2020 UofL Recap
Perhaps the craziest year on record and one that will be remembered for ages in the world of sports, 2020 has finally come to a close. Of course, it ends with another schedule change with women’s basketball.
Virginia has had some issues with COVID-19 so the game on Jan. 3 has now been postponed. The Jan. 1 game that Walz had hoped for does not appear to be happening. The Louisville vs North Carolina game has now been set for Jan. 5 at 2:30 p.m. I think most of us are a bit confused about a midweek midday game, but if the Cards get to play we can settle for it.
So let’s look back at 2020 for many of our sports including some of the highs and lows:
Womens Basketball- they had some nice highs including reaching #2 in the AP Poll. They also had a strong spring portion to last season, including hosting the USA National Team, and winning six straight at the end of the regular season that included a win at then-#4 NC State.
The lows are pretty obvious- COVID-19. There was no NCAA Tournament last season so we sadly sent off last year’s squad with an early ACC Tournament exit. The basketball team also had a stretch in February where they lost three straight games (one to the USWNT), but they did end up finding their feet.
Lacrosse- Lacrosse had a promising season going that started with a dominating performance at Cincinnati that Pauline and I enjoyed a road trip up to. Rachel Flores was on pace to set some Louisville and possibly NCAA records in goal with her 95 saves.
The downsides are far and few for lax. They still are not up to the competitive level of play that Scott Teeter wants. They took ugly losses to Denver and North Carolina.
Softball- A team that was on a hot streak when things abruptly ended was softball. They had won three straight and four of five. Celene Funke looked like she had not missed a beat, already recording three triples before conference play began.
However, softball had an ugly rough patch that put them at 10-13. Many of their losses came when they scored two or fewer runs, something we did not expect to see in this offense.
Volleyball- The VolleyCards had a solid 5-2 outing in their fall portion of the season. They were impressive with their defending that saw them high in the rankings in blocks, led by Amaya Tillman.
Both losses came in sweep fashion. Even if the sets were close it has become a rare sight to see the Cards get swept against teams we’ve seen them beat in recent years.
Field Hockey- This is a team that has plenty to praise in the “good” category. They started the year 8-0 including surprising victories against UNC, Duke, and BC. We can only assume they would have been ranked #1 at some point. They tied their highest finish in the conference at runner-up.
The lows would mostly be falling at the end of the regular season to Syracuse before falling 4-2 in the ACC Championship after not surrendering more than two goals in any prior match.
Soccer- Soccer had a solid season, even if the record showed 4-5. Emina Ekic scored seven goals in nine matches, putting her on pace to have a career high in goals in a season had it been a regular year. She’s now preparing to play pro ball hopefully in the NWSL. Gabby Kouzelos had a career season in goal, including nine saves against Florida State.
The five losses were a little rough for what we wanted. Three of those were expected against FSU, UNC, and Virginia. The Cards had the UNC game won before falling apart late in the second half, so it is enough to put as a downside.
We certainly hope 2021 is a much better year overall, but we hope many of our teams can continue their respective successes from 2020.
Do you have any favorite 2020 moments? Please share with us as we love hearing YOUR input and experiences. We also will miss and forget things here and there, especially with reviewing an entire year, so who knows what you might have remembered that we forgot.
Don’t forget that YOU are Cardinal Couple and we would not exist without you. We appreciate everyone who follows, interacts, and contributes. 2020 was an incredible challenge for us seeing as we went months without any true UofL women’s sports, and we hope we were able to give you a good 2020 run at Cardinal Couple.
As always, we are excited for the new year and what great things the Louisville Cardinals will bring us.
Happy Thursday and Happy (early) New Year! Go Cards!
Jared
Cards Climb Rankings to #2
Coming off a pair of victories against NCAA Tournament caliber opponents, the Louisville women's basketball team found themselves sitting at #2 in the latest AP Poll. At the beginning of the weekend, the Cards faced then-#20 DePaul in Mohegan Sun Arena. Louisville gave a dominating performance that saw them set a new program record with 116 points.
On Sunday afternoon, Louisville hosted UT Martin. The Skyhawks gave the Cards fits for a while, but Jeff Walz's team prevailed with an 18-point victory.
Louisville had some help to move up to #2. NC State traveled to Columbia to face the top dog South Carolina. In a low-scoring, but otherwise exciting game, the Wolfpack shocked the Gamecocks with the upset. Arkansas played host to Baylor on Sunday and pulled off a win in a game that came down to the wire. Stanford climbed up to #1 with a 3-0 record. The Cardinal have also had two games postponed and another cancelled.
UConn, who still has not played a game due to an outbreak of COVID-19, remains at #3. NC State jumped up four spots to the #4 position. South Carolina dropped down to #5.
Arizona moved up a spot to #6. Baylor fell down to #7 following their loss. Oregon broke the Top 10 in the #8 spot even with the departure of Sabrina Ionescu last season. Kentucky, under new interim head coach Kyra Elzy, is 4-0 and moved to #9. Texas A&M rounds out the Top 10 at #10.
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There is not much love for the ACC early on with Syracuse being the third and final ACC team ranked at #20. North Carolina, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Boston College, and Virginia Tech are all flirting with the rankings and received votes.
Just what does the conference look like on this Tuesday 12/8/20? No conference games have been played yet, but here are the standings overall:
CLEMSON 5-0
UNC 5-0
VA. TECH 5-0
BOSTON COLLEGE 4-0
LOUISVILLE 4-0
NC STATE 4-0
DUKE 3-0
MIAMI 3-0
SYRACUSE 3-0
FLORIDA ST 1-0
WAKE FOREST 3-1
GA TECH 2-1
PITTSBURGH 2-1
NOTRE DAME 2-2
VIRGINIA 0-3
Louisville begins conference play on Wednesday when the Cards travel to Durham to face Duke. The Blue Devils are 3-0, although they have not left the confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium and have played lesser-talented opponents.
Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m., and will be Duke's first non-noon game of the year.
More WBB Photos
Being one of two-three photographers on the floor is quite different. Having to photograph opposing teams (as well as Louisville) as been a fun challenge to take on, even if I am still trying to find a balance of the two.
When everything is said and done each game I could have anywhere from 50-100 photos of the game. That can include lucky breaks on angles, an open window between players for the right shot, and also not having a moment of laziness as factors of why some games may have more than others.
Of course, we don't want to scare you away by posting every photo on here- that would be silly. But our library of photos grows quite a bit each game so it is fun to share the "other photos" periodically too.
Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!
Jared
Jared's Favorite Volleyball Photos
Recently, I shared some of my favorite photos from the soccer and field hockey seasons. With conference tournaments and then some basketball announcements the volleyball photos got put on the backburner.
Volleyball ran into a slightly shortened season than regularly scheduled due to COVID-19 related reasons. They went 2-1 at home, but I only made it out to the two matches against Syracuse. Where I was allowed to go was a bit restricted this year. Floor access and the first couple rows were blocked off so I had to work from the middle of the stands or up against the walls.
Here's some photos including a mixture of action shots and celebrations. Facial expressions are a bit limited from the masks.
Like field hockey and soccer, volleyball is planning for spring games. If they will conflict with spring sports like softball and lacrosse is unknown. If we will be afforded the opportunity to take pictures at games again qand be in attendance to cover the events is also unknown, but we are hopeful!
With numbers getting worse again and the state taking a step backwards I hope everyone remains safe and healthy. Although the tests aren't the most fun thing in the world do not hesitate to take one. I have had three COVID-19 tests since June and have been fortunate that all results were negative.
WBB Virtual Tipoff Luncheon
As mentioned earlier this week, today is the University of Louisville Virtual Tipoff Luncheon. Paulie has attended these since the early days of their incarnation and been to a number of local venues for them.
You can watch on the Cards Twitter account beginning at noon or Facebook and it's free for the viewing. 'It should be a great time, there is a lot of excitement about this year's squad and so much talent on this team!
Happy Thursday and Go Cards!
Jared
Jared's Favorite Soccer Photos
The soccer regular season recently concluded and the Cards are one of eight teams gearing up for the ACC Tournament. This season went about as expected, with Louisville finishing 4-4 and earning the 6-seed. Like the field hockey photos from last year, the soccer photos range from action to celebration to pregame activities. You may have seen some of the photos already while others may be new.
Louisville gears up for a first round match against 3-seed Virginia tonight at 8:00 p.m., on the ACC Network.
The Wahoos come into the match ranked #10 in the country, boasting a 7-2-1 record and 5-2-1 in the ACC. They are fresh off back-to-back wins against Boston College and Syracuse. Alexa Spaanstra leads Virginia with five goals. Both goals in Virginia's regular season over Louisville came from Spaanstra. Lia Godfrey leads the team with five assists.
Emina Ekic ranks second in the ACC and fourth in the NCAA with 1.88 points per match. Her 0.75 goals per match is also second in the ACC and sixth overall in the NCAA. Louisville is 0-8 against Virginia all-time, including this year's 2-0 loss.
The match is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. However, with three matches scheduled before the Cards play it is likely kickoff may be later. Field conditions are also expected to be rough with no team to even the grass between matches.
Pick Em
We had six entries for field hockey. Currently, there are six entries for soccer with one of them being a new face from the last Pick Em, but you still have until 12:30 p.m. today to submit those!
Paulie and Sonya each went 3-3 in the field hockey Pick Em, never able to fully recover from 1-2 starts on the first day. Nick O and Arthur each went 4-2 with mirroring brackets. Curtis was rocking a 5-0 bracket going into the championship game, where he had the Cards downing North Carolina again. Jared edged out Curtis in the end by going 6-0 after picking UNC over UofL. I think I'll pass on the prizes, although finding a way to take selfies on a camera would be quite interesting!
Soccer is a chance to redeem yourself or join in on the fun! It always adds a little extra excitement when watching the other matches. I will provide an update on Thursday.
Feel free to leave your picks in our comments section. In case of tie, you might want to leave a guess at the final score of the championship game also with the, You can also e-mail your picks to the Cardinal Couple e-mail address.... cardinalcouple@twc.com or directly to me eupherjared@gmail.com
As it was in Field Hockey, no official prize is being awarded except for a date with Paulie, technology discussion with Case and Jeff or a photo shoot with Jared.,,,but if you win you can proudly boast about your prowess on social media outlets and those lengthy Zoom and Skype meetings a lot of us have to endure weekly.
As an example for you, here are Sonya's picks:
Quarterfinals: FSU, Duke, UNC, Louisville
Semifinals: FSU, Louisville
Finals: Louisville 1-0
Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!
Jared
