Golf In Progress; Soccer, Field Hockey, and Volleyball Queued Up - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Golf in Oklahoma

The golf team is in Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plains.  I guess it could be worse, you can adjust your shot for the wind, but in Spain, the rain stays mainly in the plains, so that would be much worse. I've never been to Spain, but I kind of like the music. There you go, from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Lerner and Loewe to Hoyt Axton, all in one paragraph. 

Anyway, back to the task at hand.  The Schooner Classic is the event in Norman, OK (which is also the home of NOAAs National Severe Storms Laboratory, to give more importance to the discussion of rain and wind), and Cards stand in 10th place currently, which is a drop from the 6th place position they held after Friday's action.

Delaney Shah did her part for yesterdays round, shooting a 4 under par for the round yesterday on the par 70 course.  The 4 under part was the 2nd best round of golf in the tournament so far, and it brings Shah into a tied with Lauren Hartlage in 18th place.

We discussed the golf squad yesterday on The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour.  The report from Coach Whitney Young was that the team, by and large, needed to catch up to Lauren Hartlage and they'd do quite well.  I offered the cautious observation (not having followed our golf squad closely) that occasionally some of the other players do considerablybetter than Hartlage, but they don't do so at all consistently.  Yesterday's results, I think, lend some credence to that observation with Delaney Shah considerably bettering Hartlage's score for the day, but only just catching up to Hartlage's consistency in the overall event.

The Schooner Classic (baring rains or high winds, and there is a bit of a chance for rain in the forecast for Norman, today, though not very great), will conclude today. Maybe "Boomer Sooner" residents would share that rain with the residents of our "sun shines bright" state, which is in drought conditions. 

Soccer, Field Hockey, and Volleyball Today

Soccer comes off a good win in Syracuse, but on shorter rest than expected after a team illness of suspected food poisoning delayed Thursday's game to Friday morning.  You can check out Case's excellent coverage of that in yesterday's edition, of course, if you haven't read it yet.

They are in Chestnut Hill (or is it Newton, we never really know up there) in Boston to take on pretty dern good BC team.  The Eagles are 8-1-1 with their only loss coming in a scorefest against FSU in Tallahassee by a score of 5-4.  The draw came against Providence, with a 1-1 score after regulation and overtime periods.

Field Hockey is also in New England at the aforementioned Providence in Rhode Island.  The Friars are 5-3 on the season, though not with the strong strength of schedule that the Cards have played.  They do have a win over a not-inconsequential Temple squad.  They also have a 5-4 OT win over Maine.

Of course, having mentioned the Maine and Temple Field Hockey teams, I think it's fair game to shoot another glare at Kent State for their awful decision making in cutting the neutral site game between the Owls and Black Bear in order to set up fireworks for a football game an hour and a half later.

Volleyball will also be in action today, with 1 p.m. first serve against North Carolina.  UNC was picked to finish 5th in the ACC, nothing shabby there, but so far, they haven't looked to live up to those expectations, with an overall record of 3-8 on the season.  With losses to UNLV, Miami (OH), Michigan State, and VCU, they seem to be underachieving for the year so far.  Earlier losses to Wisconsin and Minnesota are certainly excusable, and dropping a decision against Cal can even be everlooked if you squint hard enough.


 UNC's conference opener, Friday, was against Notre Dame, and while the Tarheels were swept in that one, they were close sets, 25-23, 26-24, 25-20.  There are very few teams in the ACC this year which can just be ignored, but as long as the Cards squad shows up and plays the game we know they're capable of, this one should fall in the win column for the home team.  First serve is 1 p.m. at L&N Arena nee Cardinal Arena, on campus.

Tennis is also apparently in action in Indiana this weekend, but I have seen exactly nothing in updates about that squad, so I have no information to report there at all.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

There were challenges for yesterday's edition of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour.

Case, Paulie, and I were in studio.  After Case spent much of Friday at the Louder than Life Festival, and I spent much of the week nursing a bit of a head cold, you'll have to excuse us if the show sounded like Paulie carrying on a conversation with a couple of frogs.

I think we did have some really good discussions about the news of the week, and managed to cover the active week in results and other big news.

Check out the Facebook Live recording for recaps of Volleyball, Soccer, and Field Hockey, a bit of a discussion about the Golf squad, as mentioned above, and some analysis and consideration of the news that the Elizabeths, Bologun and Dixon, both transferring in to the squad, were issued waivers by the NCAA and will be eligible to play this year.

LINK:  https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/523374471542669/

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JMcA