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,  

Softball 1-1 After Day One -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Opens Season With Split

The Cards took to the sunny climes of Florida for the beginning of the softball season, as they do annually, and began their 2026 campaign with a victory. The joy of a 7-4 win over Stony Brook was a bit short lived, though, as they fell at the hands of the hosting FIU Panthers 5-7 in the later game. Louisville will get a chance for payback against FIU tomorrow morning, but they have a pair of games today first. The Cards take on Corpus Christi at 11:30 this morning and will face Lehigh this evening at 4:30. 

In the first game, Louisville fell behind in the second inning 1-0, but turned their fortunes around with a four-run third. They tacked on a single run in the fifth and their final two in the sixth before needing to hold on to their lead against a three-run seventh inning for Stony Brook. Brooke Gray got the start in game one and pitched four innings of one-run ball. She gave up three hits and hit one batter but tallied three strikeouts and no walks. Two of the three hits came in the second inning to set up the sacrifice fly that scored her only earned run, but it was a decent start for the junior. 

Offensively in game one, Louisville was led by Madison Pickens, who has moved into the third spot in the lineup, as she had two triples. One resulted in an RBI and a little-league home run as she scored on a throwing error by the left fielder, and the other saw her batted in for the Cards' fifth run of the game. Taylor Monroe also had a pair of hits, and Riley Janda had Louisville's only home run. Small ball and speed will likely reign again for Louisville, as the Cards had three stolen bases (Easton Lotus, Chelsea Mack, Bri Despines). 

In game two, the Cards jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first, but FIU responded immediately to take the lead by the end of the inning. The Cards got back-to-back solo homers from Pickens and Despines in the inning, but Alyssa Zabala had a nightmare start in her season opener. Zabala gave up four straight hits and an error put a fifth straight batter on base before Zabala was replaced by Anna Wise. Alyssa will surely be back to her normal form sooner rather than later, but she's sitting on the dreaded "infinity" ERA at the moment. 

Anna Wise settled in and got out of the inning with some defensive help, but Louisville trailed 3-2. The sophomore transfer from Ohio University pitched well as the quasi starter after that, going five innings before she ran into trouble. In the meantime, Louisville scored in the fifth on a Camryn Lookadoo double to tie the game. Things unraveled a bit for Wise in the sixth inning, but it was the defense that ultimately let this one slip away. Wise opened the inning with a popup, but a pair of singles followed. A fly out left runners on first and second with two outs. 

Easy enough, you might think, but not quite. A ground ball back to the pitcher was unable to be converted to the final out, and the bases were loaded. It was a tough call for Holly Aprile to put a freshman in a tie game with the bases loaded, but she trusted her gut. It didn't quite work out. Jayden Gohs took over in the circle and walked in the go-ahead run. Unfortunately, the defense made a bad situation worse when Taylor Monroe sailed a throw from short that could have ended the inning and instead scored a pair of unearned runs. A double added one more unearned run and the Cards trailed 7-3 with one more trip to the plate. 

To their credit, the Cards put up a valiant effort in the seventh. Katie Thatcher walked to open the inning, and Lookadoo singled to try to start a rally. FIU made a pitching change, which looked to be the right call as Easton Lotus struck out, but Chelsea Mack laid down a bunt that scored two runs on an errant throw. Mack advanced all the way to third and with a runner in scoring position, one out, and the heart of the order due up, Louisville wasn't quite out of it yet. Their hopes were dashed in fairly short order, though, as Pickens and Despines both lined out to end the game. 

There's a long season ahead, and Louisville gets back into it today. There's plenty of good and bad to take from the opening day of games, so we'll just see what the Cards do with the rest of their weekend. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

WBB falls to Duke 59-58 -- SB opens season in FL -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Good morning and welcome to the weekend. I've been chasing around cardinal birds on campus this week getting some shots for our new space on campus.  Thought I could share a couple here :D

This is 'Miller' in front of Grawmeyer Hall

WBB

Have I told y'all how much I hate the color blue? 


Louisville 58  Duke 59 


Mackenley Randolph scored first point at ft line with almost 4 min off clock. Cards 0-8 to start game while Duke was 7-7.  Louisville got it's first couple of buckets from Reyna Scott with 4:30 min left- Cards go on 7-0 run to make it 16-8.  Fornier for Duke scored 11 in the first quarter.  Duke shot 71% in the first quarter and the Cards shot 18%.


7-0 run for Cards made it 27-20 Duke which felt less daunting.  Blue Devils went scoreless for 3 min but UofL gained almost no ground 34-25.  Ziegler snuck in for the put up and in and then Duke hit the lucky 3 at the buzzer to make it a 10 pt. game at the half.  Not a great sign. 

Louisville comes out second half and scored immediately but the Blue Devils respond quickly.  An Elif three pointer in front of the UofL bench makes it a 3 pt ball game Cards on a 7-0 run 41-38.  4+ min scoring drought for Duke but 3 turnovers in row for Cards and all the sudden Duke up by 8 again with 3 min left.  


Full defensive possession with one min left in 3rd quarter to get the ball 46-43. Elif makes it underneath.  Ball off Duke at the baseline and Cards get the ball with 15 seconds left in the frame. 7 turnovers by Duke in the 3 quarter alone. Reyna took the 3 pt. shot attempt but it was off.


Cards tie it up on a Reyna Scott drive to the basket and one and it's 46 all.  Ziegler steals it and Cards looked for first lead when she makes it and its a 49-46 Louisville lead.  UofL outshooting Duke 22-9 in 2nd half.  Dunk retakes 50-49 lead with 6:30 left in the game


Laura goes 0-2 in one offensive possession but she really had some great looks they just didn't fall in.  The rims were not forgiving for Louisville against Duke.  Offensive foul by Duke's Fornier on Elif and Cards get the ball back.  The crowd is roaring.  


But... a 7-0 Duke run over 3 min makes it 54-49 with the Cards scoreless for more than 4 min and that quiets much of the fan base. 

The story here was as follows. 

Elif 1-2 at line and Duke hits 3 to make it a 7 pt Duke lead again.  Taj 1-2 at line.  Skylar 1-2 at line. and then another scoring drought where the Cards went scoreless from the field for more than 4 minutes.  But will someone come to the Cards rescue to close it out? A familiar superhero?

Imari Berry hits 3 to make it 57-55 with about 2 min left.   Duke responds Cards score quickly and Duke calls timeout with 66 seconds left and a 2 pt advantage. 


Cards get the steal and push it forward to Berry for the layup but the shot misses but they do get the foul call.  After sinking the first.. she misses the second FT with 1 second on the clock.   And that’s all she wrote for this one.  

I'll just say this... I would love to see this Duke team in the ACC tournament.   




Softball

The Cardinals are flying south for some warmer weather. They’ve got a forecast averaging about 70 degrees Fahrenheit for the weekend ahead.

Louisville has not lost a game vs any team in the Felsberg Invitational field; FIU, Lehigh, Stony Brook and TX A&M CC. They will play 5 games over the 3 days.


It is Holly Aprile’s 8th season at helm. The Cardinals return 15 of their 21 players from the 2025 season including 7 starters. The senior class is lead by Easton Lotus, Chelsea Mack, Bri Despines, and Alyssa Zabala . The Cards’ pitching staff features a blend of experience and youth. Zabala leads the group, joined by transfers Madi Reeves (Miami Ohio) and Anna Wise (Ohio), both of whom bring multiple complete games and all-conference credentials from the MAC. Freshman Jayden Gohs adds immediate impact potential after being named to the Softball America Freshman Watchlist, while Brooke Gray and Ryann Sanders provide additional depth.


Louisville opens tournament play Friday, Feb. 6, against Stony Brook at 4:30 p.m. ET, followed by a matchup with host FIU at 7 p.m. ET. The Cardinals return to action Saturday with games against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (11:30 a.m. ET) and Lehigh (4:30 p.m. ET), before closing the weekend Sunday against FIU at 11:30 a.m. ET.

As Always, 

Go Cards 

~Daryl 

Cards WBB faces Duke tonight in the KFC YUM! Center -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 11-0 IN ACC SQUADS DUEL FOR CONFERENCE LEAD

(photo by Clarissa Li) 

it's the highlight game of the ACC schedule so far this year, when Kara Lawson brings her Duke squad to Louisville for a nationally televised game on ESPN tonight at 7 p.m. 

Duke comes in on a 13 game win streak and the Cards have a 14 game win streak. Duke has one of the best player in the league in forward Toby Fournier, a Canadian, and the Cards have an incredibly balanced team that plays as a unit so well and efficiently. Taj Roberts recently was named to the mid-season Anne Meyers Drysdale Award List for best guard in DI basketbal. she's one of 10 named as mid-season finalists. l 

Jeff Walz talks about the upcoming game Here .

The Cards are 9-6 against Duke all time but lost the matchup in Durham last year 61-48. Mac Randolph (13 pts..) and Olivia Cochran (11 points) led Louisville in scoring...Duke was led by four players in double figures...Oluchi Okananwa (3 points) Reigan Richardson (12 points). Ashton Jackson (11 points) and Fournier (10 points). Jackson and Fournier are still on the squad...Okananwa transferred to Maryland and Richardson was waived by the Minnesota Lynx in training camp.

UofL has a $7 ticket promotion for the game. Tickets available at box office. 

The Cards are #6 in the nation and Duke is #17, according to AP Poll. Seven out of ten Duke writers pick the Cards to win this one (Read here)

We'll cover it and Daryl will have the recap Friday.

pauiie

ACC -- WBB WEEK OF 2/2/26 -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 ACC STANDINGS

2-9 ain't that fine for the Demon Deacons squad. 

With the majority of the ACC WBB schools having 11 games under their belt... we are almost 2/3rds of the way through the conference schedule   Let's take a look today at the league standings. 

Louisville (11-0, 21-3) and Duke (11-0, 16-6) are atop the pack. These two will match up tomorrow in the KFC YUM! Center and it should be a good one to watch  .Louisville is on a 14 game win streak and Duke is on a 13 game win streak. Jeff Walz wants you in the seats and would like a full bottom bowl. It's an ESPN broadcast and tips at 7 p.m.

Next in the standings are Virginia Tech, Syracuse and NC State at 8-3.  The Hokies are on a seven game win streak and Megan Duffy is proving to be just as good a head coach as Kenny Brooks ever was at Va Tech. The Notre Dame grad was a thorn in the Cards side when she was a player and Carys Baker leads VT in scoring. 

After that, UNC is at 7-3 and Virginia and Clemson are at 7-4. They're technically still alive for the conference title but at astronomical odds. 

Notre Dame is having an off season and is 6-5 in conference and 14-8 overall.. Georgia Tech is 5-6 and the West coast contingent of Stanford and California are at 4-6. Stanford is 15-8 overall and will probably make the NCAA Tournament if they don't fall completely apart in their final seven conference games and the ACC Tournament. 

The Seminoles of FSU are having a disastrously bad season at 2-8 and 7-15. Just behind them is Wake Forest at 2-9. SMU and Pitt stand at 1-9 and Boston College is in the basement at 0-11 and 4-20. Joanna Bernabee-McNamee is too good of a coach to be that bad this season but they've lost 16 games in a row  

We'll preview the Louisville vs Duke game for you tomorrow. 

paulie

FH Announces International Signing -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Adds to Netherlands Connection

There were brief signs of spring yesterday when we finally reached above-freezing temperatures yesterday, and softball is right around the corner, but let's return to fall sports for just a moment. Louisville field hockey announced a major signing to the fall 2026 class yesterday, as they'll add Bibi van der Lande to the roster. Van der Lande is a defender from the Netherlands, continuing the pipeline that head coach Justine Sowry has established between the land of tulips and the River City. 

Bibi van der Lande is not to be confused with Bibi van der Velden. Though it's pretty clearly different, a name similar to that of a Dutch jewelry designer made finding information on the field hockey player a bit more difficult. Nevertheless, it won't be the fashion icon stepping onto the turf at Trager this fall. The defender that will join the Cards has played for MOP (Mixed-Oranje-Pauw) for her entire career. As a member of the development team, van der Lande participates at the third-highest level of senior field hockey in the Netherlands. Last season, she was frequently asked to substitute for the second team as well. 

According to her recruiting profile, van der Lande has a calm presence in the middle of the defense and is adept at short and long passes to set up the attack from the back line. Like many top defenders, van der Lande has spent time playing at the forward positions as well, giving her knowledge of how the attack is formed. This is beneficial as both a defender and the beginning of the offense. She is noted as having strong communication skills that help set up her teammates for success. While van der Lande will be replacing one Dutch defender in Tatum Kroon (who graduated), she'll be able to transition her communication skills into the college game with the help of two more defenders from the Netherlands. Returning in 2026 are senior Annabel Sep and sophomore Trijntje Herfkens. 

There's still quite a while to go before the fall seasons start, but van der Lande will be a welcome addition to the program when she joins in the summer. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case