll layup

Behind the back goal for lacrosse

Louisville celebrates an upset victory

Last but not least, the Cardinal Couple Crew (not one I took)

I look forward to many more photos and much more to celebrate across Louisville women's sports in 2025!

We also wish our good friend and writer Daryl Foust the best day ever today, as she marries her long time beau...Thomas Irwin. It is always a joy to get opinions and articles from Daryl and we wish her all the happiness in the world. She's a great example of the joy and excitement of women's  sports, here in out neck of the woods.  

Happy Tuesday, Happy New Year's Eve, and Go Cards!

Jared

Louilsville WBB flies past Boston College 86-73 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 BALANCED SCORING LEADS UOFL TO WIN VS. EAGLES

The University of Louisville placed six players in double figures and used a 8-0 run near the middle of the third quarter to pull away from Boston College and improve their record to 8-5 and 1-1 in the ACC. 

Jadya Curry had a season high, for her, with 14 points for UofL, Taj Roberts and Olivia Cochran added 13 each, Nyla Harris and Ja'Leah Williams put up 12 points and Merissah Russell finished with 11 points in the Cards 86-73 win. . 

The Cards and Eagles were in a one -point affair with UofL leading 51-50 at the 5:40 mark of the third quarter before the Louisville run that started  with jumpers from Harris, Curry and Williams over a one minute period. A Williams layup a minute later put Louisville ahead 59-50 with 3:18 left in the quarter. . The Cards were still up 64-55 at the end of the quarter and UofL won the final quarter 22-18 for the thirteen-point win. The Cards did score the final six points of the game, all on free throws...overcoming a rough shooting  streak to end the game, where UofL did not make a basket in the final 6:24 of the game and their final 12 points came from free throws..

Louisville led 23-18 at the end of the first quarter and held a 40-35 at the halff, before the referees decided a final shot of the quarter by BC's Teya Sidberry was a three instead of a two.

 64-55 is the advantage the Cards had at the end of the third quarter. 

THE FRED REPORT

{Fred McGriff played with six different MLB squads in 18 years and had 2490 hits)

Free Throws -- Louisville went 19-26 from the free throw line...Russell hitting seven of her eight attempts. That's 73.1% and good for a CAPITAL "F". 

Rebounds -- The Cards won the battle of the boards 36-33...Cochran getting seven, to co-lead the way with "team".  What is a team rebound in college basketball?. When a ball is shot and missed from anywhere and the ball goes out of bounds without anyone touching it or getting possession, that is a team rebound. We'll award the CAPITAL "R" here. 

Effort/Execution -- Louisville shot an even 50% (31-62) from the floor and had 15 assists. No one fouled out for the Cards, they had three less turnovers than BC and led second chance points 24-11. And, they won! I'll recommend a CAPITAL "E

Defense -- The Cards scored 28 points off 23 B.C. turnovers. They had 14 steals, and held the Eagles to 48% shooting. I can see a small case "d" here..73 points is a lot to give up to a middle-tier or worse ACC foe. Louisville still needs a lot p work on defense, but it gotmthe jpb done Sunday

FINAL FRED TALLY: F-R-E-d

So,it was a game that Louisville was able to go on several sizable runs in and was able to give Boston College their first home loss of the season. The freshmen continue to impress and improve....They had 50 of Louisville's points and continue to play well on the road.

POST GAME JEFF WALZ 

paulie

And Then There Was One (For a While) - Sunday Cardinal Couple

And Then there Was One

Volleyball has put away the knee pads for the season, meaning we here at Cardinal Couple are left with only a single team in action this time of year.  Thankfully, it's a sport that we cover heavily, and is deeply embedded in the zeitgeist of the state of Kentucky.

Of course I'm talking about Basketball.  We won't be too long before we see other sports start to spin up either their winter seasons, such as indoor track and field, and swimming and diving; or spring seasons, such as Softball and Lacrosse.  But for now, we have basketball.  I suspect we're all ok with that state of affairs for the moment.  (I do plan to write up more of a retrospective on the amazing Volleyball season...but to be honest, I'm still processing it a bit)

Basketball

OK, so basketball it is for the moment.  And in the moment, we have a competition at Boston College to look forward to today.

The Cards are in Chestnut Hill getting ready to take on Joanna Bernabei-McNamee's squad.  She's in her 6th season with the Eagles and continues to, slowly but steadily, build the program into something the school can be proud of.

They boast a current record of 10-4, which at first blush looks respectable.  As you look through the opponents, however, they're not exactly leading the way in strength of schedule.  As a side note, Paulie and I did chuckle during the CCRHP yesterday about the presence of "Holy Cross" and "Sacred Heart" on their schedule, and the overlap of the names with Louisville area high schools.  It was this morning that I noticed that they had also played Providence, continuing the amusement.

Back to being serious, BC has been increasing their level of competition as their season progresses, certainly a reasonable approach to scheduling, with more recent competition being against a ranked Ole Miss, Oregon State, Arkansas, and Virginia.

Today's game launches, in earnest, the ACC conference season for both teams.  Both have had a conference game before going back to one or more non-conference foes, but it's conference the rest of the way for both.

Boston College has a fairly balanced offense, between four players averaging double digit scoring.  That starts with a graduate student 6'0" guard, Dontavia Waggoner averaging just over 12; junior 6'0" guard T'yana Todd coming in just short of 12; senior 6'0" guard Andrea Daley approaching 11; and junior 6'1" forward Teya Sidberry at about 10.5.

Todd will be the main threat beyond the arc, though Daley and Sidberry can hit some as well.  Waggoner will almost certainly not attempt any.  Conversely, Todd will not be much of a rebounder while the other three average between five and seven per game.

The Cards still feel like one big question mark of a team to me.  We've seen the team excel against some pretty good teams, and play competitively, even if to a loss, against some top tier teams, but then sometimes they seem to come out and just completely lay and egg.  They've had a couple of lengthy spans between games, eight days since they last played (Memphis), and six days before that.  So coach Walz has had some time to work with them in the gym, they got a break to potentially head home, or get away from the practice gym, and hopefully get into a good mindset to come back and put together a good run in conference play.  We'll see.

The game today is available on The ACC Network, the linear channel, and is of course also available through ESPN/ACC Network Extra streaming.  With the linear channel appearance, it's a 2pm tip.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Paulie and I played through some adversity to get the CCRHP recorded.  It's always a bit more challenging to keep the conversation flowing smoothly when it's only two people on the call, but it gets exceedingly difficult when, sporadically, the audio between the two participants drops out so they can't reliably hear each other.  The challenges didn't seem to impact the audio flow to the broadcast, but as you're listening, bear in mind that at times one of us couldn't hear the other, and occasionally neither of us could hear each other.

Despite the challenges, we did end up having a really good discussion wrapping up Volleyball for the season, and looking forward to today's basketball competition in Boston.

Check it out:

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Volleyball-Wraps-and-Basketball-Breaks-e2srlii

 

-- 

JMcA

An Early Look at the ACC -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WBB Heads into ACC Play

After a brief Christmas break, Louisville women's basketball will hit the road to take on Boston College tomorrow for their first game in a little over a week. This eight-day pause is the longest Louisville has gone without playing this season, and they won't go this long again. Twice during conference play they'll see a bye week that gives them seven days off. Hopefully, this longer respite can give them the reset they need. 

Louisville stands at 7-5 (0-1) on the season. Tomorrow's game against BC will give them the opportunity to win back-to-back games in December. A loss would mean that Louisville hasn't won back-to-back games since the Morehead State, USF, and Colorado games that were sandwiched between UK and Oklahoma to close out November. With 12 games under their belt and conference play on the horizon, let's take a quick look at the ACC overall. 

Every team in the ACC has played one game, which means that half the league is 1-0 and the other half is 0-1. Louisville was one of six teams to lose their ACC opener at home. Louisville is also currently tied for 15th in the league. At 7-5, the Cards are tied with Wake Forest and sit ahead of Pitt (8-6) and Syracuse (6-6). Surprisingly, no ACC teams have gone below .500 in non-conference play. In what appears to be a bit of a down year for Louisville, that could be an issue going forward. 

The league is topped by Georgia Tech, who remains undefeated. The Yellowjackets are 13-0 and are ranked 13/16 by the AP and Coaches' Polls respectively. GT has beaten three ranked teams this season, including UNC in Chapel Hill, when the Heels were ranked 14th. Close behind Georgia Tech in the national standings is Kara Lawson's Duke team. The Blue Devils are ranked 14/14, and slipped a touch after a road loss to USF moved them to 10-3 on the year. Louisville's escape of USF doesn't look so bad anymore. Duke's other losses are to South Carolina and Maryland, both on the road. They've beaten just two ranked opponents, but both (Kansas State and Oklahoma) were in the top ten at the time and both were on a neutral court. 

Cal and Miami each have just one loss so far, with the Bears at 13-1 and the Canes at 11-1. While Cal's hot start has put them into the top-25, as they sit 21/24, Miami's opening schedule ahs been a bit light. Despite their record, Miami is not receiving votes to be ranked in either poll. The ACC has a total of six teams ranked in both polls, with Notre Dame, UNC, and NC State joining GT, Duke, and Cal. Notre Dame dropped back-to-back games to TCU and Utah in the Cayman Islands over Thanksgiving. Had they not lost those games, they might find themselves ranked #1, instead of 3/4. The Irish have wins over then-ranked #3 USC (on the road), #4 Texas, and #2 UConn. They drubbed Syracuse on the road to open ACC play. UNC also has just two losses, and they sit at 12-2 overall. 

The 17/17 Heels only have one ranked win (72-53 over UK), but their losses are to UConn and Georgia Tech. They're riding a bit on that one win and no bad losses, so we'll see how voters treat them if they drop another game or two. Like the Heels, the Wolfpack also have just the one ranked win over an SEC team. They have three losses, but they came at the hands of South Carolina, TCU (on the road), and LSU in the Bahamas. The Wolfpack have won five straight and have been rewarded with being ranked 22/20. 

There is still a ton of basketball to be played, but more teams ACC teams appear to be separating themselves as winners this season rather than losers. As we get into conference play, there aren't a ton of teams jumping out about which you can say "circle the calendar for a win there". On the flip side, there are more teams than usual that should scare the Cards. Louisville will need to clean up a lot of the issues that we saw in non-conference play if they want this to be a successful season. With the non-con in the rearview mirror, there's no time like the present to get back on track. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

I'm out sick and Jared is hosting family before heading to a noon tipoff at the KFC Yum! Center. This week's show will be a lighter cast, as we await the word from Daryl. Nevertheless, Paulie and Jeff will bring you the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics from the week. Expect coverage of Louisville's national championship appearance in volleyball as well as plenty of news from this holiday week. You can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, 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

Cardinal Notes and News -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL 

Welcome back to the weekend readers, we hope it was a week of celebrations and hopefully fulfilling to spend some time with family and friends.     

The next time I chime in on these pages will be well after the wedding,  so I want to wish you all a Happy New Year and I'm looking forward to another successful year of UofL women's athletics!! We appreciate your viewership !!

Photo: Jared Anderson

The Cardinal athletic programs enjoyed a few days of a break and we are looking forward to catching the WBB squad back in action at Boston College on Sunday afternoon 2 p.m.   

This one will be viewable on the ACC Network!

i took this pic when we were tailgating for the football game

Volleyball news

Phekran Kong posted on IG that she was saying goodbye to Louisville after quite the experience.  We wish her well in her next endeavors.  

After that news Thursday afternoon, we also heard the news of an addition for the VolleyCards 

From Sports Illustrated

Chloe Chicoine entered the transfer portal after enjoying a second straight All-Big Ten season in 2024. She averaged 3.08 kills and 2.95 digs per set for the Boilermakers last season. She helped lead Purdue to a 27-7 record, a 16-4 mark in Big Ten play and a Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament.



Chicoine will have two seasons of eligibility to use at Louisville. She was an All-Big Ten player in each of her first two seasons at Purdue and was an All-American as a freshman in 2023.                                                                                                 As Always, Go Cards!!  ~Daryl







   

The Day After Christmas Reality -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Post-Christmas Back to Reality

The Anderson family

While the holiday season can provide plenty of time with friends and family and time off from work, the day after Christmas can be a harsh reality. For many of us, we are back to work at the crack of dawn with no time to recover from the busy holiday. Still, it's nice to have that time off.

For me, my wife and I hosted Christmas this year. We bought our house last year but were in South Carolina for Christmas 2023, so this is the first time we were able to host. Fortunately, our house is plenty big to host my whole side of the family. Our family has dwindled down to just nine of us over the years as we have had to say goodbye to family members over the years. The only addition to the family recently was my wife after we got married last year. 

My wife's parents and brother (and their one-year-old puppy) will be traveling up here from South Carolina beginning Friday and staying with us through New Year's Eve, so we get to play host all over again. It's always a nice treat when we are able to see them for several days at a time. Puppy proofing a house will be quite the challenge. 

My grandma's favorite gift- a picture of her three grandchildren

I prefer hosting events and holidays instead of traveling elsewhere as it is nice to be home. Sleeping in may not be a thing as there is plenty of cleaning and preparation when hosting, but when everything is all over, it is nice to sit and rest after everyone is gone.

I'm not ready to get back to work yet, but we only have two days left in the standard working week this week and have a shortened week next week too with New Year's Day approaching. By this time next week, we will also see Louisville women's basketball back in action when they welcome ACC foe Miami to the KFC Yum! Center.

Cardinal Couple will be back to its regular coverage of Louisville women's athletics as they pick back up after the holiday season, but we hope all of you had a great holiday and can find some time to rest and recover in the coming days.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

MERRY CHRISTMAS ! - CHRISTMAS DAY

From all of us to you, 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

-- CARDINAL COUPLE

Silent Night

Ten Hours of Xmas Music

Paul, Sonya, Jared, Case, Jeff and Daryl

.

The Cruel World of Sports -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Volleyball the Latest Victim of the Cruelty of Sports

Picture this: You spend your entire childhood playing volleyball with dreams of playing for your local school and winning a championship with them when you get older. You receive a scholarship playing for your dream school. You become an All-American. Your final year, the Final Four is hosted in your hometown. As if it was a fairytale, your team goes on a magical run to advance to the national championship. But... you get injured in the days before the championship and cannot play. Your team loses.

Pretty easy thing to imagine in your head, right? We witnessed this situation this past weekend. Anna DeBeer is a Louisville native who grew up dreaming of playing for Louisville. In her five years, DeBeer was named an All-American three times, helped lead the Cards to two Final Four appearances, and appeared to be on pace to help give Louisville its first volleyball championship. However, an ankle sprain in the semifinal helped her collegiate career come to an abrupt ending and Louisville was missing its heart and soul in the final match and fell.

Sports are cruel. They can dangle the thing you want the most right in front of you and yank it away at the last second. Sports can be Lucy, from the comic strip Peanuts..holding the football for you to kick..and jerking it away at the funal second...as you miss the ball and land on your back. 

The volleyball world watched in disbelief as DeBeer was helped off the court against Pittsburgh in the fourth set. Then, Louisville fans everywhere watched in disappointment as Penn State was able to take control of the second half to win the title in the ards next outing. Louisville was as close as you could be to winning the championship and even began building momentum at halftime after winning an extended and grueling second set. But, without their leader, Louisville came up just short.

"What if?" Now all of Louisville has to look back and think "What if". What if DeBeer didn't get hurt? Does Louisville win? Personally, I believe Louisville wins. The Cards played a competitive match even without their star player. Just think how they could have fared had she been healthy enough to play.

But...

But, while sports can show its cruelty at times, sports offers so much more than that. Sports offers excitement, joy, love, passion, and hope. Sports can bring so much positivity into someone's life.

Looking back at the last few Louisville volleyball seasons, we have seen massive growth in popularity. For the last couple years, the waiting list for season tickets has grown into the hundreds.

Louisville set its own program record for number of fans at a regular season match. They then turned around and helped shatter the attendance records for the national semifinals and final- a sold out KFC Yum! Center.

In a time where both Louisville womens and mens basketball teams were falling short of expectations (one much more so than the other), fans turned to Louisville volleyball for hope and joy. Fans were hopeful for great seasons and big tournament runs. The wins against top tier opponents brought joy and excitement to Louisville fans everywhere. Louisville fans united to cheer on the Cards and celebrate in the many joyous occasions, but to also offer each other support and a leg to stand on through the losses and heartbreak.

The Cards got into some epic matches against the best programs in the country. Many of these matches were aired on major national tv networks, drawing in hundreds of thousands of viewers and even surpassed one million viewers on multiple occasions. 

Young girls everywhere looked up to this new generation of role models. DeBeer and Elena Scott being Louisville natives were certainly fan favorites but posters boasting the names of all players on the UofL squad could be seen in the crowd. Fans would line up and wait for over an hour to get autographs and pictures with players. Many of these young girls found inspiration and courage to continue to pursuing their passion and dreams to play the sport they love.

We saw a women's sport grow in popularity more this season and continued to make strides in attendance numbers and tv viewership. We saw the first woman head coach to win a volleyball title happen this year.

It's not just volleyball where we see these things happen. It's across all sports. But Louisville volleyball helped make an impact in the world of volleyball. It's a beautiful thing to see the good that sports can bring.

Cardinal Couple had another great season in 2024...covering the joy and excitement of Louisville volleyball and all Cardinals womens athletics.. While our part may be small in the overall spectrum, we are glad to be a part of the great things that sports can bring. And, we are grateful toyou, the reader, for being there to follow us, to make suggestions, give compliments and being the target we hope to hit successfully as we thro our journalistic darts at the big circle of Carinals women sports each day. 

Thank you, We hope Santa brings you lots of goodies tomorrow and that you also remember "the readon for the season". 

Happy Tuesday, Happy Christmas Eve, and Go Cards!

Jared

VolleyCards fall to Penn State in NCAA Championship Match -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 LOUISVILLE FALLS TO NITTANY LIONS IN FOUR SETS. 

A tough Sunday for the VolleyCards, getting all the way to the DI NCAA Title match and falling to Penn State in four sets -- 23-25, 34-32, 20-25, 17-25 in the KFC YUM Center.  

The Cards took out #1 Pittsburgh on their way to the championship game, but also lost their best player in Anna DeBeer in that historic win Thursday night. Did the win over Pitt  take too much out of UofL? Or was it the loss of DeBeer that contributed to the loss? We'll never be able to say for sure, but they really didn't lose much of anything with Payton Petersen filling in for DeBeer...except for the foreboding presence of DeBeer on the court. 

Maybe it was k just a case of Penn State, who knocked off Nebraska in the semifinal, having superior "kill" numbers -- they had 72 to UofL's 53... Jess Mruzik had 29 for the Nittany Lions, eight more that Louisville's leader -- Charitie Luper.  

Maybe that seemingly   never ending second set that Louisville won took it out of the Cards for the remainder of the match. Here's how Dani Busboom Kelly and student-athletes Navelis Cabello and Sofia Maldonado Diaz saw it: 

POST MATCH LOUISVILLE

Maybe it wasn't a case of Louisville playing badly at all, just a situation where Penn State played better. Only Pitt and Wisconsin had hung losses on PSU in the regular season and they did defeat #2 Nebraska twice during the season.

Was it a situation where the Cards didn't have anything to lose and benefitted from the pro--Louisville crowd for the Final Four? I suppose that's one way of looking at it, but still, doesn't lessen the disappointment of the Louisville fans who believed in the team and largely helped make up the largest crowd to ever see a NCAA Volleyball Championship match. 

POST MATCH ANNA DEBEER

On this particular afternoon, Penn State proved to be the best team. But, Cardinals fans will remember this group of girls a very long time, and with the youth that returns and contributed so heavily this season, Louisville will be another force again next year in the ACC and the NCAA in volleyball. 

MORE JARED ANDERSON PHOTOS