Post Season Awards -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Good morning and hello again weekend, missed ya!  I really enjoy baseball season when it gets here but I also really enjoy the weeks they're on the road and I am not obligated to be anywhere.  

I do appreciate the birthday wishes from you all!  Despite taking a vacation day to golf and then cancelling my tee time due to the storms in the area, it was a great day.  

On the UofL sports front, thankfully its just typical summer post season news to report for the day.  

Softball

Two players earned National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Southeast Region honors. 
Carmyn Greenwood has been selected to the first team and Taylor Roby was named to the second team.

The awards honor softball student-athletes from the Association's 10 regions.  NFCA member head coaches from each respective region nominated student-athletes and voted for the teams. 

Greenwood takes home her second straight All-Region nod after earning first team accolades in 2021. The graduate senior outfielder led the team with a .400 batting average and stands first in the ACC with 70 hits. She also paces the league with 54 runs and is second with 52 RBIs, both career highs. Additionally, Greenwood has belted out a career-best 14 home runs this season, standing second on the team – with two grand slams. She also led the team with 18 doubles and 23 multi-hit games.

The two-time all-ACC selection finished her career at Louisville with a school-record .408 batting average in the last three years and stands second with a .657 slugging percentage. Greenwood is also ranked in the top 10 for single season batting average, hits, runs, home runs and total bases.

Roby,  also picks up her second consecutive All-Region award following a second team selection in 2021. The redshirt senior RHP/designated player led the team with a career-best 15 home runs – good for third in the ACC - and collected 15 wins in the circle. She also stood second on the team with a career-high 45 RBIs.

Roby is also a two-time All-ACC honoree with selections in 2021 and 2022. This season, she extended her career home run total to 40, moving into second on the school's all-time list.

LAX

Midfielder Caroline Blalock has been named CoSIDA Academic District 2 First Team.

Blalock was also named All-ACC Second Team and USA Lacrosse Magazine All-American Honorable Mention. Earlier this year, the five-year captain was named to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List.

She led the Cards in assists (19) and ground balls (36), ranked second in points (57) and caused turnovers (18), and ranked third in goals (38) and draw controls (41). She ranked sixth in the ACC with 2.0 ground balls per game.  Blalock had a 3.83 cumulative GPA while getting her undergraduate degree in marketing and sport administration and has a 3.70 GPA while studying for her MBA.

WGolf

Senior Lauren Thibodeau has received the 2022 Women's Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) Division I Kim Moore Spirit Award.  The purpose of the award is to recognize and honor a student-athlete or coach who exemplifies a great spirit toward the game of golf, a positive attitude on and off the golf course, a role model for her team and mental toughness in facing challenges.


Track & Field

The University of Louisville track and field team qualified 30 student-athletes for 31 entries to the 2022 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field East Preliminary Rounds. The regional meet will be held from May 25-28 at Indiana's Robert C. Haugh Complex in Bloomington, Ind. Following the preliminaries, the top-12 event finishers from each region will advance to the 2022 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships on June 8-11 in Eugene, Oregon. The 31 entries and 30 athletes are the most in program history, surpassing the 30 entries that the Cardinals had in 2010 and 2011.

The women's team will send 12 student-athletes to compete in 11 events. Two-time ACC women's outdoor pole vault champion and school record holder Gabriela Leon leads a trio of All-ACC performers that includes Aliyah Welter and Auriane Viola in the women's pole vault. ACC women's outdoor long jump champion and school record holder Synclair Savage and All-ACC honoree Brooke Weimer will compete in the women's long jump, while Savage will also serve as the first leg of the school record women's 4x100-relay team that is rounded out by Taylor Herbert, Je'Nyia Burton and Kiyah Yeast. Herbert is also set to contest the women's 100-meter. The women's high jump will feature ACC women's outdoor champion Emily Scott and All-ACC honoree Soledad Jean. Katie Martin will be back in action in the women's 400-meter hurdles after a school-record time and All-ACC performance last weekend. Katherine Coffey is scheduled to compete in the women's discus throw.

UofL selected to host 2023 ACC Championships

The Atlantic Coast Conference released its 2022-23 championships sites on Wednesday with the University of Louisville track and field program set to host the 2023 ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships from Feb. 23-25 at Norton Healthcare Sports and Learning Center.

This will be the first time that the Cards have hosted the ACC Championships since joining the conference in 2015.

The Norton Healthcare Sports and Learning Center was completed in January 2021. The 24-acre, multi-sport complex located in Louisville's Russell neighborhood, hosts a variety of local, regional, national track meets, sporting events and concerts. The facility features 90,000 square-feet of floor space with a 4,000 seat, 200-meter banked indoor track and competition areas for all jump, vaults and throws and a 400-meter outdoor track.


Field Hockey

University of Louisville field hockey student-athlete Aimee Plumb has been named to the College Sports Information Directors of America Academic At-Large All-District team. She will advance to the ballot for CoSIDA Academic All-America honors which will be announced in June.  To be nominated for Academic All-America consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative G.P.A. of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00 and have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution.

Plumb is one of 11 student-athletes named to the District 2 team and the only sophomore with the rest of the district field comprised of seniors and graduate students.  This marks the latest accolade for Plumb, who also earned National Field Hockey Coaches' Association (NFHCA) National Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors.

The psychology major from Canterbury, Kent, England, is a two-time NFHCA National Academic Squad member and was an NFHCA Scholar of Distinction in 2021.

Staff Edition

University of Louisville field hockey coach Justine Sowry has announced that Malachi Mahan will join her staff as an assistant coach.

"I am ecstatic to welcome Malachi to our coaching staff for the fall season and beyond," said Sowry. "We were fortunate to have Mal serving in a temporary role this spring and we gained valuable insight into what he brings to the program. He has a solid coaching background combined with the expertise and the ability to challenge and to offer a different perspective. Mal brings the skills I was looking for in this position and will be a great addition to our staff. I could not be more excited for the new chapter that is about to begin for Louisville Field Hockey."

Mahan comes to Louisville after spending eight seasons (2013-20) as an assistant field hockey coach at the University of California.

The ladies are getting it done in the classrooms and in the fields!  And the construction of new top notch facilities are bringing in the championship events to the city.  Its another opportunity to showcase our beautiful city to people from all over the world.  Cheers to that! 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour PODCAST  --  The gang is taking the week off from the soundwaves as most of us will be away from home and without the opportunity to record.   We will re-evaluate next week's situation being it is Memorial Weekend.

As Always, Go Cards! 

~Daryl