Cards VB and FH secure Sunday wins -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 UofL Field Hockey, Volleyball Have Sunday Successes 

A good day for Louisville women's sports squads, as #4 Louisville Volleyball handled a pesky #9 Crieghton in five sets...and # 9 Cards Field Hockey got a game winning goal from caroline Pusey to down stubborn Cornell 4-3. 

VOLLEYBALL

Set 1 - 25-18 Cards. 

Louisville jumped out t o the erly lead in the first set, 5-2, and never relinquished the lead to the Jays. Creighton tied the match at 7-7 but the Cards rallied to build that lead to 15-9 after an attack error by Crieghton on an Anna DeBeer serve. Louisvviile set lead at 21-16 on a j kill by Sofia Maladonado-Diaz. Reese Robins got the kill to make it 25-18 Cards. 

Set 2-  25-20 Cards

Louisville went on an early 5-0 run to take a 10-5 lead over the Jays, and led 15-8 after getting a block from PK and Charitie Luper. The Jays got close at 16-12, and 20-18, but UofL got five of the next seven points, including two kills from Luper to quell the Jays rally and go to half time   with a 2-0m set advantage. 

Set 3 - 25-10 Creighton 

This set started fairly close, tied at 5-5, but Crieghton went on a 10-1 run to take a commanding 16-6 lead. Louisville rallied briefly to get within seven at 17-10, after a Jays service error....but the visitors went on a set ending 8-0 run, that included four Louisville aattack errors. It wasn't the best of Louisville performances. 

Set 4 - 25-15 Creighton 

Creighton ever trailed in the fourth set, leading 5-2, 7-4 and 10-5 early. Louisville still trailed at 15-10 and did make it 15-12 before the Jays rallied and ran off five points in a row. A Cardinals service error and Creighton ace serve made the final 25-15. It seemed the Nlue Jays had all the momentum, as the two squad headed to the fifth set.

Sst 5 - Louisville 15-8

The Cards started strong in the final set and jumped out to an early 6-2 lead after a PK kill. They build that to a 10-4 edge when Anna DeBeer got a kill, and the Cards won 15-8 on a DeBeer kill to take the set and match. 

FIELD HOCKEY

-

#9  Louisville jumped out to a 2-0 early lead on the visiting Big Red from Cornell Uniersity and kept the visitors scoreless for nearly the first 25 minutes of the match.

 In the end, the Cards had to survive two missed Cornell penalty corner atempts and being a player short due to penalty. But it was a Louisville win, and a well deserved one over a Cornell squad that simply refused to give up the fight. 

The Cards got an early score 2:23 into first quarter action off a penalty corner play, when Chloe Cuzzupe fired one into the back of the net. 

The Cards scored their second goal with 11 minutes gone in the match off another penalty corner, when Tyler Everslage got her first goal of the season...the Cards tried three penalty corner attempts in a row before Everslage's score... making it 2-0.  

Cornell got on the board at the 24:58 mark when they benefitted off a penalty corner attempt. UofL took a 3-1 lead in the third quarter on a Lauren Masters goal and then saw Cornell tie it at 3-3 with two scores within a minute of each other at the 49 and 50 minute marks. 

UofL got the deciding goal at the 52 minute mark when Caroline Pusey deflected a shot into the goal. 

Jared Anderson interviewed Pusey and head coach Jutine Sowry after the win. 

Caroline Pusey

Justine Sowry

(Photos by Jared Anderson) 

(Interviews by Jared Anderson)  

paulier

Volleyball Sweeps; Soccer Falls in Conference Opener -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Takes Down Northern Iowa

As Jeff mentioned yesterday, he and I swapped days this weekend. Unfortunately, that means you won't get a Jeff writeup of either volleyball match this weekend. Since volleyball usually plays on Fridays and Sundays, you don't get Jeff covering them anyway, but that's beside the point. Yesterday Louisville hosted Northern Iowa in the Cards first match of the Cardinal Classic and walked away with a 25-23, 27-25, 25-15 sweep of the Panthers. 

Louisville didn't get off to the cleanest start yesterday, but they managed to stretch out to a 13-7 lead in the first set. A few miscues erased that lead, though, and UNI brought the game back to a one-point contest at 14-13. The Cards were able to build another small gap before the teams more or less traded pairs of points through the rest of the set. The Cards won the first game 25-23 on a combined block by Reese Robins and Cara Cresse. Yeah, I would avoid those two. 

The second saw Louisville as the chaser, but the Panthers couldn't build a lead larger than the 4-point advantage they held at 15-11. UNI did manage to take a 20-17 lead to make things rather nervy for the Cards, but Louisville won six of the next eight points to flip the script and take a 23-22 lead. Traded points led to extra volleyball, but another Cresse block made it 26-25 and an unforced error gave the Cards a 27-25 victory.

UNI won the first three points out of the half, and it seemed like we were in for another tight set. After the teams went back and forth for the first 30ish points, though, Louisville was done with the theatrics. A UNI kill made the score 15-14 in favor of Louisville, and the Cards decided that they wanted to be done for the day. The Cards won six straight points which included two blocks and an ace and put them up 21-14. A rare Elena Scott service error (rare for Scott, not for the team yesterday) broke the run, but Louisville won the next four points to take the game 25-15 and the match 3-0. 

Scott's ace in the final sequence was Louisville's only ace of the match. The Cards had a nightmare at the service line, swatting 10 service errors compared to the single ace. UNI had five aces and only eight errors, so the Cards made their lives much harder at the line. They'll need to clean that up against Creighton for sure. 

Offensively, only two players jump off the page. While Louisville hit 0.327 as a team, only two players exceeded that number on the floor. Outside of Charitie Luper's 0.536 and Cresse's 0.538, the highest Cardinals were Robins and Sofia Maldonado Diaz, who both hit 0.250. Luper and Cresse were impressive, though. Luper finished with 16 kills on 28 attempts and had just one error. Cresse was 9/13 with two errors. Cresse also led the team in blocks, taking two of Louisville's three solo blocks and adding four assists. The Cards outblocked the Panthers 11-3. 

Louisville's sweep should prime them for another top-ten matchup as they face Creighton today at 1PM. That match will be in the Yum! Center and it will be carried on ESPN. Creighton is currently 9th in the country and sits at 8-1 on the year. Their only loss came on the road against Nebraska, where they went down in five sets. The Blue Jays swept UNI on Friday and did the same against Rice yesterday morning. 

Cards Fall 3-1 at Pitt

Pittsburgh women's soccer finished last season ranked 8th in RPI. This season, they entered last night's game at 6-1-1. However, they weren't ranked as they drew Georgia to open the season and lost to Buffalo a week later. Their wins are over Duquesne, Bucknell, Loyola Marymount, Cal State Fullerton, Dartmouth, and Mercyhurst. Not many powerhouses in that bunch. I say that, though, to indicate that Pitt may be overlooked because of their loss to Buffalo. The Panthers had a good team last year and their goal difference stood at +21 entering last night's game. 

Am I rationalizing? Maybe. Louisville opened the season on a 5-0-2 undefeated streak before a road loss to Dayton broke up the party. After seven games without a loss, the Cards are now on the tail end of a 2-game losing streak with conference play upon them. Louisville still has plenty of time to recover, but Pitt was one of the games they would have liked to have had a result in. Even when the Panthers were ranked last season, Louisville managed to pull off the upset win. 

Louisville's offense has been a bit hit-or-miss this season. After the seven-goal explosion against Bellarmine to open the season, Louisville has scored only 13 goals in the eight games since opening night. Last week's game against Dayton was their only shutout so far, but they've been able to eclipse three goals in a game just twice. Offense was the missing piece again last night as the Cards couldn't match the pair of late goals by Pitt and lost 3-1. 

Kailey Kimball played all 90 minutes in goal for the second game in a row after Erynn Floyd left the game early against UT Martin. Kimball finished with nine saves, and the offense should have done more to help, but I'd like to see Louisville's starter get back to the pitch. Kimball is certainly an adequate replacement, but I don't think this team's ceiling is as high without Floyd in the net. 

Pitt scored first last night, breaking the tie just 11 minutes into the game. The Cards would tie it up with Karsyn Cherry's fifth goal of the season in the 21st minute. Like her previous four, this one came on a set piece, but it was quite different. Rather than heading in a corner kick, Cherry was tasked with taking a penalty. She slotted it home to make it 1-1. 

Tied at one is what the game would stay for the next 50ish minutes before Pitt's Samiah Phiri scored her sixth goal of the year. She matched Cherry ten minutes later with a penalty kick goal of her own, moving Phiri's total to seven. Louisville didn't have any answer offensively, as they managed just five shots on the evening (two on frame), and the Panthers took the victory. Pitt controlled the match offensively, and Louisville was fairly lucky to escape with just three goals allowed. Pitt took 27 shots in the match. Yikes. 

Louisville will get a break to get back on track and end their skid. After 12 days off, the Cards will head back on the road as they go down to Blacksburg for their next match to take on Virginia Tech on 9/26. VT is 6-2-1 on the year so far and they'll take on Syracuse today. The Hokies drew Monmouth in late August and dropped back to back games against Liberty and Northwestern last weekend. They opened conference play with a road win against Clemson, though, so they're certainly no slouches. They'll play BC next Sunday before meeting the Cards.

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case 

Saturday Shuffle - Saturday Cardinal Couple

The Saturday Shuffle

The shuffle is both in your writers here on Cardinal Couple - due to travel arrangement Case and I have swapped days.  Case will be doing tomorrow's write in my place.  But its also for the quick change that at least Jared and I will be doing after today's Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast to get downtown for the Volleyball match.

Golf

Golf is hosting the The Cardinal Cup at the UofL Golf Club out in Simpsonville.  After the first day of play the Cards hold the third spot as a team with a collective nine over par, but two players on the squad, Thienna Hunyh, and Carmen Griffiths, are individually involved in a three way tie for 3rd at one under par.

Beatriz Barrios is competing individually for the Cards, meaning her score doesn't contribute the team's overall score, but perhaps she should be as she's currently in a tie for 7th place after the round.

Yesterday's round was slightly delayed thanks to the last of the (badly needed) rain that came through the Louisville area over the past couple of days, but did get started only slightly delayed and looks to be going off today without any hitch whatsoever.

Field Hockey

Goal keeper Brandelynn Heinbaugh
and the penalty kill squad

The Field Hockey team was also in action yesterday against top ranked Northwestern.  The Wildcats prevailed in the action 2-0, which is disappointing for the Cards, but not unexpected based on rankings and past experiences with Northwestern as they are a fine Field Hockey squad indeed.

The Wildcats scored one goal in the first and third quarters, but were silent in the second and fourth.  Unfortunately, they were able to prevent the Cards from finding the back of the goal the whole game, sealing the win.

Tatum Kroon

Brandelynn Heinbaugh had three saves in goal for the Cards, as did the Northwestern goal keeper, but that was the sum total of the shots on goal for the Cards while NW had seven.  Tatum Kroon came up with the extra couple of defensive saves for the Cards.

It's been a bit of a rough start this season for Field Hockey as they now sport a 2-3 record.  To be fair, however, the schedule laid out for them this year is certainly no cupcake with all three losses coming to top 15 teams.

The squad will be back in action, bringing in Cornell to Trager Stadium, tomorrow at 4pm, with streaming available on ACC Network Extra.

Volleyball

Two teams are in action today, and we'll take them in order of start time.

Volleyball takes on Northern Iowa today at 1:30, downtown at the KFC Yum! Center.

This, notionally, is one of the easier contests the volleyball squad will face in their non-conference slate, with perhaps last weekends opponents ranking higher in the "easier competition" tally.  However, don't dismiss UNI out of hand.

The Cards are 0-3 versus the Panthers all time, with the last meetup being in 2017 in Minneapolis for the first round of the NCAA tournament.  The Panthers swept the Cards in that one.

There is an interesting storyline embedded in this match, however.  Payton Peterson is a freshman with the Cards, starting this fall after a stand-out high school career winning seven state championships in her time at Dike New-Hartford High School, between Volleyball and Basketball.

We've mentioned this feat here in Cardinal Couple before, however what we haven't mentioned is that Payton is one half of a pair of twins.  And her twin, Jadyn, who also wears number 21, is a freshman on the UNI team.  Let's not stop there, however, as their mother, Bobbi Peterson, is the head coach of UNI.  Father Duane Peterson played football at UNI, older sisters Bailey and Sydney, also a pair of twins, played volleyball at UNI, and aunt Michelle Bolte is Director of Operations for the UNI squad.  Quite a family affair, there.

This match is available on ACC Network Extra, but with it being contested at the KFC Yum! Center, tickets are available for this one.

Soccer

Soccer is in action this evening on the road up in Pittsburgh with a 7pm start.

The Cards and Panthers both kick off their ACC slate of games with this one, and both come into the match with similar records.  The Cards are 5-1-2, while Pitt is 6-1-1.

Neither team have been playing top-level teams and with similar records, this could be an interesting and competitive contest.

Look for more hopefully some more in depth analysis of this one from our Soccer guru Case in tomorrow's article.

ACC Network Extra, again, is the coverage for this one.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

(A blast from the past, back in the days of a basement on a hill)

Despite some travel and health issues, the CCRHP crew will have three on the call today.  We will be making an extra effort to end right at noon, rather than dribbling over as we tend to do in order to ensure that Jared and myself have time to make it down to the KFC Yum! Center for Volleyball.

You can catch the live stream at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TAfnxryzLU

 

or it should get uploaded as a podcast this evening at its Spotify home.

 

-- 

JMcA

Gameday in the Ville -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL



Welcome back to the weekend! It's also Friday the 13th to kick off the spooky season. I saw Olivia Cochran and Merissah Russell the other day grabbing some lunch at the SAC and told them I was excited for another season to get started.

Field Hockey

6 p.m. ACC Network

The #9 ranked Cardinals are in the middle of a 5-game home stretch and have a giant matchup with #1 Northwestern today at 6pm over at Trager Stadium.

Louisville leads the series 9-4 with the last meeting coming in the 2023 NCAA tournament where the Cards fell to the Wildcats 3-2. 

Northwestern brings in a 4-0 season with 2 ACC wins against #5 Duke and #17 BC 2-0 and 1-0 respectively. Maddie Zimmer and Olivia Bent-Cole lead the Wildcats with three goals apiece, while Ashley Sessa has dished out a team-high four assists. Annabel Skubisz has surrendered only one goal in four games, carrying a 0.25 goals-against average while posting three shutouts. The Wildcats are coming off of a 2023 NCAA runner-up appearance.

Volleyball  

The VolleyCARDS are hosting the Cardinal Classic at the KFC Yum! Center this weekend. 

UofL will face Northern Iowa on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.and No. 9-ranked Creighton on Sunday at 1 p.m.

WGolf

The Golf team is bringing back the Cardinal Cup at the UofL Golf Course this
weekend. It’s the first time the event has been held since 2019.

The first round of the tournament is set to start at 9 a.m. ET on Friday (weather permitting) with tee times from hole 1 and hole 10. Fans can follow along with the live stats here or our social media channels for updates throughout the tournament.

As Always, 
Go Cards

~Daryl 

Women's Basketball Non-Conference Schedule Released -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Will Play 12 Non-Conference Opponents

Graphic by GoCards

The entire non-conference schedule for the 2024-2025 Louisville women's basketball schedule has been released. Five of those games will be played at home at the KFC Yum! Center, six on the road, and one in Paris, France.

The Cards will open the season on November 4 against UCLA in Paris. ESPN will carry the game with tip-off time still to be determined.

Louisville's home opener will be on Friday November 8 against Southern Indiana. They will follow it up with a pair of road games to visit UT Martin on November 12 and Kentucky on Saturday November 16.

UofL's second home game will be against Morehead State on November 21. Louisville will then travel to South Florida on November 24 before taking a brief break for Thanksgiving.

Coming out of the holiday, Louisville will visit Colorado on November 30. The ACC - SEC Challenge will be held at the KFC Yum! Center between the Cards and Oklahoma on December 4.

Louisville will continue their rivalry with UConn in a showdown on FOX on Saturday December 7. The game will be played in Brooklyn, New York.

Graphic by GoCards

The Cards will then play back-to-back home games against Grambling State and NC State on December 12 and December 15. The game against the Wolfpack will be a part of the Jimmy V Classic and has been confirmed to be a part of the ACC schedule and standings.

The final non-conference game will be on the road against Memphis on Saturday December 21. It will be the final game before the Christmas break.

As game times and tv/streaming are announced, we will make sure to share here.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

UofL Women's Golf Records Fourth Place finish -- Wednesday Cardinal Couple

 CARDS SWINGERS PLACE FOURTH IN NICHOLASVILLE

TCU grabs the UK sponsored Bettie Lou Evans Tournament

The days of Lauren Hartlage may be over for Louisville women's golf, but the 2024 version of the Whitney Young coached squad is dong quite well for themselves. 

The "Chip and Putt" Cards finished fourth in the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational recently...tweny  strokes back of tournament winner TCU and just nine strokes behind in-state rival UK.

The tournament is named after Bettie Lou Evans, who coached the UK Wildcat women's golf squad from 1979-2001 and passed away in 2023. 

Thienna Huynh

For the Cards, Thienna Huynh led the way. She was four over par for three days with a 220. It was good for a 10th place finish overall. Closely behind her was Carmen Griffiths, who finished with a 221 for 54 holes. Millie Cottrell and Bailey Burkett finshed with a 224 for Louisville. 

The squad prepares for the Cardinal Cup, which begins on friday. The event will be held at it's traditional home course, the UofL Golf Club out in Simpsonville, KY. 

Carmen Griffiths

paulie

Volleyball Rankings Shakeup -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Wild Start to Rankings Changes

Upsets and surprise results have been plentiful in the first couple weeks of the season. Last week, we saw Louisville volleyball go on the road to then-#7 Penn State and get swept. They responded by winning nine of 10 sets in the NKU Invitational. Louisville was not the only team scratching their head at a loss last week.

Former #1 Texas is 2-2 on the season and recently lost in five sets to Miami. The Longhorns fell to #6 in the latest poll.

Nebraska was #2 before going on the road to get swept by unranked SMU. The Cornhuskers are 5-1 but dropped down to #5.

Pitt was #3 but has remained undefeated onto a 4-0 start to the year. They did sweep a ranked Oregon team recently and have propelled themselves to #1.

Louisville was at #4 last week and stayed put in that spot. The wins against Wisconsin and Tennessee to open the season seem to be helping the Cards' resume right now.

Stanford was ranked #5 last week but shot up to #2 thanks to a 4-0 start. They have wins over ranked/RV Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Marquette.

Other teams off to surprising starts are #8 Wisconsin (2-3 record), #16 Tennessee (2-2), #19 Minnesota (1-3), and #21 Florida State (4-1). The Seminoles fell to Auburn over the weekend.

The ACC has plenty of teams in the Top 25 right now: #1 Pitt, #2 Stanford, #4 Louisville, #15 Georgia Tech, #20 Miami, and #21 Florida State. New ACC foe SMU is in the receiving votes category.

Other Louisville opponents on the schedule this year in the rankings include #3 Penn State, #5 Nebraska, #8 Wisconsin, #9 Creighton, and #10 Kentucky.

#1 Pitt

#2 Stanford

#3 Penn State

#4 Louisville

#5 Nebraska

#6 Texas

#7 Purdue

#8 Wisconsin

#9 Creighton

#10 Kentucky

----

#15 Georgia Tech

#16 Tennessee

#20 Miami

#21 Florida State

Louisville returns to action this coming weekend against Northern Iowa on Saturday and Creighton on Sunday.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

CARDS Sunday Success --- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS WIN TWO SUNDAY WITH VOLLEYBALL, FIELD HOCKEY WINS -- FALL TO DAYTON IN WSOC

Three UofL women's sports squads were in action Sunday..two of them on Floyd Street and one in Highland Heights, KY. field Hockey and Volleyball recorded wins, but Louisville women's soccer fell to their old nemesis Dayton in Lynn Stadium. Recaps below.

FIELD HOCKEY

Louisville Field Hockey got a 3-1 win over Penn Sunday afternoon at Trager Stadium, scoring three straight goals, including two in the fourth quarter, to go to 2-2 on the season 

The Quakers scored first in the contest, three minutes into the second quarter when Julia Ryan connected. The Cards were able to even it up with about three minutes left in the second quarter, when Louisville was awarded a penalty stroke and Aimee Plumb converted for UofL. The teams went to the halftime locker room tied at 1-1

After a scoreless third quarter, Louisville tallied a score with four minutes gone in the final period when Chloe Cuzzupe rebounded a blocked Chloe Plumb attempt and sent it back past the goalkeeper into the net. to give the Cards the lead for good at 2-1. Three minutes after that, Rylie Wollerton tipped an Aimee Plumb shot on goal into the end ffor an insurance goal for the Cards. 

#7 UofL had a 10-2 shots on goal advantge in the contest and had none penalty corner attempts, while the Quaker s did not have one.  Coach Sowry used both Em Young and Brandelynn Heinbaugh in goal. 

It was the Cards fourth all-time win over Penn and has never lost to the Quakers. 

Our Jared Anderson caught up with head coach Justine Sowry and Chloe Cuzzuppe for post game comments: 

Chloe Cuzzupe

Justine Sowry

VOLLEYBALL 

Louisville Volleyball (5-1) played their third match in three days up in Highland Heights, KY and faced NKU to end their visit there. The Cards got off to a rollicking start against the Norse,  and got the three gane sweep, but give Northern Kentucky credit for making it interesting in the third set. 

SET 1

Louisville and the Norse played fairly close in the beginning of the first set, UofL was able to forge out to an 11-7 lead, and then...suddently, it clicked for the Cards. UofL went on a 10-2 run to tale a 21-9 lead. The Norse could not stop the UofL attack and the Cards went 4-2 the rest of the set for the 25-11 opneing set win. Charitie Luper had three kills for UofL in the first set. 

SET 2 

It was all Cards in the second set. UofL had little trouble establishng an 11-7 lead, and then slammed the door completely shut on NKU with a 10-1 run for a 21-8 advantage. Louisville then won the final four points for the 25-8 shellacking.   

SET 3

It look like the Cards weren't going to have much trouble in the final set, jumpng out to a commanding 15-11 lead, but NKU decided to make a match of it and battled back to make it 16-14. They drew within one at 20-19, and then tied the set at 24-24..but the Cards previled for the final two points and took the final set and the  match 26-24. 

WOMEN'S SOCCER

Not all the day's activities went the way of the red and black, though. The Dayton WSOC squad came into the Lynn Stadium on campus Sunday evening, and, the Flyers continued their mastery over Louisville women's soccer, eking out a 1-0 win over Karen Ferguson Dayes' Cards.

Dayton struck early for the lone score in the match...Jenna Hallbeck tracked down a pass in front of the Louisville goal and tapped a kick past Cards goalkeeper Kiley Kimball for the lone score of the match, just three minutes into action.

Louisville had a 10-7 shot edge on the visitors, but each team managed only two shots on goal, Credit Dayton goalie Batoul Reda with two fine saves on those Cardinals goal attempts .

Louisville takes their first loss of the season and is now 5-1-2. The Cards now go into ACC Conference play and will travel to Pittsburgh to face the Panthers Saturday..

(PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON) 

paulie

A Busy Sunday - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Volleyball

 

Greetings from northern Kentucky where the VolleyCards are in the midst of the fourth year of a four team home, home, home, and home, setup with South Dakota, Missouri, and Northern Kentucky.

In this final year, it's the Norse's turn to host.  The Cards lost their first set of the four year set of matches on Friday, but made South Dakota pay for it in the fourth set.

Yesterday, Louisville returned to form with a sweep of Missouri, though that conclusion was not foregone.  The Cards took the sets 25-20, 25-21, 25-18.

In the first set, the teams mostly traded points before the Cards started pulling ahead later in the set for the 25-20 win.

 

The second set, however, saw UofL digging a bit of a deficit, being down by 15-9 about midway through.  Subjectively, the team just wasn't playing clean crisp ball, particularly struggling in serve receive.  Later in the set, they started getting cleaner serve receptions and turned the score back to their favor eventually getting the win.

The third set again was a back and forth affair at the beginning, but the late set play ended up being a set of runs as the Cards pulled ahead on an 8-3 stretch.  Missouri responded with a small run, and after a sideline chat called by DBK, the Cards finished out the set in solid fashion.

I mentioned the serve receive struggles above, and subjectively I do feel like this is the biggest weakness of the team at the moment.  With the team playing the 6-2 offense, which some of us have started to call a 6-3 in honor of Elena Scott's bonus setting presence on the court, the coaching staff has to conserve their substitutions to make sure they don't run out (15 are allowed per set).  That means we're seeing fewer defensive specialists, such as Kamden Schrand, Jessica Drapp, Molly Urban, and Sam Untied, subbing in for hitters as they rotate to the back row.

The coaching staff did bring Kamden Schrand in to replace Anna DeBeer in the back row late in one of the sets, which helped some with serve receive.

The Cards will be back in action at Regent's Hall on the campus of NKU today at 2pm.  Streaming is available only on ESPN+.

The match against NKU really shouldn't be terribly competitive, and let's hope that statement doesn't come back to bite me.  The Norse can be a scrappy team, but ultimately they're not generally playing at the level we are.

Another Personal Note

The volleyball team bussed out to the home of Kamden Schrand's father and step-mother.  They hosted, with support of Kamden's mother and step-father, and Jessica Drapps parents, the team, and other family members in northern KY for the weekend for a meal and socializing.  You may have seen a picture of the team on social media yesterday evening gathering around a lighted "Go Cards" sign.  That was taken on the Schrand's backyard basketball/pickleball court.

They very graciously extended an invitation to me as well, so I got to enjoy about as perfect of weather as you could possibly ask for hanging out with the team, coaching staff, and various player's families.  That included the whole crowd gathering around one of the TV's in the Schrand's basement to watch the ending of the volleyball match where the ACC's Miami Hurricanes upset top-ranked (but not for long) Texas.  A good time was had by all, and I am truly appreciative of the inclusion by the Schrand's and others.

Also In Action Today

Field Hockey

Field Hockey is back in the friendly confines of Trager Stadium and will be hosting Penn at 1:30pm.

Sowry's squad is off to a little bit of a rough start, after the loss Friday to Princeton, and on top of the double-overtime loss to Maryland last week, they find themselves at 1-2.  It's still very early in the season, of course, but this Field Hocke.y program doesn't often find itself with a below .500 record, so they've got some work to do.

Streaming is on ACC Network Extra, so if you're on DirecTV, you'll need to make some alternate arrangements if you want to see this one.  Of course, it's going to be a beautiful day, so if you're in the Louisville area, the alternate arrangements could be going out to Trager to enjoy it in person.

Golf

Golf is competing in the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational in Lexington, hosted by UK.  No video coverage for this seems to be available.

Soccer

Soccer will finish off the weekend, also on Floyd Street, hosting Dayton at 7pm in Lynn Stadium on campus.

Again, video coverage on ACC Network Extra, like Field Hockey, those alternate arrangements could be going to the game in person as it is similarly free to attend.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

The CCRHP crew is all over the place this weekend, and I stupidly forgot to grab my headset on the way out of the door to boot, so no CCRHP this week.

We should be back at it next week.

What would have been my final thoughts:  If you're not paying attention to the overall volleyball scene, beyond just the matches that UofL is playing in, you should check it out.  It is absolute chaos at the top of the rankings.  Of course, early season rankings are always a bit fluid, but nearly every top team has taken at least one big upset.  Our upset loss to Penn State (4 vs 7) looks downright tame by comparison.  Texas is sitting at 2-2, Wisconsin started out 0-3 (and the two wins they've accumulated since then were fierce five set battles), Nebraska lost to new ACC entrant SMU.  About the only teams who have escaped unscathed so far have been Stanford and Pitt.  Neither have faced the strongest schedule so far, though they both have a win over what are nominally considered pretty good teams.  It's pretty likely that one of them will be the number one ranked team when the new poll is released tomorrow afternoon.  Chaos reigns.

-- 

JMcA

Volleyball and FH Split Results -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Bounces Back with 3-1 Win 

After a less than stellar performance earlier in the week, Louisville volleyball recovered yesterday afternoon with a 3-1 win over South Dakota. The Cards hit .412 for the match, a stark improvement over the 0.091 they posted Tuesday night against Penn State. Louisville bookended this match with a .579 in the first game and a .632 in the fourth. They had no errors in that last game, absolutely smoking the Coyotes 25-6. 

Louisville got off to a quick start, winning the first game 25-14 and the second 25-17. The Cards led wire-to-wire in both, although a 6-1 run in the first gave the Coyotes a chance at 12-10 and 4-0 run in the second made it 13-11. In both cases, Louisville turned on the jets and left South Dakota behind. The .579 first game was overpowering when compared to SD's 0.043. The second game was Louisville's lowest hitting of the match at .281, but it was still more than enough compared to the 0.074 on the other side of the tape. 

The third game, like all the others, saw Louisville out hit South Dakota. The Cards hit .313, but they had their highest number of errors at six. They also committed three of their nine service errors and gave up two of four aces to South Dakota in the game. To their credit, the Coyotes had their best hitting game at .290, but Louisville still led at 12-7 and 17-15, and they were able to tie it at 23 before a kill and an ace by SD prevented the sweep. 

As I already told you, Louisville came back from the lost game in a big way. The Cards won the first seven points. After a service error gave them the ball back at 8-1, they won the next seven points as well. The only place the Cards weren't absolutely feeling it in the fourth game was the service line. Three of South Dakota's six points came on service errors. That said, Louisville did have three aces in the game to even it out. The Cards only had four of their 14 blocks in the fourth, but those contributed to a -0.136 hitting percentage for the Coyotes in that game. Louisville finished with 12 kills and no errors. 

Funny numbers atop the hitting percentages for Louisville yesterday. Elle Glock led the team with a 1.000 by going 1-1. Elena Scott was tied for third as she picked up a .500 by going 1-2. Officially leading the way among hitters was Charitie Luper, who hit a monster .611 with 12 kills and one error on 18 attempts. Hannah Sherman hit .500 on 14 attempts , Reese Robins hit .462 on 13, Sofia Maldonado Diaz hit .429 on 14, and Anna DeBeer hit .391 on 23 attempts. All in all, a pretty good afternoon.

It was blocking by committee, with just five of Louisville's 14 blocks coming as solo. PK and Sherman each had a pair, and DeBeer picked up the fifth. PK had three block assists as well, but Sherman stole the show there by getting in on six. Robins assisted on four blocks. DeBeer was hot and cold at the serving line, leading the team in aces (4) and errors (3). You don't need me to tell you who led the team in digs, but I will anyway: Scott had 14 while DeBeer finished with 5. 

After a match in which she was effectively benched, this was a great rebound outing from Anna DeBeer, despite some of the negatives. We'll look for her to continue to get back to her dominant full rotation as the season goes on, but it will also be good for her to recognize the incredible team around her. She's capable of carrying the load, but she doesn't need to put it all on her own shoulders.

Interestingly, Cara Cresse wasn't in the lineup this match. We'll see if she returns today when the Cards take on Missouri at 2PM. As NKU are the hosts, the match will be carried on ESPN+. 

Field Hockey Drops Home Opener

Louisville's often prominent offense continues to hide behind the scenes against quality competition as the field hockey squad fell to 1-2 on the early season with a 1-0 loss to #15 Princeton yesterday afternoon. Previously scheduled for 4PM, the game was moved up to a 1PM start to avoid impending storms. They managed to miss the weather, but the Cards may have needed a bit more of a wake-up call with the earlier start (which was officially 1:30). 

An Aimee scored the only goal of the match. Unfortunately for Louisville, her last name wasn't Plumb. Princeton's Aimee Jungfer scored with just under a minute remaining in the third quarter to ultimately set the final score. Louisville's Aimee Plumb had three of the Cards' eight shots, but none were on frame. Louisville finished with just one shot on frame, despite five penalty corners. Princeton also took five corners and put six of eleven shots on target. 

There isn't much to say about this one. The Cards didn't have much for the Tigers. In fact, after the goal, Louisville's offensive production actually decreased. They had no penalty corners in the fourth quarter and only managed one shot in that time. Meanwhile, Princeton had no plans to park the bus. They took five shots in the fourth quarter, putting three on target, and they took two of their penalty corners in the fourth. 

After three matches, Louisville has scored only four goals, and three of those came in one match. It's not the offensive output we're used to seeing, and we'll hope for more in the matches to come. A positive to take away from this one may be that Princeton was potentially underrated. The Tigers were ranked fifteenth, but yesterday's match was their season opener. Perhaps they're better than others expected. Perhaps Louisville isn't quite as good as some people hoped. It's probably somewhere in the middle. 

The Cards will look to get back on track Sunday when they take on Penn at 1:30PM on ACC Network Extra. It should be a beautiful day, so head on down to Trager to show your support if you're so inclined. 

No Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

With the hosts scattered to the wind this week, we'll have to take the day off. Jeff probably didn't want to recount the Penn State debacle anyway, but I wouldn't have minded eating a bit of crow about soccer's early season returns. The show should return next week, but you'll still be without me. Stay tuned for a final determination later in the week. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

WSOC 2-0 win over UT Martin -- FH Schedule Change -- and VB Gameday -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Dear readers, Happy Friday and thanks for coming back for another recap of the joy and excitement of UofL Women’s athletics. Fall sports are in full swing and we’ve got a boatload to cover so lets jump right in.


WSOC

UofL   2  -    UT Martin   0

Photos: Jared Anderson

Louisville remains unbeaten with the win on Thursday night to move to 5-0-2 on the season (hehe.. shoutout 502!)  It was a nice night for some women's soccer over at Lynn Stadium.  Jared made it out there to cover the action.  

About 20 minutes into the match, the Cardinals had 5 shots, none really on goal but the offense did spend a good amount of time on the attack.   The Skyhawks struggled to find any momentum offensively and finished the night with a single shot attempt.

As the clock wound down in the first half, the Cardinals' Gianna Angelillo found the back of the net to score just before the break and put the Cards up 1-0 in the 44th minute.  It was her first goal of the season 

Not much longer after action returned to the pitch in the second half did the Cardinals put another goal on the board/ Karsyn Cherry connected in the 48th minute.  It was Cherry's 5th goal of the season, a team best.  

Erynn Floyd was in the net for the majority of the contest, more than 63 minutes on the night.  Kailey Kimball spent the rest of the 26 minutes in the net but neither had much work to do back there.   

UP NEXT

Dayton comes to town for a Sunday night match at 7pm and can be viewed on the ACC Network Extra.  

Volleyball

The Cards are back in action Friday at 3pm on ESPN+

South Dakota is 2-0 on the season, sweeping their two opponents Fordham and AirForce. As a team, the Coyotes are hitting .302% with 17 Kills per set and allowing opponents a .140 hitting percentage and 10 kills a set. They’re also averaging about 14 service errors per match and defensively, 18 digs per set.

The Cardinals are coming off a significant loss midweek vs Penn St and looking to bounce back with a no doubt victory.  

Field Hockey

The match between Cards and the Tigers moved up into the afternoon

Friday at 1pm. North Carolina and Penn moved to 11 a.m at Trager....all because of the threat of inclement weather. 

The Cards are 1-1 after beating American University this past weekend 3-1.

About Princeton

15 returnees from last year’s team, seven freshmen, one returnee from the 2022 team (who happened to play in the Summer Olympics this year). 

Beth Yeager was a first-team All-American and the Ivy League’s Offensive Player of the Year in each of her first two seasons before taking the 2023-24 academic year off from Princeton to compete with the United States national team in Olympic qualifying and then the Olympic Games, where she started every game for the USA. Yeager enters her junior year with 29 goals and 15 assists in 33 career games.

As Always, 
Go Cards!

~Daryl 

Soccer Welcomes UT Martin -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Play Second Straight at Home

Louisville women's soccer remains at home tonight with a match against UT Martin. The Cards and Skyhawks are scheduled for a 7:30pm ET kickoff time and will be aired on ACCNX, streaming only.

In their most recent outing, Louisville defeated Evansville 3-0 to improve to 4-0-2. UofL has scored 17 goals in their first six matches and have won all matches where they scored two or more goals. Louisville ranks near the top in the country in several categories including goal differential, total goals scored, total assists, and goals per match.

Senior Brooke Dardano leads the country with six assists, many of those coming off a set pieces followed by a Karsyn Cherry finish. Cherry and Mackenzie Geigle each have scored four goals.

UT Martin enters the match 1-2-2. They recently lost to Murray State 6-1. The Skyhawks have been outscored 9-4 including being shut out in their first two regulation matches. Outside of their match against Murray State, UT Martin has not allowed more than one goal per outing. Four players have scored a goal for the Skyhawks and two players have split time in goal.

Louisville leads the all-time series 2-1, but have not played since 2000. In that match, Karen Ferguson-Dayes earned her first win as head coach of the Cards.

Cardinal Couple plans to have representation at the match.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

PENN STATE BLANKS LOUSVILLE VOLLEYBALL -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 LIONS DEVOUR CARDS IN STRAIGHT SETS 

Maybe we can put this one in the "I did not expect that to happen" category. It certainly was a surprise to Cardinals fans, and the squad...as Louisville Volleyball visited Penn State last night and left with a defeat -- in straight set -- in women's college volleyball last nght. 25-15, 25-19, 25-13 was the final set results, in what appears to be not just a defeat, but a rout. A top ten showdown and the Cards got shot down. 

The first set was fairly close early. The Cards and Nittany Lions were tied at 6-6 and Louisville was still fairly close after a Charite Luper point to make it 13-10 P.S.U. Then, the wheels fell off. Penn State went on a 6-1 run to grab a 19-11 lead. PSU's Quinn Nerger's three straight serving successes had Louisville on the ropes. The Cards would not get any closer than eight the rest of the set. 

In set two,  Louisville did grab an early 4-2 lead, after a Penn State servcie error, but the home squad rallied from a 7-4 deficit to tie the conrest at 7-7. The Cards made a contest of the second set for a good while, the score was16-16 at one point, but four straight Penn State points made it 20-16. That turned into a 24-19 lead and the Cards got handed their second loss when Izzy Starck had a set-ending kill, the Nittany Lions freshman setter that was playing like a fifth year veteran..

Louisville (now 2-1) ran into a Penn State squad that wanted to make a statement in the third set...and they did.  Louisville was able to stay close early, but at 9-8, the Nittany Lions (3-0) roared and all of a sudden, it was 12-8 and Louisville needed a timeout. 

The Cards simply got worse the longer the set went. 14-10 became 18-12 and Lousville looked like a defeated squad. Or, as one Cardinals fan put it.."Penn State played out of their minds and we played like crap."  

Louisville went into  the match ranked as the #4 team in the AVCA poll, Penn State...(now 3-0) was listed as the #7 squad by AVCA.  It looked like the reverse (or worse)  Tuesday nght. The Louisville team that romped Tennessee simply did not play well up north. Just when you thought Pitt was the pnly team to worry about in Pennsylvana...guess who showed up on the floor?  A hungry bunch of lions. 

Louisville heads to northern Kentucky for a weekend of matches starting with South Dakota Friday in a tournament hosted by Northern Kentucky University.

paulie