A PAIR OF 3-0 SQUADS DO BATTLE IN DIDDLE WEDS. NIGHT
In what looks to be Louisville's toughest test so far in the early 2022 season, the Cards will face WKU in the Battle of i-65, or clash of the undefeated, on Wednesday night. E.A. Diddle Arena, also home of WKU basketball on "the Hill" will serve as the match-up locale for the Toppers and UofL. These two last met in 2019, when Louisville took a tough 3-2 match in Bowling Green.
It's a intrastate and an interstate battle. (drum roll...thanks, I'll be here two weeks)
Four current Cardinals were on that Louisville squad that played WKU in 2019. Nena Mbonu, Alexa Hendricks, Aiko Jones and Amaya Tillman. My guess is you'll see plenty of those four in tonight's match, which will be shown on ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET
WKU has also won their three games in straight sets this season, defeating Miami (OH), Bradley and Kansas City in the Bradley tournament in Peoria, IL. Paige Briggs and Lauren Matthews led WKU in kills with 32 each over the three gmes. Briggs is a 5'10" senior outside hitter out of Ortonville, MI, who played against Louisville back in 2019 and had 11 kills in the loss. Matthews is a 6'0" middle blocker out of Indianapolis who had 13 kills in the 2019 match against the Cards.
The Toppers have two players out of the Louisville area. Cameron Mosely is a junior defensive specialist who attended Manual High School and Callahan Wiegandt is a freshman setter from Holy Cross. If the last name sounds familiar, "Callie's" dad John may be familiar to a few of you, he's the athletic director at Bellarmine.
Another Callie, Callie Bauer is the setter for WKU, and she must be a pretty good one, she was named the C-USA Volleyball Player of the Week. She had 108 set assists in the three games at Bradley. She's a redshirt freshman out of Hudson, MI.
WKU is coached by Travis Hudson, who is in his 28th season as WKU's head coach.
One thing the Toppers do that I'd love to see Louisville start, is that they broadcast games on the radio. if you live in the Bowling Green area, you can pick up the call on ESPN Radio 102.7 I'm not sure how far that signal extends, but i might see if I can pick it up...I can sometimes pick up Louisville FM stations when I drive to Lexington.
Louisville will most likely depend on the powerhouse hitters of Claire Chaussee, Aiko Jones, Anna DeBeer and Amaya Tillman that have gotten them to 3-0. Raquel Lazaro has been a pleasant surprise at setter and was named the MVP of the tournament in South Dakota. Elena Scott has played well at libero and the middle blocker spot has multiple contenders has and several Cards step in and do big things, Phekran Kong, Cara Cresse and Sydni Schetnan.and I've probably missed one or two...
WKU tends to attend their clashes with Louisville on campus quite well, so there will be a lot of cheering for "Big Red's" squad in E.A. Diddle. Arena..$6 tickets are reported still available for the match and youth get in for $3. Bowling Green is about a 90 minute drive out of Louisville (if it isn't rush hour) down I-65 and the match action will probably be worth the time spent getting there (and coming back) if you decide to go. I'd probably go myself, but I have a previous thing scheduled today and can't back out of it.
Coverage will be on ESPN +, as mentioned and if you are subscribed to the service, you can follow live stats at the gocards.com website. Our Jeff McAdams will be in attendance for the match, you probably won't get a lot of tweeting out of him, but he's worth the follow. I'll look for him charging down the stairs to lead the C-A-R-D-S cheer when WKU calls timeouts.
Jared will have a recap of the match in Thursday's Cardinal Couple.
paulie
18 in a row? Makes you wonder why WKU continues to play us.
ReplyDeleteNick O
Hah, yeah, that's the problem with relying purely on stats. They're quite a good team recently...just not quite at the level we are yet (probably). They do have the additional challenge of not being in P5 conference and the difficulty of scheduling tough as a result of that.
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