Sunday Cardinal Couple - Signs of Summer

 Signs of Summer

It feels like things are starting to slow down a touch at the ol' Cardinal Couple site.  Most sports have concluded their competitions for the academic year, the weather has turned warmer, and this year a few overachieving cicadas have overcome an unseasonable cool snap to begin Brood X Summer.  It's quite a change from even just a few weeks ago when essentially all of UofL's traditionally spring and fall sports were in action and we were having trouble keeping track of it all.

There are still some things in motion.  The NCAA Championship selections have not occurred or been announced for Softball or Rowing, though UofL is not expected to be participating in either.  Lauren Hartlage did advance to compete in the NCAA Championship in Arizona next weekend, though the team fell short.

As we begin to emerge from the strong social distancing approaches of Covid protocols, I expect we will see some of the individualized activities of some athletes instead of UofL team activities.  Last summer, for example, the Florida Gulf Coast League had three Cardinal Softball athletes participating and provided us great opportunities to cover their games.  Swimming traditionally has plenty of activity over the summer with individual Cardinal athletes participating.  Cardinal Couple will work to bring coverage of as much of this info as we can get our hands on.

Cardinal Couple will also, of course, turn to more analysis, maybe some recruiting info.  We'll almost certainly cover some Cards in the Pros, particularly with the WNBA.  We'll find some time to make some predictions for the 2021-2022 seasons.  We'll bring your fall schedules for teams as soon as possible, and we'll continue the usual fun-loving coverage of everything UofL women's sports as always.

Rowing ACC Championships

We also will likely still have some honors to announce for the 2020-2021 seasons, including today.

McKenzie Sweeney, of the Rowing squad, earned Second Team All-ACC honors following their victory in the Petite Final of the First Varsity Eight boats.  The crew just edged out Boston College for the win with less than a second margin over nearly seven minutes of rowing.

In some other Rowing results, UofL also claimed victory in the Petite Final of the Second Varsity Four and second place in the Petite Final of the Second Varsity Eight.  In the Grand Final of the First Varsity Four, the Louisville entry came in sixth.

Track and Field ACC Championships

While no one on the women's side of the competition achieved All-ACC status, several personal bests were set in the 5,000 meter run.  Purity Sanga, Ivine Chemutai, and Bailey Beery all set personal bests.

Overall UofL placed 10th in the standings for the women.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Screenshot by Jeff McAdams of Daryl

No awards were set by the CCRHP crew yesterday, but we had a lot of fun anyway.  Daryl was able to get in on the call from the ACC Broadcast center on Arthur street, and even showed us a little bit around her setup and her role in bringing all of us UofL Athletics via the ACC Network and ACC Network Extra.

Paulie, Jared, and I were also in on the call.  We covered Softball, Track and Field, Rowing, WNBA, and more.

JMcA