Virginia Tech Beats Louisville WBB 75-67 in ACC WBB Championship -- Sunday Softball and Lacrosse Results -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

AMOORE, KITLEY COMBINE FOR 45 TO SINK CARDS

VIRGINA TECH outshot the Cards 44% to Louisville's 37.5% from the floor and went 25-27 from the foul line...compared to Louisville's 10-12 to down the Cards 75-67 Sunday in the ACC WBB Championship game in Greensboro, NC. 

Jeff Walz has often said that if one of his teams gets beat, he prefers it to be because they didn't make shots and that was the case yesterday, plus VT enjoyed a remarkable day at the foul stripe. The Cards didn't have quite the defensive effort they they had on Friday or  Saturday and trailed 38-28 at the halftime break after trailing 21-14 at the end of the first quarter. The Cards led for about three minutes in the first quarter, but a VT 7-0 quarter closing run gave the Hokies the lead again for good.

The Cards trailed 51-44 after three quarters, but a 7-0 Virginia Tech run to stretch the lead out 14 made the Cards chances of getting back into this one tough. Despite a late run where UofL got the VT lead down to six late in the fourth quarter, VT proved to be the better team today. 

Christlyn Carr led all scores with 27 points and Hailey Van Lith finished with 12. Olivia Cochran was the final Cards double-digit scorer with 11 points. Kasa Robinson had eight points and nine rebounds for UofL, but fouled out late. Merissah Russell had six points in 14 minutes and Liz Dixon three points in 21 minutes. Morgan Jones did not score in limited minutes and Norika Konno and Nyla Harris finished the game without scoring in reserve roles. 

VT shot 44% for the game while Louisville shot 37.5% for the afternoon. VT made 21 of their 22 free throw attempts, the Cards were 10-12. The foul line visitation is certainly something Cardinals fans might raise an eyebrow over, but the referees called 24 fouls on the Cards and 14 on VT. I try not to comment on how certain refs don't get along or see eye-to-eye with coaches, and I'll refrain from comment here. 

I also don't like to write volumes about Cardinals WBB losses and I won't about this one. VT took the contest over early and repeatedly turned back any Louisville chances to get back in it. VT shot better, had more success at the free throw line and committed less fouls. And, those aspects usually make one team better than the other, like it did Sunday.

I'd be remiss if I didn't congratulate the Hokies and Kenny Brooks (who is a great guy and one I've enjoyed meeting over the years). Carry the ACC Champs banner proudly in the NCAA Tournament and, who knows, maybe we'll meet again in the "big dance". 

(PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON) 

THE FRED REPORT

(Not such a great day in the Greensboro neighborhood for Cards fans) 

FREE THROWS --  As we mentioned earlier, Louisville was 10-12 in free throw shooting. We can brag abut hitting the free ones at a 83% success rate, until we look at the 93% success rate the Hokies had on the free ones. (20-22). Stiil, 83% is better than the 70% we mandate for a letter, so, we award A CAPITAL "F". 

REBOUNDS -- VT barely won the battle of the boards 35-34, despite a big effort from Kasa and her nine grabs. Neither team had a double figure rebounder. Rebounds weren't the major factor in this one, anyway -- it was made shots...and I'll award a small case "r" for the Cards almost winning the boards battle. 

EFFORT/EXECUTION -- Louisville won the points-in the-paint battle, had just nine turnovers in 40 minutes and 14 points-off-turnovers (compared to four for VT) but took 17 more shots and just hit three more that VT. And, scored less points. A higher shot % could have given this one to the Cards. The effort was sort of there, but not strong enough to win. I assign a lower-case "e" . The game plan didn't work as well as the Cards would have liked

DEFENSE -- Stopping Amoore was an objective but that failed. 75 points allowed is high for this Cardinals team. Kitley ruled early and the Cards did the best they could to stop her, but, let's face it...the two-time ACC Player of the Year is going to have the occasional big night, right? Louisville competed, played hard but let VT score more. A lower case "d" here. 

FINAL FRED REPORT -- F-r-e-d

So, ,a disappointment to get that far and fall in the final game. Hopefully, a lesson learned as the Cards look forward to the NCAA Tournament. 

POST GAME WALZ, CARR and KASA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we58r1B-Zc0

CARDINAL COUPLE ACC WBB PICK 'EM RESULTS

Karen J. won the Pick Em with a 12-2 record. There was a four way tie for second place, with Jared, Daryl, Case and Thomas all ending with a 11-3 record, so we went to total points and Jared was closest to the score of 166 with a points guess of 140. 

Thanks to all who participated !!

LOUISVILLE SOFTBALL

Northwestern 11 - Louisville 1

A rough first game of the day for the Cards at Ulmer, falling to Northwestern in five-innings. 

The Cards actually had a 1-0 lead after two innings Vanessa Miller scoring on a Makaya Hurst single, in the bottom of the second, but Northwester unloaded the bats in the top of the fourth with three runs, added five more in the top of the sixth and got three more scores in the seventh

Taylor Roby took the loss and went 3.1 innings, she was followed by Grizzard for 2.2 innings and Felder pitched the seventh inning.

LOUISVILLE   -  NKU 0 

The Cards plated two runs in the fourth inning on a two-RBI triple by Korbe Otis (who scored on the hit via error) and Alyssa Zabala tossed a three-hit shutout at the Norse for the win.  

Zabala had 12 strikeouts in the circle and just two walks in seven innings pitched. She struck out the side in the seventh. Zabala goes to 5-2 on the season. The freshman has 49 strikeouts in 42 innings. 

(our photographer Jared Anderson, as mentioned, was in Greensboro, so we didn't line up any photos for Lacrosse or Softball...We occasionally get a reader pho)to and we're always happy to run those with full credit -- if requested -- but none arrived yeserday) 

LAX DOWNS PITT 12-9

Hannah Morris and Nicole Perroni scored three goals each for Louisville Lacrosse (4-2) and the Cards gets their first  ACC win of the season. 

Louisville built an 8-4 lead at halftime but Pitt battled back to tie the contest at 9-9 with three minutes to play. The Cards caught fire late, though, and got goals from Negai Nakazawa, Perroni and Kokoro Nakazawa to create the three goal win

Sara Addeche was in goalkeep for the Cards. 

POST GAME INTERVIEW: Teeter and Perroni

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we58r1B-Zc0   

paulie