International Volleyball - Sunday Cardinal Couple

 NORCECA Final 6

sfia Maldanado Diaz

Please don't ask me why the event is called "Final 6" as it's pretty much just one of many NORCECA tournaments.  A few weeks ago they held the NORCECA Final 4 with an overlapping but different set of teams.

In any case, the event is about to wrap up, with just the Championship and Bronze medal matches still to be competed today.

The Cards have four rooting interests in the overall tournament.  As was covered previously, Elena Scott and Cara Cresse are competing with Team USA.  Additionally, Sofia Maldonado Diaz is continuing her representation with the Mexican National Team, while former Cardinal, and Cardinal Forever, Wilma Rivera is continuing her role with the Puerto Rican Team.

 

Maldonado Diaz, is transferring to UofL from Arizona but due to national team commitments hasn't  made it to campus, yet.  Of course, the last time we had a 5th year transfer coming in late due to national team commitments was Raquel Lázaro who was busy playing for Team Spain, and she worked out pretty well for us.

Team USA came out atop Group A by defeating both Mexico and Canada.  Mexico beat Canada to be the other team to advance to the elimination stages.  In Group B the hosting Dominican Republic came out on top with Puerto Rico being the other team to advance.  Those results mean that the US play Puerto Rico last night while the Dominican Republic played Mexico.

The US and Dominican Republic won their matches last night, advancing to the championship match today, while Mexico and Puerto Rico will face off for the Bronze.

Scott and Cresse have only seen limited time on the floor, but have played well in the time that they have had.  I will argue that at least Scott should be seeing more time on the floor.  The other libero on the team is Lexi Rodriguez (Nebraska), who, unquestionably is a good libero...but Scott is better in my opinion.  When you add in Scott's undeniably better ability to be a "backup setter", it's clear to me that she should be getting more minutes on the floor.  Similarly, with Cresse, in addition to being the equal of the other middles on the squad she is clearly a superior server to them, and given that libero's can't serve in international play, good serving middles are extremely valuable.  But USA Volleyball, in their infinite wisdom, decided to put a second year Men's Volleyball head coach in charge of the team, and his perceptions and choices seem to be a bit different than mine.  (There's a rant to be shared here about the extreme political nature of getting playing time with USA Volleyball, but I'll skip that for now.)  Come on USA Volleyball, do better.

You can watch the championship match with Cresse and Scott on Youtube this evening at 7pm.  Youtube's search function has not worked well to surface the live videos from this event, but I have found success searching for "NORCECA Final 6 women 2024 live".  The bronze medal match, which will feature Maldonado Diaz and Rivera, will begin at 5pm.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

The CCRHP had a foursome yesterday, with Case, Jared, Paulie, and myself teeing it up.  Mostly we talked about basketball, and how we expect this squad, with lots of new faces, to come together and gel.  We did sprinkle in some news from other sports, including some of the above Volleyball material.

Find it at it's Spotify home: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/A-Cardinal-Couple-Quiz-e2lf2lh

-- 

JMcA

Volleyball and Softball - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Volleyball and Softball Today

What's this?  Fall and Spring sports playing at the same time?  Dogs and cats living together?  Is it the apocalypse.

No, of course it's just exhibition play or Softball, but that doesn't make a trip out to Ulmer Stadium any less of a joy.

Let's start things off with yesterday's play.

Soccer Loses to Notre Dame

It was a pretty quick demonstration of how the game was going to go, less than three minutes into the game and 10th ranked Notre Dame opened up the scoring with a open break that gave Louisville goalkeeper Erynn Floyd basically no chance of a save.  The opening score was the only goal in the first half of the overall 3-0 affair.

Despite the missed first save, Floyd was a stalwart in goal, with eight total in the game, including a back-to-back pair in the 38th minute where Notre Dame was able to take a shot off the rebound of the first save, only to be stopped by Floyd again.

The Irish opened the scoring in the second half with a deflection of the post and shot off the rebound.

The last score of the game came off of a penalty kick in the 78th minute.

It doesn't get easier for the Cards, though they do return home to Lynn Stadium, their guest is 2nd ranked Florida State.

Volleyball

To today's action, then.  Volleyball is still on their road trip.  After the trip up to South Bend to beat Notre Dame three quick sets, they came back to the 'Ville, refreshed and repacked to head down North Carolina way to pay a visit to James T. Valvano Arena at William Neal Reynolds Coliseum and play NC State.

A quick perusal of the Wolfpack's schedule doesn't show us much in the way of signature wins or losses.  They did also sweep Notre Dame Friday and lost in four to Georgia Tech.  Neither are surprises, but do kind of fit NC State into the middle range of teams.  It's a bit early to judge much based on ACC standings with most teams having only played three conference matches so far, but NC State, at 2-1 in conference (a sweep of Clemson being the third match) puts them in a three way tie for fifth place behind undefeated Louisville, Pitt, Georgia Tech, and Florida State.

The out of conference loss for the Wolfpack is to Utah, who is typically a pretty good team, but this year?  Eh, I'm not impressed.

The Cards have another weekend, next week, in North Carolina where they'll pick up matches against the other Triangle schools, UNC, and Duke.  After that, they return home for a Friday night match that may very well be one of the premier matches across Volleyball this season, when Pitt comes to visit the KFC Yum! Center.

This NC State match will be served up at 4pm and it will be on the linear ACC Network.  Of course, streaming is an option as well.

Softball

Fall ball for the Holly Aprile squad today, as EKU treks up I-64 for the visit to play on Don Dobina field (does anyone else think of Bob Dobalina when they hear that name?) today starting at 1pm.

This is, as mentioned, exhibition play for Softball, which means we likely won't get much of a recap, or stats, or video, or much of anything else, really.  That's OK as Cardinal Couple does have plans to get in-person coverage of the event.

With a weather forecast of sunny and 85, it would be a fantastic day to get out and enjoy the ambiance of Ulmer Stadium.  I always find myself myself relaxed and refreshed after a visit.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

[THE STATION MAY BE GONE, BUT THE PODCAST LIVES ON}

A fearsome foursome on the CCRHP yesterday.  Case, Jared, Paulie and myself recounted the week of Soccer, Volleyball, and Field Hockey.  We also looked a bit forward, both for programs at UofL, and more broadly the prospects for professional sports teams in Louisville.

Check it out at:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Top-5-Volleyball-and-Field-Hockey-Squads-e2a02rd

for your weekly dose of Cardinal Couple inanity.

-- JMcA

Slightly Shaky Sweep for Volleyball - Thursday Cardinal Couple

Slightly Shaky Sweep

In the first of three matches scheduled this season for Cards Volleyball to play at the KFC Yum! Center UofL gets a sweep over rival Kentucky 25-19, 25-23, 25-18.  I call it a slightly shaky sweep because I thought there were aspects of play where UofL wasn't quite up to the level of play that we know they're capable of.

The Cards and Cats got under way at 8pm, and the first handful of points in the first set were a bit back and forth, but gave the impression that Kentucky was going to be able to play up to the level of play of Louisville.  The Cats got out to a 7-4 lead, and then 9-6 before the Cards said, "Nope!".  With Anna DeBeer at the service line, the Cards transformed a 9-6 deficit to a 9-16 lead.  Cara Cresse had back-to-back-to-back kills in the run, along with another, with the next most points in that run coming from UK errors.  Maybe UK Head Coach Craig Skinner remembered to clean out the litter box at that point as the Cats got the play back into gear and mostly traded points with UofL the rest of the set.  At that point, however, the damage had been done.

In the second set, well, it didn't start well for the Cats with UofL jumping out to a 4-0 lead but to their credit they were able to play their way back into the set tying it at 5-5.  Lots of little 3 point runs for both teams, but UofL was able to climb out to a slim lead, getting ahead by as much as four points.  UK wasn't done and was able to claw their way back into and eventually take a lead at 22-21.  Three side outs later and UofL tied it at 23-23 before a UK attack error and a DeBeer kill finished off the set.

In the third set, Louisville started to tighten up some of the sloppy play that we had been seeing.  UK did get out to an early lead, reaching as much as 6-2 before UofL's newest serving star, Kamden Schrand came to the service line after an Aiko Jones kill.  Interestingly, for most of the season, and even earlier in the match, Jones has been serving, but for some reason in this rotation, DBK went ahead and subbed Jones out and let Schrand take a shot at the service, and it paid of handsomely.  From a 6-3 UK lead, Schrand's service, including a pair of aces, got the Cards out to 8-6 lead.  Again, lots of side outs, but a few little UofL 3-point runs would start to build a bit of a lead for the Cards again.  First to 13-10, then to 22-16, and finally to finish out the match at 25-18.

Coach Skinner earned himself no friends among the 12,760 fans by issuing a coach's challenge on the last play of the game, but you can't take the green cards home with you, so he had nothing to lose.  And after the challenge was denied, UofL got to celebrate the rivalry win a second time.

So why do I call this a Slightly Shaky Sweep?  Subjectively, I just don't think the Cards played sharp, with miscommunications, some missed coverages, and a few, "Uh, what happened there?" moments.  Objectively, we see just a hint of some of this in the stats.  First, we see nine service errors for UofL in the three sets, particularly when compared to just six aces.  The other salvation on that stat was UK's 10 service errors.  I guess you can give a bunch of points away if the other team is giving away even more.  Second, five serve receive errors is a bit higher than I'd like to see in three sets, but again, UK had six, so still a net win for the Cards there.

Offensively, DeBeer did...well...fine.  She had nine kills for .174.  Aiko Jones also claimed nine kills but did it more efficiently at .333.  But both are capable of more and while that's "good enough" for an overranked-at-21 Kentucky squad, we need to see more from both of them when fully-justified-at-5 ranked Stanford comes calling on Sunday.

OK, enough doomsday, let's shout out Charitie Luper for 13 kills at an impressive .385 clip, along with 7 for Cara Cresse, error free at .583.  Elena Scott impressed as always with 15 digs, which is impressive for a good blocking team in three sets.

There have been a number of questions about how this season was going to play out as far as lineups go as well.  We've talked about position battles for middles, and setters, as well as an ongoing "Will they, Won't they" about the coaching staff perhaps choosing to run a 6-2 offense.  If we take last night's line-up as a guide, those questions are definitively answered.  DBK only played eight players.  With six in the rotation, plus a libero swapping for middles, that only leaves one other player to sub in and out of the match, and that's the aforementioned Aiko Jones/Kamden Schrand swap.  Middles?  Looks like we've settled on Cara Cresse and PK.  Setters?  Elle Glock looks like she may have solidified her hold on that spot.  6-2?  Nowhere in sight, last night.

Ultimately, it was a fun night, and a good win that will be remembered and recorded as a win over a ranked team, in addition to the rivalry win.  Playing at the KFC Yum! Center was great, giving about 11,760 fans a chance to come see the team play that wouldn't have been able to if the match was at LNFCU Arena.  Spotted in the crowd at various points were Alumnae Tori Dilfer Stringer, Anna Stevenson Hall, Katie George - in her professional role as color commentator for ESPN - and Amaya Tillman.  Tillman was also recognized with a pre-match bit for topping 500 career blocks in the post-season last year, and had plenty other of her accolades announced - my favorite being the Elite 90 award for having the highest GPA of any athlete at the Final Four.  Many current athletes from other sports were there, with contingents seen from Women's Basketball, Softball, Field Hockey, and more

.

Volleyball will be back in action this Sunday, again from the KFC Yum! Center at 1pm, hosting the aforementioned 5th ranked, and soon to be conference-mates, the Stanford Cardinal.  If you are one of our remote readers, it will be on ESPN2.  If you're in or near Louisville, though, get a ticket and come down to watch this team play.  You won't regret it.

(PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON)

-- JMcA

Reflecting Back Over the Last Several Years -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

REFLECTIONS

Remember the Silos? 

Remember the question in job interviews: Where do you see yourself in five/ten years? How many times have we looked ahead to think about where we would be but never actually looked back to see where we came from over that same stretch? In just 10 short (or long) years, things at Louisville, especially with women's sports have changed drastically.

Before we look at how Louisville Athletics has changed over the last 10 years I'll do a quick reflection of myself involved with UofL over the last 10 years.

This time 10 years ago I was preparing to enter freshman year as a Cardinal. I was still a UK fan at that time. It's crazy to think my UofL fan blood has only been around for 10 years and my involvement with their sports even shorter!

(...cleans up pretty well...)

I was getting ready for band camp with the Cardinal Marching Band- my first ever Louisville game as a student or in band was a Louisville vs Kentucky football game. Oh, the irony. In that same stretch of few weeks, I had joined the Cardinal Pride Pep Band and my earliest memory of a women's sport was volleyball. What freshman boy wouldn't be in awe over Katie George?

In that span of 10 years, I quickly switched my allegiances to Louisville, spent many years in the band, attended hundreds of games, traveled the country to cheer on the Cards, worked as a student on campus, changed majors, graduated, changed "big boy" jobs, and somehow became deeply involved in Louisville Athletics media. I went from having my first camera and taking some pretty poor quality photos at games that you can find in really old posts on here to newer cameras (I just bought another new camera two days ago) and slightly better quality photos. Many of the action photos you see from recent games have my handprint on them.

But let's move onto Louisville Athletics in the last 10 years. Overall, the Cards were still one of the top schools in the Big East. The Big East days would come to a close before the Cards spent a year in the AAC and have since been a more notable name in the ACC for the last several years.

Tom Jurich was still Athletic Director. We have since seen Vince Tyra come in to replace him, followed by Josh Heird being named as the newest successor earlier this year.

No new sports have arrived to campus in the last 10 years, but many stadiums and facilities have had nice overhauls. Lacrosse got a press box. Field hockey just got a new turf. Volleyball moved from Cardinal Arena, to the KFC Yum! Center, back to Cardinal Arena, now known as L&N Federal Credit Union Arena. Soccer moved from Cardinal Park to Dr Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium. Basketball was just familiarizing itself with its new home at the KFC Yum! Center. Softball got a makeover with seating.

Women's basketball added three more Final Four appearances in the last decade. They have hoisted the ACC trophy four times through the regular season or conference tournament. They have had two ACC Player of the Year awards and have had numerous players go to the WNBA. Multiple assistant coaches have gone on to become head coaches or associate head coaches at schools such as Mississippi State, EKU, and USC.

Field Hockey earned its first ever trip to the Final Four. It has also won an ACC Championship and is one a few ACC schools to ever go undefeated in conference play in a single season. The wall of All-Americans grew significantly.

Golf has seen coaching changes. Whitney Young is in her third season at the helm. Her predecessor, Courtney Trimble, was brand new 10 years ago. The Cards became a near-lock for the NCAA Regional Championships each year including reaching the NCAA Championship final in 2018.

Lacrosse saw a transition from its first ever head coach to its current head coach in Scott Teeter. The Cards have spent plenty of time in the Top 25 over the last decade and has even grown enough to include primetime TV games at Cardinal Football Stadium. The presence of international players on the roster has grown a lot in that timespan.

Soccer saw a move from Cardinal Park to Dr Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium, lauded for being one of the premier collegiate soccer-only facilities in the country. The Cards have seen multiple NCAA Tournament appearances as well as a handful of players drafted to go pro. Two players were named to their respective conference Offensive Player of the Year with Emina Ekic in the ACC in 2020 and Christine Exeter in the AAC in 2013. There was also a beautiful 2-1 overtime victory over #1 North Carolina in 2015.

Softball saw its first ever coach Sandy Pearsall retire after having built the program from the ground up and being in charge for almost 20 years to seeing the hire of Holly Aprile. Ulmer Stadium had an overhaul with seating since that time and just revamped their lights to include nighttime UofL red lights recently. They have been to five NCAA Regionals in the last 10 years.

Swimming and Diving went from no women's championships to seeing two different women's athletes earn NCAA titles. Kelsi Worrell won back-to-back titles in the butterfly. She became the first woman in history to swim the 100-yard butterfly in under 50 seconds. Mallory Comerford raised the NCAA Championship trophy three times in her career at Louisville. She even tied with Katie Ledecky in the 200-yard freestyle at the 2017 NCAA Championships. Arthur Albiero has continued to help Louisville Swimming and Diving became highly decorated. Louisville also saw a big jump in its diving program and even sent a diver to the World Championships this past summer.

Track and Field went from sharing Cardinal Park with soccer to having full rights to the venue. They also partnered with the City of Louisville to add an indoor track and field venue in downtown Louisville so the program would have the option to host both indoor and outdoor meets. The field program has become one of the top in the country and the Cards saw their first women's outdoor individual champion when Gabriela Leon won the pole vault this year.

Volleyball has gone through quite a bit of change. Anne Kordes was early in her stint at Louisville as the Cards' sixth head coach in program history and was in the midst of winning four conference titles in six years before Dani Busboom Kelly came in behind her. Volleyball had gone from playing in Cardinal Arena on campus to transitioning to the KFC Yum! Center before a huge revamp and renaming of Cardinal Arena, now L&N FCU Arena, became the permanent home for Louisville volleyball. Under Coach DBK, Louisville has one multiple ACC championships and has made three Sweet Sixteen appearances, two Elite Eights, and a Final Four. The Cards became ranked #1 for the first time in program history en route to a 32-0 start to the season.

                                                     *****************************

Here at Cardinal Couple, Jeff, Case, Daryl, and I have all joined Paulie's ranks as writers and contributors. Ten years ago, the writers were Sandy, Jenny, Paulie, Sonja, Phil and David Watson.  Our time on "live" radio transitioned from a basement on a hill in Crescent Hill, to a studio/house in the Mellwood area, seeing that radio station closing and us transitioning to the ever-popular podcast format. The ACC Pick Em and NCAA Pick Em have both grown into popular events that have become highly competitive. 

Things change over time and it seems like things have grown for the better over the last 10 years. With many bright moments ahead in Louisville Athletics, it's nice to take a moment just to look at how far things have come in the last 10 years and the insane amount of accolades and accomplishments have happened in that span.

Hopefully we can look back in another 10 years and see plenty more to brag about in that stretch.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Accolades for Several Cardinals -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

No Daryl today. She's working hard running the show at Louisville Slugger Field and welcoming back a fan favorite Cincinnati Reds who is down in Louisville temporarily. You get Jared again, which means you'll get at leasti one "selfie" in today's photos. 

In the world of UofL sports, we have no results to report. But we get to happily brag on several student-athletes!

Volleyball- Anna Stevenson

We'll start with a recent Cardinal alumna. Louisville volleyball's Anna Stevenson has been named to the US National Team. Currently ranked #1 in the world, Team USA holds the 2020 Olympic gold medal and is the three-time defending VNL national champion. Stevenson is one of 25 players to make the roster.

Since her ACC title and Final Four appearance with Louisville, Stevenson has been enjoying the engaged life while playing for Aydin Buyuksehir Belediyespor in Turkey.

A total of 14 players will be selected to travel each week as they play in the Philippines, Canada, and Turkey.

Softball- Carmyn Greenwood and Kendall Smith

Louisville softball had a pair of players named to the College Sports Information Directors of American Academic All-District team. To be considered for the honor, players must be a start or key reserve, maintain at least a 3.30 GPA, and be of sophomore level or higher at their respective institutions.

Greenwood is a two-time All-ACC selection and has been on the ACC Academic honor roll twice. Greenwood has had an All-American caliber season so perhaps there will be more accolades on the way for her?

Smith spent her final year of eligibility with the Cards after transferring in from Western Kentucky. She sat second on the team in batting average behind Greenwood and holds multiple Conference USA awards.

Lacrosse- Hannah Morris, Nicole Perroni, and Caroline Blalock

For Louisville lacrosse, three players received honors.

Hannah Morris and Nicole Perroni were named to the IWLCA All-Region Second Team. Morris was top on the team with 56 goals scored. She scored in 16 of the 18 games this year. Perroni was second on the team with 50 goals scored. Her 28 caused turnovers was a team best.

Caroline Blalock was named a USA Lacrosse Magazine All-American Honorable Mention. She was all named to the All-ACC Second Team. Blalock was top three for Louisville in six statistical categories.

Guess The Athlete

We had some fun a couple weeks back with guessing a couple student-athletes that I had the chance to work with. I worked with another student-athlete last night so I figured we could play "Guess The Athlete" again.

Need a hint? She plays on Jeff's favorite Louisville team. She's a defensive specialist. She graduated high school here in Louisville.

Answer: Alexa Hendricks

We'll play again in the future as the opportunity to work with more of our awesome student-athletes presents itself.

                                                      *******************************

Don't forget to tune into our World Famous Cardinal Couple Radio Podcast tomorrow ay 11:00 a.m. ET. We are happy to be back after taking last week off in honor of the Kentucky Derby.

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

Jared

Cardinals On the Road - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Field Hockey Visits Bahston

Field Hockey is in Boston, MA this weekend.  After their thrilling golden goal overtime win against Boston College Friday, the team took advantage of the whopping five miles of travel to their next opponent in Northeastern, and spent the day in Boston.  They got to visit some of the historic city after a morning practice.  Sites included a visit to the campus of Harvard, though technically speaking Harvard is in Cambridge, MA, and not Boston proper, it is all one big metro area.

As mentioned, the squad will be playing Northeastern today, just a quick ride up the Green line on the T past Fenway Park and a short walk, from Boston College.  Northeastern plays in the Colonial Athletic Association and currently sports a 4-9 record, 1-3 in conference.  They have wins over Drexel in conference, along with Dartmouth and Holy Cross.  They split with the Charles River contingent, beating Boston University, but losing to Harvard.  Their last game, a conference matchup against 21st ranked Delaware, was a week ago and was a close game, with the Blue Hens coming away with the 3-2 win.

The Huskies are led by Lauren Rowe, their most prolific shot taker.  She has six goals on the season, tied with Mak Graves.  Goalkeeping duties seem to be split between Julie Gluyas, and Erin Savage.  They've both played in at least 10 of their 13 games and the game starts are split eight to five.

The Cards will be looking for a fairly easy win in this won.  After a conference battle on Friday, I'm sure the team would welcome a relatively easy win.  Northeastern did show that they are capable of playing competitively with quality opponents last week, however, so this is another case of needing to not overlook an opponent that, on paper, shouldn't be much of a challenge.

A slightly earlier start for the game today at noon.  Streaming is only on Flo Sports, so that will make it a bit of an extra challenge to watch. They do offer a 7 day free trial...or you can shell out the $29.99 a month. If you'veused your one free trial...they won't allow another. 

You can follow the stats (from Statbroadcast) here:  https://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=363640

Volleyball Visits Wake Forest

Volleyball is also on the road this weekend.  After a tougher than expected win over Virginia Tech, the wide net Cards headed south to the western end of Tobacco Road and Winston Salem to take on The Demon Deacons of Wake Forest.

The Deacs are 2-5 in conference play, 11-7 overall.  Their only real notable wins on their schedule are the in-conference ones in a five set epic battle with Boston College (25-23, 25-21, 22-25, 25-27, 15-13), and a sweep against Notre Dame Friday (25-22, 25-23, 25-21).  As you can see, all of these have been close sets.  A five set loss to Kansas is somewhat interesting and they did take Georgia Tech to 28-26 in the third set before losing the match.  Their only other match against a top 25 team so far was a sweep by Western Kentucky (25-20, 25-21, 25-13), and the other local interest game was a Wake sweep of Bellarmine (25-22, 25-19, 25-18).

UofL will need to be on the lookout for the middles for Wake, 6'4" Olivia Franke, and Delaney McSweeney standing a whopping 6'7".  Both are hitting .310 on the year so far, which is not spectacular for middle hitters.  The real threat comes from the outsides Kamryn Malloy (6'0") and Ashley Slater (6'2"), hitting at .276, and .192 clips respectively.  Again, those percentages aren't spectacular and reflect the challenges this Wake Forest squad has faced all year.

5'10" Andrea Fuentes will be your setter, and Kalani Whiplock I believe will be in the libero jersey.

Louisville should have a relatively easy cruise through this match, as well as this coming Friday's matchup with Virginia, but that's also what was expected of the match two days ago against Virginia Tech and that got a bit more interesting than expected.  Take that as an object lesson not to overlook teams and be fully engaged and ready to go every time you hit the floor, or risk an embarrassing loss.

Next Sunday's match against Pitt looms large on the horizon, and it's important not to be looking too far ahead to it, and stay in "the now" and be sure to take care of business against this Wake Forest team first.

TV coverage on this one is on RSN, which I believe is typically available on channel 70 on Spectrum here in Louisville.  For the rest of us, may the odds be ever in your favor in finding a place to watch this one. They go by the tag "Bally Sports" now. A shame this one isn't on ACCN or ACCNX...  If you can find it online or on TV, it is a noon start.

A Soccer Tangent

As a bit of an aside, I joined my family (mother, brother, sister-in-law, niece, nephew) for an outing to Racing Louisville FC.  The first real fall evening, it was a crisp night out, but the Racing Louisville FC  club did get the upset 3-1 win over the Orlando Pride.

Orlando has a lot of power on the squad with National Team members representing at least two different countries in Alex Morgan, Sydney Leroux, Alli Krieger for the US, and Marta for Brazil.

While this is a bit outside of our mission of sharing the joy and excitement of specifically UofL women's sports, on an off evening for UofL sports, with teams either on the road, or in a bye week, it was a fun outing, to support a club that is rapidly building a lot of pride and support from the city, and with good reason.  They have a good product, by good people, and the set up a great atmosphere to enjoy it all in. And, former Cardinals great Emina Ekic is on the Racing roster and did see the pitch last night in late minutes.  As a UofL fan, it was a joy to look out onto the pitch and see Ekic matching up, at least briefly, with Alex Morgan.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

A technical problem prevented the live streaming of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast yesterday, though we, Case really, were able to record it and it is available in its more pure podcast form.

Field Hockey, Soccer, Volleyball, and a bit of Basketball was on the menu with Case, Jared, Paulie, and myself all on the call.  Daryl had the chance to go meet her new nephew and take him a Utah onesie for some reason?

You can find it at it's podcast home on Anchor at https://anchor.fm/cardinal-couple or at any of your normal podcast directories.

Streaming for next week may not be available as well as I will be heading to Indianapolis to watch cars drive fast, and turn left, with no drivers in them in the Indy Autonomous Challenge (https://www.indyautonomouschallenge.com/).

JMcA