Golf NCAA Regional Day One -- Softball to NCAA Tournament? -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Women's Golf in Seventh After Day One

Louisville women's golf sits in seventh place in their NCAA Regional after the opening day of action. The Cards finished the first day at 7-over-par 295, which is 11 strokes behind the first-place leader Oregon.

The current standings are:

-4  #2 Oregon

-1  #13 Texas

E  #11 Florida

+4  #33 TCU

+4  #28 Georgia

+5  #23 Arizona

+7  #38 Louisville

+8  #47 North Texas

+11  #50 Oklahoma

+14  New Mexico Sate

+14  Sam Houston

+21  Northern Arizona

The top four teams will advance to the NCAA Championships.

Lauren Thibodeau was the top performing Cardinal, shooting an even-par 72 to sit at 13th overall. Kendall Griffin and Carmen Griffiths are tied for 21st after shooting 2-over-par 72 on the day. Mairead Martin shot a 3-over-par 75 and Gabbi Bentancourt shot a 7-over-par 79.

Louisville tees off in the second day of action this morning at 10:00 MT (noon ET). The third and final round will be Wednesday. 

Softball to NCAA Tournament?

Following an unfortunate weekend sweep at #20 Notre Dame, Louisville Softball fell a spot to #40 in the rpi. Going into the ACC Tournament, finding a way to win is as important as can be. An opening round win against 9-seed Syracuse is a must. However, going up against 1-seed Virginia Tech in the second round is no easy task, but the Cards lost by one in the series opener against the Hokies a few weeks ago.

64 teams make the NCAA Tournament- 32 conference automatic qualifiers and 32 at-large bids. All the top teams in each conference winning their respective conference tournaments would help as well. 

A bracketology posting by College Sports Madness has Louisville in the Lexington Regional facing Robert Morris while Kentucky faces Wisconsin. Remember the last time a Kentucky team faced Robert Morris? (hint: Men's basketball NIT). 247 Sports has the Cards in the Lexington Regional as well but with Murray State replacing Robert Morris. Fast Pitch News puts Louisville in the Ann Arbor Regional with Michigan, South Carolina, and Miami (OH)

For now, it's time to take things one game at a time. 8-seed Louisville faces 9-seed Syracuse tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. and will be aired on ACC Network.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Golf Ties for First -- Weekend Happenings -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Women's Golf Ties for First at Illini Invitational

Relying on a large rally heading into the final day of play at the Illini Invitational, Louisville Women's Golf shot an 11-under par to finish the event tied with #20 Georgia for first place.

Louisville was tied for fifth heading into the final day and posted a strong performance to leap up to first. The win is Louisville's first since taking home the title at the Cardinal Cup in 2019.

Kendall Griffin was the top Cardinal at the event with a final round score of 68 and overall score of 8-under-par to take second overall, individually. Lauren Thibodeau was right behind her with a 68 final-round score and a 6-under-par overall to place third.

Hana Ryskova shot a 2-under-par to finish tied for 18th. Carmen Griffiths shot a 3-over-par to finish 42nd. Mairead Martin was the final Cardinal in the event, finishing 50th after shooting a 5-over-par.

Louisville's fall season wraps up October 25-26 at the Club at Oldestone Invitational in Bowling Green, KY.

What to Watch for this Weekend

With the weekend swiftly approaching, plenty of fall sports are in action. With some of them in the home stretch, every match is crucial.

After dropping to #4 in the NFHCA Poll, Louisville Field Hockey travels to #12 Boston College for a 1:00 match. The Eagles are 9-3 overall, but sit at fifth in the conference with a 1-2 mark. The Cards are tied with Syracuse at the top with a 3-0 record. The Cards then travel to visit a 4-9 Northeastern squad on Sunday at noon.

#2 Louisville Volleyball is also on the road, with a Friday match against Virginia Tech and a Sunday match against Wake Forest. The Hokies are 9-9 on the year and the Demon Deacons are 10-7. The two foes are a combined 1-11 in conference play. The Cards should bring out the brooms for both matches, *hopefully*.

Louisville Women's Soccer only has one match this weekend, but they hope to stop the bleeding with a bounce back victory over Boston College at Lynn Stadium on Friday at 4:00 p.m. It's another double header with the men's team facing North Carolina shortly after the women's match ends. BC is 6-7-1 on the year and 0-6 in conference play so let's hope the Cards can cruise to a multi-goal performance victory to move up to 12 points in conference play.

Oh yeah, by the way, we are exactly three weeks away from the Louisville Women's Basketball exhibition at the KFC Yum! Center and the WBB Tipoff Luncheon is 15 days away on Oct 29th at the Galt House. 

Jeff Walz, Hailey Van Lith and Kianna Smith spent yesterday in Charlotte, NC at the ACC's WBB Media Day. No earth-shaking program or personnel information was revealed in Walz's chat with Packer and Durham or Van Lith and Smith's appearance on "Nothing But Net". We did find out, however,  that Van Lith hits the golf ball in low line drive fashion off the tee and Walz unveiled a life lesson:  "If the grass looks greener on the other side, it's because of the bull s#&% over there fertilizing it."  Deb Antonelli seemed to be stuck on the query "Dana who?" --( about what you'd expect from a NCST grad)... 

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Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Golf Final Results -- WSoc Travels to Notre Dame -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Women's Golf Finishes Seventh

Louisville Women's Golf wrapped up their final day of play at The Blessings Intercollegiate in Arkansas yesterday. The Cards finished the invitational tied for sixth overall.

A pair of Cards had high finishes in the event. Hana Ryskova finished tied for 9th with a final score of 218 (+2). The junior shot a 71-74-73. Kendall Griffin finished tied for 20th. The graduate transfer had a final score of 224 (+8) by shooting a 77-72-75.

Lauren Thibodeau and Carmen Griffiths went back-to-back at 32nd and 41st with scores of 230 (+14) and 235 (+15), respectively. The last Cardinal to participate in the event was Mairead Martin. The senior finished 47th with a score of 240 (+24).

The Cards head to Champaign, Ill., next weekend for the Illinois Invitational.

WSOC Cards Travel to Notre Dame

Louisville Women's Soccer looks to ride off the momentum of an overtime victory against Wake Forest as they face #24 Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. The Cards and Irish are set to kick off at 8:00 p.m., on Bally Sports South, the same channel Louisville Volleyball and Louisville Football were on last weekend.

The Cards are 7-2-1 on the year with a 3-1 record in conference play. The nine points in the ACC puts the Cards fourth behind Florida State (12), Notre Dame (12), and Virginia (10).

Notre Dame enters the match 10-1-1 on the year and a perfect 4-0 mark in the ACC. Offense has been the 'Name of the Game' for the Irish, who have scored 34 goals on the year. Notre Dame has outscored opponents 15-2 in their four ACC matches.

Missouri took down the Irish 3-2 in overtime earlier this year and Indiana was able to force a 0-0 draw. The ACC victories came against Syracuse (4-0), Miami (5-0), Boston College (4-1), and NC State (2-1).

Grad student Sammi Fisher leads the team with eight goals, which ranked eighth in the country. Ashley Naylor has been part of a three person rotation, but has logged the most minutes at 518. She has five saves and a .625 save percentage. Her partners in goal have logged a combined 588 minutes with 21 saves.

Louisville hasn't been great over the years against Notre Dame, sitting at 4-12-1 all-time. However, the Cards are 3-4-1 in the last eight outings with two of those going into overtime and none of them having a goal differential of more than two.

Jared Sez: 

It wouldn't be a surprise to see Louisville revert to the five-person back line again in hopes to slow the Notre Dame offense. However, unlike the match against Florida State, I hope the Cards will be more aggressive with a counter attack.

The 'Park the Bus' style gameplay is great -- in trying and preventing a team from scoring several goals, but hasn't provided any chances for a counter offensive. Usually, this strategy will most likely end in a clean sheet for the opponent. If Louisville can keep a couple of attackers forward and get Notre Dame on their heels, the Cards can pull off the upset.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Pastor Award -- Golf Transfer -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Pastor Wins Award

Louisville Field Hockey's Mercedes Pastor is remarkable player and the rest of the country continues to recognize that. The Argentinian was named the NFHCA West Region Player of the Year.

This is her third straight NFHCA All-West Region honors. She was named ACC Player of the Week four times and the NFHCA Player of the Week three times.

The NFHCA Awards Show will be live-streamed on YouTube next week on June 15, 2021. At that time, the All-Americans and the National Player of the Year will be announced. Pastor will join the other Region Players of the Year Erin Matson (UNC, South Region), Jonna Kennedy (Boston College, Northeast Region), Sophie Hamilton (UConn, Mideast Region), and Gianna Glatz (Rutgers, Mid-Atlantic Region) as nominees for National Player of the Year.

Pastor has hopes to return to Louisville for one final season this fall and we all hope that we will see her rep the red and black jersey one more time.

Kendall Griffin Joins Golf

Louisville women's golf signed a transfer with Kendall Griffin coming to Louisville for her final year of eligibility.

Griffin joins the Cards after four years at LSU where she accumulated a 75.28 career stroke average. She had two top-10 and one top-five finish as a senior and finished tied for fifth in the SEC Championship.

"We're so excited to sing Kendall as a graduate student," said Coach Whitney Young. "She has had a very successful career at LSU and we look forward to bringing her energy, experience, and passion to the University of Louisville. She will make an immediate impact on our program and help us in reaching our National Championship aspirations for 2022. The addition of Kendall really caps off what was an already exciting 2021 class."

Adding Griffin will be a huge asset as Lauren Hartladge has concluded her collegiate career. The Cards made the NCAA Regional round this season and hosted their first ever NCAA Regional.

WCWS Set

I opted to watch the new Conjuring movie (did you know there's eight films in the Conjuring Universe now?) over the WCWS. The action, though, was dramatic and surprising for those who did and those who played.

In the first game of the day, James Madison University started the game with a first pitch home run for a quick 1-0 lead. It was all Oklahoma after that as the 1-seed scored seven unanswered to win 7-1. However, the attention was focused on Oddicci Alexander and the career she had with JMU.

The second game saw 10-seed Florida State square off against 3-seed Alabama. The Seminoles started the game with a three-run home run off Montana Fouts, In fact, Fouts got pulled early as FSU held an 8-2 lead after three innings. The Crimson Tide tried to rally but it ultimately was the ACC powerhouse earning the 8-5 win.

Game One of the best-of-three series between Oklahoma and Florida State begins tonight at 7:30 p.m. You can check that game out during commercial breaks of the Lynx vs Mystics and Wings vs Mercury games. Myisha Hines-Allen had an incredible welcome back performance for the Mystics and she will try to help Washington break their losing streak.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared