VOLLEYBALL ADDS MORGAN -- WNBA RECAP -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 TAYLOR MORGAN JOINS VOLLEYBALL STAFF

Taylor Morgan, who was a key player on the University of Minnesota's Final four team last season, has joined the UofL Volleyball staff as an assistant coach.

"We are thrilled to add Taylor to the staff," Dani Busboom Kelly commented. "Clearly she played at a very high level, but what stood out is her character is on par with her talent. She is a great example for our young women and will make a fantastic coach someday. there is no doubt she will make an immediate difference in our program." 

Morgan was a 6'0" middle blocker for the Gophers and was a second team Big 10 selection and All-Region Honorable Mention he senior year. She had six blocks for the Gophers last season in the match that eliminated Louisville from the NCAA Tournament 3-0 in the "great Eight" NCAA Regional finals in Austin, TX. on Dec. 14th. 2019

She had 514 kills and 283 blocks in her career at Minnesota. Morgan hails from Blaine, MN, a suburb of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. 

Louisville Volleyball is scheduled to start the 2020 season Sept. 16th against Kentucky.

CARDS WSOC CALLIE MCKINNEY TO BELLARMINE

Callie McKinney was an excellent mid-fielder for the Louisville women's soccer squad during her four years as a Cardinal. Callie was a starter all four years at Louisville. She's taken those skills and parlayed them into a coaching career. 

The Knights announced last night that McKinney has joined the staff as a graduate assistant. 

Bellarmine will compete (sooner or later) in Division I women's soccer and is in the A Sun Conference. Glad to see that Callie will still be around "the Ville" - and hope she can do wonderful things as a part of head coach Chris Tinius' staff! 

WNBA SCORES

Three out of the four UofL WBB Cardinals in "the wubble" were in action last night.

CHICAGO SKY 84 -- LAS VEGAS 82

A heart-breaking loss for Angel and the Aces last night. With 13 seconds to go, Chicago ran a nifty out-of-bounds double screen that eventually got Azura Stevens wide open under the basket and she sank the layup to sink Las Vegas. 

Angel McCoughtry led the Aces with 17 points. She was one of five double-digit scorer for the Aces, who are now 8-3. McCoughtry added five rebounds in 21 minutes of play. 

Las Vegas led 25-15 after one quarter but Chicago (8-4) roared back in the second half and grabbed a nine-point lead. Vegas was able to tie it late, but the Sky managed to get their second win in a row.

SEATTLE 105 - NEW YORK 64

A tough night for the New York Liberty against league-leading Seattle last night. The Storm jumped out to a 10-0 lead and had things well in control by the half, leading 61-28.

For New York (1-10) Jazmine Jones had 10 points and six rebounds in 28 minutes.  Kylee Shook saw 18 minutes and had four points and six rebounds. 

The struggling Liberty have lost their last five games in a row.

Have a wonderful Wednesday, mask up, keep your distance and sanitize and wash.

paulie 

George, Fairs named AVCA All-Americans -- Thursday Cardinal Couple

HONORABLE MENTION FOR TWO VOLLEYBALL SENIORS

We've spoken many times here at Cardinal Couple on how valuable Katie George and Erin Fairs were to the 2015 Louisville Volleyball team. That was verified by the AVCA in their All-American selections...both George and Fairs were placed on the Honorable Mention squads. 

First, second and third teams had 14 players each and there were 64 that were placed as honorable mention...so Fairs and George were considered to be in the top 100 of Division I college volleyball athletes. 

Maybe we're a little biased here...but we're thinking George deserved to be on one of the top three teams. Still, the honor is a very deserving one for each. 

After all, George was the 2015 ACC Player of the Year and Setter of the year. She led the league in assists. There were five setters named in the three teams. Is Katie only the sixth best setter in the nation? We think she's higher than that.

Fairs was a punishing outside hitter for the Cards. She was all-conference during her time at South Florida in both the Big East and AAC. She was also all-conference during her one year at Louisville....making her the first player ever to be all-conference in three leagues. We could make an argument for Fairs being on one of the top three teams also...but only one ACC player made any of the top three teams (Paige Neuenfeldt - UNC). 


Stanford and Minnesota, on the other hand, had four players each on the top three teams. Just in case you wondered how things were going in the NCAA Tournament, the Final Four takes place tonight on ESPN 2 starting at 7 p.m. Kansas will face Nebraska in the first game and Texas takes on Minnesota in the second match. Kansas is a bit of a surprise in being part of the Final Four but they knocked off #1 ranked USC in the regional finals to earn the berth.

We certainly appreciated the hard work, dedication and fire that Erin and Katie brought to Louisville Volleyball.  The two stars will be a part of the 2016 Louisville Volleyball Banquet on Friday, January 8th at the PNC Club at Papa John's Stadium. You can E-mail Sarah Petkovic at sarah.petkovic@louisville.edu for more information on tickets. 

paulie
xxxxx

Louisville Volleyball Banquet coverage and Softball in Vegas -- Friday Cardinal Couple

Courtney Robison honored at Volleyball Banquet

The University of Louisville Volleyball team held their annual banquet at the PNC Plaza at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium Friday night and it was a delightful treat to meet the players and enjoy the festivities.  

Senior Courtney Robison got the G.P.A. Award for the team. She had three semesters with a perfect 4.0 and Louisville head coach Anne Kordes praised the Louisville native for changing the atmosphere on how the Volleyball players approached academics and her leadership abilities on and off the court. 

Robison was also the honoree of a new award Kordes created for the squad...The Courtney Robison Award. It designates the energy and spirit of the team and of competition and will be awarded annually...given out each year by Courtney (at Anne's insistence). You guessed it...she won the inaugural offering of it. 

Alumni of The Year went to former player Gina Blumeier...who was one of the nurses bedside when Anne gave birth to her daughter and assisted in the delivery. It was Gina, according to Anne, that dispensed with the politeness in the delivery room and verbally got Kordes fired up with an old-fashion pep talk to acheive delivery within 30 minutes. 

We were lucky to be sitting at a table with junior Katie George, her mom Annie, strength conditioner for the team Zach Farrell, Volleyball marketing consultant Mary Ann Vetter and former Louisville Soccer great Paulo DelPiccolo.  Katie revealed some great stories about being selected as Miss Kentucky USA and Zach shared with us some of the mechanics and dynamics of strength conditioning. 

Anne Kordes' keynote address was short and sweet. She talked about the past season and revealed some details about next year's slate. Always her effervescent self, Kordes expressed her love of the chemistry and bonding of "her girls" and thanked the attendees for supporting the sport.  

We've got some great interviews from the banquet with several players, Zach Farrell and Annie George that we'll be playing on today's radio broadcast of the CARDINAL COUPLE HOUR. Tune in at 11 a.m. today on WCHQ 100.9 FM or on the internet at www.crescenthillradio.com. You can access tomorrow's show and the past several broadcasts at the site on Soundcloud. 

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Softball Splits in opening day at Vegas


The Cards won their opening game of the season...a 6-4 victory against UC Davis in the Sportco Kick-Off Classic. Sophomore Kristina Dillard went 2 for 3 with three RBI's in the win and Brittany Duncan blasted a homer to give freshman Shelby McCombs the win.

Louisville jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Duncan delivered a bases empty home run with two outs, the Cards loaded the bases and Dillard delivered a two RBI single to give the Cards an early advantage. 

The Cards added two more in the fourth...loading the bases again and pushing two across on a walk and a Dillard single. 

McCombs went five innings to get the win...giving up three runs on four hits. Freshman Bridgette Flaherty and Maryssa Becker came on in relief to preserve the victory.

The second game, against host UNLV...did not go as well. The Cards were held scoreless in a 4-0 Runnin' Rebs win. Louisville had the bases full with no outs in the final inning but a double play and ground out after that ended the game. 

This one was scoreless after three innings. Madi Norman came on in relief of starter Becker and allowed all four UNLV runs in the bottom of the fourth...a two run Vegas homer contributing to the damage. 

The Cards play two late ones tonight in the Classic...facing Minnesota at 9 p.m. and Cal State-Bakersfield at 11:15 p.m.

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As mentioned earlier in today's column, we take to the air today at

11 a.m. for our weekly edition of CARDINAL COUPLE Radio Hour. 

It'll be a busy show, with the Volleyball banquet to review, softball action to recap and basketball to discuss and preview. We'll toss a few more things in as well, maybe a Worldwide quiz and we have the great audio from the Volleyball Banquet. 

It's always jolly good fun and the best in UofL women's sports...join us at 11 a.m.

LINK:RADIO ON THE AIR IN ON THE INTERNET
  


paulie