Soccer Upsets, Volleyball Rolls - Monday Cardinal Couple

Soccer and Volleyball Both Win

(Jeff back with you on this Monday morning covering for a medical sidelining.  We send best wishes to Paulie.)

Soccer Upsets Cal

It was a game mostly played in the first half, with all of the scoring happening before intermission, before settling into a defensive set for the Cards with Cal pushing hard to find an equalizer, but not succeeding.  The Cards ended up victorious with the 2-1 win.

Mackenzie Geigle did the job in scoring for the Cards, putting both shots in the Cal net in the first half.  The first goal came about 13 minutes in with Geigle getting the play underway with a pass out to Brooke Dardano on the left side.  Dardano crossed the ball to the far post where Geigle won the foot race to be able to deflect it into the goal.

After Cal answered to tie the game within just a few minutes, the game settled a bit.  In the 42nd minutes, however Lee Brooklyn corralled a loose ball just outside the Cal box, passed it over to Geigle at the top of the box.  A quick settle, and a shot that angled off the far post and into the net got Geigle, and the Cards, their second, and ultimately winning, goal of the game.

Strong defense in the second half only allowed two shots on goal by the Cal pressure, and Erynn Floyd was there to collect both.  She had five saves in the whole game.

The Cards defied expectations and took three points in the standings off of a ranked team.  The last time that happened was at the end of last season, where the Cards got a 1-0 win over Duke, who was also ranked 25th at the time.

An encouraging result for Louisville, though I don't think it much changes the prospects for post-season play.  What it does do, however, is give the players on the team some more experience, and a taste of what winning against a good team is like, with hopes of building for the future.

Soccer will be back in action Thursday, welcoming Boston College to Floyd Street.  The Louisville squad will celebrate their seniors Thursday before the game.

Volleyball Cruises to Victory Over NC State

The Cabello/Cuebas family had almost two whole rows of people in attendance as the Cabello sisters, Naomi and Nayelis, squared off on opposite sides of the net in the Louisville vs NC State matchup.

Nayelis and Louisville came away with the three set sweep, 25-15, 25-17, 25-19.

The first set was not as close as the score would suggest as the Cards came out, apparently remembering last year's defeat in Raleigh and determined not to let the Wolfpack spoil their NCAA seeding again.

The Cards jumped out to a 8-2 lead before it seems NC State really found the floor.  Louisville then went on a five point run to push the lead out to 19-8.  They would reach set point with 11 on the NC State side of the scoreboard and the Pack would put a bit of a run together to get to 15 before the Cards would finally put a close to the set.

The second set started out with some quality back and forth play with score reaching 11-10 in the Cards favor before they put a mini-run together to stretch it out to 14-10.  NC State would get no close than a three point margin the rest of the set.

The Cabello sisters, Nayelis
and Naomi, hug after the match.

NC State would get their first lead of the match to start out the third set, getting a quick 3-0 run to open the set.  The Cards answered, though, and the teams stayed close with mostly ties or small NC State leads, before UofL would get back in front at 11-10 and would never trail the rest of the way.

A nice moment after the match concluded with the Cabello sisters both being at the end of their respective team's handshake lines.  Meaning they were the last players to meet at the net.  Naomi ducked under the net and wrapped younger sister Nayelis in a huge hug.  This is the only time the sisters have faced off against each other on the court, and will almost certainly remain the only time as Naomi is a graduate student and will be finishing her NCAA eligibility at the end of the season.  The only possibility for a rematch would potentially be in the NCAA tournament.

Volleyball heads off for maybe one of the biggest matches in volleyball nationally this season as they head up to Pittsburgh for a bout with the top-ranked Panthers.  In the coach's poll, this is a 1 versus 4 matchup.  That's unlikely to change with the new coach's poll coming out later today.  In RPI Louisville is number one, with Pitt only a couple of spots back at three.

-- 

JMcA

Volleyball and Soccer - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Volleyball Hosts NC State

The Wolfpack are in Louisville today as NC State comes to town to play at LNFCU Arena.

NC State comes to Louisville after upsetting the Cards last year in Raleigh.  While it takes a body of work over the whole season, it's not unreasonable to opine that the loss to NC State last year dropped UofL off the four seed in the NCAA tournament, leading to the Cards playing Pitt at Pitt in the quarterfinals rather than on their home floor.  And, well, you probably know how that went.

So the Cards should be looking for a touch of revenge, here.  Even though NC State is not a top-of-the-rankings powerhouse team, they're unranked, and 33rd in RPI, they have a history of reaching up and punching high level teams, and this would be a signature win for them, so expect them to be highly motivated.

We do have an individual storyline in this match as well.  Naomi Cabello is the big sister to Nayelis Cabello (Naomi is 6'1" to Nayelis' 6'0"), also plays setter, and also wears number 8.  Naomi is a setter for the Pack, looking at stats, she has a solid lead on assists compared to the other setter, Katie Peterson, getting time, though it appears that they may be running a 6-2 offense using both, again, like Louisville does.  (I call ours a 6-3 to recognize the "backup setter" role that Elena Scott plays on the court).  A large contingent of Naomi and Nayelis' family is here this weekend, having had this weekend circled on their calendar since the conference schedule was released.

Louisville cruised to the win Friday over Wake Forest, the Cards need to come out ready to play today against a bit more dangerous team.

Start time is 1pm at LNFCU, and video is on the ACC Network Extra streaming.

Soccer

The soccer team is looking for some positives as Cal comes to Lynn Stadium on Floyd St.

I guess you could say it is getting a little easier as the last outing was against 6th ranked Stanford, and Cal is "only" ranked 25th.  To be fair, though, Louisville played Stanford to a draw for 89 minutes and 58 seconds (not 59 minutes as I initially said on the CCRHP yesterday).

Realistically, however, I don't think anyone would claim that Louisville is as good of a team as Cal, but Soccer is a game where flukes can happen.  Post-season play is mostly beyond expectations at this point for the Cards, though I haven't crunched the numbers to see if they're mathematically eliminated, yet.

The Bears are 10-4-2, 3-3-1 in conference and are arriving in Louisville on the three game losing streak.  The first two losses are understandable, to 1st ranked UNC and 3rd ranked Duke, and the third to a good, but unranked Notre Dame squad.

Given the scenario, I suspect Cal will be ready to go and looking to take out some frustrations on this Louisville squad, so it will be important for the Cards to come out in top form.

It's an early start for soccer, with the first kick at noon, and video coverage is available on the linear ACC Network.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

With Daryl and Jared out at the football game, the CCRHP had Case, Paulie, and myself on the call again.

Coverage of our three big fall sports, with a wish for more of it to be "joy and excitement", beyond just the volleyball court, was on tap.  Check it out!

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Volleyball-Keeps-Winning-e2psn51

 

-- 

JMcA

Volleyball Sweeps; FH Falls -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Luper Hits Milestone as Louisville Beats Wake

Charitie Luper picked up her 1,000th career kill yesterday as she helped lead the Cards to a decently simple sweep of Wake Forest. Louisville's win moved them to 15-2 and they remain undefeated in conference play. Luper had nine kills, which was good for second on the team and third in the match. Louisville will be back in action tomorrow in L&N Federal Credit Union Arena against NC State. 

The Cards got off to a bit of a slow start in the first set, with Wake Forest taking an early 7-3 lead. Louisville would fight back to tie the match at nine before taking their first lead at 10-9. The Cards wouldn't give up that lead for the remainder of the set, slowly adding points to the deficit until they got hung up at 19. Wake Forest won four straight to make the score 19-18, but Louisville won six of the final eight points to put the set away with a 25-20 win.

The second saw a similar difficulty separating, though the Cards didn't have to dig themselves out of an early hole. The two teams traded points early before Louisville started to distance themselves a bit more after both teams reached 10. Again, Louisville hit a slight wall at around the 20 point mark and Wake was able to cut into the lead a bit. Just like the first set, though, Louisville buckled down over the final stretch and won the set 25-19. 

After the halftime break, Louisville was no longer interested in playing games with their food. The Cards won the first four points and stretched that advantage to a 10-2 lead. The Demon Deacons managed a small run at that point to bring the score to within 11-6, but they would get no closer. Louisville ran away with the deciding set, taking the third 25-12. The Cards hit .481 in that final set, compared to just .143 for the Deacs. 

Overall, Louisville dominated on the hitting side with a .349 percentage. Wake hit just .122 over the course of the match, as their .031 first set dragged down their average. Louisville committed just 11 errors and they had only one in the third set. Louisville also led the way in both aces and blocks. The Cards had 10 blocks, with five of these being solo. Louisville also won the battle at the serving line outright, as they had three aces and six serving errors compared to Wake's two and eleven. 

Luper's nine kills came on .333 hitting and she added two solo blocks, a block assist, and seven digs. Anna DeBeer led Louisville with 11 kills on .391 hitting while also picking up a block assist, two aces, and five digs. Reese Robins hit .462 with six kills and no errors. 

Louisville will take on NC State tomorrow at 1PM. The Wolfpack are 10-5 this season and 5-2 in conference. Their two losses came on the Pacific coast, where they lost to Cal and Stanford by a combined score of 6-1. Surprisingly, the sweep came at the hands of Cal. State's wins have come against the Virginias, Duke, UNC, and Notre Dame, so it's hard to put your finger on this team. Louisville shouldn't have any major issues getting by, but it's best to give everyone your best shot. The match will be carried on ACC Network Extra.

Senior Day Goes South for Field Hockey

Justine Sowry let her disappointment be known after yesterday's 3-0 loss, lamenting Louisville's inability to win 50/50 balls and expressing frustration with a lack of fundamentals. The Cards were playing their final game of the season at Trager Stadium and bringing in a familiar foe in Duke. At the end of the day, Duke walked out with a victory, and Louisville's slide continued. 

The Cards played the Blue Devils close for the first quarter, but it was early in the second that things came unglued. To add insult to injury, it was an exciting former Cardinal, Charlie van Oirschot, that kicked off the scoring for Duke. The Blue Devils added to their advantage seven minutes later to make it 2-0 and it would stay that way until shortly into the fourth when they scored an insurance goal on a penalty corner.

Louisville was outshot 16-6 with a disadvantage of 10-2 in shots on target. Of course, it was easy for Duke to get so many more shots as they held an 8-2 advantage in penalty corners. Louisville continued to struggle in the midfield, finding themselves on the back foot throughout the game. 

Louisville honored seniors Filippa Niebuhr and Caroline Pusey after the game, and we have appreciated all those two have done during their time with the Cards. Louisville has two games remaining in the regular season, and we'll see what happens after that. The Cards hit the road to take on Cal and UC Davis next weekend to close out the year. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We'll have three on the horn again with a noon start for football occupying Daryl and Jared. Just like the last few weeks, we've got excitement in volleyball and not quite as much joy in soccer and field hockey. We'll do all we can to keep it positive, though, as we work to uphold the mission of Cardinal Couple. 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

Spotify: Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

WSOC falls to #6 Stanford in final seconds -- VB vs WF -- FH vs Duke -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL 

Hello readers and welcome to the weekend.  As I was preparing this morning's write up last night during the soccer match, I was getting excited to report that the Cardinals were about to draw in a nationally ranked match until they didnt do that... in a shocking fashion, UofL dropped to the #6 Stanford Cardinal in the final 3 seconds of the match.  

Soccer

Photos: Jared Anderson

Cards 0 - Cardinal 1

The WSoc program dropped another match this one, in stunning fashion as UofL allowed the only goal of the match in the final 3 seconds just as we at Cardinal Couple were about to let out a sigh of relief.   Those with eyes on the game report that the Cards may have been looking for some call from the officials which led to a lapse on defense and allowed the Cardinal to get ahead and challenge Erynn Floyd 1 on 1.  

The Cards outshot Stanford 3-2 in the first half before the visitors put in some fresh legs at the end of the match to get off to the races for the winning score.  Lumi Kostmayer scored the lone goal in just 8 minutes on the pitch.   The Cards finished with just 5 shot attempts with one on goal.   

I'm sure that was a not so fun chat in the locker room following this missed opportunity.   There's just not a whole lot to say following a loss like that one.  

Volleyball

Photos: Jared Anderson 

The #4 ranked volleyball team will welcome Wake Forest to L&N Arena this weekend for a 7p.m. first serve.  

The Deacon Demons are 10-7 and 2-4 in the ACC, with the Louisville leading the series 15-2, one of those losses coming in the last meeting 2-3.

Wake Forest has four individuals holding spots in the ACC top-10 categories:   Tina Grkovic – 7th in blocks (1.27/set)  Dior Charles – 9th in blocks (1.21/set)   Paige Crawford – 9th in service aces (27 total)  Emma Farrell – 9th in digs (3.70/set)




Field hockey

Photos: Jared Anderson 

UofL will honor the 2024 seniors following Friday's 3 p.m. game against #11 Duke. That class includes Filippa Niebuhr and Caroline Pusey along with fifth-year seniors Mia Duchars, Brandelynn Heinbaugh and Aimee Plumb. 

Louisville enters the weekend with a 5-9 record and a 1-5 mark in ACC play, good for seventh in league standings. Duke leads the all time series 14-9.

The cards fell to the Blue Devils November 1, 2023 - Duke won 1-0 in the semifinals of the ACC Championship. The Blue Devils also won last year's regular season meeting 2-1 in Durham. 

#11 Duke enters the weekend with an 8-4 record, tied for third in the ACC with a 4-1 mark in league play. The Blue Devils are currently on a four-game win streak - all shutouts.

Goalkeeper Frederique Wollaert leads the NCAA with a 0.35 goals against average while Alaina McVeigh paces the team with eight goals and has dished out one assist for 17 points.

Softball Fall Ball 

Final UofL  0  UK   6 

Just reporting the score at this time.. the programs usually do not record much from exhibition games and it looks like something we dont wanna hear much about anyways, lets just hope the Cards had some lessons to learn from this one and look ahead towards a successful spring matchup with the Cats.   

As Always, 

Go Cards!

~Daryl 

Soccer Hosts Ranked Stanford -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Women's soccer cheering on men's soccer

We are approaching a weekend where all fall sports are at home. Men's soccer played last night, women's soccer plays tonight, field hockey and volleyball are tomorrow, football is Saturday, and women's soccer and volleyball are playing again Sunday. Today, we are previewing Louisville women's soccer.

Louisville welcomes #6 Stanford to Dr Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium. The match is slated for a 7:00pm ET kickoff and will be aired on ACC Network linear tv. Louisville is promoting this as Cancer Awareness Night and will wear the pink jerseys for the event.

The Cards enter the match 6-5-3 overall and 1-4-1 in ACC play. Most recently, UofL played now-#12 (then-#13) Notre Dame to a 0-0 draw. It was the third straight ranked match for Louisville. 

Stanford is having a strong inaugural season in the ACC. The Cardinal are 12-2-1 overall with a 4-2-1 mark in conference play. They have wins against top-10 teams North Carolina and Santa Clara.

The Cardinal have outscored opponents 22-9 this season. While their offense has not been overly impressive, their defense has been one of the best in the league. Andrea Kitahata leads the team in scoring with six goals and four assists. Haley Craig has played a majority of the minutes in goal and has recorded 38 saves.

Tune back in tomorrow to read the recap of women's soccer and read the preview of field hockey and volleyball.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Louisville Field Hockey's Rebuild Season Has Sputtered -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

AT 5-9...CARDS FIELD HOCKEY NOT ACCEPTABLE

On a six-game losing streak and 1-5 in the ACC, it has been a nightmarish season for the UofL Field Hockey program. Most in the know about the program knew that there would be a rebuild necessary after the 2023 season. Louisville graduated Emilia Kaczmarczyk, India Reed, Minna Tremonti, Melijen van der Vegt and Julie Kouijzer...sending Coach Sowry and staff looking for replacements at these key positions on the team...and the 2024 schedule was brutal with seven ranked opponents in the first 12 matches. Few saw the drop as becoming quite this dramatic, though.  And, Louisville is fifth in strength of schedule this year....out of the 82 DI teams listed. ...

Maybe losing their last six games by one goal, each time out, helps explains the fallen fortunes of this year's flock. Yes, the Cards were up against the #1, #3 and #4 teams in DI NCAA Field Hockey in that stretch, but a key goal here or there could have reversed the fortune of the squad.  with three games left, and just one of them at Trager field...against #11 Duke, the Cards will finsh below .500, even if they sweep the rest of the way. And, in the ACC Field Hockey conference standings,  the Cards are cutrently jusr one game ahead of newcomers California and Stanford at the bottom of the conerence standings. Eight of the nine schools will participate in the ACC Field Hockey Tournament, right now it looks like the Cards might just be the seventh or eighth seed. 

Scoring is a problem that can only be solved by either recruitng more prolific players or working with the returning group to develop better scorers on squad or set up better scoring opportunities, The Cards have been outsored 25 to 24 this season, and have scored four goals just twice in 2024 competition, against unranked Cornell and Ball State, back in September.  

Only four Cards have scored four goals or more this season...Rylie Wollerton has five, and the Plumb sisters....Aimee and Chloe... have four total goals each. as does Izzy Bianco. Looking at the 2023 stats, Aimee Plumb and Wollerton led the squad in scoring with five goals each.

The 2023 squad finished 15-7. It's doubtful the 2024 squad will get 22 games in this year, with just three regular season games left, and maybe three at most ACC Tournament games possible. Louisville has virtually no shot at playing in the NCAA Tournament unless they manage to win the ACC Tournament and get the automatic qualifiier bid.

So, how do the Cards get back above .500 and in contention to compete in the NCAA Tourmament in 2025??. 

One would think a growth of the defensive line in front of the goalkeeper would be a priority . next season , Tatum Kroon, Emily Eaton and  Luciana Carpenter have been drawing starts. That's a freshman, redshirt sophomore and junior, so...hopefully this year's experience will help them in 2025. Also, a scorer to replace the graduating Aimee Plumb needs to be developed.

The Cards also have nine freshmen on the roster, roughly 1/3 of the roster. Add in the eight  sophomores, and that is over 2/3rds of the roster...Yes, they are a quite young squad. Youth does gain experience, it is a given fact...but the growing pain are what we are seeing now. 

Sowry is too good a coach to allow this slump to last long. We expect to see a major improvement in the 2025 season. Until then, though, it's weather the storm status at the field next to Mcdonald's and hope for a few breaks in the final three games and ACC Tournament..

paulie. 

Updated Volleyball Rankings -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Updated Volleyball Rankings

Following a rather uneventful week, the latest NCAA Volleyball rankings are out. This has been the year of upsets, which has led to some interesting rankings shakeups throughout the weeks. The only notable upset over the last week didn't seem to cause much of an impact in the latest AVCA poll.

#1 Pitt (15-1): despite being upset by SMU in a 1-1 series split, the Panthers retained their top position.

#2 Nebraska (16-1): The Huskers continued a 16-match win streak highlighted by a win against top-10 Purdue

#3 Penn State (16-1): The Nittany Lions cruised through a pair of Big Ten wins

#4 Louisville (14-2): The Cards went on the road to defeat ranked Florida State and RV Miami

#5 Stanford (13-2): The Cardinal swept a couple middle of the road ACC teams

#6 Creighton (15-2): The Blue Jay swept through a pair of Big East opponents

#7 Texas (10-3): The Longhorns played one match, sweeping ranked Kentucky

#8 Kansas (14-1): The Jayhawks continue to dominate Big 12 play

#9 Wisconsin (11-4): The Badgers handled a couple Big Ten foes with ease

#10 Purdue (13-4): The Boilermakers fell to Nebraska before defeating Iowa

#11 Oregon (13-2)

#12 SMU (13-4)

#13 Arizona State (16-2) 

#14 Minnesota (11-5)
#15 Kentucky (9-7)

#16 USC (12-4)

#17 Georgia Tech (11-4) 

#18 TCU (12-4)

#19 Florida State (12-4) 

#20 Utah (15-2)

#21 Dayton (17-1)

#22 Baylor (10-6)

#23 Florida (11-5)

#24 BYU (10-6)

#25 Auburn (14-2)

The most recent RPI puts the Cards at #1 due to an extremely difficult schedule. Up to this point, Louisville is 6-2 against the Top 25. They also defeated then-#15 Tennessee, but the Vols have dropped from the polls altogether.

Louisville's schedule still features Pitt (2x), SMU, and Stanford. North Carolina and Virginia are both in the receiving votes category and still on the Cards' upcoming schedule.

This week also saw a pair of ACC awards for Louisville players. Anna DeBeer was named ACC Offensive Player of the Week and Cara Cresse was named ACC Defensive Player of the Week. Debo has 23 kills against FSU and 18 kills on .351 hitting percentage against Miami. Cresse had six blocks against FSU and six kills plus eight blocks against Miami.

Louisville is back in action this coming weekend with home matches against Wake Forest and NC State.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Volleyball Remains Undefeated -- Field Hockey Falls in Overtime -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 A split day for Cardinals women's sports

A mixed bag of results for UofL women's athletics Sunday, as Volleyball travelled to Miami and blew past the Hurricanes in four sets, and Field Hockey took their sixth loss in a row,  a double-overtime defeat by Wake Forest in Winston-Salem 3-2. Let's see how both got there.. 

FIELD HOCKEY

The Cards and Demon Deacs took it to double overtime before a winner emerged, unfortunately for UofL fans, it was Wake Forest that scored the sudden victory goal when Faye Janse connected four minutes into the second extra session to give the home squad the win. 

"The game had a lot of momentum shifts, and we were unable to captialize in the crucial moments. " said UofL head coach Justine Sowry. "Again, it came down to inches, and we came up second best." 

Aimee Plumb had both of Louisville's goals in the contest. 

Wake led after one quarter 1-0 , and a wild second quarter ensured, with three goals being scored and a 2-2 tie developing, as they went into the half. . 

Although both squads had several scoring oppotunities in the second half, neither could break the deadlock and end of regulation rolled about with the score still 2-2.  The Cards had three penalty corner opportunities in the first overtime session but could not convert on any of them. Wake got the win in the second bonus session, to go to 5-7 overall, pick up their first ACC win and are now at 1-3 in conference.  The Cards drop to 5-9 overall and are now 1-5 in conference action. 

Louisville returns home for a Friday 5 p.m. match against  #11 Duke. 

VOLLEYBALL 

The VolleyCards travelled into Miami with a #4 national ranking and leading the ACC with a 5-0 record.  Miami didn't exactly roll over for Dani Busboom Kelly's squad, but UofL was able to jump out to a 2-0 set lead and remained undefeated in conference play with the four set triumph. 

SET ONE

This first set started out with the Canes jumping out to a 5-2 lead, before the Cards battled back and tied things at 8-8 on a Charitie Luper kill. The squads went back and forth on the lead and were still tied up at 15-15. UofL jumped out to a 17-15 lead after Anna DeBeer and Luper kills and built the lead to 23-19...but Miami hung tough and got it back to a slim 24-23 Louisville lead before DeBeer ended the set with a kill  25-23 Cards in the first

SET TWO

Another close set to begin with the teams tied at 3-3 and 6-6. Louisville finally broke awy when they got two Elena Scott services aces to take a 11-7 lead. The Cards went uo 16-10 on a PK kill and was still in control at 19-14 after a Miami service error. A DeBeer kill made it 22-16 Cards and they took the 25-17 win on a Miami hitting error. 

SET THREE

Miami wasn't quite ready to turn the lights off in the gym and go home, though, as they came out strong in the third set and grabbed a 4-2 lead. The Cards battled back, though and went up 7-6 on a Sofia Maldonado Diaz kill. A back and forth match developed with the squads tied at 10-10 and 12-12. It was 16-16 after a Luper hitting error but Miami sprang to life and a 8-1 Canes run had them at set point with a 24-17 advantage. A Daila Wilson kill gave Miami a 25-18 third set win 

SET FOUR

Another back and forth start to the final set with the teams knotted in a 5-5 tie early-- on a Cara Cresse kill. The Cards went on a 5-1 run, though, benefitting from a couple of Miami attack errors and kills from Luper and deBeer. The Canes got within two at 12-10, but the Cards rolled off four straight points and built a 16-10 lead..deBeer getting three kills in that stretch. Another deBeer kill made it 19-14 Louisville.  The Cards got to set and match point at 24-18 on a Cara Cresse block and won the set and match when deBeer got a kill to end the action at 25-20

deBeer had 18 match kills to lead UofL,..Grace Lopez led UM with 25. 

The Cards return home to face Wake Forest on Friday,

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

paulie

Volleyball Tops the ACC - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Soccer Draws Against Notre Dame

Erynn Floyd emerges from the locker
room with Ella Kane

There probably was not a lot of expectation that Soccer would get any points in the standings against 13th ranked Notre Dame yesterday, but they did get a result, a scoreless draw, worth a point... against the Irish.  Jared was there for at least part of the game and got some pictures.

Given the challenges this squad has seen, getting a point vs Notre Dame is a good result, although it's short of the pace that the team needs to sustain to make the miniscule six-team ACC tournament.

This was the first shut out that Notre Dame has been dealt this season, and it improved the Cards record to 5-1-2 at Lynn Stadium.  Overall the Cards are now 6-5-3

Fina Davy on the attack

.  Much of the credit for that shutout goes to Erynn Floyd, who was back in goal for the Cards and ended up tallying 10 saves.

The road doesn't get any easier for UofL, of course, considering the gauntlet that ACC play is.  Notre Dame was the beginning of a four game homestand.  Next up is 7th ranked Stanford on Thursday, followed by 17th ranked Cal on Sunday.

Field Hockey at Wake Forest

Sowry's squad looks to end a five game losing streak with a visit to Wake Forest.  The Demon Deacon have yet to win a game in conference and are 4-7 overall.  Neither team is ranked nationally at this point.

With a 1-4 conference record, the Cards are only a single spot ahead of Wake Forest.  The Deacs are only ahead of 0-4 in conference Cal, and 0-5 in conference Stanford by virtue of having few loses and having a game or two in hand over the California contingent.

Today's game starts at 1pm in Winston-Salem as .is viewable on the ACC Network Extra.

Volleyball Advance in Conference

I'll talk about Louisville Volleyball here in a second, but first a quick look aside.

 

There's now only  a single undefeated team in Division I volleyball.  Care to take a guess?

.

South Dakota State holds that honor.  Now, the Jackrabbits don't have the strongest strength of schedule in the country, they don't have any opponents that have been ranked at any point in the season, but they are rolling through the competition they have, and the only challenge I see ahead of them is South Dakota, who took a set off of us up at the Northern Kentucky tournament.

The Jackrabbits are led by Sydni Schetnan, who spent a year here at Louisville, and was set to be a dual-sport Basketball/Volleyball athlete.  After her first year, where she only played basketball, she decided her future lay elsewhere and transferred, much closer to home, to SDSU.  We wish her and the Jackrabbits well. One wonders what she would have added to the UofL squad had she stayed? She and current Cards star, PK Kong were teammates in high school in South Dakota. 

So what happened to Pitt?  The Panthers, who had lost only a single set all season, dropped a close five setter against SMU yesterday in Dallas.  This was after they easily handled the Mustangs in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.  Clearly, the Mustangs learned from their first encounter.

I watched a little of this match and the Mustangs had success over Pitt when they got their blocking engaged, which bodes well for Louisville's matchups against the Panthers, with Louisville being the 2nd best blocking team in the country.

This development gives Louisville, at least for the time being, sole possession of first place in the ACC in volleyball.  The Cards are undefeated so far in conference, with Pitt, SMU, Standford, Virginia, and North Carolina all right behind with a single loss.

The Cards will play Miami today in Coral Gables.  The Hurricanes are 2-3 in conference and 11-5 overall.  They're a good team, and were ranked earlier in the season before falling off a bit.  Their biggest win of the season was in the 2nd weekend of play, where they knocked off defending National Champs Texas in five sets.  They have losses against a good Ohio State team, and lost both of their travel partner home and home matchups against Florida State.

Overall, Miami is a fairly good team, but more importantly, they have a lengthy history of reaching up from mediocrity and punching some top teams in the face.  All the numbers say that Louisville should win this, but of course, we've seen how this Cards team can suffer from some inconsistency.  Against a potential giant killer like Miami, UofL needs to be at the top of their game today.

This is also a 1pm start, and is available on ACC Network Extra.

Lacrosse Fall Ball

Lacrosse was in action yesterday in exhibition fall play.  They played two mini games and won both.  Jared was there to get pictures.

Freshman Lilly Boyle on the attack.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

And finally, Case, Paulie, and I were on the call for the CCRHP yesterday with a late, surprise, appearance by Jared.  We covered Soccer, Field Hockey, and Volleyball, results and expectations.  Paulie also gave us a rundown of the Basketball luncheon.

A good time, and a good show.  Check it out:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Volleyball-Rolls-Others-Still-Slump-e2pircn

 

-- 

JMcA

FH/VB Split Close Matches -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Beats FSU in 5 Sets

Louisville volleyball hit the road to take on 21st-ranked Florida State last night and took down the Seminoles in a back-and-forth five set match. Louisville dropped the first before taking the next two and losing the fourth to lead to the tiebreaker. The Cards won the fifth set going away, 15-9. The victory was Louisville's fifth in ACC play, keeping them undefeated in conference, and it broke a 17-match home winning streak for FSU. The Cards take on FSU's travel partner Miami on Sunday at 1PM. 

FSU came out of the gates hot, hitting .417 in the first set en route to a 25-16 victory. Louisville hit just .200 with five errors, matching their high for the match, which they'd repeat in the third and fourth sets. Despite the higher error number in the third, Louisville still outhit the 'Noles .235-.207 in that third set. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Louisville responded to the opening punch from FSU with a .429 hitting percentage of their own in the second. They had just two errors compared to FSU's 8, which gave them a .182 for the set. Despite the hitting dominance, Louisville won just 25-21. They'd go on to win the third 25-21 as well. 

The match swung back in FSU's favor in the fourth, as the 'Noles outhit the Cards once more and inverted the score of the previous two sets, taking it 25-21 themselves. Neither team hit the ball out of the gym in the fourth, but FSU had enough juice. Part of what kept FSU so scrappy was the serving line. The Seminoles had nine aces compared to Louisville's four. They were also even at the line, matching the number of aces with the number of errors. Louisville was -11, as they had 15 service errors. Yikes. Those errors helped push the momentum squarely to FSU for the fifth set. After Louisville tied the fourth at 19, FSU had just one kill to score their last six points. Louisville had three attacking errors (including two of their nine blocks) and two service errors, including set point. 

FSU came out and won the first point of the fifth, but Louisville was about done playing games. At least, that's what they thought. The Cards won four of the next five points before FSU took three straight to regain a 5-4 lead. At the second time of asking, though, they were able to put it away. Louisville won the next four points to make the score 8-5 and alternated points until 11-9. All the past errors went by the wayside, then, and Louisville won the last four points of the match on four straight kills by Sofia Maldonado Diaz and Anna DeBeer. 

DeBeer led all hitters with 23 kills in the match (narrowly beating FSU's Audrey Koenig who had 22). DeBeer had six errors as well, but with 51 attempts, she finished with a solid .333 hitting percentage (outhitting the team's .295). Charitie Luper joined DeBeer in double figures with 12 and Sofi finished with nine. The Cards had two players finish with no errors, as PK and Reese Robins each had seven kills and hit over .500. 

Defensively, the Cards finished with one more block than FSU, picking up 10, all assisted. The Seminoles were keen to avoid Elena Scott, as Louisville's star libero had only 12 digs. DeBeer had a double-double with 11 digs and Luper narrowly missed it with nine. Elle Glock and Nayelis Cabello were each forced into five digs of their own. 

Louisville moves to 13-2 (5-0) on the season and they'll take a five-set road victory and run. That win is especially difficult in Tully Gymnasium, where FSU last lost on November 6th, 2023 to then 10th-ranked Georgia Tech. Louisville heads down to Coral Gables next, where they'll face the Hurricanes who are coming off of a five-set win themselves. Miami beat Notre Dame 3-2 last night to move to 11-5 (2-3). They've already played FSU twice and were shockingly swept by Virginia on the road last weekend. Tomorrow's match is at 1PM on ACCNX.

Field Hockey's Skid Continues with 2-1 Loss

Louisville field hockey brought in the top-ranked team in the land yesterday afternoon, and despite their best efforts, dropped their fifth straight match. Louisville was under immense pressure throughout the match but maintained a 1-1 tie until just under seven minutes remaining. UNC scored the game winner to move to 9-0 on the season and push Louisville down to 5-8. The Cards get no time to lick their wounds, as they hit the road for Winston-Salem to face Wake Forest tomorrow. 

Sophomore goalkeeper Emily Young has continued to split duties with Brandelynn Heinbaugh this season, and she has drawn difficult opponents. Young started the last two games and showed pretty well. Against UVA and UNC, Young played just under 60 minutes in each match as the Cards pulled the goalie, and she finished with a combined 11 saves and just three goals allowed. That's a combined save percentage of over 75%, which is pretty nice. Her season save percentage in 7.5 games is .694, which is still no slouch. 

As I mentioned last week, Louisville field hockey needs to find the offense. One or fewer goals per game isn't going to get it done against the quality competition they're facing. In addition to the lack of goals, Louisville isn't threatening much at all. The Cards were outshot 21-4 and 10-3 in on-target attempts. They gave up six penalty corner attempts and had just two. In the end, it was an incredible defensive effort that kept the match as close as it was. 

Louisville's lone goal in this one came as an equalizer in the middle of the second quarter. Chloe Plumb scored the unassisted effort, her fourth goal of the year. Other shots came from her sister Aimee, Chloe Cuzzupe, and Rylie Woolerton. 

UNC is very good, don't get me wrong. However, we've seen some real flashes from this Louisville team, and it seems like there should be more to them than what they've shown in conference play. The Cards have four games remaining and they'll have to win out to finish above .500. Three of those four matches are on the road, with the lone home match coming against a tough Duke team next Friday. They are back in action tomorrow against Wake at 1PM on ACCNX.

Other News and Notes

Louisville softball played two against Indiana last night as they continued their fall ball schedule. The Cards won the first game 5-4 on a walk-off single. Our correspondent had to leave midway through the second game so we've got no reporting on the final from Ulmer. Louisville athletics, as usual, are tight-lipped on the results of scrimmages, so let's just think positively and assume they won. Softball looks to be having fun and can hopefully break through once spring comes around. 

Louisville soccer is back in action at home tonight, but most of us will miss the rare Saturday evening event. The Cards are taking on Notre Dame, who is currently ranked 13th, and we'll hope to see an upset. Louisville has lost five of their last six but they've played pretty tough competition. After the brutal trip to Tobacco Road (losses to UNC and Duke by a combined 8-1 score), the friendly confines of Lynn Stadium will hopefully turn things around. Tonight's match is at 5PM and will be carried on ACCNX. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

There will be just three of us this week as Daryl and Jared are otherwise occupied. As has become a disappointing norm, we'll look forward to talking about volleyball and try not to spend too long commiserating about the others. 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

Spotify: Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Floyd Street LIVE as FH welcomes #1 UNC and SB hosts IU -- VB at FSU -- WGOLF -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Cheers to the weekend everyone.  I hope it is a calm one for everyone as we are heading into the holidays full speed.  It should be a crisp fall evening over on Belknap Campus so grab some hot chocolate or apple cider and head over to Trager and/or Ulmer for some Cardinals athletics ! 

Field Hockey

Louisville looking to knock off the undefeated and defending champs North Carolina Tarheels as they are in town for a Friday afternoon bout scheduled to start at 3 p.m. 

UNC is 8-0 and 3-0 in the ACC.  Ryleigh Heck leads the ACC with 10 assists and Charly Bruder stands second in goals with 10 on the season.  Abigail Taylor has started all eight games for the Tar Heels and carries a 0.443 goals against average, which ranks second in the ACC.

Photos: Jared Anderson

Louisville's fifth straight top-20 opponent with two of their last three games coming against top-five teams including No. 4 Ohio State and No. 3 Virginia.

North Carolina leads the series 12-6 with the Tarheels winning the last matchup 2-0 in Chapel Hill. This match will be on ACCNX

Volleyball

The Cardinals are heading south to Florida for a couple bouts in the Sunshine state this weekend.  First up, UofL is facing #21 Florida State Seminoles.   First serve is set for 7p.m. and should be available on the ACC Network Extra.  Louisville has not lost to the Seminoles since 2019.   

The Seminoles are 11-3 overall and 3-1 in the ACC. FSU is on an 18 game winning streak at home.   As a team, FSU ranks 15th in the country and fourth in the ACC with a .284 hitting percentage and also ranks 27th in the country and fourth in the ACC with 13.68 kills per set. FSU ranks 46th in the country and fifth in the ACC with 12.52 assists per set.

 

Softball

 

Indiana enters the fall looking to build off a strong 2024 campaign in which they went 40-20 overall and 12-11 in Big Ten play. The 2025 season will be the Hoosiers' eighth under the leadership of head coach Shonda Stanton.

Golf

The women's golf team is headed to North Carolina for the Ruth's Chris Tar Heel Invitational. The last time they competed in this tournament in 2022, the Cards finished tied for fifth out of 14 total teams. Back in 2022, Carmen Griffiths led the way with a tie for sixth place finish. She also carded a hole in one during the second round of action.

Griffiths leads the team with three par or better rounds this year and has tallied one Top-5 finish and two Top-10 finishes. She has the best individual finish of any player this season after her tie for second at the Cardinal Cup.

Millie Cottrell, Thienna Huynh, Veronika Exposito, Beatriz Barrios and Gabbi Bentancourt will round out the UofL squad.

The first round will get underway at 8:30 a.m. ET for the Cardinals as they will all begin the round on hole 10.   Fans can follow along with the live stats here 

As Always, 

Go Cards!

~Daryl