Softball's Theatrics -- Walz Presser -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cardiac Cards Do It Again

Louisville softball sure has a thing for late-game theatrics this year. In this week's edition of the Cardiac Cards show, we find Louisville rallying in the final inning to take the 5-4 win at Marshall yesterday.  The Cards rallied from 2-0 and 4-3 deficits before holding on in the bottom of the seventh to secure the victory.

The Thundering Herd was quick to get to a 2-0 lead just three batters into the first inning following a hit batter and a home run.  Starting pitcher Megan Hensley would surrender nothing else during the time in her circle as she finished with five innings, allowing two runs on three hits.

Louisville's first rally came in the fifth inning as Kyra Snyder, Cassady Greenwood, and Maddy Newman all singled.  A throwing error plated the Cards' first run.  Celene Funke hit into a fielder's choice ground out that drove in the tying run.

Rebecca Chung sent a deep fly ball out of the park in the sixth inning to pull the Cards ahead 3-2.

Taylor Roby came to the circle for the sixth inning.  After Sidney Melton had trouble fielding a grounder, Marshall had the go ahead run at the plate.  They made the most of the opportunity with a home run that barely snuck out over the left wall field by a few feet to retake the lead, 4-3.

Louisville came up to the plate in the top of the seventh trailing by one.  The first two batters grounded out, leaving the Cards with one out to spare.

Show time.

Funke doubled left center with a 1-2 count on her.  Melton followed by belting a game-tying triple into right center.  Fellow senior Hensley followed with a double to give the Cards a one-run edge.

With the Marshall crowd silenced, Roby came to the circle for a second straight inning.  She made quick work of the batters, downing them one-two-three and earning the win to improve her record to 13-1.

Louisville improves to 32-15 on the season and will return home to host an evenly-matched North Carolina team.  The weekend will recognized the five seniors in Sidney Melton, Megan Hensley, Blaire Bass, Madison Cousineau, and Darianne Hale.

Following the weekend series they will travel to NC State for their final regular season games, followed by a trip to Tallahassee for the ACC Tournament.

The Cards sit 29th in the latest RPI.  Reaching the 35-win mark and winning their round game in the ACC Tournament should be the mark to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament this year.

Walz Holds Postseason Presser


With Paulie on a mini vacation and the rest of us obliged to our daily work duties, Jeff Walz decided to hold a press conference.  No, it wasn't to mess with us, but it did come at an unfortunate time for us.  Luckily, the women's basketball team Facebook page went live during the event for all of us to follow.

Right off the bat Coach was asked about the eligibility of the incoming transfers.  UofL has not started the process to go about trying to get the players immediate eligibility.  If approved, they'll be playing in the fall.  If not, they'll redshirt a year before playing.

It was mentioned that Kylee Shook had a minor procedure to "clean her knees up" and Bionca Dunham will go about that same process later in the summer.  This is not expected to affect their return in the fall.

Boise State and Western Kentucky are a couple of the non-conference games at home this year while Kentucky and Northern Kentucky will be road games.  There is the possibility of a Thanksgiving tournament, but is not yet finalized.

UofL is not yet set to face Sam Williams and EKU and that may be a few years in the making as Coach Williams hopes to build up the program.

The leaders for next year are not set.  Coach is hopeful that Jaz, Dana, and Kylee might be some of the players to step up next season.

There was no breaking news, good or bad, during the press conference.  It was just the normal. Or, as normal as anything that Jeff Walz is in can be. See Walz below:


VIDEO:  WALZ PRESSER 4/23/19


Happy Wednesday and Go Cards!

Jared

One For The Ages...Louisville Softball downs FSU 10-9 -- Lacrosse Today -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

SOFTBALL RALLIES TO KNOCK OFF SEMINOLES 10-9

Holly Aprile, head Louisville softball coach, indicated it might have been one of the most fun ones she had ever taken part it. 

The up-and-down, topsy-turvy seven inning affair at Louisville's Ulmer Stadium was a roller coaster ride last night but Louisville struck last, and best, in a thrilling, edge-of-the-seat, instant classic 10-9 win over #3 FSU Monday night.

Freshman Rebecca Chung delivered a three-RBI, walk-off double in the bottom of the seventh to put the final touches on a game that had four lead changes, 19 runs and 18 hits. 

If you were there, or watching on ESPNU -- this one was one you'll remember for a very long time. 

Like some amusement park rides, it started a little bumpy and herky-jerky for the Cards. FSU came out with three first inning runs on two hits, a walk and a unfortunate throwing error to take the early lead. 

During a run-down of a trapped runner, a toss for a tag-out went awry, and several Seminoles scampered home because of it.

Louisville was still behind 3-0 in the bottom of the third with the bottom of the order coming to the plate, but, they responded in a big way. Chung reached with no outs. Singles from Maddy Newman and Charley Butler filled the bags with Cards. Then "Food Mart" (Sidney Melton) emptied the bags with a triple and the game was evened up with a 3-3 score. 

Cards starting pitcher Danielle Watson was starting to find her groove in the circle after the shaky first inning and keeping FSU scoreless. At the plate, Louisville was staying hot and a deep triple from Maddy Newman to left-center completely fooled the "in-shallow" FSU outfielders in the fourth inning and plated two more Louisville runners to push the Cards ahead 5-3. 

UofL kept the hitting party going in the bottom of the fifth inning. With two outs, shortstop Caitlin Ferguson went opposite field and sent a towering blast down the right-field line that stayed fair (hitting the small fence on the right field pole) and Louisville had increased the lead to 7-3 with the two-run boomer from Fergie. Louisville had chased FSU ace hurler Meghan King (19-2) from the circle and the stands were a buzz with the proficiency of the UofL bats. 

Our photographer Jared Anderson was in right field berm talking to former Cardinal standout Nicole Pufahl and said the ball would have landed right next to him if the extension fence on the pole hadn't stopped it. 

Watson had cruised along in control for five innings for Louisville after the shaky start, but that was about to change for the sophomore pitcher from Osceola, IN in the top of the seventh. The Noles had decided they were not ready to load up the bus just yet and travel back to Tallahassee. 

They produced six runs -- the big blow being a bases loaded blast that easily cleared the center-field fence from Sydney Sherrill -- and the Cardinal Faithful in the seats (over 500 by most estimates and including athletic director Vince Tyra) went from elation to anxiety. 

Taylor Roby was called upon to take the circle and relieve Watson and she stopped the damage, getting the final two outs of the Noles half of the inning.


Louisville had one last at-bat to try for the tie to send it to extra innings or to win it. FSU brought King back to the circle to see if she could keep the Cardinal bats silent. The crowd noise had subsided temporarily except for the few FSU fans in attendance and that infernal war chant Noles fans are prone to do. 

The Cards were not ready to concede. They were getting back off the mat and squaring their fists for one last haymaker attempt. 

And, they connected. 

Food Mart started things off and delivered a single. FSU's King was having trouble finding the zone and walked Megan Hensley and Ferguson but the Cards had narrowly escaped a double play (after an umpires conference). It came down to this: There were two outs when Chung strode to the plate with the bases full. 

On the first pitch delivered by King, Chung sent a laser to right center that got past the outfielders and rolled to the fence.

Melton, Hensley and Ferguson were running as if their lives depended on it and all three crossed the plate to give the Cards the walk-off 10-9 win. 

The team exploded onto the field. Laptop chargers were exploding in the press box and the crowd erupted in a wild celebration. Cards win! The Cardinals win a 10-9 slug-fest !! From adversity to accomplishment, the Cards conquer FSU. 

The Cards find a new hero, get production from the old guard and discover that they can produce a  "it isn't over until we say it's over" shining moment. 

A signature win in Holly Aprile's young career as the Cardinals skipper and a night where Louisville softball showed the Noles and the rest of the viewing nation that perseverance and hope can provide good results and wins. UofL Softball could have easily hung their collective heads after the furious FSU rally, but, they chose to continue the fight and believe that they could strike the last blow.

And, they did just that. 

UofL (25-14, 6-6) takes the series 2-1 against FSU (37-5, 9-3) and gets a few days to prepare for next weekend's trip to BeanTown to face Boston College for three. 

(Photos from Jared Anderson) 


THEY SAID IT: 

Post game audio links below

Holly Aprile LINK: HOLLY DISCUSSES 10-9 WIN AND SERIES

Rebecca Chung LINK: POST GAME REBECCA CHUNG



LACROSSE FACES OHIO STATE

In one of those mid-week, non ACC matchups that have dotted the LOULAX schedule this season, Scott Teeter's Cards bring in Ohio State for a 1 p.m. matchup today at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium.

Louisville looks to end a four game losing streak when they take the turf against the Buckeyes. 

The skies are bright this morning and it should be ideal playing conditions. A great spring day to watch fast-paced, exciting Lacrosse action

Why not tell the boss that "you've got this thing", escape the workplace and come out for the thrill that is Louisville Lacrosse on Floyd Street!


paulie
xxxxx

Softball Rallies Late Twice for Two Wins -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Wins Twice in Cardinal Classic Double Header

Louisville fell behind in the first inning of action at Ulmer Stadium this season before ultimately scoring 7 unanswered runs to take care of Indiana State 7-1. Sounds pretty simple, right? Not quite. The Cardinals and Sycamores were locked at 1 from the second inning on, and Indiana State threatened to regain the lead multiple times throughout the game. It wasn't until the 6th inning that Louisville scored its next 6 runs and then finished ISU 1-2-3 in the 7th to win the game.

Louisville took advantage of three Indiana State errors, all in the sixth inning, to win the game. Five of Louisville's six runs in the sixth were unearned, the go ahead run being the only earned run of the inning. Despite the significant number of unearned runs, the Cards were still credited with 5 RBIs, with Celene Funke, Megan Hensley, and Cassady Greenwood earning one apiece and Kara Snyder picking up two. Celene Funke led the Cards on offense with 3 hits on 4 at bats. She scored a run, had the aforementioned RBI, left no runners on base and struck out 0 times. 

Because I apparently do not know how softball pitching scoring works, Megan Hensley was credited with the win, despite exiting a tie game in the top of the fifth inning. Louisville would not take the lead with Hensley in the circle, but she moves to 2-1 and Taylor Roby, who pitched the final three innings (including getting the Cards out of an early jam in the fifth) earned the win. Hensley finished with six hits vs six strikeouts. She walked one batter, hit one batter, and allowed one run. Roby had three strikeouts, only one hit, and one wild pitch. Louisville's pitching in this game was a lot better than it has been in terms of control, and that is important as giving opponents free baserunners can lead to losing games. 

There was no rest for the weary after a late win, as the Cards prepared to take on the Missouri Tigers (26th in the latest RPI) just a half hour after their previous game ended. Louisville is currently ranked 45th in the RPI so a win here would show that the Cards have the ability to finish games against stronger competition, something they kind of need to prove after a less than stellar start against quality teams so far this season.

It was a come from behind game again for Louisville as they allowed Mizzou to take a 3-0 lead in the second inning following two hits, two walks, and an error. Fortunately, the Cards were able to clean up the defense and pitching after the second inning, scattering just three more hits, two more walks, and one more error throughout the game. The Cards' bats were quiet for the first half of the game, as their only baserunner came on an error in the first. Louisville's first hit came on a single by Hensley in the fourth inning. She was replaced by Jordyn Wolfe on the basepaths, who scored on a Caitlin Ferguson triple in the next at-bat. After a Rebecca Chung walk, Ferguson was replaced at third by Maddy Newman (who was pinch running for Chung) after a baserunning breakdown. Ferguson out, Newman at third. Taylor Roby singled up the middle and the Cards trailed only 3-2.

Again, in the sixth inning, the Cards made their move. Ferguson and Chung were determined to score on their own, and after Ferguson doubled, Chung sent a home run over the right center wall to give the Cards a 4-3 lead. Louisville dinked and dunked a couple of more hits to bring Kara Snyder in on a Riley Schindler single and the Cardinal lead moved to 5-3, the final score.

The Cards were led on offense by Ferguson and Roby, both going 2-3 with an RBI, and Chung, who was 1-2 with a walk and the go ahead two-run homer. Danielle Watson went the distance in the circle in this one, moving her record to 4-4. She allowed 5 hits, 3 runs (2 earned), and 4 walks. However, she did strikeout five, and as I mentioned before, most of the damage to her line was done in the second inning. She allowed more than one baserunner in only one other inning, and that was an error and a walk. Watson and Hensley are both fighting to be called the "ace" of this team, and the competition is a good thing to have. The two make each other better and it is exciting to see improvement from them. 

Also important for the Cards is that the pitchers and offense are supporting each other. Last season, we saw games where the pitchers would be great, only for the offense to be inept and the Cards lose a low scoring game. In other games, the offense would score ample runs, only for the pitchers to give up even more and the Cards lose a high scoring game. Louisville has been very balanced so far this season and that is the path to success. Hopefully Holly Aprile can keep finding improvement in her team this season and beyond. The Cards are back in action this morning at 10:30 in a rematch game against ISU before a 4:30 (scheduled) game against IUPUI. Both games are available on ACC Network Extra if you cannot make it out to Ulmer.

LINK:

POSTGAME WITH HOLLY APRILE

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

I'm out of the studio this week as deadlines call me into the office once more, but fear not; the four seats shall be filled. Paulie, Jeff, and Jared are joined this week by Daryl Foust, who is more than thrilled that softball has returned to the Ville. The four will discuss yesterday's softball games, likely while keeping up with the action in the game ongoing during the show, while also giving Louisville women's basketball the attention it deserves. It should be a fantastic hour of sports talk radio, the only one bringing you all of the news and analysis regarding Louisville women's sports. Tune in to WCHQ at 100.9 FM, the WCHQ App, the WCHQ website, or fanfare back on Facebook Live at 11AM.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Photos for this article provided by Jared Anderson.

Louisville women's basketball bests Boston College 87-51 -- Softball takes two -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

DURR'S 23, STIFLING "D" GIVES CARDS WIN NUMBER 25

Defense got the job done and Asia Durr added another 20+ point game to her resume yesterday in the 87-51 win for Louisville women's basketball yesterday in the KFC YUM! Center in front of 11132 fans. 

The Cards (25-2, 12-2) knew that BC was prone to giving up points, the Eagles (14-14, 3-12) had surrendered over ninety in eight of their last ten games. They had also lost nine of those ten games. Although Louisville fell three points short of the ninety mark, they took advantage of a less-than-stellar B.C. defense to shoot 51.7%, get 32 bench points and Durr complied her 23 points in just 27 minutes of court time. 

The Cards have been prone to slow starts in the past but this one was pretty much over early. After Arica Carter's jumper made it 12-3 with 6:38 left in the first quarter, the Cards pushed that out to a 23-11 lead at the first quarter's end. The "A" Team (Arica and Asia) had 13 of those and the rout was on. 

Coach Walz got to experiment with a lot of different combinations in the 40 minutes (no one played more than 27 minutes) but the question that started being posed to me early on was "Where is Mykasa Robinson?" I had a feeling it might be part of the post-concussion protocol players go through (no bright lights or loud noises) but didn't get the official confirmation on the absence reason for the talented freshman until halftime. 

Coach Walz went into a bit more detail in his presser, which you can hear below. 

With Kasa sitting out, it provided freshmen Lindsey Duvall and Seygan Robins extended minutes and valuable court-time experience.

Both met the challenge, Duvall totalling nine points, hitting two threes, getting a steal and a rebound. Her free throw shooting was off, just 1-4, but as she explained to me post-game, she just didn't get her legs into the free throws and vowed to solve that with extra practice and attention to detail.

Robins added three points but produced four assists in her 13 minutes. She looked comfortable out there and boh should be key influences on the 2019-20 Louisville WBB squad. 

Louisville won each quarter, won the rebounding and scoring in the paint battles and forced 24 turnovers. The Cards got 11 steals and Kylee Shook continued to impress with 14 points on 6-7 shooting -- nailing both "three" attempts and grabbing seven rebounds.

She told Coach Walz she wants to "be pushed" by the coaching staff. Looks like she got a big shove by them in preparing for this one. 

The Boston bunch was aggressive, no doubt. They committed 23 fouls, giving the Cards 27 free throw chances and forward Taylor Soule took things way-too-seriously by gathering two technical fouls and a exit from the action. It got chippy at the end of the first half when Soule and Sam Fuehring got entangled on a rebounding/possession attempt and early in the fourth when Soule got aggressive and menacing on tiny Dana Evans after she fouled Georgia Pineau...which got Soule tossed. 

Asia Durr felt the wrath as well, getting tackled out-of-boards when she was going for a pass by the scorers table. This time the culprit was Sydney Lowery and a hush fell over he crowd, wondering if wither would get up from the mid-air collision and subsequent tumble to the hardwood. Fortunately, both did and Asia shrugged it off in her post-game comments, saying it was just "part of the game". If my Chicago Bears are looking for a safety in 2019-20 that can break up passes, they should watch some game film on Lowery, maybe. 

Moving the ball, good movement off the ball, shooting the ball well...lock down defense...all things that lead to wins. And, that's what the Cards did yesterday -- in a convincing fashion.  

THEY SAID IT

Post game remarks below, or the "Steve and Paulie" show...with me and Bittenbender asking the questions. 

LINK: JEFF WALZ POST GAME

LINK:  ASIA AND SAM POST GAME

LINK: JOANNA BERNABEI MCNAMEE POST GAME (AUDIO ONLY)

(Nothing like 30 people in a media room and two people asking all the questions.) Hey, not scared, not shy, here.... 




THE FRED REPORT

Fred McMurray had "My Three Sons" on TV
Cards have "my three seniors" saying adios
Thursday night

FREE THROWS -- Louisville went 19-27 from the line for 70.4%. For me that's worthy of a capital letter. Asia 10-13. We won't elaborate on Duvall...CAPITAL "F" 

REBOUNDING -- Cards win the rebounding battle 38-27. Boston College was 12th out of 15 teams in the ACC in rebounding. Shook, Jones and Fuehring with seven each. Yes, that's a CAPITAL 'R' IN MY BOOK. 

EFFORT/EXECUTION -- Only 14 turnovers, 16 assists and over 50% shooting is what we like to see. The Cards also won the fast break points battle (13-6) and got 27 points off turnovers. Let's keep the capital letters rolling. CAPITAL "E". 

DEFENSE -- The Cards forced 24 turnovers, made 11 steals, held BC to 19 points below their average and 41% shooting in the 36-point win. I loved the defense yesterday and let's close it out with a CAPITAL "D". 

FINAL FRED TOTAL:  F-R-E-D


NEXT

I doubt we get Mr & Mrs. Wuf in the
YUM! Thursday Night. I'll see 'em at
the ACC Tourney. 

24-3 N.C. State comes to town Thursday night. They are tied for third place in the ACC with Miami and a 11-3 conference record. It's Senior Night and the Cards would love a huge crowd to come out and say "Thank You" to Asia, Arica and Sam in their final regular season home game. 

This will be a tough one. NC State's losses have been to North Carolina (51-64), at Florida State (70-75) and Notre Dame (73-95). They won't be an "easy out" by any means. They need to get a win in their final two to secure a top 4 ranking for the ACC Tournament and avoid playing on Thursday. With Louisville and Miami being their final two, they have their work cut out for them. 

Be there. 

(PHOTOS TODAY FROM JARED ANDERSON. IT IS WHAT HE DOES. DOES QUITE WELL.) 




SOFTBALL SLUGS BY KANSAS AND BRADLEY

They finally got on the field in rain-plagued Knoxville for the Tennessee Classic and the Cards made the most of the chance, going 2-2 yesterday. 

Danielle Watson went the distance in the first game, a 5-3 win over Kansas, and recorded eight strike-outs in the process. A three-run first inning for UofL got things started in the right direction...Sidney Melton's triple and Rebecca Chung's home run the major blows delivered to the Jayhawks for the early 3-0 lead. 

Maddy Newman and Melton scored in the fifth to push it to 5-0 and then weathered a three-run fence clearer in the bottom of the fifth from Madison Sykes (no relation to me that I know of). 

In Game Two, Louisville got home runs from Megan Hensley, Kyra Snyder and Charley Butler...and freshman Taylor Roby got the win in the circle with the save going to Hensley. Megan had four RBI's in the contest. 

At 6-5 on the season, the Cards go back to the Vols field for a 11:30 a.m. rematch today against Bradley. They'll conclude their Tennessee trip against the Vols at (appox.) 4:30 p.m. 


paulie
xxxxx

Louisville women's basketball -- Canes stun Cards 79-73 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

SHARP SHOOTING MIAMI GIVES LOUISVILLE SECOND LOSS OF SEASON

Me and the dynamic duo at Miami game

As Jeff Walz put it in his post-game presser, 73 points is enough to win a game. The problem Sunday was that Miami totaled 79 points with 55% shooting success (including 6-8 from three point range) and a huge afternoon from senior post Emese Hof (25 points) to catch and pass the Cards in the fourth quarter Sunday afternoon in front of 12193 fans in the KFC YUM! Center Sunday afternoon in downtown Louisville. 

The Canes came and conquered the Cards late on breast cancer awareness day. Stunning, yes. But, earned by the visitors from the bottom of Florida. 

This was a game where Louisville (23-2) started out hot early, climbing to a 22-13 first quarter lead, behind 10 first quarter points from Bionca Dunham. The Cards would push the margin to 14 early in the second quarter when Kylee Shook nailed a three with eight minutes until halftime but Miami refused to go away. The Katie Meyer coached squad would trim the UofL lead to five before the quarter ended but a four-point run by Jazmine Jones late and a key Asia Durr jumped boosted Louisville to a 37-29 advantage. 

Cardinal Couple favorite Robbie Bartlett
nailed the National Anthem

Miami (22-5) won the final three quarters point-wise (66-51) and started the third quarter on a 6-0 run to trim UofL's lead to two with 6:41 remaining in the third. 

Louisville was getting good looks and shots but the ball simply wasn't going through the net. The Cards missed their first eight shots of the third quarter, shot 31% for the quarter (5 for 16) but went from a 39-39 tie to push to a 51-47 lead by the end of the third quarter, thanks to a couple of Shook threes to close out the third session. 

Miami would not go away. The offense really picked up for the Canes (32 points for UM, compared to 22 points for the Cards) and Hof, plus senior guard Laura Cornelius were leading the way...shooting a combined 10 for 12 in the final ten minutes. Dana Evans' three gave the Cards a 63-59 lead with six minutes left but Miami tied the affair at 70-68  on a Hof jumper with four minutes left and the Utrecht,Netherlands post put the Hurricanes ahead to stay after two Cardinal turnovers with 1:27 remaining. The Canes hit their free throws the rest of the way and (going 9 for 10) and Louisville walked off the court with their first loss in the YUM! since Florida State won 50-49 back on 1/21/18.

A rough afternoon for Asia Durr from the floor (5-17 and 1-10 from three-point range) and she acknowledged that in her post-game comments by saying "I sucked today, I played like butt." A realization, though...by Shook, Durr and the rest of the Cards that this was not the final game of the season and that there were opportunities to learn out of this loss. 

Sometimes you run into a buzz-saw and can't turn the power off. Miami was the Hurricane yesterday and also hit their free throws late (19 for 25 for the game) to secure the upset.

i'm not the guy to EVER question any decision Jeff Walz makes, but, several people asked me why "B" sat the entire fourth quarter. Injury? (we found out "no"). OK, we'll get to that in a bit. 

An excellent coach job by Katie Meyer and a eye-popping performance from her Hurricane squad to stay close to, catch up with and eventually down UofL.  Walz will tell you that offense wins games and, although the Cards did put four in double figures (Durr 16, Evans 14 and Dunham and Shook with 12 each), it was Miami who scored the most points when needed, in the final quarter and created a three way tie (for now) atop the ACC with a Monday night match-up between NC State and UND directly affecting the logjam. 

My question on why Bionca Dunham sat the entire fourth quarter was addressed by Walz
in the presser as well. She is not injured, just a coach's decision. 

(GAME PHOTOS BY THE INCREDIBLE JARED ANDERSON) 


LISTEN UP ! 


LINK: POST GAME ASIA DURR AND KYLEE SHOOK

LINK: POST GAME JEFF WALZ

LINK: POST GAME WITH MIAMI'S KATIE MEYER AND EMESE HOF. (AUDIO ONLY)


THE FRED REPORT

Fred, whaddya mean UofL lost in the YUM? 

FREE THROWS -- The Cards had limited opportunities but went 6-7 from the line. Asia had 5 of them. That's 85% and good enough to earn a capital "F". 

REBOUNDING: -- After a even first half in board grabbing, Miami eventually won the boards battle 34-30. Dunham led the Cards with eight. Not the boards blowout that I expected, with Miami being the taller squad, but, still -- no letter earned.

EFFORT/EXECUTION -- The Cards battled well, committed just eight turnovers and really only fell short in one area -- making shots. The effort was there, the results just weren't happening. Kylee played one of her best games of the year, with four made threes. I normally don't award a letter after a loss, but I'll offer a lowercase "e" here. 

DEFENSE -- Miami could miss and the Cards couldn't stop Hof in the paint or Cornelius' drives in the fourth. 30-18 there. Louisville did force 13 Cane turnovers, but 32 points is way too many to allow in one quarter. They did stop Mompremier. I see no letter assigned here. 

FINAL FRED TALLY:  F-_-e-_


SOFTBALL FALLS TO NORTHWESTERN 

A 4-2 loss in the final day of the ACC vs. Big 10 challenge for Louisville. The Cards did take an early 1-0 lead but four straight scores from the Wildcats made it 4-1 going into the sixth.

Rebecca Chung's RBI double in the sixth scored Caitlin Ferguson to get the Cards to a two-run deficit and UofL did have two base runners on in the seventh with the go-ahead run at the plate...but couldn't push the runners across the plate. 

Louisville returns home after going 1-3 in Chapel Hill and is 4-5 overall. They'll face Virginia next, in the Tennessee Classic on Feburary 22nd. 


Have a marvelous Monday! 

Paulie