Busy Sunday - SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Busy Sunday

Bloody Sunday was an egregious massacre of peaceful unarmed protesters by men of the British military in Northern Ireland at the height of the tensions between Northern Ireland and the rest of Britain.  The band U2 wrote a song about it with the same name.

Today is (hopefully!) nothing like that, but it will be a Busy Sunday.

Women's sports were quiet yesterday, though 6th ranked Men's Soccer did lose a heartbreaker of a game against #15 Notre Dame.

Things today get started at noon, with Women's Soccer hosting what will likely be one of their best chances at standings points for the rest of the season with Miami coming in to play at Lynn Stadium.

Field Hockey also gets a noon start just north on Floyd Street with an out-of-conference tilt against Michigan State.  The Spartans usually present a competitive threat in Field Hockey, though don't typically rise to the ranks of the top teams in the country.  This year, they look far worse than usual, with a 4-10 record overall, and going winless, at 0-6, in their conference so far.  Look for the Cards to take a game and get back to playing good field hockey, and to play the game they want to play.  They should be able to get a good win under their belts and get their gameplay in order for a tougher challenge ahead against Duke.  It's important not to overlook any game, and I have no doubt Coach Sowry and the rest of the coaching staff are doing everything they can to keep the team focused on the opponents at hand.

Staying on Floyd Street, Volleyball gets underway at 1pm at Cardinal Arena, with a match against the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest.  The Deacs are 1-4 in conference, and only 6-11 overall, so they should not pose a very big threat to the Cardinals.  The only victory in conference for Wake is a five-set squeaker of a win over perennial ACC basement dweller Boston College.  The fifth set went to 21-19 for Wake to finally secure the win.

Again, the coaching staff needs to be, and I'm sure are, keeping the eyes of the team on the immediate prize, and not looking ahead.  We can, however, and see Notre Dame next up for a rare mid-week Wednesday match at Cardinal Arena.

Notre Dame continues rebuilding from a program implosion 4 years ago, and also saw their (very good) coach Jim McLaughlin step down for medical reasons at the end of last season.  They promoted their Associate Head Coach Mike Johnson to the top position, which has helped to maintain some continuity.  I've tuned in to a couple of Notre Dame matches this year and felt like I was watching totally different teams each time.  What I definitely will give them is that I see them improving year over year, which is about all you can really ask as a fan.

Finally, and completely the trek northbound on Floyd Street, Softball will be playing their first home games of their fall exhibition schedule at Ulmer Stadium today.  This is a double-header against Morehead State with games at 1 p.m, and roughly 3 p.m. (depending on the length of the first game).  Softball will wrap up its fall play next weekend with home tilts at noon and roughly 4 p.m. against Kentucky and Western Kentucky, respectively.  UK and WKU will play a game in the middle, so you can check out three games of in-state softball play and spend what hopefully should be a delightful afternoon at Ulmer.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

All four of the starting squad were in the studio again yesterday, and we had some great discussions about volleyball, soccer, field hockey and "Bashing People with Good Intentions".

We'll be without Case the next two weeks as he goes through the pre-wedding, good intention-ed bachelor's party next week and his wedding with Lindsey the week after. With Jared, we assume the change counting will occupy him for a few weeks, especially since he has had a rare two Saturday's off in a row.

We'll line up dignitaries to fill those chairs. We love it when we can present the A-Team in its entirety, but realize it's not a weekly possibility. 

You can check out our most recent foray into Facebook Live and radio with the replay at:

https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/458513617975630/

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JMcA