Volleyball Spring Season to Get Underway -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Set to Pick Up Where They Left Off

After an abnormal three-and-a-half month break in the "middle" of the season, UofL Volleyball will get back to work with their spring season today. While this week's action will be just an exhibition against Dayton and there is yet another break between this match and the next, it's the start of a what is a pretty busy schedule. There's also space for another match to fill in next week if Coach Dani Busboom-Kelly wants to try to find an opponent to keep the team sharp.

As a refresher, Louisville is coming off of a 5-2 fall, which puts them in fifth in conference, though they're tied for third with two losses. If Louisville is able to knock off Notre Dame in their first conference game of the spring set, Louisville would move into a four way tie for second at 6-2. The Cards swept Syracuse and Boston College in their double-headers and split with Pittsburgh to end the year. Along with Louisville and Notre Dame, three other teams failed to play eight conference matches in the fall: Clemson, Florida State, and Wake Forest. Clemson and Wake each played six, while Florida State finished their fall with just four matches played. 

It's unlikely that these teams would be able to catch up to the rest of the conference, given the tighter spring schedule, but they'll be keen to try, as the NCAA tournament is set to start on April 9th. Particularly, Clemson would like to get more matches under their belt as they sit the highest of those three at 3-3. 

For today's matchup, Louisville will get a Dayton squad that is playing their first match of the 2020-21 season, as the Atlantic-10 canceled fall sports completely last year. The Flyers will open their conference season with a double-header next Saturday against Saint Louis. They'll bookend their season that way, actually, finishing with two matches against the Billikens as well at the end of March. 

Dayton made the NCAA tournament in 2019, losing to Marquette in the first round after going 20-8 in the regular season and winning the A-10 conference tournament. They played Louisville early in that year at the annual Cardinal Classic, and the Cards swept the Flyers in the last match of the event. Dayton opened 2019 with an exhibition win over Pittsburgh, and, while they went 0-3 at the Cardinal Classic, they took both Texas A&M and Florida to five sets. 

The Cards and Flyers will get action underway at 3PM today in the L&N Federal Credit Union Arena. Attendance for all spring home matches will be limited to family and close friends, though we've yet to find out if Jeff will manage to sneak his way onto that list. No video is listed for this one, so keep an eye out for a full rundown from Jeff in his write-up tomorrow about the match.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Louisville finally suffered their first loss of the 2020-21 basketball season, but it's not all bad for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast as we get to recap the bounce-back win they had as well. We're without Daryl this week, but the four knuckleheads will file in as normal to bring you the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics. Tune in to the Cardinal Couple YouTube Channel at 11AM for the live show, or check out the replay any time after the show ends. You can also subscribe to the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour on your favorite podcast player to have the show pushed to your device every week. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-