A Full Friday -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

But First, FOOTBALL!!

I know that we all come to this site for the women's coverage, but I cannot pass up the opportunity to share my excitement about the start of football season. Louisville is returning it's first ever Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback, the stable of wide receivers has been supposedly restocked, the offensive line is under new tutelage, and the defense is more than ready to go behind their new leader. Louisville takes on Purdue tonight at 7:30 in Lucas Oil Stadium. If you didn't already know that, where have you been? Purdue is coached by former Cardinal, Jeff Brohm. According to multiple sources, Brohm was working to get Louisville on the schedule at his previous place of employment (Western Kentucky) under the stipulation that Lamar Jackson be off the Louisville team prior to the game. Unfortunately for him, Purdue hadn't made such arrangements. Sorry, Jeff! Louisville is heavily favored in tonight's game and they should be chomping at the bit to get the bad taste of last season's collapse out of their mouths. Purdue is a good team to do that against. They aren't a cupcake, so there is some talent to match up against, but they are also a team that isn't quite good enough to punish every mistake Louisville makes. Let's hope we're going into next season's opener against Alabama after ending this year on a higher note. But we can't worry about next year, yet! There are 12 (hopefully 13, maybe even 14 or 15) games to be played before we turn the football calendar over. It all starts tonight, so let's sit back and enjoy the ride.

Field Hockey Takes First Loss in OT

Marigrace Ragsdale was once again a point getter for the Cards yesterday as she netted her first goal of the season at the end of the 21st minute. It was the first goal of the game for either team and the last goal of the game for Louisville. Ohio State was able to draw level with fewer than 10 minutes remaining in the game after a Louisville defended corner was deemed to be illegal and Ohio State was awarded a second penalty. Louisville was unable to defend a second time and the score was tied 1-1. The teams played 10 and a half minutes of overtime before a second corner goal for Ohio State ended the game and Louisville's undefeated streak. Coach Sowry was clearly disappointed by the team's performance, noting in her post game remarks (per gocards.com) that "it was ... a disappointing performance on the field, and really, that's no surprise given how we practiced all week." Scathing words from Coach who later went on to lament that Ohio State dictated the play and that Louisville is an inexperienced team that needs to look at a lot of things on the individual and team level. It's a hard fall, losing to an unranked team after defeating the defending national champion, but there is still plenty of time to recover. Perhaps Louisville needed a loss like this, one in which they were in control for the first half and just coasted to a loss in the second and beyond, to wake up before conference play starts. There will be no days to take off in the ACC. While it is frustrating to lose any game, it is important to learn from that loss rather than let it lead to additional failures. Louisville is back in action, hoping to get back on track, against Kent State tomorrow at noon at a neutral site.

Wide Netters Break the Win Column

After hard fought losses to top ten teams last weekend, Louisville was ready to put a tally in the win column this week as they returned to Cardinal Arena for their first regular season action in their official full time home. Last night's match came against the Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky, a team that found themselves in the top 25 after a good opening weekend. It was not "Tops on Top" last night, though, as Louisville pulled away in the third and fourth games to win the match 3-1. WKU started out strong, taking the first game from Louisville 18-25, and it appeared as though there might be another long night in store for the Cards. The first game saw only 4 ties and 1 lead change. Louisville hit only .107 in the first to WKU's strong .343 mark. However, the Cards came out in the second game and led wire to wire, drawing level on the set score after a 25-19 win. Louisville hit .214 to WKU's .161 in the second game. The Toppers fought valiantly in the third and fourth games, holding tight to the Cards for the first 20 points or so in both games and forcing 14 ties and 4 lead changes between the two games. Louisville pulled away though, due partly to costly WKU errors and very good hitting by the home team, to win the last two games 25-15 and 25-16. 

On the night, Louisville was paced on offense by Melanie McHenry, Maggie DeJong, and Tess Clark, who all hit over .300 on more than 10 attempts. Wilma Rivera did her part on offense with 34 assists. Gabey Wiley did her part with 5 aces and 0 service errors. Defensively, Rivera and Molly Sauer held strong with 12 and 11 digs, respectively. Wiley chipped in 7 and McHenry 6, to go along with her 12 kills. The Cards stood tall with 13 team blocks to WKU's 4. It was a game to be proud of, but one that Coach DBK is still likely to find places to improve, as all good coaches should. The Cards will look to pull their season record level today at 12:30 as they take on Kent State.

Cards Take First Rivalry Game of Season

Both inhabitants of Lynn Stadium were on the road last night, protecting our glorious soccer field from the tortures of long spikes on such a rainy night as last night. The men's team took a 1-0 win against Georgia State with a goal by Tim Kubel (that guy is really good), but it is the women's team with which we are interested. After 6 straight losses in the series, Louisville finally took one off of the Cats in Lexington. It was a rain soaked field, a goalkeeper's worst nightmare, and it showed, with 4 goals on the final scoreline. Kentucky was able to mar Louisville's clean sheet with a goal off of a corner kick in the 77th minute, but were unable to overcome the three goal lead Louisville had already built by that time. After a previously wide open goal race, the offense of Louisville is starting to settle in and one player is beginning to stand out as a present and future force that opposing defenses need to be wary of. Freshman Emina Ekic netted her 3rd and 4th goals last night, once off of a free kick and once off of a post rebound, adding these types of goals to her arsenal after already showing this season that she can score in space and off of the dribble. Alison Price, a senior stalwart on the front line, scored her second goal of the season on a corner kick. If you've paid much attention to my writeups so far this season, you'd know I am glad to see that Louisville is scoring on set pieces (twice this game). It is unfortunate that they gave up a corner kick goal, but they also defended two more and probably defended a few free kicks as well. (I have no way of knowing exactly how many fouls because that is an a statistic that is egregiously left off of the box score, but with 5 yellow cards issued in the match, I have to figure both teams had more than a few fouls.) (Also, I know it's a lot to ask, but possession stats and passing percentages would also be really cool to have.) It is great to see Louisville bounce back from the tough loss against Marquette, especially against their biggest rival, but I will have to wait until they return home to see if they've made some of the adjustments I can't get out of a game recap or box score. Louisville is back in action against Southeast Missouri State on Monday at 6:30. The road trip continues, so hopefully the Cards can take another road win before returning home against Purdue next Friday.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

If you've made it this far, I applaud you. There was a lot to talk about today. If you didn't get your fill from the text on this page and would rather hear a few goofs talk about it over the airwaves, tune in to the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour from 11-12 on WCHQ FM. The station is 100.9 in the Crescent Hill area or you can listen on the WCHQ app or station website. The show is always available for rebroadcast, usually beginning on the Sunday after the original air date if you've missed it. 

Until next time, Go Cards! (Beat ... Purdue!)

-CH-