Women's Tennis falls to Ohio State...Softball Friday at Ulmer!

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CARDINAL COUPLE THURSDAY


-Tennis falls 4-3 to Buckeyes


-Softball at home hosting the Jays


-Thank you


-A great story


Louisville's women's tennis team lost narrowly to the Ohio State Buckeyes yesterday in the Bass-Rudd Center. The Cards are now 4-5 on the season. 

"This was a disappointing loss - another tight one. We're getting so close with these really good teams. I felt like we weren't quite as sharp as we could have been today. If we can clean up a few things and execute a little bit better, we can come out on the right side of these tough 4-3 matches." -- Mark Beckham, UofL head women's tennis coach. 


Julie Fellerhoff, Manuela Velazquez, Sarah Miller won singles matches against the Buckeyes. The Cards lost in the doubles events. 


Next up, Toledo on Saturday in the Bass-Rudd Center. 


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Louisville Softball is riding a 9-0 start to the season and will host the Creighton Jays this weekend at Ulmer Stadium. One game Friday and a double-header beginning at noon on Saturday. 

Louisville's has gotten strong pitching from Tori Collins (5-0), Chelsea Leonard (2-0) and Caralisa Collins (2-0) in their perfect start. The girls have allowed just 21 runs and 38 hits in 64 innings pitched, which is a remarkable and impressive statistic. 


When at bat, the Louisville Sluggers are smashing the orb at a .315 batting average, with nine home runs and have amassed 42 runs on 82 hits. 

Saw coach Sandy Pearsall at a recent UofL women's basketball game and she revealed that she was very happy with the efforts of the team, commenting that opponents would probably resort to "pitching around" hot-hitter Taner Fowler and that Jordy Trimble had come back from last year's season-ending broken ankle quite well.  

Louisville has multiple weapons available to Coach P when the Cards dig in at the plate. Alicja Wolny is back from an earlier injury. Kristin Austin, Jennifer Esteban, Hannah Kiyohara, Katelyn Mann, Katie Keller and Whitney Arion are just several of the other softball stars that have Louisville averaging almost five runs per contest. Maggie Ruckenbrod, one of the best Cardinal hitters, should be back from injury in a couple of weeks and will bolster this group of talented "hit 'em where they ain't" stars. 


The Creighton game is at 2 p.m. Friday. WE suggest you attend and cheer on the team. Creighton comes into Ulmer undefeated also, so it should be a good test for Pearsall's players. 


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And...a big "THANK YOU" to all that sent birthday wishes to me yesterday (and today). Remember, it's Sonja's birthday Friday and this is always a fun and busy week for us each year. 


Your kind words and remembrances were touching, funny and brought up some things that made me smile, reflect and realize just how lucky I am to have great friends, a wonderful family and loving wife. 


A salute and tip of the hat to you all. I'm a lucky guy.


Paul 


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(From CARDINAL COUPLE Reader Nick O.)


Hey Cardinal Couple,

Just wanted to share a story with you. Went to see our local high school girls basketball team compete in district play last night. We're not that great a team but we upset a higher ranked team the other night to get to the district finals. Our opponent last night is one of the top teams in the state and it was rough going for our girls from the opening tip. By the end of the 3rd quarter, the opposing coach had emptied the bench and our coach started subbing in the 4th quarter. We got a chant up for "Kelly". 


Kelly is a senior who never plays much. Our coach didn't cut her from the roster because of player depth. She isn't a great player, obviously, and rarely sees the court unless it's a blow-out game. She's a good student, though and very popular with her classmates. 


She's also dying.


She has final stages lymphoma and has probably a couple of months left. She rarely participates in practices anymore but attends to watch, give encouragement and be a part of the team. 


With a minute to go, Coach went down the bench and talked to her briefly. We broke into a cheer when she removed her warm-up jersey and went to the scorer's table. She got in with 37 seconds left. 


Our players on the court started talking to the opposition. The opponents missed a shot and didn't go for the rebound. Kelly tracked the ball down and got it to one of our girls to bring up court. She posted down on the baseline and the ball was tossed to her. The opposing players backed off. Kelly took a couple of dribbles to the hoop and shot. Missed it. Another of our girls grabbed the rebound and tossed it to her again. She shot again but it rolled around the rim and fell off. This time, she got her own rebound and instead of shooting, tossed it to another player. The player fed it right back to her and the whole place seemed to be yelling "Shoot, Kelly, Shoot!" 


She did. High over the rim, bouncing off the square on the backboard and right through the net. You would have thought we'd just won the state championship by the roar of the crowd. 


It was her first goal of the season. 


To all of you out there that read this - the story is clear. Don't give up, don't ever give up. If Kelly can do it, so can you.   


( A beautiful story, Nick. Thank you for sharing it with us and, now...our readers!)
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