Lacrosse ACC opener and NCAA WBB Bracketology commentary -- Wednesday Cardinal Couple

LACROSSE TRAVELS TO B.C. FOR ACC OPENER

Kellie Young's Louisville Lacrosse team is 5-0 and ranked in the top 15 in NCAA D1 women's lacrosse. That's a good thing, and the squad has taken care of business against Cincinnati, Canisius, Denver, Duquesne and William and Mary with relative ease so far this season. 

The competition curve gets a lot tougher today, as the Cards travel to Chestnut Hill, MA to open ACC conference play against #3 Boston College. This probably won't be a double-digit blowout that Kaylin Morissette and Faye Brust have been accustom to...so far this this season.

Coach Young has had a knack for finding scorers over the years to replace those that have graduated. Nikki Boltja gone? No problem. Meet Hannah Kolowski and Kelli Gerding.
And Boltja is still on campus to enforce her hard work ethic as a volunteer coach. The girls must be paying attention...

The core that returned to put the yellow balls in the net is dynamic. Morissette and Brust come off an Big East season where they were the alpha dogs and top of the class in goal production. With them is Cortnee Daley as a returner who also has had little difficulty in changing the scoreboard since she has been here. (And they're all great interviews...)

Add Heidi Smith, Carissa Corbett, Cat Gordon and Anna Kopecka as attack specialists and midfielders who could break loose at anytime and Young has more weapons that Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead.    

It doesn't stop there. The defense is as solid as the support towers for the new I-65 bridge. Goalies Ashley Peacock and Brittany Read, defenders Courtney Boyd, Stephanie McNamara, Emily Howell, Casey Madura and Leigh Gatons have made scoring on Louisville as difficult as accessing the gold in Fort Knox. 

All of it about to be tested today in the Cards first test in "The League". Make no mistake about it. The ACC IS women's college lacrosse's rarified air. The top of the mountain. Where the rest want to be. #1 and by a wide margin. The NBA vs. high-schoolers. Showtime.

We'll recap the Boston College v. Louisville match tomorrow and we're hoping we're reporting about a Cardinal win in Beantown...

Welcome to "The Show" Louisville LAX. You've paid the dues, put in the work and prepared for the battle. Go make it so. 60 minutes to shine, and an opening moment in a conference that will test you each and every step on the way...


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BRACKETOLOGY -- A Commentary

We don't delve into a lot of pre-tournament NCAA WBB speculation here in terms of projections and prognostications here at CARDINAL COUPLE because, quite frankly, the Cards seemed to get burned and under-ranked since the inception of the Walz area. 

Charlie Creme seems like an OK guy, I guess. I've never met him...wouldn't know him from Jon Bon Jovi...but it seems like he puts a lot of work into tracking and ranking his bracketology predictions leading up to Selection Monday. 

Good for him. It keeps him off the streets and a productive member of society.

As of Tuesday morning, he had Walz's Warriors as a #2 seed and headed to College Station, TX. to play on the Texas A&M Aggies court to face a #15 seed. In the Seattle region. 

Tough travel for Louisville WBB fans, no doubt..but doable. 

We could go into the travesty that prevents the Cards from opening in the KFC YUM! Center but...it is what it is and we'll complain no more about the arena hosting MBB and UK

Remember this. The NCAA women's tournament selection committee has a vendetta against Louisville WBB. They're like the age old TV commercial about Mikey and breakfast cereal. If it's Louisville, they don't like it. 

I wouldn't be overly surprised if they assign Louisville a #5 seed and send them to France to play Euroball. 

Charlie means well. The Cards resume is sufficient enough to grant a #2 seed. He's done the work and I hope they pay heed to his efforts. I also hope the Chicago Cubs baseball team survives the fourth of July each year without being eliminated from playoff contention. He's looking at stats. He's making projections. Nice work, if you can get it...

The underlying factor is that you have to win six straight games to be crowned the National Champion. You're going to have to beat some pretty good teams to do that. Doesn't matter where you start and how you get there. Survive and advance. Get the "W". 

Louisville had their shot last year after surviving the cold in Iowa and coming home to gain a third and fourth win. A tough Maryland team prevented a Final Four appearance. Don't think that Sara, Bria, Jude, Megan, "E", Shawnta' and Sherrone have forgotten that. Be assured they've filled in MHA, Arica, Ariana and Mariya on the details. 

Wherever, whenever and whoever. At this time of year, it is single elimination. Leave it all on the court and give it 100%. Listen to the game plan. And let the "Mad Scientist" spin his magic.  

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This from a reliable source on campus...

Jude's X-rays and MRI on the hand came back fine. She'll be good to go for the Big Dance. 

This is great news. A one-handed Jude can be effective...we saw that against FSU...but we'd rather see her with 100% limb usage. 

Go Cards! 

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The University of Louisville softball team will travel to Oxford, Ohio for a midweek game at Miami University Wednesday.

Quick Hits

• The University of Louisville softball team brings a 10-7 overall record into the weekend. The Cardinals are coming off of a 2-2 showing at the Louisville Softball Classic. Louisville fell 11-0 to Northwestern in their opening game and rebounded with back-to-back eight-run rule wins against Ball State and Illinois State before falling 4-3 in eight innings to the Redbirds Monday afternoon.

• Sophomore Jordan McNary leads Louisville offensively with a .471 batting average. Sophomore Maryssa Becker follows at .438 with a team-best four home runs and 13 RBIs. Senior Whitney Arion has scored a team-leading 15 runs.

• Freshman Shelby McCombs (3-2) carries a team-best 2.20 ERA with 19 strikeouts and is holding opponents to a .238 batting average in 35.0 innings. Sophomore Maryssa Becker (2-1) follows with a 2.87 ERA and 42 Ks in 39.0 innings.

paulie
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