The Week Ahead for Louisville Women's Athletics -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Packed Schedule as Spring Ramps Up

Louisville women's athletics has a busy week ahead as the winter sports season hits its climax and the spring sports season gets rolling. Six sports are in action this week with only the track and field team having the week off. 

Women's golf and swimming will both be first in action today, as each of those teams continue multi-day events. The golf team is finishing up the Moon Golf Invitational in Melbourne, Florida today, and the Cards stand tied for 13th of 17 teams after yesterday's rounds. Louisville is just three shots off of 11th place and will get the final round underway at 9am this morning. Swimming and diving are getting into the third day of the ACC Championships, with the event scheduled to run all the way through Saturday. There are plenty of events on deck for that, so you can keep up with Louisville Swim and Dive on social media or check in with live stats here or live streaming via ESPN. Louisville finished third as a team in last season's ACC tournament, and seven ACC teams are in this season's top 25. Today's events get underway at 9:30. 

Softball will begin a loaded week with their home opener this afternoon as they host Bellarmine. It should be an unseasonably warm day, with highs forecast in the 60s today, so it should be more pleasant than people may have expected going into a mid-February matchup. This game was originally slated to be played next week, so the weather is a nice surprise for the rescheduled event. The Cards are 6-3 so far this season, with all three losses coming to the hosting opponents at their two weekend events. Louisville faces a Bellarmine squad that is just 1-8 in their first season under a new head coach. The Cards will look to extend their win streak to three games going into the weekend, where they'll travel once more. Tonight's game will be at 6:30 on ACCNX. After today, Louisville will go on the road again, this time to Fort Myers, FL for an event hosted by Florida Gulf Coast University. Louisville will play Buffalo and FGCU on Friday afternoon, Wisconsin and UConn on Saturday, and close the weekend with a Sunday morning rematch against Buffalo. 

Lacrosse will play a pair of games this week as well, as they look to pick up their first victory of the 2026 campaign. The Cards lost a heartbreaker in the opener, going down in double OT to Ohio State, and fell at the hands of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on Saturday. Louisville will look to bounce back with a home match against Kent State tomorrow at noon and they'll play another road ACC match on Saturday. This week, Scott Teeter's squad will face North Carolina. 

Women's tennis will have two matches at home this week, as ACC play fully ramps up. The Cards are 6-1 so far this season with their lone loss coming last Friday against Notre Dame. Louisville is 0-1 in conference as a result, but they'll bring two Florida teams to Bass-Rudd this weekend to try to fix that. The Cards face Florida State on Friday and Miami on Sunday. 

Louisville women's basketball has a mid-week bye this week, giving their opponents a chance to catch up in league play. The Cards have won three straight since losing to Duke, and that head-to-head matchup is currently the difference between the top two teams in the ACC. Duke is 14-0, while Louisville sits at 14-1. Duke plays NC State on Thursday, but chances are running out for the Blue Devils to take a loss. After the Wolfpack, they'll play at Clemson, host FSU, then finish the season on the road at rival UNC. Louisville gets a mid-week break but they'll take on Virginia at the Yum! Center on Sunday. The Cards finish the season with a significant test of their own, going on the road to Georgia Tech on Thursday the 26th before hosting Notre Dame on March 1st. The Cards and Irish will square off at 4PM on ESPN2, and they'll be the second to last tip-off of the ACC regular season. The Cards can lock up a double-bye in the ACC tournament with one more win. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

CARDS WBB PULLS AWAY FROM FSU 88-65 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 BALANCED SCORING LEADS THE WAY FOR UOFL WBB IN WIN OVER NOLES

Louisville WBB got off to a hot start and never really let up the gas in a convincing win over FSU Sunday evening in the KFC YUM! Center. The Cards jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first two and one half minutes..thanks to a Laura Ziegler three and rebound bucket and led by 11 in the first quarter before ending the first ten minutes session with a Skylar Jones layup for a 19-10 lead.

The Cards built the lead halfway through the second quarter to 27-14 after two Reyna Scott free throws and took a 34-20 lead into the halftime ocker room...only three Cards scored in the second 10 minutes...Imani Berry with six points, Reyna Scott with five and Grace Mbugna with four. 

Louisville pushed the lead out to 19 in the third quarter three minutes into the third quarter with a Reyna Scott layup with three minutes gone in the half to make it 46-27. A Laura Ziegler layup at the 4:13 mark gave the Cards a 20 point lead at 52-32. Rhee quarter ended with the Cards still ccomfortbly ahead at 61-39 after  Berry three with 22 seconds left. 

The Cards builtthe lead to 81-50 when Grace Mbugna tipped one in with 4:33 to play. FSU did outscore the Cards 15-7 the rest of the way..but Walz had pretty much replaced the starters in the final part of the fourth quarter. Anaya Hardy did score the Cards final three baskets for the 88-65 win. 

I NEVER SAW THIS MOVIE..WAS IT ANY GOOD? 

THE FRED REPORT

FREE THROWS -- The Cards shot 10-18 from the charity stripe. That's not quite 60% and nowhere near the mandated 70% we need to award a letter..so..no letter. Wonder who will be shooting a bunch of free throws next practice?  Maybe Elif (0-3) and Skylar (2-4)? 

REBOUNDS -- The Cards held a 46-37 edge on the hrbbing of missed shots and that's good enough for a CAPITAL "R"  Laura Ziegler had eight for UofL and Mac Randolph had seven. 

EFFORT/EXECUTION -- The Cards shot 59.4% from the floor and had only 11 turnovers. That's worthy of a CAPITAL "E"

DEFENSE --  Allowing less that 70 points and forcing 16 turnover over is OK..but FSU just isn't that great this year. I see a small case "d" here

FINAL FRED TALLY _-R-E-d

The log term view? Keep winning and hopes Duke slips up a couple of times, so the cards can win the regular season title. Anything ncan happen. 

paulie

 

paulie

Fun in South Carolina ...Softball takes two on Saturday -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 SUCCESSFUL SOUTH CAROLINA SATURDAY

Riley Janda

Holly Aprile has a lot of talent on this 2025-26 Louisville Softball squad and the pitching staff is loaded. The Cards got a 4-0 win over Kennesaw State and a 5-3 win against Boston University in their final day of action in the Carolina Classic in Columbia, South Carolina. 

The Cards finish 3-1 in the Palmetto State this weekend and Madi Reeves and Anna Wise got their first wins of the season yesterday. 

Easton Lotus, the lovely fifth yr .senior for the Cards

A 4-0 shutout in the opener against Kennesaw State...with three runs in the first and a Riley Janda home run in the fifth . Madi Reeves pitched the shutout and allowed just seven hits over the seven innings. 

The Cards started game two with a first inning run when Easton Lotus scored on a Madison Pickens triple. Louisville got RBI's from Pickens, "Ri" Despines, Camryn Lookadoo and Katie Thatcher in the fourth to complete the scoring. 

The Cards return home to face Bellarmine on Feb 17th. 

Softball Splits Friday Again -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Beat BU, Fall to SCar

In their second weekend of the season, Louisville softball once again saw themselves taking on the hosting team in the second game of the first day. The Cards faced Boston University and took a 3-0 win in the first game but things got squirrelly in the second. Louisville held close to South Carolina early in the game before an explosive fifth inning ended the game early with a 9-1 run rule. 

Alyssa Zabala took the win in game one, as the Cards gave her a cushion in the top of the first inning. Chelsea Mack singled out of the second spot in the lineup and immediately stole second. Making the most of her cleanup spot, Bri Despines batted a single into the outfield to score Mack and give Louisville the 1-0 lead. From there, Zabala took the reins and didn't let go. She pitched a complete game and scattered four hits across them. Zabala struck out six and walked just one batter. Of their five baserunners, the Terriers put two on in two innings, meaning Zabala was more or less nails in the other five. 

Despines earned her second RBI in the sixth inning with a double to score Madison Pickens, who had reached on an error. The Cards opened the seventh inning with an out, but Jordan Williams tripled with one out. That turned over the order, and Easton Lotus laid down a single toward third. It was fielded by the catcher, holding Williams at third, but Lotus beat out the throw for a single. As Mack worked her at-bat, the Terriers tried to pick off Lotus on a steal attempt, which was a bold choice with a runner at third, and it went exactly as you might expect: Lotus got the steal anyway, and Williams took the opportunity to come home. That set the final score of 3-0. 

The Cards opened the second game similarly, with Lotus reaching base to open the game, Mack walking, and Despines doubling Lotus in for a Louisville lead. Brooke Gray took the circle for Louisville and got off to a good start by getting two quick outs, but a four-pitch walk was followed by a double and the score was tied. Gray ended the inning and the teams went on tied. 

Louisville threatened briefly in the third with a Lotus double and a two-out walk from Pickens, but Despines couldn't regain the lead for the Cards. In the bottom half, Gray got a quick pop-out but back-to-back first-pitch singles chased her from the circle. Anna Wise entered for Louisville and managed to end the threat. Gray finished with three hits and one walk in 2.1 innings. She had just one earned run but she didn't pick up any strikeouts. 

Louisville once again got a double and a walk in the fourth but were once again unable to take the lead in the game. Wise returned to the circle and gave up a leadoff single. She got the first out on an infield ground ball, but the runner advanced to second. A walk put runners on first and second, and an unsuccessful fielder's choice loaded the bases with one out. A sacrifice bunt scored the go ahead run, and another single made it 3-1. Finally, South Carolina grounded straight to Lotus at second base and the inning ended. 

Louisville responded with three-up, three-down, which set the stage for an unfortunate fifth inning. Things went immediately wrong after a full-count walk and a single that was challenged and failed. The Cards made a pitching change and gave up a double steal. A sacrifice liner to left was followed by a two-run homer. Louisville went on to see an illegal pitch and, though they picked up a second out, South Carolina went on to end the game with the bases still loaded. 

The Cards returned to the field at 10am this morning against Kennesaw State, and they'll face BU again this afternoon before returning home. Tomorrow's game against Kennesaw State has already been canceled. Louisville will face Bellarmine on Tuesday and then hit the road for the Gulf Coast Classic next weekend. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

WBB unloads on Wake Forest 86-67 -- SB heads to Carolina Classic -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Good morning and happy weekend eve!

Its also Friday the 13th, Galentines Day and Valentines Day Eve!  Happy holiday to those who celebrate! 

WBB


Louisville 86  Wake Forest 67

For the Cards, 12 players scored, 8 had 6 or more points, they had 11 3 pointers, 25 assists and 41 points came from the bench.

The first few minutes were probably the worst for them in this one as they started 1-4 shooting from the field and had 3 turnovers in the but then none for the remainder of the quarter.  After that, the Cards went 4-6 from 3 in the quarter Elif Imari and Robert’s had 2 threes. Cards go on a 9-0 run and hold WF to just 6 points going into the final minute of the quarter. 


A deflection from Elif leads to a steal for the cards and they take tit to the other end and put together a sequence Robert’s hits the 3 on the assist from Ziegler.  Elif scores at the buzzer on the feed down low from Reyna Scott to close out the half and it is all smiles from the Cardinals bench.

Louisville went on a 15-1 run to close out the half, had 15 assists on 17 made buckets and held the Deacs to just 9 points in both of the first two quarters.


43-18 at half



Wake Forest finally got their feet under them coming out of the halftime break, they shot 57% in the third quarter going 8-14 from the field.    Grace Oliver had 8 of her 15 points in the 3q, where the cards outscored WF 27-21.

Wake forest ends the game on a 15-2 run but it was beyond out of reach at that point. Walz had called off the dogs and gave an opportunity for some bench players to get some playing time in an ACC game.  

FRED REPORT

Free throws -- 7 for 9...a solid 78% CAPITAL "F"

Rebounds -- 31-28 Cards. They get get rebounded on the offensive end, though. Small case "r"

Effort/Execution -- 25-15 assist advantage make this a CAPITAL "E" already. Louisville also went 44% from three point range.

Defense --  14-3 edge in steals make this a CAPITAL "D" without looking any further. 

FINAO FRED TALLY -- F-r-E-D




Softball

Cards bus Softball loading up for Colombia, SC

UofL softball is continuing its early spring schedule and heading down to Columbia, South Carolina for the Carolina Classic hosted by the South Carolina Gamecocks. 

First up, the Cards will face Boston University this morning at 11am and will face the hosting South Carolina at 4pm. They will play both squads again on Saturday before rounding out the weekend with a matchup with Kennesaw State Sunday at 12pm.





Louisville vs Boston University

Series history 2-1 Cards lead – last matchup was 5/17/2014 where the Cards lost 8-3 in Tuscan, Arizona. That was back in the Maryssa Becker days of program history.

The Terriers are 3-2 coming off a 20-16 loss to Buffalo in Orlando last weekend. They did beat #16 Duke the day before that, 2-1.  Thats a big win. 

Junior Kylie Doherty and senior Kasey Ricard have earned Patriot League weekly awards, as announced by the conference office Monday afternoon. Doherty collected her second career Player of the Week award with the help of a clutch sixth-inning go-ahead homer against #16 Duke, and Ricard claimed her 14th Pitcher of the Week honor by holding the Blue Devils, Maryland and CSU Bakersfield to just one combined (unearned) run.




Louisville vs South Carolina


Series history 0-2 Gamecocks lead – last matchup was 2/23/2018 where the Cards fell 3-5. Caitlin Ferguson and Sidney Melton both went 2-3 with an RBI each in that clash.

South Carolina is 3-2 on the season with both losses to #19 Virginia Tech. They also run ruled Syracuse 15-2.

Holly Aprile served as an assistant coach for the Gamecocks from 1996-2003 under Hall of Fame head coach Joyce Compton.

The Gamecocks rank among the top-10 in doubles, doubles per game, scoring, total runs, and walks. SC has had 5 pitchers start in the circle for them so far this season.

As Always, 

Go Cards

~Daryl 

WBB vs Wake Forest Preview -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Wake up CARDNATION, its GAMEDAY!  

WBB

#9 Louisville vs Wake Forest Preview



Demon Deacs are 13-12 on the season and 3-10 in the conference.


Wake Forest is coming off an 84-56 loss to UNC. The Tarheels shot better than 48% from the field against WF.

The Deacs are averaging 66 PPG. Since joining the ACC, Louisville is 12-1 against Wake. The Cards won 81-76 in the 2025 matchup. Only 4 players who saw minutes in that matchup are still on the UofL roster. Taj Roberts had 17 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal in the game.

Sophomore forward Grace Oliver is leading the offense for Wake averaging 13.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and shoots 38% from three point range. leads the ACC and ranks 15th nationally with a 58.9% field goal percentage. Mary Carter is sixth in the ACC with 52 three-pointers and eighth in the league with 2.1 three-pointers made per game. Freshman Milan Brown is leading the rebounding efforts averaging 6.4 per game.


The game is set to tip off at 7pm at the KFC Yum! Center or on the ACCNX.

Louisville has 5 games left in the regular season, 4 of them at home.

As Always, 
Go Cards

~Daryl 

WBB heads into final five games of ACC slate -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDS WBB ONE GAME BACK OF DUKE WITH FIVE TO GO IN REGULAR SEASON CONFERENCE GAMES

You can count the remaining regular season ACC tests for Louisville WBB on one hand now...as most of the teams have reached the mark of over a dozen ACC games played. At 12-1 in conference, Louisville is behind Duke by one game. If the ACC WBB Tournament was played tomorrow, 

#10-#15 seeds play on the Wednesday opening round. If that was starting tomorrow, it would be #15 Wake Forest vs. #10 California, Other Wednesday games would be #14 Florida State against #11 Georgia Tech and #13 Stanford and #12 Miami facing off. The winners of the first round would go on to face the winner of Clemson vs. Notre Dame, Syracuse, Virginia or Virginia Tech on Thursday Your top four seeds are Duke, UofL, NC State and UNC and they would first see action Friday. I doubt it will go down in this sequence, but...it's as good a guess as any 3/4th of the way through the season .  

SMU, Pitt and Boston College would not make the ACC Tournament if today's standings were the final standings. 

Of course, we all know that things can go thru a dramatic upheaval in the final handful of conference games. 

Duke is on a 15 game win streak. UNC on a seven game win streak.

The Cards end conference regular season play against Wake Forest, FSU, Virginia, at Georgia Tech and Notre Dame. That's the current #6 , #15, #5, #11 and #8 seeds. four out of five at home bode well for the Cards. Duke has UNC, NC St., at Clemson, FSU and at UNC.

 I like the Cards schedule better, Louisville could battle their way back to a tie for the conference lead and if they can go undefeated the rest of the way and Duke lose two...say to UNC once and always tough NCSt.... the Cards could take the title. 

A lot of balls to bounce yet. 

Daryl will be covering my Thursday article ...as I will be in Cleveland at the Cleveland Clinic undergoing kidney evaluation. FINGERS AND TOES CROSSED FOR BEST OF LUCK. 

paulie

Lacrosse Opens Season at Home -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Teeter's Squad Hosts Ohio State

Louisville lacrosse is off to the races this week in their season opener, which is no surprise based on past seasons, but the unusual part this year is that they won't open with their traditional Colorado opponents. This year, Louisville will open the season at home, and they'll take on the Buckeyes of Ohio State. Louisville and OSU meet regularly, with the home team winning the last two matchups. Ohio State leads the all-time series 8-4, and they beat the Cards 9-6 360 days ago. 

The Cards are 14-4 all-time in home openers, which is quite the impressive mark. They're 11-7 in overall season openers and they won last season's opener over the #15 ranked Denver Pioneers. The Cards finished last year 7-10 with a disappointing 1-8 ACC mark. Louisville seemed on the verge of a breakthrough in 2024 when they posted their best ACC record under Scott Teeter with three wins. Last season was a step back in that regard, and we'll be looking for the Cards to get back to a higher win total this season. 

Louisville is making a fair number of replacements, with perhaps the most critical of those being Ashley Osborne. Osborne was a sixth year senior defender who reached a program-record 82 games played last season. She had a team-high 25 ground balls last year in a season that saw her become the 8th player in program history to amass 100 career ground balls. The Cards graduated a total of eight seniors, which also included goalkeeper J Pleck. Pleck's 258 career saves were fifth all-time in the program. 

The Cards had a freshmen battle at the backup position last season between Hanna John and Haley Richards. John transferred out of the program, so Richards will look to win the spot over fellow sophomore Campbell Murray, who transferred from Mercer, and senior Aubrey Bagenstose, who has been a career Cardinal but has not seen action in a game since 2023. Richards had seven saves in five games last season. 

 

Louisville does return three of their top six scorers from last season and a pair of defenders who started all 17 games. Cate Kangas and Olivia Scroggie will continue to hold down the defense, while Rian Adkins and Reese Whiteman lead the offensive attack. Whiteman was the team leader in goals (26) and points (32) last year, while Adkins was third on the team with 23 points. 

Louisville and Ohio State will get underway at noon today, and admission to the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium is free. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

SB wraps up first weekend -- WBB bounces back at Cuse -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Good morning all,




Im looking forward to some temps in the 50s this week hopefully melt some of the ugly piles of snow around town, especially the ones currently blocking places to park in front of my house.

WBB



Louisville    84    Syracuse  65

Laura Ziegler was unstoppable and scored 22 points on 10-13 shooting from the field.  As a team, the Cardinals shot 54% from the field.     

Recap

Louisville opened the game looking like they had something to prove after the midweek misstep with Duke.    After a quarter, Laura Ziegler scored a layup underneath on the feed from Imari Berry.  The Cards led 28-6 after 1 quarter, Syracuse shooting 0% and only scored from free throw attempts. 

But the Cuse would not be discouraged as they would respond loudly in quarter number two.  After being down by as many as 22,they engineered a 16-2 run by Syracuse and Darius going 6-6 from the field in that frame alone.   At one point, the Orange made 7 shots in a row and finished the quarter shooting 73%.  Cuse outscored UofL 30-16 in the quarter.  

Louisville led 44-36 at the halftime break.  

Cards lose it out of bounds but get it right back in the opening minute of the third.  Anaya Hardy got the foul called but she missed both at the line.  Orange scored 3 buckets in a row before Ziegler quieted the crowd and makes it 61-54 with 90 seconds to go in third quarter.

After a Syracuse airball and shot clock violation, Taj Robert’s went full length of floor and made it 9 pt game again and Louisville pushed it back to a double digit 11 point lead and the end of the third quarter.

Each time Cuse got a big bucket, The Cards responded with one of their own.  

After a 3 min scoring drought for Cuse put the Cards up by 15...there was really no looking back. 


Softball

 

Louisville  5   FIU   8 
 

The Cards are 3-2 on the season after the first weekend of the 2026 season.  Louisville fell to hosting FIU in both matchups this weekend, losing 8-5 Sunday afternoon.    

Brooke Gray took the loss in the circle after giving up 2 runs on two batters faced. Anna Wise got the start and gave up 5 hits in 3.1 innings pitched.   The Cardinals pitching staff gave up 8 runs on a total 9 hits, walked 6 and only struck out 4 batters face.  

Offensively, Madison Pickens and Katie Thatcher had 2 RBIs each and Chelsea Mack and Camryn Lookadoo each had 2 hits for Louisville. 

Recap

After securing a 4-2 lead in the top of the 4th, the Panthers responded with 4 in the bottom frame and the Cards could not rally from behind to even the series.   

In a game that saw 4 Cardinal pitchers, there were two pitching changes made in the bottom of the 4th.  

As Always, 
Go Cards 
~Daryl 

Softball takes two Saturday and WBB faces Syracuse today -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS SOFTBALL WINS BOTH GAMES IN FEISBURG TOURNEY SATURDAY

An oldie but goodie photo of Louisville Softball

A tale of two different ballgames for the softball Cards in the FIU Invitational in Miami on  Saturday, also known as the Felsburg Invitational.  

Why is it called the Felsburg Invitational for softball?

Michael Felsburg was a former FIU track and field and cross country star that graduated with honors and then went into the Marine Corps but was killed in Iran in 2004.

The Cards faced Texas A&M - Corpus Christi in the morning opener and went on a hitting and scoring rampage...scoring 13 runs and getting off to a 7-0 start before a wild sixth inning that saw TAMCC score five runs and the Cards respond with six runs for an 13-5 eventual victory. Two Cards drove in five runs each in Jordan Williams and Riley Janda and Alyssa Zabala (my favorite softball Cardinal...who is also a Miami native) got the win with a scoreless four inning performance to start the game. Madi Reeves handled the relief chores.  

In the second contest, Brooke Gray threw four shutout innings with only two hits allowed before giving way to Jayden Gohs who had three scoreless innings relief in the 4-0 win over Lehigh. 

The Cards scored a run in the first , two in the third inning and one more in the fifth to take the "W" It's good to see the Cards bats so lively this early in the softball season.  Head UofL softball coach Holly Aprile has some very efficient and smart players who head to the plate in Easton Lotus, Chelsea Mack, Jordan Williams, Madison Pickens, Camryn Lookadoo and Riley Zanda...just to name a few.

Louisville (3-1) will end their stay in the Felsburg with a return game against FIU, who gave them their only loss in the tourney. That one starts AT 11:30 A.M. and will be on ESPN+ again..

WBB GOES ON THE ROAD TO FACE SYRACUSE 

It'll be an early start for Louisville WBB in Syracuse on Super Bowl Sunday...with a noon start time. The contest will be shown on the CW.  The contest will take place in the JMA Wireless Dome (how many names had this thing had?) Old guys like me still refer to it as the Carrier Dome. 

Felicia Leggett Jack

A worthy foe, these Orange...19-4 overall and 9-3 in the ACC. The Cards enter the contest at #8 in the nation and sport a 21-4 ,11-1 record. 

Louisville enters the contest after the one-point loss to Duke in the KFC YUM! Center. The Cards are second in the ACC standings and Duke is tied for third.

It will be interesting to see how the Cards bounce back from their only conference loss as they take to the road to face a very challenging Syracuse squad. Felicia Leggett-Jack is the Orange head coach,