Sunday Cardinal Couple -- Decision Sunday for Lacrosse, Softball

SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Softball, Lacrosse face season ending scenarios

UofL women's sports fans have an odd doubleheader of sorts today available for viewing...Softball against UCF today at noon and Lacrosse at 2 p.m. versus Northwestern.

Losses today by either squad will end their seasons. Kellie Young's squad has gone further than they ever have before in the history of the sport at UofL...making the NCAA Tournament and winning their first round match. The Northwestern squad they face today is fifth seeded in the 26 team tournament field, at home and has won 19 consecutive NCAA Tournament games when playing in Evanston, IL.

Softball gets a UCF squad that had trouble shaking a pesky Rutgers team yesterday...the Knights had the bases loaded in the seventh inning, one out and trailing 8-5...but could not deliver the upset. UCF was the #1 seed in The American Softball Tournament and a win over Louisville today would
make the Cards a very remote possibility for the NCAA Tournament with a RPI of 50.

We think both squads have a very good chance of keeping their seasons alive today, though. Lacrosse is on a 12 game win streak and getting solid production from their attack, midfield and defensive players. Kellie Young has multiple scorers in Faye Brust, Nikki Boltja and Kay Morissette who can take a game over in a matter of minutes. Good news, also for those fans who want to watch it...

The contest starts at 2 p.m. ET and will be streamed free of charge on the Big Ten Digital Network's site. It also will be televised on the Big Ten Network on tape delay, starting approximately 3 p.m. ET.

Softball dropped the regular season series to the UCF Golden Knights but has been playing much better ball since their visit to Orlando and getting the best pitching they've had this season from Rachel Le Coq, Maryssa Becker and Caralisa Connell. Sandy Pearsall's "Hit and Catch" Cards have also been on a home run frenzy in Houston...putting six over the fence in two games.

The American Digital Network will show the final between Louisville and UCF starting at noon ET.


Comparing the two seasons, the two squads...its been a supremely surprising and satisfying season for Lacrosse. Kellie Young told me months before the season began that this group had a chance to be something very special and she was right. Softball...on the other hand...returned a solid hitting lineup, strong pitching, talented newcomers and a new facility but fell short of most people's expectations by not winning the AAC after being the preseason pick to do so.

Redemption songs available for singing today for Pearsall's squad and another "finish" opus awaits Young's netters.

The NCAA Softball selection show will air tonight at 10 p.m. on ESPNU. We hope the Softball Cards can eliminate any doubt of participating by taking care of business today.   


Good luck to both squads today!

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Finally, UofL women's golf ended their three-day stay at the NCAA Regionals in 18th place. The top eight from each region advance to the Championships...so golf has ended for the season...ironically...when most people are starting to renew it for the year.

paulie

Saturday Cardinal Couple -- Lacrosse, Softball advance in Tournaments

RADIO TODAY @ 11 AM
http://www.crescenthillradio.com

SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE


- Boltja gets game winner in double O.T. for Lax

- LeCoq, Keller lead Softball past Bulls 8-0

- Women's golf slips to 17th. after Day 2

It was a thriller in Evanston last night and Nikki Boltja came through in the clutch.

The senior scored on a free position shot with 4:37 left in the sudden-death second overtime to give the LAX Cards a 11-10 win over Ohio State in NCAA first round action. After Kaylin Morissette won the draw control to start the sudden death period, the Cards moved into OSU territory and Boltja was fouled...setting up the game winner.

It looked like Louisville had it won in the first (not sudden-death) extra session. With 1:13 remaining, Cortnee Daley was fouled and made her free position shot to give Louisville a 10-9 lead. Louisville controlled the draw, but a turnover with 36 seconds left got the ball back in OSU's possession and the Buckeyes came down field to score with 8 seconds remaining to force the second overtime.

Boltja had four goals for the Cards in the win. Faye Brust and Cortnee Daley added two each for UofL.

The Cards scored early in the contest...winning the opening draw and Boltja dashing to the goal to put one past OSU's goalie Tori DeScenza less than a minute into the contest. 

The Cards will face Northwestern Sunday at 2 p.m. in round 2 action.

#	Prd	Time	Team	Type	Assists	H-V
1.	1st	29:13	LOU	Boltja, Nikki (68)	Unassisted	0-1
2.		27:35	OSU	Dabrowski, Cian	Unassisted	1-1
3.		24:32	LOU	Patterson, Laura (7)	Boltja, Nikki (25)	1-2
4.		18:53	OSU	Chase, Katie	Free position shot	2-2
5.		17:17	OSU	Dabrowski, Cian	Unassisted	3-2
6.		11:40	LOU	O'Malley, Colleen (12)	Boltja, Nikki (26)	3-3
7.		11:11	LOU	Brust, Faye (68)	Unassisted	3-4
8.		10:50	OSU	Fee, Morgan (2)	Unassisted	4-4
9.		9:54	OSU	Ayers, Kelsea	Dabrowski, Cian	5-4
10.		9:09	OSU	Facchina, Mary Kate	Free position shot	6-4
11.		8:27	LOU	Corbett, Carissa (7)	Boltja, Nikki (27)	6-5
12.	2nd	21:01	OSU	Ayers, Kelsea	Unassisted	7-5
13.		17:59	LOU	Daley, Cortnee (38)	Free position shot	7-6
14.		17:23	LOU	Brust, Faye (69)	Unassisted	7-7
15.		15:10	OSU	Porretto, Jennifer	Free position shot	8-7
16.		14:51	LOU	Boltja, Nikki (69)	Unassisted	8-8
17.		13:10	OSU	Porretto, Jennifer	Unassisted	9-8
18.		5:54	LOU	Boltja, Nikki (70)	Free position shot	9-9
19.	OT	1:13	LOU	Daley, Cortnee (39)	Free position shot	9-10
20.		0:08	OSU	Chase, Katie	Unassisted	10-10
21.	OT2	4:37	LOU	Boltja, Nikki (71)	Free position shot	10-11

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Cardinal Softball slammed their way past USF in the semifinals of the AAC Tournament in six innings 8-0.

A grand slam home run by Katie Keller was the big blow that sent USF starter Sara Nevins to the bench and gave Louisville a 5-0 lead in the second inning.

The Cards added a run in the fourth when Brittany Duncan singled in Kelsi Jones. Duncan accounted for the final two RBI's in the sixth when she sent a towering shot over both centerfield fences with Katie Keller on to push the margin to eight.

Rachel LeCoq, despite a rocky start, pitched her way out of a first-inning, two on and one out jam and ended up going the distance....allowing just five hits in six innings.

They got the game in just in time. Rains hit Houston and forced the postponement of the UCF-Rutgers game until 4 p.m. today. The title match goes Sunday at noon.

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Cardinal women's golf fired a 301 in the second day of the NCAA East Regionals but slipped to 17th place in Tallahassee.

Leading the way yesterday for the Chip and Putt Cards was Laura Restrepo with a 74. Tara Lyons carded a 75, Katie Petrino checked in at 76 along with Emily Haas. Shannon Gramley finished the 18 with a 83.

The Cards have a 596 total for two days...30 strokes back of leader Vanderbilt.

paulie

Friday Cardinal Couple -- Soles second shot sends Cards to semis in AAC

FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

       ***** GAME FINAL UPDATE*****

Rachel Le Coq tosses a five hitter and Katie Keller slugs a grand slam homer to lead Louisville over South Florida Bulls 8-0 in six innings. We'll have more in the Saturday Cardinal Couple. CARDS WIN!!  CARDS WIN!!

- Softball slugs past Owls 5-3. Will face USF today

- Women's golf 15th after Day One of NCAA Regionals

- Lacrosse faces OSU today in NCAA Tournament

They were playing long ball yesterday in the ballpark in Houston...Louisville softball with four home runs and Temple with one as the Cards advance to the AAC semis with a 5-3 win over the Owls.

Kayla Soles two run bomb in the bottom of the sixth with Katie Keller on second was the winning hit...it was Soles' second home run of the day and her ninth of the season.

The Cards got two fence clearers in the first...solo shots by Brittany Duncan and Katie Keller to take a 2-1 lead. After one inning of pitching, Caralisa Connell gave way to Rachel LeCoq. The Louisiana senior went four innings...allowing two runs on one home run before giving way to Maryssa Becker in the sixth. The win goes to Becker.

With the game knotted at 3-3 in the bottom of the sixth, Keller singled and moved to second on Taner Fowler's sacrifice bunt. That brought Soles to the plate...her shot over the fence to left barely staying fair to put Louisville ahead.

The Cards get USF today at 5 p.m. The Bulls downed Memphis yesterday. Other winners were UCF and Rutgers.
Host Houston fell to the Scarlet Knights 5-1 and UCF blanked UConn 8-0 in five innings.

The UofL game against USF is at 5 p.m. All games are being shown on the American Digital Network...over at The American website

The network provided a short clip of the Louisville v Temple highlights and it is linked below:

http://theamerican.org/watch/sportfile.ashx?sports=/2013/12/28/WBB_1228131617.aspx&s=231630


( Is it just me...or does the Temple pitcher look like Sara Hammond?)


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Louisville women's golf finished the first round of the NCAA East Regional at the Southwood Gold Club in Tallahassee, FL shooting a 295. The Cards sit in 15th. place, tied with Kentucky, with 36 holes left to play. Atop the leaderboard is Vandy at 277.

Tara Lyons fired a 71 for the 18 holes. Katie Petrino carded a 73, Laura Restrepo 75, and Emily Haas and Shannon Gramley both finished at 76.

The top eight teams after 54 holes from the three regions advance to the NCAA Championships. The Cards hit it early this morning...teeing off at 7:45 a.m.

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Lacrosse is in Evanston, IL preparing for today's first round NCAA game against Ohio State. The team received a gala sendoff from the YUM! practice facility on campus yesterday and UofL Card Game observer Charlie Springer was there to catch some photos.

Lacrosse has accomplished some amazing things this season and Kellie Young has built the program in seven years into a force that will have to be reckoned with when they play in the ACC next season. Although senior leaders Ashley Herbst, Monica Negron and Nikki Boltja will be gone...Louisville still has a ton of talent returning.

FAYE BRUST

Against Ohio State today, UofL makes their first ever NCAA appearance. The Cards inexplicably weren't chosen for the NCAA Tournament last year despite posting a 11-6 record, winning their last three regular season, in-conference games and getting off to a 7-1 start.

Louisville (15-3) and Ohio State (13-6) met in Columbus earlier this season...the Buckeyes getting a narrow 12-11 win. It was the only time this season that Kay Morissette was bested in draw controls. Louisville led 6-2 in the first half but four consecutive OSU goals tied it after 30 minutes. Four in a row in the second half put Ohio State ahead to stay...the Cards scored the final two goals in the match but could not get the tying goal as time ran out.

OSU leads the series 6-1...Louisville win coming in 2013 at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium by a score of...you guessed it...12-11.  The Buckeyes enter the NCAA Tournament losing in the ALC semifinals to Northwestern 9-8. Attacker Katie Chase had five of the OSU scores in that one.

They play at 8 p.m. tonight. No TV that we know of...


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Touchdown Teddy goes to Minnesota

Finally, congratuatons to Calvin Pryor, Marcus Smith and Teddy Bridgewater from the UofL football team. All were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft last night.

Teddy was the last pick of the first round...which made for a late viewing night for those watching on ESPN. He was picked by the Minnesota Vikings. Louisville sending a fair share of athletes and coaches to that state lately...with Gorgui Dieng, Richard Pitino and Asia Taylor all in the land of 10,000 lakes (and 1,000,000 mosquitos).

paulie

Thursday Cardinal Couple -- Cards will face Temple in AAC Softball Tourney today

THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Louisville swept Owls two weekends ago at Ulmer

- If you are not busy...

The AAC Softball Tournament gets underway in Houston this morning at 11 a.m. when third seeded Louisville (33-20) will face Temple (15-29) in the opener.




The Tournament seedings:

#1  UCF                     #5 Rutgers
#2  USF                     #6 Temple
#3  Louisville             #7 Memphis
#4  Houston               #8 Connecticut

Cincinnati and SMU do not field softball teams.


If the Cards take care of business, they'll get the winner of the USF vs. Memphis game on Friday at 5 p.m. The Tournament final is scheduled to take place Saturday at 4 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN2.

All of today and tomorrow's games will be shown at the American Digital Network.  It can be found at:

http://www.theamerican.org/DN


The Cards swept the home regular season finale against the Owls 14-6, 5-0 and 11-3 over April 26-27. They looked very impressive in doing so. Taner Fowler went 8-10 over the three games and the Cards got good pitching out of Caralisa Connell, Rachel Le Coq and Maryssa Becker. 

Louisville finished the remainder of the regular season 2-2...losing to UK but taking 2 out of 3 in Memphis on Derby weekend.


Some final regular season stats (Worldwide loves these!)

- Louisville batted .302 as a team. Leading the way was Katie Keller (go vote for her!) at .384. Five Cards batted over .300

- Kelsi Jones was the home run leader with 11. She also led the Cards in RBI's with 36. She also scored the most runs with 44. Rumors that the team is changing their nickname to the "Kelsi's" is unconfirmed.

We owe the University of Missouri a large "thank you" for letting her hone her skills there two years before transferring to "the Ville".

- Freshman pitcher Maryssa Becker went 12-7 on the season. Caralisa Connell finished 10-5. Rachel LeCoq was 11-8. Both are seniors.

The University of Louisville place five players on the American All-Conference Softball teams as announced at the league banquet Wednesday, May 7. Seniors Katie Keller and Taner Fowler earned first team honors while juniors Whitney Arion and Kayla Soles and freshman Maryssa Becker were named to the second team.

This award recognition is great for the five that got selected but it also provides indisputable evidence that the selection committee is dumber than a box of cereal. How do you leave Jones off the list?

One of the many reasons that make me sooooo very happy UofL is dropping an "A" and adding a "C" next season. ACC...we're on the way. AAC? Thanks for the invite...time to go now. Prosper in your mediocrity.

We'll have a full report on the action in the Friday edition of Cardinal Couple...plus a preview of The BIG EAST Lacrosse tournament. 

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Lacrosse is headed to Evanston. This from the UofL SID office:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The University of Louisville women's lacrosse team is inviting the public to a send-off for the program's first NCAA Tournament in school history on Thursday just outside the Yum! Center, adjacent to the UofL Lacrosse Stadium, on Floyd Street at 10:20 a.m. ET.  The Cardinals will face Ohio State in a first-round game on May 9 in Evanston, Ill., with the winner playing No. 5-seed Northwestern on May 11 on the Wildcats' home field. The Buckeyes earned one of the 13 at-large bids.  Louisville (15-3) secured the BIG EAST's automatic berth after beating Georgetown on Saturday for the first conference tournament title in school history. Winners of 11 straight, Louisville rolled its way also to the school's first regular-season crown

paulie