Volleyball Scores Big Win, Field Hockey Senior Day -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Defeats ACC Leading Pitt, 3-2

PC: Jared Anderson

In what was ultimately a match that you might expect to see out of two of the top teams in the conference, Louisville was able to hold on to a narrow lead in the fifth set to knock off the number one team in the ACC, Pittsburgh. The first game was back and forth, with both teams trading runs of around 4 points for the entire game, before Louisville finally shut the door at 25-23. Both teams hit very poorly (-.026 for Pitt and .025 for Louisville) with 9 errors for the Panthers and 10 for the Cards. It wasn't all that pretty, but it was exciting, as errors were coming on big hits just missing the line. Fortunately, Louisville was able to squeak out the win. In the second game, Louisville's erroneous woes continued (9) while Pitt cleaned their act up (3). What followed was a game in which Louisville could do almost no right, and they lost 15-25. 

After halftime, the two teams battled once more. Neither team got further than 2 points from the opponent for the first 30 points of the game. Louisville was able to string together some runs after that point, though, and won the game 25-18. In this game it was Pitt's turn to be extremely outhit. The Panthers mustered only .088 hitting in game 3 with the Cards posting a cool .400. For the first time in the match, in the fourth game, both teams were able to exert a bit more control. Louisville hit only .214 but was able to stay with Pitt's .370 for most of the game. In the end, Pitt won 19-25 and set up the fifth set for the conference lead. 

Early in the final game, it looked ugly for our heroes, as Pitt took a 5-2 lead right off of the bat. Louisville quickly turned things on their head with a whopping 10-1 run to take a 12-6 lead in a game that goes only to 15. Pitt wasn't going to go down without a fight. They righted the ship and pulled back to 14-12 before Jasmine Bennett finished them off with a kill. The win moved Louisville to 10-2 in the conference and 16-6 overall and the loss put Pitt at 9-2, just a half game back. 

PC: Jared Anderson

Tess Clark was Louisville's hitting queen last night, posting 19 kills with a .340 hitting percentage. That's pretty good stuff. Amanda Green also had 11 kills and hit .320. Melanie McHenry split the two with 13 kills, but Pitt was clearly trying to keep her out of the offense as she ended up with 12 digs. Wilma Rivera (who else?) led the team in assists with 53 and Molly Sauer shored up the back line with 13 digs. Alexis Hamilton was back for the Cards and made her impact clear with 10 digs of her own. 

Now, after taking the lead in the conference, Louisville will have to sit back and watch as NC State and Pitt get the opportunity to rejoin them at the top, as the Cards have an entire week off. They'll get the opportunity to maintain their status atop the standings when they travel to Winston-Salem, NC to take on Wake Forest on Friday 11/3. More on that game when it gets closer.

Cross Country Finishes 2nd in ACC Championships

In their best ever finish in the conference championship, Louisville women's cross country took home (well, they were already home) 2nd place at EP Tom Sawyer Park. The Cards were led by Dorcas Wasike, who ran a personal best in the 6K and nearly won the race. Wasike was beaten by Paige Stoner, a senior from Syracuse, but as a sophomore, it is clear that Wasike will be a huge factor for Louisville cross country in the years to come. Three other Cardinals (Kassidy Manning, Mia Ross, and Aurilla Wilson) posted personal best times in the race and the Cards finished with 5 runners in the top 50. NC State won the event. The Cards will travel to Panorama Farms, Virginia for the NCAA Southeast Regionals on 11/10 and hope that they can have some qualifiers for the NCAA Championships which will be hosted back at EP Tom Sawyer on 11/18.

Field Hockey Celebrates Senior Day

Picture per gocards.com

After an unfortunate weekend last week at Trager Stadium, Louisville will hope to finish the regular season with a much better taste in their mouths. The Cards fell to Virginia and Michigan last week, hurting both their ACC standing and their resume with the NCAA. Louisville will play host to Ohio University tomorrow, looking to get back on a winning streak at Trager, where they could play a bunch more important games this year. Louisville will honor Abby Grimes, Marigrace Ragsdale, and Nicole Woods today for senior day as they'll play their last regular season games as Cardinals this afternoon. The game begins at 1PM and is available on the ACC Network Extra if it's too chilly for you to make it out to Trager.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

As Jeff mentioned yesterday, they've still not kicked us off of FM radio, yet. Tune in to the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour at 11AM today brought to you by our gracious hosts at WCHQ, Crescent Hill Radio. In the area, you can find the show on 100.9 FM but you can listen anywhere from the WCHQ app or crescenthillradio.com. Unlike ESPN, these streaming options aren't subject to blackouts. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-