ACC Awards -- Looking at Fall Sports Regular Seasons -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Happy Halloween! Today, we look at plenty of tricks and treats going on in the realm of Louisville women's sports.

ACC Awards

Field Hockey Places Three on All-ACC Teams

Louisville field hockey had three players named to the All-ACC Teams. Mia Duchars was named to the All-ACC First Team while Mia Emilia Kaczmarczyk and Julie Kouijzer were named to the All-ACC Second Team. You mean to tell me that players like Aimee Plumb and Merlijn van der Vegt didn't place? Get Out. That seems like a bunch of Hocus Pocus to me.

This is the first all-conference honor for Duchars, who was a crucial part of the defense while also playing a role with transitional offense. Duchars logged four assists and scored the game-winning goal in overtime at Boston College to close out the regular season.

Kaczmarczyk is having her best season of her five-year career with the Cards. The English native also earned her first all-conference honors while recording five goals and having two assists. Opposing defenses would get Goosebumps when Kazzy lined up for a shot.

Kouijzer has been the last line of defense for the Cards for several years, and has helped captain and direct the defense from her position. The defense allowed less than one goal per game this season. The Dutch native was also a force to be reckoned with on penalty corners, with three goals and three assists.

Louisville enters the ACC Tournament as the 3-seed and will face 6-seed Boston College today at 6:00 pm ET in Charlottesville. You can catch it on tv on ACC Network. Louisville has reached the ACC Finals before but has never won the title before. Will this year be The Shining moment for them?

Volleyball with Two Weekly Award Winners

Elle Glock was named ACC Setter of the Week. The redshirt sophomore tallied 64 assists over the weekend for an average of just over 10 assists per set. Her 34 assists and 10 digs against Florida State led to her first double-double of the season.

Elena Scott was named ACC Defensive Player of the Week. The junior libero 20 digs in the sweep over Florida State, her first 20+ dig match of the season. She had 13 more assists in the sweep over Miami. She added 10 assists and a pair of aces over the weekend. Scott is a Hellraiser for opposing offenses, who think they have an easy kill before she comes diving in at the last season with the dig.

The Cards have six regular season games left this season. They visit Georgia Tech this Friday. Ready or Not, the Cards are coming for you, Georgia Tech.

Louisville has advanced to two straight Final Fours and finished last season as National Runner-Up. Will this season be the season that UofL earns The Ring they have been chasing after?

Looking Back on Fall Sports Regular Seasons

Women's Soccer

For Louisville women's soccer, this season was certainly one to make you Scream. The Cards finished 4-9-5 this year with a 3-5-2 mark in conference play. It seemed like it was all a part of a Scary Movie. While it doesn't compare to Louisville men's basketball going 4-28 last season and starting the season on a nine-game losing a streak, a true Nightmare Before Christmas, this season's results don't bode well for a team full of talent.

UofL WSOC lost four games by one goal each. Turn those into draws or turn some of the five draws into wins and this season has a much better result. 9-4-5 looks world's better than 4-9-5. They did record a couple good wins over Pitt and Duke. Perhaps the Cards were in the hands of Malignant after battling several injuries.

We will be Conjuring up good vibes for next season. We do not know of any players that might be transferring out or in for the 2024 season.

After several years of failing to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, the Lynn Stadium offices probably feel like The Little Shop of Horrors as they figure out how to fix that for next year. 

Field Hockey

For the most part, Louisville field hockey had a strong season, going 13-5 on the year. However, a loss to Duke on Friday the 13th sparked a four-game losing streak towards the end of the season that turned a definite NCAA Tournament appearance into one that is a little bit more questionable. I still think their overall record and rpi should be enough to get in regardless of the results from the conference tournament.

So, who did the Cards call during their losing streak? Well, it wasn't the Ghostbusters. Justine Sowry got her team back to focusing on the basics and trying to loosen back up. It definitely felt like there was something Sinister afoot but Louisville bounced back with a win at Boston College to close out the regular season.

They now prepare for the ACC Tournament and hopefully the NCAA Tournament. IT is time to get the postseason started at 6:00 pm today. UofL is coming off a visit to Boston College where they snatched a win from the Jaws of defeat and now will Duel it out again tonight.

Volleyball

The volleyball regular season isn't over quite yet. With six games remaining, the Cards are 20-2 on the year and hold an 11-1 mark in conference play. You can't help but Smile at the 14 sweeps this year for Louisville, including those over rivals Kentucky and Pitt.

Even though Louisville's home arena isn't much bigger than The Cabin in the Woods or The Last House on the Left...the arena is regularly pushing capacity. They did break 12,000 at the KFC Yum! Center earlier this season and have had great numbers in all three appearances downtown. A rocking KFC Yum! Center crowd is enough to Haunt any opposing team's dreams. It is definitely the opposite of A Quiet Place.

Don't Look Now, but the Cards moved up to #3 in the latest AVCA rankings, sitting just behind Nebraska and Wisconsin. Pitt and Georgia Tech also sit in the top 10. The ACC has been Conjuring up strong volleyball programs for the last several years, with much of that credit going to when Louisville and Pitt joined the conference.

This year's Final Four is a bit of a distance for the Cards. No it's not all the way to Halloweentown, but Tampa still takes some time to get to. There is a good chance we see UofL there again this year.

We hope today's Halloween themed Cardinal Couple post wasn't so Sinister that you turned as pale as Casper like you Saw a Poltergeist. You Better Watch Out, as Trick 'r Treat-ers will be battling the cold and knocking on your door looking for the Candyman tonight.

Happy Halloween and Go Cards!

Jared

Cards Take Care of Business -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Field Hockey Returns to Winning Ways

After suffering their first loss of the season on the road last week against UNC, Louisville field hockey returned home to face a James Madison team that was not quite as big of a threat as they may be normally. At 2-5 entering the game, JMU was looking to get their season back on track with a big road win against a top-5 opponent, but Louisville had other plans. The Cards struck early and often, with Emilia Kaczmarczyk scoring a brace, to cruise to a 4-1 victory.

Louisville (and Kazzy) very nearly kicked things off even earlier than they actually did, as the Cards earned a penalty corner just two minutes into the game. Kaczmarczyk forced a save on the attempt, but it wouldn't be until later in the quarter that Louisville would score their first. I wasn't able to watch the game, and the box score is quite confused about the sequence of events, but the Cards nabbed the lead on a Chloe Plumb goal halfway through the quarter. Plumb was assisted by Julie Kouijzer, but the question is whether it was a penalty corner goal or not. Louisville took two in the quarter, and the second is listed directly above the goal. However, it is also listed as occurring four minutes later. To further complicate the matter, below Plumb's goal, the play-by-play indicates "tipped penalty corner shot." Either way, Louisville held a 1-0 lead.

JMU tried to answer at the end of the quarter, earning a shot from open play, but Merlijn van der Vegt was up to the task, picking up one of two saves on the day. In the second quarter, Louisville wasted no time doubling their advantage. After a hectic play in the circle, Aimee Plumb ultimately came out ahead, scoring her fourth goal of the year on an assist by Riley Wollerton 1:43 into the quarter. A minute later, Louisville earned another penalty corner, but Kouijzer's shot went wide. The Cards continued to apply pressure and picked up a flurry of shots from the Plumbs in the 22nd minute of the match. Chloe had a shot saved away, but Louisville quickly reapplied pressure. Aimee took a shot that was blocked and bounced directly to Chloe, who fired one more at the cage but missed high. A minute and a half later, Emilia Kaczmarczyk put the Cards up 3-0 with a reverse shot assisted by Lara Niebler. 

JMU decided it was time for a goalie change at that point, replacing Brandelynn Heinbaugh with Katie Frick with five minutes left in the half. The change came in response to Louisville winning yet another penalty corner, but the JMU coach used the opportunity to challenge the call. The call was overturned, though Louisville would earn a fourth penalty corner shortly before halftime. The play resulted in nothing for the Cards, and the teams hit the locker rooms with Louisville still holding a 3-0 lead.

Louisville's offense was slowed in the second half, with the Cards being outshot for the first time in the third quarter. Overall, Louisville led the shot battle 10 (7) to 5 (3). Three of JMU's shots came in the third, as they controlled possession for nearly the entire quarter. The Dukes earned a penalty corner six minutes into the third but couldn't get a shot off. A few minutes later, they earned a shot from open play but it was high. Encouraged by the attack, they kept it up, finally scoring with six minutes to go in the quarter. A pass from the right side ended up right in front of the cage and was knocked in. Coach Justine Sowry asked for a video referral, but the call was upheld, and Louisville's lead was cut to 3-1. Louisville earned a corner a minute later, but Izzy Bianco's shot was saved. Another penalty corner for JMU was the last recorded effort of the quarter, with van der Vegt again stepping up for the save. JMU was ultimately 0-3 on penalty corners.

Just like the second quarter, Louisville opened the fourth on the attack. A penalty corner 1:24 into the quarter saw the play go just as they drew it up. Aimee Plumb put the corner into play, where Tatum Kroon stopped the ball for Kazzy to step up and fire it home. Louisville moved their advantage back to three goals with a 4-1 lead and improved their penalty conversion to two (or one?) of six. JMU would get one more chance to cut into that lead with ten to go in the game, but their penalty corner shot was blocked away. 

The Cards were largely dominant in this one, which is what you'd expect in a match against a 2-5 mid-major opponent. You can check out what Coach Justine Sowry and Kazzy had to say after the victory at the links below. Louisville has another non-conference match before returning to ACC play, this time with an unusual Tuesday midday game at Miami (OH). The Cardinals and Redhawks will get underway at 2PM, and no video is listed.

Justine Sowry Postgame

Emilia Kaczmarczyk Postgame

Volleyball Opens ACC with Sweep

In case you weren't already aware, Syracuse isn't quite the threat they used to be in volleyball. As some would say: "How the mighty have fallen." The Orange entered yesterday's match in L&N Federal Credit Union Arena at just 2-8, with wins over Cornell and Morgan State by a combined 6-1 score. All eight losses had been sweeps, including by teams such as Delaware State, Belmont, and Colgate. It has been a tough year. Louisville didn't make that year any easier, sending the Orange up the road to Notre Dame with a 25-15, 25-11, 25-8 sweep. 

Syracuse held a 2-0 lead in the second set. It was their only lead of the match as Louisville dominated while playing a largely rotated lineup. The Cards hit .452 as a team in the match while holding Syracuse to just -0.056. They did so with just eight blocks, meaning Syracuse had 17 "unforced" hitting errors. Yikes. Louisville committed just five errors themselves, with two of those being Syracuse blocks. 

As I mentioned, the Cards put a lot of players on the floor, with 15 earning at least one set played. Aiko Jones and Elle Glock nursing injuries made way for Brigitta Petrenko and Alanna Bankston to see a lot more time. Cara Cresse also sat this one out, allowing Reese Robins and Hannah Sherman to show their stuff in the middle. The middles had perhaps the biggest coming out party. Robins and Sherman combined for 11 kills, with Robins' seven being second on the team behind nine from Anna DeBeer. Robins also added four block assists to Sherman's three BAs and two solo blocks. Bankston had a nice day as well, coming third on the team in kills with six on fourteen attempts. 

Petrenko played well in relief of Glock, picking up 23 assists on Louisville's 36 kills. Glock had 9 more. It was a relatively muted day at the serving line for Louisville, with a final total of four aces and seven service errors. They did still win that battle, though, with Syracuse matching the number of errors and having just two aces of their own. Louisville got one ace each from Petrenko, Elena Scott, serving specialist Kamden Schrand, and redshirt freshman setter Alexis Finnvold. 

In addition to her four kills on four attempts, Aiko Jones added a solo block in her limited minutes. Elena Scott was the usual stalwart at libero, picking up 15 digs. Depending on which stats you look at, that puts the junior at 999 career digs. The problem is that we can't figure out what stats are being used to give her that number. Disagreements between the stats on the volleyball team page and Scott's individual player page are leading to the confusion, with no obvious distinction to identify why the numbers are different. By our calculations, Scott joined the 1000 dig club earlier this season. At any rate, she's sure to meet the mark on Sunday against Boston College.

Louisville was never in danger in this one, with even the 2-0 deficit in the second quickly turning into a 6-2 and then 10-3 advantage. The first set, ultimately the closest, saw Syracuse hang around early, keeping within touching distance by making the score 7-5. The Cards then won five of the next six points to make it 12-6. A service error made it 12-7, but the Orange would get no closer in the set. Up two sets to none entering the third, Louisville put Syracuse out of their misery quickly. Louisville won the first six points and extended their lead to 13-2. After a few traded points kept the deficit at 11, Louisville went on another five point run to go up 22-6. Believe it or not, Syracuse was unable to win 18 of the next 20 points that they would need to extend the set. 

The win was a good one for Louisville to open conference play, coming off of the unfortunate reverse sweep to start the week against Stanford. Sunday's match against BC will give the Cards another chance to get back in their groove before a Wednesday night match on the road against the always irritating Notre Dame. Louisville and BC will get started at 1PM and the match will be on ACCNX.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

The crew will be a bit lighter today as Daryl and I continue to abuse our bodies (primarily ears, feet, and skin) with another day at Louder Than Life. Paulie, Jeff, and Jared will make sure the show goes on, though, and there's plenty of positive and exciting stuff happening for Louisville on campus to discuss in this week's episode. 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

All photos by Jared Anderson

Field Hockey Suffers First Loss -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Falls to UNC 2-0

Justine Sowry's undefeated Cards hit the road to open their ACC slate yesterday but were unable to pull out another upset away from home against the 2nd-ranked Tarheels. UNC stood at 4-1 entering the match, but their loss was in the second match of the season against No. 1 Iowa. The Cards and Heels have two common opponents, as UNC was the other team in Philly for the ACC/Ivy Crossover. While Louisville one-upped UNC by beating Princeton 2-1in regulation while UNC needed OT for their 2-1 victory, the Tarheels beat Penn 4-0 and Louisville could only win 2-1.

All that said, common opponents don't mean that much when two teams are going to take the field against each other. That's what they did yesterday, with Louisville entering Karen Shelton Stadium to play UNC for the first time (in the modern era) without Karen Shelton at the helm. Before joining the ACC, Louisville had played UNC twice: once in 2002 and for the first time in 1977. The Cards are 5-11 against UNC since 2014, and Louisville has never won back-to-back matchups. To make matters worse, Louisville was 3-3 against UNC in their first six meetings as conference foes.

UNC has Louisville's number on the turf, and they put that on display again yesterday. A goal midway through the first proved to be the difference, while a goal midway through the fourth provided the Tarheels with insurance. This game was not without chances for the Cards. Unlike a few of their previous games, where they were sorely outshot and managed to sneak a win, Louisville looked pretty evenly matched yesterday afternoon. After being blanked on shot attempts in the first quarter, UofL had six shots over the remaining three quarters compared to seven for UNC. The final difference was a 9-6 advantage for UNC as they had two first quarter shots, including the goal. The big difference was in shot quality, as Louisville had just one of their six shots on target, while UNC forced three saves and scored two goals. The Cards did have three shots blocked, but they ultimately forced just one save.

Louisville held an advantage in penalty corners, but while they went 0-5, UNC capitalized on their chances, as their second goal came from one of their three attempts. Louisville's best chance came at the very end of the match, when an empty net gave them a player advantage on a penalty corner. However, even if they had scored, they would have had under a minute to find an equalizer. Aimee Plumb's shot was blocked away, though, and that was the end of that. Plumb took two of Louisville's shots, matching Julie Kouijzer, while Emilia Kaczmarczyk put her only shot attempt on frame. Izzy Bianco had Louisville's other shot, and it was one of the shots that was blocked. 

In addition to the goal, a second of UNC's penalty corners forced a save from Merlijn van der Vegt. Merlijn finished with three saves, playing the "complete" game, but logging only 58:50 of play time after being subbed out for the empty net. It was a relatively clean game, as the teams scattered three green cards, but with none being identified as fouls. It's hard to say much more about this game. Louisville was in it, they had some chances, and the ball just didn't fall their way. Hopefully Louisville doesn't begin to suffer some karmic justice for the luck they've seen early on. Games against UNC are always just weird, so Louisville will look to get back on track in the next one.

The Cards have the second segment of the weekend off this week, and they're back in action on Friday. Louisville returns home on the 22nd to take on JMU, one of two non-conference games they'll get to build confidence before reentering conference play. With a 5PM start, Louder than Life will be well underway by the time the whistle blows, so you may be able to hear some residual music traveling over from the fairgrounds. For some reason, the match is not currently listed as ACC Network Extra, and JMU's schedule identifies it as an ESPN+ game. We'll be sure to keep you updated closer to next week.

Photos by Jared Anderson

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Jared is on the road for the Louisville football game in Indianapolis, but we'll have at least three in the chair for this week's episode of the show. Daryl is always a wild card, so you'll just have to tune in to find out if you get to learn about her latest golf outing with a Louisville legend. We'll have plenty to talk about on the show, with the big one being Louisville volleyball's win over UK on Wednesday night. 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

Volleyball and Field Hockey Continue Winning Weekend -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Downs No. 15 San Diego

Louisville volleyball dropped their first set of the season last night against the Toreros, but they recovered to win a thrilling 3-1 match that saw extra points in the fourth set. The Cards took a 25-18 win in the first before dropping the second 13-25. They came out of the break firing to regain the advantage with a thundering 25-11 win in the third and had to come back after a late charge in the fourth to win 26-24. The Cards led in every statistical category, this was just a matter of playing a very good team that wouldn't go down easily.

Louisville jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first before SD scored and brought it back close. For the remainder of the set, the Cards were unable to stretch more than that three point advantage until Aiko Jones followed her own kill with an ace to give them a 21-17 lead. San Diego scored one more point to break the run but Louisville use a block, an ace, and a kill while benefitting from an error to win the last four points. Neither team was particularly crisp in the first, with the Cards finishing with a 0.286 hitting percentage and the Toreros seeing just a 0.132. Louisville's low percentage was due primarily to the San Diego defense, as they committed just three errors.

The second set saw Louisville commit twice as many errors as they had in the first while San Diego cut their number from seven to one. The roles were generally flipped as the Toreros hit 0.379 in the set with Louisville putting in an 0.161. After Louisville won the opening point of the set, San Diego won the next six points and ultimately took a 9-3 lead. The Cards were unable to get any rhythm going in the second, never winning more than two consecutive points. SD had four aces, three blocks, and benefitted from two service errors in the set on the way to their win.

As I mentioned, though, Louisville recovered after halftime in a big way. The Cards returned the favor granted by the Toreros in the previous set, giving up the first point and then winning the next six. Louisville did them one better and held a 9-2 lead. USD was unable to score consecutive points in the set until they grabbed a pair of kills from Katie Lukes to make the score 10-23 and then 11-23. Louisville shut the door quickly on their dominating set, having committed no errors and hitting 0.696 in the frame. 

Both teams struggled mightily in the fourth set with their hitting as they combined for 18 errors in the set, with only six of those being blocks. Both hit their worst percentages of the afternoon, with Louisville's 0.105 edging out the 0.073 from San Diego. The poor hitting didn't take away from the excitement, though, as I mentioned the brief dip into extra points. San Diego jumped out to a quick lead with a 4-1 run helped by a pair of Louisville errors. The Cards won a couple of points to close the gap slightly before the teams traded points. Another error put the Toreros up 9-6 before they got the yips. Louisville went on a 6-0 run that was aided by a service error and three errors from San Diego. The Cards added a block and a kill, and it looked like they may start to pull away. It wasn't meant to be the case, though, as the teams traded points with SD grabbing two extras in the mix to bring the set level at 15-15. After a service error gave Louisville a lead, things got a bit nervy for them as San Diego won the next five points. 

No team with a 2-1 lead in the fourth set wants things to go to a fifth set, so Louisville buckled down and closed the gap to 20-19. An error broke their run but they picked right back up with a pair of kills to tie it at 21-21. Traded points again put the teams in a stalemate before Louisville grabbed a block to go to match point at 24-23. It looked as though Amaya Tillman would grab back-to-back blocks to win the match but the ball was out off the touch to tie it at 24. Louisville made short work of the extra points session, though, as Aiko Jones got a kill and Tillman got a second chance to shut down Katie Lukes for the win. Tillman didn't miss the moment a second time as she grabbed the solo block to win.

Tillman's block was her second solo block of the night and she picked up four block assists to lead the match defensively at the net. Tillman added seven kills, good for fourth on the team. In a bit of an odd situation, only six Cardinals scored kills in the match. They were led by Claire Chaussee and Aiko Jones who both snagged fifteen. The Toreros keyed in on Anna DeBeer as she was only able to score eight kills. Cara Cresse scored six out of the other middle position and Raquel Lazaro got the last of Louisville's 52 kills. Lazaro was busy all over the court, as she assisted on 44 of the other 51 kills, scored a service ace, assisted on a block, and had the most digs on the team with 14. Aiko Jones was busy from the line as well, adding three aces to her fifteen kills. 

Louisville struggled a bit from the serve, though, with eight aces compared to nine errors. The negative ratio didn't hurt too much as San Diego matched it with six and seven. That gave the teams a tie on the serve, but Louisville made their hay elsewhere. Louisville led the blocking battle 11-6, something we'll hope to see a lot this season. While Grace Frohling made herself known with 13 kills, Louisville held Breana Edwards down in the same way San Diego did to DeBeer. Katie Lukes stood in the Chaussee role in picking up the slack with 17 kills to lead the way. It was a strong effort from the Toreros, and they'll look to bounce back against OSU today.

Louisville will get Ohio State tomorrow, hopefully with the Buckeyes coming off of a five-setter today. Jeff will have more on that match preview tomorrow before he heads down to the L&N Federal Credit Union Arena for a 2PM match. Tomorrow's event will be on ACC Network proper, so be sure to tune in.

Field Hockey Leaves No Doubt in 4-1 Win

Louisville welcomed Penn to the 2022 season in the ACC/Ivy League Crossover with a bit of a thumping as they scored early and often on the Quakers in Chapel Hill. The Cards will get Princeton at Karen Shelton Stadium tomorrow after the 13th-ranked Tigers fell to UNC 4-3 yesterday evening. 

The first quarter was largely uneventful as neither team was able to make an impression on the play-by-play outside of a pair of substitutions. Aimee Plumb changed that for the Cards when she scored her second goal of the season with an unassisted goal six minutes in. Both teams went on to have one more shot in the period, but neither was on frame. 

Louisville came out with a bit more fire in the second quarter, with Plumb earning a penalty corner just two minutes in. Katie Schneider doubled the Louisville advantage off a Julie Kouijzer assist just 9 seconds after the corner was awarded, but the stats don't recognize the goal as a conversion. I'm not quite sure how that works out, so I'm going to say it counts, giving Louisville a 1/2 rate on the afternoon. With six minutes left in the half, Penn earned their first corner of the game, forcing Sasha Elliott into her first save. The Quakers turned that into another penalty corner, which they were able to convert the second time around. The Cards blocked the first shot attempt, but the goal was scored after the rebound. Louisville wasn't deterred, though, putting their lead back to two goals ahead of half time. Again, Aimee Plumb was involved, as she forced a save from the Penn goalkeeper. Katie Schneider was in the right place at the right time, recovering the rebound and finding space to score her second goal of the match unassisted. 

Penn made a goalie change at the half, but it was Louisville under pressure in the third quarter. Sasha Elliott went to work, picking up four saves in the quarter. Louisville's defense was heavily involved as Penn earned four corners in the period. Louisville penalty corner kill was strong once more, as they kept the cage clean on every attempt, weathering the storm well. The offense struggled for the Cards, though, as they didn't make an impression on the stat sheet at all in the third. That offense came right back in the fourth with Emilia Kaczmarczyk scoring her first goal of the season on an unassisted attack two minutes into the quarter. Louisville continued the pressure with a shot by Aimee Plumb being saved and another Kaczmarczyk shot being saved on an ensuing corner. Penn held tough after the goal to move them to 4-1 and worked hard to close the gap. Their best chances came with just under five minutes remaining when they put together a sequence of three straight corners. In effort, Elliott was forced into two saves and Julie Kouijzer earned a defensive save on the final corner.

The stats don't look particularly great for Louisville in this one, as the defense was forced to win this one despite the final score. Penn had more shots on goal than Louisville had overall shots, and they had more penalty corner attempts that Louisville had overall shots. The Cards finished with eight saves, seven by Elliott, and gave up just the one goal. Louisville's calling card was efficiency, turning eight shots into seven on frame and four goals. It will be difficult to keep most teams out of the cage when they give up so many opportunities, but as long as the Cards can make the most of their own chances, they'll be in a lot of games. Louisville takes on Princeton on ACCNX tomorrow at 11AM.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We'll have plenty to cover this week with a ton of wins and a lot to look ahead to in the upcoming days. There will be four of us on the call today to bring you the show 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

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Apple Podcasts: Link

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RadioPublic: Link

Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

A Winning Weekend - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Volleyball Wins

In a match that, in a normal year, would've been Senior Night, the wide net Cards finished off the complete sweep of a good Syracuse squad.  In the CCRH, we all concluded that last night's volleyball match should be closer and more competitive than the Friday night match.  While the results were still a 3 set sweep, the play was much more competitive, and the set scores show it, 25-18, 25-21, 27-25.

Amaya Tillman and Aiko Jones probably
getting a block

The Syracuse squad in L&N Federal Credit Union Arena last night was much more like the Syracuse squad we all expected to see here in Louisville.  The Orange outblocked the Cards 9-7, and held Louisville to just .216 hitting.  Of course, the New Yorkers only hit .136.  The lesson being that just slowing down your opponent's offense isn't enough, you have to generate some offense of your own if you want to win games.

Things started well for the Cards, with a jump out to a 8-2 lead in the first set before the Orange seemed to wake up a little bit.  The two team would largely trade points the rest of the way through this set, but Syracuse would not be able to close the gap.  In the end, a powerful hit by Anna DeBeer would get the Cards the early set lead.

Louisville would play from behind in the 2nd when Syracuse got a 4-0 run early in the set to pull out from a 5-5 tie to 9-5.  More even play in the set would see Syracuse maintain that lead through 16-12 when the Cards would go on a mini run of three to shrink the gap, but not close it.  Finally, the Cards had enough and went on a six point run to take the lead and stretch it out to 22-18, helped in the process by Tori Dilfer's strong serving.  Syracuse could do nothing to close the gap, and Anna Stevenson would close this one out with a bit of an awkward looking, but effective, hit in the middle.

Aiko Jones getting to the hit before the
blockers can close out

The last set was a game of runs.  It started inauspiciously for the Cards with a pair of attack errors, but they quickly composed themselves and took a 6-2 lead including a string of three straight Aiko Jones kills.  The Orange would immediately get three of those back on good serving by the Israeli member of the Syracuse team, Ella Saada.  The Cards offense was playing well, but errors, mostly from the service line, kept them from putting together the next run.  The Cards would push out a slim lead 13-9, but then the Syracuse blocking would be instrumental in an 8-1 run to eliminate a four point Cardinal lead and get out in front at 18-15.  A pair of three point mini runs by the Cards would close down that lead and push the set into needing bonus points, tying it up at 24.  Finally, Aiko Jones would say, enough is enough and with a kill, a joint block with Amaya Tillman, and another kill would put the bow on this one, and send Syracuse back home without a set win in the weekend at all.

From a subjective and stats driven analysis, the same conclusions.  Our passing and digging were better this match.  This has been the weakest link of a pretty strong chain, but the numbers look good, with 16 digs for Libero Alexis Hamilton, and 12 for full-rotation player Claire Chaussee, the rest of the squad was all in the low to mid single digits.  I'd like to see more out of the DSes that are seeing time on the court, mostly Ayden Bartlett who only had a pair, but none from Alexa Hendricks, Mia Stander, and Ceci Rush is a little concerning.  To be fair to this trio though, they are mostly being used as serving specialists right now, so their time on the floor is limited.  Credit Claire Chaussee and Aiko Jones being fully capable of playing full rotations for limiting the role of the DSes.

Freshman Anna DeBeer showing her power

In hitting, Aiko Jones led the team with 17 and a reasonable .270, the newcomer, freshman Anna DeBeer showed her power with 12 on .259.  Perhaps keep an eye out this week for a Freshman of the Week honor?  I haven't looked around the league to see what others have been up to in comparison, but I'll be keeping an eye out.  The other Anna, Stevenson, only had seven kills, but it was an extremely efficient seven on nine attempts and only a single miscue, for .667.  A trio of service aces is a decent showing, but more importantly, keeping the service errors from getting out of control with only five helps.

Louisville will take the next week off, and then finish off the season the week after with perhaps the biggest challenge of this odd-ball season by heading up to Pitt for a pair of matches.

Field Hockey Wins

Wake Forest and Hurricane (well, Tropical Storm by that point) Delta made things interesting in Winston-Salem yesterday in Field Hockey.  The Cards would get the win 2-1 with scores in the 1st and 4th quarters.

A significant discussion point around this one was the impact tropical system Delta would have on the play and the field.  It wasn't clear, even as game time approached, just how much rain would be involved, and based on the comments from the play by play and color people on the telecast, it was looking like they would get away with minimal impacts, right up until the first pass.

But the heavens would open up and a significant amount of water would fall in the 1st half of play.  Normally I would point out that turf fields are routinely sprayed down with water to improve the playing surface for field hockey, so a little bit of rain just means a lower water bill for the hosting team.  However, in this case, there was enough rain in a short period of time to cause ponding on the field and that will have a dramatic impact on passes and part of the game, even altered how injections on penalty corners were attempted by the team to try to avoid water puddles.

The rain would largely stop, or at least slow down to a very light rain, and the field drained well for the 2nd half.

Beyond Delta, Wake Forest would keep things interesting as well, equally the Cards mark for Shots on Goal with 5, keeping Hollyn Barr busy in the cage.  When you broaden to overall shots, the Cards only held a slim edge at 12-10.

The Cards scoring got started late in the 1st quarter with Erica Cooper picking up a cross from Madison Walsh and firing it home. That was Cooper's 2nd goal of the season.  Wake would press their attack in the 2nd quarter, but Barr would get a pair of excellent saves to keep the Demon Deacons off the scoreboard in the first half.

That wouldn't hold in the 3rd quarter, though as Anne van Hoof would get a score four minutes in.  And, yes, van Hoof is indeed from the Netherlands as you might have guessed from her name.  The Cards would press their attack in the later part of the quarter, with eight shots and five penalty corners, but would not be successful in any of them.

The offensive attack would pay off in the opening minute of the 4th quarter, with the injection from Alli Bitting to Meghan Schneider for the stop to present the shot to Emilia Kaczmarczyk who fired it into the cage.  That would also be Kaczmarczyk's 2nd goal of the season.

Meche Pastor lead the team in shots, with 6, but she only put one on frame.  To her credit, however, for much of the game, she was drawing two and three defenders off of other Cardinal players to contain her.

The Cards will face Wake Forest again today at 2pm, again on RSN (so look around at the various Fox Sports Channels, Fox Sports South is a likely candidate).  This match up will not count for the conference record, but will apply to the overall record of the teams, the joys of being in the ACC, the only conference in NCAA DI playing field hockey at all.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Finally, I think it was a winning outing for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour.  With the normal full house, Case, Jared, Paulie, and myself ran through analysis and results of Volleyball, Field Hockey, and Women's Soccer in our ongoing quest to share the joy and excitement of UofL women's sports.

A fun hour, that we kept pretty close to the hour limit so we could shift our attentions over to the field hockey game starting right after.

If you missed it, of course you can join the fun below, or via the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour podcast which should be available at this point via all your normal podcast outlets and directories.