Volleyball Sweeps, FH Drops Home Match -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Sweeps Duke on the Road

Following a tough week at home last weekend, the Wide-Net Cards hit the road to take on a pair of teams in North Carolina. That started last night with a victory over the Duke Blue Devils, which Louisville took down in three sets despite some surprising fight from the home team. The hosts, who fell to just 5-15 (2-7) this season, pushed Louisville to the brink in sets one and three, though the Cards took care of business in a big way in the second. The final score was 25-23, 25-13, 25-22. 

The match was also not without its worrisome moments for Louisville. After taking a 16-15 lead in the first, Louisville gave up a five-point run to Duke to trail 20-16. The Cards worked back a 6-1 run of their own to make it 22-21, and the two teams traded a couple of points before the Cards used back-to-back kills to win the set. 

The third set also saw Louisville facing a moderate deficit, though this one came much earlier. Duke came out of the halftime break with a vengeance and jumped out to a 9-3 lead over the Cards. Louisville didn't respond with a major run right away, but instead methodically chunked down that lead to get back in touching distance. After a Duke kill made it 13-11, Louisville used a quick 7-2 burst to take an 18-15 lead. While three points doesn't seem like much, a lead like that late in a set against a very good team like Louisville would have been a bit demoralizing for Duke, especially after squandering a big advantage early. The Cards played with their food a bit, allowing the Blue Devils to stick around, but Duke never got closer than two en route to the final score. 

Louisville's offense spread the love last night, with no player finishing with more than ten kills. Chloe Chicoine and Payton Petersen had 10 apiece, while Kalyssa Blackshear and Nayelis Cabello each finished with seven. Apparently Duke learned nothing from Cabello's offensive performance against Pittsburgh on Sunday, leaving her mostly undefended. Cabello's seven kills came on 13 attempts and she had no errors. Cara Cresse continued to be in a bit of a slump, finishing with three kills and two errors on 12 attempts for an 0.083 hitting percentage. Not ideal for the star middle. 

Cresse did make up for the hitting woes a bit with a strong defensive presence, as she had a solo block and four assists. She was one of two Cardinals with a solo block, as Cabello had the other to go along with three assists. Louisville finished with ten total team blocks, heavily winning that battle as Duke had just three. Louisville hit only .327 in the match, but they held the Blue Devils to .142. 

Louisville also narrowly won the serving battle with two fewer service errors than Duke. Each team finished with six aces, and Kamden Schrand led the way for the Cards in that category with three. Louisville was even on the night from the line, as they also had six errors. Interestingly, the Cards' advantage at the service line was erased by a very whistle-happy referee on the set game. Four total bad sets were called in the match, and Louisville was on the wrong side of three of them. Cabello was called for just one of those. 

Louisville's win keeps them level with SMU at 7-2 in conference play. Both teams are also 15-4 overall and are tied for fourth in the league. The Cards will have a difficult test in their next match, facing the current conference leaders in Chapel Hill. UNC is 16-2 overall and have won ten straight matches to keep them undefeated in conference play. Like Louisville, all of UNC's losses have come in five sets. Unlike Louisville, UNC's were not to top-ten teams. UNC has losses to South Carolina and Kansas State this season, and they have played just one ranked team. The Tar Heels swept then-#11 Florida in Chapel Hill on September 9th. 

The Cards will be a bit fresher, as UNC went five sets with Notre Dame last night. The Heels pulled off a reverse sweep to beat the Irish 19-25, 15-25, 25-17, 25-20, 15-13. The win came in UNC's first match on their new Taraflex court. Unfortunately for Louisville, they won't get to spoil the new floor debut like they did at Creighton, but they can hand UNC their first loss on the new surface. Tomorrow's match between #8 Louisville and #21 UNC will be on ESPN at 3PM. 

FH Offense Falters vs #3 Virginia

Louisville field hockey brought in another ranked team to Trager Stadium yesterday afternoon, but they couldn't repeat the magic of last week's win over California. The Cards' offense wasn't able to break down the stout Cavalier defense and Virginia went on to beat Louisville 2-0. The loss pushed the Cards back below .500 (7-8) and ensured they will finish the conference season below .500 as well. Louisville is still ahead of Boston College in the ACC standings and will have a head-to-head opportunity to lock up their spot in the ACC tournament tomorrow. 

Make no mistake: Virginia is very good. The 12-1 Cavaliers have scored 29 goals this season and they have given up just six. Their defense allows only 7.85 shots per game and has given up just 55 shots on goal for the entire season. On the other side of the ball, the Cavs can create opportunities in a multitude of ways. They've got 82 shots on goal this season and they have only earned 62 corners. All that is to say that Louisville put up a pretty tough fight in this one, but moral victories only go so far. 

Virginia scored early in both the first and second quarters, with a goal in the fifth minute of the match and another in the third minute of the second quarter. Each goal was the scorer's second of the season, which isn't super surprising as the 29 goals scored by the Cavaliers this season have come from 14 different players. The Cards were held fairly quiet in the first half, earning just one shot in each quarter, with both forcing a Virginia save. 

Louisville was able to put the pressure on in the second half, but Virginia's goalie was too much for the Cards to handle. Louisville came out with a clear intent to cut the deficit and try to equalize, as they put up eight shots in the second half. None of their three shots in the third quarter found the target, but they were stymied on four shots on goal in the final stanza. Louisville made use of five penalty corners in the second half but were unable to find the back of the cage. Meanwhile, Virginia kept the Cards honest by taking three second half shots and forcing an Emily Young save on each one. 

The Cards get a very quick turnaround this weekend as they follow a Friday afternoon home match with a Sunday afternoon clash in Chestnut Hill. Louisville will face Boston College tomorrow at noon. If Louisville wins, they'll be guaranteed a spot in the ACC tournament. A loss means they'd need a win over Syracuse or they'd be out on head-to-head tiebreaker. With Trager hosting the event, being left out would be extremely unfortunate. Tomorrow's match will be on ACC Network Extra. 

No Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We're out this week due to various hosts being unavailable. We should return with the show next week. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Cards Take Care of Business in Openers -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Sweeps Auburn

Louisville volleyball brought the Auburn Tigers in as part of the 2025 Cardinal Classic and opened the season with a close but convincing win. It was a great way to get the Dan Meske Era underway, as the Cards dazzled a capacity crowd (including Charitie Luper, Anna DeBeer, and Elena Scott) with a sweep of Auburn, winning all three sets with a matching 25-21 score. 

It was a... less than stellar hitting day for both teams, as Auburn managed to break .100 in just the third set and finished with an .084 hitting percentage for the match. While Louisville had nearly double that (.162), that's not saying a whole lot. The big problem for the Cards was one that Jared mentioned could be an issue for this team: they have a fairly low point of attack. Here's a statement we haven't said about Louisville volleyball after many matches in recent years: the Cards were outblocked. Auburn picked up 11 compared to Louisville's six. That mean's nearly half of Louisville's 23 errors came off the block, and they were very dependent on self inflicted wounds from Auburn, who finished with 22 errors. 

Don't get me wrong, the Cards still got the hammer down on offense. Louisville finished with 45 kills, and 43 of those were assisted. They also had a decent serving day, finishing with five aces and just five errors. Auburn finished with just one ace and three errors, giving the Cards a +2 day at the service line. 

Offensively, and this may shock you, Louisville was paced by Cara Cresse and Chloe Chicoine, who each finished with 11 kills. Where it might actually get surprising is that those two were joined on 11 kills by freshman Kalyssa Blackshear. We have mentioned Blackshear a few times as a player to watch out for on the opposite side. Blackshear's 11 kills came on 22 attempts, and she, like Cresse, had just two errors. Those two paced the team in hitting percentage with a .409 from Blackshear and a .474 from Cresse. 

It looks like Louisville is set to run with one setter, as Nayelis Cabello finished with 31 assists, but Cabello will need to be careful not to depend too much on Chicoine. Blackshear's 22 attack attempts were second on the team in yesterday's match, but it wasn't close: Chicoine took 42 swings. She finished with 11 kills and nine errors. The next highest outside hitter was Payton Petersen, who hit 5/5 on 20 attempts. Ava Utterback was 0/1 on one attempt. Not ideal. Interestingly, we didn't see Alanna Bankston or Reese Robins at the outside or opposite hitter positions, respectively. We also didn't see Molly Wilson spell Cabello in any rotations. 

Defensively, I've already mentioned the blocks, but everyone for Louisville had to hit the floor. The Cards had no solo blocks, so it was good team play at the net, but they finished with 70 digs, making up for those balls that got past the block. Petersen led the way, playing strong out of the back row in full rotation despite not having the best offensive day, as she had 16 digs. Kamden Schrand finished with 15, and Hannah Kenny, who also cycled through as a libero had ten. Cabello showed why she only had 31 of Louisville's 43 assists as she had three block assists and 13 digs. Chicoine wrapped up the high numbers with nine digs, narrowly missing the double-double. Cabello (2), Petersen (2), and Kenny also had the aces for the Cards. 

As you might suspect based on the final scores, Louisville never really ran away with a set, somewhat missing that "boom" we've gotten used to. At the same time, they never really had a scare outside of the second set when they faced a 17-12 deficit. Though they would go on to outscore Auburn 13-4 over the remainder of the set, they had to do it largely through consistent pressure, not seeing a run of more than three points until taking the score from 20-20 to 24-20. 

Meske will surely have plenty to cover with the team regarding the net play, but at the end of the day, it's a sweep of a Power 4 team. The Cards have today off while Auburn and Morehead State play, but they'll be back in action on Sunday against the Eagles. The Cards get St. John's on Labor Day. 

Field Hockey Thumps Michigan State

Louisville field hockey opened their season with a fairly tough matchup against a Big Ten opponent in the Michigan State Spartans. In the run-up to the season, we talked a fair amount about how similar these two teams were last season. This didn't look like it would be a straightforward season opener for the Cards, but Justine Sowry's 2025 squad showed that they have been working on a few things since last year. One of the major hiccups in 2024 was an inability to score. Louisville showed no signs of that being an issue, at least early in the season, as they scored early and often against MSU on their way to a 6-1 victory. 

The Cards scored first, nearly ten minutes into the game, with senior Chloe Cuzzupe picking up her first goal of the season. She was assisted by Gigi Edwards. Two minutes later, Lauren Masters doubled Louisville's advantage with an unassisted goal, which would stand as the final goal of the first quarter. The second was similarly uneventful early, but Louisville earned a penalty corner with six minutes remaining in the half. Gracie Potter took the honors and sent the ball to Annabel Sep, who became Louisville's third goal scorer of the half. The Cards went into the break with a 3-0 lead. 

At halftime, Louisville's returning goal leader, Rylie Wollerton, must have decided that she was disappointed to not have gotten in on the action. Wollerton scored four minutes into the second half on an assist by Luciana Carpenter, who had just entered the game 30 seconds earlier. A minute later, Louisville conceded their second penalty corner of the half. The Michigan State shot attempt was blocked but corners breed corners and the Spartans converted on their next attempt. The onslaught continued, as MSU earned another corner a couple of minutes later, but Emily Young picked up a save to end the threat. 

Louisville returned the favor with five minutes left in the half, as Potter took Louisville's fourth corner attempt of the match. An earlier corner had seen Izzy Bianco have her shot blocked, so she worked the play a little differently this time. Bianco received the corner and touched it off to Wollerton, who fired in her second goal of the quarter. A minute and a half later, she completed her first career collegiate hat trick on an assist by Emily Eaton. The quarter ended 6-1, which was the final score of the game. Michigan State threatened with a pair of shots in the fourth, both saved by Young, and Wollerton missed out on her chance for a fourth by firing a penalty corner shot high. By the end of 60 minutes, I think both teams were ready to close this one out. 

Louisville opens the season with a big win, and they largely dominated Michigan State in every facet. The Cards had more shots in every quarter but the fourth, and even that was only 2-1. Louisville had 13 shots to MSU's six and put nine on frame compared to just four for MSU. Both teams had three saves and five corners, but Louisville converted two of their five while MSU could convert just one. We'd like to see that corner conversion rate move north of 50%, but 40% is a good starting spot. 

JUSTINE SOWRY POSTGAME

RYLIE WOLLERTON POSTGAME

You can see interviews with both Justine Sowry and Rylie Wollerton at the links above. As you might expect, they were pretty excited with the win. Louisville is back in action tomorrow against Ohio University at 1PM. If you don't make it out to Trager, the match will be available on ACC Network Extra. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

With Louisville football getting their season underway today, we'll be without Jared for the show, but Paulie, Daryl, and I will have plenty of joy and excitement to cover with all the fall sports now in action and rolling. 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

Breakout Candidates for Field Hockey -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Breakout Candidates for Field Hockey

Chloe Plumb

The final of our 'Big Three' fall sports to look at breakout candidates is field hockey. Louisville had its worst season in ages last year mainly due to a large graduating class the year before and younger players being thrust into more impactful roles. They should be back on track this season.

As always, players who have already made large impacts or have preseason or postseason accolades are not eligible as they already have high expectations. This excludes players like Rylie Wollerton and Izzy Bianco from being on this list.

Emily Young

Chloe Plumb enters the back half of her collegiate career and is entering her first season without Aimee Plumb being on the team. While she hasn't exactly lived in her sister's shadow by scoring four goals herself last year, this is a prime opportunity for the younger Plumb to have a breakout year.

Emily Young split time in the cage last year and will have some competition for the starting goalkeeper spot again this fall. Having a good chunk of a season under her belt already including a nine-save performance against Cornell, Young is in a good space to command the cage again and be one of the best keepers in the ACC.

Emily Eaton

Emily Eaton had a decent showing as a freshman last year. Oddly enough, she was one of the top offensive players when she graduated high school, tallying 18 goals her senior year, but transitioned into a defensive role at UofL. With a year of Division I field hockey under her belt, I think she'll ease into the defensive role better and help strengthen a defensive unit that struggled greatly last year.

We will have plenty of coverage once the season begins.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

FH/VB Split Close Matches -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Beats FSU in 5 Sets

Louisville volleyball hit the road to take on 21st-ranked Florida State last night and took down the Seminoles in a back-and-forth five set match. Louisville dropped the first before taking the next two and losing the fourth to lead to the tiebreaker. The Cards won the fifth set going away, 15-9. The victory was Louisville's fifth in ACC play, keeping them undefeated in conference, and it broke a 17-match home winning streak for FSU. The Cards take on FSU's travel partner Miami on Sunday at 1PM. 

FSU came out of the gates hot, hitting .417 in the first set en route to a 25-16 victory. Louisville hit just .200 with five errors, matching their high for the match, which they'd repeat in the third and fourth sets. Despite the higher error number in the third, Louisville still outhit the 'Noles .235-.207 in that third set. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Louisville responded to the opening punch from FSU with a .429 hitting percentage of their own in the second. They had just two errors compared to FSU's 8, which gave them a .182 for the set. Despite the hitting dominance, Louisville won just 25-21. They'd go on to win the third 25-21 as well. 

The match swung back in FSU's favor in the fourth, as the 'Noles outhit the Cards once more and inverted the score of the previous two sets, taking it 25-21 themselves. Neither team hit the ball out of the gym in the fourth, but FSU had enough juice. Part of what kept FSU so scrappy was the serving line. The Seminoles had nine aces compared to Louisville's four. They were also even at the line, matching the number of aces with the number of errors. Louisville was -11, as they had 15 service errors. Yikes. Those errors helped push the momentum squarely to FSU for the fifth set. After Louisville tied the fourth at 19, FSU had just one kill to score their last six points. Louisville had three attacking errors (including two of their nine blocks) and two service errors, including set point. 

FSU came out and won the first point of the fifth, but Louisville was about done playing games. At least, that's what they thought. The Cards won four of the next five points before FSU took three straight to regain a 5-4 lead. At the second time of asking, though, they were able to put it away. Louisville won the next four points to make the score 8-5 and alternated points until 11-9. All the past errors went by the wayside, then, and Louisville won the last four points of the match on four straight kills by Sofia Maldonado Diaz and Anna DeBeer. 

DeBeer led all hitters with 23 kills in the match (narrowly beating FSU's Audrey Koenig who had 22). DeBeer had six errors as well, but with 51 attempts, she finished with a solid .333 hitting percentage (outhitting the team's .295). Charitie Luper joined DeBeer in double figures with 12 and Sofi finished with nine. The Cards had two players finish with no errors, as PK and Reese Robins each had seven kills and hit over .500. 

Defensively, the Cards finished with one more block than FSU, picking up 10, all assisted. The Seminoles were keen to avoid Elena Scott, as Louisville's star libero had only 12 digs. DeBeer had a double-double with 11 digs and Luper narrowly missed it with nine. Elle Glock and Nayelis Cabello were each forced into five digs of their own. 

Louisville moves to 13-2 (5-0) on the season and they'll take a five-set road victory and run. That win is especially difficult in Tully Gymnasium, where FSU last lost on November 6th, 2023 to then 10th-ranked Georgia Tech. Louisville heads down to Coral Gables next, where they'll face the Hurricanes who are coming off of a five-set win themselves. Miami beat Notre Dame 3-2 last night to move to 11-5 (2-3). They've already played FSU twice and were shockingly swept by Virginia on the road last weekend. Tomorrow's match is at 1PM on ACCNX.

Field Hockey's Skid Continues with 2-1 Loss

Louisville field hockey brought in the top-ranked team in the land yesterday afternoon, and despite their best efforts, dropped their fifth straight match. Louisville was under immense pressure throughout the match but maintained a 1-1 tie until just under seven minutes remaining. UNC scored the game winner to move to 9-0 on the season and push Louisville down to 5-8. The Cards get no time to lick their wounds, as they hit the road for Winston-Salem to face Wake Forest tomorrow. 

Sophomore goalkeeper Emily Young has continued to split duties with Brandelynn Heinbaugh this season, and she has drawn difficult opponents. Young started the last two games and showed pretty well. Against UVA and UNC, Young played just under 60 minutes in each match as the Cards pulled the goalie, and she finished with a combined 11 saves and just three goals allowed. That's a combined save percentage of over 75%, which is pretty nice. Her season save percentage in 7.5 games is .694, which is still no slouch. 

As I mentioned last week, Louisville field hockey needs to find the offense. One or fewer goals per game isn't going to get it done against the quality competition they're facing. In addition to the lack of goals, Louisville isn't threatening much at all. The Cards were outshot 21-4 and 10-3 in on-target attempts. They gave up six penalty corner attempts and had just two. In the end, it was an incredible defensive effort that kept the match as close as it was. 

Louisville's lone goal in this one came as an equalizer in the middle of the second quarter. Chloe Plumb scored the unassisted effort, her fourth goal of the year. Other shots came from her sister Aimee, Chloe Cuzzupe, and Rylie Woolerton. 

UNC is very good, don't get me wrong. However, we've seen some real flashes from this Louisville team, and it seems like there should be more to them than what they've shown in conference play. The Cards have four games remaining and they'll have to win out to finish above .500. Three of those four matches are on the road, with the lone home match coming against a tough Duke team next Friday. They are back in action tomorrow against Wake at 1PM on ACCNX.

Other News and Notes

Louisville softball played two against Indiana last night as they continued their fall ball schedule. The Cards won the first game 5-4 on a walk-off single. Our correspondent had to leave midway through the second game so we've got no reporting on the final from Ulmer. Louisville athletics, as usual, are tight-lipped on the results of scrimmages, so let's just think positively and assume they won. Softball looks to be having fun and can hopefully break through once spring comes around. 

Louisville soccer is back in action at home tonight, but most of us will miss the rare Saturday evening event. The Cards are taking on Notre Dame, who is currently ranked 13th, and we'll hope to see an upset. Louisville has lost five of their last six but they've played pretty tough competition. After the brutal trip to Tobacco Road (losses to UNC and Duke by a combined 8-1 score), the friendly confines of Lynn Stadium will hopefully turn things around. Tonight's match is at 5PM and will be carried on ACCNX. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

There will be just three of us this week as Daryl and Jared are otherwise occupied. As has become a disappointing norm, we'll look forward to talking about volleyball and try not to spend too long commiserating about the others. 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

FH Defeats Bellarmine in Exhibition -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Take Down Knights in Crosstown Friendly

Happy Saturday morning! Jared checking in here as Case had something pop up last minute today. From a UofL women's sports standpoint, nothing is going on today. College football is back, though! College GameDay traveled across the Atlantic for an ACC match-up in Ireland.

Belknap campus was not quiet yesterday. Between classes starting up and field hockey playing in a scrimmage, Floyd Street was a bit busier than what we've seen the last few months.

Louisville faced Bellarmine in a friendly exhibition as both teams are gearing up for the regular season. The teams played the standard four quarters and added on one overtime period and a shootout just to get the extra practice.

There was no official score or stats kept, but Lori and I tried to piece things together and we believe the following results happened:

Louisville won 7-0 in regulation

Louisville won 1-0 in overtime

Louisville won 5-1 in a 6v6 shootout (an extra player was added for practice purposes only)

With the departure of key players from last season such as Emilia Kaczmarczyk, Minna Tremonti, Julie Kouijzer, India Reed, Sofia Pendolino, and Merlijn van der Vegt, there were plenty of questions on how those big shoes would be filled.

We do see the return key players such as Aimee Plumb (COVID-19 eligibility season), Mia Duchars (COVID-19 eligibility season), Rylie Wollerton, Izzy Bianco, Chloe Plumb, and Tyler Everslage.

Sophomore Emily Young played the entire match in goal and was the only keeper dressed yesterday. We do have a couple other keepers who will dress and join her when the season starts. Rylie Wollerton led the offensive charge yesterday with three goals plus a successful try during the shootout. We got to talk with the duo after the match.

Postgame with Coach Justine Sowry here

Postgame with Emily Young and Rylie Wollerton here

Louisville travels to Bloomington for a scrimmage with Indiana tomorrow (no tv or stream) and then kicks off the regular season at Maryland on Friday August 30.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We are on for our normal 11:00 podcast. Case is out, Daryl might be able to join us, so we are running with a guaranteed trio of Paulie, Jeff, and Jared. The stream is free to listen to and as always, it is recorded so you can go back and listen later. We have fall sports to discuss!

Happy Saturday and Go Cards!

Jared