Volleyball Cruises Past Notre Dame - Sunday Cardinal Couple

The Irish Unlucky in Meeting Louisville

The Cards were casually dominant in the second half of the home and home meetings against Notre Dame, winning the sweep; 25-12, 25-16, 25-12.  The Cards advance to 19-3 overall and 11-1 in conference.

For the moment, that puts the Cards in sole possession of first place in the ACC, but that's only because our matches were Wednesday/Saturday this week rather than the ty
pical Friday/Sunday of conference play.  Pitt and North Carolina will be playing later today to return to the tie for 1st place.  Pitt should have an easy time at Virginia Tech at 1pm, but North Carolina has their work cut out for them with Georgia Tech paying a visit at noon.  If you're itching for some volleyball to watch this afternoon, UNC/GT should be a good one to catch.  Of course, lots of eyes will also be on Stanford at FSU after Stanford's loss to Miami Friday.  UNC/GT is on ACCNx, while Stanford and FSU are getting the prime ESPN 1pm slot.

Back to the Cards, though.  I initially thought to say that the Cards were in control from the first point of the game, but the reality is that the Irish won the first two points of the match, led at 6-4 and it wasn't until the match was tied at seven that the Cards really began to assert themselves.  Starting at 6-7 the Cards ran off a 5-0 run to 11-7, and really never looked back.  The rest of the match featured ND scores between another 5-0 run, a pair of 4-0 runs, and a final 2 points to win the set.

In a moment of amusement during the first set, the score graphic overlay for the jumbotron in the arena flashed up near the beginning of the set, about three points in, showing a score of 25-12 with Louisville in the lead.  It would take the operators a few minutes to work out the glitch and get the correct current score displayed.  And then Louisville won the set by that same 25-12 score.  Maybe a little bit of left over Halloween spookiness?

 

The second set was the closest by the Irish, as you can see from the set scores, but Louisville was able to steadily gain and increase the lead throughout the set, with the exception of a 5-0 ND run that brought them back into semi-competitive score at 16-13.  Louisville would get their foot back on the accelerator pedal, including a 5-0 run of their own, to take the set 25-16.

 

By the third and final set, the crowd had grown very quiet.  Even the Louisville crowd (about half of which were friends and family of Cara Cresse, who hails from Fort Wayne, IN, an under two hour drive to South Bend) couldn't muster up much motivation to cheer too terribly loud as the match took on the proverbial air of beating a dead horse.  The Cards jumped out to a 7-2 lead and that just seemed to take the fight out of the Notre Dame squad.  It just continued from there, with Louisville lead checkpoints at 16-6 and 20-8 on the way to the 25-12 win. 

 

It was a pretty easy victory over the Irish at Purcell Pavilion.  Louisville held ND to a whopping 0.000 hitting percentage...meaning they had as many hitting errors as they had kills.  Some credit there does go to Louisville's block, with six in the quick three set match that clocked in at a mere one hour and 15 minutes of playing time.  Louisville hit at a respectable .321 clip with a very well spread offense.

Charitie Luper led the Cards with 12 kills, hitting .417.  Anna DeBeer had six kills, Cara Cresse and Hannah Sherman balanced each other well with five kills each, as did Reese Robins and Sofia Maldonado Diaz with four each.  Sherman tallied a pair of solo blocks and shared a pair with Cresse getting a solo and a share of her own.  Luper, Robins, and Alanna Bankston all got in on the blocking as well.  While we're singing Sherman's accolades, it's only fair to mention the efficiency of her kills, chalking up an eye-popping .714 percentage.  Cresse was a bit less efficient, but still very good .417.  Maldonado Diaz, who never gets enough attention for her contributions, in my opinion, hit at a very fine .429 clip as well.

Kamden Schrand shone from the service line as well as doing a fine job digging, claiming three points through aces.  That eclipsed Elle Glocks pair with Luper, Elena Scott, and Sam Untiedt each getting one as well.

The Cards stay on the road for the coming week traveling to the northern extremities of the ACC, visiting Syracuse on Friday, and Boston College a week from today, and back to the familiar pattern of Friday/Sunday play.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

(the c.c. crew...pre daryl)

As I was on the road heading to South Bend, we didn't have the live broadcast of the CCRHP, but Jared, Case, and Paulie did get together for the recording and posting to podcast directories as Case typically takes care of that side of the CCRHP technical duties.

I have not yet had a chance to listen to it as I was tuned in to the big Louisville Football win last night (Clemson fans really rushed the field after a loss?  That's weird.  Hat tip to Mike Rutherford for that multi-year running gag that continues to pay dividends.)

Check out the trio podcast at:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Two-Fall-Sports-Wrap-Up-e2qfdtf

 

-- 

JMcA

Volleyball Tops the ACC - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Soccer Draws Against Notre Dame

Erynn Floyd emerges from the locker
room with Ella Kane

There probably was not a lot of expectation that Soccer would get any points in the standings against 13th ranked Notre Dame yesterday, but they did get a result, a scoreless draw, worth a point... against the Irish.  Jared was there for at least part of the game and got some pictures.

Given the challenges this squad has seen, getting a point vs Notre Dame is a good result, although it's short of the pace that the team needs to sustain to make the miniscule six-team ACC tournament.

This was the first shut out that Notre Dame has been dealt this season, and it improved the Cards record to 5-1-2 at Lynn Stadium.  Overall the Cards are now 6-5-3

Fina Davy on the attack

.  Much of the credit for that shutout goes to Erynn Floyd, who was back in goal for the Cards and ended up tallying 10 saves.

The road doesn't get any easier for UofL, of course, considering the gauntlet that ACC play is.  Notre Dame was the beginning of a four game homestand.  Next up is 7th ranked Stanford on Thursday, followed by 17th ranked Cal on Sunday.

Field Hockey at Wake Forest

Sowry's squad looks to end a five game losing streak with a visit to Wake Forest.  The Demon Deacon have yet to win a game in conference and are 4-7 overall.  Neither team is ranked nationally at this point.

With a 1-4 conference record, the Cards are only a single spot ahead of Wake Forest.  The Deacs are only ahead of 0-4 in conference Cal, and 0-5 in conference Stanford by virtue of having few loses and having a game or two in hand over the California contingent.

Today's game starts at 1pm in Winston-Salem as .is viewable on the ACC Network Extra.

Volleyball Advance in Conference

I'll talk about Louisville Volleyball here in a second, but first a quick look aside.

 

There's now only  a single undefeated team in Division I volleyball.  Care to take a guess?

.

South Dakota State holds that honor.  Now, the Jackrabbits don't have the strongest strength of schedule in the country, they don't have any opponents that have been ranked at any point in the season, but they are rolling through the competition they have, and the only challenge I see ahead of them is South Dakota, who took a set off of us up at the Northern Kentucky tournament.

The Jackrabbits are led by Sydni Schetnan, who spent a year here at Louisville, and was set to be a dual-sport Basketball/Volleyball athlete.  After her first year, where she only played basketball, she decided her future lay elsewhere and transferred, much closer to home, to SDSU.  We wish her and the Jackrabbits well. One wonders what she would have added to the UofL squad had she stayed? She and current Cards star, PK Kong were teammates in high school in South Dakota. 

So what happened to Pitt?  The Panthers, who had lost only a single set all season, dropped a close five setter against SMU yesterday in Dallas.  This was after they easily handled the Mustangs in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.  Clearly, the Mustangs learned from their first encounter.

I watched a little of this match and the Mustangs had success over Pitt when they got their blocking engaged, which bodes well for Louisville's matchups against the Panthers, with Louisville being the 2nd best blocking team in the country.

This development gives Louisville, at least for the time being, sole possession of first place in the ACC in volleyball.  The Cards are undefeated so far in conference, with Pitt, SMU, Standford, Virginia, and North Carolina all right behind with a single loss.

The Cards will play Miami today in Coral Gables.  The Hurricanes are 2-3 in conference and 11-5 overall.  They're a good team, and were ranked earlier in the season before falling off a bit.  Their biggest win of the season was in the 2nd weekend of play, where they knocked off defending National Champs Texas in five sets.  They have losses against a good Ohio State team, and lost both of their travel partner home and home matchups against Florida State.

Overall, Miami is a fairly good team, but more importantly, they have a lengthy history of reaching up from mediocrity and punching some top teams in the face.  All the numbers say that Louisville should win this, but of course, we've seen how this Cards team can suffer from some inconsistency.  Against a potential giant killer like Miami, UofL needs to be at the top of their game today.

This is also a 1pm start, and is available on ACC Network Extra.

Lacrosse Fall Ball

Lacrosse was in action yesterday in exhibition fall play.  They played two mini games and won both.  Jared was there to get pictures.

Freshman Lilly Boyle on the attack.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

And finally, Case, Paulie, and I were on the call for the CCRHP yesterday with a late, surprise, appearance by Jared.  We covered Soccer, Field Hockey, and Volleyball, results and expectations.  Paulie also gave us a rundown of the Basketball luncheon.

A good time, and a good show.  Check it out:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Volleyball-Rolls-Others-Still-Slump-e2pircn

 

-- 

JMcA

Just About Everyone in Action - Sunday Cardinal Couple

A Full Calendar

It's a full calendar today for Cards action.  Of the various teams that we primarily cover here at Cardinal Couple, only Basketball doesn't have some sort of competition today.

Lacrosse

Lacrosse gets an early start, kicking off at 9am for an exhibition tournament at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium.  These fall ball games for Lacrosse are typically not full scale Lacrosse games, but they will play multiple of them today.

The 9am start will be against Kennesaw, then the Cards will sit for a bit as some other teams square up, but will be back in action at 2pm against Xavier, and against Alabama Huntsville at 3:15pm to end the day off.

While all of the mini-games will be free and open to the public, no video coverage is expected.

Field Hockey

Field Hockey, being a Fall sport, will be in regulation play, of course, and continues their conference slate of games.  Again, the competition is fierce in ACC Field Hockey, and today is no exception as the Cards have traveled to Charlottesville for a clash against 3rd ranked Virginia.

The 16th ranked Cards are in a three game skid at the moment, and will be looking for an upset win to straighten out the season.  The three latest losses have all come to team ranked higher than Louisville, those being #12 Boston College, #4 Ohio State, and #15 Sy, racuse.

Other than return back to Trager Stadium, it's only to get harder for the Cards before it gets any easier, as the next opponent is top ranked North Carolina.

ACC Network Extra has the coverage for today's game at noon.

1pm Soccer and Softball

As we continue in order through the day, we have 1pm starts for both Soccer and Softball.  Soccer, of course, is in season, while Softball is playing exhibition fall ball.

Both are on the road, as Soccer has made the treck to Durham to match up against 2nd ranked Duke.

Softball, meanwhile, are probably on the bus on their way to Richmond, KY for their opponent for the day, Eastern Kentucky.  Softball played a double header against Bellarmine last week, but this will only be a single game, albeit they do plan to play a 10 inning game, so it will be one long one, instead of two regular ones.

Soccer will be on ACC Network Extra at 1pm should you wish to watch that, but alas there is no video coverage of the softball game expected.

Volleyball

S

tarting last today, Volleyball has a pretty big match against 19th ranked Georgia Tech.  The rankings, with Louisville ranked 4th, makes the Cards the favored team, but Georgia Tech is a very good team (with one of the "Killer B's" still playing, Biana Bertolino), that is certainly capable of some surprise upsets.

GT is 9-3, 1-2, their losses have come to a reasonably competitive UCLA team, a surprisingly good and now 17th ranked SMU squad, and rampaging Pitt.  (Pitt finally lost their first set...not match, just set...of the season Friday at Boston College).

The Yellowjackets don't have much in the way of signature wins on their record at this point.  They do have a sweep over a weaker-than-expected-but-still-18th-ranked Florida team.  Needless to say, a win over Louisville would be a signature win for Buzz.

The Cards are playing host today at 1:30pm at LNFCU Arena.  If you're not one of the lucky thousand or so fans to be able to get a ticket, it will be televised on ACC Network, the linear channel.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

The Cardinal Couple Crew was a bit small in number on the CCRHP call yesterday, with only Paulie and Jeff making the call.

We did carry on, though, covering the latest from Soccer, Field Hockey, and Volleyball, with a smattering of Basketball news from Friday's Louisville Live included.

Check it out:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Some-Teams-Strugggle--but-Volleyball-Continues-to-Win-e2p9u93

 

-- 

JMcA

A Sunday Trio - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Field Hockey Gameday

Field Hockey, after having their Friday morning game delayed for a little bit of rain, took up the event yesterday morning and competed well against a quite good, 12th ranked, Boston College team, but eventually came out on the short end of the stick.

And, all jokes above aside, Hurricane Helene has really been no joke, with a wide swath of destruction through the panhandle of Florida and up through Appalachia.  Our thoughts are with those affected.

Friday was just too rainy, and with some high winds in the area, it was a wise decision to delay that game.  That did, however put a bit of time crunch on the Louisville team.

So the game got underway at a very early 9:30am.  The Cards played well against the Eagles, but it wasn't enough.  The Eagles came away with the 1-0 win in the end.

Boston College did generate a little more offense than Louisville, but not by much.  They had 12 shots to Louisville's 9, and the same number on goal, 4 for each.

Riley Wollerton led UofL with 3 shots, followed by Aimee Plumb, and Izzy Bianco with a pair each, but credit BC's GK Charlotte Kramer with the four saves to keep the blank slate.

So a disappointing loss for the Cards who, while facing a very strong schedule, have struggled to find wins this season.  This loss pushes UofL back close to a .500 season at 5-4.

The early time yesterday was necessary as the Cards needed to hit the road to get up to Columbus, OH for their game today for a matchup against 4th ranked Ohio State.

The game today will start at 3pm, and the only streaming available is the for-pay Big Ten Plus streaming service.

Volleyball Top 5 Matchup

 

The VolleyCards are back downtown today after a brief stop off at L&N FCU Arena on Friday.  They welcome to the KFC Yum! Center the other half of the Pacific Coast contingent of the ACC, 3rd ranked Stanford.

Stanford comes in 9-1, with their only loss being handed to them by then 5th ranked Nebraska in Lincoln.  They have wins over Minnesota, Wisconsin, Texas, Kentucky, and starting off conference play on Friday, a 3-1 win over Notre Dame.

Kami Miner runs the show from the setter position for the s-less Cardinal, and she's very good at it.  She has several offensive options available to her and spreads the attack around quite well.

The Cards will need to be at the absolute top form to knock of Stanford.  They played a good match Friday against Cal, but it was defense heavy.  It was a defensive clinic, to be fair, but they'll need to generate more offensive attack to at least put pressure on Stanford.

Start time is 3pm, downtown at the KFC Yum! Center.  Due to the top 5 nature of the matchup, this one got picked up for the flagship channel treatment on ESPN.  If you are catching this one on TV, you'll get Eric Frede and Emily Ehman for the commentary a good duo that know the sport well, you'll be in good hands.

Women's Soccer

Soccer is back in action on Floyd St. bringing in NC State for the foe.

On the CCHRP yesterday, Case commented that this may be one of the last good chances Louisville has of picking up a win, perhaps along with Clemson to close out the season.

Obviously the Cards will be looking to capitalize on the opportunity, and continue to improve on last year's record.  They're already ahead of where they were last year, so they've already satisfied my "as long as there's improvement" criteria, but it's no time to quit.

NC State is 3-6-2, 0-2-1 in conference.  Their wins were to VCU, Charlotte, and George Washington, not exactly giant killers there, with losses to the likes of William and Mary, Rutgers, and Campbell.  In conference, they've faced the west coasties, Stanford and Cal, and lost to both.  They're coming into this game after a 1-1 draw with Notre Dame, a good point pickup in South Bend.

Game time is 1pm in the Dr. Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium on Floyd St.  ACC Network Extra has the coverage on streaming.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

(A blast from the past...the CC crew from "the basement on a hill" days)

And finally, the latest episode of the CCRHP is live, with Case, Paulie, and yours truly, Jeff..

Discussions on all three of the fall sports, albeit only reluctantly did we talk about Soccer's 5-1 loss to VT.  We also touched a bit on Basketball, based on Jeff Walz's lengthy press conference earlier in the week, including his rant on politicized mistaken identities. Our beloved coach does not have a brother running for Vice President, we're 99% sure of that,, but Jeff DID assistant coach in Mnnesota years ago...and Tim Walzwas governor of Minnesota...so conspiracy theorists..there's your bone to gnaw on.

(Tim Walz...sources say he is NOT Jeff Walz's older brother...)

Check it out at:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Cards-in-ACCtion-e2ovsmk

-- 

JMcA

No Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast Today -- A good podcast to listen to -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 SUMMER BREAK CONTINUES FOR C.C.R.H.P.

WHAT? NO PODCAST?

Because of our two writers that know how to run the podcast being unavailable again,this Saturday we won't be having the usual Cardinal Cpuple Radio Hour Podcast this June 1st. 

I am incompetant in such enginerring matters and can barely join a Spype session, so you dont want me running this thing. Daryl is curled up out on third base napping at the Bats ballpark, doing her duties for them this weekend and Jared offered to take a picture of it, but we dont know whether he could have pulled of running ia podcast or not. Jeff is over in Amsterdam trying to bail out Nicki Manaj..or something...and Case is unavailable again this Saturday...so the show must go on...nope, check that, it won't.go on. 

It's not like we had a whole lot to talk about anyway the majority of UofL women's sports on campus and else where being at a lull. 

We'll maybe be reassembled enough to try next Saturday. Or not. 

HERE'S A PODCAST

My buddy Kianna Smith knows stuff, though, and she is on a nice podcast with Edona Thaqi called "She's Always On" and they have a lot of fun talking hoops and stuff. They recently had Dana Evans on their podcast as their guest. I put a link below where you can listen to it..

Also.... Enjoy, and be careful ...it's Crusade For Children weekend.here in the 'Ville, .People are running around in the streets collecting money. Dont hit them, OK? 

LINK TO  SHES ALWAYS ON:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYZsft5WcJU

 paulie

Lacrosse in ACC Tourney today -- Softball drops a double -- Sunday Cardinal Couple

Softball Drops Two

As a website dedicated to bringing you joy and excitement, let me tell you about this programming library that I'm writing in the Python programming language...

(EDITOR NOTE: JEFF DOES NOT KEEP PYHTON'S OR SPEAK TO THEM...JUST SOME EGGHEAD STUFF  REFERENCE THAT WE ARE GUESSING IS PART OF HIS WORK...)  

Oh, right, we're specifically about UofL Women's Sports.  Unfortunately, joy and excitement in the women's sports programs are a little hard to find right now.

Softball was in action yesterday, but the results definitely didn't spark joy.  After a win Friday over North Carolina, with only the bare minimum offense (a pair of home runs) to get the job done, the lack of offense hurt yesterday.

(ravishing Riley !) 

The first game of the day saw UNC get out to an early lead with three runs in 1st inning.  They tacked on another in the 3rd.  The Cards sensing the need to do something, well, another home run by Riley Frizell.  I mean, it was a good weekend for her in the batter's box, but without more offense around her...it's not good.  The Tarheels then finished it off in the bottom of the 6th with five runs, walking it off with the run-rule win, 9-1.

There was more offense in the second game, but still not the small ball play that Holly Aprile is looking for.  Maddi Grant started it off in the 2nd inning with a long ball shot over the fence in right field.

The Cards would add on five more in the 5th, and about the only hint of small ball play that Aprile would see the whole weekend.  Chelsea Mack reached on a bunt, Frizell drew a want, and was replaced on the base paths by the quicker "Pickle" Winkler.  It wouldn't really matter, however, as Vanessa Miller homered to right, scoring the trio.  UofL would tack on two more, both homers again, with Bailee Richardson and Katie Thatcher being the bombers.

Don't get me wrong, I love seeing some light tower power, but for consistent success, teams do really need to be able to play the small ball game.  And, in fact, in this one, with the score 6-0 UofL after five innings, UNC would score seven unanswered in the 6th and 7th innings, again with the walk-off.  And I hate to say it, but the Cards looked more like the Bad News Bears out in the field during that 7th inning.  UNC played well, no disrespect to them, but UofL largely fumbled it away.  HOW MANY TIMES CAN YOU RECALL THE SOFTBALL CARDS GETTING BEAT WITH A SEVEN RUN FINAL TWO INNINGS FROM THE FOE?  I'll wait for your answer .

Softball returns home for a mid-Derby Festival series with Clemson starting Friday at 6pm.

Lacrosse

Let's look for some joy and excitement from Lacrosse, they're in Blacksburg to play Virginia Tech, but this isn't just any old home game for the Hokies.  This is the first round of the ACC Tournament.  Louisville is the 9th seed in the tournament, Virginia Tech is the 8th.

In the earlier matchup between these two teams, Louisville played VT competitively for three quarters of the game.  The Cards won the 1st quarter 4-2, VT came back to tie it at half-time 5-5.  It was the 3rd quarter that sunk the Cards, VT won it 6-2, though the Cards didn't give up, they did tie the 4th quarter, but of course that's not enough when you dug a 4 goal deficit in the 3rd.  VT won 14-10.

The Cards will be looking for revenge, and to advance to the main portion of the tournament at the American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, NC.  If they beat VT, they will get the "honor" of meeting Syracuse on the 24th.

All games in the ACC Women's Lacrosse tournament will be on the ACC Network linear channel, but of course you can also stream them through the ACC Network Extra streaming setup.

The game today will get underway at noon.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

(jeff and Jared escort Paulie to the broadcast venue) 

Jared, Paulie, and myself gathered to discuss the latest in UofL women's sports on the CCRHP.  Softball and Lacrosse are active, so of course much of the discussion centered on those two sports, but we did get some exciting recruiting and transfer portal news for WBB this week, so we did cover that territory as well.

Unfortunately, we did lose the last couple of minutes as my streaming software crashed for some unknown reason.  Fortunately, it waiting until very near the end to do so, so check out the show below, and apologies for the abrupt ending.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Lacrosse-and-Softball-Struggle-e2im0b6

 

-- 

JMcA

Back on the Winning Side - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Softball Evens the Series

After a rough Friday, with both Softball and Lacrosse coming out on the wrong side of the scoresheet, we have a couple of wins to celebrate today.

First, Softball answered the Yellow Jackets with a win yesterday, 4-1.  Alyssa Zabala, who certainly didn't have the game of her life on Friday, was back in the circle yesterday and went the distance, holding Georgia Tech to four hits, and only issuing three walks while striking out five.  A solid performance, for sure.

The Cards did take some time to get their offense in gear, however.  Georgia Tech struck first with a run in the 3rd, and UofL wouldn't answer until the 6th, ensuring all Cards fans were at their most stressed before coming back for the win.

I should, to be honest, phrase that as "Riley Frizell answered" as the first score was a Frizell rip over the center field fence to lead off the 6th.  That wouldn't be the only home run of the inning, however.  First, though, Bailee Richardson drew a walk, chasing the GT pitcher, before Vanessa Miller took her 3rd pitch over the left field fence.  Georgia Tech was unable to answer in the bottom half of the frame.

The Cards would add some extra insurance in the top of the 7th.  Pickle Winkler drew a walk to start off the inning, but was called out for leaving the base early on a Daisy Hess single.  Of course Hess stole 2nd, because it's Daisy Hess.  Richardson then sent a double out to center field, and that's all Hess needed to finish the circuit, bringing the Cards to the 4-1 final score.

Louisville will finish out the series against Georgia Tech with a noon start at Mewborn Field in Atlanta.  Today is their "Bark in the Park" promotion, where fans are encouraged to bring their dogs out to the park, so if you're a dog lover like me, there's extra incentive to watch the stream on ACC Network Extra.  If good softball wasn't enough of a draw, hopefully getting to see some good doggos will help.

Volleyball

Volleyball wrapped up their spring season last night with a five set win over Tennessee.  There was no stream presented, and no stats kept, so we're going all vibes here today.

Tennessee came out of the locker room looking strong, winning the first two sets.  Interestingly, Coach DBK decided to play a 6-2 offensive gameplan for those two sets.  This means that the setter on the court is always in the back row, subbing in and out in place of right side hitters, which also keeps a right side hitter on the front row the whole time, increasing offensive options.

Wait, who's our second right side hitter, you may ask if your familiar with Louisville Volleyball's roster.  Allana Bankston was pressed into service there.  Bankston has a demonstrated history of playing just about any position, left, right, and middle, in addition to being a competent defensive player.  She's kind of the go anywhere, do anything player on the squad.  Louisville does have a transfer from Arizona State, Sofia Maldonado Diaz that is expected to be primarily a right side attacker, so this may have been some prep for a potential 6-2 in season.  At least as an option.

Again, there was a lot of switching between Nayelis Cabello and Elle Glock in the setter role.  This is definitely an open position battle for the fall.  I still tend to lean towards Cabello getting the starting role in the fall, she seems about a half step quicker than Glock, has a pretty impressive serve, and is clearly a better blocker than Glock.

Credit to Tennessee, they put some good blocks occasionally, but were particularly good digging, extending a number of rallies that would've been Cards points against many other teams.  Also credit the Lady Vols for being willing the play the tie breaking 5th set, which a certain other SEC team wasn't willing to do against us.

Charitie Luper was back to full front row attack mode, and was wearing her knee brace again to do so.  Anna DeBeer is definitely done with hers and you can see the improvement in her mobility by not being constrained by it.

Hannah Sherman had some great rotations in the middle hitter/block position, including a couple of epic solo blocks, but I suspect the MB positions will still be lead by Phekran "PK" Kong, and Cara Cresse.

Elena Scott continues to do Elena Scott things.  As fellow writer here at Cardinal Couple, Jared Anderson, put it on twitter, "I got into every match thinking [Elena Scott] can't do anything to top watch[sic] she did the previous match and every time she pulls the 'watch me' card."  To which I responded, "And it's always like a double flipping half twist over a table single armed dig with her hair on fire.  And it's an absolute dime to the setter."  It truly is hard to comment on Scott, other than maybe to say, if you want to know what the Libero position is supposed to do, here's the prime example.

The Cards Volleyball fall schedule should be announced soon, and of course, we'll break that down for you when it comes out.  After that, should be the tradition Red & Black scrimmage sometime mid August.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Case, Jared, Paulie, and I made the call...well, I was a little late.  This one was an adventure from the get go with some vaguely Not Safe For Work innuendo and joking around at the beginning.  But ultimately we did quit procrastinating and get to discussing the tough Friday news for Cards athletics.

Enjoy the fun at: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Tough-Losses-for-the-Cards-e2ibtbp

 

-- 

JMcA

Searching for Joy and Excitement - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Softball

 

(photo credits to Jared Anderson)

 

In our quest to share the joy and excitement of UofL women's sports, sometimes it's easier to find and share than others.

Ally Alexander holding it down at 2nd

The easiest place to find it this Sunday morning is from yesterday afternoon's extra inning Softball win over 4th ranked Duke.

While we've talked a bit about looking for offensive production from this team, the victory yesterday a low scoring affair, 2-1.  Credit, of course, also has to be extended to the opponents, Duke in this case, for a low scoring game based on and good defensive play and good pitching holding scoring opportunities low.

Regardless, it's a win over a Top 5 team, and they'll get another bite at the apple today at noon to try to win the series.

The game was scoreless through three innings with the Cards starting Sam Booe in the circle.  Duke would break through with a run in the 4th, but that would be all they'd get in the game, and the Cards would immediately answer to tie the game back up.

Just a head's up, the score recaps are going to be brief in this one.

With two outs in the 4th, Gabby Holloway homered to center field.

There's a Katie Thatcher in there
celebrating somewhere.

Again the game went fairly quiet with no scoring through the rest of regulation.  It would be in the bottom of the 8th inning that Katie Thatcher pinch hit for Chelsea Mack, and took advantage of the opportunity by lifting a long shot onto the right field berm.

Boom, two home runs, and a 2-1 signature win for the Cards.  If that's not joy and excitement, I'm not sure what is.

 

Booe pitched four innings, Gabby Holloway came in for 2.2, and Alyssa Zabala finished off the last 1.1.

Alyssa Zabala in relief

Check out Jared with the postgame interview with Thatcher:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AhWyIRN6wE 

As mentioned, the series continues today with a noon start for the rubber match.  Again the Cards will be looking for another signature win and the series win over a ranked team, a rare achievement in the UofL Softball program.  ACC Network Extra has the feed, which means we will likely be back to Suzanne Bush and Joanna Lane on the call.  You'll get no complaints from me on that announcing team.

Lacrosse

A little harder to find too much joy and excitement here with an 18-12 loss to North Carolina the main news du jour.  There are bright spots to be found, however.

Nicole Perroni continues here consecutive game scoring streak finding the back of the net four times.  The Nakazawa sisters continue to impress accounting for a cumulative hat trick as Negai scored switch and Kokoro adding another.  And otherwise we see a multitude of offensive options.  Kylea Dobson scored a pair, Abby Scully, Tiffany Natoli, and Izzy Seikel all adding a goal to the mix.

North Carolina was just too much for the Cards, though.  Sara Adeche played three quarters getting five saves and J Pleck played the last only allowing one goal and stopping another.Louiville Lacrosse, The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcat

I did, individually, get a moment of joy and excitement with the Lacrosse team as I got tapped to pick up my niece at the airport from a flight arriving at close to midnight.  As I walked in, there were two "GoCards" minibuses waiting in the pickup lane, and I surmised there must be a team returning and my best guess was that it would be the Lacrosse squad, and sure enough they came cruising through  the terminal where I was waiting for my niece.  I did speak, very briefly, with Coach Teeter, but it was nothing much more than a greeting.  After a mid-day game and then spending the rest of the day in travel, the team and coach were clearly ready to collect their gear and head back to campus to sleep in their own beds.

The Cards will be next in action, welcoming Xavier for a 7pm game.  With the evening game and lighting situation, this one will be held at the L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium (not "Arena" as my fingers so desperately wanted to type).

Swimming and Diving

The splish splash Cards rounded up their NCAA Championship efforts with a podium finish in the 400 free relay.   Christiana Regenauer, Gabi Albiero, Julia Dennis, and Lucy Mehraban were the personnel in the third place finishing squad.

Add in a program best 4th place finish in platform diving for Else Praasterink along with the other performances and Louisville finished in 6th place overall.

Until the past few years, the team has not had a competitively relevant diving representation, but Praasterink has changed that, and has brought along another couple of divers to help out.  Hopefully we're on the verge of emergence of diving as a perennially competitive part of the program at UofL.

With that event completed, the team portion of the Swimming and Diving is complete, as well as the yard-measured portion.  The starting platform will now get shifted back about seven feet to begin the individual portion of the season where swimmers will be in action for their own individual glory, and racing in meters rather than yards.

Basketball

Wait, joy and excitement in basketball at this point for the Cards, well, yes, indirectly.

The Athletes Unlimited Basketball season wrapped up last night and former Card Emily Engstler finished in 7th place overall.

In last night's final game, she scored 11 points on five field goals, one of which was a three.  The real joy and excitement, however, comes from the rebounding stats.  Engstler set the record for AU with 19 rebounds in a single game.

Quite impressive, and very on brand for the Engstler we knew here at Louisville.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Jared was at the helm of the CCRHP yesterday, with Daryl, Case, and myself participating.  Paulie was sidelined by Internet connection problems.

We searched for joy and excitement where we could find it, though the task was tough indeed.  We did cover the latest in basketball, softball, and lacrosse.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Yes--Were-Mad-About-the-WBB-Upset-e2hff60

Cardinal Couple NCAA Bracket Challenge

We have gone from 64-32 in two days of WBB Madness, and we have a close pack battling for the lead in our Bracket Challenge. Atop the standings are Nick O and Thomas at 30-2 . Right behnd the are Perry, Jason and K Starks at 29-3. And the log jam at 28-4 stretches all the way back to Mt. Washington. 

We are just half way theough, too...so grrab some ppocorn, put Jared on your speed dial and enjoy the show  despite out Cards leaving early  due to (fill in your own answer, there are no wrong ones)...

Here' s what Jated and Paulie have verified in the race: we've listed those with 20 or more wins. 

30-2   Nick O, Thomas

29-3  K Starks, Perry, Jason

28-4   Blue Lou, Karen, Jared, Wahoo Card, Katy

27-5   Jeff McAdams

26-6   Paulie, Kenny S.

25-7   Case, Curtis F

24-8   Sonya, Cindy

23-9   Arthur

21-11 Daryl

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.  jmca

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JMcA