More Cardinal Favorites - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Happy Mother's Day

Paulie's sis Christy is a great Mom! 

First off, a Happy Mother's Day to all this fine spring Sunday morning.  I'm blessed still still have a vital and active mother (and vacation travel partner!) in my life, still being a provider to myself, my father, and my brother and his family.  Life wouldn't be the same without her and I wanted to take a moment and thank her for being her.

If you are a Mom, top of the day to you! Make sure and let your Mom know she is appreciated and loved today (and every day!) .

Moms make the world go around.

More Cardinal Favorites

Now I'd like to pick up on a theme that Jared posted on Thursday.  We talked about this in the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour yesterday some, but I wanted to take a moment to dive in a bit more to it.

Cardinal Favorites.  Jared shared some across sports and I'll try to do the same.  I will be a bit volleyball heavy, as anyone who's a Cardinal Couple regular reader will not be surprised to hear.

Aiko

On CCRH, I mentioned, I believe, Justine Landi, Emily Juhl, and current player Aiko Jones as favorite players in Volleyball, and if you know me, I do sometimes "latch on" to some players that don't get as much attention and aren't in the spotlight.  You can see some of that in my selections above, Kala Faulkner, for examply, was with the Cards for only one season, her freshman year, but I always loved seeing her get out on the court, which admittedly wasn't terribly frequently.  A 5'6" guard out of Ashland, KY, she was the first player that I would now identify as being part of the Attack Yorkie squad, though that moniker wasn't coined until some time later.

 For WBB I mentioned Katie Olsen, Kala Faulkner, and more recently Kylee Shook.  I do want to mention that I have strongly approached this from the perspective of who are my favorites. 

I should certainly mention Gwen Rucker, who we've mentioned some recently as having been a dual-sport athlete in Basketball and Volleyball for a couple of years.  You could probably throw every Attack Yorkie in here, certainly including Shelby Harper that Jared mentioned the other day.

I'll include Jude Schimmel, and in my mind, she ranks far higher in favorites than her older sister.  And, of course, in that vein, Jess Laemmle gets a nod, here.  The last I'll mention is Sam Fuehring.

In Volleyball, in addition to the above, add Lecia Brown, a middle blocker that could jump through the roof.  Also Renee Tomko, another player that was only with us for one year before she transferred to Delaware.  She was a fantastic setter that was poised to have a great career with the Cardinals but I think soured on some coaching decisions her freshman year (decisions that I think I can reasonably say, this many years later, that I too thought were not great).  Another short timer, this time due to injury ending her high level volleyball playing career, is Javoni Faucette.  And my final entry, I promise, is a joint one.  Think it's reasonable to include Tess Clark, Eleni Georgiafandis, and Maggie Dejong as a single entry because they are such an iconic trio together.  All three are wonderful individuals, but when you see the friendship bond between the three of them, you can't help but smile.

Inger Katrine Bjerke

OK, let's pick up a few from some other sports.  Gabrielle Vincent and Inger Katrine Bjerke from Soccer.  Lotta Kahlert (who's name I can't believe I blanked on yesterday...sorry!) from Field Hockey.

 From Softball, another trio of good friends, Chelsi Beamis, Katelyn Mann (now Donnelly), and the Big Wol', Alicja Wolny.  (Yeah, OK, their trio of pups probably help their entry, "Princess Nova Jean", "Reggie", and "Kona May", respectively).  Add Maggie Ruckenbrod - don't try to steal 2nd when Maggie is behind the plate, and finally Alison "Mike" Szydlowski.

OK, it's a long list, but it's so hard to pare down.  I'd love to hear your faves in the comments.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Another Cardinal Couple Radio Hour is in the can.   As mentioned above, we touched on the favorite players topic, we talked about volleyball and basketball verbal commit Sydni Schetnan.  We also brought up a few other news and notes items.

Check it out.

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JMcA