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