Lady Cards romp IPFW 100-79

TUESDAY @ Cardinal Couple:

-LADY CARDS WITH 21 POINT ROAD WIN.

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-Hammond debuts tonight.

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-David Watson weighs in..

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Shoni Schimmel, pictured here with UofL women's basketball assistant S.I.D. Kinberli Pemberton, had three from the three point arc in the second half in the win.

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If we told you that Shoni Schimmel and Monique Reid combined for 2 points in the first half of action tonight, you'd probably think the Cards were in a dogfight or fouls were a deciding factor in the contest early on.

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Far from it.

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Louisville scored the first 16 points of the game and never looked back in the 21 point win tonight in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Jeff Walz shuffled the starting lineup in the Monday night contest...starting Shoni Schimmel, Becky Burke, Tia Gibbs, Sherrone Vails and Keisha Hines. The results worked well early, IPFW missed nine of their first ten shots and Louisville got three Becky Burke first half three pointers to roll to a 42-25 halftime advantage. Burke led all scorers with 13 first half points and the Cards out rebounded IPFW 24-10 in the first half.

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Sherrone Vails responded with 10 first half points and seven Cardinals scored. Louisville had a 37-15 lead with 4:13 to go in the first half after two Burke free throws.

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The Cards broke out to a 9-2 run to begin the second half and led 51-27 before IPFW responded with a 9-0 run to cut the Cardinal margin to 51-36. The Mastadons would get no closer the rest of the way. Reid and Schimmel responded with 13 second half points each and Louisville led 72-47 after a Vails putback halfway through the final half.

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A bizarre incident with 1:30 to go resulted in the ejection of a IPFW pep band member when Asia Taylor was at the line shooting free throws. We received an unconfirmed report that questionable language was used by a member of the band...but could not confirm that. Maybe the referee doesn't like 'Louie, Louie.'

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Louiville shot 67.8% for the game and this is the first time that Louisville has scored 100+ points twice in one season. Six Cardinals reached double figures, led by Sherrone Vails 22 points. Schimmel finished with 15, Reid 13, Burke 13, Gibbs 12 and Hines 10. Twelve Cards played, 10 scored....Shelby Harper and Rachel Story failing to get on the board.

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Louisville scored 60 points in the paint and the Mastadons had no answer for Vails, Hines or Taylor underneath. Louisville sank seven threes in the contest.

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- LaToya Johnson did not make the trip to IPFW because of illness.

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-The highly heralded Louisville freshmen contributed 47 of the Cardinal points tonight.

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-Jim Kelch handled the radio call by himself tonight and did a good job keeping up with the action. I did switch over and listen to the IPFW radio broadcast for brief periods and was impressed with their play-by-play announcer Mike Maahs. He calls more of a play by play description of the action and doesn't dwell on game trends or observations. No offense to beloved Jim Kelch, but Maahs gives you a great idea of ball movement and guarding matchups during each possession.

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-The teams combined for 112 second half points, compared to just 67 in the first twenty minutes.

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-Louisville had 23 assists and only 15 turnovers Monday night...both areas Walz was complimentary of in post game comments.

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-Walz also commented on the lack of Reid playing time in the first half...mentioning that he was dissatisfied with her hustle and hinted that playing time in future games would depend on how hard she decides she wants to work when on the court. Reid played but two minutes in the first half and was pulled from the game when she "jogged" back down court after a play. Reid did receive a hard elbow to the jaw late in the contest from an IPFW player and was escorted to the locker room.

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Louisville (4-3) returns home to face Mississippi Valley State Thursday at 7 p.m. in the KFC YUM! Center and Kentucky visits on Sunday.

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2011 Louisville women's basketball signee Sara Hammond plays the first game of her senior year at Rockcastle County Tuesday evening when her team travels to take on Wayne County.

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Hammond, considered to be one of the front runners for Kentucky Miss Basketball, leads a Rockcastle County team that has been picked to finish atop their district and region this year.

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Good luck, Sara! Score often, stay healthy and go to the boards....

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CARDINAL COUPLE special correspondent David Watson offers his two cents on last night's game:

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Listen to your coach. It may be the four most important words of advice that any athlete can follow. I listened to the UofL Women's basketball game Monday night on the radio and also to Coach Walz's post game comments. It seems there is a bit of miscommunication between Monique Reid and Walz. There shouldn't be.

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Listen to your coach. Coaches spend a lot of time trying to prepare a team to perform their best when game time rolls around. Jeff Walz wants his Lady Cards to hustle. It's good advice. According to Walz, Reid (who did not start) did not hustle sufficiently during her brief first half appearance in last night's game and found herself back on the bench after two brief minutes of action. She admitted her mistake to Walz at halftime, had no plausible reason for the lack of hustle but did perform better in the second half.

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I go back to a similar performance by me many years ago. My high school basketball team was involved in a blowout one night against a team that didn't have much talent. After scoring a basket, I "showboated" back down the court, let the guy I was defending sprint by me and he scored an uncontested layup. I was promptly pulled from the game. My coach glared at me, as I sat down, and told me that unless I gave it 100% when I was on the court, I would not see the court. I learned from the episode.

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Listen to your coach, Monique. You are fortunate enough to be a scholarship player for a team that plays in the best conference in women's basketball, draws great crowds to each home game and realize this:

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Thousands of girls would give anything to be in your place.

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You are an excellent basketball player. Just think how much better you would be if you gave 100% all the time. It doesn't matter if you are up by 20 or down by 30, give it your all. If your coach wants you to hustle, listen to your coach. Hustle.

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I still think back to that wintry night when I goofed off and got sat down. It never happened again. I had nowhere near the popularity, fan admiration or skills that you have. I did learn from my error in ways and you can, too. The glory days soon fade and you'll be like me someday. You'll recall those fortunate times with a bit of whimsy and longing.

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Listen to your coach. Be a leader by example.

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(Well stated, David. WE will offer an observation here that Cardinal fans will see a hustling Monique Reid Thursday night against Mississippi Valley State...or not see much of her at all. WE hope for observation #1 to come to fruition)

Volleyball draws MTSU in NCAA 1st round

MONDAY @ C.C.

-Volleyball travels to Purdue in NCAA

-Lady Cards on road for IPFW hoops

The University of Louisville volleyball team will face Middle Tennessee State University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night at 5 p.m. at Purdue University. The Blue Raiders (29-5) were the winners of the Sun Belt Conference and received an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships...as did UofL (22-7).

The Cards are familiar with the opponent. They played the Blue Raiders in the opening round of the 2007 NCAA Championships and lost in five games to them in Louisville. Out of the current crop of Cardinals, only Lindsey Mango has played against MTSU. Led by Lindsey Cheatum and Izabela Kozon, MTSU ranks 10th in the nation in hitting percentage at .290.

Louisville enters the match after defeating Austin Peay 3-1 on Friday night. The Cards would go up against the winner of the Purdue vs. Kentucky match if they advance on Saturday... in West Lafayette.

The BIG EAST placed two team in the field of 64...Louisville and regular season champ Cincinnati. Both are in the same region and could possibly meet again for the third time this year if they both get to the regional finals...being held in Austin, TX/ on Dec. 10/11.

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Jeff Walz takes the Lady Cards basketball team back out on the road for a Monday night matchup against the IPFW Mastadons in Fort Wayne at 7 p.m. tonight. The game is a "Pack the House" promotion for IPFW...so Walz and gang can expect a loud and rowdy crowd to meet them in the Gates Sports Center.

IPFW is 3-1 on the season, losing to Michigan State in East Lansing 90-66. They are led by redshirt junior Stephanie Rosado, a 6'2" transfer forward from UTEP, who averages 21.3 ppg and 9.5 boards. Kayla Drake is a 5'5" transfer guard from Eastern Kentucky that scores 11.3 a game. The Mastadons have three other players that average eight or more points a game. Their roster lists five transfers from Division I schools. They play in the Summit Conference and are coached by Chris Paul (not the Wake Forest / NBA star) who was an assistant and associate there before taking the head coaching job three years ago.

Louisville (3-3) enters the game after a tough 69 -65 loss on the road to Old Dominion. Louisville leads the series with IPFW 3-0 and defeated the Mastadons 91-62 last year in Freedom Hall. This is the Cards first trip to Ft. Wayne.

A return to the announcers table for Adrienne Johnson tonight...filling in for color commentator Paul Sandeford, who had a prior commitment. She'll join play by play expert Jim Kelch for the 7 p.m. broadcast on WKRD 790 AM / 101.7 FM.

The IPFW athletics site has live video available for the game if you sign up and register with them. Single games are $5.95 each.

This is the type of game that can be a blessing or a curse. The Cards come in on a two game losing streak and need a feel good, blowout win on the road before returning home to play in the YUM against Mississippi Valley State on Thursday night. The crowd will be near capacity and strongly behind the Mastadons in this one, though...and Louisville has not performed well in similar settings previously this year. A loss to a Summit Conference opponent right now would be a crippling blow to the already fragile nature of this year's version of the Lady Cards...a team that was supposed to be highly improved over last year's squad but that has lost a couple of games on the road that were within grasp and that Louisville enjoyed sizable leads in.

A win streak of two would be most beneficial for Louisville going into the UK game on Sunday December 5th. in the YUM. The Cats (5-0) are nationally ranked and recently won The Lady Eagle Thanksgiving Classic in Hattiesburg, Mississippi...defeating Southern Miss in the final.

Congratulations...Louisville Soccer!

The men advance to the Elite Eight with a win over OSU tonight 2-1. Charlie Campbell with a header in the first half, Austin Berry with one in the second. Atta boy, Cards!
Mission accomplished. UCLA next...Saturday in Cardinal Park.

Volleyball defeats Austin Peay

SUNDAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE:

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-Volleyball downs the Govs

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-McCurty begins season

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-Pitino's Cards quiet the Thundering Herd

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In a match between the winners of the Big East and Ohio Valley conferences Saturday at Cardinal Arena, Louisville defeated Austin Peay 3-1. It was also Senior Day for the Louisville volleyball team and players Lindsey Mango, Amanda Simmons and manager Jessica Nord were honored.

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Both teams have qualified for the NCAA Championship Tournament and will find out who their first round opponents will be Sunday at 3:30 p.m.

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Yesterday could be considered a tune up match for the "big dance" and both teams played with the fervor of a championship game. The opponents battled back and forth in game one...tied at seven and Louisville finally going on a 7-3 run late to take a 23-17 lead. The Cards closed out the first match 25-19. Simmons had five kills for the Cards.

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Austin Peay wasn't read to toss in the towel, though and came back in the second game and built leads of 7-4, 14-7, 19-11 and 21-15 before taking the game 25-18.

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After the break, Louisville came out strong in game three and led 4-2 but the Governors

regained a 5-4 lead. The Cards went ahead to stay with a 4-1 run, though. Austin Peay would battle back and erase a four point Louisville lead to tie the game at 22. Lola Arslanbeckova slammed home the Cards final three points and Louisville squeaked by 25-23.

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In the final game, Louisville broke loose from an early 8-8 tie to score eight straight points and build a commanding 16-8 lead. They held on, despite a Lady Govs run that tightened the match at 23-21, to win 25-21.

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Arslanbeckova led the Cards with 17 kills, Emily Juhl had 13 and Simmons had eight blocks.

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Louisville 2011-12 women's basketball verbal Quaneisha McCurty began her season down at Dalton (GA) High School with a 10 point, 10 rebound effort in a 70-36 rout of Kennesaw Mountain. McCurty decided to skip the November signing period and is playing her first year of hoops for Dalton after having been at Northwest high school the previous three years.

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Other Cardinal member of the 2011-12 incoming freshman class, Rockcastle County's Sara Hammond begins her season November 30th. against Wayne County. We'll keep you up to date on both future Cardinal's efforts this season.

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A nice second half yesterday for the UofL Men's basketball team over a stubborn Marshall Thundering Herd bunch. Louisville saw a 11 point first half lead evaporate yesterday in the YUM Center and trailed by one at the half. The Cards used a 21-4 run early in the final half to secure the lead and won 80-66.

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-Love the way Steven VanTreese spurred Louisville with two thunderous dunks and a layup early in the final half. The guy is all heart, all hustle.

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-Good minutes for "Bullet" (Rick Pitino's nickname for guard Elisha Justice) 10 points and good point guard play for the freshman. No fear here in this guy.

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-Gorgui Dieng will be really something once he learns the Cardinal playbook. Went to the

boards strong in limited minutes yesterday for Louisville and displayed a sweet mid range jumper.

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-Terrence Jennings a swatting machine yesterday with six blocks to go with his eight points. The Cards still need to get busy on the defensive boards, though...allowing way too many second chance baskets by the Herd.

ODU knocks off Louisville 69-65

SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:

-CARDS FALL ON ROAD 69-65 to O.D.U.

-Football blows out Rutgers 40-13.

Tough loss to the Monarchs tonight...tied at half, Louisville actually takes a 51-44 lead but watches O.D.U. run off 12 in row and hold on to win late.

-Shoni Schimmel with 19 points but a scary 1-9 from three point range. With the Cards down by two and 42 seconds to go, Schimmel misses front end of 1-1 and Cards don't recover.

-Monique Reid 13 in first half but no baskets from the floor in the final stanza. At times, it seems Reid's points show up during non-crucial stages of games.

-A double/double for Keisha Hines with 10 points and 12 boards. Quick whistles all night on Hines in the lane.

-Becky Burke with three trifectas and 11 points. Maybe her best game of the year...defensive improvement obvious for the junior.

-Tia Gibbs another blue collar type of night with seven points and nine boards. Maybe the best 5'9" rebounder in women's college basketball.

Louisville lost this one tonight at the charity stripe...going a woeful 6-14. Another revealing stat is that the Cards out rebounded O.D.U. 51-39...had 22 offensive boards but only 11 second chance points...

O.D.U. (3-1) got 23 points from Jasmine Parker, including their final seven of the game from the field. With Louisville leading 61-60 after a Burke 3...Parker returned the favor with an NBA range bomber to put ODU up to stay at 63-61 with 4:29 to go.

Like at Xavier Tuesday night...another case of Louisville looking good in the first twenty minutes and unable to seal the deal. Up by seven with 11:46 to go in the game 51-44...the Lady Cards found themselves down 56-51 with nine minutes remaining. This team is going to be good...but the growing pains right now are hard to bear.

Louisville (3-3) travels next to Fort Wayne, IN. for a 7 p. m. Monday night game against I.P.F.W.

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Big effort out of Charlie Strong's guys in Piscataway Friday with the 27 point thumping of the Scarlet Knights. It was all Louisville early, jumping out to a 28-0 lead and coasting in. Bilal Powell, huge in the first half...along with Justin Burke and the Cardinal defense. Nice run by Jeremy Wright, too, in the second half to make it a 34-7 margin.

The Cards (6-6) conclude the regular season and await a bowl invite. Nice to be anticipating that after a 3 year absence...

Lady Cards face Old Dominion Friday Night

FRIDAY AT CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Lady Cards play the Monarchs

-Final regular season football game today

-Thankful...

Jeff Walz's Lady Cards return to the road tonight to face Old Dominion. Actually, the team is already there and had a wonderful Thanksgiving together in Virginia...where they dined together as a "second family."

The Cards will need an effort from the entire extended kin today if they are to beat the Monarchs. ODU (2-1) narrowly lost to a very good N.C. State team in their last game 62-60.

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They are led by senior Jasmine Parker (15.7 ppg.) and Alena Voronina (11.7 ppg. / 5.7 reb.)

Louisville (3-2) comes into the game after a poor second half at Xavier. The Cards, despite Monique Reid's 19 second half points, relinquished a 3 point halftime lead. Unforced turnovers, hurried shots and pourous defense contributed to the 12 point defeat in Cincinnati.

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It should be noted, though...that Louisville's two losses have come against the #4th and #5th ranked teams in women's college baasketball. Neither were blowouts.

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The Cards will need to revive the transition game andtry to keep Monique Reid on the court without foul problems. The junior sat the final 12:48 of the first half against Xavier because of whistles.

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Louisville defeated ODU last year in the Cancun Classic 82-75. No TV for this one, but Kelch and Sanderford will have the call on CARDS Radio. Tip is 7 p.m.

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Final regular season game today for Charlie Strong's football team. Whether they play in a post season bowl game or not depends on if they can beat the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in Piscataway, N.J. this morning at the ungodly game time of 11 a.m.

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Rutgers has been in a tailspin during the last several games. Whether Louisville can wake up the anemic offense enough to outscore the Scarlet Knights remains to be seen...WE'RE thinking the Cards prevail in one that may not see a lot of points by either team.

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It could have been a lot worse. WE were sitting at a stop light yesterday on the way home after a hug Thanksgiving meal when all of a sudden, Sonja and I are violently thrown forward and the sickening thud of metal on metal greets our ears. Car behind us couldn't stop in time...rear ended us and basically caved in the back end of our van.

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WE are OK. So was driver of other car. It could have been a lot worse if the vehicle behind us had been going faster. Fortunately, there was no one in front of us.

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I drive around with the figurine of St. Paul hanging off my rear view mirror. He is the patron Saint of journalists and publicists. I like his name, too. I gave him a special thanks last night...so grateful that WE are able to produce this column this morning instead of laying in a hospital bed.

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Slow down on wet roads, folks....

PACK THE PARK THIS SUNDAY!

We wish the best of luck to Ken Lolla's crew and urge you to get out and support Men's Soccer.

PACK THE PARK CARDINAL FANS!

Happy Thanksgiving

THURSDAY at CARDINAL COUPLE

From all of us at C.C.:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Lady Cards fall to Xavier 71-59

WEDNESDAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE:


-Despite Reid's 19 second half points, Cards collapse in final twenty to take the defeat.


A THANKSGIVING story and wishes...






For 20 minutes in the Tuesday night contest in Cincinnati, Louisville had the Xavier Musketeers number. With Monique Reid (pictured here) on the bench for the final 12:47 of the first half due to foul trouble, Louisville still managed to lead by as many as 11 points in the first half and take a 31-28 lead to the locker room.



College basketball consists of two halves, however...and the Muskies came out hot in the second half and used a 12-2 run to begin the final twenty minutes to build a lead Louisville could not overcome.


Louisville started the contest jumping out to an early 11-6 lead in the game, thanks to a couple of three's by Shoni Schimmel and Antonita Slaughter and increased the margin to 11 after another Schimmel trifecta to go up 23-12 with around nine minutes remaining in the first half.

With Reid on the bench saddled with 2 fouls...freshmen Schimmel, Slaughter and Sherrone Vails took control of the Cardinal offense and despite Amber Harris's 13 first half points...led by seven with 3 minutes to go and withstood a late Muskie 4-0 run to go in up by three.


Xavier got 2 three's from guard Special Jennings and and continued strong play from Harris to start the second half and erased the Cardinal margin quickly. The Muskies scored twelve of the first 14 points to open the half and controlled the boards.


With 16:00 to go in the game, Xavier had a 36-33 lead and built that with an opening second half 22-5 run to lead 50-36 halfway through the final stanza. The Cards would manage to cut the deficit to nine at 62-53 late in the game but get no closer in the final five minutes. Despite Reid's heroics in the final twenty minutes...Louisville could not stop Harris inside or keep her off the boards.

Harris had a monster game against the Cards with 28 points and 18 rebounds. Jennings finished with 13 for Xavier. Reid paced the Cards with 20 points in 25 minutes and Schimmel totaled 16 for Louisville. Vails ended up with nine for the Cards..fouling out with 4 minutes to go.


The #5 Muskies (3-0) out rebounded Louisville 40-34 and forced the Cards into 24 turnovers. Louisville seemed out of sync in the second half...rushing shots and failing to slow down the Xavier transition game for much of the final half. Reid, Vails and Schimmel scored 27 of Louisville's 28 second half points...Asia Taylor getting the other on a free throw. The Cards made only two threes in the second half after popping in five in the first half.


Tia Gibbs did not score in the game but grabbed 10 rebounds for Louisville. Xavier shot 64% in the second half...mostly on layups, Harris in the paint and held Louisville to 38.9% from the field for the game after the Cards shot almost 50% in the first half.



Louisville (3-2) returns to the road for a Friday evening match up at Old Dominion next.


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WE here at CARDINAL COUPLE would like to thank our readers as Thanksgiving Day draws upon us. Thanks to you...our readership has grown dramatically this year and WE appreciate the loyalty and interest that you have shown in our "little blog" that is all grown up now.
WE also ask of you to give a little of yourself this holiday season. WE were touched by this story we ran across several years ago in a collection of short, anonymously written stories.



Read it and ask yourself...'Can I do more?"





It was Thanksgiving Day many years ago, and there was the usual assortment of friends and relatives at Grandma's house. Midway thru the day, Grandma came to me with a look of concern in her eyes.


"No one brought any egg nog this year. You know how your Uncle Nick likes his egg nog after the meal."she worriedly whispered.


I knew that look. Although the Thanksgiving Day football game I was watching with the rest of the men was just beginning to get interesting, I volunteered to head out and pick up a couple of jugs. My doting niece Sandra requested to go along, bored with the football and 'women' talk. We headed off and pulled into the gas and grocery near Grandma's house.


As we entered, the cashier was having an animated discussion with a young boy at the register. The boy left the counter. His depression and sadness was easy to see. We gathered up the egg nog and went to check out. Curious over the discussion I saw earlier, I inquired about discussion. The clerk shrugged his shoulders.


"Not enough money to buy what he wanted."


We completed our purchase and headed back to the car. Sandra saw the young boy walking down the road away from us.


"Can't we do something?" she asked. I pulled the car to the side of the road where he was walking and rolled down the window. His coat was insufficient for the brisk weather and he carried a small bag with a couple of cans of tomato soup inside. His name was Jefferey and he explained to me that his mother had sent him to the store to buy bread, bologna and soup for dinner for him and his little brother but she hadn't given him enough money. I asked him to get in the car and we drove back to the store. I handed him a $20 and told him to go get what he needed and I would wait for him and drive him home. His eyes lit up and in a few minutes he came out of the store with several bags. He handed me several dollars back in change and I told him to keep it. We drove him to his residence, an older apartment complex where the impoverished lived. He thanked us and entered one of the doors.


It was after our meal when Sandra came up to me.


"We should have done more." she commented, tears welling in her eyes. "He looked to be about my age. I keep thinking, what if that was me?"


Her words hit home. I spent the next 20 minutes busily working in the kitchen with Sandra and Grandma, who we filled in on the story. Out to the car we went and minutes later, pulled up in front of the battered apartment complex. We knocked on the door, and a tired-looking, middle aged women opened.


"We have Jefferey's order here." I pleasantly informed her. Bewildered, she opened the door and we walked in. Jefferey sat in the kitchen and his eyes lit up when he saw us. We started unloading the bags of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, rolls, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. "Just heat it up and your ready to go." Grandma instructed the now crying mother and she gave her a hug.


."I have no money to pay you." she stammered. Grandma looked at her and with tears rolling down her eyes, replied.


"There is no money due. It's Thanksgiving. We're grateful that you have your family here with you, just as I am grateful that my family is here with me"


At Christmas time, Jefferey and his family received another order...this time it was winter coats and warm clothing. I kept track of Jefferey, his brother Ronnie and their mom for several years until they moved away when their mom got offered a better paying job out of state.


I got a letter in the mail today. In it was a newspaper clipping. The article listed graduates of a certain high school. I scanned the article and saw Jefferey's name listed. The envelope also contained a $20 bill. A small note was attached, reading...'This is for the next kid you find who can only afford tomato soup. Jefferey."


THIS THANKSGIVING... ASK YOURSELF..."CAN I DO A LITTLE MORE?"


MAY THE JOY AND THE GOODWILL OF THE SEASON BE WITH YOU...


-the staff and owners of CARDINAL COUPLE

Lady Cards travel to Xavier to face #5 Muskies

TUESDAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE

-Lady Cards meet the monster Muskies

-Youman picks up another award

-Men's basketball romps Chattanooga

Asia Taylor, pictured right, and her front line teammates for the

University of Louisville women's basketball team will have their work

cut out for them tonight in the Cintas Center, Cincinnati, OH. when

they face the #5 Xavier Musketeers at 7 p.m.

XAVIER (2-0) features the all-world front line duo of 6'6" bangers Ta'Shia Phillips and Amber Harris. The pair are averaging 18.5 ppg. each this season and part of four Muskies in double figures. Guard Speical Jennings also returns from the 2008-09 team that lost to Louisville 66-55 in the last meeting...a game where Candyce Bingham went off for 23 points and 10 boards in the road win for Louisville. Angel McCoughtry added 16 points and 11 boards.

The Cards are 6-2 lifetime against Xavier. In the 2008 meeting, head coach Jeff Walz told the team that someone else besides Atlantic 10 Conference 1st teamer Phillips would have to beat Louisville, if the Cards were going to lose. Louisville did an effective job with employing a double team on Phillips...holding her to five points in the Xavier loss.

For Louisville (3-1) to pull the upset this year in the Queen City, the Cards will have to do an effective job on Phillips again this year and also deal with Harris in the paint. Between Keisha Hines, Asia Taylor, Antonita Slaughter and Sherrone Vails...the Cards have shown improved ability to go to the boards but they will need their finest effort of the season to combat the towers that Xavier has at the ready.

The Cards have been effective in the fast break, transition game and if they can get this aspect of their offense in gear tonight, it will benefit greatly if Louisville is to win. If Xavier packs back in a zone, outside shooting specialists Becky Burke, Tia Gibbs, Antonita Slaughter, Shoni Schimmel and LaToya Johnson will need to be on the mark.

This is the first of three road games for Louisville and not too bad a trip for the zealous Cardinal fan. Cintas Center is a little over two hours from Louisville and the Muskie fans are pretty enthusiastic about their team, so any "Red" in the seats would be a boost to Walz's crew.

No TV for this one, but the broadcast can be heard on WKRD 790 AM/101.7 FM and at http://www.uoflsports.com/ . Jim Kelch and Paul Sanderford handle the call.

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Field Hockey's Nicole Youman has added another honor to her career here at UofL by being named to the NFHCA All-American second team. Youman was the 2010 BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year. The Black Mountain, Australia native was a four year All-BIG EAST selection during her playing days for Pam Bustin and shares the school record for most goals in a game with five against Central Michigan.

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Nice performance last night by Pitino's Cards in the 106-65 romp over Chattanooga. The more WE see sophomore Steven Van Treese play...the more we are impressed about how much better he has gotten this season. Louisville has demonstrated a powerful and deep front line this year with VanTreese, Rakeem Buckles, Terrence Jennings, George Goode and Gorgui Dieng. Depth during the brutal BIG EAST schedule that awaits the Cards is essential and it looks like the Cards have five guys who are pretty much interchangeable and still effective.

CARDS WIN BIG EAST VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT

LOUISVILLE WINS BIG EAST VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT

-#2 seed Louisville sweeps #1 Cincinnati in 3 sets.

-Men's soccer advances in NCAA

-Swimming results from Purdue

-Angel update in Hungary



The University of Louisville Volleyball team won the BIG EAST Tournament for the third straight year in a row Sunday afternoon...taking down top seed Cincinnati 25-20, 25-20, 25-15 in Pittsburgh. (Photo courtesy of http://www.bigeast.org/ )

Louisville freshman Emily Juhl was named the MVP of the tournament, nailing a team high 13 kills in the final match. The Cards jumped out early in the first game and led 14-10 before Cincy rallied to tie it at 15. The match stayed close until Louisville, up 22-20, scored the final three points to win game one.

The Bearcats roared back in game two and led Louisville 10-6 behind some strong kills by Stephanie Niemer and Becca Refenes. But the Cards took off on a 7-0 run to regain the lead at 13-10 and although UC would climb within one point, the Cards never trailed again and won by five. Juhl had five kills in the game and two service aces late that put Louisville ahead 20-14.

Louisville went to the attack early in game three and ripped out to a 12-4 lead. Louisville, thanks to Lola Arslanbeckova's four kills, never relinquished the advantage and won going away 25-15. It is the first time since 2007 that the championship game has not gone to five sets.
Joining Juhl on the All-Tournament team were Louisville teammates Arslanbeckova and blocker Gwen Rucker. The Cards win the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament with the conference championship and will know their fate on November 28th...when the selection show will air on ESPNews.

It's been an incredible season so far for Louisville...a team that started off slowly to begin the year and dropped matches to Kentucky, Arizona, Purdue and Illinois before entering BIG EAST Conference play. After dropping a 3-2 match to Seton Hall in Cardinal Arena, the young team began to mature and jell. They went on a eight game winning streak before falling to Tennessee in Knoxville but swept four out of their final five to gain the #2 seed in the tourney.

Led by kill specialists Arslanbeckova, Juhl, Anastasia Artemeva...and the strong blocking skills of Rucker, Taylor Brauneis and Amanda Simmons...the Cards are playing their best volleyball of the season right now and should fare well in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. All but Simmons return next year for the Cards.

Cincinnati's Niemer and Jordanne Scott were also selected to the all-tournament team along with Notre Dame's Kristen Dealy, and Marquette's Nikki Klingsporn.

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Before a record attendance for a soccer match in the state of Kentucky, Louisville advances in the NCAA Tournament with a 3-1 win over College of Charleston on Sunday night. The Cards improve to 17-0-3 in front of 5.197 in Cardinal Park with two late goals to secure the lead and seal the victory.

After a 1-1 first half, Louisvlle got a goal from Colin Rolfe to tale a 2-1 lead in the 84th. minute of action. Five minutes later, the Cards tacked on a 3rd goal from Charlie Campbell.

The Cards play Ohio State next...Sunday, Nov. 28th at 7 p.m. back at Cardinal Park.

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Louisville's women's swimming and diving finished 2nd in the Purdue Invitational in the final day of competition after leading at the end of Day 2. Krissie Brandenburg took the 200 backstroke and Therese Bergstrom captured the 200 breaststroke...setting a school record in the process. The University of Arkansas's women took the title.

The UofL men finished 3rd in the event. Wins for Pedro Oliveria, Carlos Almeida and Charlie Bolgan.

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After a brief stateside visit to see her jersey hung in the KFC YUM! Center before the Tennessee game, Angel McCoughtry has returned to Hungary to play for MKB Euroleasing Sopron in the EuroLeagues and is averaging 17 points and 7 rebounds. Teamed with former Middle Tennessee State and WNBA star Amber Holt, MKB is 10-1 this season.

Volleyball advances to the BIG EAST Championship game

SUNDAY AT CARDINAL COUPLE:



-Lola leads Cards to finals



-Swimming in 1st place



-Breaking down the SEMO stats

-Close but no cigar for Cards football

Sophomore outside hitter Lola Arslanbeckova (pictured above) created 15 kills and the Cards sent Marquette home with a 3-1 come from behind win yesterday in the Fitzgerald Fieldhouse at Pittsburgh. Louisville will face Cincinnati today at 3:30 in the championship match.

To get there, the Cards had to deal with the Marquette Golden Eagles first. At first, it looked like the Cards journey might end in the semifinals...losing 25-15 in the first game of the match. Marquette pieced together a 6-0 run midway thru the game to lead 21-12 and increased that margin to win by ten. The Cards were shaken, but not stirred by the loss and regrouped with the philosophy that they had to play their game and quit worrying about the Golden Eagles game.

It worked. Louisville refocused and battled to a hard fought 15-11 lead in the second game. Marquette would not go away, though and rallied to take a 22-21 lead. The Cards regained the momentum, though and a game winning kill by Emily Juhl won this one 25-23 for Louisville.

Louisville dominated the action in the third game and roared out to a 9-5 lead. That margin increased to 15-10 and then 23-14. The Cards won going away...25-15. In the final game, it was all Louisville....jumping out to an early five point advantage and leading 17-5 before coasting in with a 25-14 victory.

The championship game will be televised today on ESPNU.

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The waters in West Lafayette, IN are just fine for the UofL swimming and diving squad. After two days of competition, The Lady Cards lead the way and the men are in third place. Louisville leads Arkansas by 29.5 points going into the final day. Louisville's women won the 200 medley relay and swept the 100 breaststroke. Krissie Brandenburg captured the 100 backstroke and diver Hannah Gadd was second on the 1 meter board.

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Close but no cigar for Charlie Strong's football squad yesterday in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium...losing to WVU 17-10 in font of 51,000+. Paul rants about the narrow loss over on our friend Shannon Ruffra's site Cardinal Dominance. Check it out at: http://www.cardinaldominance.net/

At least Rick Pitino's guys salvaged the evening with a win ove Jackson State down at the YUM. CARDINAL COUPLE watched it on television and thought this one was a bit sloppy. Any landing you walk away from is a good one, though and the guys will try again Monday vs. Chattanooga in the jewel by the Ohio River.

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Looking at the stats from Friday night's Lady Cards win over Southeastern Missouri State indicates that this group of ballers are a pretty decent shooting bunch. 57.6% in the first half, 54.5% in the final half and 56.4% for the game. The starters went 19-32 from the floor and the reserves a very credible 12-23. Take out Shelby Harper's near misses from long range (0-3) and the subs shoot 60%.



Free throw shooting is on the uptick as well...28-38 with Keisha Hines going 9-11. She took 2 more free throws than the entire SEMO squad. Only 19 turnovers for Walz's bunch...Becky Burke leading the way with four. The Cards passed the ball well Friday with 21 assists. Five players had three assists each.



Asia Taylor, Keisha Hines and Antonita Slaughter continue to dominate the boards, combining for 26 of the 48 Louisville rebounds. They'll need that effort plus some Tuesday when they travel to Cincinnati to face a huge Xavier front line. Ta'shia Phillips and Amber Harris are both 6'6" and Xavier has been out rebounding opponents by five per game in their first two contests. The Muskies (2-0) have defeated South Carolina 84-65 and Michigan 85-76. Both games on the road. No cream puffs early for the Atlantic Ten terrors.



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Soccer action tonight in Cardinal Park as Louisville continues their quest to win the NCAA Championships. Their second round opponent is College of Charleston and the action begins at 7 p.m.

Ken Lolla's team is undefeated...why not have an early dinner and head on down to the Belknap Campus and root them on?

Lady Cards roll again ...97-43 over SEMO

- 5 in double figures in 54 point UofL win.

-Volleyball advances in BIG EAST tournament.

If University of Louisville women's basketball fans are getting a bit spoiled...one can hardly blame them. For the second time in three days, Jeff Walz's juggernaut jolts another visitor to the KFC YUM! Center by 50+.

The Cards sprinted out to a 16-0 lead in the first five minutes of tonight's contest and led by Tia Gibbs 3-3 perfection from the three point line...scooted to a 52-19 halftime lead.

Different night, same style. Louisville utilized the transition game and hard nosed defense to force SEMO into 14 1st half turnovers and managed nine steals in the first twenty minutes. Once again, Walz tried a variety of combinations and all 12 players that dressed tonight saw at least 4 minutes of court time in the first half. Monique Reid entered the halftime locker room with 12 points, Gibbs 11 and LaToya Johnson seven...that included a buzzer beater three from well beyond the trifecta arc as time ran out in the first stanza.

Charmaine Tay did not dress for this evening's contest...suffering from a cold and remaining in the locker room.

The Cards maintained the pressure to begin the second half...going on a 28-9 run in the first 10 minutes to hold a commanding 80-28 advantage. From that point, Walz emptied the bench again and all but Shelby Harper put points in the scorebook for the 97-43 victory.

It was Harper who got the largest crowd reaction of the evening when she drained a jumper with less than a minute to go but had it waived off by one of the referees...who called a charging foul instead on the diminutive guard. The crowd, anxious for the Cards to top 100 points for the second game in a row, howled in dismay about the whistle. A missed Antonita Slaughter three was the final attempt to hit the century mark and Louisville settled for 97 points and a 54 point win.

Reid led all scorers with 16 points and Keisha Hines got her first double/double of the year with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Tia Gibbs finished with 13, Sherrone Vails and Antonita Slaughter had 10 points each. All Cardinals played at least 7 minutes in the blowout.

Louisville out rebounded the Red Hawks 48-25 and forced 25 turnovers. The Cards nabbed 19 steals and shot 56.4% for the game. Louisville went 7-19 from the three point arc and 28-38 from the charity stripe. SEMO was led by Bailie Roberts nine points and seven rebounds.

POST GAME

Coach Walz was pleased in general with the effort of his team this evening and alluded to the fact that the Lady Cards seem to get a little better each time out. He commented that the Cards reached their pre-game goal of 35 deflections but fell short of keeping SEMO from getting less than 10 offensive rebounds (they had 11). He was also looking for more than 25 created turnovers..the Cards forced the Red Hawks into 25 exactly...so after a day off tomorrow, he indicated that "they'd run" for failing to hit two of their goals.

-He also chuckled when he was asked if Louisville was running a "dribble drive" offense.

"You can't drive the ball unless you dribble it. Otherwise, they blow a whistle on you for travelling. We dribble drive every possession, I guess. Everyone does."

-Walz on the aspect of ever getting an Angel McCoughtry type player again:

"We certainly hope to...but Angel was pretty unique in what she could do. If we could get three players that combined equalled one Angel...I'd settle for that."

The road gets a little tougher next week for the Lady Cards. Three straight on the road, beginning with a Tuesday tussle against #6 Xavier. The Cards travel to dangerous Old Dominion for a Friday night game and complete the road swing Nov. 29th. against Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne.

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Louisville Volleyball advanced in the first round of the BIG EAST Volleyball Tournament in Pittsburgh Friday evening against Seton Hall. The Cards took the match 3-1, winning 25-17, 22-25, 25-23, 25-21. Lola Arslanbeckova had 25 kills for Louisville, who will face Marquette next on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

Louisville jumped out to an early lead in the first match but saw Seton Hall rally to get within four at 17-13. The Cards then went on a 6-0 run and held on to win by eight. In game two, the Pirates...

(excuse me while I chuckle at the visual of a bunch of Pirates playing volleyball..."ARRGHHH, Matey...It's yer serve!")

...rallied in game two to top Louisville by three. Louisville had drawn close at 23-20 but two straight hits misplayed by the Cards ended the match.

After the break, Louisville jumped out 5-0 and led 9-6 but saw Seton Hall roll back and climb within one at 23-22. Anastasia Artemeva slammed home a kill at 24-23 for the win. The final was in Louisville favor all the way...the Cards leading 17-8. Seton Hall did manage to climb within three at 21-18 but the Cards held on for the four point win.

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Football Cards vs. West Virginia today at noon. Wear your black and let's make sure that PJCS isn't "almost heaven" fo the invading Eers. Get the ball to Bilal.

Cards rack up honors in Field Hockey and Volleyball

FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Field Hockey puts four on All-West region team

-Volleyball gets five on All-BIG EAST team

-Preview of the UofL vs. SEMO women's basketball game

-Football Cards host WVU

Welcome to the weekend! We're glad you made it! Shoni Schimmel (pictured here with her sister Jude) hopes you have as much fun at the Lady Cards basketball game tonight against SEMO as she is having in this candid.

Nicloe Youman and Hayley Turner have been selected to participate on the 1st Team National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division 1 West Region team. Fellow teammates Rachel Hollenbach and Tuli Lim were placed on the 2nd team. All are seniors except Turner.

Youman was the Offensive Player of the Year in the BIG EAST and holds the Louisville school record for season and career assists. She, Hollenbach, Turner were All-BIG EAST selections and Lim was selected to the All Big East Tournament team with them.

The Flock (13-7, 5-1) narrowly missed getting an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament despite being ranked as high as sixth during the season and being in the top ten for six weeks.

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It's BIG EAST Volleyball Tournament time and Louisville had five Cards selected to the All-Conference teams. Lola Arsenbeckova made the 1st team and Emily Juhl, Taylor Brauneis, Gwen Rucker and Amanda Simmons were selected for the 2nd team. Arsenbeckova is a sophomore, Simmons a senior, Rucker a junior and Juhl and Brauneis is a freshmen. Louisville drew the second seed for the event in Pittsburgh and will await 1st round action to see who their opening opponent will be in the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals and semifinal matches will be shown free at http://www.bigeast.org/ and ESPNU will televise the finals on Sunday.

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Southeastern Missouri State visits the KFC YUM Center for women's basketball tonight against the Lady Cards. It'll be your last chance to catch Walz's bunch at home until Dec. 2nd. SEMO (1-2) comes into the game following a home opener loss to Northern Iowa on Wednesday 70-57. The Cards (2-1) romped Houston Baptist Wednesday in the YUM 100-34.

The RedHawks are expected to be a contender for the Ohio Valley Conference title this year and the team from Cape Girardeau, Missouri is led by 6'1" soph. forward Brittany Harrel and 5'7" junior guard Bianca Beck. Juco transfer Karley Evans, a 5'9" junior guard collected eleven points in the loss Wednesday and 5'10" forward/guard Ballie Roberts is one of several dangerous long distance shooter. The RedHawks rely on speed and quickness to get it done, so they'll try to turn this one into a track meet...since their size doesn't come anywhere close to Louisville's.

For Walz's crew...it'll hopefully be a repeat of the transition game and defensive dominance that they displayed against Houston Baptist. Expect the Cards to once again play many different combinations and all 13 players if they are able to gain an early advantage on the Red Hawks.

It's a directional school. Although the remote possibility of a "trap game" scenario does exist, WE at CARDINAL COUPLE aren't very worried and think the Cards will put on another fun display of steals, three pointers, creating Red Hawk turnovers and running the transition game for layups.

WAZOO Sports network will televise the contest and Jim Kelch and Paul Sanderford will handle the radio duties on WKRD 790 AM/101.7 FM. Tip off is 7 p.m.

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Louisville football hosts the West Virginia Mountaineers Saturday at noon in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium. Charlie Strong's guys need one more win to become bowl eligible. WVU has won 10 out of the 12 lifetime meetings between the schools and already has 6 wins on the season. Louisville will have their hands full with the speedy running backs in the Mountaineer stable and WE don't expect the Cards to defend their home turf successfully. Make it WVU 33- Louisville 17. WE hope we're wrong...Play huge, defense.

Kickoff is at noon.

Houston? Lady Cards have no problem...100-34

THURSDAY @ C.C.



-LADY CARDS roll past Houston Baptist 100-34.


Maybe they made Louisville mad by scoring the first two points of the game.


A jumper by Mele Leasau gave Houston Baptist University a 2-0 lead twenty six seconds into the Wednesday night contest between HBU and Louisville.

The Huskies would not score again until the clock showed 12 minutes to go in the first half. In the meantime, Louisville rolled off 26 straight points en route to a 57-26 first half lead.


Jeff Walz played all 13 Cardinals for at least 3 minutes in the first half. In a dizzying display of rebounding, steals, layups and transition basketball...the actual combination of Cardinals on the court really didn't matter...Louisville got the ball and scored. Especially Monique Reid. 16 of her 18 points came in the first twenty minutes of the game...mostly on layups and put backs. Shoni Schimmel and Antonita Slaughter preferred a little more difficult task...they nailed 5 out of the 6 three pointers they attempted in the first half and seven Cardinals scored in the organized blitzkrieg that the Cards delivered in the first half.


The run and gun continued after the Ladybirds entertained the halftime crowd (generously announced as 6466 in attendance.) The Lady Cards went on a 17-0 run to begin the final twenty minutes. Houston Baptist finally got on the board at the 12:10 mark but would manage only 8 points in the final stanza.


A Charmaine Tay three with 42 seconds in the game got the Cards to the century mark and by then Walz had Tay, LaToya Johnson, Rachel Story, Polly Harrington and Sherrone Vails (four of the freshmen) in the game to await the final buzzer.


Vails and Reid led Louisville in scoring with 18 points each. Keisha Hines added 12, Shoni Schimmel's 11 came all in the first half and Tia Gibbs' 10 points rounded out the double figure scorers. Asia Taylor grabbed 10 rebounds..leading the Cards on the boards and narrowly missed a double-double with nine points. All 13 Cardinals played and only Story and Shelby Harper failed to get in the scoring column.


This was the blowout most expected. Most impressive in the stats was that Louisville dished out 25 assists (Schimmel with 5) and committed only 12 turnovers. Louisville scored 49 points off turnovers...allowing Houston only six points off miscues.

The road gets a little harder Friday night when South East Missouri State comes to the KFC YUM! Center. For the record, the 100 points scored marked the 11th. time in Lady Cards history that they've reached the century mark and first time under Jeff Walz. The 66 point margin of victory is third largest of all time.

POST GAME COMMENTS:

Monique Reid on Coach Walz's challenge:

"He challenged us this game. They (Houston Baptist) couldn't score more than 38 points. We knew we could hold them. We held them to two points for ten minutes. Over thirty turnovers. They had 33."

Reid on the defense:

"On our defense there's really no way you can get easy layups. You have to beat us from shooting way out on the court...because we're pressuring the ball. It's a really cool defeense and I'm glad he (Walz) put it in.We caught on to it quick and it's a lot easier than playing man to man. It's like a match up zone...but we're helping out a lot . A lot of pressure with the back line working really hard."

Antonita Slaughter on her performance:

"It was a really good game for me. The Tennessee game I really didn't too too much. Tonight I got a chance to show a little bit what I can do.

On what the team learns from a blow out win:

"It's really not who we play. We just have to go hard, no matter who we play."

Jeff Walz on the rotation:

"We're doing a really good job of trying to get players as many minutes as we can. Eventually, I'm not going to be able to play Monique just 15 minutes. She'll need to play the minutes like she played in the Tennessee game (32). The important thing is that I've got to be able to get Antonita Slaughter and Asia Taylor minutes at the "4" slot. With the loss of Shawnta' Dyer, we have to find someone who can get in there and rebound for us. I thought Asia did a really nice job of rebounding tonight (10 grabs) and Antonita (5 boards) in rebounding tonight."

Walz on the focus:

"I'm pleased with our depth. We've really got some kids who can play. Shelby Harper played eleven minutes tonight. She played 40 minutes a game last year and did well. Shoni Schimmel...she's played really well the last five halves this year. The first half of the Tennessee game was rough but she's played extremely well since then."

Pitino's Cards upset Butler

WEDNESDAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Buckles leads Cards to win over Butler

-UConn holds on against Baylor

-Lady Cards Weds. Night in the YUM

Plenty to smile about Tuesday evening in the KFC YUM! Center...

The University of Louisville's men's basketball team rolled past Butler 88-73 in a game that can best be described as exciting in the first half and boring in the second half. The Cards were on fire early and jumped out to an 8-0 lead. It was loud in the YUM...as loud as I've ever heard ANY arena and quite an electric atmosphere. Louisville played like a top twenty team against the 16th ranked Bulldogs for the first twenty minutes and took a 18 point lead into the locker room at the half.

Then came the second half. Frankly, it was long, boring, full of fouls and turnovers...but the Cards managed to hold on to the lead.. despite several Butler runs that got them within 11 a couple of times...and pull the upset in front of a capacity house. Matt Howard was the main highlight for the Bulldogs. after a 2 point first half..he exploded on the Cards in the final twenty. Shelvin Mack carried Butler in the first 20 minutes....how did this Lexington kid get away from Kentucky and Louisville?

-Rakeem Buckles can shoot the three. Who knew? He led the Cards with 17 points tonight. The sophomore looks like he's going to be a valuable contributor to Rick's squad this year.

-Elisha Justice is just a blue collar, pack the lunch box and go to work type of ball player. Gotta say he's fast becoming a favorite of mine in this Pitino bunch.

-The Mike Marra hairdo this year is a definite "yes!". Kinda looks like "Chris" from The Sopranos.

-Hoping Preston Knowles is OK after falling to the floor in obvious pain during the second half. The consensus in the seats was that he had cramped up. He looked in agony and the trainers and Terrence Jennings carried him off the court.

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Just watched a replay of the UConn vs. Baylor women's hoops game in the XL Center in Hartford, CT. and Geno Auriemma is one lucky guy. After blowing a 15 point first half lead and falling behind by eight points in the second half...his Huskies staged a rally and defeated the visiting Bears by one. Did anyone else beside me think the Huskies were done for? Very obvious that Geno's team misses Tina Charles. Samarie Walker did the best she could against the 6'8" Brittany Griner (along with about 3 other UConn players at times) but the only thing that looks like it could stop the gigantic Bear this year will be her own lapses of play. Maya Moore is all that...again this year and it looks like she's found a freshman friend to help her score this year. Bria Hartley has game. And a deadly mid-range jumper.

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Lady Cards Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the YUM vs. Houston Baptist. This one could get ugly early. HBU was "baptized" by TCU in their opener by 50+. The Cards will be looking to run the transition game and emphasise the defense. WE fully expect Coach Walz will used all 13 players at his disposal again Wednesday night. Hope Jim Kelch and Paul Sanderford have plenty of "filler" material for the broadcast.

Cards get #2 seed in BIG EAST Volleyball Tournament

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE PRESENTS:


-Volleyball #2 seed in BIG EAST Tournament

-UConn vs. Baylor tonight

-We catch up with Tise...

-Preview of Houston Baptist

The University of Louisville Volley Cards will open BIG EAST Tournament play against #7 seed Seton Hall (13-17, 7-7) on Friday at 3:30 p.m. in Pittsburgh at the Peterson Event Center. A dangerous first round opponent for the Cards...Seton Hall defeated Louisville during regular season play in Cardinal Arena in five games back on Sept. 26th. Emily Juhl, pictured here played one of her best games of the year against Seton Hall in the defeat.

Louisville has improved dramatically since that early season match up but cannot take the Pirates lightly. The Cards (16-7, 12-2) would advance to play the winner of the #3 Marquette vs. #6 Pittsburgh match on Saturday if they can defeat the pesky Pirates. The final will take place on Sunday and will be shown on ESPNU. All other matches will be available on BIG EAST TV and streamed free of charge. You can find BIG EAST TV online at http://www.bigeast.tv/

The rest of the first round action:

#1 Cincinnati vs. #8 South Florida

#4 Villanova vs. #5 Notre Dame

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ESPN has started their 25 straight hours of college basketball. As I write this Central Michigan is in a dogfight with home standing Hawaii. Both ESPN and ESPN 2 are showing games. A hoop junkie's dream if I ever did see one. What WE don't like about this is that in the 25 hours of action there is only one women's game. It's a goodie, though. UConn vs. Baylor. It'll show on "the deuce" at 6 p.m. Tuesday night. Should make for a good night of hoops, since the UofL men's team plays Butler at 8 p.m. on ESPN.



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WE ran into former Lady Cards center and one of the most popular Lady Cards of all time...that being Tise Wright...at the Tennessee game Friday night. Still has the big smile and hug for everyone. Tise is still living here and working. She was excited to be there for Angel's big night and excited about the prospects of this team. She plans on trying to get back into some kind of competitive basketball once her knee fully heals. She's working on getting back in shape and still talks with her former teammates quite a bit...in addition to the current crop of Cards.


It was good to see Tise again. In her prime, she was an unstoppable force in the paint. She led the BIG EAST in shooting percentage during the 2007-08 season and is second all-time in Cardinal shooting percentage at .579. She led Louisville in shooting percentage in 2006-07 and 2007-08.

She also led the Cards in blocked shots in 2007-08. Tise sat out the 2008-09 season with knee problems and returned briefly to play in the 2009-10 season but continued knee problems forced her to hang up the jersey for good.



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The University of Louisville women's basketball team will face Houston Baptist on Wednesday night in the KFC YUM Center at 7 p.m. The Huskies come to town 0-1 after losing to #23 TCU 96-38 in Fort Worth, TX. Destini Texada led the way for HBU with nine points and eleven boards. Brittany Maxey, Mele Leasau, Joselyn Pugh and Tia Jackson are the other starters for Houston Baptist...who went 1-10 from three point range and shot 27.5% for the game.

This game should be a good chance for coach Walz to do some further on-court experimentation with his lineup combinations and develop the transition game. The Cards need to show a strong performance on the boards Weds. night as well. Despite the weak opponent and weeknight game, try to get out for this one if you can. The players always appreciate the fans packing the stands and it should be fun to watch the Cards in this probable rout of HBU.

Lady Cards romp Ohio U. 84-47

CARDINAL COUPLE - MONDAY EDITION


-LADY CARDS GO TO 1-1 with win over Ohio U.

-VOLLEYBALL wins at Syracuse

-CROSS COUNTY in the NCAA Regionals

-Breaking down the Ohio U numbers

The University of Louisville women's basketball team shook off a 13 point loss to Tennessee on Friday with a 37 point dismantling of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio on Sunday afternoon.

The Cards came out strong...jumping to an 8-2 lead in the first four minutes of the game. After a couple of Ohio baskets, UofL went on a 21-0 run to take a commanding lead 29-6 with slightly more than seven minutes to go in the first half. They would lead 42-14 before heading to the locker room up 44-20 at the half. Monique Reid led a balanced scoring attack for Louisville with 9 points.

The Cards came out rolling in the second half and took a 52-26 with two scores by Reid and Hines each. Although Ohio would cut the lead to 21 at 55-34...Louisville then went on a 20-3 run to take a 75-37 lead after Becky Burke's (pictured above) fourth 3-point goal of the game with a little more than five minutes remaining.

Louisville ran the transition game to perfection against the Bobcats and the defense created a wealth of Ohio U. turnovers...including 13 in the first 12 minutes of the game. Shoni Schimmel had seven assists for the Cards and 13 points. Reid finished with 13, Burke 14 and Hines 12 points. Asia Taylor contributed nine points and Charmaine Tay added eight points. All thirteen players for Louisville got into the game and all but Polly Harrington, Antonita Slaughter and LaToya Johnson scored. Slaughter did have eight rebounds for the Cards...who host Houston Baptist next on Weds.

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Finally listened to a Cards game on the radio and was most impressed with the job that Paul Sanderford did with Jim Kelch. The veteran coach gives a good account of the defensive sets, offensive patterns and player action in the color analyst role and seems to mesh pretty well with the affable Kelch. Jim still tends to stray away from the action when a contest is a blow out and he doesn't give the time remaining in the game out nearly enough to suit us...but he's a lot better and quite more professional than the guys doing the UK women's games on radio.

We still aren't happy that the UK Ladies get WHAS Radio and Louisville doesn't. If the UofL men, UK men and UK women aren't playing...why are the Lady Cards still relegated to 790? More politics being played by Clear Channel.

The game was available for viewing at OhioBobcats.com. At least for some. WE never could pick up the video for it at the site...but we always enjoy a Jim Kelch call...so it really didn't matter.


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Louisville started slow against the Syracuse Orange in volleyball Sunday but swept the final three games on the road. The 15-25, 25-12, 25-19, 25-13 match results put the Cards in second place for the BIG EAST Tournament. The field of eight teams should be announced Monday.

It was Senior Day for the Orange and that emotion carried them to a first game win over UofL. An early 12-2 run for Syracuse was the deciding factor. Louisville came back strong in game 2 behind Lola Arslanbeckova and had a 21-5 lead before coasting in to win by 13.

After the break, the Cards took a 11-3 early lead and with Arslanbeckova leading the way again, held on to take the third game by six. In the final match, the Cards once again jumped on Syracuse early with a 8-2 start and head coach Leonid Yelin emptied the bench after that...Louisville winning by 12.

Arslanbeckova had 15 kills for the Cards (18-7, 12-2) and Emily Juhl added 12

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Kim Grieshaber finished 21st in the NCAA Southeast Regional cross-country at E.P. Sawyer Park in Louisville. The women placed 13th in the event that was won by Virginia. The top five team spots went to the ACC. Besides Grieshaber's finish, other individual numbers for the Cards saw Emily Borsare in 28th, Monica Hernandez 68th, Cassie Martin in 143rd and Ariel Briggs at 161.

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A lot to like on the stat sheet from the Ohio University game. Louisville went 34-66 from the field for a 51.5%. The first half the Cards were 62.1%. A much better effort from 3-point range...Louisville going 9-17..four of those belonging to Becky Burke. Louisville had 13 steals, created 22 turnovers and actually won the rebounding battle 46-36

The starters (Schimmel, Taylor, Hines, Reid and Gibbs) accounted for 52 Cardinal points and 20 rebounds. The freshmen (Schimmel, Vails, Harrington, Slaughter and Tay) had 28 points and 20 boards. 1o Lady Cards played 10 minutes or more...Vails leading the way with 22 on court minutes. The freshmen had 11 of Louisville's 20 assists, Schimmel with seven of those.

Polly Harrington fouled out of the contest in 11 minutes of play. Hines was whistled for four, Harper and Vails three each.

The win was Jeff Walz's 75th as the Louisville skipper.

Cards travel to Ohio for Sunday basketball

SUNDAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Lady Cards vs. Ohio University 2 p.m Sunday

-Volleyball falls to Marquette.

-A look at the U.T. vs UofL stats.

-Tough loss at PJCS.

-Hammond makes it official.

(Terry Jackson, top notch photographer for CARDINAL DOMINANCE, caught CARDINAL COUPLE Co-Owner Paul Sykes at the Louisville vs. Tennessee women's basketball game. We were in the end zone...directly in front of the cheerleaders, the pep band right behind us and next to where Tennessee entered and left the court. Bob Domine and Tony Vanetti were on either side of Paul. Domine is very insightful on game comments and Vanetti was probably just there for the media buffet. Assigned seating for this one, otherwise Paul would have headed for center court.)

Jeff Walz takes the Lady Cards to Athens, OH. Sunday afternoon for a 2 p.m. tipoff against the Bobcats. The Cards will be seeking their first win of the season after falling to the Vols Friday night in a closer than expected 63-50 loss.

The Bobcats are fueled by a couple of transfers and showed balanced scoring in an exhibition game against Ohio Dominican. Tenishia Benson, a transfer from Cincinnati, tossed in 17 points for O.U. and Ashley Fowler added 14. Thia Gholson, who played her high school ball at Louisville Assumption, hit the net for nine and Alesia Howard, a transfer from UMass, was good for eight in the 30 point 66-36 romp. Today's game will be the first regular season contest for the Bobcats.

For Louisville, Monique Reid leads the team with 19 points and 9 rebounds. Jim Kelch and Paul Sanderford (who we mistakenly identified as Charlie Just earlier last week) will handle the play by play on 790 AM / 101.7 FM WKRD. The game can also be heard over at http://www.uoflsports.com/ for the out of towners.

Look for Walz to try and establish the transition game that never seemed to get off the ground against the defensive minded Lady Vols. Also look for a little deeper rotation in today's contest. Walz played only ten of his charges against Pat Summitt's team and three of them (Taylor, Tay and Story) saw less than ten minutes on the court. Shelby Harper, LaToya Johnson, Polly Harrington watched the action from the Cardinal bench.

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Louisville fell to Marquette 25-23, 25-16, 19-25, 19-25 14-16 in a hotly contested match in Milwaukee Friday night. The Cards looked to shut down the Golden Eagles after winning the first two games but a poor hitting percentage in the third game and an a 12-3 by Marquette in the fourth game forced the fifth game. Louisville fell behind early in the deciding game but roared back to tie it at 14 behind Anastasia Artemeva getting four points before Marquette managed the final two points.

For Louisville, Lola Arslanbeckova had 15 kills, Anastasia Artemeva added 14 and Emily Juhl contributed 12. The Cards travel to Syracuse Sunday for a 2 p.m. match against the Orange.

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Some interesting numbers from the UofL vs. UT basketball game:

-Louisville managed only ten rebounds in the second half against the Vols...most of those by wing Monique Reid and guard Tia Gibbs. The Louisville front line grabbed just one in the second half (Keisha Hines). The Vols were tall, no doubt...and blocked out well...but 1 rebound in the second half from your "4" and "5" spots is woeful.

-Louisville forced Tennessee into 29 turnovers...5 of those from freshman guard Meighan Simmons. She made up for it with 22 points on 9-20 shooting. Her two second half treys during the Vols 10 point run were the only treys she made in 7 attempts.

-Louisville canned only 4 attempts from the three point arc in 21 attempts. Becky Burke had two of those in five attempts, Shoni Schimmel went 1-8 behind the arc and Charmaine Tay nailed her only attempt from trifecta land.

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It's official. Sara Hammond is a Card. She sent the paper in and will be on campus next fall. She'll join Quaneisha McCurty, who is expected to sign in the spring and Cierra Robertson Warren, a transfer from UNC, who is already on campus and sitting out.

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WE don't like the "Sunday Morning Quarterback" scenarios....but the subject of debate yesterday in the post game tailgate parties at PJCS centered around UofL's decision to go for a first down on 4th and one in overtime. They failed. USF scored to win the game during the next possesion on a field goal after stopping the Cards.

To kick or not to kick a field goal....that was the decision Charlie strong was faced with. He chose the latter. Despite the criticism WE'VE heard about the choice...WE gently remind all Louisville football fans that he....not you or I or Joe Blow...is the head coach. End of debate.