Spirit Squad NCA & NCA Results -- WNBA Draft -- Louisville Tragedy -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

What started off as a typical post-spring break, post-Easter Monday for the City of Louisville, things quickly went south as two separate incidents occurred in the heart of downtown. We will come back to that at the bottom of today's post.

Cheer and Ladybirds Find Success at NCA/NDA Championships

The Louisville Cheer and Louisville Ladybirds squads spent the last few days in Daytona competing at the NCA and NDA Championships. The various squads found quite a bit of success in their time there.

Louisville All-Girl Cheer Wins

The Louisville All-Girl Cheer squad took home the crown in the Advanced All-Girl Division 1A, pushing their reign to nine straight titles. They posted a final score of 96.9421.

Louisville Small CoEd Places Second

The Louisville Small CoEd Cheer squad placed second in the Advanced Small CoEd Division 1A. They finished with a final score of 94.8912.

Louisville Large CoEd Places Second

The Louisville Large CoEd Cheer squad also placed second in their respective division, Advanced Large CoEd Division 1A. They finished with a final score of 96.8148, less than one point shy of first place.

Louisville Ladybirds Places Second in Team

The Louisville Ladybirds placed second in the Team Division 1A. They finished with a final score of 95.65, just .05 points shy of first place.

Louisville Ladybirds Finishes Fourth in Hip Hop

The Louisville Ladybirds took fourth in the Hip Hop Division 1A. They finished with a final score of 94.0571.

Louisville Ladybirds Finishes 11th in Jazz

The Louisville Ladybirds finished 11th in the Jazz Division 1A. They finished with a final score of 91.7714. This is the first time in over 15 years that the Ladybirds have competed in the jazz division.

Louisville Cheer Places Three Teams in Stunt Groups

The Louisville Cheer squads had three teams place in the four-person stunt groups. Myah, Taylar, Shekinah, and Kristen placed second with a score of 93.7222. The group of Maddie, Mya, Kaylee, and Ella finished eighth with a score of 90.3333. The group of Aoi, Whitney, Meghan, and Madie finished 11th with a score of 73.25.

All Louisville groups compete at the highest level possible so these results are that much more impressive. Plenty of other Division I athletics programs competed in Division 1 (not 1A) or in the intermediate divisions.

WNBA Draft

The 2023 WNBA Draft was last night and we saw 36 players selected in the WNBA Draft. Alas, we had none of the six graduating Louisville Cardinals selected. 

Picks:

1- Aliyah Boston (South Carolina, Phoenix Mercury)

2- Diamond Miller (Maryland, Minnesota Lynx)

3- Maddy Siegrist (Villanova, Dallas Wings)

4- Stephanie Soares (Iowa State, Washington Mystics, then traded to Dallas Wings)

5- Lou Lopez Sénéchal (UConn, Dallas Wings)

6- Haley Jones (Stanford, Atlanta Dream)

7- Grace Berger (Indiana, Indiana Fever)

8- Laeticia Amihere (South Carolina, Atlanta Dream)

9- Jordan Horston (Tennessee, Seattle Storm)

10- Zia Cooke (South Carolina, Los Angeles Sparks)

11- Abby Meyers (Maryland, Dallas Wings)

12- Maïa Hirsch (France, Minnesota Lynx)

13- Taylor Mikesell (Ohio State, Indiana Fever)

14- Shaneice Swain (Australia, Los Angeles Sparks)

15- Leigha Brown (Michigan, Atlanta Dream)

16- Dorka Juhász (UConn, Minnesota Lynx)

17- LaDazhia Williams (LSU, Atlanta Dream)

18- Madi Williams (Oklahoma, Seattle Storm)

19- Ashley Joens (Iowa State, Dallas Wings)

20- Elena Tsineke (South Florida, Washington Mystics)

21- Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu (South Florida, Seattle Storm)

22- Alexis Morris (LSU, Connecticut Sun)

23- Kayana Traylor (Virginia Tech, Chicago Sky)

24- Brea Beal (South Carolina, Minnesota Lynx)

25- Victaria Saxton (South Carolina, Indiana Fever)

26- Monika Czinano (Iowa, Los Angeles Sparks)

27- Destiny Harden (Miami, Phoenix Mercury)

28- Taylor Soule (Virginia Tech, Minnesota Lynx)

29- Kadi Sissoko (USC, Phoenix Mercury)

30- Okako Adika (USC, New York Liberty)

31- Paige Robinson (Illinois State, Dallas Wings)

32- Txell Alarcón (Spain, Washington Mystics)

33- Jade Loville (Arizona, Seattle Storm)

34- Ashten Prechtel (Stanford, Connecticut Sun)

35- Kseniya Malashka (Middle Tennessee, Chicago Sky)

36- Brittany Davis (Alabama, Las Vegas Aces)

Monday Tragedy in Louisville

*The thoughts and opinions by Jared Anderson may not reflect that of the entire Cardinal Couple team. This section talks about gun-related deaths in Louisville and may be triggering or upsetting to some.*

While our goal is to cover the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics, sometimes other events occur that we need to address. There were two separate incidents yesterday that happened within a couple hours of each other and just a few blocks from each other.

The first incident happened at the Old National Bank building on Main Street next to Louisville Slugger Field. A former employee entered the building before the bank began normal operating hours and opened fire, killing four and wounding at least nine others.

The second incident happened just outside one of the JCTC buildings near the corner of Chestnut Street and Market Street. The shooter(s) dispersed before emergency personnel arrived on scene and left one person dead and another injured.

We tend to avoid politically-related topics at all costs here at the site... but when something hits so close to home it cannot be avoided so I am speaking on my own behalf here. While all Louisville students, including all Louisville student-athletes, woke up and began a normal day today, five people in Louisville did not wake up today. Many of us have grown up in this city and have great love for the city and community and now we suffer a tremendous amount of pain. It hits worse when it's close to home.

Change needs to happen to prevent these senseless acts of violence from continuing on in the future. I urge you to get involved in the push for change by contacting lawmakers and making sure to vote better people into office. Doing nothing changes nothing. 

We here at Cardinal Couple mourn and offer our condolences to those affected by yesterday's tragedies.

Have a good Tuesday and Go Cards.

Jared

Softball Hosts Notre Dame -- NCA and NDA Championships - THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Softball Hosts Notre Dame

Paige Geraghty, Ally Alexander, Easton Lotus, Sam Booe, Alyssa Zabala

Due to the Easter holiday on Sunday, Louisville softball gets an early start to their weekend series. The Cards welcome Notre Dame to Don Dobina Field at Ulmer Stadium for a Thursday, Friday, Saturday series.

Most recently, Louisville is fresh off a 2-0 series sweep at Syracuse after the third game was cancelled due to freezing temperatures.

The Cards are 24-10 on the year and 9-2 in the ACC and hope to improve on those numbers against the Irish.

Hannah File, Sam Booe, Alyssa Zabala

Notre Dame enters the weekend with a 21-10-1 record. The Irish hold a 5-6-1 record in the ACC with the tie coming against Syracuse due to a drop dead time. In their most recent ACC series, Notre Dame dropped two games to Pitt, but turned around with a mercy rule victory against Ball State on Tuesday.

As a team, Notre Dame is hitting .325. Eight players are hitting above the .300 mark (minimum one at bat per game). Extra base hitting has been a strong suit for the Irish, who have 49 doubles and 42 home runs.

Carlli Kloss has been the top hitter with 40 hits on a .364 batting average. Her 12 doubles are also a team-high. Karina Gaskins and Joley Mitchell power the Irish with 27 and 26 rbis, respectively, with both players batting over .300.

In the circle, Notre Dame has run on a three-person rotation. Micaela Kastor powers the pitching staff with a 1.78 ERA. Payton Tidd has the most strikeouts with 78.

Today's game is set to start at 6:00 p.m. ET and will be aired on ACCNX.

NCA and NDA Championships

The Louisville cheer squads and Louisville Ladybirds are down in Daytona for the NCA (cheer) and NDA (dance) national championships. The Cards will have several groups compete.

Louisville cheer will be split into three main groups- All-Girl, Small Co-Ed, and Large Co-Ed- with each group competing in their respective category. There will also be a few four-person stunt groups competing in a separate event.

The Louisville Ladybirds have competed in two separate categories in the past, but will be competing in three this year- team, hip-hop, and jazz.

The all-time winningest programs in Louisville Athletics history are the cheer and dance programs, powered by dozens of women student-athletes.

Prelims for cheer start today and finals tomorrow while the dance prelims are split up between today and tomorrow and finals going on tomorrow and Saturday.

We wish all the groups the best of luck!

LESTER IN TRANSFER PORTAL

She never stepped on the court as a Louisville Cardinal, due to a leg injury, and now she has entered the transfer portal.  Imani Lester.

 

The 6'3" forward was the 57th ranked overall in the 2022 ESPN Hoop Gurlz. 

Wishing her the best, wherever she lands. 

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

WNBA Draft -- Softball vs UK -- Two National Champions -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WNBA Draft

Last night was a big night in the world of women's basketball- the 2022 WNBA Draft. We kept a particularly close eye on the draft due to multiple Cardinals who were projected to get drafted.

Rd 1, Pick 4: Emily Engstler, Indiana Fever. Congratulations to Emily Engstler! Louisville knocked one out of the park when she transferred to Louisville to finish her collegiate career for the 2021-2022 season. The Cards' fourth Final Four appearance in program would not have happened without her. Engstler was one of four players taken in the first round by the Indiana Fever. The Fever had seven overall picks.

Rd 2, Pick 16: Kianna Smith, Los Angeles Sparks. Congratulations to Kianna Smith! Smith was on the court the last two seasons for the Cards after sitting out the 2019-2020 season due to the NCAA transfer rules. The California native reached 1000 career points early this past season. She heads back to her home state of California as one of four players selected by the Los Angeles Sparks this draft.

Louisville has had 16 players drafted in the WNBA in program history. The Cards have had at least one player selected in the last four drafts and have had eight total players drafted in that span. 14 of the 16 have come under the Walz era. 

The ACC had eight players taken in the 2022 WNBA Draft: Louisville (Emily Engstler, Kianna Smith), NC State (Elissa Cunane, Kayla Jones), Florida State (Kierstan Bell), Georgia Tech (Lorela Cubaj), Virginia Tech (Aisha Sheppard), and Notre Dame (Maya Dodson).

The SEC had seven players taken in the 2022 WNBA Draft. The Big Ten and Big 12 each had four players drafted. The Pac-12 had two players drafted. Baylor and UConn each had three players drafted.

Softball Hosts Kentucky

After an eventful seven-game weekend revolving around volleyball, softball, and baseball, plus a bomb threat scare, I'm ready to get back to campus for more UofL sports. Louisville softball welcomes rival #8 Kentucky to Ulmer Stadium at 6:00 p.m.

This game is rescheduled from last Wednesday, when weather was not cooperative. The weather appears to be not cooperative again today, but fingers crossed we will get this game in.

The game is marked as a RED out. Admission for chair back seating is $5 while outfield berm seating is free.

Kentucky is 27-9 on the year with an 8-4 conference record. They are 9-6 against ranked opponents, including a sweep over LSU. They boast a .318 team batting average with nearly the entire starting lineup batting over .300.

Erin Coffell has been the top offensive contributor for the Wildcats with a .415 batting average, 11 home runs, and 41 rbis.

Maranda Stoddard is their top pitcher with a 5-3 record, a 3.30 ERA and 30 strikeouts. Alexia Lacatena and Sloan Gayan have each had strong seasons with sub-3.00 ERAs. As a whole, UK's pitching corps has a 3.00 ERA with 159 strikeouts to 90 walks.

You can catch this game on ESPNU.

Cheer and Dance Have High Success at NCA/NDA Championships

Louisville Cheer brought back two national championships from their All-Girl and Small Coed squads and a third place finish from the Large Coed squad. The four-person stunt groups finished third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and ninth.

The Louisville Ladybirds finished fourth in the team/pom division and second in the hip-hop division.

Between a pair of national championships and several other top-tier finishes, we would like to congratulate the unofficial athletics teams at UofL, especially since neither championship could've have been accomplished without women student-athletes.

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

Circling back around to the bomb threat at Jim Patterson Stadium (baseball) on Sunday that I mentioned, I want to take a moment to praise the Louisville game day and operations staff for acting quickly and clearing out a 2000+ crowd out of the stadium in under 10 minutes. They were able to act a professional manner while keeping everyone calm. We never want to see an emergency situation at a game, but it is comforting to know that the staff and volunteers are all well-trained to handle a situation if it were to arise.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Softball vs UNC -- Directors Cup Standings -- Daytona -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Daryl is back to running the show with the Louisville Bats. They began their season this week and had a home game last night. To keep her from being up until the sun rises, I stepped in to help her out today.

Softball Hosts North Carolina

It appears to be North Carolina hate weekend on campus with both Louisville softball and Louisville baseball hosting the Tar Heels on campus. For the Cards at Ulmer, the weekend schedule features one game on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Louisville had extra rest this weekend with their game against Kentucky getting postponed due to weather. With Don Dobina Field a little too wet to get much fielding done, we can assume the Cards spent plenty of time in the batting cages.

North Carolina fell to 19-18 this week after falling to Charlotte in a midweek game. The Tar Heels boast a 4-8 conference record.

As a team, UNC bats .275 with 156 total runs scored and 16 home runs. They have four players batting above .300, but have struggled a bit offensively.

Like the Cards, North Carolina has had some pitching woes, with a 5.45 team ERA. Four pitchers have seen between 35 and 83 innings pitched. Hannah George has been their top player in the circle with a 10-3 record and a .234 opponents batting average.

Today's game is slated for 6:00 p.m. Based off the forecast, we hope that will remain the same, but you might want to bring a coat or blanket to account for the chilly temperature.

Louisville Moves to #20 in Learfield Directors' Cup Standings

Following a strong winter sports season, Louisville moved up to #20 in the latest Learfield Directors' Cup standings.

Women's basketball finished their season third after making the Final Four and contributed 83 points.

Women's swimming and diving finished their season sixth- a program best- and contributed 73.5 points.

Men's swimming and diving finished their season 12th and contributed 64.5 points.

Women's indoor track and field finished 40th and contributed 31.5 points.

Men's indoor track and field finished 60th and contributed 13.5 points.

The 266 winter points puts Louisville at 452 for the school year. The Cards moved up from 25th after the fall season and hope to improve it even more in the spring.

Volleyball (3rd- 83 points), women's basketball (3rd- 83 points), women's swimming and diving (6th- 73.5 points), and field hockey (9th- 53 points) have been the top contributors so far. I guess women's sports continue to dominate Louisville Athletics. It's not like we haven't preached that here at Cardinal Couple since before some of the current student-athletes were born...

Cheer and Dance in Daytona

Louisville Cheer and Ladybirds are in Daytona at the NCA and NDA Championships. The event began yesterday and runs through the weekend.

Louisville Cheer will have three groups competing in All-Girl, Small Co-Ed, and Large Co-Ed. Each group will be competing in the varsity team event. The three groups had their preliminary round yesterday. All-Girl hit zero, meaning they had no penalties/deductions yesterday. Hitting zero is pretty uncommon so it was a great start for them.

Louisville Ladybirds will be competing in the jazz and hip hop divisions. Jazz had prelims yesterday and finals today. Hip hop begins prelims tomorrow.

We wish all of the groups the best of luck and hope to see five team championships come back to Louisville this weekend.

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

Jared

All Focus on Spring Sports -- Random News and Notes -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

With the conclusion of the women's basketball season- congratulations to South Carolina on their second national championship- all of our focus moves onto spring sports. Well, with volleyball, women's soccer, and field hockey all playing spring friendlies in the last week, you could turn your attention to fall sports too, but my attention span can't handle that much.

Women's Golf

Mairead Martin with the "hat trick" 

Louisville women's golf just wrapped up their regular season over the weekend. The Cards finished fourth at the Wolfpack Match Play at the Lonnie Poole Golf Course.

Instead of the normal style invitational, this event placed two teams against each other each round. Louisville faced Virginia Tech in the opening round and #3 South Carolina in the second round before closing out the invitational against NC State in the final round.

The Cards took a 3-2 (each player counts as one point) victory over ACC foe Virginia Tech with Gabbi Bentancourt, Mairead Martin, and Kendall Griffin won their match-ups, all three wins were tight.

Highly-ranked South Carolina (is this South Carolina hate week?) cruised to a 4-1 win over the Cards in the second round. Martin won her second match-up in as many rounds.

In the final day of the Wolfpack Match Play, Louisville was matched up against host NC State. The Wolfpack snuck by with a 3-2 win. Martin went a perfect 3-0 on the weekend while Lauren Thibodeau earned the other point.

South Carolina won the entire event, sweeping through the ACC with wins over Notre Dame, North Carolina, and Louisville.

The ACC Championship is next on the calendar and will be held at The Reserve Golf Club in Pawley's Island, S.C. from April 14-17.

Lacrosse Hosts Vanderbilt

Louisville Lacrosse closes out their home stand today with a noon start against Vanderbilt at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium. This one will be on ACC Network Extra (online only).

The Cards are fresh off a 2OT heartbreaker to Ohio State at Cardinal Stadium last week. The Buckeyes scored the game winner with less than half a second remaining in the second overtime period.

Vandy is 7-4 on the year and started conference play with a running clock loss to Temple. Since the SEC does not carry women's lacrosse, Vanderbilt competes in the AAC. Kentucky's men's soccer team competes in Conference USA for the same reason.

The Commodores average 12.6 goals per game with half of those coming on unassisted plays.

Bri Gross has been the go-to player for Vandy this year. The senior leads the team with 21 goals and 49 draw controls. Grad student Gabby Fornia ranked second in the country with 34 assists.

For Louisville, the major keys to the game will be winning the draw control battle and forcing Vanderbilt to go deep into the 90-second shot clock for a bad shot or turnover.

Softball Hosts Kentucky

We will get more into this tomorrow, but Louisville softball hosts rival #8 Kentucky on Wednesday at Ulmer Stadium at 7:00 p.m. The forecast for most of the day appears to be wet, but should hopefully improve by first pitch.

The Cards are 19-15 on the year after a 2-1 series loss at NC State last weekend and are looking for their second ranked win on the year.

Random News and Notes

-- After taking the NCAA Pick Em title this year, I'll be hosting an autograph session at Hailey Van Lith's Player of the Year ceremony next season. In all seriousness, between quite a bit of lucky guesses  and a little bit of knowledge about NCAA women's basketball, it eased my path to the win. I was hopeful to see the Cards ruin my bracket in the final couple rounds to win the championship, but my bracket champion got the win in the Final Four before taking down UConn in the championship.

Also, shout out to Kenny S on also getting 47 wins! He has won or tied for first in the last three NCAA Pick Em's, so I'll be consulting him in the future on what picks to make.

-- Louisville Cheer (All-Girl, Small Co-Ed, and Large Co-Ed) and the Louisville Ladybirds are headed to Daytona for the NCA and NDA Championships this week and weekend. Louisville Cheer can bring back up to three titles while the Ladybirds hope to bring back two titles. Even though they are not a recognized sport at Louisville, we still hope to cover exciting news for these Louisville women's athletes.

Rivalry Week is a bit bigger than just softball as baseball visits Kentucky tonight at 6:30 p.m. We love a good rivalry win so let's hope the Cards return home as Battle of the Bluegrass Part 1 champions. The Cards host UK in a couple weeks at Jim Patterson Stadium.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared