Cards VB downs Missouri in 4 sets -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 DIFFERENT VENUE, SAME RESULTS

Louisville Volleyball was in their second home last night, the spacious KFC YUM Center, to face Missouri, and ...although it is vastly oversized for the 5,000 or so who showed up, it was a rollicking venue for Cards fans who can never acquire seats in the on campus LNFCUA. 

The school needs a 5-7,000 arena on campus. Those wide open spaces adjacent to soccer's Lynn Stadium is there, but since the program is 30 million dollar in debt. that lot is probably going to stay vacant or a place to rent out for Ford to park excessive cars. 

But, enough on financial woes, let's talk wide net, shall we? 

The Cards won in four sets -- 25-21, 22-25, 25-15, 25-17 --and looked pretty dominant in doing so. Missouri isn't ranked yet, like the #5 Cards are...but they are a squad that could pull some serious upsets come tournament time. Let's see how the VolleyCards got this one done. 

SET ONE

It was 3-3 early before the Cards went on a 7-1 run. Missouri did battle battle with their own The Cards led at the TV break 15-11 and maintained the advantage the rest of the set and got the 25-21 win.

SET TWO

Missouri fell behind early at 7-2 but battled back at tied things at 11-11-  That went to 15-15 before The Tigers built a 21-17 edge. Louisville could not recover from it and dropped the second set 25-21.

SET THREE

It was "All Cads, all the time" in set three. The early 7-1 early expanded to 15-3 at the media timeout. Missouri never gave up the fight the rest of the set, but time and points did them in, with the Cards romping 25-15.

SET FOUR

The Cards continued the beatdown in the final set, jumping out to an 8-1 advantage. They pushed that to a 15-5 lead at the pause and were able to coast in with a 25-17 win to take the set and match. 

Next up, UofL heads to Houston for the Rice invitational. No, it's not a three day dining spree featuring the tasty grains varieties, it'll be volleyball with UofL facing Rice, Creighton and Northern Iowa. That begins on Friday, Set 11th., when UofL will play the Owls. 

 

Field Hockey Unbeaten at 4-0 -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Field Hockey unbeaten going into difficult stretch

They have stepped on the field four times this season for contests and, so far, have walked off with four wins. Miami (OH), Indiana, St. Louis and Michigan St. Although only one (Miami) was ranked in the top 20, the wins were still quality ones and showed that Justine Sowry's squad is equally adapt at road wins and wins at Trager. 

The road is considerably tougher, though...in the next couple of contests. A trip to Evanston, IL to face Northwestern on Friday Sept 11th will put the Cards up against the #1 team in the NCAA DI Coaches Poll. And, two days later, the Cards will face #2 in the nation Iowa on the Northwestern Field. Both opponents are 4-0 on the season. 

Louisville is currently ranked #14 in the DI poll.  That...in itself... is a bit puzzling since there are eight schools ahead of them in the latest D poll who have at least one loss already and two of them (UNC and Duke) have two losses. Parity? Nope, such coaches voting without researching. 

Lauren Masters

The Cards have put up 11 goals in their four wins and allowed just two. Four Cardinals are tied for the scoring lead with two goals each...Gigi Edwards, Annabel Sep, Tyler Everslage and Lauren Masters.

The goalkeeping effort of  Emily Young needs to be recognized as well. She has had 23 stops in four games. Her backup, Katie Hume has one stop in just 15 minutes of acton this season. 

We hope the Cards can pull off a couple of upsets in the next two contests. Playing #1 and #2 in the nation back to back with just one day of rest in between is certainly a task I doubt any DI coach would be ecstasic about...but with the sometimes eyebrow-raising scheduling assignments being put out there these days, I suppose you just tell your squad to play the best they can and never give up the fight. 

paulie

Meester, Cabello Earn Honors for #5 VolleyCards -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 MEESTER ACC OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

I just wanna know if there are any more like her back home in Mt .Vernon, Iowa and can the Cards kindly reserve their future services if there are? 

After sitting a season observing and learning, Chloe has hit the Cards Volleyball courts like an impending hurricane slams into a tropical island. 

The 6'3" sophomore outside hitter could easily win a beauty pageant if she were to take a notion to enter, but on the volleyball court she is a scary, menacing Godzilla that I think Blue Oyster Cult wrote a song about...foreshadowing her dominance and skills . 

In six matches, she has 67 kills and five service aces. To switch the Buck Dharma lyrics around to tailor the subject. 

"With a purposeful and a terrible sound...she slams the orb into the center of the crowd. Helpless opponents in D1 games scream "My God!" as she side outs on them." 

If you see her headed your way on the sidewalk, move to the grass or turn around and take a different path. Ask Texas. In Nashville she led the Cards with 13 kills and posted a .565 hitting average. The Horns got hooked, in straight sets and probably walked out of Bridgestone Arena like a cartoon character with the circle of question mark over the head. The ACC award of offensive Player of the Week is well deserved. 

Louisville Volleyball has won their last four matches...each one in three game sweeps. 

And, a big reason for Meester's success has been Navelis Cabello. The Cards setter and team captain provides the bread for the outside hitters to turn into toast. She was the ACC Volleyball Freshman of the Year in 2025 and 62 assists against Marquette in the NCAA Tournament last year. And, she is also the ACC Co-Setter of the Week. 

There's no telling how far this squad could go this season, but if you ask them, a NCAA Title is the prime objective.  

Don't count them out. 

paulie

Happy Labor Day -- Sunday results -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS TAKE THREE ON SUNDAY

Wishing you a Happy Labor Day today! Whether you are taking it easy, at a picnic or working to take care of the needs of us who aren't working today, We hope you have a safe and relaxing day. 

A very good day for Louisville women's athletics on Sunday as the Cards won three  on the day. A three set Louisville Volleyball sweep over Texas, a shut-out for Louisville Field Hockey Michigan St. and Louisville women's soccer prevailed over Mercyhurst. Let's see how they went down

LOUISVILLE VOLLEYBALL DOWNS TEXAS IN THREE SETS

The two squads were in Nashville and playing in front of a nationwide audience on ABC and the Cards did not disappoint. Louisville won in straight sets in the event titled the Broadway Block Party. It went 25-12, 28-26, 25-16 for the Red and Black. 

SET ONE

The Cards fell behind 2-0 to start but rallied with a 8-2 run behind Hannah Kenny's serving. UofL pushed that lead to 12-7 on an attack error by Texas, then took off on a 11-3 rally to make it 23-10. Two Longhorn service errors gave the Cards the 13-point win. 

SET TWO

Louisville  jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, but Texas responded to tie it at 8-8. Louisville edged ahead to make it 15-13 at the media break. Texas came back to garb the lead at 22-20 on a Henley Anderson kill, but the Cards were able to tie it at 25 on a Chloe Meester kill. Kalyssa Blackshear put the Cards up 27-26 on a slam and a Louisville block gave the Cards the 28-26 

SET THREE

The Cards jumped out 4-1 after a Payton Petersen service ace and went up 9-5 on a Texas service error. 13-9 was the Cards advantage after a Longhorn hitting error and the Cards pushed that to 20-12 on a Chloe Meester kill. A setting error gave the Cards the game at 25-16 and the match

LOUISVILLE FIELD HOCKEY BLANKS MICHIGAN STATE 4-0. 

The Cards and Spartans battled to a scoreless first quarter, but UofL broke into the scoring at the 19:17 mark of the game when Chloe Plumb found the back of the net. The 1-0 score took the squads into halftime. 

Louisville struck quickly to start the second half when Lauren Masters got in the scoring column just 43 second into the half. Six minutes later, Tyler Everslage took a Jaelen Perez pass and made it 3-0. At the 58:04 mark, Perez got another assist when she found Annabel Sep with a feed to make it 4-0

The Cards dominated the offense stat, taking 19 shots, 11 on goal...while the Spartans took just three shots, two on goal. Louisville had 12 penalty corner attempts, where MSU tried just two. 

LOUISVILLE WOMEN'S SOCCER DOWN MERCYHURST 3-1

The Cards took a 2-0 halftime lead over the visitors and took  the contest 3-1 in Lynn Stadium. 

UofL got their first goal at the 21:43 mark on wha was just called a team goal. 

A minute later, McKalie took a pass from Abigail Cox and found the net to put the Cards up 2-0

Six minutes into the second half, Nicole Jodain got in the scoring column with the Cards final score, off an assist. Mercyhurst tacked on a late goal and the Cards captured the 3-1 win. 

paulie 

All three Uofl major fall women's sports in action today -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 WSOC, FIELD HOCKEY AND VOLLEYBALL PLAY TODAY

Sunday, Sept 6th is gong to be a busy day for UofL athletics. Not only does football kick off their 2026 season (against Ole Miss in Nashville) but Cards Field Hockey, Volleyball and Women's Soccer have events. Let's look at what the Cards women's squads have ahead of them. 

LOUISVILLE VOLLEYBALL VS #9 TEXAS

The serve and set Cards will also be in Nashville on Sunday as well. They'll face up against #9 Texas for a noon matchup in what is being called the Broadway Block Party that will be shown on ABC. 

Texas leads the all-time series against the #6 Cards 5-1. This season, Texas Volleyball is 3-2 with wins over Marquette, TCU and USC and losses to Arizona St and Nebraska. The big three kills artists are Abby Van Der Wall, Torrey Stafford, and Ayden Ames. 

Last time out the Longhorns took down the Cards 3-2 in 2025. 

LOUISVILLE FIELD HOCKEY VS MICHIGAN ST. 

Cards Field Hockey puts their undefeated record on the line when they travel to East Lansing to face Michigan St. The Spartans are 2-1 on the season, with wins over Ohio and St. Louis and a loss to Miami (OH). 

This will be the first home game for Michigan St. this season. The lifetime record of the schools against each other in Field Hockey is either 9-8 or 9-7, depending on which S.I.D report you want to believe....Louisville holding the edge/. 

Last time out, the Spartans fell to the Cards 6-1 at Trager. This one will be shown on the Big Ten Plus Network. It's a noon start. 

LOUISVILLE WOMEN'S SOCCER VS MERCYHURST

The kickin' Cards host Mercyhurst for a 1 p.m. match that wil lbe shown on ACCNX at 1 p.m.

Louisville is 5-1 on the season and on a five game win streak. The Cards have allowed just seven goals this season, while scoring 22 goals. 

Mercyhurst comes into the game with a 1-5 record and and lost last time out at Morehead St. 2-1. They also have losses to Ohio, Toledo. Buffalo and Akron. 

We'll have the results for you tomorrow here at Cardinal Couple.  You can also follow Cardinal Couple on Facebook for updates and final scores. 

paulie

Fantastic Friday for Floyd St. Dwellers -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 VOLLEYBALL, FIELD HOCKEY GATHER WINS

A nice way to start the Labor Day weekend. 

Both Louisville Field Hockey and Volleyball won their matches on Friday. One in Louisville (Volleyball) and one in St. Louis (Field Hockey}.

FIELD HOCKEY

Field Hockey began the Cards action, with a 11 a.m. start in the Arch City. The Cards put two shots in the net in the second quarter for a 2-0 lead and added one in the fourth quarter for the 3-0 shutout. With a win, the Cards improve to 3-0 on the season, sending St. Louis to their third loss in three games. 

Gigi Edwards started the Cards scoring with her second goal of the season, at the five minute mark of the second quarter. At the nine minute mark, it was Tyler Everslage taking a pass from Sophia Parker and scoring a second goal.for the Cards. The defense continued to keep the Billikens from scoring and the 2-0 Louisville margin led the squads into halftime.

It was still 2-0 until the final seconds of the contest. UofL earned a penalty corner and Annabel Sep took the shot that made it 3-0. 

The Cards defense was spectacular on Friday. They allowed just one shot by St. Louis the entire 60 minutes, while Louisville had 25 with 10 of them being shots on goal. Credit the Billiken goalkeeper, she had 11 saves.  

Louisville stays  on the road and will travel to Michigan St. next for a Sunday match. 

VOLLEYBALL 

The set and slam Cards faced TCU in the LNFCU later in the day at 4 p.m. and also on a nationwide ACC Network broadcast. 

The #6 Cards pulled off the three set sweep 25-23, 25-14, 27 over the #18 Horned Frogs. Here's how it went down:

SET ONE

The Cards fell behind early to TCU at 2-0 and 6-2 before uncorking a 8-2 run to go up 8-4 .TCU was ready to contest the affair, though, and tied it up at 8-8. The Cards regained control and built a 16-11 lead after a Chloe Chicoine kill. Stubborn TCU battled back again and trailed 19-18 late in the opening set. It was 24-21 after a Kalyssa Blackshear kill and she also ended at 25-23 with another kill. 

SET TWO

The Ville controlled the early action, going up 6-0 after Payton Petersen served an ace. Louisville stretched that out to 13-4 on a Blackshear kill. A TCU service error made it 15-5 and UofL doubled the score at 20-10 off a Chloe Meester kill. Blackshear ended the second set as well,  with a kill to make the final 25-14 and send the squads to the halftime break. 

SET THREE

The teams started the final set closely match, TCU led early 6-4 after a Meester hitting error. TCU went on and took a 10-6 lead after former Cardinal Reese Robins got a kill. TCU still led 16-13 when they blocked a Meester klli attempt. Louisville battled back, though, to tie the contest at 19-19 and TCU called a time out to talk about it. The strategy failed, though, as the Cards edged ahead 22-19 on a Chicoine kill. The Cards had a chance to win it, leading 25-24, but a Brooke Bultema service error sent the squads into extra volleyball. A Blackshear kill and TCU hitting error gave UofL the 27-25 win and the sweep.  

Chicoine and Blackshear led the Cards with 17 kills each. Louisville will face Texas next, in Nashville on Sunday. 

paulie

Cards WSOC wins Battle of the Bluegarss over UK 2-1 -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 KARINA PEAT'S TWO GOALS THE DIFFERENCE IN LEXINGTON. 

Louisville women's soccer jumped out to an early 2-0  lead over UK and then battled to stay in front when UK added a late goal to curt the lead in half. In 90 degree, humid weather...both teams looked tanked as time expired, but visiting Red & Black outlasted Blue & White on a Thursday night in Lexington. 

The Cards got their first goal with 22:45 gone in the match, or roughly half of the first half gone when Amelia Swinarski and Liza Suydam set up Karina Peak in front of the UK goal and she booted it into the net with her right foot. 

The Cards didn't have to wait much longer before their final goal of the match. At the 26 minute mark, Nicole Jodain found Peak open and set her up for a shot that got by the UK keeper and gave Louisville a 2-0 lead. And, that's how the first half ended. 

In the second half, both teams had great opportunities to score but the ball was going wide or off the top of the goal. UK, getting close to desperation mode, finally came across with their lone goal of the contest when Juliette Rayo kicked one in with 7:58 left in the contest. 

The Cards go to 5-1 with the win. the Cats take their second loss of the year, also being beaten by Ohio St. 

Louisville took 14 shots in the game, with seven on goal, while UK had 10 shots with five on goal. Each squad had four saves and took five corners. The Cards were whistled for infractions six times and UK got two penalty calls on them. 

Louisville returns to action next on Sunday, when they host Mercyhurst. And , who is that, you might ask? They are a private Catholic University in Erie, PA   James "Buster" Douglas, a heavyweight boxer that defeated Muhammad Ali attended Mercyhurst on a football scholarship. We seriously doubt he'll be o the pitch when the two schools face each other. 

Cards win, Cards win!

paulie

Elif Istanbulluoglu Named to Turkiye National Team -- Thursday Cardinal Couple

 Senior Forward will play for Turkiye 2026 World Cup Team

Most of our readers are well familiar of how Elif blossomed into one of the Cards WBB best players in the 2025-26 season. She's also been a stellar player in her home country of Turkiye and will be on the 2026 Turkiye National team to compete in the World Cup games. She'll be one of twelve on the squad. 

Last summer she was named a co-captain on the Turkiye squad that competed in the FIBA Eurobasket playoff in Greece. Last year she had the luxury of having Jeff Walz as an assistant coach. She also played on the FIBA U20 squad that played in the Eurobasket cup in Greece for Turkiye.  She led that squad with 17.9 p.p.g and 11.1 rebounds a contest 

The experiences came in handy when she returned to play for the Cards last season. She went from 3.0 p.p.g to 10.1 p.p.g. and was third on the UofL squad with 5.1 rebounds a contest. 

Turkiye will compete in Group C in the World Cup games, along with Belgium, Australia and Puerto Rico. In order to advance to advance to the quarterfinals. A team must finish in the top three of their Group. They;ll play each member of their group once, beginning with Puerto Rico on Sept 4th. 

All of Turkiye's games will be shown on HBO Max. The bundles begin at $10.99 a month. 

paulie

Three UofL women's fall sports are 9-2 so far this year -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 FIELD HOCKEY, WOMEN'S SOCCER AND VOLLEYBALL OFF TO GREAT STARTS. 

With the college fall sports season in it's early stages, let's look at the three main fall women's sports on the UofL campus. Field Hockey, Women's Soccer and Volleyball. We certainly hope golf and tennis don't take any offense to us identifying what we believe the three main fall sports are...a lot of the decision to just use these three comes from the responses on what you follow in the fall and like to watch and read about. 

These three sports have had a total of 11 games or matches so far this season. The early results are quite impressive. They re a combined 9-2

Louisville Field Hockey is 2-0 so far. They have wins over Miami (OH) by a score of 2-1 and Indiana by also 2-1. They are ranked 18th or 19th in the nation, depending on which ranking service you follow. Next up for them is a Sept 4th visit to St. Louis. 

Louisville Women's Soccer is 4-1 to open the season. They fell to Nebraska to start the season by a 3-1 margin. Since then, they have defeated Indy-IU 5-1, Belmont 5-0, Dayton 4-2 and Akron 5-0. Their 4-1 record is impressive so far. NCAA Women's Soccer has not released a top 25 ranking yet. They face Kentucky next, on Sept 3rd. 

Louisville Volleyball is 3-1. They started the season with a win over Texas A&M three set to one. Wisconsin was next and the Cards took an "L" there, losing in three sets. Indiana ferried in to play the VolleyCards next and it was a 3-0 sweep for UofL. Dayton visited next and was grounded with a 3-0 set sweep. TCU comes in next on Sept 4th. 

ACC play awaits the three soon and we'll see if these non-conference wins spur the squads on to ACC wins. We haven't seen a 2026-27 ranking poll yet for D1 volleyball, Louisville is 23rd in the NCAA WSOC rankings, and Field Hockey hasn't released a current top 25 yet either. With Justine Sowry, you expect excellence each year out of the Field Hockey squad. What is impressive is that relatively new head coaches in Hunter Norton (WSOC) and Dan Meske (Volleyball) are doing so well. It should be remembered, though, that both were assistants in the programs for a long period of time to two very good head coaches. 

Here hoping for the best for each program as the fall season progresses.  

paulie

Cards Volleyball disposes of Dayton in three sets -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 FLYERS GROUNDED IN LNFCUA

The Dayton Flyers came to visit the Louisville volleyball squad Monday night for a match in the LNFCUA, but might have been well advised to just stay home and save the travel expense. Louisville took down the Flyers in three sets -- 25-14, 25-14 and 25-11. 

In the process, UofL set a new record for team hitting percentage (.487). Here's a brief recap:

SET ONE

Dayton did get the first two points of the set, but Louisville came back aggressively and took a 7-2 lead. The Cards continued to keep up the attack and a 8-3 run had them up 15-5. After the media break, Dayton did their best to keep pace with Uofl, and just narrowly lost the final segment 10-9. Louisville showed out for an appreciative home crowd and took the opener 25-14. 

SET TWO

Dayton was able to stay pretty close to open the second set...playing to a 3-3 tie early on.  That may have raised an eyebrow or two among the Louisville fan base. Chloe Meester decided she wanted to get in on the party, though, and had six kills in a 12-3 stretch that had the Cards up 15-6 at the media break. Addison Makun impressed with two kills to close out the second set -- giving UofL another 25-14 win. 

SET THREE

After the halftime break, the Cards decided to flex a bit and scored the first seven points of the set. Dayton did try to battle back as best they could and the ensuing 8-6 Louisville advantage  set the score at 15-6 at the media timeout. Chloe Chicoine decided to slam a few across the net, and UofL took the final segment 10-5 and end the match. A  25-11 closing set. 

A good workman-like effort by the Cards against the A-10 foe, and Dan Meske remarked after the match: 

"It was a great match. Dayton is a really good program that plays teams tough .and to play the way we did against a program like that was really impressive. It's nice to get a lot of people involved. It's always the plan to play our best, and if we have opportunities to get people some chances ,we'll take advantage and today was a great day for that. We had a lot of people get extended time, and that was nice."

Louisville, now 3-1 on the season, will host TCU next in the L&N on Friday. Sept 4th.

paulie