Cardinal Couple Rounds the Bases --SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Sunday Roundup

Saturdays always seem to be busy around UofL sports, and this was no exception.  Tennis, Swimming and Diving, Track and Field, and Men's Basketball were all in competitive action yesterday.  Meanwhile the evening was topped off by one of the supreme delights of working with Cardinal Couple, the Softball Bullpen Club Dinner.

For net serves, mispronunciations, ex-presidential candidate's future plans, Leon Berger, horrible lighting for photos, hoops of every fashion and running South Bend style...read your intrepid columnist's comments below...with an assist to Paulie.



Women's Tennis

Jordan and Nicole are back in black! 

After the Men's racket got their home opening workout yesterday, the Women took their turn today.
 Both squads played double-headers this weekend, with the men taking on Samford and Chicago State on Friday, while the women tackled The University of Tennessee - Martin, and Murray State.  Both squads took both victories in their respective matches, a 4-0 weekend for the Racquet Cards.

The Cards handled UT-Martin by a score of 5-2.  The morning started out as Paulie, Case and I were hitting the airwaves on Crescent Hill Radio at 11am.  The Cards swept all three doubles matches to take the doubles point.  With singles underway, Mariana Humburg, Aleksandra Malley, Olivia Boesing, and Tiffany Huber all picked up singles points, and thus clenched the overall match.  Sena Suswam and Abbi Pahz dropped their matches to let UT-Martin pick up 2 points.

It was all Cards in the afternoon when the Murray State Racers came to visit with a 4pm start.  While Sena Suswam and Olivia Boesing dropped their doubles match, Abbie Pahz with Mariana Humber, and Adriana Rodriguez with Jessie Paul were victories in their doubles matches to get the doubles point for the Cards.  The same lineup as the morning matches swept the singles points to give the Cards the 7-0 win over the visitors from the far western end of the state.

The men will play Northwestern today at noon, while the women will be in action again next Saturday when Western Kentucky comes to visit.

Swimming and Diving

Nicole proves she can raise her hands to chin levels

It was a busy weekend for Swimming and Diving, after beating ACC rival Notre Dame with 14 B-cuts on Friday, the splashers headed down I-64 to take on the Wildcats.  Of course, any meeting with UK takes on heightened importance, but the Swimming and Diving squad, if you haven't heard, are doing some pretty impressive things of the past couple of years and are currently ranked 7th on the men's side of things, and 10th on the women's side of things.  In the interest of fairness, I will point out that Kentucky's women are ranked 18th, so no slouches down in Lexington either.  Besides, that just makes the victory that much sweeter.

The men were victorious by an overall score of 176.5 to 123.5, while the women took the meet 167 to 133.  I'll mention the 50 free (these are yards, in NCAA competition, not meters, FWIW) as the Cardinal women took the top 3 spots.  Casey Fanz touched first in 23.01 seconds, Lainey Visscher hot on her heels at 23.02, and Avery Braunecker taking 3rd at 23.41 seconds.

This was senior day for the Swimming and Diving squad though there is still some season left to compete.  They will be in action again Friday in Bloomington vs IU.

Track and Field

Nicole celebrates that she got to eat dessert at the Bullpen
Club dinner Saturday night

The Track and Field squads headed north to South Bend for the Notre Dame Invitational and both the men's and women's teams took 2nd in a seven team field.

Raven Grant got wins in the 60 and 200 meter races.  Dolly Nyemah won the weight through with a distance of 70ft 2 1/2in with Emmonnie Henderson taking 2nd.  With a throw of 54ft 10 1/4in., Emmonnie did win the shot put event.  Bre'Yana Wash won the long jump with 19ft 8 3/4in, with Alexis Gibbons taking 2nd place.

Track and Field will be joining the swimming squad in Bloomington Friday and Saturday for the IU Relays.

Men's Basketball

I'm sure you heard that the men dropped their hoops game against a quality Florida State opponent.

After digging themselves a big hole in the first half, they did come roaring back to make a close game of it.  Finally falling to the Seminoles 68-73.  If we ask nicely, perhaps we can get Case to share his thoughts on the game in the comments below.

Bullpen Club Dinner

We offer this exclusive of Sandy Pearsall's back

And finally we come to the highlight of the day.  The Softball Bullpen Club dinner was held last night at the Galt House.

This is one of my favorite events of the UofL Sports year.  I find the banquets for the spring sports to always be a bit more interesting because they help the team, family, and fans get hyped for the imminent season.  The banquets are also always fun because it's an opportunity for these young women to let their hair down a little, and just enjoy their work for a few hours.  It's great for fans because you get such a chance to meet some of the players and learn a bit more about them than just their RBI totals, and batting averages.

My father joined me for the event and we had the pleasure of sitting at a table with Alison "Mike" Szydlowski and all of her immediate family (parents Joe and Laura, sister Emily, and charming 9yr old niece Austin).  There was one other fan at the table with us, and we all had a wonderful time chatting about various sports, and how we came to be fans of UofL Softball and what paths brought us to be in that place at that time.  We compared the joys of Softball as compared to Baseball, and shared a bit about our loves for other sports at UofL.

Paulie was entertaining freshman Shelby Graybill and her family at his table. The Ft. Thomas, KY catcher/first baseman provided great information about the mechanics of catching, the equipment and observations on her freshman year so far. Keep your eye on this slugging, Brittany Duncan protege. 

Sierra Romero was an out-standing
speaker at the Bullpen Club dinner! 

The event was hosted by the ever-present, ever-professional, and ever-entertaining Sean Moth.  An introductory video was shown, with each player introducing themselves, along with a fun fact. Nicole Pufahl's fun fact confirm that she is ambidextrous, an open question from the All-Southpaw Squad introduced a couple of weeks ago.  Coach Sandy Pearsall addressed the crowd, and finally the keynote speaker, University of Michigan short-stop extraordinaire Sierra Romero.  Romero's message to the women of the Softball squad was to encourage the players to live in the moment and enjoy their time.  Don't get too stressed about playing the game and fretting over mistakes.  Lean on your teammates to help you through the struggles, and be there for them when they struggle.

The softball season gets underway February 10th in Las Vegas, with the home opener at Ulmer on March 3rd against Indiana State.

Paulie got several interviews and some pictures, which I'm sure he will add into the article when he gets a moment, if they're not there, check back, they are wonderful.  You'll get to hear how Jordan McNary's presidential campaign went!  Also, listening to Paulie struggle to get the name of the event correct is worth the price of admission.

LINK: Interview with Maryssa Becker

LINK: Interview with former Presidential candidate Jordan McNary

LINK: Interview with Megan Hensley

LINK: Interview with Sandy Pearsall and Leon Berger

(Editor note: My sincere apologies to center fielder Nicole Pufahl...who gave us a rousing three minute interview that did not get recorded since the Tascam DR-05 Linear PCM Recorder device's batteries died 15 second in. WE WILL make it up to "Puf". )



Radio and Computer Troubles

The Cardinal Couple Hour radio show is up on the SoundCloud.  Check it out, and here me stress out when I experience computer problems.  Case Hoskins jumped in to do the scheduling segment as I struggled to get my computer booted back up.  Another fun romp through the various sports events taking place at UofL.

(a special thanks to Sandy Pearsall for doing a great interview
with Paulie that we were able to play most of on the show.) Time constraints are a hazard in this business.

WBB today

The WBB Cards step out of conference play to challenge a very good USF Bulls squad in Tampa at 2 p.m. today This one will be on ESPNU if you wish to view it. #9 Louisville (17-4) enters the contest after wrecking Georgia Tech Wednesday 91-51. #23 USF (15-2) has won their last five out of six. 

It's a homecoming for senior guard Briahanna Jackson. Go Cards...beat those Bulls! 


Paulie PICKS

Last but not least...Paulie looks at the Sunday ACC schedule: 

-- Notre Dame heads to North Carolina to face the struggling Tar Heels. I don't see the Irish getting mired down on Tobacco Road and should handle Sylvia's shooters pretty easily. Pick: Notre Dame.

-- Florida State is in Blacksburg to chase the Gobblers around Cassell Coliseum. They should handle Va. Tech in this one and hang on to their #7 ranking in the AP Poll. Pick: Florida State.

-- Pittsburgh hosts Virginia in a match-up of Cavaliers and Panthers. We see Pitt feasting on the Wahoos in a close one in "The Pete". Pick: Pittsburgh

-- Duke goes up to watch the Patriots play in Foxboro and might even show up on the Boston College campus to play a little hoops as well. They should ground the Eagles. Pick: Duke

-- NC State tries to catch a Tiger by the tail today when Clemson visits. Mr & Mrs. Wuf should have a lot to dance about in Reynolds Coliseum...the pick here is NC State. 

-- Louisville steps out-of-conference to visit Jose and the USF Bulls in Tampa's SunDome. It should be sunny for those high flyin' Birds over the Bay. Pick: Louisville

-- Wake Forest heads southwest to dismantle the Ramblin' Wreck of Georgia Tech. This was the hardest one to pick today...but we'll go with the Demon Deacs. A close one. Pick: Wake Forest.

-- Miami leaves the sun and fun of south Florida to visit the "Q" and the 'Cuse. They'll supply their own brand of orange juice for the Orange and I'll pick Miami over Syracuse.



JMcA