Volleyball Prepares for Notre Dame -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 VOLLEYBALL FACES CHALLENGES

( I am enjoying a rare day off by sleeping in- a small consolation for having to move onto my own health insurance beginning today.  Oh, the joy of getting old.)

We are in a short gap until the next women's sporting event, which happens when Volleyball opens their season against Notre Dame on Friday at 4:00 p.m. at the L&N Federal Credit Union arena

Volleyball is the only fall sport that takes place indoors, which makes allowing fans in quite tough.  Worldwide mentioned that he was part of a select few invited to watch the Red vs Black scrimmage last Friday. I'm fortunate enough to be asked to take photos of the match. 

The players will be wearing masks during the game.  As far as we know, volleyball is the only sport currently playing that requires the student-athletes to wear masks.

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Notre Dame went 19-10 last year.  They finished the conference tied for third at 12-6.  The other schools with a 12-6 record in 2019 were Louisville, Florida State, and North Carolina. They snuck into the NCAA Tournament, but fell in straight sets to the Bruins of UCLA in the opening round. Prior to the postseason, the Irish went on a streak of finishing .500 in the back quarter of the year, going 4-4 in the final eight matches.  One of those was a 3-0 sweep in favor of the Cards.  The prior five matches between the Cards and Irish before the late season sweep last year went into five sets with the Cards taking four of them.

As Worldwide mentioned on air last week, Notre Dame has continued to rebuild over the last few years after rebuilding from the ground up.  Their last losing season was in 2015.  Since then they have gone 22-10, 22-10, 16-12, and 19-10.  In 2019, the Irish had an attack percentage of .203.  They out-killed opponents 1493-1440.  They were plagued with 626 attack errors though. N.D. had mastered aces and blocking, finishing with 144 service aces and 251 blocks for an impressive 2.18 blocks per set.

The top three hitters last year return this season: Charley Niego (junior), Caroline Meuth (sophomore), Sydney Bent (junior).

Zoe Nunez, their setter from last year, is a rising junior and led the team with 1219 assists last year.  No other player recorded more than 100. Last year's libero is gone but the other big defensive players are back: Neigo (326 digs), Nunez (284), Meuth (231), and Bent (186). Notre Dame is a much more experienced squad after having a young team last year. Similar to the Cards, most of the starters and top players from 2019 have returned.

Both matches should be major showdowns this weekend and we hope to have our own Worldwide in attendance to give us some firsthand coverage on and off from his @cardcoupleradio twitter account.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED !

Paulie here, adding to Jared's Tuesday column to wish him a Happy Birthday! We, here at Cardinal Couple, wish him a great one! Jared has been an integral part of our site for many years now. We appreciate the several articles he writes each week and the vast number of photographs he provides for us, and many others.

Jared has recently been named pool photographer for Louisville Field Hockey, Women's Soccer and Volleyball this fall. 

(No, it doesn't mean he'll be in the Ralph Wright Natatorium taking photos in his bathing trunks).

He'll be snapping and supplying photos of UofL women's sports squads in action against the competition. Three different assistant S.I.D's requested his services. A wonderful honor bestowed to him...I know he is honored and eager to be there.

Happy Birthday Jared!   I join in with our colleagues in looking  forward to many more years of working with you covering the joy and excitement of UofL Women's Athletics!

LINK:  HAPPY BIRTHDAY

You can leave your birthday wishes in the comments section for "Mr. Anderson Jared"..

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared