Lax, Tennis, Softball and More -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Lacrosse Survives Central Michigan

In their first game ranked higher than #20, Louisville Lacrosse had a bit of a scare. Central Michigan took a one goal lead with 11:39 remaining in the match before the Cards scored five of the final six goals to take an 11-8 victory in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan yesterday afternoon.

"We are happy that we got the win today, but overall I didn't think it was our best performance," said Scott Teeter. "You have to give Central Michigan a lot of credit, but luckily we were able to make enough plays down the stretch to get the win."

It was certainly far from being Louisville's best performance of the season, the Cards found themselves tied 4-4 going into halftime. The Cards held a 3-1 lead but the Chippewas chipped away at that lead to even the score. Louisville scored the first two goals of the second half to go up 6-4. All six of the goals at that point were scored by different Cardinal players.

Central Michigan had an answer by scoring three straight over the next nine minutes, sparking Teeter to call a timeout in an attempt to halt CMU's momentum.

The timeout proved fruitful on the defensive side as the UofL defense silenced Central Michigan for seven minutes. Caroline Blalock solved the CMU man-to-man defense and scored her second goal of the match to even the score at seven apiece. Bella Karstien gave the Cards the lead with her fourth goal of the season.

CMU's Sara Tisdale saw their chance slipping away and quickly called a timeout for the Chippewas. She drew up a play and her Chips converted to even the score 8-8 with just under five minutes remaining.

It became upperclassman time for the Cards and they responded. 

Ally Hall scored what would be the go ahead goal 34 seconds later. Caroline Blalock, who was recently named to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List, had enough vof this CMU hanging around and closed the door with two final goals -- the last coming with 53 seconds remaining. 11-8 Cards win. 

Here's Coach Teeter's post-game comments in the link below when he spoke with Paulie: 

LINK:  SCOTT TEETER AFTER CMU GAME 3/12/21

The Cards improve to 3-2 on the year and travel to Marquette on Sunday at noon.

Women's Tennis Falls to NC State

The Louisville women's tennis woes continued as they dropped their fourth match in the last five outings. #10 NC State was in town and downed the Cards 5-2.

The Wolfpack started by taking the doubles point highlighted by the #2 doubles team in the country in Anna Rogers and Alana Smith. NC State then took four of the six singles points to close out the win.

Raven Neely topped #38 Adriana Reami and Chelsea Sawyer defeated Jaeda Daniel for the two Louisville points.

Louisville hopes to bounce back on Sunday against Wake Forest.

Softball Hosts Red and Black Challenge

As Daryl mentioned yesterday, the Red and Black Challenge schedule was altered due to the forecast. The forecast changed again but they're leaving the schedule where it's at.

The Cards will start today off at 11:30 against Valparaiso. Louisville will then take a break as Western Kentucky and Valparaiso play at 2:00. Saturday's action will then conclude at 4:30 when the Cards take the field again against WKU. Sunday features a game between Valpo and WKU but Louisville will be off.

Both of Louisville's games will be on ACC Network Extra so you can catch these online or the ESPN app. The Cards hope to improve their record to 9-7 over the weekend.

I'll be out at Ulmer Stadium for both games so we will feature some of the photos tomorrow. Perhaps Paulie or Worldwide may make it out for the latter game.

Volleyball Visits Duke

After Clemson had some issues with COVID-19, Louisville volleyball changed their travel plans and ended up going to Duke. The Cards and Blue Devils will square off at Cameron Indoor Stadium today and tomorrow both at 2:00 p.m.

An NCAA Champion

Daryl gave us the great news yesterday, but something of this nature for a UofL student-athlete deserves a second day of recognition.

Makenli Forrest won the NCAA 2021 Indoor Weight Throw title with a 23.26m toss. The mark is also .5m better than the old program mark as Forrest now owns the school record.

Field Hockey To Face Virginia

Louisville  Field Hockey returns to Trager Stadium today for a noon match against Virginia.  

The Cards bring a 9-3 mark into the contest today, after starting the spring season with a 2-0 loss to North Carolina on the road and the travelling to Ball State, where they captured a 5-0 match in Muncie.

Virginia comes in aat 4-8 on the split season and began the Spring session with a 2-0 loss vs. Duke. 

This one can be found on the ACC Network Extra.  

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

It's going to be like the old days with the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour today. Case is out today (also why I'm taking over for today's article), Daryl is doing some ACC Network duties to make sure the video cameras stay on me, and I'll be faking knowing how to use a camera for more UofL photos. Don't worry, Case will be back next week.

Paulie and Worldwide will handle a schedule that's longer than the dictionary and covering all sorts of UofL teams. There will also probably be some talk of the upcoming NCAA Women's Tournament and the Selection Show on Monday.

Happy Saturday and Go Cards!

Jared