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.

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

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.

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

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.

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



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.



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



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?