WBB Accolades - SB hosts #23/25 Clemson - Lacrosse loses to #1 UNC 19-7; FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Good morning Louisville fans! 

A few things to look forward to this upcoming weekend and a recap of Thursday night's lacrosse match with North Carolina on ACC Network prime time.  It should be a nice weekend ahead for some outdoor events! Take your TVs outside if you're tuning in for the tournaments.  I'm doing my best to avoid them unless it's the in the Cards interest.  The gang is pressuring me to fill out a bracket... still not convinced. 

Let's get right to it... 

Evans Named Finalist for Naismith Women’s Trophy

The Atlanta Tipoff Club announced today that University of Louisville senior guard Dana Evans is one of four finalists for the 2021 Jersey Mike's Naismith Women's Trophy, symbolic of the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball.

She is joined on the list by Kentucky junior Rhyne Howard, a 2020 finalist, UConn freshman Paige Bueckers and South Carolina sophomore Aliyah Boston.

Dana Evans, Louisville

-- The senior forward leads the ACC in scoring at 20.0 points per game.
Evans has scored 20 or more points in 17 games.
-- She has scored in double figures in 25 of 26 games played this season, including 40 straight games, the longest streak at Louisville in 20 years.
-- Named ACC Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, Evans became only the ninth player in league history to accomplish the feat.
-- She made 92% of her free throw attempts, leading the ACC and ranking fifth nationally.
-- Only player in UofL program history to win four regular season conference championships.

Aliyah Boston, South Carolina

-- Boston led the Gamecocks in rebounds (11.7) and blocks (2.8) this season and averaged 13.7 points per game.
-- The sophomore forward led the team in double-doubles (15).
-- Boston made the 2021 All-SEC First Team for the second straight season and was named to the SEC All-Defensive team for her dominant defensive performance throughout the 2021 season
-- She earned SEC Tournament MVP honors for her 27-point, 10-rebound performance.
-- In addition to her finalist ranking, she is a semifinalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award.

Paige Bueckers, UConn

-- Bueckers became the second BIG EAST player to win both the Freshman of the Year and Player of the Year awards (Maya Moore, 2008).
-- She had the highest single game scoring total by a UConn freshman since 2007 with 32 points.
-- The freshman forward was the first player in program history to have three straight 30-point games.
-- Her 14 assists against Butler rank as the single-game high in the history of the program.
-- Bueckers led UConn to both regular season and tournament championships in the BIG EAST.

Rhyne Howard, Kentucky

-- Howard averaged 20.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game this season.
-- The junior guard became the Wildcats all-time leader in three categories: points (455), rebounds (160) and assists (78).
-- She led the SEC in assists (54) and blocks (14).
-- Named 2021 SEC Player of the Year for the second year in a row, Howard became one of two players in program history to earn multiple player of the year honors.
-- She was also named to the 2021 All-SEC First Team for the third straight season and the SEC All-Tournament team for the second year in a row.

Norman Named WBCA Division I Assistant Coach of the Year

(from gocards.com ) 

The Assistant Coach of the Year award originated in 2016 and is presented annually.

ATLANTA — The Women's Basketball Coaches Association announced today that University of Louisville women's basketball associate head coach Stephanie Norman has been named the 2021 Division I Assistant Coach of the Year.

The WBCA Assistant Coach of the Year award is presented to one associate head coach or assistant coach in each membership division who demonstrates commitment to their program, their student-athletes and their head coach; their impact coaching on court; their mentorship and impact on other coaches; and their professional manner and attitude.

Norman, in her 14th year at Louisville and her ninth as associate head coach, has served on the Cardinals' staff since the hiring of head coach Jeff Walz. She has helped the Cardinals to a 382-107 overall record since the 2007 season. In that time she has aided Louisville to nine Sweet 16 appearances, five Elite Eight appearances, and three Final Four appearances, including a pair of national championship contests. Norman has been instrumental in the Cardinals' recruiting efforts, helping sign the No. 1 class of 2015 that featured three McDonald's All-Americans; helped pen the No. 6 freshman class in 2016, the No. 4 class in 2017 and the No. 5 class in 2020.

"I would like to thank Danielle Donehew, the WBCA and my colleagues and peers for this amazing award," said Norman. "I would like to thank all of the coaches that I have worked with, including head coach Jeff Walz, who I have worked with the past 14 seasons, as these coaches have been extremely instrumental in my growth, my success and my enjoyment of the game. I would also like to thank the players, it's because of them that we've been lucky enough to have success. Finally, I'd like to thank my family, my parents who always encouraged me to chase my dreams, my husband Geoff and my children Parker and Cassidy."

Softball Opens series with Tigers this weekend

The Cards will play their eighth straight home game in the first ever series opener with Clemson on

Friday at 7 p.m.

• Louisville (9-7, 3-2 ACC) brings a three-game win streak into the weekend.
• UofL is 3-2 in ACC play and stands sixth in the conference.
• The Cardinals are 6-1 at Ulmer Stadium in 2021.

Taylor Roby leads the team with a .419 batting average, five home runs and has driven in 20. She stands tied for second in the ACC in RBI. Roby has also produced a team-best six multi-hit games and multi-RBI games. Roby is on an eight-game hitting streak and has reached safely via a hit or walk in the last nine games.

• The Tigers are 16-2 overall and stand second in the ACC with an 8-2 conference mark.
• Clemson is currently on a 13-game win streak, most recently sweeping Furman in a three-game series last weekend.   

Marissa Guimbarda leads the Tigers with a .447 batting average, an ACC-best 21 RBIs and six home runs on the season. Valerie Cagle (10-1) has shouldered much of the pitching load, logging 65.2 innings and 14 appearances. The freshman has registered 63 strikeouts and is holding opponents to a .214 batting average. She has also helped her own cause at the plate, standing second on the team with four home runs and 13 RBIs.

LACROSSE loses under the lights 19-7 to #1 UNC Tarheels

UNC's Jamie Ortega had her way with 7 goals for the Heels on the night earning a hat trick less than 10 minutes into the first half. Louisville was lead offensively by Alex McNichols and Ally Hall was two each. UNC was fast.. scoring with about a minute off the clock to start.. Louisville matched before allowing the Tarheels to go on a 7-0 run taking a 10-4 into the halftime break. 

The Louisville defense gave up another UNC run allowing 6 straight goals in the second half. The Cards move to 4-3 on the season. Were there some positives to be taken away from this one?? I think Paulie and the guys could come up with something for Saturday's podcast and Coach Teeter outlined a few in his post-game comments.

Jared was out at Cardinal Stadium for the event, braving the cold wind for some quality shots down on the field that I'm sure will be shared once his fingers have thawed out enough to edit. Perhaps no editing will be required since the reason for at hosting Cardinal Stadium was for lighting purposes. :) Perhaps he's just that good by now anyways! I always enjoy his action shots!

Paulie spoke with Louisville LAX head coach after the match. You can hear that interview at the link below: 

LINK:  SCOTT TEETER POST GAME UNC 3/18/21

CARDINAL COUPLE NCAA PICK "EM" 

So, how are your bracket picks going?  We have this in from our Bracket Czar Jared: 

We have a total of nine bracket picks in so far. Entries from David Watson, Kenny Schneider, Paulie, Sonya, Blue Lou, Joe Hill, Nole Knowledge, Arthur and NickO. 

A reminder that we are offering your choice of a $25 Gift Card to either Subway or Raisin' Canes to the winner and second place gets the card that the winner didn't choose. 

Here's three games that are a real debacle;  

1) North Carolina vs. Alabama. So far, we have six participants selecting #10 seed UNC over #7 seed Alabama out of our nine entries. A strong ACC favoritism here. 

2) Michigan vs. Florida Gulf Coast. #11 seed FGCU is getting a lot of lot from our participants so far and has a 6-3 advantage in picks over #6 seed Michigan. No love for Ann Arbor? 

3) Wake Forest vs. Oklahoma State. #8 vs #9 matchups are normally a tough choice but our participants so far are in love with Jen Hoover's Demon Deacons, the #9 seed over the O.S.U squad with a 5-4 margin. Jeff Walz stated last week he fully expected Wake to get in and possibly win a few games. Can they shoot down the Cowboys? 

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

I won't be on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast Saturday, as I will be out covering Ulmer action for the new series with Clemson softball this weekend.  My 'Final thoughts' would be that I am very much looking forward to the CARDS WBB first round matchup with Marist on Monday night. Let's do this thing CARDS!! 


Have a great weekend!
~Daryl

Lax Hosts UNC -- Dana Evans -- Pick 'EM -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Cards Host North Carolina at Cardinal Stadium

It's a Top 20 showdown on Floyd Street. However, this time Louisville lacrosse won't be at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium. Instead, the Cards will play their first ever match at in the 65,000-seat Cardinal Stadium. No, I don't think we'll see 65,000 fans but that would be darn cool.

Cardinal Stadium has a way better setup with lighting for night games and the setup for video cameras is quite nice too. Plus, as a photographer, it'll be cool to capture the Cards in a large stadium.

The competition fits the setting as #1 North Carolina is in town. The Tar Heels are 7-0 on the year with five of those victories coming against ranked opponents.

North Carolina has been a dominant force this year and is a heavy favorite to take the title at the end of the year. UNC is averaging 16.71 goals per match (fifth-best in the country) while allowing 5.57 goals per match (third-best in the country). Their closest margin of victory this year was by six goals against Florida. Most recently, UNC is fresh off a 22-1 win over Virginia Tech.

UNC's Taylor Moreno has been the primary goalkeeper, but due to several blowouts she has passed the torch to two of her colleagues for a total of 68:17 in four matches this year. Moreno has allowed 33 goals on 125 attempts for a .593 save percentage.

Jamie Ortega leads the team with 27 goals, which is also good enough for second-best in the country. She sits just one goal behind UC Davis' Sorana Larson. Many of Ortega's goals have come from Katie Hoeg, who has logged 21 assists on the year. Hoeg is also second in the country and also one away from leading the NCAA. Ortega does have 12 assists herself.

We do have to acknowledge Rachel Florek, who has 67 saves on the year, third-best in the country. The senior keeper is tied for 13th in save percentage at .532.

The Cards have had a balanced scoring attacked with Caroline Blalock, Ally Hall, and Hannah Morris having scored 14 goals. Seven other Cards have scored at least two goals.

Draw controls have also been by committee. Megan Mangines has recorded 15 draw controls. Caroline Blalock has 14 and Alex McNicholas has 13. Ashley Osbourne showed a lot of promise as well at the draw in the Marquette contest. . 

Now... here's the catch- the weather. Normally lacrosse is able to play in light showers, but the forecast is showing thunderstorms. Personally, I wouldn't want to play with lightning going on if a had a metal pole with a net in my hands, so if we see the match postponed or even potentially moved inside the Trager Practice Facility I wouldn't blame them. Hopefully the weather folks prove to be wrong and we end up with some nice weather tonight.

The match is currently scheduled for 7:00 p.m., on ACC Network. If we hear of any schedule changes we will let you know.

Dana Evans

The awards and recognition for Dana Evans continue to roll in. She was named a First Team All-American. Evans joins Angel McCoughtry and Asia Durr as the only Louisville players named to the first team.

Evans is joined by Paige Bueckers (UConn), Rhyne Howard (Kentucky), NaLyssa Smith (Baylor), and Aliyah Boston (South Carolina).

The Second Team All-American squad included Elissa Cunane (NC State), Naz Hillmon (Michigan), Aari McDonald (Arizona), Caitlin Clark (Iowa), and Charli Collier (Texas).

Another in the Cardinal trophy case for the Gary. IN superstar. We laud her performances as a Cardinal and go by the old adage:  "Is the best yet to come?" 

Cardinal Couple Pick Em

You still have a few more days to get your brackets in. I'm still researching mine so don't stress too much. I do know I have all the 1-seeds and 2-seeds winning their first two games but I haven't gotten much beyond that.

You can enter early to help in the event of a tiebreak or if you need to research more or want to wait to hear of any COVID-19 situations you can hold off for a little while longer.

So far we have four entries in the following order- David Watson, Kenny Schneider, Paulie, Joe Hill. If I missed yours please don't hesitate to reach out so I can get you added! Dave-O's and Joe's are in the comments section from recent days and Paulie posted his pics yesterday.

Kenny emailed his over and they are as follows for those keeping their own tab:

1st Rd: Stanford, Oklahoma State, Missouri State, Arkansas, Oregon, Georgia, Northwestern, Louisville; South Carolina, Oregon State, Georgia Tech, West Virginia, Texas, UCLA, North Carolina, Maryland; UConn, Syracuse, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Baylor; NC State, Washington State, Gonzaga, Indiana, Rutgers, Arizona, Iowa State, Texas A&M

2nd Rd: Stanford, Arkansas, Oregon, Louisville; South Carolina, West Virginia, UCLA, Maryland; UConn, Iowa, Tennessee, Baylor; NC State, Indiana, Arizona, Texas A&M

3rd Rd: Stanford, Louisville, South Carolina, Maryland, UConn, Baylor, NC State, Arizona

4th Rd: Stanford, Maryland, UConn, NC State

Finals: Stanford, UConn

Champion: Stanford

Feel free to share your picks in the comments or email us at eupherjared@gmail.com and cardinalcouple@twc.com.

You have until Sunday at 11:59 a.m., ET. Good luck!

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY! -- LACROSSE NEWS -- FIELD HOCKEY #2 -- PICK EM' -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY 

Tis a day for the wearing of the green, lasses and laddies, as we celebrate St. Patrick's Day. 

Although the celebrations and parades and such will be a bit tempered today because of the pandemic, St. Patrick's Day always reminds me that we are getting ready to enjoy the sheer madness of March Madness and to raise a cup o' cheer ! 

As my late father used to say, "Let's raise one to all of those who wish us well. The rest of you can go to hell." 

They've closed the establishment that I normally spend time at on St. Paddy's Day, alas, but here's wishing the luck of the Irish to all today. Erin Go Bragh!  to one and all on this 17th day of March. May the sun shine down upon ya, and may ya safely be in heaven a half and hour before the devil knows your dead !  We're all Irish today and "slainte" to one and all ! 

LACROSSE PREPARES FOR #1 UNC

Let's hope the "Luck of the Irish" are with #15 Louisville's Lacrosse student-athletes tomorrow, as they bring in #1 North Carolina for an evening match.  Big things afoot for this one, as the two squads will face off under the lights at football's Cardinal Stadium. 

This won't be a leisurely walk-in-the park for the LAXCards.  UNC is #1 for a reason. They bring in the best, recruit the best and play the best. They travelled to Blacksburg, VA for their first road game of the season and cooked the Gobblers 22-1. 

UNC is 7-0 on the season and have already won three ACC matches -- with victories over Duke (13-6), Boston College (21-9) and Virginia Tech. They've also downed Florida (11-5), Stony Brook (14-7), High Point (19-5) and Vandy (17-6). no one has posted double digits on the TarHeels yet and Jamie Ortega has netted 27 goals and 12 assists this season so far. 

Admission is free for this one and Jared will elaborate more on this match in his  Thursday column. I did catch up with the incredibly busy Scott Teeter yesterday and got his thoughts on the game, the seasons so far and what remains for the 4-2 Cards.  You can hear thaat interview at the link below: 

LINK:  INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT TEETER 3/16/21

FIELD HOCKEY CLIMBS TO #2 

With a 10-3 overall mark and recent 2-1 win over Virginia, the Louisville Field Hockey squad finds themselves at #2 in the nation in the most recent NFHCA poll. 

The Cards will travel to face #20 Miami (OH) on Monday, March 22nd.  In this split fall/spring schedules, Louisville is 2-1 since they came back -- with wins over Ball State (5-0) , the previously mentioned win over the Cavaliers and a 2-1 loss at North Carolina. 

If it involves a stick, the TarHeels seem to be pretty decent -- tKaren Shelton's squad is #1 in the poll. All seven ACC school that play Field Hockey are ranked in the top 15 in the nation. Behind the Heels and Cards are Syracuse at #8, Duke at #12, Wake Forest at #13, Virginia at #14 and Boston College at #15.  Talk about a power-house conference. 

Five games remain on the spring schedule before the ACC Championships at Chapel Hill, the Cards will entertain Syracuse and Wake Forest in April at Trager Stadium and go to Miami (OH), Duke and Boston College. 

CARDINAL COUPLE NCAA PICK 'EM CONTEST

You have until Sunday noon to get in your Picks for the Cardinal Couple NCAA WBB Pick 'Em Contest. 

I've dove deep into the prize chest and come up with $25 Gift Cards to either Subway or Raisin' Canes for the winner, the second place finisher gets what the winner doesn't want. 

In keeping with full disclosure and tradition,  I am releasing my picks right here in today's column. Use them as a guide on WHAT NOT TO DO, or get a good laugh from them. I will say that I feel this year's tournament is the widest open affair that we've seen in several years and there is no clear favorite to win the crown. 

I had my first shot of COVID vaccine yesterday, a couple of Black and Tan's last night and a shot of Jameson's during the selection process. Besides a sore arm and slightly hung-over demeanor, I am alert, typing and chugging coffee this morning. 

THE PAULIE READ 'EM AND WEEP PICKS: 

FIRST ROUND:  STANFORD, WAKE FOREST, MISSOURI STATE, ARKANSAS, OREGON, GEORGIA, NORTHWESTERN, LOUISVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA, FLORIDA STATE, GEORGIA TECH, WEST VIRGINIA, TEXAS, UCLA, ALABAMA, MARYLAND,

 CONNECTICUT, SYRACUSE, IOWA, KENTUCKY, MICHIGAN, TENNESSEE, VIRGINIA TECH, BAYLOR, NC STATE,  SOUTH FLORIDA, GONZAGA, INDIANA, BYU, ARIZONA, IOWA STATE, TEXAS A&M 

SWEET SIXTEEN:  STANFORD, ARKANSAS, OREGON, LOUISVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA TECH, TEXAS, MARYLAND, CONNECTICUT, KENTUCKY, MICHIGAN, BAYLOR, NC STATE, INDIANA, ARIZONA, TEXAS A&M. 

GREAT EIGHT:   STANFORD, LOUISVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA, MARYLAND, CONNECTICUT, BAYLOR, NC STATE, TEXAS A&M 

FINAL FOUR:  LOUISVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA, CONNECTICUT, NC STATE

TERRIFIC TWO:  SOUTH CAROLINA, CONNECTICUT

CHAMP:  CONNECTICUT

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY! 

paulie

NCAA Tournament -- Lacrosse Rankings -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Louisville Named 2-Seed in NCAA Tournament

Unlike the men's side, where Louisville fans had to sweat out if the Cards would go dancing (spoiler: they're not), the women's team was waiting to see what seed they would end up being. The Cards were announced as a 2-seed, making them one of the top eight teams.

The Cards are in the Alamo Region, which has Stanford as its 1-seed. The other top teams in the region include 3-seed Georgia and 4-seed Arkansas.

Louisville is one of eight ACC teams to find themselves dancing. No other conference had more than seven teams. The list of ACC teams includes 1-seed NC State, 2-seed Louisville, 5-seed Georgia Tech, 7-seed North Carolina, 7-seed Virginia Tech, 8-seed Syracuse, 9-seed Florida State, and 9-seed Wake Forest. Notre Dame did not make the cut. They were the third team of the first four out joining Houston, DePaul, and Oklahoma.

The SEC had seven teams announced highlighted by 1-seed South Carolina and 2-seed Texas A&M. The Big Ten also had seven teams in with Maryland as the top team as a 2-seed. The Pac-12 has six teams dancing with Stanford being a 1-seed and the top overall seed. The Big 12 has five teams in with 2-seed Baylor as their top team. UConn is the other 1-seed.

Our friends to the east down I-64 are also dancing. Kentucky was named a 4-seed in the River Walk Region with UConn being the 1-seed.

Let's take a moment to look at more teams in the Alamo Region and some potential match-ups the Cards may have.

Louisville will open the tournament against 15-seed Marist. Marist College is a private liberal arts college based in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. They're located about halfway between New York City and Albany. Enrollment is roughly 6,600 students.

Marist went 18-3 overall and used a 13-3 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) record to win the regular season. The Red Foxes went on to win the MAAC Tournament by defeating Saint Peters 69-30 in the championship to earn an automatic qualifying bid. Feel free to share this paragraph with a certain CJ writer who asked Coach Walz what Marist's mascot is.

Marist is averaging 63.6 points per game and shot .416 from the field on the year. The Red Foxes profited off turnovers this season by forcing 13.7 turnovers per game and converting that into 15.3 points off turnovers. They allow 50.1 ppg. 

Their head coach is Brian Giorgis. Giorgis has been at Marist since 2002 and has dominated the MAAC since then. He is 461-166 overall at the helm. This is the Red Foxes' 12th NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002. Giorgis is also believed to be the first coach in men's or women's basketball to reach 400 wins as both a high school coach and college coach. Coach Walz mentioned he's also a big lover of Diet Coke and usually keeps a cup of it under his chair during games.

Assuming Louisville wins their first round game they'll go up against the winner of 7-seed Northwestern and 10-seed UCF. Northwestern is based out of Evanston, Ill., and was an at-large bid out of the Big Ten with a 15-8 record. The Wildcats fell to Maryland in the Big Ten semifinals. UCF is based out of Orlando, Fla., went 16-4 and was an at-large bid out of the AAC. They fell to South Florida in the AAC Championship.

The favorite in the Alamo Region is 1-seed Stanford. The Cardinal (no "S") went 25-2 overall this year with a 19-2 mark in the Pac-12. Stanford won their conference in the regular season and tournament to earn the automatic bid.

A potential dark horse would be 11-seed South Dakota. The Coyotes- not to be confused with South Dakota State Jackrabbits- went 19-5 on the year and went 12-2 in the Summit League to take the regular season title. South Dakota then went on to went their conference tournament winning by an average margin of 24 points.

The Cards and Red Foxes will play on Monday, March 22 at 8:00 p.m. ESPN will have the coverage. 

We will have plenty more NCAA Tournament coverage for the next several days and ongoing for a few weeks.

Jeff Walz and Dana Evans had a presser after the Selection Show and you can check those out here: 

JEFF WALZ 3/15/21 PRESSER

DANA EVANS 3/15/21 PRESSER

CARDINAL COUPLE NCAA Pick Em

64 teams. 63 games. Do you research, flip your coin, pick your favorite mascot, whatever helps you pick your teams. Just make sure to get your entries submitted before Monday/ March 21 at noon.

Each correct pick equals one point. There are not more points for later rounds.

COVID-19 raises the question of what would happen if a team has to bow out due to positive tests. After a bit of discussion between the Cardinal Couple staff we have come to a conclusion. If a team loses because they have to forfeit it will count as a loss. If a team advances because their opponent has to forfeit then it will count as a victory.

For example, Male High School and Manual High School are set to play but Manual cannot play due to a positive COVID-19 case and Male advances. If you picked Manual, it will just count as a loss. If you picked Male, you will be awarded a point on your bracket.

Feel free to add your comments directly to our daily articles or email us at eupherjared@gmail.com and cardinalcouple@twc.com.

Lacrosse Moves Up in Rankings

Another win helped Louisville lacrosse continue moving up the polls. They are now #15 in the IL Poll. US Lacrosse Magazine put the Cards at #17 and IWLCA has them listed as #19.

Louisville is 4-2 on the year and is on a two-game win streak and have won three of their last four matches.

The Cards host #1 North Carolina on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. You can catch this one on ACC Network.

We have gotten word of some cool news that Louisville Lacrosse will be playing the match at Football's Cardinal Stadium.  Paulie has a interview planned with Lax head coach Scott Teeter later today about the historic event and will run it in his Wednesday article. 

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Lacrosse, Volleyball Wins -- Monday NCAA WBB Bracket Day -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 LACROSSE DOWNS MARQUETTE 14-10 

The #17 ranked Louisville Lacrosse squad had a successful trip to Marquette Sunday and defeated the Golden Eagles 14-10 in a match. 

It's wasn't the best of starts for the LaxCards, after an opening Caroline Blalock goal less than a minute into play. the upset-minded Marquette squad ran off four straight scores on Louisville over the next ten minutes of the fist half. Louisville had run into a fired up Big East opponent, no doubt -- but didn't panic. 

Slowly and methodically, Louisville worked their way back into this one. They got goals from Alex McNicholas, Izzy Holmes and another from Blalock to tie things up at 4-4 with 11 minutes left in the first half. Rachel Florek and Louisville's defense was doing their part to keep the Golden Eagles out of the net and the Cards continued the one-sided scoring spree. Izzy Holmes found the net for her second score, then Ally Hall went back-to-back for scores for the UofL and with six minutes left in the half, Louisville had built up a 7-4 lead and had shut out Marquette for 17 minutes. 

Marquette did end up with the final score of the first half, and the squads went to the intermission with UofL holding a 7-5 lead. 

Slow starts to halves have become a recent thing for Scott Teeter's squad -- after Hannah Morris got her first goal of the day just 90 seconds into second half action --  Marquette made one last charge at the lead and cut the Cardinal advantage to 8-7 at the seven-minute mark of the final half. Allegra Catalano and Ally Hall responded for UofL, though, to push the lead back out to 10-7 with 12 minutes gone in second half action. Hall picked up her fourth score and Kokoro Nazawaka added her first tally of the match to build the lead to 12-8 with nine minutes remaining. 

Ally Hall had the hot stick and the Cards were going to go to it -- to close out the contest. Her fifth and final goal came with six-and-one-half minutes to play, making it 13-8 Louisville, and Hannah Morris recorded her third goal of the game to make it 14-9 with four minutes remaining. MU added a meaningless score with 36 seconds to go...the Cards had mastered Marquette magnificently. 

Your final in Milwaukee -- Louisville 14 - Marquette 10. 

The Cards won each half 7-4 and may have found a new player to manage the draw controls after goal scoring in sophomore Ashley Osbourne. The four year starter and four time MVP at Louisville Ballard High School was put in after Marquette was seemingly winning all the early draw controls.

Osbourne ended up winning five draw controls for the Cards and Louisville ended up holding a 14-12 edge in draw controls. The Cards, who go to 4-2 with the win, held a 29-23 shot-on-goal advantage over Marquette and Florek ended up with 13 saves as the Cards net-tender. Louisville showed a impressive ability to handle early pressure and not fold under it, something that Teeter hopes they can build on, with a very challenging ACC schedule remaining. 

A big time ACC contest awaits Louisville on Thursday, when #1 UNC comes to town for a night contest. The venue? The Cardinal Stadium football field ! 

It'll be the first lacrosse match ever played their and will be shown on the ACC Network. Louisville hopes to get a big crowd out for this one in spacious Cardinal Stadium for the day-after-St. Patrick's Day event.

I caught up with Coach Teeter after the game and here's what he had to say at the link below:  

LINK: SCOTT TEETER AFTER MARQUETTE WIN

VOLLEYBALL WINS IN DURHAM

Cardinal Volleyball took down Duke in straight sets yesterday in the Cameron Indoor Stadium 25-15, 25-22, 25-20 to improve their record to 9-2 and 7-2 in ACC play. 

Nena Mbonu had 14 kills for the Cards, who hit an impressive .296 as a team and had 10 kills. 

Aiko Jones and Anna DeBeer added nine kills each for Louisville and Tori Dilfer provided 31 assists for Louisville, who also got a big boost from freshman Ayden Bartlett (no relation to Louisville singer Robbie Bartlett) with nine digs. 

The VolleyCards have won six straight matches in the spring season and are ranked 13th in the nation by the AVCA Coaches. 

Louisville will travel east for their next matches -- with contests scheduled at Charlottesville, VA against Virginia and Florida State Friday and Saturday. 

SELECTION MONDAY FOR NCAA WBB

Obvious disappointment in the Louisville community this morning, of course, that the men's squad did not get picked for the NCAA Men's Tournament. Maybe they'll get in if someone has to drop out for COVID reasons...

The good news is that the NCAA Women's NCAA Tournament Bracket Draw is tonight and Jeff Walz's squad is eyeing a high seed in that affair.

The Bracket Reveal is scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight and will be on ESPN. 

Jeff Walz is slated to hold a presser to discuss it tonight at 8 p.m. and we'll monitor that and provide you coach's comments in the Tuesday Cardinal Couple. 

Most I've spoke with see the Cards WBB squad having a chance to be a #2 seed in one of the regions. 

What are your thoughts on that? Let us know in the comments section?  

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

CARDINAL COUPLE NCAA WBB BRACKET CHALLENGE 

The NCAA Women's Tournament also brings about another Cardinal Couple Pick 'Em contest.  Bracket Czar Jared will have more details on that in his Tuesday article -- 63 games from 64 teams. It should be interesting. Can you win?  

Have a marvelous Monday ! 

paulie

 

Sunday Cardinal Couple

THE SLEEP-DEPRIVED SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE COLUMN 

Sometimes it feels like there just isn't enough hours in the day to fit all of the sports events in.  And that's before we did the "Spring Forward" thing for Daylight Savings Time last night that really did cut an hour out of the day.  Hopefully you've been able to make the switch, and maybe you got to bed an hour earlier last night to make the transition easier.  But let's get to it before we dive into another busy day of sports.

Softball

It was a busy day at Ulmer Stadium yesterday with three games played.  Two of them involved Holly Aprile's squad.  The first game started even before we finished the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast.  The 11:30 first pitch pitted the Cards vs the Valparaiso Crusaders.

The Cards won in what can only be described as a surprise run rule win in the 6th inning.

UofL did get on the scoreboard quickly.  In the 1st inning, Carmyn Greenwood got a hit, then scampered around the basepaths on a Taylor Roby double to centerfield.  Then things went quiet.

The next four innings were a pitcher's duel with freshman Gabby Holloway going the distance and keeping the Crusaders off the scoreboard.  Caitlyn Kowalski would do most of the work for Valparaiso and should get a lot of praise for keeping the Cards quiet for much of the game.

Things fell apart for Kowalski in the 6th inning, however.  Taryn Weddle started off with a double for the Cards, but Valpo would get a couple of outs before the wheels really fell off.  Four straight singles, along with some associated fielding errors to advance some runners would score four for the Cards.  Kowalski took a seat, but things wouldn't go much better for Taylor Knight.  She was a bit unlucky with the first batter she faced being Taylor Roby who convinced Mr. Spalding to visit the berm.  The next two batters would both double, scoring the first, pushing the lead to 8-0, which of course triggered the NCAA Softball run-rule, which is a lead of eight or more after five innings.

The Cards got to take a breather while Valpo would contest against Western Kentucky, before the Cards got their chance with the Hilltoppers starting a bit after 5pm.

Taylor Roby and Jennifer Leonhardt would split the time in the circle for the Cards. Roby getting the win, and Leonhardt a well-deserved save. 

All of the scoring action in this 3-0 victory happened in the bottom of the 3rd inning.  A single, a walk, and a couple of fielder's choices would load up the bases before, you guessed it, Taylor Roby came to the plate.  Roby ripped a shot out to the center field fence, scoring all of the base runners and ending her running on 2nd base.

That's all it would take for the Cards to get the win in this one.

Head Louisville Softball Coach Holly Aprile discusses the wins with Paulie at the link below: 

LINK:  HOLLY APRILE -- CARDS WIN TWO ! 3/13/21

While there will be softball today at Ulmer Stadium, it won't involve UofL as Valpo and WKU will have a rematch before heading home.  The Cards will be back in action Friday, kicking off a four game series with Clemson at 7pm.

(Thanks to Jared Anderson for today's Softball photos. Imagine doing those, practicing the euphonium, setting up for a bachelorette dinner and cutting up pineapple all in the same day...he is truly a renaissance man...) 

Field Hockey

Just down the block, Justine Sowry's Field Hockey squad, with new Associate Head Coach Hannah Price, got conference play underway against Virginia with a noon first pass back.

A win in ACC conference Field Hockey is a statement, and UofL gets one with the 2-1 victory over the Cavaliers.

Charlie van Oirschot got the first goal about 2 minutes into the 2nd quarter.  A penalty corner for the Cards results in the rebound shot for van Oirschot.  The commentators live credited the shot to Mercedes Pastor, and watching the video, it's easy to see why.  Closer examination shows the block and the rebound shot by van Oirschot however.

Pastor would get her chance to score, however.  With just under two minutes left in the game, Pastor was awarded a rare penalty stroke.  When the whistle blew, Pastor immediately snuck it into the right edge of the cage past the UVA goalkeeper.

Head Louisville Field Hockey Coach Justine Sowry discusses the win with Paulie at the link below: 

LINK:  JUSTINE SOWRY POST-MATCH 3/13/21

Field Hockey gets a long week to celebrate, heading up to Oxford, OH to play Miami (OH) on Monday the 22nd at 3pm.

Volleyball

Another Covid altered weekend for the Cards this weekend, with the venue for yesterday's match getting switched.  Originally the Cards were going to be heading to Clemson for matches against both Clemson and Duke this weekend.  Clemson got hit with Covid testing and tracing issues, so the Cards redirected to Durham and will play 2 against Duke.

Yesterday's match was the official conference match, and it looks like Duke just got caught off guard with it.  The Cards take the match 25-6, 25-16, 25-21.

"Claire In the Air" 

Claire Chaussee and Nena Mbonu led the Cards in this one.  Chaussee landed 12 kills on .294 hitting, Mbonu finished with 11 on .333 hitting.  The A-team was less of a factor in this one, though Aiko Jones did get 9 kills on an efficient .400 hitting.  Anna Stevenson with 5 and Amaya Tillman with a pair in the middle spots.  Anna DeBeer did play in all three sets, but only got a single kill.

On the defensive side of the A-team, Alexis Hamilton did get 10 digs with Alexa Hendricks jumped into the A-team role and joined DeBeer with 9 digs apiece.  The team leader in digs, however, was Tori Dilfer with 13.

The biggest story in this one was that first set score.  I'm trying to recall if I've ever seen a set played with fewer points scored by a team, and I don't recall ever having done so.  I have seen a team only score six points before, and I've seen a few seven point sets.  Give Duke credit, however, they bounced back in the 2nd and 3rd sets a bit.  The 3rd set, in particular had a bit of a late rally to get it to 25-21.  Duke faced several match points before finally succumbing.

The Cards will be back in action today, in what should've been a game against Clemson, instead they'll play Duke again at 2pm.  This one is on ACC Network Extra, and hopefully it'll be a bit higher production effort than yesterday's match which was just a single camera on the court with no commentators.  The camera did at least move and zoom in on the action reasonably well, and given the hero efforts various athletic department staff's are putting in with so much Covid shifting of schedules and times, you'll hear no real complaints from these quarters.

On Today's Schedule

In addition to what we've covered above, Lacrosse is in action today against a continually improving Marquette squad in Milwaukee.  That one starts at noon and can be watched at

 https://gomarquette.com/watch/?Live=161&type=Live.  

Marquette is still a relatively new program, only about five or six years in existence, but they have quickly become a quite competitive team.

Tennis also gets started at noon at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center.  Wake Forest is the opponent here.  Bass-Rudd isn't really set up for televised coverage but you can check out the action today at

 https://web.track.tennis/events/watch?key=71.hkFPIdl7f08#/. 

 I believe this page will have several links to watch the various courts in action.  Probably best not to hold your breath waiting for any commentary or play-by-play.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

It was an old school CCRH yesterday with just Paulie and I on the show.  Case was off supporting his wife and her family in the loss of a loved one, while Daryl and Jared were down in the Floyd St area pushing buttons to help bring you the best in pictures and video of Cardinal Athletics, Daryl in her duties at UofL's ACC Network Studio setup, sneaking off for banana milkshakes, and Jared with his trusty Nikon.

My apologies in advance as the audio from my mic decided to do....something, I'm not really sure what. That. coupled with Paulie having to resort to doing Skype on his phone, made it interesting. 

We did a whirlwind tour of Cardinal sports action through the week and managed to cover just about everything we hoped to.

JMcA