Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Cardinal Couple Tuesday - Spring Sports Are Upon Us

And We're Off...


To borrow a phrase heard at the start of the Kentucky Derby and other horse races, "And we're off..." onto a Spring Sports adventure.

I thought I would take a day and try to present an overview of what's coming up for some of the Spring Sports.  While we've talked about these individually, I thought it would be nice to take another look as we're right at the starting point for several sports seasons at UofL.

Softball


Softball started their season this past weekend out in Las Vegas and came away with a slightly disappointing start, going 2-3 on the weekend taking loses to host UNLV, Minnesota, and Washington.  The loss to the Washington, at least, can be excused as they're ranked in the Top 15 (#11 and #13 depending on the poll).  UNLV and Minnesota typically have some pretty good Softball teams, but we'll definitely be keeping an eye on this fairly young team, and very young pitching staff.

Coming up, Softball heads down to Orlando for a tournament hosted by Florida A&M, while there, they'll meet up with Missouri, UMKC, Arkansas, and Middle Tennessee State.  Other than perhaps UMKC, these will all be challenging games.  With Missouri and Arkansas both hailing from the Softball powerhouse SEC conference, and past encounters with MTSU providing proof of their strength.

The next weekend is in back in the Bluegrass State, though not yet back to Louisville, at Eastern Kentucky with other competition with Western Michigan and Kent State twice.  This looks to be a bit of an easier weekend for Pearsall's squad, but its a bit early to really judge that.

A weekend in Atlanta for a conference series with Georgia Tech follows, and beyond that we'll finally get to talk about home games...but that's for another post.

Lacrosse


Grab your coat, gloves, and scarves because as late as the Softball home schedule is, the Lacrosse home schedule is early.  Six of their eight home games occur by mid-March.

 They've already gotten an exhibition in at Michigan...which had to be a cold affair.

The Lacrosse Cards will try to get warmed up with a matchup with Cincinnati this Sunday at 2pm with a current forecast high of 24 degrees.  Canisius comes to visit the next Saturday looking for better luck getting a game in than Louisville's visit to New York State last year.  The first road trip takes the Cards out to Denver to finish off February.  Duquesne and William & Mary come to play March 4th and 7th.

Swimming & Diving


OK, Swimming & Diving isn't a Spring Sport, but I did want to mention that they do have one more event before championship events start happening, and that's Saturday and Sunday here at the Ralph Wright Natatorium.  
You can come hang out in the pleasantly warm environment of the Natatorium to thaw out after the Lacrosse game, perhaps.

Tennis


Don't look now, but the youngsters on the Tennis team are 9-1 and pretty much in the thick of their schedule.  Having dropped only one overall match, against Duke in a non-conference matchup, the team is about to head a few hours east on I-64 to take a swing at Marshall on Friday, and Minnesota on Saturday, in Huntington, WV. 

 They'll be back at the Bass-Rudd for a Friday/Sunday set of matches with Notre Dame and North Texas.  While Notre Dame is ACC, this is slated as a non-conference matchup.  Tennis does start the ACC conference competition with a little over a week on the road to end February and start March with stop offs at NC State, Duke (in conference, this time), Georgia Tech, and Clemson.  Back in Bass-Rudd in mid-March, Wake Forest and North Carolina come calling.

Golf


The Golf team, led by Laura Restrepo, is currently in 9th place at the UCF Challenge in Orlando.  The only other competition through mid-March is March 2nd through 4th hosted by Miami in the Sunshine state.

jmca
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9 comments:

  1. Anonymous2/10/2015 8:25 AM

    I don't think you actually meant that without the injury to Kiesel that we would not have won?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cardinal Couple2/10/2015 9:47 AM

      We probably would have still won...but she was doing a lot of things out there to keep Pitt i9n it despite her poor shooting effort. When she went to the bench, the Panthers fell apart shortly thereafter and Louisville went on the 12-2 run.

      Remember they played us very close in Pitt and led by double digits. Kiesel had a big game up there against Louisville. She's their best player and without her in there the final 10 minutes, Pitt just wasn't the same.

      Would they have beat Louisville with her in there? I guess we'll never know. Chances are...they would have finished the game better than 21% shooting, though.

      Paulie

      Delete
    2. BurnBrother2/10/2015 10:22 AM

      I dunno Paulie...she was 1 for 13 (7.7%) with 1 assist for the thirty minutes she played. Maybe she was gonna get hot in the last 10 minutes but I think our kids pretty much put the handcuffs on her this go around. It was Bria and Jude, right?

      Delete
    3. Cardinal Couple2/10/2015 11:15 AM

      It was a group defensive effort on Kiesel since Kiesel is really good at the dribble drive and working the baseline with the ball. Jude was meeting her at half or 3/4 court on Pitt out-of-bounds possessions and Arica when Jude was sitting. Walz's pregame strategy was to stop her and Wignot...and they did a good job shutting them down point-wise. It allowed other Pitt scorers to capitalize...but 35 total points for the game indicates that it was overall a great defensive effort.

      Louisville got loose on the transition several times as the game wound down and I would surmise that if Kiesel had been in there, that may not have been as effective for Louisville, since she's also good defensively.

      I know, I sound like I'm her agent or AAU Coach...I guess...but she is the best talent on the team. She's their "Shoni".

      Paulie

      Delete
    4. BurnBrother2/10/2015 11:35 AM

      She's a baller. Pitt is actually a pretty big success story this season given their abysmal results in prior years. It looks like they might even have a shot at the NCAAs, depending upon how they finish the season. I like their coach...she's got juice.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous2/10/2015 8:37 AM

    I was so disappointed in the outcome of the Uconn v S. Carolina game. Regardless of who won, I had hoped for at least a close game as that would have given me hope that parity really is on the way.

    Instead, a national audience saw another domination by UConn which only contributes to the delay of women's basketball more quickly gaining a larger audience of fans.

    I don't really think that in a multiple game match up on a neutral court that Uconn is that much of a better team than S Carolina but unfortunately, last night they were.




    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous2/10/2015 10:38 AM

    It is great to see W.Tennis doing so well. WIth Fellerhoff and Shine gone, I was uncertain how this season would go. It looks like they're off to a great start.

    Blue Lou

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  4. Anonymous2/10/2015 11:17 AM

    Hey Paulie any word on how Lacrosse did in the exhibition against Michigan

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    Replies
    1. Cardinal Couple2/10/2015 11:27 AM

      Good question. I checked around Monday trying to find something, anything...but no news. Checked several Mixhigan sites...nothing. Meant to e-mail the UofL asst. SID on it last night and fell asleep. LOL. I seem to remember in talking with Head Coach Kellie Young last year that they don't "officially" keep score in exhibitions (or was it Justine Sowry?) .

      I figured if Michigan had done really great, they would have posted something on their page at the UM official sport site or on their Twitter Feed. Once again, nothing.

      I know that members and staff of Louisville Lacrosse occasionally visit the site so, ladies, if you'd leave us a comment or e-mail me before I get an e-mail sent to Kim P....let us know?

      Plus, I might be in "the doghouse" with them...all my fault... for a e-mail that turned out badly. Sometimes, Paulie should be locked out of his e-mail account.

      We still love ya, lacrosse....despite my moronic tendencies.


      Paulie

      Thanks.

      Delete

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