UofL Volleyball around the corner

The "hump day" edition of CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Volleyball starts next Friday


-Atlanta drops to the Sky


-Apple Tournament rolls on



Sophomore Lola Arsenbeckova leads a University of Louisville volleyball team that won the BIG EAST TOURNAMENT last year and returns several key components for 2010 season. Arsenbeckova was the only Cardinal named to the preseason all BIG EAST first team and the Cards were picked to finish second in the league...behind last year's regular season champs Cincinnati.


Joining Lola on the hardwood are returning starters Gwen Rucker, Lindsay Mango and several new additions to the team. Although the loss of graduates Lecia Brown, Kimi Hohi and Justine Landi leave the Cards searching for replacements in several key positions...Louisville has experience and depth with the combination of returning players and highly heralded freshmen on the roster.

The Cards truly have an international flavor to them again this year. Arsenbeckova and Tanya Lukyanenko hail from Uzbekistan, Anastasia Artemeva from Russia and Gosia Lech from Poland. Locally, Louisville area prospects freshmen Catlin Welch (Mercy), Emily Juhl (Sacred Heart) and returning starter Maci Wachtel (Assumption) suit up for coach Leonard Yelin.

An interesting sidebar will be how Gwen Rucker improves with only volleyball to concentrate on this year. The 6'2" Rucker has split her time between basketball and volleyball the last two seasons and will participate in only the wide net activity in 2010.

Louisville begins the season with a round robin event against NDSU and Ohio. They'll face NDSU at 7 p.m. Friday Night and Ohio at 2 p.m. Sunday...both games in Cardinal Arena. Kentucky hosts the Cards on Sept. 1st and Louisville will also participate in the BIG EAST/BIG TEN CHALLENGE against Purdue and Illinois at Cardinal Arena. BIG EAST begins Saturday, Sept. 25th. with 2 p.m. match against visiting Rutgers. For bonus points...what does NDSU stand for...Northern Delaware Sailor University, North Dakota State University or Nebraska DesMoines Southwest University?

Schedule disparity is another question involving the young Cardinal team. Although they have a home stretch of games lasting nearly a month in October...they'll finish the regular season with five straight road appearances in the first two weeks of November. By then, hopefully...the team will have jelled and they'll be ready for the BIG EAST tournament in Pittsburgh that begins on November 19th.

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The Atlanta Dream waved goodbye to a late 4th quarter lead and lost to the visiting Chicago Sky 84-79 in Atlanta last night. Once again, a former Rutgers player did the most significant damage...as Epiphany Prince laid eight 4th quarter points on Angel and company. Although the Dream have clinched a playoff berth, the 3rd loss at home to Chicago has to be a point of
concern to the Dream and head coach Marynell Meadows. 'Big Syl'...Sylvia Fowles held doom the Dream also with a game high 18 points for the Sky

At times it looked like the 2nd string for Atlanta seemed to be the best option on the court. When Angel and the rest of the starters retook the hardwood with around 4 minutes to go...Atlanta enjoyed a four point lead. They ended up losing by five. McCoughtry couldn't find the mark on several shot attempts late in the game that could have drawn the Dream closer and they fall to a season record of 19-14...2 1/2 games out of first place with just one game remaining in the regular season. New York defeated Indiana to draw within 1/2 game of the Division lead and Washington handled San Antonio to remain in third place in the East. Angel had 16 points for Atlanta.

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Ballard won a close one against Assumption in the Apple field hockey quarterfinals at Sacred Heart and advanced to the semifinals with Kentucky Country Day...who sent Manual packing with a 3-1 victory. A consolation match saw Presentation romp Christian Academy 7-1.

Sacred Heart and Male are the other two teams to advance to the semifinals. Mercy Academy easily won 9-0 against Holy Cross in the consolation bracket on Monday.

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Finally, to answer the e-mail question from Tommy B....No, Jeff Walz was not an assistant on Tom Collen's staff when Collen coached the Cards. Walz came to Louisville from Maryland...where he was an assistant. Walz did play his high school and college ball in Kentucky, though and his sister Donna is one of the all-time leading scorers in Kentucky High School basketball.