Whitfield to Racing Louisville -- Gabriela Leon to World Championships -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Allison Whitfield Signs with Racing Louisville

Louisville women's soccer alum Allison Whitfield has signed with Racing Louisville FC. Whitfield joins the club on a national team replacement contract while Racing Louisville has a few members with the US National Team, Jamaican National Team, and Northern Ireland National Team.

Whitfield will join her old duPont Manual High School and Louisville teammate Emina Ekic.

Most recently, Whitfield has spent time with Racing Louisville as a key member of their W league squad. She has logged 567 minutes in 10 matches this season after recovering from ACL surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The outside back will dress for Sunday's match against the Orlando Pride and will be with the club through at least the end of July.

Gabriela Leon to Compete in 2022 World Championships

NCAA Champion and Louisville track and field star Gabriela Leon has qualified for the 2022 World Athletics Championships.

Leon was originally listed as an alternate but was called up when Alina McDonald had to withdraw from the event.

The event will take place at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. from July 15-24. The Cardinals pole vaulter won the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships, you might remember. 

Women's Soccer Schedule Released

As Paulie mentioned yesterday, this week has been "Schedule Week". We reviewed the Louisville volleyball schedule on Tuesday and the Louisville field hockey schedule yesterday.

Louisville women's soccer is the latest team to release their fall 2022 schedule.

The regular season will consist of 16 matches- eight at home, seven on the road, and one neutral location match. The Cards will face six non-conference opponents while the final 10 matches will be against ACC opponents.

Admission is free during the regular season at Dr Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium.

Daryl will break down the schedule and opponents more tomorrow.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

FIELD HOCKEY RELEASES 2022 SCHEDULE -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 LOUISVILLE FIELD HOCKEY 2022 SCHEDULE

Maybe we'll have to rename the final week in June "schedule week" for Louisville women's athletics. Jared discussed the Cards 2022 Volleyball schedule yesterday and today, I'll review the Field Hockey slate. Women's soccer should be out by Friday, too. 

18 regular season games, a couple of exhibitions and the ACC Tournament and, hopefully, another NCAA appearance for Justine Sowry's "flock"...who went 16-4 last year and a perfect 6-0 in ACC regular season competition. We'll try to forget that UofL ended the season on a two-game losing streak -- falling to Virginia in the ACC Championships and Harvard in their opening NCAA match. 

The season begins with a couple of exhibition matches --- at  Miami (OH) on Friday, Aug 19th and at Trager hosting Bellarmine on Sunday Aug 21st. The Cards faced both in 2021, although Miami (OH) was a regular season contest, and beat the Knights 10-2 and Miami 4-1. Then, it's off tp the Keystone State to face Bucknell (Fri 8/26) and Penn State (Sun 8/28)...both matches on the Penn State turf.

Next up, in an interesting move, The Cards travel to Chapel Hill, NC to open September, but won't face the TarHeels -- playing Penn ( Fri 9.2) and Princeton (Sun 9/4).in the ACC-Ivy League Challenge. The Cards defeated both squads last year, downing Penn 3-1 and Princeton 3-2 in overtime. 

The Cards get the home slate of regular season matches started on Sept 9th when JMU comes to town for a Friday night contest and Michigan visits on Sun 9/11. Louisville remains home for the following weekend with UNC coming in on Fri 9/16 for the Cards first ACC Conference tilt and Fairfield stops by Sunday  9/18. The home streak concludes with Indiana crossing the river to play Cards -- Louisville won that 2021 match 1-0 at Trager. 

The Cards end September at Virginia on Fri 30th and jump from Charlottesville to Richmond to face VCU on Sun Oct 2nd.  Louisville was 1-1 against the Cavs in 2021 and did not face VCU. The Cards remain on the road game sequence with visits to Wake Forest on Fri Oct 7th and then it's back to Virginia for a Sunday, Oct 9 contest against Liberty. Louisville beat both last year -- 2-1 over Wake in overtime and 3-1 over the Lynchburg Flames. 

Pam Bustin brings Duke in for a visit to Trager on Fri Oct 14th and UofL will have a quick turn-around with Ball State coming to Trager on Saturday Oct 15th

Louisville ends the season on a northeastern swing with trips to Syracuse on Fri Oct 21st, Cornell (Sun Oct 23rd) and the regular season finale vs Boston College on Friday Oct 28th. 

The ACC Tournament begins Nov 1st and will be held in Duke in 2022.

The Cards lost both goalkeepers from last year, in Mila de Kuijer and Sam Minrath, so that's a position we'll be watching closely for developments. 

Key returners for Sowry's squad include Sofia Pendolino, Aimee Plumb, Mia Duchars, Emily Kaczmarczyk. India Reed, Minna Tremonti, Katie Schneider, Mattie Tabor and Julie Kouijzer.

Now that the schedule is out, the next step for this intrepid, elderly reporter is to venture to campus and interview Coach Sowry.  It'll be the first in a while for me doing this with her, with COVID precautions and my own particular health issues preventing me from being active, but, it should be a fun one -- it always is with Justine.  

paulie

. .   

Volleyball Announces 2022 Schedule -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Announces 2022 Schedule

As we discussed on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast this past Saturday, the Louisville volleyball schedule is released. Although we believe Saturday was an accidental early release, UofL officially made the announcement Monday.

Jeff McAdams hinted at a few expectations on air and will give a much more in-depth breakdown on Sunday, but for today we'll look at the schedule itself.

Louisville will host their annual (and presumably free admission) Red and Black Scrimmage on Saturday August 20 at 2:00 p.m. This is a great chance for fans to get out and get a taste of what the team should look like going into the season.

The Cards officially start their season in South Dakota against Northern Kentucky, South Dakota, and Missouri over the final weekend in August. They'll then squeeze in a quick trip to Western Kentucky on Wednesday August 31 before the move into September.

Louisville will host San Diego and Ohio State over Labor Day Weekend in the Cardinal Classic.

The following weekend will be the Louisville Invitational where the Cards will play Purdue and either Xavier or Lipscomb.

The always-exciting Louisville vs Kentucky match will be in Lexington on September 14 before the Cards head out west to square off against Stanford on September 17.

ACC play will begin when the Cards visit Miami on September 23 and Florida State on September 25.

To close out September and kick off October, Louisville will welcome Clemson and Georgia Tech to L&N FCU Arena. 

A trip to Boston College and Syracuse is next on the schedule for Louisville before they return back home to host Virginia Tech and Wake Forest in the middle of October.

Louisville will hit the road again for matches against Virginia and Pitt on October 21 and 23.

UofL will have its longest home stretch to close out October and open up November featuring Notre Dame, Duke, NC State, and North Carolina.

The last multi-game road trip will be at Georgia Tech and North Carolina on November 11 and 13.

Senior Day will be on November 18 when Pitt makes a visit to Louisville.

Louisville's regular season will conclude at Notre Dame on November 23, the day before Thanksgiving.

Louisville will 12 opponents that were in the 2021 NCAA Tournament and will some of them twice.

Currently, the entire coaching and support staff from last year returns: Dani Busboom Kelly, Dan Meske, Todd Chamberlain, Linda Hampton Keith, and Sarah Drury Petkovic. Coach DBK will also have Baby Busboom Kelly cheering her on this coming season.

You can expect to see Jeff and his mom leading CARDS cheers from their regular seats and I plan to be inside the arena with my camera again. Will we get Paulie, Case, or Daryl out this year? If the Cards are riding a hot streak like last year we'll probably bar them from the premises for good mojo.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

CARDS in WNBA action Sunday -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

SUN DOWN DREAM, SKY SINK LYNX

Three of the Cards in the WNBA saw action on Sunday.

In Atlanta, it was the visiting Connecticut Sun defeating the Atlanta Dream 72-61 and in Chicago, the Sky held home court advantage with an 88-85 win. Connecticut is 13-6 on the season after their win, Atlanta 8-10, Chicago goes to 13-5 and Minnesota 5-14. 

Connecticut broke open a close first quarter (19-17) and outscored the Dream 20-5 to amass a 39-22 halftime lead. Jazmine Jones played two minute for the Sun and hit a free throw. For Atlanta, Asia (AD) logged 26 minutes and contributed eight points and two assists. 

Chicago lead Minnesota 72-60 after three quarters but had to battle to hang on and win by three over the Lynx. Dana Evans saw eight minutes and had three points for the Sky. 

All of our Cardinals WBB greats play in the Eastern Conference and the conference is a real battle as we draw near to the end of June. 

Chicago Sky            13-5

Connecticut Sun      12-5

Washington Mystics 12-9

NY Liberty                 8-10

Atlanta Dream           8-10

Indiana Fever            5-14

Emily Engstler and the Indiana Fever play tonight at Phoenix (10 p.m. ET) and the Mystics and Myisha go Tuesday against AD and the Dream in Washington. 

paulie

Sunday Cardinal Couple - Don't Call It a Slump

Basketball - 3x3

FIBA 3x3 World Cup

Don't call it a Summer Slump, we've got plenty to talk about.  Starting with Basketball.

We'll start with the FIBA Women's Cup Competition in Belgium.  We've been covering this a fair bit as Hailey Van Lith is one of the players for the US.

Yesterday's game, in the Quarterfinal round saw a great matchup between the US and Canada.  Canada lost one game in pool play to Spain, but it was enough to advance to the knockout rounds where they first defeated Germany to match up against the US.  The US team waltzed through pool play with an undefeated 4-0 record, earning the bye to skip the round of 16.

Alas, the Americans did not play well in this game.  Canada came away with the win 14-10.  A defensive battle early with a number of blocked shots and steals, but USA's shooting was ice cold early.

Both teams shot better as the 10 minutes game progressed, but obviously neither reached the 21 mark to end the game early.  Van Lith did have a number of shot opportunities that didn't fall, shots that we know she's quite capable of routinely making.

This does eliminate USA from the competition.  Regardless, it was an impressive event for the American's, if just for the absolute dominance they displayed during pool play with wins over Brazil, France, Austria, and New Zealand, all respectable teams on the international stage.

Force 10 3x3

Force 10 manages a professional 3x3 basketball league in partnership with the WNBA as a chance to expand playing opportunities for women and as a sort of development league for the WNBA.

The league is expanding this year with added partnerships with the Connecticut Sun, Dallas Wings, and Indiana Fever.

The Indiana squad picked up Kianna Smith to play on their team.  She'll be playing alongside Juliunn Redmond, Kathryn Westbeld, and Khiarica Rasheed.

Volleyball National Teams

This week will begin the third week of the Volleyball Nations League event for the women.  This will be the last week of pool style play with the fourth week being a knockout tournament.

Anna Stevenson was named to the Volleyball National Team to be part of this event and has been contributing well to the competitions so far.  VNL does allow team rosters to change between each week of play, so no guarantees that she will be on the roster for this week of play, but I would expect to see her there.

Matches this week will be against Belgium, Serbia, Türkiye, and Germany, and this pool will be played in Calgary, Canada.

Volleyball Schedule not Announced

The Fall Volleyball schedule wasn't announced, and it wasn't even updated on the Volleyball schedule page of https://gocards.com, but it was available on UofL sport composite schedule.

Thanks to Case for alerting me to this during the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast yesterday, we got to take a look through it some.

This schedule is very similar to last year's in a lot of ways.

Of course, it starts off with the Red and Black intra-squad scrimmage, that'll be August 20th.  Then the season opens in South Dakota with two matches on Friday the 26th against Northern Kentucky, and South Dakota and then a match Saturday the 27th against Missouri.  If you'll recall, this was the same line-up that we had for the Cardinal Classic in L&N FCU Arena last year.

That will be followed by a mid-week matchup on the 31st against Western Kentucky in Bowling Green.  This should be a great match as WKU, under the leadership of Travis Hudson continues to develop into a solid team that despite being in a mid-major conference, is competing well at the national level.

The home opener will be Friday, September 2nd vs San Diego, with another match on Sunday, September 4th against Ohio State.

The next weekend will be the Louisville Invitational.  This will start with a Friday, September 9th match between Xavier and Lipscomb, with the nightcap being Louisville vs Purdue.  Of course, you should never overlook a team coached by a Shondell, and Purdue with Dave Shondell at the helm for many years is always competitive.  Saturday the 10th will be a matchup between the winners and losers of Friday's matches, so Louisville will play either Xavier or Lipscomb.  Again, hearkening back to last year, this was the same exact setup and teams that we saw on Xavier's home floor in Cincinnati.

Next up is the traditional match against Kentucky.  This one will also be mid-week and it's in Lexington this year, on September 14th.  Following up from that will be a road-trip out to California to meet up with a perennial national volleyball powerhouse in Stanford.  Some similar echoes to last year as well with the Purdue, Xavier/Lipscomb (it ended up being Xavier last year), Kentucky, Nebraska stretch of schedule.

Also like last year, after that stretch begins conference play.  In week one we do the Florida visit with Miami and Florida State on the 23rd and 25th.  We host the non-Florida southern contingent, Clemson and Georgia Tech on September 30th and October 2nd.  Next up is the northern end of the conference with a trip to Boston College and Syracuse on October 7th and 9th.

Returning back home, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest come to visit October 14th and 16th.  That's followed by the awkward travel pairing on October 21st and 23rd with visits to Virginia and Pitt.

As travel partners with Notre Dame, we see them mid-week, October 26th.  ND is a huge question mark this year.  After a dismal, sub-.500 year last year, they have changed coaches and seen about half of their roster turn over by way of the transfer portal.  Who knows what sort of team will show up in late October.  Hopefully we'll have some sort of sense by then, but right now, all bets are off.

Duke and Wake Forest are going to be checking out L&N FCU Arena on Friday and Saturday the 28th and 29th.  The homestand continues November 4th and 6th with NC State and UNC.

Finally, at the end of the season, we have some traditional highlight, and non-travel-partner, matchups.  Louisville visits Georgia Tech and UNC on November 11th and 13th.  Pitt comes to Louisville on the 18th, and finally we wrap up the regular season, and here's to hoping another ACC Championship, at Notre Dame on the 23rd.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

A Paulie-less CCRHP this week as our leader takes a nice summer vacation.  Daryl was busy with the Bats as well, left the trio of Case, Jared, and myself to cover the show.  We got a pleasant surprise with the sneaky release of the volleyball schedule to the composite calendar so we discussed that with first thoughts as we looked at it for the first time.

Plenty of other news to cover with basketball and more.  You can check it out at it's anchor.fm home at:

https://anchor.fm/cardinal-couple/episodes/A-Surprise-Schedule--News-and-Notes-e1kec12

JMcA

USA Advances from Pool Play; Leon Awarded -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Van Lith and USA 3x3 to Quarters

Hailey Van Lith has continued what some may consider her dominance in the 3x3 space. She is becoming a fixture on Team USA in various tournaments in the format, and her performance this week has shown why. After taking down Australia and New Zealand on Thursday, the US team faced a bit stiffer competition yesterday in Brazil and France, though they dispatched both. The game against France took overtime, but Team USA got it done and finished 4-0 in pool play.

In those games, HVL has been all over social media, making great 2-on-1 baskets or, in one case, completely breaking someone's ankles on the check-up. I mean, come on, you have to be at least a little bit prepared for HVL to blow by you when you're the one that decides when she gets the ball.

In any case, the US advances out of pool play and into the quarterfinals, where they will take on Canada at 10:35 this morning. Only the quarters will be played today on the women's side, with the semis, 3rd place, and championship games coming tomorrow.

Gabriela Leon's Successes Continue

After already becoming the first outdoor champion for UofL, Gabriela Leon's accolades keep coming. On Thursday, Leon was named the ACC Women's Outdoor Field Performer of the Year. It was a bit of a no-brainer award after she won the ACC title, set the second highest ACC pole vault ever, and won the national championship. What isn't a no-brainer is Gabi herself. A day after picking up the Performer of the Year Award, Leon was also named the ACC Women's Outdoor Track & Field Scholar Athlete of the Year. Leon carried a 3.83 GPA through her career at UofL, and, in such a busy competitive season, she finished with a 4.0 in both semesters this year. As someone who recently pulled their college transcript and looked back on their academics, I can assure you that 3.83 cumulative and 4.0 as a senior are just as impressive as they sound.

The academic award came along with the announcements of the All-ACC Academic Team, which included five other competitors on the women's side. Leon was joined by Soledad Jean, Synclair Savage, Emily Scott, Auriane Viola, and Aliyah Welter.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We're without Paulie this week, so it will be a rare show without our fearless leader. Nevertheless, we'll find a way to fill the hour, as it is awards season and the Cards have had quite a bit of other news. I haven't created a quiz, so the return of the Cardinal Couple Quiz Show will have to wait at least another week. As always, you can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

Cardinal Couple YouTube: Link

Anchor (podcast host): Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Breaker: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

50 years of Title IX; FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Good Friday morning Louisville fans! 

I hope you are staying cool as we approach the dog days of summer.  Speaking of dog days, I actually suddenly became a fur mom this past weekend to the sweetest baby kitten whom we named Lou-Kitty.  We confirmed before agreeing to adopt her that she is in fact a fan of the Cardinal Birds (a must)!  We are very proud furr-parents.  She is currently chasing my fingers and helping me write today's post.  I give it 5 minutes before shes napping on my chest as I struggle to see the keyboard over her. I really do love the kitten phase!!!! 

The Bats are in town this week but with Paul on vacation and Jared already helping someone else, cut me some slack if there's spelling errors, it's late and I've got a 6 week old kitten with 20 fingers and toes stepping all over the keyboard!  Shameless plug, if you're wanting to get out to the ballpark this weekend, Fridays promotion is Mashers Night while Saturday is Star Wars Night!  Second and third to Dog Day at the Park, these are two of the best promotions of the season. 

TITLE IX

Shoutout to Case for the reminder! It would be a shame if we at Cardinal Couple did not recognize the 50th anniversary of Title IX.

If you aren't exactly sure what it is...

Title IX

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforces, among other statutes, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. Title IX states:

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

Photo: Jared Anderson

While we still have a long way to go, we have also come a long way in 50 years. There's a good article on NPR that covered the groundbreaking women who lead the charge.  There are hundreds of women who have paved the way for people like myself to have the opportunity to play now and lead the next generation.  And as mentioned in the article, it wasn't always an easy path.  Many had to suffer in order for the next generations to excel.  The link is below  

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/23/1106439787/title-ix-sport-women-university-oregon

You all might recall the atrocity that was the 2021 NCAA tournament weight room disparities... yes, that was only a year ago!  If you don't remember the details, the women showed up to the tournament to discover a 30lb max dumbbell tower and a couple yoga mats in comparison to the men's fully equipped gym area. 

This was a violation of this law.   Someone severely dropped the ball for this group of exceptional athletes... most of whom are likely bench pressing atleast 60lbs!  They are D1 athletes, basketball players at that.     

So there are still many hills that need to be climbed in this journey, women are pushing the limits every day.  It's sites like this one you're currently reading that help women like me feel comfortable in the field.  I am so very appreciative and impressed by the men of Cardinal Couple who put so much energy into UofL Women's Athletics.   And the readers who come here to get the scoop.   You ALL make the world a better place, know that! 

Photo: Jared Anderson

Cardinal Couple Podcast - Not confirmed who will be on for the recording this weekend but make sure you tune in!  If you can't catch it live,  Jeff will have the recording available on Sunday's post. 

As Always, 

Go Cards! 

~Daryl 

Softball News -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Softball News

Dead season still offers news here and there for us to report on and Louisville softball provided some for us recently.

The ACC/Big Ten Challenge returns and will be held in the middle of February, which is early softball season. The Cards will held down to Georgia Tech where they will face Illinois and Wisconsin twice each. Georgia Tech will also face the Illini and Badgers twice each, totaling eight games over three days.

Louisville last competed in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge in 2020 against Wisconsin and Michigan. The Cards went 1-3 in the event that year.

The Cards also announced the addition of a new player this week. Paige Geraghty comes to Louisville after two seasons at Auburn.

The outfielder will help replace the loss in starting left fielder and All-American Carmyn Greenwood and the departure of speedy pinch runner Sydney Bickel.

Geraghty played in 70 games over the last two seasons at Auburn and appeared in two NCAA Regionals. Last season, she scored 15 runs, recorded three stolen bases, and had a 1.000 fielding percentage to help power the Tigers to a 40-17 record.

The rising junior was ranked #21 in her graduating class coming out of high school by Extra Inning Softball.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

WNBA In Louisville? -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 IS LOUISVILLE READY FOR A WNBA FRANCHISE AND WOULD FANS SUPPORT IT?

We know how crazy Louisville WBB fans are for the beloved squad that drew almost 8,000 per home game in the 2021-22 season. We also have no doubt that this attendance figure will continue to grow in future years. Let's face it, the Cards WBB squad has a palace to play in at the KFC YUM! Center and the quality of the product is pretty darn good. 

Could a WNBA franchise do as well "down by the river" ?  Let's look at a few things, since the WNBA has expressed interest in expanding the league "by a couple of teams" by the end of the year and hoping the additions could be ready to play by 2024. 

--Two major architects of the Louisville Cardinals WBB squad -- Jeff Walz and Angel McCoughtry think it would work in Louisville. Walz will tell you that the support Louisvillians (and others) have shown to all the women's sports programs in the city and on the UofL campus indicate a pro franchise would do well in Louisville. Angel McCoughtry is eager for it to happen as well and is ready to go talk to whoever she needs to and get Louisville's name submitted on the short list. (and, when Angel talks, it's a wise decision to listen...)

-- No need to worry about conflicts with college WBB, The WNBA plays from early May to early August (traditionally) and a team plays around 36 games. Figure around half of those at home, and it doesn't seem like too much of a burden on a women's basketball fan. 

-- Cost per ticket? Using the Indiana Fever as a price guide, tickets per game can run anywhere from $26 to $500  -- location being the determining factor. I'd expect season ticket packages would be available and specially "themed" nights could provide some special, lower pricing. 

-- Who will step up and own the franchise?  That's a pretty important factor, you know. An individual businessman? A group of investors? A well-heeled local corporation? In a lot of cases, the same individual owns the corresponding men's NBA franchise in the city. IN fact, 11 of the 12 WNBA "cities" have a NBA franchise in them, Las Vegas being the exception. 

-- Will the fans show up?  In the WNBA, Seattle reigns "queen of attendance" with over 10,000 per home game in 2022. Looking at 2021 numbers, the Phoenix Mercury led the way with almost 6,000 per game. At the lower rung of the ladder, you have Atlanta and L.A., barely hovering around 1300 and no attendance figures were available for Indiana. Would Louisville fans show up to put (let's say) 5,000 a night to watch a WNBA team? I think more than that would attend, but others I have talked to think that would be a good median number. Attendance is up in the WNBA, a growth indicator. 

-- WHAT'S IN A NAME?  Out of the 12 franchises in the WNBA, there are a variety of nickname categories. You have atmospheric conditions (Sky, Sun and Storm). a planet or temperature indicator (Mercury), playing card category (Aces), animal (Lynx), animal parts (Wings), sleeping status (Dream), medical condition (Fever), spiritual (Mystics), fire by-products (Sparks), and a state of freedom (Liberty).  What would you call a franchise in Louisville? Something Derby, horse or bourbon related? A reference to the Ohio River? I like a back-handed tribute to Ali here, with the Louisville Legends. What you got? 

Over the years, the WNBA has tried (and failed) in some pretty big cities, like Houston, Detroit, Charlotte, Sacramento, Miami, Portland and Cleveland. But, the WNBA is now enjoying (arguably) it's best success in term of viewers and attendance that it ever has. Where else would the WNBA look to expand? In South Carolina? (where the Gamecocks draw big, big crowds). Knoxville? (where UT pulls them in for college WBB), somewhere in Iowa? (where Iowa and Iowa State draw big WBB crowds). 

Time, I guess, will tell. I'd support it here, definitely write about it (especially if Louisville gals were on the team)  and think it could work. 

Let's do this, WNBA. Stand up, some local, rich businessman or corporation, and tell the league YOU want to be the sponsor. Maybe, just maybe, someone already has...

WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert says the league has trimmed it's "potential" city list down to 10-12 cities and they will run each city through 25 data points encompassing five categories: demographics, psychographics, fan data, viewership and sports benchmarks. The league hasn't expanded since 2008 (when the Atlanta Dream were established).  

One good thing -- the NCAA has no say in it. Louisville would be eliminated immediately if they were. 

I hope to be able to write about and cover from a media standpoint a WNBA local franchise someday. I'd probably start a new site for it, since CARDINAL COUPLE covers UofL women's sports. I hope my wish comes true. 

paulie 

Mallory Comerford and FINA World Championships -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Mallory Comerford and FINA World Championships

Louisville swimmer alumna Mallory Comerford continues to show her prowess in the water. This time, Comerford is with Team USA at the 2022 FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Comerford was the second leg on the 4x100m freestyle relay for the United States. Comerford split 53.86 and Team USA clocked 3:35.23 to place second headed into the finals.

During her time as a Cardinal, Comerford won three 200 freestyle championships and one 100 freestyle championship, giving her the most NCAA titles of any individual Louisville swimmer or diver in program history.

Other Louisville swimmers appearing at the 2022 FINA World Championships include Abdelrahman El-Araby (Team Egypt), Andrej Barna (Team Serbia), Denis Loktev (Team Israel), Denis Petrashov (Team Kyrgyzstan), and Kledi Kadiu (Team Albania), all on the men's side.

Louisville will have another competitor at the 2022 FINA World Championships when the diving events begin. Else Praasterink will represent her home country of the Netherlands beginning in a few days.

We look forward to reporting on the final results of Comerford and Praasterink soon.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

A WNBA Sunday -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 FEVER HOLD ON AGAINST SKY...MYSTICS HANDLE SUN

A big day for WNBA action on Father's Day, with four Cardinals alumnae in action in the league. 

Dana Evans with the Chicago Sky visiting Emily Engstler and the Indiana Fever.  Myshia Hines-Allen and the Washington Mystics hosting Jaz Jones and the Connecticut Sun. 

(Just imagine what a double-header like this would draw to the KFC YUM! Center).  

SKY VS FEVER

Dana and her 10-5 Chicago Sky came to Indy to take on a Indiana Fever squad that desperately needed a win. And, after being down by 13 at halftime, the Fever fought back and got  the nail-biting win over the visitors 89-87. Courtney Vandersloot missed a jumper that could have tied it up and the Fever had the "W". Indiana improved their record to 5-13. 

"We had a very intense conversation at halftime, to say the least..." Fever head coach Carlos Knox commented after the game. "I wanted them to understand the game plan and I wanted them to pick up their game the way we had prepared for the game." It was Knox's inaugural game as the Fever head coach, you may know him as having been a superstar at IUPUI on their men's team from 1997-99. 

Emily Engstler saw 19 minutes in this one for the Fever and had five points and nine rebounds.  Dana Evans had six minutes for Chicago and had two points and a rebound. 

MYSTICS VS SUN

The home-standing Washington Mystics roared out to a 29-17 lead on the visiting Connecticut Sun and pushed that to a 16-point half-time edge. Washington was on top 61-41 after three. The Sun were not totally giving up the fight and got back within eight points before losing 71-63 to Myisha and the Mystics. Washington improved to 11-7 on the season, while the Sun went to 12-5.

Myisha saw just six minutes in the contest, grabbing a rebound and scoring a bucket. 

For Connecticut, Jaz Jones contributed a scoreless eight minutes. It's good to see Jaz getting some minutes after being with the Sun for such a short time. 

Turnovers plagued the Sun, while Washington committed just four in the first three quarters  

paulie

 

More Cards Represent USA - Sunday Cardinal Couple

A Pair of Volleyballers

Collegiate National Team

Case wrote a wonderful article yesterday covering some Field Hockey and Track & Field athletes working to compete at the International level.

Mere minutes after the article went up, UofL Volleyball announced that Claire Chaussee was embarking on her training stint with USA Volleyball as part of the Women's Collegiate National Team.

In past years, USA Volleyball has selected several different Collegiate National Teams that then would train in Colorado Spring for a period of time, before traveling to various parts of the world to compete with top level teams in that part of the world.  Since Covid, the program has shifted to naming a single larger group of athletes that then gather to practice and compete in a more intra-squad approach.

The selection process for the annual Collegiate Team program starts in February when athletes travel to Colorado Springs for the USWNT Open Tryout program.  Louisville has sent anywhere from two to six or seven to the tryouts in the past, and typically has one to three players named to the teams.

Volleyball Nations League

Anna Stevenson has been competing with the US Senior National Team as part of the Volleyball Nations Leagues event.  This multiple week event allows the participating nations to select a different team, from a larger pool of players for each week of play.

Stevenson played this week in the second week of play after some solid contributions in the first week of play two weeks ago (they alternative weeks of men and women competing).

The team finished a match just hours ago to complete the matches for the week.  It was a 3-1 win over Thailand.  In the match, Stevenson had seven kills on 17 attempts with three miscues.  Add a trio of blocks and chalk up a decent outing for the UofL Alumna.

For the week, team USA did very well, sweeping all of their other opponents; China, Poland, and Bulgaria.

Team USA will play another week of matches starting June 30th for the final week of pool play in the VNL competition.  After that week of play, the eight top teams will advance to a tournament format for the final phase of play.  With how USA has been doing, I would expect the team to be a part of that tournament.

Again, with the VNL, each national team can switch the players that play each week, so we'll look again the week of the 30th to see if Stevenson continues to get selected to play.

WNBA

No action in the WNBA yesterday, so just about every team is on the court today, but only two matchups with Louisville rooting interests as we have UofL alumnae going head to head in both matches.

Starting at two o'clock, Myisha Hines-Allen with the Washington Mystics host the Connecticut Sun who of course recently picked up Jaz Jones.  This game has been picked up to be featured on CBS, kind of a big deal for the WNBA.

The other head to head will start at three o'clock.  The Indiana Fever, with Emily Engstler will host the Chicago Sky with Dana Evans.  I don't think much of anyone is expecting this game to be terribly competitive with Chicago near the top of the standings, and the Fever near the bottom.  I also don't think Engstler and Evans would really get matched up on the court with one defending the other, but wow, wouldn't that matchup be interesting to see!

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

It was a Basketball heavy podcast as we covered the news events of the week.  Discussions covered Angel McCoughtry's appearance in Louisville with the official opening of the basketball court that she has renovated and decorated.  Also up was Beth Burns heading to the University of Southern California and discussing the role, much larger than her official title suggested.  We also turned to the WNBA a bit, celebrating Jaz Jones being picked up by Connecticut, and AD seemingly bouncing back to full competition levels in Atlanta.

Add in some UofL women's soccer news with a new goal keeper transfer announced, and we had plenty to discuss in the show.  Check it out at it's anchor.fm home:

https://anchor.fm/cardinal-couple/episodes/Angels-New-Court-and-Womens-Soccers-New-Keeper-e1k4ht7

JMcA

Cards Vie to Represent USA -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Field Hockey Sends Four to Nexus Championship

Formerly known as the Young Women's National Championship, the USA Field Senior Nexus Championship is a step on the Olympic Development Pathway Program. The invite list for the event is 144 players long and includes all eligible players from the Rise, U-21, Development, and Senior US Women's National Field Hockey teams as well as other high school, collegiate, and post-grad players that have trialed and trained at one of the USA Field Hockey High Performance Centers this spring.

The Louisville representation for this year's event includes three currently rostered athletes, one being an incoming freshman, and a recent graduate. Carter Ayars won't have known any of the other three, having graduated before they arrived, but it will be the first opportunity that Mia Duchars and Jane Ramsey will get to play with and against Izzy Bianco. The event is to be held in Virginia Beach from July 17 to 22.

Six T&F Athletes Competing to Qualify for Worlds

It shouldn't surprise you to hear that the six Track and Field athletes from Louisville that will compete for spots in the World Athletics Outdoor Championships are names that you've heard a lot recently. Five will be attempting to qualify for the Championship event held on July 15-24 in Eugene, Oregon while one, Ty McPhail, will compete for the U20 event, which will be held in Cali, Colombia on August 1-6. 

Hayward Field at the University of Oregon will host the 2022 event, making it the first time the event has been held on US soil. Hayward Field will also host the Toyota USA Track & Field Outdoor Championship, the qualifying event, on June 23-26. Gabriela Leon, Aliyah Welter, Trey Allen, Sterling Warner-Savage, and Jeremiah Willis make up the UofL contingent at the event. Leon and Welter will both compete in the pole vault. Leon will look to continue her success after winning the national championship and being named the USTFCCCA Southeast Region Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

As Daryl mentioned yesterday, she'll be out today, but we'll have three and a half voices to bring you this week's show. Jeff only represents half a voice today at his own admission due to a bit of "overcelebration." Gravelly voices aside, we'll do our best to keep a good show on deck for everyone. As always, you can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

Cardinal Couple YouTube: Link

Anchor (podcast host): Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Breaker: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Summer -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Hello readers, and happy weekend! I was glad to unplug and get out of town last week and appreciate the gangs coverage. I saw a tweet the other day that said something about how it was engrained into our brains for 12 years how summer is this 'big break' or when we were supposed to go out and do all the things and I really felt that tweet. Of course it all revolves around the school-year and practically every sport season break so give us some summer picnics, movie premiers, pool days, traveling and lots of golf to fill in the blanks! Then the weeks just fly by don't they?

I did play pretty well in Florida last week. It was a scorcher down there but we got 36 holes in... I birdied on a Par 4 and pretty much played better than the other 5 on Thursday's 18. I also got invited back to the UofL Press Box Challenge again this year, which I am very much looking forward to in a few weeks. This event is what got me into golf to begin with! It will be my third year playing. I'm still chasing LPGA dreams, y'all! 

                          

 (The ladies stole the show both
days out on the course!) 

Track and Field 

ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

After winning the NCAA Championships Pole Vault. the redshirt senior from Grand Rapids, MI -- Gabi Leon can now add the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association 2022 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Southeast Region Women's Field Athlete of the Year as announced by the organization today. There are nine regions – Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Mountain, Northeast, South, South Central, Southeast and West . Leon became the fourth-ever collegiate women's pole vaulter with three clearances of 4.60m (15' 1") and the only woman this season with three marks over 4.57m (15' 0").

Tennis 

ALL ACC ACADEMIC TEAM

UofL women's tennis player, Tatiana Simova, has been named to the All-ACC Academic Team.   ACC Champion Duke led the league with seven players on the academic team. Duke's Chloe Beck has been named the Atlantic Coast Conference Women's Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

  

(We also successfully avoided the sunburn!)

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast -  I'll be out again this weekend for our podcast with an appointment but the rest of the gang should be on the recording for this week.  Stay hydrated in this heat and a friendly tip would be to carry a frozen water bottle whenever you have to leave the house and as my dermatologist would like to remind you, don't forget the sunscreen! 

As Always

Go Cards! 

~Daryl