CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDINAL COUPLE
We report on the joy and excitement of UofL women's sports here. Thanks for checking us out! Click the picture of Louie to hear the latest Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast!!

Sunday, March 27, 2022

Survive and Advance - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Elite Eight Achieved





The Louisville women's basketball team advanced to the Elite Eight with a 76-64 win over Tennessee in Wichita.

The Lady Vols got on the board first at the beginning of the game, and would trade buckets with the Cards a few times.  UofL would take their first lead of the game three and a half minutes in on a Kianna Smith three pointer, and would never relinquish the lead in the game again.  Tennessee would get within two at the beginning of the fourth quarter after spending all of the 3rd quarter chipping away at the lead.




Louisville led by as much as 15 points midway through the second quarter, and while it never felt like UofL was about to let it slip away, no lead ever felt truly safe.

Emily Engstler and Hailey Van Lith both had 20+ point games, 23 for Van Lith and 20 for Engstler.  Engstler would pair that with a 10 rebound effort for a double double.  Van Lith was the most giving on the team with six assists, and Chelsie Hall handed out four assists while just missing double-digit scoring with nine.  Kianna Smith had 12 points and four steals.  A great effort by the freshman Payton Verhulst as well.  Verhulst dropped seven points and snagged a rebound in front of what was reported to be a massive group of family and friends with Wichita being only about two and a half hours driving time away from her home in De Soto, Kansas.




Perhaps the most under-stat-captured efforts of the game were Olivia Cochran and Liz Dixon.  Three points, three rebounds, and an assist show up on the stat sheet for Cochram, and more alarming if all you look at is the stat sheet was only 16 minutes and five personal fouls.  Dixon had a similar sort of stat line, two points, three blocks, and four rebounds, but what doesn't get shown is how they battled in the paint against 6'6" Tamari Key and was part of largely shutting down the Tennessee big game, holding Key to only three points as well.




The Cards advance to the Elite Eight and will be facing Michigan tomorrow night with a 9pm EDT start time.  Michigan...it can only be described as survived...against 10 seed South Dakota, winning 52-49 over the Coyotes.  The other 10 seed still in the tournament, Creighton, did advance to the Elite Eight but will have a tall task ahead of them tonight against South Carolina.  Also in action yesterday, again "survive" is the only verb for NC State's win over Notre Dame, 66-63, and UConn handled business against Indiana, 75-58.

The FRED Report


"Yabba, Dabba, Doo ! It's the Elite Eight for you, LOU !!"


FREE THROWS -- The best quarter for free throw shooting for the Cards was the 2nd quarter, with the squad hitting 4-6 for 66.67%.  And if that's the best it got, well, obviously there's not going to be a letter here.  At just a touch shy of 62% for the game, no "f" can be awarded.  -

REBOUNDS -- 36 rebounds for the Cards, not a terrible total, but this is always compared to the opponents total as well, and in this defensive battle with lots of forced shots on both ends of the court, there were lots of rebounds to be gotten.  Tennessee claimed 52 of them, putting Louisville on the losing end of this stat.  Against, no letter can be awarded here.  -

For EFFORT/EXECUTION, there's a lot of "eye test" here, though assists come in to play.  15 assists on 28 made field goals is a nice total, and compares favorably to Tennessee's nine assists on 24 field goals.  Under 42% field goal shooting is ok, but not spectacular.  I'll award an upper case "E" here.  I think there could be an argument that it's a bit generous, but I credit a lot to the team not giving up as the lead narrowed at the beginning of the fourth quarter, and digging deep to finish the game off well.  Capital "E"

DEFENSE -- For the "D" letter grade, I tend to look to the right side of the stat sheet a lot, in addition to feel from watching the game.  11 steals, eight blocks, and only seven turnovers (compared to UT's 18), combined with keeping the effort level high, I'll give the capital "D".  

FINAL FRED TALLY: 

- - E D

Cardinal Couple Bracket Report




Bracket updates from Bracket Czar Jared, with double-check by Paulie, as is our typical practice:

42 wins: Bea, Perry Sosh
41 wins: Kenny Schneider, Nick O, Kenneth Stark Sr, Jared, Jeff (wait, really?  My dumpster fire of a bracket has 41 wins?!)
40 wins: Benny J, Joe Hill
39 wins: Doug Anderson, Jason Wyrick, Katy Whitesell, Blue Lou
38 wins: Case
37 wins: David Watson
36 wins: Arthur, Louavulfan35, Daryl, Vivian, Curtis
34 wins: Paulie
32 wins: Sonya
19 wins: CC Chimps

Brackets with all of their Final Four picks still remaining: Kenny Schneider, Blue Lou, Nick O, Kenneth Stark Sr, Bea, Vivian, Doug Anderson, Jason Wyrick, Jared, Katy, Jeff, Daryl

Lacrosse


Scott Teeter and his Lacrosse squad tangled with UVA yesterday at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium in what Winnie the Pooh would certainly have called a blustery day.  The Cavaliers would get the win in a close matchup, 12-11.


Hannah Morris likely scoring one of her pair
Our Jared was there and brought us these pictures, but alas, I couldn't take this one in as I was driving to Cincinnati and back dealing with car problems.  Many thanks to my mother for the rescue and impromptu trip there so I could pick up a loaner vehicle.

UVA did get out to a quick start in the first quarter, getting three on the scoreboard before Louisville could get the offense in gear.  The Cards would get two back, thanks to Nicole Perroni and Paige Richbourg.  The Cavs would get another before the end of the quarter, however.


It was all Cards in the 2nd quarter, though.  A pair by Allegra Catalano, and one by Hannah Morris put the Cards on top 5-4 at halftime.

Catalano would complete the hat trick to open the 3rd quarter scoring, but also set off a blizzard of offense on both ends of the field.  UVA would find the back of the net five times in the quarter and UofL got four.  Catalano claimed three of those with Hannah Morris chipping in her 2nd of the game.




Kokoro Nakazawa tallied a couple of assists
With the score tied 9-9 after three quarters, it was a sprint to the finish.  UVA would score a pair before Nicole Perroni would claw one back with just over five minutes left in the game.  Another UVA score and Paige Richbourg would get another to bring the UVA lead back to just one. 

At the end of the game, Louisville would have one last chance, without about 10 seconds left on the clock, to run the length of the field a fire a shot home, but the long shot was saved by the UVA goalkeeper to preserve the 12-11 lead for the Cavs as time ran out.



UofL Lacrosse alumnae (left to right: Jen Schaaf,
Alex McNicholas, and Ally Hall
Another great effort by the Louisville Lacrosse squad as they continue to chip away at fearsome ACC opponents.

UofL will stay at home for another couple of games, but step out of conference a bit.  Ohio State (no, I'm not putting a "The" in front of it), will come to play Thursday evening at 7pm.  Vanderbilt will be next up at the LLS on Tuesday April 5th with a noon start.

Softball


Softball will be wrapping up their series with Clemson today after falling to the Tigers again yesterday.  Louisville would like to get a win against the solidly Top 20 Clemson team, but so far the Tigers have come out on top
.



Yesterday's bout was a five inning run-rule win for Clemson.  The Tigers put up a trio of runs in both the 2nd and 3rd innings and were threatening for that many or more in the 5th, but the run-rule put a stop to it after the 2nd run of the inning got the score to 8-0.

Chardonnay Harris takes the loss on this one as both the starting pitcher and spending the most time in the circle with 2.1 innings pitched.  Sam Booe made an appearance for 1.2 innings, and Payton Hudson finished out the final two outs of the fifth.

The game today will start at noon in Clemson and is on the ACC Network via your tuner, or as always you can catch it via streaming on the ACC Network Extra.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast


(Not a pic of yesterday's podcast lineup...
but we do have CCR as our show's first three initials.)


Case, Daryl, Jared, and Paulie all convened to record the CCRHP yesterday.  Alas, with my emergency trip to Cincinnati and back, the live streaming component via Youtube was not able to happen.

I did listen to most of it myself on the way back down I-71, and it was a great discussion and a lot of fun to just get to listen to.  Basketball dominated the discussion as you might expect as they covered the tournament journey to that point, and previewed the game against Tennessee.

Good fun, and easy to check out at any of your favorite podcast directories and at it's anchor.fm home at:



JMcA

7 comments:

  1. Survive. Advance. Send Eric Brewton off on a slow boat to Bangkok and AMEN that we won't hear "Rocky Top" again for the rest of the Tournament.

    The Cards looked like they were headed for a fourth quarter collapse but this team has now developed a "it's not over until we say it's over mentality and the gals from New York and Washington exemplify it.

    I saw "Emily Everything" and "Hailey Van Excellence" monikers hung on the Cards two leaders and I love it !

    I just may make the trip to Minneapolis if Louisville does. Who's with me? There's a lot of Hy Vee Grocery stores in those woods up there. Maybe they'll change their name to "Hail-ley" to recognize the Cards for the Final Four weekend.

    Curtis "Take your daiiy Hailey and call me in the morning" Franklin

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a win !!

    I was listening to the post-game radio feed and Jeff Walz's final words were : "I'm Ready to head back to the hotel bar and have a stiff, tall drink".

    Coach, I'm miles ahead of you.

    The Real Joe Hill

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Miles Ahead fantastic.
      Merv

      Delete
  3. bye bye lady vols
    cant beat jeff walz
    cards fans aint u great
    cards are in the elite eight

    next stop on this train is michigan

    the wolverines are coached by kim barnes arico
    theyll head home via battle creek, yo
    naz hillmon may be all that
    but um is done and got real lucky on sat

    ReplyDelete
  4. Seeing a tougher game against Michigan this time, but still seeing a final four coming 👍

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello Friends !!
    Arthur Here !!

    Y'all did it !! Bea and I were gettin a little nervous there but when Louisville plays defense like that at the end of games, no one will beat them the rest of the way.

    Bea is honored to "be" the Bea tied for the Pick 'Em lead. She's regretting she didn't take the Cards to win in all

    Your softball team ran into Valerie yesterday and when she's "on" she one of the best pitchers in the ACC.

    Your Friend
    #1 Clemson Fan
    Arthur
    Greer, SC

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good game, Cards do what they do defend. A big shout-out to Chelsea Hall clutch baskets down the stretch, also to Liz Dixon for hanging in there guarden Tamari keys.
    Ps Olivia got beat up! what...no foul calls wow!!
    Go Cards Merv

    ReplyDelete

Please leave your comments here. We ask you be respectful of other posts, no matter how ridiculous they may seem to you. After all, it is CARDINAL COUPLE.

Any attempts to advertise a product or other website here in the comments section without the prior consent of CARDINAL COUPLE will result in a bill rendered for advertising services and possible legal action. We're serious. No more bots.

Now, have your take...