Games at Home and Away (?) -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Softball Welcomes Duke for Weekend Series

After a brief road trip last weekend, Louisville dragged something back home with them from North Carolina. The Cards will return to Ulmer this week for a three game slate against the Duke Blue Devils. Duke is approaching their tenth season of play, and they're a bit down on previous seasons. That said, they're still no slouch. Following their home sweep at the hands of Florida State last weekend, they took out some frustrations on East Carolina in the midweek game, taking down the Pirates 11-0 in five innings. 

The Blue Devils are 4-5 in conference, right in the middle of the pack and one game ahead of Louisville. They've had some big losses so far, like Louisville, but they've also grabbed a few major wins, something the Cards can't quite say. Duke has wins this season over (in chronological order) #24 Mississippi State, #2 Florida, #16 Nebraska, and #4 UCLA. They haven't won a ranked game in seven attempts since that February 23rd game, but Louisville's lone ranked win of the season came at FAU on 2/16. Granted, the Cards have had many fewer opportunities. 

Louisville is narrowly outscoring Duke overall 198-191, but they're down 37-48 in runs scored in conference play. That's alarming, given the two teams' opponents so far. Every game is a new opportunity, though, so Louisville will see if they can right the ship against conference foes this weekend and earn their second series win of the season. First pitch tonight is scheduled for 6PM and the game will air on ACC Network Extra. 

Lacrosse Hosts Annual Military and First Responders Day

Louisville lacrosse sees no rest for the weary in a loaded ACC. The Cards are 5-6 overall but just 1-4 in conference play. In fairness, those conference games have come against three teams in the top-15, with two of them being ranked first and second in the nation. After a tough loss to Clemson on the road, Louisville returns home for another big match as they take on 4th-ranked Stanford. Tomorrow's game will be the Military and First Responders game for Louisville, which may be a bit triggering for Stanford. 

The Cardinal are 9-3 this season with wins over ranked (at the time) USC, Colorado, Virginia (away), and Yale. Their losses came in double OT on the road at Syracuse and at home to Boston College. No shame in those. What's a little odd, though, is that they followed the home loss to BC on Saturday with a midweek loss on the road at Army. Uhhhh... Huh? 

Louisville shouldn't take that loss to mean anything other than that Stanford slipped up. The Trees have shown themselves to be more than capable of blowing teams out, including a 23-4 win over Virginia Tech who, as you may remember, gave the Cards a fair waxing earlier this season. As Louisville will play just nine conference games this season, they'll need to win out if they want to finish above .500 in conference play. That's a tall order, so I'd settle with a couple of nice upsets. Tomorrow's noon game at LLS would be a good place to start. 

Volleyball Plays Vanderbilt at Central Hardin

Louisville volleyball is also in action tonight as they kick off their spring slate. The Cards will officially be the away team for tonight's match, but they'll have a shorter drive than the "hosting" Vanderbilt. The two teams will play at Central Hardin High School in Elizabethtown. The match was originally scheduled to be played at E'town High School, but the venue change came just a few days later. 

This will be the Commodores' second spring match and their second in a high school gymnasium. The first was much closer to home, as they hosted Tennessee at Brentwood High School two weeks ago. Brentwood is an exurb of Nashville. The 2025 season will be the first for Vanderbilt Volleyball. 

The 'Dores are helmed by Anders Nelson, a former associate head coach at UK. They'll be led on the floor by transfers, as you might expect in today's climate and for a new program. They've added Sydney Conley from Florida State and Jacquelyn Moore and Isabella Bareford from Loyola Marymount. Perhaps the gem of the class is Kamryn Chaney, the 2024 Ivy League Player of the Year who was also named to the AVCA All-North Region First Team. Chaney, an outside hitter, comes from Princeton. Vandy will also sport a local connection. Their first ever program commit came from Hailee Mack, a libero from Louisville who played at IMG Academy. If that name rings a bell, it might be because her father was the head men's basketball coach at UofL. 

On the Louisville side, this will be the start of the Dan Meske Era for the Cards. Louisville will see what life is like without a handful of familiar faces, as along with Dani Busboom-Kelly, the Cards move into a new season without Anna DeBeer, Elena Scott, Charitie Luper, Sofia Maldonado Diaz, and Phekran Kong. That's... um... a lot of hitting to replace. We'll see what Dan has in store for the Cards soon. Tonight's match is at 7:30pm and admission is free.

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case