Volleyball in the Championship -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Faces Texas for Another Milestone Opportunity

After making the Final Four last season, Louisville took another step forward this year to become the first ACC program in history to make it to the NCAA Volleyball Championship game. To win, the Cards will need to take down a historic program with a lot of momentum, but it will be one Louisville has faced before. The Texas Longhorns hosted a regional in 2019, which you may remember as the season that Louisville made it to their first Elite Eight. In that tournament, the Cards entered unseeded, having to travel to Bowling Green for the first two rounds. Louisville faced Texas in the Sweet Sixteen and, for the first time in five attempts, beat the Longhorns. The Cards would go on to fall to Minnesota in that Elite Eight. 

Facing the Longhorns again, much has changed over that time. Louisville had an undefeated season dashed by Wisconsin in the Final Four last year, which included All-American seasons from Anna Stevenson and Tori Dilfer. While many of the faces have changed, one thing remains for Louisville: the drive for greatness. Aiko Jones, Amaya Tillman, Claire Chaussee, and Alexa Hendricks all remain from that match as well. Jones had 24 kills and four blocks in the 2019 matchup; a repeat performance would be stellar. 

The Cards will face the top-ranked team in the country this evening, but it's not as big of a mountain to climb as it may seem. Through the end of the season, Louisville was ranked second in RPI, just behind Texas. Their two losses on the season were to Ohio State (seventh) and third-ranked Pittsburgh, whom they've since beaten twice. Texas's lone loss on the year came against Iowa State, ranked 31st in RPI, in the same week as Louisville's last loss. The Cards stood to claim that top spot before falling to Pittsburgh on the road that weekend. The Longhorns boast the AVCA Player of the Year in Logan Eggleston, but the Cards have an All-American on all three teams themselves. With Anna DeBeer seemingly back to as normal as she'll get this season, Louisville will have all the firepower they can ask for in the matchup, including incredible tournament performance from Phekran Kong.

Should Louisville win, they'd be the second team from Kentucky to become National Champion in just three years. Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1998, only California has more than one champion from their state, though it would take some effort for the state of Kentucky to match their number of four. (Long Beach State went undefeated in 1998. USC won back-to-back titles in 2002-2003 and UCLA won in 2011. Stanford is Stanford.) Texas is seeking their second championship in the expansion era and third overall. There are some interesting coincidences in this matchup. Texas won their last championship in 2012 in Louisville. Since then, they've played in the title game three more times. The loss to Stanford in 2016 isn't particularly interesting just because there isn't a connection, but their other two appearances--2015 and 2020--were both in Omaha. In 2015, they fell to Nebraska, where Dani Busboom Kelly was an assistant coach. In 2020, their loss came to Kentucky. 

While none of those connections are likely to have any bearing on this evening's matchup, they're sure to become part of the storyline regardless. These players and teams have poured their hearts into the season, and only one team can win it all in the end. It's the cruel nature of tournaments like these. On the same day, the World Cup final will see one country have its dreams dashed in the most agonizing game. Basketball sees it every year for March Madness, while baseball crowns a champion in the same city as tonight's match. 

Louisville has been drawing ever closer since that win over Texas in 2019. It seems only fitting that they'd get the Longhorns again in a chance to reach the pinnacle. Tonight's match is at 8PM Eastern on ESPN2.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

With tonight's very important match to discuss and a week off on the horizon next week, we didn't want to cancel this week's show. However, with the bowl game at 11 and various holiday events, we have had to make a shift. Today's live show will begin at 10AM, with the podcast posting shortly after. Jeff will join us from Omaha, where I'm sure the hotel is buzzing with anticipation. As always, you can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. 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

Anchor (podcast host): Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Louisville Volleyball is Going to the National Championship! -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Volleyball is Going to the National Championship!

Let's go! The Cards win! Louisville beats Pitt 3-2 (25-18, 23-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-2) to advance to the NCAA National Championship!

Before we get into the meat and bones of the match and the celebration, let's take a look at some of the other events that happened in Omaha yesterday.

In the first match of the night, 1-seed Texas go against the semi-surprising 2-seed San Diego. The Tereros would pull off a 28-26 first set victory before the Longhorns woke up and dominated the next three sets 25-16, 25-18, 25-20. Texas dropped just their third set of the NCAA Tournament.

The much-anticipated match-up between 1-seed Louisville and 2-seed Pitt followed roughly 30 minutes later. The late 10:00 p.m. ET start had both teams' fan bases in their pajamas and drinking coffee at night.

Louisville and Pitt tied for the ACC regular season title with the Cards earning the tiebreaker. Some in the world of volleyball titled this one as the "ACC Championship That Never Happened". It lived up to that hype.

Notes about the Final Four:

-This was a rare Final Four that saw no SEC or Pac-12 teams.

-Two of the Final Four teams (Louisville, San Diego) have women's head coaches.

-Louisville and Pitt are the fourth and five ACC teams to make the Final Four (2011- Florida State, 2021- Louisville and Pitt).

-This is the first time an ACC team has made the NCAA Championship game.

-Texas is the only one of the Final Four teams to have won a national championship or even make a championship game appearance.

-Dan Meske was named AVCA Assistant Coach of the Year

-This is the fourth Louisville team to compete in a national championship (men's basketball- three times, women's basketball- two times, men's soccer- one time). Louisville has quite a few individual champions and student-athletes compete in championships over the years too.

Now, onto the match as we take a look at all five sets.

Set One: Louisville 25, Pitt 19

A service ace started the match for the Cards and ignited a 6-0 run for the Cards. In fact, Louisville had two aces in that stretch. Pitt would not go down and would go on a mini run to bring the Louisville lead to 7-6 and then tie it at 9-9. A couple of small runs helped the Cards go up 17-11, 19-12, and 23-15, allowing the Cards to put themselves in an almost-comfortable lead. Momentum was all in favor of the Cards at this point. A paid of Anna DeBeer kills were the final two Louisville points in an opening set highlighted by strong serving.

Set Two: Pitt 25, Louisville 23

Louisville saw themselves in an early 3-1 lead, but the Panthers weren't about to let themselves go down big or early again. Pitt would take a 7-5 advantage before two straight points evened the score again. A strong Pitt attack saw the Panthers pull ahead 11-8. The Cards would cut their deficit to one that saw Pitt lose a challenge, but the fourth service of the match halted the momentum and give Pitt a 12-10 lead. The Panthers would go into the media break up 15-12. The Cards struggled to go against Pitt's front line defense and Dani Busboom Kelly called a timeout down 19-16. A block by Aiko Jones and DeBeer's fourth ace of the night brought Louisville within two at 21-19 and caused Pitt to call a timeout. After trading points, DBK burned her last timeout down 24-22. The Panthers would ultimately take the set to even the score at halftime.

Set Three: Louisville 25, Pitt 22

Coming out of halftime, DeBeer logged her fifth ace of the night and the Cards went on a 3-0 run before Pitt would score a couple to make it 3-2. Another 3-0 spurt by the Cards highlighted by an Aiko Jones forced Pitt into an early timeout. Pitt would score four straight to even the score before a Claire Chaussee kill stopped the run. Neither team could build much of a lead and Chaussee tied the score at 15-15 with her famous sky high jump for the kill. A net violation by the Cards put Pitt up 19-16 and DBK would call a timeout. The Cards would rally to even the score at 22-22 and Pitt would burn a timeout. A pair of aces by Elena Scott and a kill by Chaussee helped the Cards end the set on a 5-0 run and take a 2-1 lead.

Set Four: Pitt 25, Louisville 22

A similar sight unfolded at the start as Louisville went up 3-0 and then 5-2 before PK Kong went to the bench to get checked out for a minor hand injury. Louisville's attack helped spark the next couple points as Pitt called a timeout at 7-2. Pitt wouldn't go down without a fight, though. They pieced together a run to bring the Louisville lead to 8-7. Then Louisville got hot for a bit. Everything seemed to click for the Cards. A monster kill by Jones and Scott's fourth ace put the Cards up 15-10. Timeout number two for Pitt. After Louisville's lead got cut to 16-13, Busboom Kelly called a timeout to give her team a breather and to refocus. Louisville's errors got the best of them as the score was evened at 17-17. Insert a quick 3-0 Louisville run capped off by a block by Amaya Tillman to help put the Cards back on top. Louisville used its last timeout of the set after the Panthers evened the score at 22-22. Sloppy play continued for Louisville as Pitt went on to take the set.

Set Five: Louisville 15, Pitt 2

Louisville started the deciding set on a 3-0 run. Kong's block forced Pitt to call an early timeout. Then, Chaussee found the corner for a kill and Kong logged back-to-back blocks to extend the lead to 6-0. The block party continued to push the lead to 8-0. Pitt managed a point and Louisville followed with a 4-0 run to go up 12-1. Louisville closed the door from there to take the win!

WOW! Talk about a helluva fifth set! The Cards left no doubt on which team was going to walk away victorious.

Claire Chaussee led the Cards with 25 kills and a .429 attack percentage. Anna DeBeer had 15 kills and Aiko Jones added 12 kills on a .310 attack percentage. Raquel Lazaro had 49 assists. Elena Scott had 28 digs. DeBeer and Scott each had five aces. PK Kong recorded a career high 10 blocks in the match. Amaya Tillman logged seven blocks and Jones had six.

Dani Busboom Kelly looks for the hat trick after winning national championships as a player and assistant coach, now going for her first as a head coach. Louisville looks to be the first women's team on campus to win a national championship. 

Louisville and Texas will face off at 8:00 p.m. ET on Saturday for the national championship. We will recap all of the excitement on our Cardinal Couple Podcast tomorrow morning. Note: The podcast will be at 10:00 A.M. this week, since we figure some of our readers might be interesting in watching  Louisville Football in the Fenway Bowl at 11:00 A.M

(All photos courtesy of Louisville Athletics and Louisville Volleyball)

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

Jared

Volleyball Rolls in First Round of Tournament -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Sweep Samford to Advance

Louisville invited three teams to the L&N Federal Credit Union Arena this weekend with the intention of beating two of them so they could invite a few more to the Yum! Center next week. The Cards got off to a good start in that goal, as they took on the 16th seeded Samford Bulldogs in the late match yesterday evening.  After Purdue took care of Tennessee in the first game of the evening, one half of Saturday's matchup was set. Louisville didn't take too long to set the second half.

The Cards cruised in the first set, winning 25-9, and would not have much more difficulty after that. The first saw Louisville finish with 15 kills and just one error to register an 0.636 hitting percentage, which contrasted greatly to Samford's -0.071 first set hitting. The Bulldogs were, on the whole, outclassed in this one, which isn't terribly surprising considering it was a 1/16 matchup. While it's possible, there is a lot less room for tournament magic in volleyball than basketball. Louisville had advantages in size, speed, and accuracy, and all three showed up. The Cards finished with six blocks, which isn't all that many given their history, but it was six more than Samford. Of the six, three came in the first set, leaving five more errors in the set for Samford to find on their own. Louisville committed two service errors along with their one hitting error (an errant shot by Amaya Tillman) to give Samford the three more points they scored on top of their six kills.

While focusing on the negative there at the end, I should say that the set was never in doubt. Louisville took the first three points before ultimately going up 9-2. Samford managed to cut the deficit to 11-5, but six points would be the smallest deficit they'd face for the remainder of the set. The second set, despite being Samford's best, was actually even less close than the first. While the Cards dropped to a woeful (sarcasm intended) 0.591 hitting percentage and Samford came up to 0.172, Louisville again took a 3-0 lead and this time turned it into 10-1. The Bulldogs were able to get the deficit down to 16-8, and even had a 3-point run to get to 20-11, but their points were very spread out and Louisville won the 24-13 set point on a Samford service error.

The third saw Louisville commit four errors, continuing their odd trend of two extremely clean sets and one head scratcher, but it didn't make much difference as they pushed Samford's hitting back down below zero. It was Louisville mistakes that made the third set "close" as Samford actually reached 10 points before Louisville got to 20. In those 10 points, though, Louisville committed all four of their errors and had two service errors. They also scored 18 of their own points.  The Cards closed out the match on a 7-2 run, which started with a four point stretch of an Anna DeBeer kills, an Aiko Jones kill and ace, and a Raquel Lazaro kill. 

Speaking of Aiko Jones, she led the way for the Cards today. Aiko was the only Cardinal to pick up double digit kills, finishing with 11, as Claire Chaussee was defended well (she still ended up with nine kills). Amazingly, no player committed more than one hitting error, which contributed to Louisville's 0.514 overall hitting percentage. In addition to the 11 kills, Jones added an assist, two aces, just one service error, and two block assists. While her error was just one of Louisville's six (that can apply to hitting and service, funnily enough), her two aces accounted for all of Louisville's on the night. While 2/6 is better than the 1/9 registered by Samford, it still isn't great, and you'd like to see it cleaned up a bit. 

Chaussee added an assist and a solo block to go with her nine kills and also picked up seven digs. Amaya Tillman, unsurprisingly, was the defensive leader at the net, grabbing two solo blocks and a block assist. In the back, Elena Scott picked up 10 digs and added five assists. While they may not all of have been on Raquel Lazaro digs, Lazaro coincidentally ended with five of those. Anna DeBeer looked a bit more comfortable defensively, grabbing eight digs and contributing to a block assist. She also picked up five kills. Hopefully, that can be a sign that she is getting back to form at the right time for Louisville.

The Cards take on Purdue this evening at 6 PM in the L&N FCU Arena. While Purdue is not the ninth-ranked team the Cards faced in September, playing anyone a second time is difficult. The Cards swept that first match at home, so Purdue will be looking for revenge and playing for their season. Louisville, among many advantages, should be more rested despite getting the later match last night, as the Boilermakers took five sets to finish off Tennessee. The winner of this evening's match will take on Baylor, as the Bears held off a Rice upset bid in the 4/5 match. While every match from here on out will be tough, Louisville just has to keep their head down and focus on one at a time. Tonight's match, like last night's, will be on ESPN+. Should the Cards advance, every match for the remainder of the tournament will be on ESPN networks.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We're back again this week with what should be a full house. We'll have the exciting volleyball win to cover, but we'll also have to talk about the unfortunate occurrence in the KFC Yum! Center earlier this week. All in all, we'll keep it light as we focus on the joy and excitement of UofL women's athletics. As always, 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

Anchor (podcast host): Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Volleyball Nearly Sweeps ACC Awards -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Nearly Sweeps ACC Awards

Louisville volleyball's dominating showing this season, especially in conference play, helped them take four of the five ACC Awards.

Claire Chaussee was named ACC Player of the Year. Chaussee, a bit of a dark horse for the award at the beginning of the year, beat out others such as Julia Bergmann of Georgia Tech and a trio of Pitt players. Chaussee tallied 370 kills this season while averaging 3.81 kills per set. She reached 1000 career kills this season.

Amaya Tillman was named ACC Defensive Player of the Year. Tillman ranked sixth in the country with 1.53 blocks per set and logged 141 total blocks. She was also named ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2020.

Raquel Lazaro was named ACC Setter of the Year. Lazaro transferred in from USC for her final year of eligibility. In her lone season with the Cards, Lazaro had 925 assists on the year while averaging 9.95 assists per set. Her season high is 57 assists in a five-set comeback win over Georgia Tech.

Coach Dani Busboom Kelly was named ACC Coach of the Year. Under Busboom Kelly, Louisville went 26-2, was named a 1-seed for the second straight year, won their third straight ACC title, ranked second nationally in blocks, and ranked 10th nationally in hitting percentage.

The lone award Louisville did not take was ACC Freshman of the Year. Emma Farrell of Wake Forest took that award. Louisville did not have any true freshmen play this season due to redshirts, so a  Louisville player could not win by default.

Louisville also had five Cards named to the All-ACC First Team. Chaussee, Tillman, Lazaro, Aiko Jones, and Elena Scott all received recognition. With the exception of Lazaro, the other four Cards have been named to the All-ACC Teams in the past.

The Cards gear up for the NCAA Tournament and will host Samford on Friday at 7:00 p.m. at L&N FCU Arena.

(Photos by Jared Anderson)

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Volleyball Ends Regular Season -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

WIN WOULD GUARANTEE CARDS A SHARE OF ACC TITLE

Louisville Volleyball heads to South Bend today to play in their final match of the regular season against Notre Dame. The match is slated for 7:30 p.m. in the Purcell Pavilion and will be on the ACCNX.

Louisville can gain a share of the regular season title and wait to see how Pittsburgh does in their final two matches, vs Georgia Tech tonight and vs. Boston College Saturday. For Louisville, it's pretty simple -- "win and you're in" --  as the automatic qualifier for the ACC in the NCAA Tournament. We get asked all the time, so I'll repeat it again...the ACC does not have a conference tournament in Volleyball. In case of a tie in records, the tie-breaker between the Cards and Pitt would come down to sets won in the two meetings. Louisville won five, Pitt three. 

The Irish are 9-17 on the season and 4-12 in the ACC. They and the Cards met in Louisville on Oct 26th. and Louisville won the three sets and match 25-10, 25-22, and 25-14. Claire Chaussee had 16 kills for Louisville in that match and Amaya Tillman had 12. Notre Dame lost the last time they played, against NC State, in three sets. Notre Dame is one of four schools at the bottom of the conference standings with just four conference wins, along with Virginia, Virginia Tech and Clemson.  

The NCAA selection show is on Sunday, Nov 27th  at 7:30 p.m. on ESPNU.

If the Cards host first and second round NCAA matches they would be Dec 2nd and Dec 4th at the L&N Federal Credit Union (times to be announced). If Louisville is a top four seed, and they advance, they would move to the KFC YUM! Center for matches that will be held on Dec 8th and 10th. 

Louisville is 25-2 on the season and 16-1 in the ACC. Pitt gave them their lone conference loss and they also fell to Ohio State in out-of-conference action.

Here's hoping the Cards take care of business tonight. 

(photos by Jared Anderson) 

paulie

Field Hockey Drops Home Finale; Volleyball Sweeps -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Fall to BC 4-1

Louisville field hockey hosted their regular season finale hoping to claw back some momentum before heading to Durham for the ACC Tournament next week. The plan got off to a good start, with Aimee Plumb giving the Cards the go-ahead goal just five minutes into the game. Unfortunately, the good vibes wouldn't last past the first quarter. After the break, Boston College tied the game and took the lead in the first five minutes of the quarter. When they came out of the locker room after halftime, BC pounced again, making it 3-1 two minutes into the second half. A fourth goal with five to go in the game was icing on the cake for the Eagles, and Louisville saw their third loss in as many games to close out the season.

Louisville outshot BC 14-8 in yesterday's game, but they were even in shots on target at seven. Sasha Elliott came back down to earth after an unbelievable season, posting just three saves against four goals, but hopefully she was just due for a less than outstanding game and she can put it behind her. Of BC's four goals, only one came on a penalty corner, an uncommon occurrence against what has been a stout Louisville defense this season.

The Cards offense didn't do quite as much to pull their weight as the defense would hope either. Just a 50% shot ratio is not a recipe for success, especially considering that the team had more penalty corner attempts than they did shots on goal. Louisville was 0-8 on corners in yesterday's game. Boston College was 1-1. The offense was fairly well distributed for the Cards, with five players taking shots, but only Aimee Plumb and Mattie Tabor put multiple shots on goal. To Boston College's credit, they had done their homework. Julie Kouijzer took three shots. As you might expect, they all came on corners. The Eagles were expecting it, too. All three of Kouijzer's shots were blocked by defenders.

You'll notice I'm not going line-by-line on yesterday's game like I do for many others. The truth is that it wasn't a very good performance all-around. Jared politely left a postgame interview with Coach Sowry off the table as she wasn't in much mood to talk about it. Louisville came in to yesterday's game with a chance to improve their seeding for the ACC tournament with a win over BC, and they didn't do it. Louisville takes the six seed (they have the tiebreaker over Duke), and they'll play either Syracuse or Virginia based on tiebreaker. We talked a bit last week about how you might want to be the sixth seed and make a run in the ACC tournament rather than be the five seed and draw UNC in the second game. 

My stance was, and is, that a loss to BC (who is now just 8-9 overall) hurts more than a pair of wins over Syracuse and Wake would help when it comes to NCAA seeding. After the clunker at Cornell on Sunday, Louisville may find themselves on the outside looking in come selection time. We'll all have to wait and see. The ACC tournament will air in full on ACC Network starting at 1 PM on Tuesday. Which games will be played in which slots are not finalized yet, but the quarterfinals are at 1, 3:30, and 6. 

Cards Sweep Duke at Home

After the tough loss against Pittsburgh on Sunday, Louisville recovered their busy week by taking care of business with sweeps of both Notre Dame and Duke. The two teams have seven wins combined in conference, so struggling with either would not be ideal. As it was, the Cards sat ND down against in front of a record crowd and returned to L&N Federal Credit Union Arena looking like they'd do just about the same thing to Duke.

Louisville opened with a 25-12 set win, posting a 0.529 hitting percentage with just one error. They held Duke negative at -0.083, and the romp looked as though it might be on. In that set, Louisville took a 7-1 lead and, after a bit of trading, extended it to 24-9. The Cards had two blocks and three aces to go along with their ten kills, but also benefitted from two service errors and a handling error by Duke. The Blue Devils looked all out of sorts, and Louisville was firing on all cylinders.

Right up until they weren't. The Cards took another 6-1 lead in the second, and they would later stretch that to 19-11, but their 25-20 set victory was much less convincing. It may have had something to do with the fact that they had 9 errors, only 9x their average per set. Duke had fewer errors in the second set, but Louisville still managed to outhit them 0.063-0.000. What I'm getting at here is that the second set of last night's match was not the pinnacle of volleyball performance. Despite the poor hitting, Louisville's win was never really in doubt, as the 19-11 lead was trimmed only to 20-16 before trades effectively closed the set.

The third set was the nail-biter, with both teams hitting in the 0.160s. Louisville cleaned up their errors, cutting them to just four, but Duke found more gaps than anyone had all match, picking up a match leading 12 kills in the final set. Louisville didn't have the benefit of a big run in the set and actually played from behind for most of the race to ten. The Cards took the lead at 9-8 following a service error and an attack error, but they wouldn't take the lead for good until the same sequence gave them a 12-10 advantage. After a Duke kill, Louisville won three straight points to take a 15-11 lead that they wouldn't yield. The Blue Devils pulled to within two on multiple occasions through the rest of the set, but Louisville's resolve (and their own struggles) kept the Cards out front. After Cara Cresse committed an error to give Duke hope on Louisville's first match point attempt, she made up for it by combining on a block with Raquel Lazaro to win it.

If you didn't know better, you would have thought some practical joke moved the service line in the third set, as the two teams combined for 13 service errors in the final frame. Five of Louisville's nine errors came in that set, while Duke committed 14 overall. Louisville was vastly superior at the line for the entire match, finishing with six aces to Duke's three for a net advantage of eight points in the service game. Louisville's blocking wasn't as dominant in this one as we've seen in the past, with Louisville winning just 8-7. The impact on Louisville was large, as seven blocks represented half of the errors they committed, whereas Duke committed 24 errors on the evening. Louisville's blocking defense usually has that effect on teams, forcing more errors than the stat sheet recognizes as blocks, but Duke also just isn't very good. 

Aiko Jones led the team in kills for the first time in awhile last night, picking up seven. She committed five errors, but her role leads to more errors than others. More concerning was her carrying a third of the team's service errors, but it was a good match for her overall as she added an ace and 1.5 blocks. Claire Chaussee and Amaya Tillman, as you might expect, were tied for second at six kills apiece. Nena Mbonu continued to carve a role with four kills, but the big surprise came from Lazaro. She finished with five kills on seven attempts while picking up 17 of Louisville's 23 assists. Adding four block assists and seven digs, it remains obvious that Lazaro is a star.

Speaking of stars, Anna DeBeer returned to the floor last night... kind of. DeBeer was fully dressed and participated in warm-ups last night before coming out of the locker room in street clothes ahead of the match start. This was apparently planned, and not a setback during warmups. It's good to know that DeBeer is close to returning as the season gets ready to hit the home stretch. The Cards have a week off before beginning their final third of the conference season. After the three match week culminating with Duke last night, Louisville will have tomorrow off. The Cards will welcome in the two state schools of North Carolina next weekend in their penultimate home stand.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

With another non-noon kickoff for Louisville football, we'll have a robust crew in house for the show this week. While there are some downers to talk about, we'll keep the optimism up as we discuss the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics. Maybe if we talk nicely enough about him, Coach Walz will let us go down the new slide at the basketball practice facility. As always, 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

Anchor (podcast host): Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Volleyball Rolls; Field Hockey Falls -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Get First Sweep in Three Matches

Louisville started the season 12-0 in sets before dropping one to San Diego and then three in the loss to Ohio State. After sweeping Purdue and losing just three sets in two road wins against Kentucky and Stanford, the Cards started conference play with three straight sweeps. Georgia Tech took a set off Louisville in the match on ESPN before the Cards went on the road to get two more sweeps. When they returned home last week, Louisville lost their first set of the season to an unranked opponent when they beat Virginia Tech 3-1. On Sunday, they lost their second set of the season to an unranked opponent when they beat Wake Forest 3-1. 

If you're keeping track, that's three sets lost on the road this season, with two coming against a bitter rival ranked in the top-15 and one coming against a perennial powerhouse ranked in the top-10, and six sets dropped at home, including two to unranked opponents and Louisville's only loss of the match. Louisville started this week's road trip yesterday keeping the statistical oddity alive when they headed to Charlottesville to take on the lowly Cavaliers. The Cards took care of things in a relatively straightforward match 25-18, 25-15, and 25-22. 

Virginia entered the match 9-10 on the season and 1-7 in the ACC, so there wasn't much concern about them knocking off the Cards in a normal match. However, Louisville has Pitt on the horizon, so this was definitely a trap game. The Cards didn't really blink. After getting the 1000th kill of her career against Wake Forest, Claire Chaussee got right back to work by opening the match's scoring. After a few traded points, Louisville went on a 6-0 run led by a five-serve scoring run by Aiko Jones that included three aces. Despite the 9-3 lead Louisville garnered and the 12-5 lead they turned it into, Virginia held on, using runs of their own to close the gap to 15-12 and then to 16-15. Louisville didn't let the set get tied, and a 9-3 run closed the door. 

The first set saw Louisville hit just 0.200 with six errors, but the 0.156 from Virginia, a three-point serving advantage, and two handling errors by Virginia helped keep the Cards out front. Both teams finished with three blocks in the set and ten on the match, so there wasn't much of an advantage there. 

In the second, Louisville jumped out early again, taking 6-2 and 14-6 leads. Just like before, Virginia was able to claw their way back. An 8-3 Virginia run brought the score to 17-14, but that would be about the end of that. If you'll remember, Louisville took the second set 25-15, so you know how this one ends. Amaya Tillman saw what Jones did in the first set and said, "I'll raise you." Her five-serve run saw four aces before Virginia was able to knock her off the line, after which Louisville took two more points to set the final score.

The second set was another six error set for the Cards, but they improved their hitting to 0.241. Amazing what one fewer attempt and one more kill can do for your numbers. Virginia took a step back in this one, despite having just four errors, and hit just 0.148. Louisville limited Virginia's attack opportunities with the aces, but the Hoos also limited their own chances with two more bad sets, and two service errors. The teams again tied on blocks in the set.

Things got just a little weird in the third, which you might expect from a set that nearly requires extra points between a top team in the country and a team that is below 0.500 on the season. Chaussee, who had been quiet after the opening point, won Louisville's first two points of the third to give the Cards a 2-1 lead. It was a short lived lead, though, as a service error gave the point right back. A kill by Tillman preceded a four-point run from the Cavaliers, who jumped out to a 6-3 lead. Unlike the previous two sets, Louisville didn't break out a run or two of their own to reclaim control. Instead, Louisville won a pair before the two teams traded ten straight points. Louisville won another extra point to tie the set at 11, then won three more to take a 14-12 lead. While it seemed like that brief 5-1 run would be enough to propel the Cards to finish out the third set, it wouldn't be quite so simple. Instead, Virginia continued to work hard to spoil the fun, keeping the trading up to eventually tie the set at 19. Another kill by Chaussee, her fourth of the set but just seventh of the match, gave the Cards a 20-19 lead with Aiko Jones stepping to the line. Jones was unable to repeat her previous success and a service error was followed by a block and a kill to give the Hoos a 22-20 lead. Staring down another frustrating dropped set, Louisville tightened their belts. Chaussee snagged a kill to break the Virginia serve, Nena Mbonu got her ninth to tie the set, and the Cards brought it home with two blocks and an ace.

While it certainly could have looked cleaner, Louisville went on the road and returned to their sweeping ways. Both teams hit a match high in the third set, but Louisville once again committed six errors. They finished with 18 on the day compared to just 14 for Virginia, but things mostly evened out with Virginia committing three bad sets and a ball handling error. In a surprising turn of events, Louisville dominated the serving battle, finishing with nine aces while Virginia had just two. Louisville also committed only four service errors while Virginia had five, giving the Cards a net eight point advantage in the category.

It was the Amaya Tillman show last night. After her dominant performances of late, Virginia keyed on Claire Chaussee, and other players stepped up. Tillman led the charge with nine kills (tied for team high), four aces, and seven assisted blocks. She committed just three errors on her way to 0.353 hitting, had no serving errors, and added five digs. Cara Cresse didn't play, giving Phekran Kong all of the time at the other middle spot, and PK took advantage. She finished with nine kills and just one error to lead the team in hitting at 0.571. She was also credited with an assist and three assisted blocks. Nena Mbonu led the outsides, dropping nine kills with four errors on 17 attempts. Chaussee finished with eight kills and Aiko Jones with seven. Raquel Lazaro was all over the court, adding six assisted blocks, six digs, and a kill to her 34 assists. 

One of the big ones is next. Louisville takes on Pitt tomorrow at 1PM. This is Louisville's last listed match on the ESPN platforms, though they do have two more matches scheduled to air on the linear ACC Network channel. It's a busy week for the Cards, who have a Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday to close out October. Pitt is playing their fourth straight home match before heading back on the road, and they swept Miami, Florida State, and Notre Dame in the previous three. At 19-2 (9-0), the Panthers are ranked 8th in the country. They are theoretically behind the Cards in the conference standings on overall winning percentage, but that doesn't mean much. Tomorrow's match is for the outright lead in the ACC. Tune in to ESPNU to see them duke it out.

Field Hockey Loses Late at Syracuse

After the thrilling shootout victory against Duke and the 4-0 romp over Ball State on Senior Day, Louisville field hockey was riding a high heading up to Syracuse in an attempt to close out the season strong. The Cards would need to beat the Orange and Boston College to finish the conference season .500, but it wasn't meant to be. Despite taking the lead in the fourth quarter, Louisville's defense faltered, and Syracuse scored two goals in the final ten minutes to win.

The first quarter of this one was very much a "feel each other out" kind of opener. Both teams substituted frequently, but the only other event in the quarter was a shot by Embry Jane Imorde that was wide of the cage. The teams made a combined sixteen substitutions to try and see what would work best before implementing those plans in the second. The action started quickly, with Syracuse forcing a save on their first shot of the game two minutes into the period. Louisville earned a corner shortly after, forcing Syracuse's first save on a Julie Kouijzer shot. The Cards gave up a penalty corner a minute later, with Sasha Elliott being on-hand to save the shot. She'd get her third save on Syracuse's last shot of the half with four minutes to go. Louisville earned two more shots of their own, with one coming on another corner, but both were wide of the mark. 

The floodgates opened in the second half. Syracuse earned a corner in the first minute, but they were unable to get a shot. Five minutes later, they repeated the effort, this time forcing an Elliott save. Louisville took their turn next, forcing a pair of saves on corner attempts. More substitutions followed before Syracuse got another shot from open play with four minutes left in the quarter. The attempt was saved, but the danger not completely cleared. After a Louisville substitution during a stoppage, Syracuse's Quirine Comans scored her 13th goal of the season, chipping Elliott to give the Orange the lead. Louisville was undeterred, and Katie Schneider responded with her own goal from open play just under two minutes later. Despite all that had happened, the two teams entered the fourth just as they had the third: tied. 

It didn't stay that way for long. Two minutes into the fourth quarter, Louisville earned a penalty corner. The attempted shot by Kelsey McCrudden was blocked, but it was done so illegally, giving Louisville a penalty stroke attempt. Aimee Plumb stepped up to take the attempt for the Cards and converted. Louisville led 2-1. Syracuse went back to work on offense. Three minutes after Louisville took the lead, Syracuse tied it back up. A penalty corner resulted in no shot, but initiated another corner, as they often do. This time, a shot was offered, and Louisville was able to block it away. Unfortunately, "away" meant right to the corner taker, who chipped a defender to tie it up. Their offense didn't stop there. The Orange kept up the pressure, forcing back-to-back saves with six minutes remaining. With four minutes left, they were back in the circle, and Sasha Elliot was again up to the task... almost. Elliott's eighth save of the night was recovered by Comans and fired home for her second goal of the night and 14th on the year. Elliott would be called on again just thirty seconds later before she was pulled with three minutes left to give Louisville an extra attacker. For a moment, it looked as though the Cards might repeat their magic from a week ago, as they earned a corner with thirty seconds left. The corner was for naught, though, with Louisville unable to find a shot. Final score: 3-2.

All season, we've waited for the Louisville offense to show up in conference the way that it does for non-conference games. Entering the night, Louisville had been outscored 8-1 in their four conference games, despite holding an overall 31-14 goal advantage on the season. For the first time all year, Louisville scored more than one goal in a conference game. Unfortunately, they also gave up three goals for just the second time this season. Despite the three goals, Sasha Elliott was fantastic. She had nine saves, as Syracuse's offense was relentless. Louisville was outshot 13-9 and 12 of those 13 were on frame for the Orange. Louisville put just five shots on frame, despite out earning Syracuse on corners 6-5. 

Louisville will look ahead now to Cornell as they travel to Ithaca to take on the "Big Red" on Sunday at 11AM. They'll hope to take down their third Ivy League team of the year before they play their home finale against BC on Friday. The Cards need a strong finish to the season for momentum purposes as much as anything else. The Eagles are 6-9 on the season and 2-3 in the ACC, so a win can give Louisville an improvement in ACC Tournament seeding. Despite being 1-4 in conference, Louisville is still ranked in the top-ten nationally, but they'll likely need to win the last two and get at least one win in the conference tournament to make the NCAA tourney. 

Louisville Live

Lindsay and I celebrated our anniversary last night with an evening at Cooking at Millie's, so I wasn't in attendance at Louisville Live. The rest of the crew was, so I'll let them share their thoughts throughout the week. Jared did send me some photos of the event, though, so have a look and see the excitement the team has for the upcoming season.

Angel was one of last night's honored guests.

Payton Verhulst won the three-point competition

The team reacted accordingly.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We've got almost a full house this week, as we're all available but Daryl. A tee-time in late October is a rare opportunity, so we won't hold it against her. Hopefully she doesn't have to play through a group of cows like the folks at Cherokee Park did earlier this week. We'll have plenty to discuss, so be sure to tune in. As always, 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

Anchor (podcast host): Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Field Hockey and Volleyball Take Extra Time to Win -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Field Hockey Notches Season's First ACC Win

It took much longer than anyone expected for Louisville field hockey to get their first win of the season. I mean that both in terms of the season overall and last night's game. The Cards played a thriller against Duke that went all the way into a shootout. Louisville, wearing the pinkout jerseys (black with pink trim) that look so awesome, came from behind late in the game to tie it and force the extra play. While the loss pushed Duke to 1-4 in the ACC and 5-9 overall, the Blue Devils were still ranked 24th in the country coming into this one. That ACC field hockey is tough.

Louisville opened the match with the attack, earning five shots in the first half of the first quarter and taking two penalty corners. Both corners resulted in shots, but neither were on frame as one was blocked and the other missed wide. In between the two corners, Aimee Plumb worked her way into a good offensive position and forced back to back saves from the Duke goalie. The Blue Devils responded at the end of the corner, putting together a string of three shots over the final 93 seconds. Sasha Elliott was on hand for her first two saves of the night and the third was blocked.

The second quarter was more of the same. Louisville had three more penalty corners and four more shots. And yet, only the shot that led to the first penalty corner forced a save. Duke split the Louisville offense this time, instead of alternating completely. They earned a pair of back to back corners but were able to turn those into just one shot, which Elliott saved. After the half, Duke made a change at goalie. Just 89 seconds later, they put the new goalie in the position for a win. The goal came on a tapped in cross that Elliott was just unable to get to. Duke led 1-0. The Blue Devils earned a corner a couple of minutes later but there was nothing doing. Louisville returned the favor with two more penalty corners, but this time they couldn't even get a shot on both. Their only two shots of the quarter were the blocked efforts that initiated the corners. With six minutes left in the third, Duke earned a yellow card, giving Louisville a player advantage. They would go on to earn another with two and a half minutes remaining, giving Louisville plenty of opportunity to equalize, but they went to the fourth still trailing 1-0.

In that fourth quarter, Duke parked the bus. I was unable to watch the game, but given how the previous quarters went, the play-by-play makes it pretty clear what happened. 

45:00 Start of 4th Period

55:25 EMPTY NET at goalie for Louisville

Ten minutes of Duke having no intention of putting the ball into attack for fear that it would spread them too thin and Louisville would be able to get an offensive play. Similarly, Louisville couldn't get an attack going themselves because Duke was just crammed into the defensive third. Five minutes is a long time to play without a goalie, and there is every bit as good of a chance that the score will go to 2-0 as there is that it will go to 1-1. For a long time, it looked like this one was set to finish just as it had been. Louisville was unable to capitalize on a player advantage in the third, so it wasn't looking likely they'd be able to in the fourth. Just as the clock wound down and Duke thought they might escape with a huge road win, Louisville earned a penalty corner with twelve seconds remaining. Aimee Plumb put the ball into play, Kelsey McCrudden set it up, and Julie Kouijzer (who else on a clutch corner, really) fired it home to tie the game. Sasha Elliott returned to her post for the final six seconds, and the game headed to OT.

Louisville worked hard in those ten minutes to win the game outright. As a well conditioned team that likes to run up and down the field, the reduced player count in overtime gives Louisville a lot of space. They ultimately earned three shots in the period, but one was wide and the other two were saved. The second overtime saw a bit of a reversal of fortunes. Duke earned a pair of corners, and, while one was dealt with fairly easily, the other induced two shots. Sasha Elliott was there to save both, including the second from a familiar name on the wrong side of the score sheet. Charlie van Oirschot nearly ended the game for Duke in her first appearance in the play-by-play. It was a surprise to see her be so ineffective after starting and playing nearly the whole game, but there isn't too much to complain about as a Cardinal fan. Thus, the teams headed to the shootout.

Louisville found themselves in a bind quickly, after Izzy Bianco and Mattie Tabor both missed their stroke attempts and Hannah Miller split them with a make. Trailing 1-0 going into the fourth shooter, Louisville needed a stop or it was going to get even tougher. Sasha Elliott came to play for this one, knocking the ball away before the Duke attacker could even take her first shot. Katie Schneider stepped up and made it look easy, giving Elliott the chance to put Louisville back level entering the final two rounds. She did just that. 

Sitting at 1-1 through three rounds, things got weird. Kelsey McCrudden stepped up to take her shot. It was initially blocked, but McCrudden collected the rebound off the stick of the goalie and fired it home. The initial call was that it was a goal, but Duke argued it had been stopped. They had a point, as it had been, but the play hadn't been fully cleared away. The referees went in to review it. After awhile, they came out and said that there was no goal. This displeased Justine Sowry quite a bit, who sent them back in with a talking to. After another lengthy review, the initial review was overturned and the call returned to the one on the field: goal. Elliott stopped the next attempt from Duke without much drama, and Louisville found themselves with the chance to win on a goal or another stop. Emilia Kaczmarczyk was up this time, and she found the back of the cage to give the Cards the win. Or so everyone thought until it was challenged. Again, the referees took two attempts. This time, they upheld the call after the initial challenge, but still went to review again. Unlike the previous review, though, they didn't reverse themselves. The second review called the goal good and Louisville took the victory.

Louisville is back in action hosting Ball State tomorrow at 2PM. In the meantime, check out what Coach Justine Sowry and a couple of players had to say after the exciting win.

COACH JUSTINE SOWRY

EMILIA KACZMARCZYK

SASHA ELLIOTT

Volleyball Takes Care of VT in 4 Sets

The Hokies came in to the L&N Federal Credit Union Arena at 9-8 and just 2-4 in conference play. Everyone may have expected it to be a walk, but Louisville still needed to show up. It was an exciting night in the arena, with the promotions staff putting together a red and black "stripe out". It's a promotion that is growing in popularity, and Louisville got it right by providing the tee shirts rather than hoping people see it and wear the right color. Unlike a solid color out, where 70-80% participation gets the point across, a stripe out with such low participation would look like an oddly coincidental pattern tried to form.

Louisville came out a little flat in this one. After the teams traded the first ten points, VT took three straight to take an 8-5 lead. They weren't done, though, as they took another three after Louisville broke the run to push their lead to 11-6. A bit more back and forth moved the score to 13-8 before the Cards decided to wake up. Three kills from Claire Chaussee, two from Aiko Jones, and a solo block from Amaya Tillman later, Louisville found themselves back in front at 14-13. It was their first lead since 5-4, and it was short lived. VT won the next three points, but the Cards were undeterred. They rattled off four straight to regain the advantage, then took two more to give themselves a bit of a cushion at 20-17. The Hokies fought back, but Louisville had created just enough of a buffer to be comfortable, and they took the first set 25-21.

The second set looked like Louisville had figured it out and things could proceed as intended. After VT took advantage of another slow start to go up 6-4, Louisville broke out to take a 12-8 lead that they turned into a 19-11 advantage. The Cards didn't let up there, though, as they went on to win the set 25-13. After a 0.400 hitting percentage in the first marred by five errors, the Cards improved to 0.429 in the second. The real difference came defensively, as they pushed Virginia Tech down from 0.200 in the first set to just 0.100 in the second. Louisville appeared to be in control as the teams headed to the locker room, but they may have gotten just a tad too comfortable during halftime. 

The third saw the teams trade points early once more, and again VT made an intermediate run. This one put the Hokies ahead 12-9. No worries, right? Louisville had overcome later deficits than that already in this match. Unlike the previous sets, though, the Cards didn't respond with a big run of their own. VT kept turning the crank until Louisville saw themselves down 20-13. The Cards reacted accordingly, but it is always difficult to catch a team when they need fewer points to win a set than you do to tie them. Louisville brought it back to 18-23, but VT put themselves on a 6-point set point advantage. The Cards staved off two, but dropped the third set 25-20.

After losing the set, the urgency seemed to set in a bit. Louisville shouldn't be dropping sets to Virginia Tech, and the Hokies had been a thorn in their side all night. Better to dispatch of them quickly than to make things any more awkward as the evening went on. So the Cards did just that. The final score of the fourth set doesn't quite reflect it, as the Cards won 25-18, but the fourth was never particularly close. Almost every time they increased their lead, it was like setting a ratchet. They went up 5-2, then 8-3, then 12-5, and finally 19-10. Virginia Tech worked to close the gap a bit from there, but it was mostly academic. They won three points to make it 19-13, and then two to make it 20-15, but they wouldn't win their own service from there. After dipping to 0.267 and allowing 0.345 in the third, Louisville turned it back up with a 0.308 hitting percentage and forced seven errors from VT to hold them to just 0.118.

Louisville finished with 17 errors in the match. While the raw number is higher because the set count was greater, the errors per set value was also up last night. Louisville usually averages about three errors per set (typically one rough set and two really good ones). Last night, Louisville was consistent with 5, 3, 4, and 5 errors respectively. They still finished with a hitting percentage nearly double that of their opponent, but it wasn't the cleanest match. The blocking battle helped Louisville in this one, as they won 11-6. Despite a relatively muted serving game themselves, Louisville still won the service battle as well. The Cards were negative, four aces against seven errors, but VT had seven aces and twelve errors, giving Louisville an overall advantage of four in the category.

Offensively, Chaussee, Jones, and Tillman continued to lead the way in DeBeer's absence.  They had 18, 11, and 11 kills respectively, and Jones hit the lowest of the three with still a 0.333. Nena Mbonu joined them in double figures with 10 kills, but her 0.167 left a bit to be desired. Cara Cresse added some offense to her defense with six kills to go along with her single solo and three assisted blocks. Speaking of defense, Claire Chaussee found herself in the full rotation a bit last night, and she made the most of it by turning in a double-double. She added ten digs to her 18 kills and chimed in with a pair of assisted blocks. With two assists as well, she was just an ace away from putting a tally in every positive category. Tillman led the way at the net, adding six assisted blocks to her solo effort. She's a beast.

It's a short turnaround for the Cards, as most weekends are, as their late night Friday turns into a 1PM start on Sunday. Louisville hosts Wake Forest in this one, which will be on ACC Network Extra.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

After being out last week enjoying a birthday brunch with my wife, I'm back in the booth for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast. We should have a full house this week as the fall seasons wind down and Bats baseball is no longer drawing Daryl's attention. We'll talk about the victorious week that has been for the Cards and preview the upcoming matches. As always, 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

Anchor (podcast host): Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case