World Lacrosse Championships down to a Final Four -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 USA, CANADA, HAUDENSAUNEE AND ISRAEL ADVANCE TO THE SEMIFINALS. 

Four teams remain in the World Lacrosse Championships being held in Japan. Only one of the matches was a blowout...with the United States destroying Puerto Rico 23-4. 

In other action...

-- Canada defeated host Japan in overtime 5-4 

-- Haudenosaunee downed England 10-9 in overtime. 

-- Israel squeaked by Australia 12-11. 

In the USA game, the red, white and blue jumped out to an early 6-0 lead after a quarter and led 12-2 at the halftime break. 

Canada and Scott Teeter advance to play in the semifinals, despite Cardinal great Negai Nakasawa scoring a hat trick for Japan. 

It may be considered a bit up an upset but Israel snuck past Australia and Haudenosaunee used last minute heroics to send England to the sidelines. 

paulie

16 team playoff set for World Lacrosse Tournament -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 USA, CANADA AND A COUPLE SURPRISES ADVANCE TO 16 TEAM WORLD LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIPS PLAYOFF BRACKET

Scott Teeter's Canadian squad and the USA have made the World Lacrosse Championships Playoff Brackets, and the 16 finalistS are a few all expected would get there and a surprise or two. 

The first observation here is...who is Haudenosaunee? It is a traditional homeland that encompasses New York State, parts of Pennsylvania and portions of Quebec and Ontario. They are also known as the Iroquois (and should NOT be confused with the high school in Jefferson County off Taylor Blvd.) 

Puerto Rico getting in as a #11 seed in the world rankings is a team I'll follow closely because of another UofL connection. Monica Negron is now Moncal Negron Acevedo.

Sixteen squads are in the playoffs  They began July 24th, and in action up to today...in Pool A, the USA is 3-0, Haudenosaunee is 2-1, Ireland is 1-2 and Chinese Taipei is 0-3. In Pool B, Canada is 3-0, Australia is 2-1, Wales is 1-2 and Germany is 0-3. In Pool C, England is 3-0, Puerto Rico is 2-1, Argentina is 1-2 and Scotland is 0-3. In Pool D, Israel is 3-0, Japan is 2-1, Philippines is 1-2 and Czechia is 0-3. 

The events are streaming globally on World Lacrosse TV.

Best of luck to the USA and to Puerto Rico, where Cardinal great Monica Negron Acevedo is the coach. 

paulie .

Louisville Rowing -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS WOMEN'S ROWING ONE OF 13 PROGRAMS IN ACC.

JULIA SHOEMAKER OF LOUISVILLE ROWING

iF I asked you to guess how many colleges or universities in Kentucky offered rowing as a varsity sport, what would your guess be? Three? Two? One? the answer is...just UofL. 

The program started in 1999 and the Cards now compete in the ACC. Even with a huge river and boat house there, Louisville does not have any meets on the Ohio. They go to the Melton Lake Rowing Venue for meets....located in Oak Ridge, TN. 

Derek Copeland is the head coach of the program and had been since 2012. The 2025-26 ACC Championships were on May 15th in Raleigh, NC. The Cards finished 10th in the ACC Championship and did not qualify for the Nationals or Regionals. 

We haven't seen a 2026-27 schedule yet...but the Championships are scheduled for May 16-17 on Lake Wheeler in Raleigh, NC. Ironically, NC State is located in Raleigh but does not offer women's rowing as a ACC sport, just a club team. 

ACC schools that row are Boston College, Cal, Clemson, Duke, Louisville, Miami. North Carolina, Notre Dame, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia and Virginia 

The 2025 ACC Championships went to Stanford with Virginia finishing second and Cal third. 

Louisviile,KY has one representative on the UofL squad...Julia Shoemaker. out of Eastern High School in Middletown.  

I hope they continue the tradition of the Red/White inter-squad competition to start out the season at UofL. It's a fun event , held right outside the boathouse on River Road. 

paulie

 

Skylar Jones one of seven transfers on Baylor roster -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 EX UOFL GUARD GOES TO PLAY FOR NIKKI COLLEN

We all remember when Jeff Walz made the announcement that the Cards and Skylar Jones had mutually parted ways right before the 2026 NCAA WBB Tournament. I got tired of answering questions about why she was dropped from the Cards roster. I hadn't a clue. 

Speculation later surfaced that loyalty issues, playing time and selfishness were the cause for the mutual parting of ways. Walz's announcement back then was short and rather matter-of-fact. Jones never released a statement...at least not one I could find.  

Well, the 6'0" guard is now at her third college, She is a part of the huge influx to the Baylor Bears program. 

Seven transfers in... that are still on the roster. Besides Jones, they also have acquired Tatiah Scott (Auburn), Ella Brow (SMU), Lorena Awou (NC State), Reese Ross (Utah), Tianna Thompson (Ole Miss), and Trinity Turner (Georgia). 

The Bears have no incoming freshman on the roster. 

If Jones had been able to keep her cool, play as a teammate and a few other things, maybe she'd still be here. she has the talent, just not the college attitude yet. 

Nikki Collen's approach is one that you rarely see in women's college basketball. There is only one player who has been on the roster for five years...Kyla Abraham...who only averaged around five points last season and was more known for her shot blocking skills. 

First Kim Mulkey, now Nikki Collen....Baylor has had some interesting coaching this decade. I wonder if they are all wearing "Hello, my name is..."tags in the Baylor practices. 

paulie

Surviving another attack -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDINAL COUPLE ATTACKED BY HACKERS 

Just when you thought it was safe to go into the woods again.... 

Sunday morning started normal and commonplace. A eye-opening cup of coffee, then to the laptop to write the Sunday article. I planned a "where are they now" article on a former UofL women's athletic great...but I soon found out, something was wrong. 

I could not get into my web page. When I tried to access Cardinal Couple, I was taken to a very descriptive site about "couples who want to meet other couples" . And, it wasn't for coffee or a leisurely breakfast. and, there were pictures, too. 

I tried every way I know of to circumvent the message and questionable words and pictures I was getting. I even clicked on the banner that promised more information. That was a mistake, because I started getting pictures of couples that were "ready for action" 

Not exactly the kind of thing that a 70 yr. old guy needs, right? 

I used my phone to call my security service. They were not answering on Sunday. In desperation I used my phone to see  what to do. I saw that by hitting the windows key and then "r" typing eight letters, I came up with four unknown user names associated with my account. I selected them and then immediately selected remove for each one. But, still o access to mail or my site. 

In desperation, I called my old internet security provided. I explained my troubes to the man answering the phone. I explained that I used to ave them as my ISP but they had dropped me because I wasn't a business anymore. But, he said he would help me but it would take a while for im to get into my account and then "sweep and clear it" as he said. He promised to call me when it was done. 

I got that call at 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon.  I asked him what had happened and he told me he wasn't the one who did the cleaning but thing like this normally happened when hackers were searching for financial information, bank records or other searching bots, usually from chinese or European "miners". 

He also suggested that I do a full Windows security scan. I did. 

I am 99.9% sure that Sgt. Hacker, from Gomer Pyle was not behind my hacking.  

If you happened to see on my site what I did, I apologize to you as well. It is certainly not what we are recommending or supporting here at Cardinal Couple. The guys at the ISP said it's wasn't transferable to readers. I pray it wasn't. 

But, it kind of ruined any plans for putting up a Sunday article. 

I apologize to all of you who read me daily or tried to today and got nothing but Saturday's article again. It has been a long and stressful Sunday. I'll be back with a Monday article. I think right now, I will have a beer and just relax with some television. 

paulie

Teeter and Daley coaching Canada in World Lacrosse Games --SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CURRENT AND FORMER CARDS ON FOUR ROSTERS

Toyko, Japan will be the home for the 2026 World Lacrosse Games from July 24 thru August 2nd. 

Eight UofL coaches or players will be competing in the contests for four different nations. 

CANADA

Scott Teeter will coach the Canadian squad along with UofL's associate head coach Alison Daley. Former Cards star Nicole Perroni will take the field for the Canada squad, which is ranked #2 in the world. Perroni played at UofL from 2020-24. 

CZECHIA

Anna Lottman (formerly Kopecka) was at Louisville from 2013-15 and will si ut up for the Czechs. She was o the team that finished seventh in the 2024 European Women's Lacrosse ChampIonships. 

JAPAN

Kokoro Nakazawa will play for Japan, She and her squad won the 2025 Asia-Pacific Women's Lacrosse Championships' Nakazawa played for UofL from 2021-24 and as a senior had 61 goals and 21 assists to lead the squad. 

PUERTO RICO

Negron

Three former Cards are on the Puerto Rican roster. Monica Negron will serve as the head coach of the squad and Kirsten Parker and Jamie Redding will be assistants. Negron played at UofL from 2011-14, Parker from 2019-22 and Redding from 2011-14. Negron is the Director of Marketing and Engagement at the UofL Center of Belonging, Access and Engagement.  

Good luck to al the Cards in the World Lacrosse Games!

paulie

Does Cards WBB Have A Shot at Kaleena Smith? -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 SMITH HAS VISITED OR WILL VISIT 16 SCHOOLS SO FAR

She is the top recruit in the class of 2027. She currently plays at Ontario (CA) Christian and going into her senior season, her high school hoops numbers are quite impressive. 

In 100 games, she has averaged 30 points a game and is a 5'6" guard. 

Schools she allegedly has visited are Louisville, Notre Dame, LSU, Syracuse and Cal. Upcoming visits are planned to Washington, Baylor, Oklahoma, Georgia, Tennessee, Arizona State, Miami, USC, UCLA, UCon and Texas A&M.

One has to wonder what kind of shot the Cards have at her with so many other top flight DI schools and coaches involved in the running for her services. 

What kind of game does she have? First of all, she is a obvious scorer. In addition...she she quick handles, strong playmaking abilities and is a deadly three-point shooter. Her speed and change-of-direction skills offset her obvious height disadvantages.

She got her first college offer in the sixth grade. No, that is not a misprint. She was playing at a camp against older girls and ruling the floor on them, so Cal Baptist threw an offer her way. 

It is unclear whether her previous visits have been official or unofficial. What is the difference? you might ask? 

An official visit is paid for by the school and a lot of the time it is a multi day visit where the school does the best to impress the visiting athlete. . 

We are not allowed anymore to contact UofL coaches about any players or basically anything anymore, so I would normally ask Coach Walz about her, but certain media gestapo  have gotten to him as well and I no longer here from him. Someone hijacks my X account, I delete it and try to erase it and any other past entries, which is impossible on X, and I am still a persona non grata. 

Smith already has a multi-year shoe and apparel contract with Adidas and another merchandising deal with ESPN. 

It will be interesting to see where she ends up. Her current NIL has not been made public, but we would imagine it is already in the millions. . 

Good luck to the Cards. I see she is planning a visit to UConn next. Tough school to compete against in recruiting. 

paulie

   

Womens Lacrosse chalks up IWLCA honors -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 10 LAX CARDS GET IWLCA RECOGNITION 

We always like to recognize those student-athletes at UofL who perform well in the classroom as well as on the playing venue. 

Scott Teeter has 10 student-athletes on the IWLCA Honor Roll.  The IWLCA is the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association and to be eligible for the Honor Roll, the student-athlete must be a junior, senior or graduate student and  earned a cumulative 3.5 or higher.

Abigail Cole

Aubury Bagenstose, Maggie McMahon, Erin NIcholson and CeCe Riley have received the recognition twice. Abigail Cole, Karli Harnischfeger, Morgan Vasseu, Reese Whitman, Karli  Kirchenheiter and Cate Kangas are on the list for the first time. 

Louisville Lax was 7-10 in 2025 and 1-8 in conference. 

Will it be a breakout year for Louisville WBB's Grace Mbugna? --WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

6'4 SOPHOMORE READY TO SHINE FOR CARDS 

When Grace Mbugna decided to attend UofL, a lot of those in the know were happy to see an in-state talent stay in Louisville and play hoops for the Cards WBB squad .She was being recruited by Kentucky, Baylor, Duke, Florida, LSU, NC State and West Virginia 

Her freshman year, though, was not a year of immediate success for her.. The Danville Christian H.S. prepster came into Louisville riding some pretty respectable stats. She was a 2025 McDonald's All-American nominee. She was also a Miss Kentucky finalist. She was on the Courier-Journal First Team All-State and was the 12th Region Player of the year. She averaged 22.3 points per game her final year at Danville Christian, grabbed 12.7 rebounds and took Danville Christian to the Kentucky Sweet Sixteen Semifinals and the school was the winner of the 12th region title. Born in Kenya and arriving in the United States at the age of 12, it was a story of success and triumph over adversity. . 

 

Crashing the Cards front line, though, wasn't as easy as high school ball seemed to be for her. She played in 18 games for the Cards but average just three points a game and three rebounds. 

But, she has put in the time in the off-season, and the reports I am getting from on-campus indicate to me that there will be no sophomore slump for her...instead, it might well be a  sophomore success story. Walz considers her part of the retuning core foundation

Her and Elif Istanbulluoglu on a Cards front line could be quite a power force along with Roberts, Randolph, Prawl and Berry in the backcourt attacking the opponents with that one thing Jeff Walz stresses...speed. 

We are excited, here at Cardinal Couple to see what kind of season she has. And, she wears #23, just like one of my favorite Cards of all-time...Jaz Jones. 

We can only hope it will be....a season full of Grace. 

paulie

Hearing from the probable Cards WBB starters -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 RANDOLPH, ISTANBULLUOGLU, ROBERTS AND BERRY SPEAK 

In case you missed them, last week the four girls that are are front runners to be starters for Louisville women's basketball spoke to a collection of media. I no longer attend these, partly due to health concerns and partly because UofL doesn't want me there. But, they are good discourses on a wide variety of subjects, I have them for you below .

https://youtu.be/WiVihv4FTx0?si=f9Eeqkm8S-bZNDVf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQG26IjaczE

If anything, the two clips..about 30 minutes in all, teach us valuable lesson...passing the torch is an important thing to all four. Leading by example and taking time to talk with the younger, inexperienced players is important to them and they look forward to the season ahead. 

The rest of the ACC will look at this 2026-27 squad and realize that there isn't just one athlete to shut down in order to stymie this team, there are at least four that have the skills, ability and talent to take over a game and make you pay 

There is a potential powder keg sitting on campus right now, let's see if the fuse gets lit ad it blows up the ACC and Di women's basketball. 

paulie