Success for volleyball and field hockey on the road

SUNDAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE

-Volleyball goes 2-1 in the Wildcat Classic

-Field hockey scoops James Madison

-Our take on the UofL vs. UK football game

Cardinal volleyball went 2-1 over the last two days in the Arizona Wildcat Classic. With a short turnaround after Wednesday's match in Lexington, Louisville met Cal State Bakersfield in the opening match. The meeting was successful for Louisville, as they defeated the Roadrunners 23-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-19.

Despite losing the first set, the Cards still got good play out of freshman Emily Juhl. They led late in the match but a 8-1 run from the Roadrunners gave them the first game. Lousivlle rallied back in the second, getting a big performance from sub Kasey Heckelman with seven kills, and the Cards evened the match.

UofL squeaked by in the 3rd set and got a huge performance out of Lola Arslanbekova..who also teamed up with Juhl to power the Cards to the win in the final game of the match.

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Next up for Louisville on Friday night was #24 Arizona. Louisville and the Wildcats took this one to 5 games...Arizona narrowly getting the match win 3-2. Louisville and Arizona played a very close first match but service errors plagued the Cards and they went down 22-25. It was a less than spectacular beginning in the second game for the Ville, falling behind 7-0, but behind Gwen, Rucker's blocks at the net and Arslanbekova and Juhl with the slams, the Cards came back to win 25-21

Louisville played a fairly even third game with the Wildcats early but a late 13-4 Arizona run gave them the momentum to go up 2-1 with 16-25 win. The Cards refused to quit, though and Louisville, aided by the play of Amanda Simmons, overcame a late deficit to tie the match at 2-2 with a 25-23 win. In the deciding 5th game, Louisville led early..by as much as 4 points..but could not seal the deal and dropped the final 15-17.

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Louisville next faced Butler on Saturday afternoon in the final game of the tournament. The Cards got Arslanbekova untracked and won the match 3-1. The Cards survived a close first game 25-23 with some outstanding play from Simmons and Arslanbekova and grabbed the second game also 25-20 with Juhl and Arslanbekova dominating net play. Butler managed to avoid the whitewash by coming out on top in the third 22-25 but the Cards sealed the deal in the fourth game behind Arslanbekova again to win 25-21.

Arslanbekova and Simmons were selected to the All-Tournament team for Louisville.

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The #13 Louisville Field Hockey team travelled to Harrisonberg, VA. and defeated James Madison University 2-1 Saturday afternoon. The Cards got on the scoreboard early in the contest when Simone Attles put back a missed shot less than a minute into the contest. They advanced that lead to 2-0 with Erin Schneidtmiller slapping one in about ten minutes later.

The Dukes would score midway thru the second half but couldn't tie the game thanks to the goalie efforts of Erin Conrad.

The game wasn't expected to be an easy one for Louisville...JMU came into the contest undefeated and ranked #12 nationally.

Louisville (2-1) faces #15 American University Sunday morning at 11:30 a.m. next.

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Not a whole lot to say here about the dawning of the Charlie Strong football era that got off to a rocky start Saturday afternoon in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium against UK. The Cards couldn't get the offense rolling in the first half and went in a 20-6 trailer. The "D" picked it up for Louisville in the second half and the managed to get a touchdown on the board..but UK took the win 23-16.

Charlie's got a lot of work to do here at Louisville. Despite the lofty expectation of some in the Cardinal fan base, Strong is trying a mold a team out of Kragthorpe recruits and untested freshmen. It's going to take awhile, Cardinal fans. Next week against Eastern Kentucky should give Strong his first win of the season. If he can get this team to a 6-6 record, they should make him coach of the year.

I'm still not sold on Adam Froman as the right choice at QB and although Powell had a exciting touchdown run in the second half, he and running back Vic Anderson spent most of the day waiting for the offensive line to provide some holes.

Still, Louisville had a chance to tie it with about 3 minutes left on the clock. Hope springs eternal here and let's hope the Cards get a "feel good" lopsided win against the Colonels next week before travelling to Oregon State for a very rough match up.