Happy Tuesday, UofL fans! With so many women's sports over the weekend, I was hoping to publish mini-photo galleries but there has been some issues with major IT outages across the country thanks to AWS. I backup and store all of my work through one of the apps supported by AWS so I currently do not have access to those photos. We'll do some photo galleries at a later date.
Women's Soccer in Position for NCAA Tournament Bid
With two regular season matches remaining, Louisville women's soccer should be a lock for the NCAA Tournament. The Cards now sit at 11-3-2 this season following their 1-1 draw against #3 Virginia over the weekend.
The most recent RPI rankings puts Louisville at #12. Their three losses have come against RPI #1/Coaches Poll #1 Notre Dame, #8/21 Vanderbilt, and #14/7 Florida State. They have draws against RPI #2/Coaches Poll #3 Virginia and #24/17 Wake Forest.
In the ACC standings, the Cards sit tied for sixth with Florida State, but the Seminoles hold the head-to-head tiebreak. Since the ACC only takes six teams for the ACC Tournament, I am not concerned about if the Cards make the ACC's.
Whether or not Louisville wins, draws, or loses against NC State and SMU, they should still be a lock for postseason play. With a win or two in those final two matches, the Cards may even sneak into the top 16.
Volleyball Missing Piece Has Been Costly in Big Matches
Louisville volleyball suffered a pair of five-set losses over the weekend to highly ranked foes SMU and Pitt. All four of Louisville's losses have come to top-1o teams in five sets.
Fans have expressed concerns that Louisville doesn't have "it" this year. Well, maybe yes and no to that. None of the losses are bad losses on the resume. Broken down, some of the losses aren't great as the Cards had 3+ point leads in the fifth set multiple times.
So, where is the problem? The missing piece is actually more obvious than it seems- they don't have a player that can take over a game in a moment's notice. Last season, the Cards had Anna DeBeer and Charitie Luper, both of whom had that killer instinct to take over when needed most. Whether a more aggressive offensive attack was needed or Louisville just needed a few key blocks to build momentum, the DeBeer - Luper duo was ready to be called upon when needed. Look back at how Pitt utilized Olivia Babcock with her 41 kills, six of those coming in the shortened fifth set.
Louisville doesn't have that player or players this year. There is plenty of talent at every position and we will see postseason awards for multiple players, but the Cards still lack the player who can takeover and dominate in a moment's notice. Perhaps this is a role we see Payton Petersen or Chloe Chicoine move into as middle-classmen or maybe the true freshman Kalyssa Blackshear will assume that responsibility later this season. Either way, this missing key piece is the biggest issue holding the Cards back from being a Final Four contender this year.
Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!
Jared
Meske dont play the black players enough
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