A Friday the 13th for Louisville Softball and Lacrosse -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

SOFTBALL AND LACROSSE FALL IN FRIDAY ACTION

The old superstitions about Friday the 13th. and bad luck rang true for the Louisville Softball and Lacrosse squads in tournament action yesterday. A disappointing day for a couple of Louiville's spring sports squads. The grim news follows: 



SOFTBALL LEFT ON BASE IN 4-2 LOSS TO NOTRE DAME

It wasn't that the Cards were lacking any base-runners in the ACC semifinal match against Notre Dame. They had 14 of them, in fact, but a dozen of them never saw home plate against the Irish Friday afternoon in Raleigh, NC.

With the bags full in the third and fourth innings and two left stranded in the sixth and seventh...the Cards fell victim to an early Notre Dame batting frenzy and now will wait to see their NCAA fate. 

The Irish wasted no time in lighting up the scoreboard...converting two singles, a walk and a throwing error to jump on starter Megan Hensley for a 3-0 lead in the top of the first. Louisville would get one of those runs back in the home half of the inning when Maryssa Becker sent Mr. Spalding for a ride to left field. 

Becker replaced Hensley in the circle to start the second inning and kept the Irish at bay for the final six innings...allowing just one run in the fourth...but the Cards couldn't get any additional runners to the plate until the sixth inning when Brittany Sims drew a walk, went to third on a Lillie Goetz single and scored on a Jordan McNary single. McNary and pinch runner Morgan Meyer were left stranded, though...and Louisville still trailed 4-2.

With two gone in the bottom of the seventh, the Cards attempted once again to make some noise. Jenna Jordan and Sidney Melton reached on singles but remained on the bags when Notre Dame starter Rachel Nasland delivered a strike out to end the game. 

Any chances of the Cards hosting regional action are pretty much impossible but we can hope that the Cards will be sent somewhere fairly close for fan attendance. 

LACROSSE ROCKED BY NORTHWESTERN 15-5

If anyone had told me yesterday that the Louisville Lacrosse squad who was drubbed by the Wildcats yesterday had actually beaten them 10-4 earlier in the season (and I hadn't seen the win) I would have raised an incredulous eyebrow.

This Louisville squad looked nothing like the early March players who kept the Wildcats without any assists at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium. 

The Wildcats jumped out to a 3-0 lead in yesterday's contest before more people had settled into their seats. Louisville showed a brief sign of response by cutting that to 3-2 when Cortnee Daley and Hannah Koloski found net success...but Northwestern clamped down on the defense and opened a shooting gallery on the Cards defense the final 23:02 of the first half...outscoring the Cards 6-0 and taking a 9-2 halftime lead. 

Northwestern was having great success scoring inside the Cardinal eight and getting by goalie Kelly Gielner and the Cards defense on inside passes and scores. 

The Cards started the second half optimistically enough with consecutive scores from Daley and Kaylin Morissette in the first ten minutes...but the Wildcats regained their shooting touch and outscored Louisville 6-1 in the final twenty.

The Cards lost Morissette for the remainder of the game when she drew her second yellow card with 14 minutes remaining and the refs also issued a yellow card to Coach Kellie Young a couple of minutes later but neither action affected what had become a disappointing blowout loss to the BIG 10 foe. 

A parallel could be drawn between goalie Brittany Read's season ending knee injury in the North Carolina game and the Loucrosse squad losing their final five games...sure...but Louisville simply didn't come to play on either side of the field yesterday. A steady rain soaked the players in the final minutes, helping to mask the tears of disappointment from the Louisville players who were seeing their season end.  

And...could someone make a deal with the NCAA that the Cards and Northwestern are banned permanently from facing each other in the NCAA Tournament again? They've become another group of Wildcats that a Louisville women's squad has trouble defeating. 


A great start to the season for Louisville at 12-1 but a less than satisfying end for a squad that may just be Kellie Young's best to date...a team that stumbled badly yesterday.

Morrisette, Daley, Gerding, Boyd and Bernhardt are seniors that will be remembered a long time in Louisville Lacrosse lore and legacy. Sad to see them have to go out like that. 


ROWING RECORDS TWO SECOND PLACE FINISHES IN ACC PRELIMS

Louisville rowing recorded second best times in the ACC prelims yesterday in South Carolina in the third varsity eight and second varsity four but was no match for Virginia...who swept all five events.

Louisville had the fourth best time in the first varsity four and finished fifth and sixth in the second varsity eight and first varsity eight.

The Cards qualified for the finals today in all five events... that will start at 8 a.m.

ACC TRACK and FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS - 1st DAY

Louisville placed Rachel Serafin (4th) and Caitlin Gilmore (9th) in the finals of the hammer throw in the first day of action on the FSU campus.

The majority of the events will take place today and tomorrow.

THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR

We'll be back on the air today at 11 a.m. with another exciting edition of THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR after taking last week off for Derby.

Worldwide rejoins the broadcast after a three week hiatus spent travelling Europe looking for volleyball players for the Cards. (Actually, it was a vacation, but he may have seen a few...) 

Jared Anderson will join us live from Raleigh to review the Cards' two games in the ACC Tournament. Also, great audio from Cortnee Daley, Olivia Cason, Coach Pearsall, Megan Hensley and Brittany Sims! 

Softball, lacrosse, track and field, golf and volleyball are just some of the topic we'll banter about as we bring you the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics. You can join in the fun locally at 100.9 FM WCHQ or at the link below for Internet. 

LINK: www.crescenthillradio.com