Cards Survive Close Calls -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Takes Closer than Expected Sweep

With just a match against Georgia Tech remaining as the only thing Louisville could do to impress the selection committee for the NCAA Tournament, a comfortable win would have been nice. The Cards have seen their probability of making the tournament go down in recent weeks as their hot start cooled off aggressively in the later portion of the season. As Jeff and I mentioned on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour last week, a win would do nothing for Louisville's chances of making the tournament; a loss would surely sink them. Louisville settled for something in the middle. Yes, they earned the sweep, avoiding a terrible dropped set against a lowly Yellow Jackets squad, but the Cards also needed a comeback and extra points to win a set and kept the other two sets closer than desired.

It was senior night for the Cards, and if it was their last match in the red and black, the four seniors honored last night will be sorely missed going forward. Honored last night were former setter of the year, Wilma Rivera, the always faithful libero, Molly Sauer, and two huge pieces of the offense in Amanda Green and Jasmine Bennett. Rivera was the latest addition to the group, beginning her impact as a transfer last season, but the other three have become names that even people marginally paying attention to Louisville Volleyball would certainly recognize. All four have made the Cardinal Faithful extremely proud and it would be wonderful to see them get the opportunity to continue their careers at UofL for a couple of more weeks. 

Looking at the stats of the match, it doesn't really seem as though this match should have been as close as it ultimately was (25-18, 28-26, 25-21). Melanie McHenry dominated the floor to the tune of 20 kills. The Cards hit .264 to GT's .211, had 10 aces to GT's 2, and outblocked the Jackets 7-4. Despite these, the overall kills were very close as were the errors, assists, and digs. Louisville did a lot of things pretty well; Georgia Tech just seemed to match them when it mattered. 

The Cards jumped out of the gate to a 5-1 lead and then stretched that to 17-10 in the first set before ultimately winning by 7. It was the opposite in the second, as the Cards quickly found themselves in the hole 4-0 and then all the way at 11-4. The Cards kept in close, but trailed for the entire second. They soon found themselves down 24-20, and it looked like they would drop a set to a bottom third team in the league. However, Molly Sauer and Melanie McHenry took over as McHenry staved off set point with a kill on 4 of the next 5 points led by Sauer serving on the final four. The Cards turned a 24-20 deficit in to a 25-24 lead and did what was necessary to win the match in the next five points. 

The third set was the closest from start to finish, as the teams stayed within three points of each other for the first 30 points in the set. After a tie at 15, Louisville decided they didn't like that status quo any longer, so they rattled off 5 straight to take a strong lead at 20-15 on an Akela Yuhl serving run. Georgia Tech struggled back and were able to make it 22-20 before Louisville took 3 of the next 4 points and the match. 

Despite being only a junior, Melanie McHenry wanted to be sure Senior Night was a victory for the Cards. Her 20 kills was double the next highest player in the match and she did so with only two errors in the match for a hitting percentage of .462. McHenry chipped in 4 digs and a block assist. She didn't attempt any serves but had no receiving errors on 16 attempts. The seniors were not flashy last night, but they did their jobs as expected and greatly contributed to the Cards' win. Rivera had 36 of the team's 40 assists on 44 overall kills. She didn't convert any of her dumps and struggled from the serving line, but she added 2 block assists and 11 digs to round out her night. Bennett and Green combined for 15 kills and 5 block assists with Green adding 10 digs. Sauer was as reliable as always and finished with 17 digs, 5 service aces, and an assist.

Louisville will find out their fate tomorrow, as the selection show airs live on ESPNU starting at 8:30 PM. The Cards made the tournament last year before being bounced early, and I'm sure they'd like an opportunity to prove that they could make some noise. Louisville played some very good teams close this season, but what may ultimately doom their tournament hopes is that they were not able to convert any of those quality losses into marquee wins. In the interview below, Coach states that the team was confident that they would see their name tomorrow with a win last night, so we'll see. If it's the end of the road for Dani Busboom Kelly's 2018 squad, it was a fun ride. If it's not, we could see something interesting before it's all over.

Postgame with Coach DBK

WBB Needs Fourth Quarter Comeback to Down ASU

In a break from their season normal thus far, the third quarter really let the Cards down against Arizona State as a 6 point quarter loss had them trailing by 4 going into the final stanza. The matchup against No. 19 Arizona State was the Cards first true test of a season in which they still haven't gotten to see themselves on Denny Crum Court. A fourth straight victory in a fourth straight game away from home is nice, regardless of how it ultimately came about, especially against a ranked team. As I like to talk about with every team, it is good to see a squad be able to win games in numerous ways. Blowing out every team on the schedule would be fun, but we've seen how that can sometimes bite UCONN when it comes to playing a quality opponent. Likewise, you don't want to play every game close, because the ball won't always bounce your way. I shouldn't have to say why you wouldn't want to play from behind in every fourth quarter, but it is good to see the team win a game in which they trailed like this.

Last night's game was an instant classic, as the score was tied 6 times and the lead changed hands another 6. The largest lead that either team had came when the Sun Devils stretched their four point third quarter lead out to six with just 18 seconds gone in the fourth quarter. Louisville was not a fan of that and would tie the game up again at 45 just three minutes later. The game came down to a flurry of a sequence with thirty seconds remaining. Up by four, Same Fuehring went to the line to shoot two free throws. She hit one of two to put the Cards up five with 26 seconds remaining. Louisville then went on to do the one thing you're definitely not supposed to do in that situation on defense and Jazmine Jones, already back playing with bone bruise in her hip, fouled a three point shooter. Kianna Ibis went to the line and calmly sunk all three to cut the deficit to two with 17 seconds left. Fuehring was fouled as soon as the ball was inbounded, this time hitting both free throws to bring the lead back to four with just 16 seconds left. Again, rather than play solid defense and give up a layup if necessary, Louisville fouled. Again, ASU sunk their free throws to make it a two point game, this time with 12 seconds left.

After deciding that doing what you aren't supposed to do on defense wasn't enough, the Cards showed they could mix it up and do the wrong thing on offense as well. Arica Carter mishandled the inbound pass and had the ball stolen away. Durr quickly fouled to show Arizona State they would have to earn the late game tie. Sophia Elenga was happy to oblige, and we were all knotted up at 56 with 11 seconds remaining. Arizona State, playing to preserve the tie and go to overtime, didn't foul. Looking back, they may wish they had. Instead, Louisville was able to work the ball inside to Sam Fuehring, who converted a layup with 3 seconds remaining to set the final score. Arica Carter stole the inbounds pass to atone for her previous mistake and the game was over. Louisville survived to move to 4-0.

As is typical, as Asia Durr goes, Louisville goes. Last night, Durr struggled to score (which is funny to say when she put up 14 points), as she shot only 5-18 from the floor and got to the line only once, where she went 2-2. Fortunately, the rest of the team pulled up the slack, as Fuehring led all scorers in the game with 18 points and Dana Evans chipped in double digit points as well. This was not the fast-paced, offensive affair we have grown accustomed to seeing with Louisville, but the Cards were able to grind it out when it mattered. 

 The CASE Report

It's been awhile, so let's get a refresher on the CASE Report. Each stat category has two goals that we want to see the Cards accomplish, and they're granted a half a point for each goal achieved. Each stat has it's own little primer, so let's just get right into it.

C-Care: In this category, we're looking at how well Louisville took care of the ball compared to their opponent and how well we could expect them to based on the opponent. We talk a lot about the raw turnover number. Obviously, you'd like to see it fairly low, but it comes down to how you perform in each game. Yesterday, Louisville turned the ball over 10 times, compared to ASU's 13. That's a half a point. Arizona State is not a strong turnover forcing team, averaging only 13.75 per game (that's tied for 309th in the country). We'd like Louisville to commit less than 60% of the opponent's average, and 10 is 72.7% of 13.75. Cards finish with a lowercase 'c'.

A-Assists: The assists category kind of speaks for itself, but again, we aren't looking at raw numbers. We want to know how many assists Louisville had on their made baskets, and how well they performed in the Assist-to-Turnover Ratio, which is a good indicator of their passing. We want a 50% assist share and a 2.0 ATO Ratio. The Cards had 15 assists on 24 made baskets, which is good for 62.5%, but they only had a 1.5 ATO. Half point again; lowercase 'a'.

S-Steals: Steals are a raw number stat. We want to know if Louisville was aggressive on the ball and if they outperformed the opponent. The goal is 7.5 per game. The Cards finished with 7. So did the Sun Devils. No benchmark reached and no outperforming of the opponent. No letter.

E-Efficiency: Paulie's FRED Report looks at just free throw efficiency. The CASE Report takes free throw efficiency into account, but we also want to see Louisville taking and making good shots from the floor. We're looking for at least 45% FGs and 75% FTs. Louisville shot 24-59 from the floor for only 40.7% and were greatly held back by only 3-11 from behind the arc. The Cards did just sneak ahead of 75% going 7-9 from the stripe (let's please get to the line more). Lowercase 'e'.

Ultimately, the Cards finish with c-a-_-e. A good game ends with the Cards earning at least 2.5 of the available 4 points, a mark they missed here. To struggle from a statistical standpoint overall (Louisville also lost the rebounding battle and were heavily outrebounded on the offensive end) and still win the game is promising. Louisville will not look so out of sorts normally, and they will surely try to avoid allowing their opponent to go 11-11 from the free throw line in the second half.

The Cards have a quick turnaround as they take on Hartford today at 3PM. The game is still in Las Vegas and the Cards will finally get to return home on Monday. This one is available to be streamed online by following this link or can be listened to on the radio as normal.

The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

With a late football game, our resident banker having a day off, Jeff not being a cartographer and me making the drive back to town last night instead of this morning, we'll have a full house in the studio today for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. Unlike last week when Jeff and I brought you mostly opinion and general chatter, this week you'll get plenty of post game analysis and breakdowns. We'll talk all your favorite sports and bring you the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics. Tune in to WCHQ at 100.9 FM, wchqfm.com, the WCHQ App, or on Facebook Live at 11AM to join us.

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Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Volleyball photos provided by Jared Anderson.