Volleyball Wins at GT; WBB Battle of the Bluegrass -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Win 3-1 in Atlanta

Louisville volleyball hit the road this weekend to take on a Georgia Tech team that isn't quite as fear-inducing as they have been in years past. The Yellowjackets entered yesterday's game at 15-10 (10-5), but they were still ranked 40th in the RPI. With every match being critical in a race for the ACC regular season championship, dropping a game you should win on the road would be very bad. Louisville is still alive in the ACC, as no team has fewer than two losses. The Cards (14-2) are currently alone in third on the basis of having played one fewer games than Stanford and Pitt (15-2). SMU has dropped a third match and sits at 14-3. Louisville controls its own destiny in the league, as they play the Cardinal and Panthers next week and could seize the outright championship. 

Let's take it back to Atlanta, though. Before Louisville could worry about the huge opponents on next week's calendar, they needed to take care of business against a scrappy Georgia Tech team. GT jumped out to an early 5-2 lead and played with that lead for much of the set. Louisville clawed back to an 11-11 tie, but GT pushed its lead back to 15-12 and then 17-14. As the number of available points kept falling, Louisville finally put together a series to bring it level at 19 points. The Cards won the race to 20, but couldn't string together two in a row for the next few points. Louisville finally took a two-point lead at 24-22, and won the set on their second set point. 25-23 was nervy, but it counts either way. 

The second set was much less dramatic. GT hung with the Cards early on and used a five-point run to draw within one point at 13-12. The two teams largely traded points again, with Louisville only able to get to a 16-14 lead. Unfortunately for the Bees, Molly Wilson's service error to get them to 14 would be their last point of the set. Louisville won the next nine points to seal the set at 25-14. 

Coming out of the half, the third set looked a lot like the first, but with Louisville holding the arm's-length lead. Just like the first, the trailing team closed up late, and the two teams traded points in the 20s. Louisville was able to keep getting the side-out whenever GT would tie for many of the opportunities. Service errors kept GT in it, as the Cards committed them at 22-21 and 23-22. GT took a 24-23 lead and won the set on their first attempt at 25-23. 

Disappointed, but not dismayed, Louisville came out in the fourth and decided they were ready to be done with the match. GT held on early once more, but the Cards stretched to a 13-7 lead and never let the Bees get closer than five points afterwards. A 25-15 fourth set gave Louisville the 3-1 victory. 

Statistically, it doesn't seem like this match should have been as close as it was. Louisville hit .336 while GT was just .090. Part of the low Georgia Tech hitting performance came from the fact that Louisville finished with 21 team blocks. Yes, you read that right: 21 blocks. GT had only 35 errors, so Louisville was the direct cause of 60% of their errors, and the block was likely the indirect cause of many more. Louisville's service errors (12) were part of the problem, as the serving game really wasn't working for them with only three aces. GT had just four aces, but they limited the damage with just seven errors. 

Chloe Chicoine and Kalyssa Blackshear led the team with 15 kills apiece, and Blackshear totaled a double-double with ten blocks. Even with ten blocks, Blackshear was only second on the team, as Hannah Sherman put up an astounding 14. Cara Cresse narrowly missed a double-double herself, as she had eight blocks to go along with her ten kills. Payton Petersen was close as well, as she often is due to the full-rotation. Petersen was third on the team with 13 kills and added eight digs. If there was one thing GT did well, it was to limit Nayelis Cabello's sneaky offense. Cabello had just five attempts, and she had no kills and one error. That didn't deter her from putting up a great performance in her normal duties, though, as she finished with 47 of Louisville's 53 assists and added eight digs and four blocks. 

Louisville will also need to dispatch Clemson tomorrow, but a loss there would be stunning. After starting the season 12-0 in non-conference play, the Tigers are a woeful 4-13 in the ACC. Their wins came against two teams behind them in the standings (Cal and Virginia) and the two teams directly ahead of them (Syracuse and BC). Clemson has also been one of Duke's two wins and one of Virginia Tech's three. The Tigers took Notre Dame to five sets last night, but Louisville should still have a fairly straightforward outing. That match is at 1PM on ACC Network. 

Louisville Hosts UK at Yum! Center

As I noted in last week's soccer writeup, the Cards and Cats will face off twice more this month, with one of those meetings coming this afternoon. Louisville and Kentucky will get underway at 2PM on The CW in a fairly evenly matched game (according to the polls). This will be the 61st meeting between the two teams, with UK holding a 35-25 advantage. It will be a battle of trends this afternoon in Louisville. The Cards won seven straight in the rivalry game before last season, but UK won five straight before that. Will Louisville be able to win their fifth straight at home or will a new streak start for the Wildcats with their first win against the Cards in Louisville in over a decade?

I wrote a bit about UK's offensive output this season, but it will be interesting to see how the Cards manage the versatile Wildcats. Kentucky has four players averaging double figures, while two more are over nine per game. Clara Strack is the team leader in points with 16.8 per game. She was preseason second-team all SEC and leads the nation in double-doubles. Point guard Tonie Morgan is second in the nation in assists per game and the Cats are making 10 three pointers per game (tenth in the country). While Strack has made five of those, the shooters for the Cats are Amelia Hassett and Asia Boone. The two have combined to make 32 threes already this season on 34.8% shooting from beyond the arc. Louisville will need to be careful as Kenny Brooks goes to the bench as well. Lexi Blue is averaging just 11 minutes per game but she has already made eight three pointers on 42.1% shooting from range. UK also gets to the line consistently, and they're capable of knocking down free throws. I'm sure they'd like to be better, but they're shooting 75.9% from the stripe on an average of 18 attempts per game. 

Defensively, UK is also stout. Their competition hasn't been the most stellar, but they've held their last five opponents to fewer than 50 points and less than 30% from the field. They're first in the country in blocks per game (10), scoring defense (43.5), and field-goal percentage defense (26.9%). They've won their first two true road games by 30+ points (Buffalo and Marshall), a feat they haven't accomplished since the 1999-2000 season. With Louisville showing a propensity for getting out to a slow start, they could be in trouble if UK gets the chance to put the clamps on. 

The Cards are coming off of a bit of a get-right game. They are undefeated since the opener against UConn, but you could almost say, "that's not for a lack of trying." Louisville has had to pull some second-half performances out of the bag to meet that mark, but they were able to put a fairly complete game together on Thursday. Anaya Hardy and Reagan Bender had career nights, while Elif Istanbulluoglu matched a career-high in points. Laura Ziegler scored in double figures for the fourth time this season, and Taj Roberts scored double-digit points for the fourth straight game. 

The Cards will need to take care of the ball against the difficult UK defense. Louisville is averaging 11 turnovers per game. That could be dangerous, considering the Cats are forcing 17.5 on average from their opponents. Clean offense from the Cards will go a long way, as they'll have to find good shots, likely from the outside, to put up points this afternoon. 

All will be revealed in a few hours. Paulie will have the recap tomorrow. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case