Volleyball on Tour; Engstler on the Move -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Headed to Brazil This Summer

UofL officially announced a Brazilian Tour for the volleyball team over the summer yesterday. The Cards will make their way south of the equator to get to know each other on the court as well as off. In addition to having five planned matches, the trip will include a cultural whirlwind as they travel to four cities over ten days from June 8th to the 18th. You can check out the full list of experiences on the itinerary over on the Go Cards website, but the team will travel to Arraial Do Cabo, Saquarema, Rio De Janeiro, and Sao Paulo. Amongst other things, they'll visit the Corcovado statue in Rio and meet with local students in Saquarema. 

The trip will be key for the Cards to prepare for the upcoming season. Though the opponents of the planned matches aren't named, any competition will help the team gel as they work to integrate new members. With key departures from last year's national runner-up team, Louisville will be adding transfers Charitie Luper and Brigitta Petrenko to the mix along with upcoming underclassmen looking to fill a bigger role. The experience should be exciting for all the players and we're looking forward to hearing more about the trip as it happens.

Engstler Joins Jones, Hines-Allen in Washington

Last week saw Indiana waive Emily Engstler, their 4th overall draft pick from 2022. Engstler's departure from the team means that the Fever have waived their first pick from the last three drafts. They moved on from Lauren Cox (Baylor) in the middle of 2021 after selecting her 3rd overall in 2020 and from Kysre Gondrezick (West Virginia) in January of 2022 after selecting her 4th in 2021. Emily Engstler had 40 blocks in her first season, tying for the team lead and falling just four short of tying Tamika Catchings' rookie franchise record. Engstler's 35 games played added her to a list of just three players in franchise history to play more than 34 games in a single regular season. In those games, she started just six and averaged 5.2 points, 5.2 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.1 blocks. Her 181 rebounds were the fifth most ever recorded by a Fever rookie. 

She wasn't on the street for long. After being waived on April 26th, she was signed yesterday, just one day after the beginning of training camp. It was a heck of a birthday present. Her deal is with the Washington Mystics, a familiar home for former Cardinals. Though she only has a training camp contract, her numbers suggest she should be able to find a home in the W. Seeing her, Jaz Jones, and MHA on the floor together could be quite a sight (and might make us wonder what could have been in red and black instead of red and blue). 

The Mystics and former Cards had fun with it being Emily's birthday as part of the photo shoot as well: https://twitter.com/WashMystics/status/1653084599210197001?s=20

We wish Emily (and all the Cardinals working to make rosters in the woefully under-teamed WNBA) the very best!

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case