Sunday Cardinal Couple - Volleyball in Bowling Green

Bowling Green Ohio, not the one down south in Kentucky.  Although we did find out that there is a link.  BG OH was named for the one in Kentucky by a postal worker that had worked delivering mail in the Kentucky version of Bowling Green.

Anyway, on to the Volleyball.

Hampton Inn Invitational

Oakland

(Photo by Bryan Eakin)

The Kordes Krewe played three matches over the weekend in the Hampton Inn Invitational hosted by Bowling Green State University.  The first match was a four setter vs Oakland (from outside Detroit, not the one east of San Fransisco).  The Oakland Grizzlies were playing with a few injuries.  One player was wearing sunglasses indoors, so I suspect a concussion there; while another was on crutches.  Meanwhile, one of their better Defensive Specialists, Alli Gutschow, was playing with a noticeable limp in her step.  Despite it all, The Grizzlies put up quite a fight and played with heart, and never gave up, as can be witnessed by the set scores: 25-17, 27-25, 29-31, 25-19.

On the Cardinal side of the net, all I can say is, "Give a warm welcome to Ms. Melanie McHenry."  Get used to that name, you're going to be hearing it a lot in the next four years of volleyball.  Melanie is one of our freshman, hailing from Speedway IN (the Speedway HS Sparkplugs...that needs to be mentioned just on the basis of mascot cleverness) and is a 6'2" outside hitter with multiple skills.  She plays full rotation and does well with digging and passing.  She also fires a pretty aggressive serve, an anecdote on that later.  McHenry tallied 24 points, with nine miscues for a .300 average.

The other double-digit offense went to Janelle Jenkins with 15 and a .333 average.  Tess Clark came just short of adding the extra digit with nine but did it with an efficient .412.  Coline Coessens put up an 8 on 22 swings for .273, and Jasmine Bennett picked up three and Kali Eaken snuck one in as the setter.

On the defensive side, double-doubles for McHenry and Jenkins with 11 and 10 digs respectively.  Molly Sauer had a typical (well, typical for her) 19.  Ashley Pettibone, mostly playing as a serving specialist got three,  Eaken got 10 as Oakland tried to target her to take her out of her setting game, and Gabbie Wiley picked up six.

The Cards are showing a great serving game early this season.  Jenkins got three aces, Eaken and Pettibone picked up two each, while Wiley and McHenry each got one.

VCU

(Photo by Bryan Eakin) 

The Cards swept VCU in the evening session, 25-22, 25-23, 25-23.

Former Cardinal, and Cardinal
Couple All-Sid/Syd/Szyd Team member, Sydney Cooper now plays for VCU, but seemed to be out with a knee injury.  The Rams played tough, but were overpowered by The Cards.

McHenry again had a great match tallying another double-double with 11 kills and 10 digs.  Her hitting percentage wasn't all that high, though, with a .167, but she did pick up a service ace.  Other offense came from about the same stable of hitters that we saw in Oakland.  Tess Clark chalked up eight kills, Janelle Jenkins got nine, and Coline Coessens got four.  The butterfly emerging from the cocoon in this match was Jasmine Bennett, though.  She connected with setters Lyndsay Palmer and Morgan Miller a number of times on a slide out to the right side for 10 kills that were devastating to the opposing defense.

On the defensive side of things, Sauer continues to make it hard to write about her.  How many different ways can you say that she played excellently and chalked up dig numbers well into double digits, 15 in this case.  In addition to McHenry's 10, Coessens dug 10, Jenkins just behind with 9.

Single aces for McHenry (getting used to this name yet?), Jenkins, Bennett, and Sauer.

Eaken didn't play this match.  After taking a bit of a hit in the match against Oakland, the coaches decided to hold her aside as a precaution for concussions.  Kali suffered a pretty severe concussion during pre-season, didn't play at the Red & Black scrimmage, and largely hadn't practiced in almost two weeks.  So the coaching staff decided to take a little extra precaution here.

BGSU

The last match of the Hampton Inn Invitational matched up the Cards vs the host BGSU.  After a couple of bonus volleyball sets in the Oakland match, and three close sets against VCU, the Cardinal faithful were ready for a nice easy match to get on the road.  It wasn't to be.

A five set affair, 15-25, 25-18, 25-22, 17-25, 15-11.  BGSU showed that they should rise above their 7-22 record from last year.  Although they're not off to as great of a start on that as they would've liked, now at 1-2 (they also lost to Oakland), they are a tough team that will start tallying some victories quickly.

Double-doubles in this one?  Yup, there's that McHenry name again, joined by Jenkins again.  15 kills and 12 digs for Melanie, and double 11s for Jenkins.  Tess Clark almost got into double digits once again with nine, but an impressive .444 average.  It turns out this Jasmine Bennett upstart can play pretty well, too.  Give her 11 kills and a stellar .529 average.  Morgan Miller came in off the bench in a hitting role in this match with Kali back at setter.  She barely played in the first set, but still tallied 13 kills in the match with a solid seven digs as well.

On defense, in addition to the 12 and 11 for McHenry and Jenkins, Molly Sauer had a bit of an off match as she "only" tied for the team lead with 12 digs.  She did also pick up two service aces, to help the cause.

Speaking of aces, though, let's go back to McHenry once again.  Four service aces for the freshman and I have to describe one because it was particularly awesome.  Late in the 5th set, the score was about 13-10.  McHenry backs up to serve, right in front of the healthily populated BGSU student section (props to the BGSU students for showing up to support their team).  The students start chanting "FRESHMAN" at McHenry.  In response, she fires a hard serve that clears the net by only about an inch, targeted directly at BGSU's libero.  A shank pass that went out of bounds and the student section was no longer a factor.

Active Ankle Challenge

The Cards are in action against this weekend for the Active Ankle Challenge.  There is a venue
change for this event as it is moving down the KFC Yum! Center downtown thanks to a cancellation of an event at the downtown arena.

If you are a ticket holder, you should have received an email concerning how tickets will be handled for this, but if not, here's the summary.

If you have season tickets for the matches at the KFC Yum! Center, you will be sent tickets for these matches at no extra cost, and they will be your usual season ticket seat locations.  If you have season tickets for the matches at Cardinal Arena, which was to include the Active Ankle Challenge, you will be refunded for the cost of those tickets AND be sent tickets for the matches in the KFC Yum! Center at no cost.  Obviously, if you have season tickets to both, they will be your normal seats as mentioned above, otherwise, they will be the best available seats.

If you have purchased single match tickets to the Active Ankle Challenge matches at Cardinal Arena, those cost of those tickets will be refunded AND you will be sent best available tickets to the KFC Yum! Center matches at no extra cost.

Tickets will be mailed to the address on record for your account.  If you have purchased a parking pass for the KFC Yum! Center matches, alas it will not be usable for this event.

Kudos to the UofL Athletic Department for the stepping up with the upgrade for the venue for this coming weekend, and the generous handling of the ticket upgrades for ticket holders.


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THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR

In case you missed the live broadcast....you can catch the replay at the link below. Thanks to Case Hoskins for joining in, Worldwide via phone and LG&E for getting the power back on in time to do the show.

LINK:  
THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR 8/27/16

-- JMcA