Busy Start to the Weekend -- CC Carr Three-Point Contest -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Happy Friday, everyone! With Daryl and I trading off, I get to take over this Friday, and we have plenty to talk about with this upcoming weekend.

Softball Visits Syracuse

While Louisville softball ultimately fell on the road to Kentucky earlier this week, the fight and late-game rally showed that this team won't roll over and play dead. A loss is still a loss, but this team showing their fight gives me more excitement to look forward to this season.

At 22-10, Louisville spends a majority of the rest of this season facing ACC opponents. A trip to Syracuse is next on the schedule.

The Orange are 10-15-1 on the season and are fresh off a 1-1-1 series against Notre Dame in South Bend. The two teams tied 0-0 in Sunday's game before the drop dead time kicked in. Syracuse is 1-7-1 in conference play. Freshman Madelyn Lopez is the only player batting above .300 at .314. The Orange have been outscored 130-77 on the year.

Today's game is set to start at noon and will be aired on ACCNX.

Tennis Travels to Notre Dame

Down to the final few matches of the regular season, Louisville women's tennis continues to try and get its first ACC win of the season. The Cards are 8-10 on the season and have lost all eight conference matches so far. 

#22 Notre Dame holds a 12-7 record, but has had some trouble in conference play with a 3-5 record. The match is set for 3:30 p.m. but there is no video listed.

Volleyball

The busy spring schedule for Louisville volleyball continues tonight. After a 3-2 victory against Kentucky last week, the Cards now welcome Athletes Unlimited to L&N FCU Arena tonight at 6:00 p.m.

Athletes Unlimited is a partnership with USA Volleyball to create a professional indoor volleyball league. The group in town features plenty of faces with connections to either UofL or the City of Louisville. Cardinal alum Erin Fairs is a current member of the team. Deja McClendon is a Louisville native who played her college career at Penn State. McClendon was also a volunteer asst coach for UofL for a brief stint. Taylor Reid also spent some time as a volunteer asst for the Cards and is on the Athletes Unlimited roster.

Admission is free but seating and capacity limit is first-come, first-serve. Doors open at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Daytona Showcase

Our Louisville Cheer and Louisville Ladybirds squads are less than one week away from their NCA and NDA Championships in Daytona. They're doing a free preview showing at Christian Academy of Louisville (CAL) at 7:00 p.m. ET tonight. Their Daytona routines differ greatly from their show-based performances at basketball games. We wish them the best and hope they bring back more national championships as a representative of the University and Louisville Athletics.

CC Carr Three-Point Contest

We got another chance to see CC Carr showcase her abilities in the three-point contest last night on ESPN2. She had a strong showing and finished fifth overall.

Iona's Kate Mager took the women's competition and then defeated men's champ Antoine Davis (Detroit Mercy) for the overall title. 

We also got to see some creativity on the men's side with the dunk contest, but the lights out shooting from several of the women's athletes was impressive.

Cardinal Couple Pick Em Contest in NCAA Final Four

With three games to go,  Karen and Jared are tied atop the leaderboard with 46-14 records. And, for the record...Jared has South Carolina and Indiana winning tonight's games. Karen has South Carolina and Ohio State. Both have South Carolina winning it all....so, it could come down to a points thing. 

Did anyone have all four Final Four participants correctly chosen?  Nope, quite a few with three of the four, but nobody got South Carolina, Iowa, LSU and Virginia Tech. 

Should be some exciting hoops. Can South Carolina shut down Caitlan Clark? Can Kitley and Kenny get to the final game by beating the Fighting Mulkeys? Action stars at 7 p.m.

Cardinal Couple Podcast

We are good to go tomorrow for our weekly Cardinal Couple Podcast. We don't anticipate a full house, but this crew has plenty to talk about ranging from Louisville women's basketball, to softball, to lacrosse, to whatever tangents we might go on, so tune in!

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

Jared