Louisville to Honor NCAA Runners-Up at Alumnae Match -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Hosts Alumnae All-Star Match Today

Louisville volleyball has been announcing the all-stars that are returning for this afternoon's alumnae match throughout the week, and many of the names are those that were rumored last week. In addition to today's match, UofL will be hosting a season-opening "Block Party" at L&N Federal Credit Union Arena, including a ring ceremony for the 2024 runner-up finishers, a team Q&A, an autograph session, and an opportunity for fans to take photos with the runner-up trophy on the court. 

The latest announcement for today's match were the coaching staff for the all-star team. One of those coaches will just be heading across the floor, as Sarah Drury Petkovic moves over from the current staff to take part in leading the group. The other is another one of the all-stars herself, though she is unable to play. Anna DeBeer will join Petkovic at the helm of a stellar alumnae team. 

Though they won't have DeBeer, the all-stars will still have a strong hitting contingent, as Aiko Jones, Claire Chaussee, and Charitie Luper join the team. Louisville's blocking and defense will be put to the test with those three on the attack. On the flip side, Louisville's offense will have to contend with a strong alumnae defense as well. The all-star team will roll with Elena Scott at libero and Emily Scott (no relation) at middle blocker. Emily, if you'll remember, was also a national champion for UofL in the high jump. She finished her volleyball career with 207 kills and 133 blocks, despite playing in just 138 total sets. Also joining the alumnae are Elle Glock at setter and Jamie Vasilou, who primarily served as a serving specialist in her time with the Cards.

Today's match won't be available for streaming, so you'll have to get into the arena to be a part of this one. First serve is scheduled for 2PM and the doors will open at 1PM. I suspect the line is already forming (which may or may not be a joke depending on what time you are reading this). It should be an exciting match and will be Louisville's final competitive tune-up before opening the season on Friday, August 29th against Auburn. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We'll have three on board today as Jared takes in the final weekend of the fair. Paulie, Daryl, and I will still have plenty to discuss with the soccer season fully underway and the other two fall sports in their exhibition schedules. You can check out the show after it posts around 1PM, and be sure to subscribe so that it comes to your feed automatically. 

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Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Yeast Runs Into Record Books -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Indoor Track and Field Seeing Success

The Cards are once again in the midst of competing in the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center for three straight events hosted by three different schools. This weekend, they're participating in UK's Rod McCravy Memorial Invitational. The event began in the snow yesterday and will wrap up starting today at 11am. 

Yesterday saw Louisville pick up eight individual top-five finishes, with two event wins. Surprisingly, Kiyah Yeast didn't pick up one of those top-five finishes, despite a 38.19 in the 300m that took almost two seconds off her personal best and beat the previous school record of 39.10 (Je'Nyia Burton; 2022) by almost a second. Yeast finished just 0.15s behind UCF's Twaniese Johnson in 5th and just 0.71s behind the winner, UK's Oneika McAnnuff.

The Cards' victories came from familiar names in Soledad Jean and Synclair Savage. Both won in the events you may expect, with Savage taking the win in the long jump with a 6.24m leap which would be top 5 in the country and best in the ACC before the meet. Jean, meanwhile, made her season debut in the high jump and cleared 1.75m in her victory. 

Other jumps saw Natalie Lark finish second in the pole vault with Paris Bond (pb for PB) coming home in fourth. On the track, McKenzie Bell ran a 1:33.24 in the 600m to place third and take the second fastest time in program history. Jalasia Lewis took fourth in the event with a 1:37.80. The last top five finisher in a final was Jade Whitfield, with a fifth place finish in the women's weight throw. Olivia Jenkins won her heat in the women's 60m sprint to advance to today's semifinals. 

Pro VolleyCards

As Jeff mentioned yesterday, a number of Cardinals were making their season or career debuts in professional volleyball last night. It went better for some than it did for others. 

In LOVB, Anna Hall and Claire Chaussee's Madison squad was swept by Austin. Hall had two kills on 11 attempts but led the team with three blocks. Chaussee had a bit more success offensively, though not a ton. She was 8/25 with three errors (two blocked). Austin outhit Madison .247 to .093. 

On the PVF side, Aiko Jones and the Atlanta Vibe fell in five sets to the Omaha Supernovas. Jones was hitting into a brick wall, unfortunately, with three blocked hits on four attack attempts. I promised it went well for someone, though, and that was Charitie Luper in the Vegas Thrill vs Grand Rapids Rise match. The Thrill won in reverse sweep fashion, and it was Luper leading the way. In a manner not unfamiliar to her, Luper led all hitters with 18 kills on 50 attempts. She had just three errors and two were blocked. She also added a block of her own, had 15 digs, and dropped in an ace. If you were curious whether Luper's dominance was limited to a Cardinal uniform... it isn't. 

As Jeff mentioned, the remainder of the pro cards will be in action tonight, with Elena Scott and Anna DeBeer playing for Indy and Tori Stringer and Wilma Rivera playing for Columbus. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

I'm back after a couple of weeks off, and we'll have four on the call today for the first time in a bit. We'll talk basketball, volleyball, and some odds and ends. Spring sports are just around the corner, and schedules are being released. 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!

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Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Guess Who's Back - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Myisha Hines-Allen Returns

After an off-season knee procedure, Myisha Hines-Allen had been conspicuously absent from the active Washington Mystics roster, but yesterday marked her return to play.

The Mystics played the Minnesota Lynx in a close game, losing in the end 78-80.

Hines-Allen returned only in a limited form, playing only eight minutes, but in that time she did get a layup, a rebound at each end of the floor, and a steal.  Those numbers are expected to go up, of course, as she gets back into full game condition again.

Other UofL WNBA Action Today

Two other Cards in action today in the WNBA.

After yesterday's news that just snuck under the wire to get into Case's article that Liz Dixon joined the Connecticut Sun, they'll be in action today against Dallas at 1pm on NBA TV.  How much court time will Dixon get?  Obviously we all want to see her succeed, but one day after joining the franchise, I'm not sure I have my hopes up that she'll get too much time on the court.

Dana Evans has become a fixture in Chicago, being one of the most productive bench players in the league.  The Sky will have a 2pm game on CBS Sports Network.

Where's Emina?

If you've been following Racing Louisville FC, well first you've probably noticed a significant uptick in their quality of play over previous season, certainly a reason to rejoice.  The squad had their first ever 3-game win streak, for example.  They're still not burning up the pitch, but improvement is there at 4-3-5 on the overall season.

Emina Ekic has been distinctly absent from the active roster, however.  She is recovering from a fractured ankle (or leg?  Reports were not clear.) that she suffered in January playing in Melbourne Australia.  She did post a picture to social media from Derby with several other Racing players in which she was wearing wedge heals and no cast or brace or anything, so presumably recovery is proceeding well.

Claire Chaussee

Claire Chaussee joins the ranks of "Cards in the Pros", though you may not hear too much about her this summer.  Chaussee signed on with the Grand Rapids Rise, a team in a new professional volleyball league forming here in the states.  The PVF, or Pro Volleyball Federation, has been going through the beginning stages of putting the league together.  At this point we're seeing the announcements of initial franchise locations as ownership groups signing on, including Grand Rapids, San Diego, Atlanta, Columbus, and more.  We've seen some head coach announcements, and the Grand Rapids Rise seem to be ahead of the game as the first, that I've seen, announcement of player signings with Chaussee being one of three to join.

The PVF plans to start play in 2024.

Trent Dilfer, former Super Bowl Quarterback, but known more around here as father of Tori Dilfter Stringer, is a partner in the league, and Tori has been prominently features in much of the marketing materials for the league, though I haven't seen an actual signing of her with a team yet.  I would presume that will happen in due course.

Numerous VolleyCards do play professional volleyball, although nearly all are overseas.  Anna Stevenson Hall, Claire Chaussee, and Raquel Lázaro all played in Italy this past season, and yes they all played against each other.  Tori Dilfer Stringer played in Puerto Rico along with Wilma Rivera, which is, of course, home for her.  And Tess Clark has played several years in Spain.  Unfortunately, news from overseas leagues is extremely difficult to find.  Erin Fairs is the only former Card to play professionally in the US, as part of Athletes Unlimited, but they have a very limited season.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Former Cards that went pro in other things did get together as usual for the CCRHP.  Case, Jared, and myself were on the call, and...well...it's getting to be summer, and news is thin on the ground, so expect some diversions and tangents.

We did cover some spring sport accolades, including some academic ones, most of the CC crew are keeping up with the rest of the Softball Tournament, even after Louisville's departure, so we chatted about that, some.  Mostly, we're cheering for "Not Oklahoma".  And we chatted a bit about WNBA and other "Cards in the Pros".

Check it out at it's Anchor/Spotify home:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/The-Summer-Slump-Begins-e255mi0

-- JMcA

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

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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

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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

Volleyball Rallies Against UNC -- Field Hockey is IN! -- WBB Begins Season -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Rallies Against UNC

After a sluggish start that resulted in a first set loss, Louisville volleyball took the next three sets to claim the 3-1 victory over North Carolina at L&N FCU Arena Sunday afternoon .

Set One: UNC 25, UofL 17

The Cards and Heels would score in ping-pong-like fashion before North Carolina would piece together a couple mini-runs to go up 11-8. The two ACC foes would trade points again into the media timeout at 15-12. The Tar Heels would gain a five-point advantage and force UofL into a timeout at 19-14. UNC would continue to pull away before claiming the first set 25-17.

Set Two: UofL 25, UNC 17

The start of the second set went in similar fashion to the first set. UNC would gain a small 8-6 advantage early on. Then, things began to click for the Cards. Friday's "Block Party" extended into Sunday's match and Louisville gained a 13-12 edge. The Cards would go up 15-13 at the media timeout. A pair of blocks out of the media timeout helped give Louisville a four-point lead at 17-13 and UNC would call a timeout. Another small run put the Cards up 20-14. Louisville would go onto win 25-17.

Set Three: UofL 25, UNC 20

Coming out of halftime, UNC appeared poised to take the third set and found themselves up 13-7. UofL would claw back and even the score at 15 apiece. The Cards were rolling with a solid run and held a 21-17 lead. After North Carolina won a pair of points to get within two, the Cards called a timeout to regroup and go onto win 25-20.

Set Four: UofL 25, UNC 23

A couple of mini-runs gave Louisville 4-1 and 7-3 leads. The Cards would continue to hold off the UNC attack early and take a 12-8 advantage before the visitors burned a timeout. Louisville would go up 17-11 before things took a turn. North Carolina would score four straight, forcing Louisville to take a timeout while up 17-15. The Tar Heels kept up their pressure and went up 22-21, and the Cards took their final timeout. The strategy worked. The Cards would score the final three points of the set to claim the win 25-23.

Claire Chaussee was red hot with a new career-high 24 kills. Her .380 hitting percentage was a match-high. Aiko Jones had eight kills including her 1000th career kill. Raquel Lazaro finished the match with 32 assists. Elena Scott and Anna DeBeer tag-teamed for 12 digs and 10 digs to lead the charge.

Service errors proved nearly fatal for Louisville. They registered 14 on the day with eight Cards having at least one service error and five Cards having multiple.

Louisville improves to 22-2 on the year and 13-1 in the ACC. They remain one game behind Pitt for the lead in the ACC. The Cards hold a two-game lead over third place contender Georgia Tech. Louisville visits the Yellowjackets on Friday and North Carolina on Sunday.

Field Hockey Goes Dancing in the NCAA Tournament

Nervously awaiting to hear their name called in the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, Louisville field hockey had plenty to celebrate when their name was called. The Cards, who are currently on a four-game skid, will face Penn St on Friday.

The other part of Louisville's bracket includes 4-seed Michigan against Albany. The Cards defeated Penn St 2-1 in their second match of the season up in Pennsylvania. Louisville also defeated Michigan 2-1 at Trager Stadium in the middle of the September.

Besides Louisville, the ACC had four other schools make it into the 18-team tournament- 1-seed North Carolina, Wake Forest, Syracuse, and Virginia.

Louisville went 3-5 against the NCAA Tournament field this season with wins over Penn St, Princeton, and Michigan. Including the preseason scrimmage against Miami (OH), Louisville has four wins against the field.

Louisville and Penn St will face off at 2:30 p.m. ET on Friday in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Nittany Lions will be the home team in the match.

Time for Women's Basketball

The women's basketball season is officially upon us. The Cards open their season against Cincinnati at 5:00 p.m. at the KFC Yum! Center tonight. A tip-off time this early isn't ideal for the standard working folks, but the ACC Network picked this one up for linear tv.

Louisville is fresh off their fourth Final Four appearance in program history. They're ranked in the top-10 in both the AP Poll and Coaches Poll, sitting at seventh and fifth, respectively.

Cincinnati went 11-14 last year with a 4-11 mark in the American Athletic Conference. The Bearcats' leading scorer, Jillian Hayes, returns after averaging 11.5 points per game and 6.8 rebounds per game last season.

On paper, this game appears to be well in favor of Louisville. A new season with plenty of new faces can always lead to some unexpected events early on. Jeff Walz brought in three transfers in Chrislyn Carr, Morgan Jones, and Josie Williams while also adding several incoming freshmen to the current roster. These players will help replace the graduation of Emily Engstler and Kianna Smith, both who are currently playing at the professional level, and Chelsie Hall.

Key returners for the Cards include Hailey Van Lith, Olivia Cochran, Liz Dixon, and Mykasa Robinson, all who are expected to play key roles again this year. Payton Verhulst and Norika Konno also should see an increase in minutes.

The big storyline tonight is Jeff Walz vs Michelle Clark-Heard. Clark-Heard was an assistant for Walz at Louisville back during Louisville's first Final Four run in 2009. The Cards would end up falling to UConn in the title game.

Paulie and I will be on the court to cover the action tonight. I'll capture the moments on camera while Paulie will recap the game tomorrow.

Happy Monday and Go Cards!

Jared

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