NCAA Decision -- Photo Highlights: Swimming and Diving -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

NCAA Decision

Yesterday evening the NCAA made their decision and it was pretty accurate to what we expected.  All spring sports athletes will be granted an extra year of eligibility.

There is also a rule where you can only play four years in a five year window, hence the room for a redshirt season.  That will be extended to six years.

Some teams are limited on roster size.  Those rosters and amount of scholarship spots will be increased for a year.

The teams this works for at UofL include lacrosse, softball, track and field, tennis, golf, and rowing, according to how the NCAA breaks down a season and championship.

That is great for many of our student-athletes, especially the ones who were seniors. 

Sadly, but as expected, winter sports are not included, meaning basketball is over.  We saw five of our women's basketball seniors throw on a Louisville jersey for the final time.


Photo Highlights: Swimming and Diving

Another sport whose season ended prematurely is swimming and diving.  Their regular season and ACC Championships had concluded but the NCAA Championships never happened.  Today, we take a look at some of the best photos from their season.

A bit of commentary...

It is difficult to catch meets since many of them occur on a Friday afternoon or Saturday morning and conflict with work, but I was fortunate enough to make it to a couple meets this season and hope to do so again next season.

To help protect myself and those around me I cancelled my visit to see Katy in a month.  As the COVID-19 worsens I did not want to put anyone at risk.  Delta was understanding enough to offer me a refund for my flight down.  My flight coming back was through American and those cold-hearted Muffet McGraw-esque folks cared about nothing but profits.  It's almost as bad as the no call in the final seconds of the Final Four when Myisha Hines-Allen went in for a layup.

Happy Tuesday, stay safe, and Go Cards!

Jared

NCAA decision today on extra year of eligibility -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

DECISION TODAY

The NCAA makes a decision today on eligibility forgiveness.

All around the college athletics landscape, seniors who participated in spring sports await the decision, It is expected that the NCAA will grant the seniors an extra year, to come back and participate in the sports they were active in before COVID-19 shut down their seasons. 

How far, though, will the NCAA go?  There are questions. 

I wonder if the eligibility granting forgiveness will just apply to the seniors, or whether all participants in spring sports will get a extra year? 

Will they reach out to winter sports as well with the offer? I don't see that happening, unfortunately...but, wouldn't it be great, as Cardinal fans, if we found out that Louisville WBB seniors Jazmine Jones, Bionca Dunham, Jess Laemmle, Kylee Shook and Yacine Diop were given a chance to go one more year?  And how would Jeff Walz handle a roster of almost 20 players? 

Who is going to play for the granting of an extra year? The popular thought among many is for the NCAA to foot the bill. My guess is that the NCAA won't pick up the tab and that the schools and the individuals will be the ones picking up the cost. 

How will it affect school that, for some reason,  doesn't want a senior back for an extra year?  It's a possible scenario. Schools probably don't want to pick up the cost for a senior they are ready to cut the relationship with. Could we see a scenario where "big University" doesn't want "player B" back on the roster...so "player B" goes into a portal where other universities are able to woo and court "player B"? 

How will it affect scholarship limitations? Let's say you have 15 scholarship for the sport in question. You've recruited seven student-athletes to come in and replace your seven graduating seniors --and you've offered them scholarships. All of a sudden, you are seven over the scholarship limit if all seven seniors return, the seven incoming freshmen come in and no one else leaves the roster. 

Stacking the deck is a question as well. Let's say two or three seniors at "college A" decide to go to "college B" and join a strong group already there. I wonder if the NCAA wold allow that, or force transfers to count toward their new schools scholarship total. I can think of possible scenarios where a coach or program could basically become a national contender by picking up three or four transfers, dumping three or four seniors that they don't want back and having a all-star roster. 

The bottom line and the sensible thing here is doing what is right for the student-athlete. That's what the NCAA is in business for. 

Louisville Softball seniors Celene Funke and Caitlin Ferguson wait. Louisville Lacrosse seniors Brenna Shanahan and Allie Arcidacono wait. Louisville women's golf's Lauren Hartlage, Meghan Nay and Delaney Shah wait. Raven Neely, Anna Collins and Diana Wong wait. Six seniors on the Louisville Rowing roster wait. Track and Field student-athletes wonder.  The ball is in your court, NCAA. 

We wait for the decision, along with thousands of student-athletes across the nation.

The interviews we have been doing here will resume Wednesday. I felt this issue took priority today. I can tell you that I've secured an interview with a Louisville student-athlete alumni you won't want to miss (a BIG assist to Jared Anderson for his 'set-up' on this one), and I'm in the process of lining up another Cardinal coach for Friday. 

Stay with us each day as we continue to write about the joy and excitement of UofL women's athletics. 



HAVE A MEANINGFUL MONDAY!

paulie
xxxxx 

Volleyball and Cardinal Couple Radio Podcast -- Sunday Cardinal Couple

Good Sunday morning to all, and I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.  I joined some friends last night for a social gathering via Google Hangouts and it was delightful and refreshing.  It's important that we all make an extra effort to reach out and maintain contact with people we care out.  I tend to joke about being a Gen-X former latch-key kid that's overwhelmingly introverted, but even I find myself feeling a touch isolated wanting to spend time with others.

Some Old Volleyball News

We're definitely into what we call the summer slump at Cardinal Couple, where there's very little news to cover on these pages.  It feels a little weird to be saying that in late March when we're normally in the throes of March Madness.

I did want to go back and pick up a bit of news from the Volleyball front that I think we didn't up at the time.  Specifically around a couple of personnel moves.

Of course, UofL Volleyball is set to have a very large roster in the Fall, with the program on track to have a whopping 19 women on the roster.

So, let's do a quick rundown of what we know.

First, Shannon Shields, one of the setters on the squad has decided to play much closer to home, transferring to Arizona State.  Shields came into the UofL program as a highly heralded freshman setter, and walked right into a battle for the position that perhaps she wasn't expecting when Tori Dilfer transferred from TCU to the Cardinals.  Ultimately Dilfer largely won that position battle, although it did take until late in the season for it to largely be settled.

After Shields' departure, Rachel DeMarcus decided to join the Cards, transferring from South Alabama where she was the primary setter for the squad.  This gives the Cards a viable 2nd setter, and does raise the specter of another position battle for setter with a Senior Dilfer and Junior DeMarcus vying for the position.

DeMarcus is from Lexington, KY, and played high school volleyball at Bryan Station.  She played club volleyball with Kiva in Louisville, joining Alexa Hendricks in being a Lexingtonian making the trip to Louisville to play in club with Kiva.  She earned first team All-State honors at Bryan Station.

The other personnel choice came from Akela Yuhl, who has apparently decided to step away from Volleyball.  Reports are that she was enrolled as a UofL study for the spring semester and didn't have plans to transfer.  I'll be keeping my ear to the ground, here.

OK, to sum up, how do we get to 19?

 The 2019 season roster had 16, which is on the high side of normal for roster size for collegiate play.  Melanie McHenry graduates, Shields and Yuhl depart to drop the roster to 13 returning players.

Add DeMarcus joining for 14, and a signed freshman class of 5 gets us to 19, which is definitely a large roster.

Volleyballers Returning from Europe

Paulie highlighted the coverage by Nancy Worley, from Sports Information at UofL covering volleyball about Tess Clark's return to the US from Spain where she was playing in the pro ranks.  And not just playing, but playing extremely well, by the way.

The Cards did have another alumna in Europe playing volleyball professionally.  Erin Fairs, who played for UofL in 2015 after transferring from USF where she played her first three years, was in Greece playing professionally.  Her tenure in Greece, like Clark's in Spain, was similarly cut short.  Fairs is back home in Richmond, TX safe and sound.

She was back to playing in Greece after her previous season, in Italy, was also cut short due to tearing her ACL.  Fairs returned home to rehab, and got back into playing form in less than a year in time to go play in Greece.

We're obviously thrilled that our Cardinals Forever are home safe and sound and wish them well, as always.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

And finally, we had another fun CCRH via Skype with Paulie, Case, and I being able to connect.  Jared was doing essential work in the banking industry.

Good conversation mostly around WBB news, including discussing Dana Evans' continue haul of awards and progression towards awards.  I also brought a little bit of an off-topic bit about NASCAR drivers participating in eSports versions of races while so much is shut down and about the huge viewership that it drew.  Indy Car did a similar event "at" Watkins Glen yesterday.

This one is available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA00Yj-7ftw.  Fox Sports has also committed to showing the whole season of eNASCAR racing in conjunction in iRacing.  I'm not a huge car racing fan, and this is definitely outside of the main topic for Cardinal Couple, but I thought it was interesting from an overall sports perspective, so wanted to bring it up for a quick discussion.

Check out the show below

-- 

JMcA

Smith Named All-American; Soccer Throwback -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Ahlana Smith an All-American

Louisville will be home to another All-American next season. Cardinals' signee Ahlana Smith was named an NJCAA All-American yesterday after averaging 20.3 points per game in 25 starts for Gulf Coast State College this past season. Smith is the fourth All-American honoree of the season that will be playing for Jeff Walz next season, joining Olivia Cochran (McDonald's AA), Hailey Van Lith (MAA), and Dana Evans (2nd Team AA). We talked a lot last week on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour about the players that Louisville would be losing and how other players could develop and fill the gaps, but Walz has plenty of talent still on the roster or coming in. Next season should be an exciting one. 

Missing Soccer

Being a soccer fan is tough right now. The English Premier League season should be getting into the exciting final quarter of its season while MLS, USL, and NWSL should be underway or about to start. College soccer would be in the midst of spring exhibition schedules, and if the organization pushing to reform the college soccer schedule gets their way, we'd be smack-dab in the middle of the season. Instead, we're left to reminisce. So, I've chosen to do just that. I'm re-upping the recap of the November 15th match against Lipscomb, Louisville's first NCAA Tournament win since 2011. The Cards would go on to fall in the next game against a tough BYU team in Provo, but that doesn't take away from the excitement of the last game of the season in Lynn Stadium.

Soccer Ends Two Game Losing Streak at Perfect Time

The Cards ended their season with a pair of matches against NC State. The Wolfpack won both of those, sending Louisville into the NCAA Tournament with some confidence to rebuild. The Cards were able to do so last night, dominating possession of the ball on their way to a 1-0 win against the Lipscomb Bisons. Coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes noted in her post-game comments that she believed the possession was one thing Louisville could have done better on, but I believe Lipscomb's counter attacking ability was skewing her view of that stat. Louisville held possession for 71% of the first half and 64% for the entire game. 

Louisville's game plan in this match was pretty simple, and matched the rest of the season: sit on the ball, work possession through the midfield, and get chances on goal. Lipscomb's game plan was equally simple: disrupt the Louisville attack, win the ball, and counter. Had the Bison strikers been able to stay onsides for the life of them, we could be having a very different conversation this morning. After being called offsides 11 times in their last game, Lipscomb was called for four in the first half of last night's match. In each one, the Cards were beaten and Lipscomb either had a one-on-one opportunity or were poised for a very dangerous cross. On two, Lipscomb attempted shots after the whistle. On both of those, Gabby Kouzelos refused to get the ball out of the back of the net and made a pair of saves that don't go in the stat sheet. In scoreless games, seeing the ball in the back of the net can do things for both the offense and defense. Kouzelos refused to lose that psychological matchup.

As Louisville held possession, they also gathered a lot of chances. Fortunately for Lipscomb, Melissa Gray was up to the task. Gray had five saves in the first half, and would go on to finish with eight on the night. A couple of those first half saves were real beauties. However, all it took in this game was one chance, and Sarah Hernandez took that chance. Finishing her third goal of the season, all three on headers, Hernandez took flight Superwoman style to get to a perfectly placed free kick by Emina Ekic. Gray was caught out just a bit and the ball found the back of the net with 34 seconds remaining in the first half. Louisville finished the first half with 10 shots and six on frame, showing that they intended to keep beating on the door until they broke it down.

The second half saw quite a bit of the same. Louisville continued to earn chances much as they had in the first half. The Cards got five corners in the second half and ultimately put up seven shots. Though only three were on frame, the pressure was evident and the six shots off of the frame of the goal were close. As Coach Ferguson-Dayes mentioned in her postgame comments, Gray's play in the first half affected Louisville's shots in the second, putting more pressure on the Cards to be fine with their placement and ultimately leading to misses. 

Gabby Kouzelos maintained her staunch defense in the back, assisted of course by the back line. Lipscomb only finished with three shots and Kouzelos with two saves, but the defense saw quite a bit more work than the stats imply. Hernandez and Niamh Nelson both saw plenty of chances to clear crosses, through balls, and overhead balls, and they were up to the task last night. Kouzelos even got quite a bit more work than the box score shows, having to come all the way out of her box to win jousts at least three times and gathering a number of searching balls into the box by Lipscomb. Louisville picked up their tenth clean sheet on the way to this win.

Louisville's path gets harder from here. Their quadrant has seen nothing but chalk so far, as BYU, Arkansas, and NC State advanced last night. The second and third rounds will be held next weekend at the home site of the highest seed in the quadrant. In this case, the teams will travel to Provo, Utah, where Louisville will take on the Cougars of BYU. More information will be available as the first round ends across the tournament.

Hear the press conference style interview with Coach KFD, Emina Ekic, Sarah Hernandez, and Brooklynn Rivers here.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We made it happen! Last week, everyone else was as thrilled as Jeff and I were to have Paulie back "on the air". We were also joined by Jared, and the four of us rattled on for over an hour. We're back today (at least three of us, we never did a roll call this week), and we'll bring you the joy and excitement of Louisville Women's Athletics as always. Tune into the Cardinal Couple YouTube at 11AM for this week's show.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Teeter and Tess plus Dana named -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

TALKING WITH SCOTT TEETER

Today's interview is with Scott Teeter. We take a look at what goes into recruiting of student-athletes and also a few of the basics of the game of Lacrosse. During the regular season, we tried to keep a weekly dialogue with the head coach of Louisville Lacrosse and will continue to try and do that now that the sports have been silenced. 

Today's talk is an excellent chance for you to learn more about the exciting sport of lacrosse and also a chance to explore some of the basics of the game. We've heard lacrosse is very similar to basketball in several concepts and features of the game. We know how crazy our readership is about UofL WBB, so we hope you'll enjoy today's chat with Scott. 

LINK: SCOTT TEETER 3/26/20 INTERVIEW


TRAVELS WITH TESS

Many of you remember UofL Volleyball standout Tess Clark and her contributions to Cards Volleyball. She was able to parlay her time at UofL into a chance to play in Europe as a professional after she graduated. 

Getting back from Europe, though, to the United States...in the mist of a pandemic...is no easy feat. We appreciate Nancy Worley, UofL Volleyball SID, sharing Tess's story and we're pleased to share it with you today: 

So after getting turned away from the gate for your flight to Phoenix, what happened then?

Tess: It was crazy. We had to wait in line for hours, just to barely get a flight the next day. It was mayhem because no one knew on either side of the ocean exactly what was going on. The airlines didn’t know. The security didn’t know. This kind of thing had never happened before so they didn’t know what to tell us.  We had to spend the night Saturday and left Sunday.  The United States said it was not accepting flights after Monday at midnight from the U.K. So once again we were just hours ahead of the ban to beat this crazy situation. It could have been way worse.” 

Where did they eventually send you?

Tess: “Sunday we flew to Chicago. We were one of the very first international flights to land into O’Hare. So we had heard that Chicago was terribly long in screening but thankfully we were the first plane in so each of our screenings only took about 20 minutes. They took our temperature and asked a lot of questions. That part turned out easy but it was luck of the draw which line you stood in. Some people at the back of the line had to wait a lot longer. We just happened to be in the front.” 

The logistics of moving that many people with so little lead time had to be monumental.

Tess: “We made it home to Phoenix. It was kind of comforting because throughout these airports it was all Americans just trying to get home. We were all in the same boat.  So it was scary and there was so much anxiety but comforting to see families. Because every study abroad student had to leave so there were so many kids my age trying to get out with all their stuff and their suitcases. It was a big reunion of Americans trying to get out.  I took all my stuff home from Spain. Since my parents were there, they had their suitcases so I was able to fit all my stuff. If they hadn’t been there, I don’t know how I would have gotten my stuff home.”

In retrospect, you have to be grateful you made the call to head home. Talk about your decision process.

Tess: ”I feel like the moment I decided to come home was when I read my friend in Finland, which had zero cases at the time,  she was scared. She is a very level-headed person and she called me and said I am too scared to stay. That was my decision point.  If she is scared up there where it isn’t even bad, then I am in a country where it is already pretty bad and I knew then I had to get out. It was a wave of emotions at that point because my team was third in the league at that point, we were going to playoffs. We had a good chance to do so well, so that was emotional. I had to come to terms with if I left, I wouldn’t probably get to go back for that. I am so close with this team.  Just having to say goodbye to them was so hard. So sudden and not knowing. Andie was not able to say goodbye to anyone. She heard the news and the flight she booked as five hours later and she was gone. She didn’t get the chance to say goodbye.  I am thankful I got to say goodbye but it was draining. They totally understood but it still sucked.  I think every girl over there can attest that it is a sucky situation. There wasn’t anything else you could do. France was shut down. Spain was shut down. Germany was locked down. You couldn’t travel within the European Union. France had to lockdown its airports and the girls I knew playing there got out of there within hours of the shutdown of air traffic.”

There has to be a silver lining in all these dark clouds.

Tess: ”I think it was a blessing in disguise that my parents were there to go through this with me because it was nice to have my people there. If I had to face the uncertainty of travel alone it would have been harder. I obviously love Europe, but I am thankful to be back home in America. I don’t think it is as bad as it is going to be here judging from what I saw there.  I feel healthy and I feel like none of my family members are showing any symptoms.”

Is the CDC monitoring you and your family since you came in from a hot spot?

Tess: ”When we got screened by the CDC, they said that we were on a 14-day self-quarantine. So while no one is monitoring us, we are very respectful of that. We haven’t left the house. I have about five days left of only being home. We have to take our temperature every day and record it. My dad is working from home. My mom is a school nurse and the school system in Arizona are online classes only until April 10.  She is still waiting to hear if they are going to cancel school for the rest of the year but it hasn’t been announced yet. She’s on vacation still technically.  My sister goes to a small college in Arizona which is all online classes for the rest of the year. We are all home together.” 

You have to feel empathy for all the athletes who lost their championship opportunities or season. Talk about the range of emotions you have gone through.

Tess: “I think it is frustrating. As a professional volleyball player, you more than likely do not stay on the same team for more than one year. To have something that was so good and to be on a team that had a good shot at doing well in the playoffs it is frustrating that the situation came up. Obviously no one can control it, so there is no one to blame. All these teams have to deal with this crisis financially. The pro players don’t really know when the teams will start looking for players again and that puts us at a disadvantage because Americans are probably last on the list to recruit and sign. There are just a lot of unknowns. It is out of our control. All these American girls who were over there are now home two extra months instead of being in the mix.”

You are in some of the best shape of your life, what are you doing to keep your volleyball skills up to the professional level?

Tess: ”It is not like we can go help coach clubs or play. They are all cancelled and facilities are closed. It is irking because my practices in Spain were so difficult and they went so much quicker and faster and they made me so much of a better volleyball player. Every single day for three hours I would do that and I got so good. I have only been home for a week and I can’t find anything that was that high intensity. I am a very positive person. I am dealing with it. When you sit down and talk about it, you realize how sucky it is. ”

Talk about your perspective of the big picture of this unprecedented crisis.

Tess: “I have perspective that my problem not finishing my pro season is insignificant when people are dying. Even as I was traveling, seeing these countries shut down and Americans who weren’t as lucky as me and got stuck there. We were very, very thankful that we had a plane ticket home.  Now being home in my safe home with enough food, we are more than grateful we aren’t one of the people that are suffering. We are so lucky. When you think about it, every single person in the world has had something cancelled, or lost their business, every single person has been impacted in some way. The fact that we have our house and we have each other or isolated alone. There is so very much to be thankful for.  I am supported by my parents and I am not in debt. All of the players lost our salaries for the rest of the season. So that is a bummer but then again in the big picture, thank goodness for the University of Louisville with my full ride there, I don’t have debt. So it is just this period of waiting and we are just really lucky.” 

DANA HONORED

 University of Louisville junior guard Dana Evans is one of four finalists for the 2020 Wade Trophy, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association announced today. The prestigious award is presented by the WBCA each year to the best player in college women’s basketball.

She is joined by Tyasha Harris of South Carolina, Sabrina Ionescu of Oregon and Aari McDonald of Arizona.

Evans led Louisville in scoring with 18.0 points per game while connecting on a league-best 90 3-pointers. She also became the first player in Atlantic Coast Conference history to be named ACC Player of the Year a year after receiving ACC Sixth Player of the Year honors.

Harris finished the current season as South Carolina’s leader in assists (5.7) and steals (1.6) for the third consecutive year. She was named the recipient of the 2020 Dawn Staley Award, which is presented annually to the nation’s best guard in NCAA Division I women’s basketball by the Phoenix Club of Philadelphia.

Ionescu, the 2019 Wade Trophy recipient, became the first player in women’s or men’s college basketball history to record 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists in her career. She earned Pac-12 Player of the Year honors and matched her single-season record eight triple-doubles.

McDonald concludes her college career with 66-straight double-figure scoring performances. She led the Pac-12 with 20.6 points and 2.3 steals per game and earned Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and All-Pac-12 selection honors.

The WBCA will announce the winner of the 2020 Wade Trophy on April 2.

Have a Friday full of feeling!

paulie

xxxxx

Photo Highlights: Softball -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Photo Highlights: Softball

The team I had the least opportunity to shoot this year was softball.  They had four home games right before everything came crashing and burning with COVID-19.  I captured the first two innings of their home opener and most of their second game.  Katy was in town for a grad school interview that weekend so I decided to focus my time on her instead.

Side note: Katy got into Louisville Presbyterian Seminary with full tuition and housing coverage, and will be working on a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy.  So, thank you all for your best wishes a few weeks ago!

To add to the few photos I did go back to a couple fall ball scrimmages I captured as well.

Sadly, we saw very little of softball, just like lacrosse.  I do hope the NCAA makes the right decision on granting all of the spring sports student-athletes with an extra year of eligibility.  Both Funke and Fergie (Ferguson) would love to come back.


DANA? 

(Some commentary)

There was a tele-conference with Dana Evans yesterday that Paulie phoned in to and asked some questions. A lot of subjects were covered. 

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why some of the so-called "journalists" in our city deemed it appropriate to focus on, and kept digging at the subject of the WNBA. 

Nothing to see here. Move along. such "yellow' journalism is sad and reflects on the nature of the ne'er-do-wells asking such stupid questions. Here was a perfect opportunity to talk about all the accomplishments Dana has aceheived in three years and they go for controversy. 

I like Paulie's response on Twitter: 

"Dana not going anywhere. Don't get caught up in the hype. Angel and Asia stayed for their senior seasons and they were more highly regarded than Dana." 

Although she is quite the basketball player, she IS NOT in the "Holy Trinity" of the three Cardinal WBB players widely recognized to be the best to don a UofL WBB jersey: 

Angel, Asia and Shoni. 

Did they leave early? Nope. Ms. Evans would be wise to return for her senior year and build upon the remarkable accomplishments she has already earned at UofL. There may not be a WNBA season this summer/fall. I feel confident she'll "make the right decision". 

Remember, these "experts" also had Jeff Walz gone to Tennessee. Last I checked, he's still playing UNO with his wife and kids in Louisville, KY. I look forward to see Dana playing her senior season at UofL. 

 (You can listen to/watch Dana's tele-conference at the link below): 

LINK: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gth9lc5qgs75und/Dana%20Teleconference%20%28condensed%29.mp4?dl=0

Remember to stay safe and keep practicing good hygiene.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Justine Sowry Interview -- Note from Jeff Walz and Family -- Dana teleconference today -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

JUSTINE SOWRY INTERVIEW

We caught up with Louisville Field Hockey head coach Justine Sowry yesterday and had a great conversation via phone on her status, the team, the present and future, Sheryl Brakemeier and quite a few other things.

The "Stick Girls" had a 16-win season in the fall of 2019, were ranked as high as #5 in the nation, were a #4 seed in the NCAA Tournament and won their first NCAA game over Michigan. 

The link is below. We hope you enjoy it: 


LINK: JUSTINE SOWRY INTERVIEW


We appreciate Coach Justine taking the time to update and inform Cardinal Couple nation and also thank Louisville Field Hockey S.I.D. Lori Korte Harmon for setting it up! 


JEFF WALZ UPDATE

Coach Jeff Walz sent me a nice e-mail yesterday for CardNation. 

Coach Walz and his ellow UNO players are listening to the advice our our mayor and governor and we hope you are, wherever you are, as well. We have Walz words for you below: 

Paul,

Just a little update for you….

Just wanted to take a second and check in.  Hope your family is safe and healthy.  We are hunkered down here at home doing home schooling with Lola and Lucy.  Amazing how times have changed in less than two weeks.  Recruiting is being done by Facetime with 99% of the recruits and parents.  Some of our players are at home with their families but we do have several still here in Louisville.  They are working hard to be creative with their training and hoping for sunny days so they can get outside and work on their game.  Our facilities are closed so they can’t get into the gym to shoot and we have no idea when they may be able to get back in. 

Just wanted to thank you again for your support of these remarkable young women.  Not only are they terrific on the basketball court, they represent our University and their families with great character.  We remind them daily how fortunate we all are to have such a wonderful and dedicated fan base. 

Stay Safe and God Bless!

Coach Walz

	Jeff Walz Head Coach Women’s Basketball University of Louisville Athletics 2432 S. Floyd St., Louisville, KY 40209 w: 502.852.0221 | jeff@gocards.com

DANA EVANS PRESS CONFERENCE

LINK TO DANA'S INTERVIEW WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON: 

LINK:  DANA EVANS TELECONFERENCE

Louisville Guard Dana Evans Teleconference Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. ET

University of Louisville junior guard Dana Evans will be available to speak with media representatives via teleconference on Wednesday, March 25 at 1:30 p.m. ET.  She has been named to multiple All-America teams in recent days.

Evans was named Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year after leading the league in 3-point field goals made (90), 3-point field goals made per game (3.0), 3-point field goal percentage (43.1%) and free throw percentage (89.0%).

She ranked third in the ACC with 18.0 points per game and helped lead the Cardinals to a 28-4 record and the program's first ever outright ACC regular season championship.

We understand that many sports media are seeking meaningful content.  While we cannot have in-person press conferences during this unprecedented time, we hope this teleconference will aid you in your coverage of UofL women’s basketball.  This teleconferences will be available for replay soon after the event on www.GoCards.com

Be sure to check out the Dana tele-conference later today, we'll provide a link here later or you can go directly to gocards.com shortly after the teleconference to hear it. 

Stay safe, stay away from crowds and have a "we're all in this together" Wednesday!

paulie

xxxxx