Volleyball Falls; Swimming Sweeps; Basketball Eats Lunch -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Falls in Five at Boston College

Louisville continues to have trouble with teams that we may not expect this year, and it manifested itself last night in the form of a 5-set loss on the road against Boston College. The Eagles, who have been a surprise team this year, drew level with the Cards in the ACC standings at 8-3 with a victory last night. On the other hand, Louisville continues their up and down season and now sees themselves fall even farther away from the top of the league as they sit 3 games behind Pittsburgh.

Louisville opened the match with a convincing victory in the first set, using a big run to open the score during the middle of the set and not looking back. Louisville went on to win the first 25-18, with Mia Stander putting down an ace as the game point. The second and third sets were very similar to the first, though Louisville was unable to pull out a streak to extend a lead. As such, the Cards fell in tight sets 26-28 and 23-25. The fourth set looked as though Louisville had finally shaken off the rust and would be cruising to victory. The Cards jumped out to a five point lead before reaching ten points and used another five point run in the middle of the set to open it up even farther on the way to a 25-13 victory. In the fifth set, however, it was Boston College that found a point streak. The Eagles jumped out to a four point lead early, which Louisville was unable to overcome. BC took the set 15-8 and the match 3-2.

On the match, Louisville actually committed 3 fewer errors and hit .66 percentage points better than Boston College. As it goes, though, Louisville's worst sets came during Boston College's best, with the Cards hitting .206, .172, and .130 in their losing sets compared to .441 and .330 in the ones they won. Louisville also outblocked, outkilled, and outaced the Eagles in the loss. One of Louisville's critical sore spots throughout the season, though, does not show up on the typical box score, and it came back once more yesterday. The Cards committed 11 service errors, while the Eagles committed only four. Louisville also committed four block errors, some coming at inopportune times in that fifth set.

Louisville was led in kills by Aiko Jones, Amber Stivrins, and Claire Chaussee, who have become the usual suspects since McHenry went down. The three combined for 43 of Louisville's 63 kills. They also combined for 18 of the Card's 23 errors, which is typical for heavy hitters. Anna Stevenson put up her typical contribution, with 6 kills and 10 block assists. Alexis Hamilton also performed her role as the stopper in the back with 20 digs. 

Clearly the Cards missed Worldwide's presence 

Despite Louisville's loss of ground on Pittsburgh, the Cards actually lucked out with the rest of the
league. Florida State and Notre Dame also took their third losses of the season, meaning only Pittsburgh has fewer losses than the Cards. Louisville is now a half game behind the 9-3 Seminoles and in a three-way tie for third with Notre Dame and Boston College. The Cards will get an opportunity to get back on track Sunday at 1PM when they take on the struggling Orange of Syracuse. We've seen Louisville unable to close the door against teams lower in the standings, though, so no team can be overlooked. Tomorrow's match will be available on ACC Network Extra, and should wrap up before the women's soccer game. 

Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Sweep Notre Dame

Notre Dame, ranked in the top 25 in both men's and women's swimming, came down to the Ralph
Wright Natatorium to take on the top 15 ranked swimming and diving Cards. The Fighting Irish would be asked to turn around and head home with nearly identical losing scores. On the men's side, Louisville prevailed 168-132 while the women took the victory 162-138. In addition to the victories over the opponent, Louisville also claimed victories over a couple of records. On the diving side, Daniel Pinto earned an outstanding dive score off of the 3-meter board of 393.75, which is a new school record. The other record came from Sophie Cattermole, who broke the pool record en route to a win in the 1650 freestyle. Louisville swimming and diving will be back in action next week when they take on the Longhorns of Texas and the Indiana Hoosiers in a three-way meet in Bloomington.

Women's Basketball Hosts Tipoff Luncheon

Paulie and Daryl

A wonderful time at the UofL WBB Tip-Off Luncheon with 800 attendees, larrgest crowd in the history of the event.

Cardinal Couple was well represented with Paulie, Sonya, Worldwide Jeff and Daryl Foust in attendance.

The seniors were introduced and had some great remarks, including Jazmine Jones slight dig on Coach Walz and why Jess Laemmle wants to become a private eye.

The event is always a great one and we caught audio from Jeff Walz's pre-banquet presser and Sam Purcell's post banquet chat with Paulie. Links below:

WALZ

PURCELL

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

As you may have seen via Facebook, the sad announcement came through yesterday that our wonderful hosts, WCHQ FM, will be ceasing operations at the end of this year. What this means for the future of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour is a bit complex. We all love to do the show, and we are looking into different options to continue, but it will be a change in venue and potentially format. Until the station closes shop on December 31st, though, the plan will be to continue to do the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour there.

Paulie and Jeff will play hosts today as they bring it back to the original show and bring in special guest Paige Sherrard.. Tune in for all of their musings about volleyball, soccer, women's basketball, and more. The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour airs live at 11 a.m. on WCHQ FM. Check out the show at 100.9 FM, wchqfm.com, the WCHQ App, or on Facebook Live.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-