THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE
- Durr will see great success at Louisville
- Volleyball pummeled by Cats in KFC YUM! Center
ASIA DURR JOINING A PROGRAM ON THE RISE
By the time Asia Durr arrives on the UofL campus in the summer of 2015, the
Cards WBB squad will know just exactly what they have in store from another
highly heralded recruiting class...the 2014 one.
Yes, there is a great deal of excitement about what 2015 will bring...and the class looks like the best in the nation so far with Durr, DeGrate, Cole and Jones. Let's not forget, though, about the five very talented freshmen that will be competing this fall.
Hines-Allen, Brackemyer, Moore, Freeman and Carter are all players who could have a very successful and storied career at Louisville.
And there are more on the way.
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| Looks like a good fit. Asia Durr rockin' the bird. |
Each year, more and more eyes are fixed and focused on Walz's program. Angel, Shoni, the Baylor win, two National Championship games, the mad scientest, free beverages at games, billboards erected in a potential recruit's town, dressing up in the Cardinal Bird costume to wave at a recruit on the Interstate, "the party-crashers"...Louisville has a reputation for doing the impossible, the remarkable and the innovative.
As the saying goes...LOUISVILLE. It's all right here. And, it keeps growing.
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VOLLEYBALL LOSES TO THE CATS
Meanwhile...in the arena where Asia Durr will shine...another University of Louisville women's sports squad was blocked out.
The University of Louisville volleyball team fell to in-state rival No. 16-ranked Kentucky Wildcats
25-20, 15-25, 25-21, 25-19 before a record crowd of 5,862 fans at the KFC Yum! Center Tuesday night.
The Cardinals, who fell to 3-3 overall, were led by Maya McClendon's double-double with 16 kills
and 14 digs. Janelle Jenkins added 12 kills and Kate George contributed 37 assists with eight digs.
UK's Shelby Workman's 21 kills and 12 digs led the Wildcats while Anni Thomasaon and
Lauren O'Conner added 14 kills each. Morgan Bergren contributed 55 assists for Kentucky which
improves to 6-1. UK hit .285 for the match compared to .221 for Louisville.
"The bottom line is we went away from our game plan," said Head Coach Anne Kordes.
"We wanted to keep all the balls away from the libero and the right back. When we did that in the
second set, we won. The majority of the time we did the opposite. Our plan was as basic it gets and
I'm disappointed that I saw a mental breakdown rather than a physical one."
In the first set, Louisville jumped out to a 6-4 lead before a 3-0 run by Kentucky helped the Wildcats
gain the advantage 7-6. The teams battled through 10 ties before another 3-0 Wildcats run gave
Kentucky set point at 24-19, their largest lead of the set. UK's 17th kill of the set gave the Wildcats
the 25-20 victory. Kentucky hit .371 for the set compared to .158 for Louisville.
The Cardinals bounced back in the second and built an early 15-6 lead behind three kills each from Janelle Jenkins and Maya McClendon. A pair of kills and an ace by McClendon gave the Cards their largest lead of the set 20-9. The Wildcats hung around before a service error and an attack error by the Wildcats gave Louisville the second set 25-15. The Cardinals hit .429 in the second set led by McClendon's five kills.In the third, Louisville built an early 4-1 lead before a 9-0 run gave Kentucky a 10-4 advantage.
Louisville kept it close until the Wildcats built their largest lead of the set at 22-13. The Cardinals used a 7-1 run to make it 24-21, but a kill by the Wildcats gave UK the set 25-21.
Louisville led 8-4 early in the fourth set when Kentucky manufactured a 12-4 run to go ahead 16-12.
The Wildcats would maintain the lead and used a 4-0 run to earn match point at 24-16. A 3-0 run by
UofL cut the lead to 24-19 but a kill by Kentucky's Anni Thomasson gave the Widcats the fourth set 25-19.
UofL heads to Morehead State this weekend for the Comfort Inn and Suites Invitational. The Cards take on No. 15 Arizona State on Friday at noon and Morehead State at 7 p.m. before playing Northern Illinoisat 2 p.m. on Saturday.
A young team, a lot of growing and learning ahead. Volleyball will eventually step up to the net.
For now...it's rebuild and define. Listening to your coaches...a skill set that should have accompanied these girls to campus when they arrived as freshmen.
Louisville is now 0-2 to the Cats in fall women's sports. Ugh.
paulie
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Paulie, at first I was going to disagree with your "program changer" statement only because that could imply that the program is not already at the top level. But after some thought I agree with you. This is the type of recruit that, in the past, Walz has been in on but ultimately lost to a "bigger name" program. Merecdes Russell is of course a prime recent example but there have been others. These two back-to-back classes, where top 20 recruits chose Louisville over schools like Tennessee, Baylor, Duke, ND, etc., have moved Walz to another level.
ReplyDeleteIt's starting to look like losing out on Mercedes Russell wasn't such a big thing after all. She hasn't impressed me at all so far.
ReplyDeleteShe looked slow and almost ponderous when I saw her on TV and at the Yum!, but in her defense that might have resulted from the chronic foot problems that have caused her to redshirt this upcoming season. Jordan Reynolds, who came to UT with Russell from Oregon and who was also a prime Walz target, might turn out to be the better player. Although I wouldn't trade "E" for either one of them.
DeletePlodding is what comes to mind when I watched her. The foot issues could be the problem. I totally agree 100% that I would take "E" over either of them.
DeleteDurr's a great get and all Card fans should be very excited. That said, UConn has the top class for 2015 and it's not really close. Not sure why there's the meme going around of Louisville's being #1.
ReplyDeleteWe're OK with being #2. Hope UConn and their fans enjoy the 50 point beatdowns that they will routinely administer in the "American." We'll take our chances with ND, Duke, NC....
DeleteWasn't meant as a knock. Clearly, Waltz can coach and recruit, and Durr looks pretty special. He's gotten them to overachieve a bit in recent years so with more talent they could be title contenders. I'm just saying it's weird watching the Cardinal class being called #1 when the recruiting outlets haven't even ranked classes yet.
DeleteWALZ not WALTZ, although his teams have done some dancing!!
DeleteKatie Saumelson and Asia Durr are the two players being hyped as the best in the 2015 class. UConn has recruited well for 2015 in addition to Katie Lou and is probably being considered #1 overall for 2015. With three top 25 guards and the powerful DeGrate, though...plus the potential of adding one or more to the list...Jeff Walz will have plenty of "cards" to shuffle and win with.
ReplyDeletePaulie