Cards WSOC Grounds Flyers 4-2 -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 SCORING FLURRY PUSHES LOUISVILLE PAST DAYTON

This one was 1-1 with 17 minutes gone in the second half and one had to wonder if the next goal by either team would be the winning goal. Then, Louisville remembered..."Hey, we're the team that scored five goals in each of our last two games"...and unleashed a three goal scoring flurry in a seven minute period and coasted in for a 4-2 win at Dayton. 

Four different players scored for the Cards..and one of them wasn't Amelia Swinarski..which was a mild surprise...to push the Cards to a 3-1 season mark. 

The Flyers were the first ones to find the back of the net in the contest...when they scored off a throw-in 21 minutes into the match. Louisville would counter with 37:28 gone in the first half when Swinarski set up Trista Morris with a feed and the sophomore defender from the Brown School here in Louisville got her first collegiate goal of the season with a nice plant from the left foot into the bottom center of the net. 

That tied it 1-1 and that's the way the squads went into the half. 

At the 62:17 mark of the second half, the Cards took a 2-1 lead when Grace Morris took a pass from "you know who" (Swinarski) and headed it in. The Cards added a third goal six minutes later when Abigail Cox picked up her first goal of the season off a pass from Brooklyn Lee and just a minutes or so later the Cards made it 4-1 when Liz Eddy drilled one into the back of the net. 

Dayton would end the scoring in the game when they climbed back within two with15 minutes to play...to make it 4-2 and that's it how it ended. . 

The Cards will return home and host Akron on Sunday. It'll be a 1 p.m. kick back and ACCNX will broadcast it. 

paulie

WSOC faces Dayton at Dayton tonight -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 1-2 FLYERS HOST 2-1 LOUISVILLE WOMEN'S SOCCER

Louisville Women's Soccer heads north tonight to face the Dayton Flyers in Dayton, OH at Baujan Field. It's scheduled for a 7 p.m. start. Live streaming will be available on ESPN+ and live stats at the Dayton Flyers website. ESPN+ is a "pay for" service that runs $13.99 a month 

Last time out, the Flyers hosted the UK Wildcats but got grounded 5-0 by the Big Blue women.  UD opened the season at West Virginia and fell 2-0, then returned home and won over Toledo 2-1. 

Scoring the two goals this season for the Flyers this season are Olivia Baca and Lauren Contini, with one each. If the name Lauren Contini sounds familiar, she started her studies at UofL back in 2024 and is now starting her second second as a Flyer. 

Louisville began season action hosting Nebraska and fell 3-1. Since then, the Cards have won two in a row at Lynn Stadium, downing IU Indy 5-1 and Belmont 5-0.

Tops in scoring for UofL after three contests are Liza Suydam and Amelia Swinarski with two goals each. All told, nine different Cards have scored for the Red and Black this season. 

Dayton has only one player from Kentucky...junior forward Laney Smith, out of Ft. Thomas Highlands. 

The Cards have six players that hail from Ohio. Suzie Roginski, Norah Roush, Amelia Swinarski, Avery George, Fina Davy and Ella Bard. 

Eric Golz is the Flyer head coach, assuming the role back in 2016. 

We'll recap the action in the Friday Cardinal Couple, so be sure to come back at check out the results here on the only site we know of that likes to mix their black eyed peas with mashed potatoes and serve them on Zwieback crackers...usually to bewildered consumers. 

paulie

Walz adds another...Amiya Joyner -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 EX ECU, LSU STAR JOINS CARDS WBB

Jeff Walz continues to stock the pantry with goodies. 

He has brought aboard 6 foot 2 forward Amiya Joiner, who spent three years at East Carolina and a year at LSU. 

From Farmville, NC. she averaged 9.2 ppg and 7.2 rebounds last year at LSU and will add experience, depth and skill to a Cards front line that already has Mackenly Randolph, Carys Baker, Elif Istanbulluoglu, Grace Mbugna and Ayse Melek Demirer. 

Fifth year eligibility movement strikes again.  

Her numbers at ECU her junior year are even more impressive. She averaged 15 points a game and 9.2 rebounds. 

She joins a squad that is already bursting with top flight talent and impressive incoming freshmen. Back for the Cards are proven talent like Imari Berry, Mackenly Randolph, Elif Istanbulluoglu, and Taj Roberts.

Joyner was one of 30 student-athletes that received temporary eligibility for another year from the NCAA and access to the transfer portal. Jeff Walz jumped at the chance to bring her onboard the Cards roster. 

Joyner's career high point total was in 2024 when she put up 32 against Howard when she was at ECU. 

Welcome aboard Amiya and shoot and score! 

paulie

 

Volleyball brings three in to end August and start September -- TUESDAY CARDINA COUPLE

 VOLLEYCARDS FACE THREE IN THE LNFCUA

Chloe when she was a Boilermaker

Louisville Volleyball will bring in three opponents to close out August and start September. Being a squad that has two home courts, these next three will be at the smaller venue for Cards Volleyball, the on-campus L&N Federal Credit Union Arena. 

First up is Indiana on Friday, August 28th. The Cards lead the all-time series 9-8, but the two haven't faced each other since 2008, when IU won 3-2. The Cards are 4-2 overall against IU when UofL is the home squad. 

Next is Dayton on Monday, August 31st. Louisville leads the series 10-6 all-time and is 6-2 when they are the home squad. They last met in 2024 and the Cards won in five sets.  

Then, it's TCU on Friday Sept. 4th. The Cards are 5-0 all-time against TCU and this one will start at 4 p.m. on the Labor Day Weekend. 

There aren't any official Volleyball rankings at this time, although TV was showing the Cards as a #6 ranked team, I'm not sure who was doing the ranking. 

The Cards are 1-1 on the young season, defeating Texas A&M and losing to Wisconsin in Milwaukee. 

Louisville women's soccer blanks Belmont 5-0 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS FLY PAST BELMONT WOMEN'S SOCCER

Good to be back with everyone after a nice, restful vacation watching the water rushing by our scenic accommodations viewpoint in Gatlinburg. Despite there being Jeeps everywhere we went, we we able to get away from the go, go, go pace of life in Louisville and relax, rejuvenate and restore. Always good to catch up with acquaintances down there and dine at some of our favorite spots. 

Meanwhile.... 

Louisville women's soccer got out to an early lead on Belmont and never looked back, picking up a 5-0 shut out on the Bruins on Sunday night at Lynn Stadium. 

Louisville had a 27-2 shot advantage over the Nashville school and held a 12-2 shot on goal edge. 

The Cards opened the scoring when Brooklyn Lee found Amelia Swinarski with a set up ten minutes into first half action. UofL tacked on a second goal 25 minutes into the contest when Lee got a goal off a set up from Liz Eddy. Those two goals completed the first half scoring. 

In the second half,  the teams went almost 30 minutes without a goal...finally Swinarski found A.G.Gibson for an assist and the Cards were 3-0  leaders. Less than three minutes later, UofL struck again, this time when  Nicole Jodain sent a long shot toward the Belmont goal and it seemed to catch the defense by surprise and the goal made it 4-0 Cards. 

The Cards picked up their final score with about four and one half minutes to go in the contest when Kiley Peat set up Taylor Wilson for the closing score of the game. 

Louisville is now 2-1 on the season and will face Dayton at Dayton next on Thursday. 

paulie

Annabel Sep gets pre-season ACC Field Hockey honors. -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 SENIOR DEFENDER FROM NETHERLANDS IS ALL-ACC

Annabel Sep

Annabel Sep had a tremendous junior season in the Louisville field Hockey defensive backfield in 2025 and will be looked upon to bolster the Cards ball-stopping efforts in the 2026 season. 

She made the second team National Field Hockey All-West Region in 2025 and All-ACC Second team honors as well. She also did a bit of scoring for UofL Field Hockey with four goals and two assists.  

Justine Sowry recruited her and used the international student-athlete recruiting agency SianStox to help facilitate the transition to the States from the Netherlands. 

Minout "Minnie" Mink ...one of my favorite UofL field Hockey players of all-time

Louisville has had a fair modicum of success going the Netherlands route in past years. Julie Kouilzer and Charlie van Oirschot are two that come to mind immediately, although van Oirschot ended up going to play at Duke as a junior and was a three year starter in 59 games for Pam Bustin. Other former "Dutch" Cards include Tatum Kroon and Minout Mink. 

Louisville field Hockey goes against Bellarmine in an exhibition contest on Wednesday and will also scrimmage Ball State (on the 22nd) before officially getting the season underway against Miami, (OH) on August 28th. 

paulie

 

CARDS WSOC STORMS PAST IU INDY 5-1 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS SCORE ALL GOALS IN FIRST HALF IN WIN OVER JAGUARS 

In a game that was delayed by almost two hours because of thunderstorms in the Louisville area, it was the Louisville Cardinals women's soccer team who emulated the storm and thundered past IU Indy early and often in the 5-1 win at Lynn. 

Louisville scored 52 seconds into the contest when Karina Peat set up Liza Suydam with a pass and the goal that followed by Suydam made it 1-0 Cards. Louisville dominated the offense for almost all of the first half and got their second goal at the 11:38 mark after Liz Eddy and A.G.Gibson assists found Peat for a goal and a 2-0 lead. 

Louisville maintained the offensive attack pressure and Ella Bard got into the scoring at the 16:04 mark, this time Suydam supplied the assist and the rout was pretty much on with almost 30 minutes left in the first half. Five minutes later, Amelia Swinarski got into the goal scoring club when Peat picked up her second assist of the night. 

UofL picked up their final goal of the half, and for the game, when Abigail Cox connected from the passing of Fina Davy and Betsy Huckaby....with seven minutes left in the first half. The 5-0 halftime lead was a clear case of one-sided domination and superiority. 

IU Indy did pick up a score in the second half against UofL reserves, but the Cards worked on a lot of things with a lot of different personnel. Louisville used 21 players in the contest and none of them saw less that 15 minutes on the pitch. 

Stats wise, the Cards had 30 shots, compared to the Jags four.  UofL had 18 of those on shots on goal while IU Indy had just one. The Cards took 18 corners, where IU Indy took just one.  

Give IU Indy credit, they didn't continue to fall apart in the second 45 minutes and actually. won the scoring battle 1-0...but UofL got back to a .500 record on the young season with a dominant win after a stormy start to the evening. 

paulie

Former Card Sydney Taylor A Pleasant WNBA Surprise for Sky -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLEThe numbers were impressive, but

TAYLOR PUTTING UP EXCELLENT NUMBERS FOR CHICAGO SKY

Although she only spent a year playing basketball at UofL, Sydney Taylor's numbers were significant as a Card and she is now having a rags-to-riches success story come to life in the WNBA.  

Taylor is averaging 14.7 p.p.g. a game for the Chicago Sky. What's the back story on the 25 yr. old rookie in the league? 

She spent her first four years of college at the University of Massachusetts, after helping high school team St. Joseph's (NY) to four straight CHSAA championships and a state title her senor year.  

At UMass, she built a solid career. In her senior year, she was Atlantic 10 First Team All-Conference, scored over 1000 career points and put up 30 against Dayton. Her number were impressive but not quite WNBA type of numbers...so she took a fifth year of eligibility and came to Louisville. 

She arrived with the Cards in April 2023, after a nice stint playing USA U23 basketball and going to places such as Chile, Mongolia and Canada. She also was named the GLOBL JAM MVP after hitting the game-winning three against Canada to win the gold medal for  the USA. 

That graduate year was very significant in Taylor's basketball development...in no small part because of the Cardinals coaches. She lead the squad in the 2023-24 season with 57 made threes and was second best i scoring with 10.8 p.p.g.  She celebrated Paulie's birthday by scoring 31 points against Georgia Tech on Feb. 22nd., 2024.  Walz, Norman, Pineda and Robinson knew they had lightning in a bottle

But, she went undrafted in the WNBA draft that year. She tried the Euro circuit. Spent time in Lithuania and won a championship in 2025, then went to MB Zaglebie Sosnowiec in Poland to start 2026.

She was playing ball in the EuroLeague in 2026 for that same Polish team but had not given up her WNBA dreams just yet. and wrangled an invitation to Chicago on a training camp contract. 

"I'd been dreaming about it ever since early in my college career. I really believed it could happen, even when i was overseas and I was, like, I'm gonna get there." 

In a preseason game with the Sky, she scored 21 points and made the Sky roster, as a spark off the bench.  Her drive, desire and determination was paying off. She put up 27 in a loss to Toronto...then 30 in a loss to the Indiana Fever. It's was looking like she was "Taylor made" for the Sky. 

"Sydney knows what she is capable of. She comes in, she wants to make an impact and she does that." Sky coach Tyler Marsh has said about her. "The gravity she holds as a scorer impacts itself even when she is not scoring. People now know what she is capable of doing, nd that in itself holds some weight when she is pout there." 

Marsh moved her to the starting lineup on June 17.  

She is now a highly touted candidate for rookie of the Year in the WNBA along with Olivia Miles (Minnesota) and Azzi Fudd (Dallas). Although everyone is ready to hand the award to Miles, never count out the girl from Long Island ,who overcame long odds to get to the WNBA. 

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

If anyone attended the Red & Black volleyball Scrimmage and would like to leave a synopsis or account of what you saw, please leave a comment in our comments section. All we can find out is that Black won, and that the players played on both teams. Thanks. 

paulie

Cards FH Eighth in ACC Preseason Poll -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Plenty of room for UofL to surprise in ACC Pre-Season Field Hockey Poll

Field Hockey season kicks off in two weeks for the nine ACC school participants In a league that is probably the best in NCAA DI Field Hockey...chock full of traditional powerhouses like North Carolina, Duke, Virginia and Wake Forest....the Cards have been selected to finish 8th in the league, with 19 points. Only California, with 17 points was selected lower than the Cards. 

So, Louisville could play the role of spoiler in a lot of ACC contests.  The Cards will have two exhibitions before the regular season begins...facing Bellarmine on the 19th of August at Trager and at Ball St. (in Muncie) on the 22nd before starting regular season action against Miami (OH) on the 28th at Trager. 

What are the standings? To explain, first, points are awarded depending on how high the voter thinks the particular school will finish. For the 2026 ACC Poll the voting was: 

1. North Carolina 73 (with four first place votes)                                                                              

2. Virginia 68  (with two first place votes) 

                                                                                     

T-3. Duke 64 (with one first place vote)                                                                                          

T-3. Wake Forest 64 (with two first place vote)                                                                                

5. Syracuse 42                                                                                                                                

6. Boston College 31                                                                                                                      

7. Stanford 27                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

8. Louisville 19                                                                                                                                

9. California 17                                                                                                                                

No surprise that the three newest teams to the ACC are the bottom three ranked.  Each team plays eight conference games and there is a ACC Field Hockey Tournament at the end omthe season. 

Louisville certainly has one of the best facilities around for field hockey out at Trager and the overall success of women's sports on campus would indicate Louisville can be successful in the highly competitive ACC. Since joining the league, though, Louisville field Hockey is 30-43 against other ACC schools.  

Here's hoping the Cards can turn things over .500 in conference play this season. The 2-6 conference mark last season needs a shot of adrenalin.   

paulie                                                                                                                        

 

Louisville Softball Adds Three to Roster -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 TILL, DEWATERS & SITARSKI JOIN HIT AND RUN CARDS

The 2027 Louisville Cardinals Softball squad will have a trio of transfers joining the roster. Coming into join the squad are Abbie DeWaters, Kaidance Till and Mak Sitarski. 

Abbie DeWaters

Abbie DeWaters was a freshman catcher last season at the University of South Florida. She batted .206 in 19 games played for the Bulls. She hails from Tobe Sounds, FL where she played for South Fork High School. 

Dewaters thoughts on becoming a Cards Softballer? 

"After visiting campus and meeting the coaches, I knew Louisville was the right place for me. The culture they have built and the energy around the team made me feel at home and it just seemed like the perfect fit." 

Kaidance Till

Kaidance Till redshirted last season at Ole Miss and hails from Metamora Township High School in Germantown Hills, Illinois. She is an infielder and was on four All Coference squads and NFCA All-American in 2025. 

What she said about joining the Cardinals ranks: 

"From the start, the coaches were amazing I felt very welcomed the moment I stepped on campus. The culture of the team was exactly what I was looking for. The coaching staff is genuinely a dream come true. I'm so thankful for the opportunity the coaches are giving me and the trust they have in me to become a part of their program." 

Mak Sitarski

Mak Sitarski is an outfield who heads to Louisville after a freshman season at Toledo. She is out of Allen Park, Michigan and was a three time All-Michigan selection at Allen Park High School. 

In her lone season with the Ole Miss rebels, she played in 29 games and made 13 starts in left field. 

"I chose Louisville Softball because of the speed of the offense and their unpredictability at the plate. " she said, about transferring to the Cards. "I love the aggressiveness on the basepaths and the overall grit of the team. The coaches made me feel one of the family beginning on Day One."  

L's up and a hearty welcome to the three newest Cardinals. Hit 'em where they ain't and catch everything hit your way!  

paulie