Sunday Cardinal Couple

Volleyball Stands Alone

In UofL women's sports, Volleyball stands alone today.

The Cards will take on the FSU Seminoles at 1 p.m. to wrap up their four match road trip.  The Cards are coming off of a nail biter five set win, with some bonus points involved, at Miami on Friday.  Today's task is more challenging, with Florida State being involved with the 4-way tie for 3rd place, along with the Cards, Georgia Tech, and North Carolina.

Claire Chaussee

Overall, the Cards have been on a bit of skid since losing the services of Melanie McHenry at Notre Dame three weeks ago.  More subjectively, the Cards have just looked unsure of themselves on the court.  Is it just a matter of their confidence having been shaken?  Claire Chaussee has largely taken over the left side hitting duties in place of McHenry, and while McHenry is, to be fair, the better player of the two, the drop isn't that significant.  Chaussee has done great work bringing her power under control, though admittedly there is more to be done.

Let's hope the gritty win at Miami restores some confidence to this squad that they can persevere through challenges, close sets, and matches.  They'll need it today against the Seminoles for sure.

Anna Stevenson

Most of the offense for FSU comes from #15 Payton Caffrey and #3 Morgan Chacon, with about 300 and 200 kills on the season respectively, with both coming from the left side.  Leading the middle blocking and attack is their big 6'3" middle #13 Taryn Knuth.  Also be on the lookout for another big 6'3" swing from #4 Jasmyn Martin.  Looking for the settings to be done mostly by #7 Lily Tessier, with perhaps some time from #17 Adrian Ell.  Neither setter seems inclined to the setter dump, which should hopefully give our middles, likely Anna Stevenson and Amaya Tillman, the ability to stay down on the set and better counter the middle attack from Taryn Knuth.  I haven't seen who is playing the Libero position for FSU, with two listed on the roster with about equal stats, both, however, have fewer digs than Caffrey and Chacon.

Will the Cards realize that the season isn't lost just because McHenry is now basically serving as "Coach McHenry" rather than being out on the court?  They still have plenty of talent to be one of the top teams in the ACC, let's hope the Miami match served to bring them together to play as a coherent whole, and to quit doubting their abilities.

The match airs on the ACC Network Extra at 1 p.m.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Paulie and I held down the fort at WCHQ for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour.  Jared was banking,
while Case was in an undisclosed location...why?  We're not at liberty to say...or maybe we just don't know.  Either is possible. Case may not even remember. 

In any case, we had a good chat about Volleyball, Field Hockey, Soccer, and Basketball.  We discussed the tournament prospects for Field Hockey and Soccer, we discussed the Volleyball win over Miami, and what it will take to get the team back solidly on the winning ways.

You can check out the replay at the Facebook Live link:

https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/406628936683311/

The days at WCHQ are numbered, but work is ongoing in planning for the next phase of the CCRH.

-- 

JMcA