ACC FIELD HOCKEY TOURNAMENT -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

ACC FIELD HOCKEY TOURNAMENT UNDERWAY

Although Louisville did not qualify for the ACC Field Hockey Tournament, we will be watching with some interest in the results here at Cardinal Couple.. The Tournament is being held in Winston-Salem, at the Wake Forest Field  (Gentner Stadium). 

The home team, Wake Forest played the third game out of four gmes on Tuesday, and...as a #7 seed, was a prohibitive underdog to #2 Duke, coached by former UofL Field Hockey Coach Pam Bustin. And, the Blue Devils won this "satanic" match-up over the homestanding Demon Deacons 4-1

Earlier in the day, #1 UNC opened the tournament and had no problems in diposing the #8 seed squad from California (that beat out Louisville for the #8 seed). The Golden Bears got stuck in the TarHeels trap and fell 5-0. That one was a 10 a.m. start. Who knows, but maybe the Cards were lucky not to get in the tournament. UNC is playing with their hair on fire lately. 

Next up was #4 Virginia vs #5 Syracuse, and we got maybe a slight upset in this one, with the Orange downng the Cavailiers 1-0. So, it'll be #5 Syracuse facing #1 UNC Wednesday at 1 p.m. Boston College gets Duke after the opener. 

The day's activities ended with #3 Boston College facing #6 seed Stanford. The Eagles beat the Cardinal 3-2. 

So, the #1, #2, #3 and #5 seeds advance to the semifinals today. ACC Network is showing all the contests, in case you want to get away from election results, and they begin at 1 p.m when North Carolina goes up against Syracuse. 

My pick? I loved the job that Duke's Pam Bustin did when she was Louisville's head field hockey coach and have been a fan of her ever since. I'd like to see her knock off B.C. and UNC. They also have former Louisvllle star, Charlie van Oirschot, who transferred there as a junior and is now a graduate student. In this rare case, I will say, "Go Duke..." 

 A lot of good Field Hockey players come from the state of Pennsylvania, so...why doesn't Pitt play Field Hockey?  Mystifying,isn't it? Penn State, Penn and Villanova do.  

paulie

Louisville WBB Falls in Season Opener 66-59 -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Fall in Paris to UCLA

Photo by GoCards

Louisville women's basketball opened up the season yesterday in an untraditional way. The Cards traveled all the way to Paris, France to participate in the Aflac Oui-Play, a doubleheader that featured #3 USC vs #20 Ole Miss and #5 UCLA vs #17 Louisville. USC survived the first game 68-63. The Cards fell to the higher-ranked Bruins 66-59.

For Louisville, the question of the starting lineup has been answered... for now. Olivia Cochran, Nyla Harris, Mackenly Randolph, Taj Roberts, and Ja'Leah Williams took the court for the start of the game. Jayda Curry did not play due to injury....a hamstring suffered about a week ago.

Photo by GoCards

1st Quarter: Louisville 18, UCLA 13

We had a weird start to the game as UCLA was late in turning in their lineup and was given a technical foul. The Cards led 1-0 before the tip-off started. They then pushed the lead to 6-0 with a quick spurt following a three by Cochran and a fastbreak layup by Randolph. UCLA settled in from there, forcing the Cards into more contested looks and having good ball movement. UofL held a small 8-6 lead at the first media timeout, but the Bruins answered with a three immediately following the break. It was all Louisville from there the rest of the quarter.

2nd Quarter: UCLA 32, Louisville 29

Offensive rebounding helped UCLA get an early basket before we saw an extended break due to an injury to Merissah Russell. Louisville went ice cold, which allowed UCLA to take a 25-20 advantage early in the second quarter. Taj Roberts had an answer of her own featuring a pair of deep threes at the top of the key. The Bruins took over again from there the rest of the quarter that was highlighted by a buzzer-beating three-pointer to go into halftime.

Third Quarter: UCLA 50, Louisville 46

Nyla Harris made her presence known with a handful of baskets early in the third quarter. It was UCLA, however, who found the most success during the middle portion of the quarter as they went on a 9-0 run. The Cards would temporarily retake the lead at 46-45, but the Bruins would score the final five points of the quarter.

Fourth Quarter: 66-59

The Bruins extended their lead to seven just a couple minutes into the quarter, leading to Jeff Walz to call a timeout. He showed his frustration before the cameras cut to a commercial break. Louisville went ice cold and allowed UCLA to push their lead to 10. Louisville was not able to cut their deficit to less than seven after that.

Roberts led the Cards in scoring with 21 points on 8-19 shooting. Williams was the only other Cardinal in double figures with 11 points. 

FRED Report

Freddy Farm Bureau

Free Throws: Louisville shot 5-8 on the game for 62.5%. Even though the free throw attempt is a low mark, the make percentage is below our threshold, so no letter here.

Rebounds: The Cards were outrebounded 47-43. 13 of UCLA's rebounds came from the 6'7 Betts. No one that saw the court for Louisville was taller than 6'4, giving the Bruins a massive advantage in this. The Cards did have 19 offensive rebounds. Due to the tall task of going up against Betts, I think this sneaks in as a small "r".

Efficiency: Louisville shot 32% from the field and 20.7% from three-point range, both low numbers. However, they had 15 assists on 24 made baskets. Those assist numbers could have been much higher, but the shots weren't falling for the Cards. UofL had plenty of clean and open looks, just with no luck on the shots going in. Sadly, no letter here.

Defense: Louisville allowed 66 points on the game with only six of those coming from the free throw line. With the exception of Olivia Cochran, the rest of the team kept their fouls in check. UofL did force 22 turnovers and allowed just six fast break points. Louisville recorded 12 steals. Despite the loss, a lowercase "d" comes into play here.

FINAL FRED TALLY:  _-r-_-d. 

It could be worse, but there is plenty of room for improvement. Isn't that to be expected at the beginning of the season, though?

Six of the 11 Cardinals to step on the court are freshmen. Add Williams and seven of the Cardinals are brand new to the team. There is going to be an expected time period where the team has to gel and get more comfortable with the system. All in all, running toe-to-toe with a top five team for most of the game and losing by single digits at the beginning of the year is not a bad loss.

This year's team shows a lot of promise and all of their visible issues can be fixed in the gym. This Louisville team may have quite a few growing pains, but I would not be surprised to see them pull off some upsets along the way.

Photo by SI Louisville

Jeff Walz enters his 18th season as head coach of Louisville women's basketball. He closed out last season with an overall coaching record of 464-135 (.775). While his total number of wins does not crack the top 100 in NCAA women's basketball history (most of those coaches were in the game for 30-40 years), his win percentage is good enough to rank in the top 20, which ranks higher than coaches such as Muffet McGraw, Wes Moore, Sylvia Hatchell, C Vivian Stringer, Lisa Bluder, and Kelly Graves.

Louisville comes home for a Friday night game against Southern Indiana. This is their only home game in the first four games of the season.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Cards open WBB season vs UCLA in Paris -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 2024-25 WBB SEASON STARTS TODAY FOR WBB

Believe it or not, the start of women's college basketball season is upon us. The Louisville Cardinals squad will start it up in Paris,France..of all places...against a UCLA Bruins squad  that has been selected either #5 or #6 in preseason polls, depending on which source you want to believe. Louisville checks in at #17, in jeff Walz's 18th season as the Cards head skipper. 

Alice Cooper, who we seriously doubt will be there af or the contest

I guess the old Alice Cooper classic. "I'm Eighteen" won't be played in the pre-game warm ups by the pep bands for Jeff Walz. Let's just hope they don't decide to break into another Cooper classic "Welcome to My Nightmare..." And, I wonder if any of the four schools sent a pep band over for the event?  

Game time is 2:30 pm and ESPN2 will have the broadcast. We have no firm grip or insight on who Coach Walz will trot out to start this opener...but I'll venture a guess and say Olivia Cochran, Nyla Harris, Merissah Russell, Elif Istanbulluoglu and Jayda Curry.

Lauren Bettts

UCLA looks to be a powerhouse on paper.  They return 6'7" center Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Charlisse Leger-Walker, Charisma Osbourne and Angela Dugalic. Transfer Janiah Barker will add depth to the Bruins and head coach Cori Close enters after their 27-win season last year.  

One of the big questions for this opener is how heavy a role will the eight freshman and transfer Ja'Leah Willams play for the Cards. A lot of it could depend on how close this contest is and how the refs call the contest. Or maybe Walz wants to see how different combinations look against a challenging, top #5 foe. No one knows for sure how he'll approach this one, except him and maybe his associate and assistant coaches. And, they may not even know..

Ja'Leah Williams

The contest will be the first ever between UCLA and UofL WBB. The contest is the opener in the Aflac Qui Play event, USC and Ole Miss will do battle after the Cards and Bruins. 

We'll recap the contest in the Tuesday Cardinal Couple. 

paulie

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 Set for ND Return Trip -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Face Irish for Second Time in Three Days

With two seasons seeing somewhat premature ends and basketball right around the corner, it could be easy to think that the fall sports season is coming to a close. Volleyball still has quite a bit of time remaining in their schedule, though, and it is filled with big matches. One of those matches, though it might not seem that way on paper, comes today. Louisville is coming off a sweep of Notre Dame in L&N FCU Arena Wednesday night, and they take on the Irish again this afternoon. 

I know you're thinking, "That was a pretty simple sweep on Wednesday. I'm not too worried." But allow me to remind you that Pitt's first loss of the season came in a similar situation. They swept their travel partner (SMU) at home on Wednesday, then headed down to Dallas and lost in five sets on Saturday. SMU is a fair shout better than Notre Dame this year, but the Cardinals and Irish have had some scraps despite presumed dominance in recent seasons. 

The Irish managed to take a set off of the Panthers themselves on Sunday in Pittsburgh, so their 9-11 record could belie their ability to jump up at anyone on any given day. After starting the conference season 2-2, they are in the midst of a seven-game losing streak, so you can bet that they'd like nothing more than to end that skid with a big upset of a rival. 

For the Cards, the stakes remain high. Louisville is currently third in the ACC's three-way tie for first. They sit at 10-1 with Pitt and UNC. UNC has a better overall record than Louisville, but they have still not played Pittsburgh, Louisville, Stanford, or SMU in conference. Pitt holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Louisville, obviously, but the Cards will have a chance to get that game back. With two games remaining against Stanford and Pitt, Louisville can ill-afford to drop a game against the teams outside the race for first. 

Miami handed Louisville a gift last night when they beat Stanford in five sets. Stanford is now at 8-3 with SMU, Georgia Tech, and Florida State. That makes Louisville's case for a top-4 finish in the country even better, but Louisville will need to take care of business. Splitting with Pitt and sweeping the season series with Stanford to take first in the ACC outright would be a nice feather in the cap. 

Today's match against ND will get underway at 3PM and will be available to watch on ACC Network Extra. Jeff will be in attendance, so be sure to check out his article tomorrow to learn all about the sights and sounds. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

With Jeff on the road and Daryl off doing Daryl things, we'll have three on today's show. Paulie, Jared, and I will take you through the joy and excitement of Louisville Volleyball women's athletics as we look at the past week of play. Unfortunately, there will be some negatives to cover, but we'll do our best to look forward to the things to come. With Jeff out, there won't be a live version of the show, but we have there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

Cardinal Couple YouTube: Link

Spotify: Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

End of Week, End of Season - Friday Cardinal Couple

Two Sports Seasons End

Field Hockey and Soccer both saw their seasons end yesterday.

Field Hockey was waiting on results from other competitions in the conference to decide their fate, and the results weren't what was desired in Trager Stadium.

Specifically, the results came down to the Stanford vs Cal game.  UofL was in a tie for last place in the conference with the two California teams, and the conference tournament takes eight out of the nine teams in conference to the conference tournament.  The first tie breaker in standings is the results of the head to head game between two teams.  Louisville had beaten Stanford, but lost to Cal, so needed Cal to win this game, leaving the last place tie between Stanford and Louisville, allowing Louisville to advance with the tie breaker.

Alas, Stanford took the win in the game, 3-1, putting them in, at worst, sole possession of 7th place, but more likely in a tie with Wake Forest for 6th place (2-5 Wake plays 5-2 Virginia later today).  Regardless, that leaves Cal and Louisville tied for 8th.  And with Cal having the tie breaker head-to-head, that leaves Louisville out in the cold for the conference tournament.

                                                           (Use my chair...it's OK!)

With an overall record below .500, Louisville is ineligible for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, definitively wrapping the season for the Cards.

On the Soccer side of things, the team played Clemson to a scoreless draw yesterday.  With regular season play in the ACC being wrapped, UofL ends up 12th in the standings, considerably short of the cut to make the ridiculously small six team tournament draw.

The team's overall record of 7-6-5 does, technically, leave them eligible for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, but with an RPI ranking of 62, that's not going to happen.

For what it's worth, the Cards showed some strong defense in the game yesterday, with Erynn Floyd recording six saves in the 90 minutes of play.

The offense did put some pressure on Clemson, particularly Mackenzie Geigle who had two shots on goal in the final minutes of the game, but nothing was able to break through.

Both teams will now start looking towards spring exhibition play, with an eye towards development of players and tactics for next season.

Volleyball Gets an Extra Rest Day

The typical volleyball schedule, particularly during conference play, sees games on Friday and Sunday, but this week has been and continues to be a bit different for the Cards.

This week is the week that the Cards play their ACC "travel partner", Notre Dame.  The league office saw fit to schedule travels partners with "home and home" arrangements this year, and to make those home and home exchanges happen in the same week.  In past years, the home and home involved a random extra Wednesday match somewhere in the middle of the conference season, and then a late season match.

The Cards took the opportunity to rest Charitie Luper during the Wednesday match, giving Payton Peterson her first career start, which she took great advantage of with 9 kills, a service ace, a block and a half, and five digs in LNFCU arena.

So Louisville, instead of playing the normal Friday+Sunday schedule this weekend, gets an extra day of rest after the mid-week match, and will head up to South Bend for the second half of the home and home tomorrow at 3pm.

Basketball Teams

Yes, plural.  While the basketball season doesn't get started until Monday, we do have a couple of tidbits on teams of local interest.

The Cardinals are in Paris France, exploring the city of light.  Social media placed them at the Louvre yesterday, where they were certainly sporting bigger smiles than the Mona Lisa.  They'll have the weekend to explore still, though I'm sure they're getting some practice time is as well before their Monday game against UCLA. And they're dining at the Eifel Tower tonight...something that has to be on most people's "if I only could" list...

Perhaps less cool than a trip to Paris, or maybe moreso, depending on your mindset, I ran across much of the Bellarmine Women's Basketball team yesterday while I was early voting at Immanuel UCC church on Taylorsville Road (just down the road, and shorter lines than at Bowman Field yesterday, also the church that our wonderful photographer Jared attends).  They were there, and also apparently had a contingent at Bowman Field, to assist with the voting location in whatever way they could.  They primarily were arrayed at the stairs from the parking lot down to the level where the voting is setup.  There are accessible ramps, but they do take you a bit out of the way, so the Bellarmine folks were assisting folks that were perhaps a bit uncomfortable with the steps to negotiate them.  Good deeds by a good team that we should be proud to have representing our city along with the Cards.

I was informed by Assistant Coach, and UofL alumnae, Mo Reid that Bellarmine also begins their season on Monday night at 6:30 at Knights Hall on the Bellarmine's campus.  Their opponent will be Indiana University SouthEast, which is also, of course, also a Louisville area team.  I also go the chance to be meet Head Coach Chancellor Dugan, which was a pleasure.

-- 

JMcA

VBall Recap -- WSoc Visits Clemson -- HALLOWEEN THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

JARED'S ANNUAL HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

Volleyball Sweeps Notre Dame

Fans packed L&N Arena for a match between Louisville and Notre Dame. It certainly was not A Quiet Place as the Scream of the fans could be heard out to Floyd Street. Jeff and I were fortunate enough to get inside the packed arena and we Saw the entire match. Louisville's marketing team promoted it as a Halloween theme with special song choices throughout the match.

The Cards brought out the brooms en route to a 3-0 sweep (25-17, 25-17, 25-21). The blowout win meant Irish fans were quick to Get Out of L&N Arena. Things didn't appear to be going the direction of a blowout in the beginning.

Notre Dame raced out a 6-1 lead and then led 8-2 before Louisville settled in. The Cards rallied to go on a 7-1 run to tie the score at 9-9. Notre Dame's last lead in the set was at 14-13 and then it was all Louisville, who ended the match on a 12-3 run.

The second set saw some similar struggles early on with the Irish holding a 10-9 advantage. Louisville showed why they're the #4 team in the country from there, dominating the remainder of the set.

Coming out of halftime, things got out of hand quickly. The Cards found themselves up 19-7 and Dani Busboom Kelly decided it was time to empty the bench. The set felt like Child's Play up to that point. With several seniors set to graduate after this season, DBK knew it was time to let other players get some experience on the court. Notre Dame capitalized on the inexperience and cut Louisville's lead to 22-20. The Cards held steady and walked away with the win.

Louisville's Monster Squad pulled off some monster blocks, tallying 10 on the match. Middles Cara Cresse and Hannah Sherman led the way in that department.

One item to note is that Charitie Luper, who has been a Shining star for Louisville, sat out this match. She was seen wearing a sling at one point, but everything appeared to be just a precaution. Her replacement for the match, Payton Petersen, was all over the place. Notre Dame would've needed an Exorcist to stop her. Petersen posted nine kills, five digs, one ace, and one block.

Anna DeBeer did what she does best and led all players with 10 kills. Elena Scott had Goosebumps seeing a big time cheering section spelling out "We <3 Elena!", but that did not stop her on court performance of 13 digs and an assist.

"We <3 Elena!"

Notre Dame was left scratching their heads hoping it was nothing but a bunch of Hocus Pocus, but this match was no dream, just a true Nightmare On Elm Street (or Floyd Street). These two teams will meet in a rematch this coming Saturday in South Bend.

The Cards (18-3, 10-1 ACC) continue to chase a national championship, hoping to get The Ring this year. Let's hope DBK and Co are Conjuring up the right recipe to make that happen.

Women's Soccer Visits Clemson

Photo by GoCards

Wrapping up their regular season tonight, Louisville women's soccer hits the road to face Clemson. The match is slated for a 7:00pm kickoff time on ACCNX. This match should kick off when it is Near Dark and go well into the night. Thankfully, Historic Riggs Stadium is far from the Children of the Corn that you may encounter as you move further away from campus. 

Clemson enters the match 6-8-2 on the year with a 2-7 mark in the ACC. This is certainly not the same Clemson team that earned a 1-seed in last year's NCAA Tournament and made it to the Final Four. The Tigers started conference play losing four in a row and currently ride a three-game losing streak with a pair of wins sandwiched in between.

Photo by GoCards

Louisville enters the match with a slightly better record of 7-6-4 overall and 2-5-2. Despite this, the Tigers hold a slight edge in RPI. 

The Tigers have been outscored 28-20 on the year with 21 of those goals allowed coming in conference play. The Cards have run into a similar issue in goal differential in the ACC. Both teams are looking to Purge whatever woes they have had this season.

Mackenzie Duff, Christian Brathwaite, and Kendall Bodak have each scored three goals for Clemson. Defensively, Nona Reason and Addy Holgorsen have split the most time in goal. The former has had the most success with 49 saves and a 0.754 save percentage.

Photo by GoCards

For Louisville, Karsyn Cherry has been a Hellraiser for opposing teams. The center back has helped lock down the back line of defense while also scoring six goals. Makenzie Geigle has had a bit of a Sixth Sense this year, allowing her to score seven goals.

A win would help Louisville's chances at an NCAA Tournament bid, but the Cards might need to rely on the skills of Beetlejuice to help make that happen.

Field Hockey Awaits Their Destiny

Photo by GoCards

Louisville field hockey will find out if their season is over or will continue with a key game tonight. No, IT does not actually involve Louisville playing in a game. Instead, this one features California visiting Stanford for a 9:00pm start time on ACCNX. With such a late start time, hopefully they do not play From Dusk Till Dawn.

While this season has felt like A Scary Movie for the Cards, there is a chance their season is still alive. The loser of Cal vs Stanford will finish tied for last in the ACC with Louisville. Louisville would hold the tiebreaker over Stanford but not over Cal. In this case we want Cal to win, allowing the Cards to beat out the Cardinal for the final position in the ACC Tournament.

Most recently, Louisville concluded the regular season with a blowout victory over UC Davis. Stanford also took down UC Davis by a score of 1-0 back in September on Friday the 13th.

The Cards have had some major struggles this year that are nothing short of A Nightmare Before Christmas. I'm not even sure that The Ghostbusters could come in to solve the woes this year. 

We hope you got a good Smile and maybe even a Trick or Treat out of today's Halloween special.

Happy Thursday, Happy Halloween, and Go Cards!

Jared

Curry named to Drysdale Watch List -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE.

 CURRY ONE OF 20 GUARD ON PRESEASON SHOOTING GUARD LIST. 

Senior Cards shooting guard Jayda Curry can fill up a basket, we saw that several times last season, and now...less than a week away from the Cards opening game in Paris vs. UCLA...Curry has been named to the Anne Meyers Drysdale award list...the list of the best shooting guards in women's college basketball. 

Jayda is one of four ACC guards on the list. Ta'niya Latson (FSU), Sanya Rivers (NCST) and Sonia Citron (Notre Dame) are also part of the twenty players named, as well as former Cardinals guard Hailey Van Lith (TCU), Azzi Fudd (UConn), Jewel Spear (Tennessee) and Sarah Andrews (Baylor).

Curry sank 45 - 3 pointers in her first season at Lousiville, and averaged 9.2 points per game in a mostly reserve role for the Cards. One would expect she'd be a contender for a starting role this season...along with Merissah Russell, Nyla Harris, Olivia Cochran, Ja'Leah Williams and Elif Istanbulluoglu. 

Curry began her career at Cal, where she was naamed the Pac 12 Freshman of the Year and also to the All- PAC 12 conference squad.  she averaed 18,.6 points her freshman year. As a sophomore, she started every game for the Golden Bears and averaged 15.5 points a contest. She sank 59 three-pointers and made at least one three in every game for California. 

As a junior at UofL she was a highly valued reserve guard, behind Sydney Taylor and Nina Rickards.  

Lauren Betts

The Cards begin the 2024-25 season against UCLA,. The Bruins, of course, have 6'7" junior center Lauren Betts returning , who Curry faced when Betts was at Stanford and UCLA. The Bruins are now a part of the Big 10, after the demise of the Pac 12.  Btts will be a tough one to stop, Most in the now are pointing to her as a probable All-American and maybe the best center in the Big 10. 

We'll have more on the Cards WBB  opener as we get closer to the Monday, Nov 4th contest between the Cards and Bruins in Paris, France. 

paulie

 

Postseason Odds for Fall Sports -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Which Fall Sports Will Play in Postseason?

With fall sports seasons wrapping up soon or having already wrapped up, we take a look at which sports have a shot at making their respective postseasons, both conference tournaments and NCAA Tournaments.

Field Hockey

Record: 6-11

ACC Record: 1-7

ACC Tournament: 8 of the 9 teams make the tournament

This is a tricky situation. The Cards will finish tied for last with either Stanford or California. The Cardinal and Bears meet on Halloween so one team will finish 2-6 and one team will finish 1-7. Louisville's lone conference win came against Stanford so any ACC Tournament hopes for the Cards comes down to this game.

If California wins, Louisville holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Stanford and earns the 8-seed.

If Stanford wins, Cal holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Louisville and the Cards do not make the ACC Tournament.

Unless Louisville wins the ACC Tournament to earn the automatic qualifier, the Cards are not eligible to make the NCAA Tournament.

Women's Soccer

Record: 7-6-4

ACC Record: 2-5-2 

ACC Tournament: 6 of the 17 teams make the tournament

All ACC Tournament hopes are over for Louisville. Why the ACC still only takes six teams for the conference tournament is baffling, but it is what it is. With eight points in conference play, the Cards cannot catch up to finish in the top six with just a match at Clemson remaining.

NCAA Tournament chances are pretty slim, but not entirely impossible. Louisville is 54th in RPI and Clemson is 51st. A win on the road on Halloween would improve their chances but a draw or loss would not do much in terms of improving the RPI. Even a win would not guarantee a spot in the NCAA Tournament. 

Volleyball

Record: 17-3

ACC Record: 9-1 

ACC Tournament: (Volleyball does not hold a postseason conference tournament)

The ACC does not play a conference tournament for volleyball and instead plays an extra weekend giving each team a couple extra matches. Several other conferences have gone this route in recent years too. The regular season champion earns the automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Louisville's only losses are against the top three teams in the latest AVCA rankings so they do not have a "bad" loss. They do have eight ranked wins, including multiple ranked wins on the road.

There are still 10 matches remaining including rematches against Pitt and Stanford so anything can still happen. Pending nothing crazy in those final 10 matches, Louisville appears to be a lock for the NCAA Tournament. 

The Cards are in a good position to earn a top four seed in the NCAA Tournament and host the entire tournament at the KFC Yum! Center, which certainly adds to the home court advantage.

Louisville plays tomorrow night at home against Notre Dame. This one is a Halloween theme. Halloween shirts and costumes are encouraged.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!
Jared