Spring Sports in Winter Weather - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Lacrosse Falters in Pittsburgh

First year squad Pitt has built a team with a significant amount of talent from the transfer portal, as you do when creating a new program.  They put together enough talent to pick up their first win in ACC play against UofL, 17-10 on their home turf.

The first quarter was mostly point-counterpoint, with goals by Kylea Dobson, Hannah Morris, Allegra Catalano, and Paige Richbourg to end the quarter tied at four.

Pitt was able to pull a bit of a lead in the second quarter, starting it off with a trio of goals.  Louisville was able to get two of them back with goals from Kokoro Nakazawa and Allegra Catalano.  Pitt with snag one more to enter the locker room with a 8-6 lead.

The third quarter was a tough pill to swallow for UofL.  The defense was able to slow Pitt slightly and hold them to just four goals in the quarter, but they offense wasn't able to generate anything.

The Pitt scoring continued in the fourth, stretching their lead to 13-6 before UofL was able to find some offense and narrow the lead to 13-10.  Credit Hannah Morris with a pair to complete the hat trick, add an additional score by Kylea Dobson, and add in one from Nicole Perroni kept her scoring streak alive.  Alas, Pitt would answer the four goal run to close out the game.

Lacrosse will head out on the road, and up north.  The next game will be at Syracuse on Saturday the 16th.  A step out of conference will be up after that with Niagara two days later, and return home for the season finale, and senior day, vs Notre Dame two weeks from now.

Softball Struggles against North Carolina

Another spring sport battling unseasonably winter-like weather was Softball hosting UNC at Ulmer Stadium.  I suspect the softball squad would like to blame it on the rain, but whatever the cause, UNC gets the win 9-5 to even the series.

UofL Softball tends to score in big ways, but it wasn't working for the Cards yesterday.  The Tarheels would get on the board first in the second inning with a trio of runs.  UofL partly answered in the bottom half of the frame.  Vanessa Miller drew a walk to start the scenario, but was out at second in a fielder's choice by Maddi Grant.  Grant was able to make it to second after a throwing error allowed her to advance.  Ally Alexander singled, and also advanced to second on a throw, with Grant advancing to third.  After flipping the line-up, Carmyn Greenwood hit a shot out to left center to score Grant and Alexander.

Taja Felder started in the circle

After a pair of runs by UNC in the fourth inning, Sam Booe would replace Taja Felder in the circle and got out of the inning.

Defensively, things were looking better for the Cards, but the offense still wasn't in gear, until the seventh inning when UNC would get another four across, all but sealing the win for the Tarheels with the 9-2 lead.  UofL did show some signs of life in the bottom half of the frame, but it wouldn't be enough.

Sam Booe in relief

Taylor Roby got on base in what was technically a fielder's choice.  Carmyn Greenwood had tripled previously and Roby's solid contact did skip as it was on it's way to UNC's third base player.  Greenwood looked like she was going to return to the base thinking it was a line drive, and by the time she was getting back going towards home, the UNC player was able to tag her out.  In any case, the inning continued with a Korbe Otis single followed by Dylann Cravens with a double, scoring Roby and Otis.  Vanessa Miller singled to score Cravens bringing the score to 9-5 before UNC would get the final out.

The black unis look sharp!

The series will wrap up today at noon, with the stream on ACC Network Extra as always.

There is also an additional game to be played mid-week with the Kentucky game having been rescheduled.  That one will be contested starting at 6pm on Tuesday, and the softball schedule page does show ESPNU for the TV coverage.

Volleyball

A (I believe) club player (in white) in awe of
Anna DeBeer's windup

Again, in spring exhibition play, Volleyball was in action again.  They started the day at The Ohio Valley Volleyball Center for a pair of two set matches against Xavier and Georgia Tech before finishing out the day at L&N Federal Credit Union Arena for a four set match against Tennessee which the Cards won 3-1.

There was a standing room only crowd for this, which may initially be surprising for spring volleyball play, but there is a massive club volleyball tournament going on at the Fairgrounds this weekend and large hordes of club players came over to watch UofL in action.  The report from Jared was that they had to turn way probably a couple hundred people at the doors.  Quite a turnout for an exhibition match.

Paige Morningstar making her case for the starting
setter position.

Not a great deal new to learn from this as spectators, but of course the playing time and practice is valuable for the team.  Jared was in attendance, with his lenses, so we did want to bring your his great work capturing the team in action.

Celebratory Claire Chaussee hops.  (Yes, she will be back for her Covid year in the fall)

There's just really a lot going on in this picture.
Take a moment to absorb it all.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

A trio on the show, Case, Jared, and Paulie on the call today for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast.  They covered some lingering Basketball news in Ramani Parker deciding to enter the transfer portal, but their discussion then turned to spring sports to examine the current state and what is needed for each team to make their respective tournaments.  Of course, there were diversions and tangents to enjoy as well.

You can find it at any of your favorite podcast directories including it's home at anchor.fm:

https://anchor.fm/cardinal-couple/episodes/Softball-and-Lacrosse-Have-Work-to-Do-e1gv8gl

Update: Solè Williams Commits

Cincinnati guard Solè Williams has announced her commitment to the Cards for Women's Basketball.

The 5'8" guard out of Cincinnati scored an average of 23.2 points per game and was the player of the year in the Greater Miami Conference.  The Princeton High School Vikings finished the year with a 23-4 record, losing to Mount Notre Dame in the Regional Semifinals.  Williams also averaged 3.8 assists per game along with 3.6 steals per game.  At 5'8", she'll be too tall to be considered an official Attack Yorkie, but otherwise it sounds like she fits the bill.

She was named to the All-Ohio first team this year, and still has a year to play and impress before she'll join the Cardinals.

100% COMMITTED pic.twitter.com/XDialMc7JP

— Solè (@solewilliams15) April 8, 2022