Alyssa Cavanaugh -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Community Mourns Again

The regional volleyball community has taken another body blow in 2020.

Alyssa Cavenaugh, who played a major role in WKU's emergence as a significant team on the national level passed away Friday.

While this is tangential to UofL, many Cardinals knew Alyssa, and basically everyone greatly respected her.  Alyssa was diagnosed with Leukemia in 2018, and suffered the typical difficulties of cancer treatment, including chemotherapy.  She received a bone marrow transplant from her father in February of 2019 and had announced that she had been cancer free for a year in January of this year.

While not explicitly stated by the WKU release, apparently the cancer subsequently reemerged.

Alyssa was a Louisville native, playing her high school volleyball at Assumption.  Her tenure at Assumption overlapped with UofL players Katie George, Courtney Robison, Molly Sauer and Alexis Hamilton.

Tributes from many volleyball players have been shared, including numerous UofL players.

The Louisville volleyball community was rocked earlier this year with the deaths of Lesley and Rhyan Prather, along with Carrie and Kacey McCaw when their vehicle was struck head-on in Missouri as they were travelling to a volleyball tournament in Kansas City.

Lesley Prather's sister is Sarah Petkovic who is the Louisville Volleyball Director of Operations.  Both Lesley and Sarah were great volleyball players at UofL found in the record books using their maiden name, Drury.  Lesley, who was a Louisville firefighter, was recently posthumously awarded the Louisville Firefighter of the year award.

Carrie McCaw played college volleyball at Syracuse.  UofL and Syracuse held a special honor when they met in competition this year at L&N Federal Credit Union Arena October 9th and 10th.

It has been a challenging year for all sports, but volleyball in the region has had it particularly hard.

Our thoughts are with the Cavenaugh family, her friends, teammates, and others that knew her.  WKU was a great opponent in the 2019 season, with two competitive matches including one in the NCAA tournament.  Alyssa Cavenaugh was no small part of building the WKU program to that level.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

A slimmer crew for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast, with Case Hoskins and Daryl Foust away celebrating various birthdays.  Paulie, Jared, and myself held down the fort.

We explored the implications of Duke WBB cancelling all the rest of their season.  We also celebrated the academic success of several UofL women's sports teams. With Case being off, the broadcast has not been transferred to Anchor FM yet, so the You Tube version is the only one currently available.

Check it out below!

JMcA