Win one, lose one --MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 FIELD HOCKEY WINS AT BALL STATE...VOLLEYBALL FALLS TO NEBRASKA IN SUNDAY CONTESTS

As we tend to do, here at Cardinal Coupe we like to report on the joy and excitement of Louisville women's sports...so let's start with a win that took place Sunday, then we'll get to the loss...

FIELD HOCKEY TRAVELS TO MUNCIE, BEATS BALL STATE

Louisville Field Hockey made the trip to central indiana early Sunday and brought back with them a 4-2 win in a noon match over Ball State University. 

The Cards scored a goal each quarter on the BSU Cardinals, and got the action started with a goal off a penalty corner just 2:46 into the bird battle.  It was Izzy Bianco knocking in the first score, Chloe Plumb and Tatum Kroon were credited with the assists on the corner, as Justine Sowry seems to have mixed up the crew on the penalty corners and teamed up Bianco wih the younger Plumb and Kroon. It worked to start out Sunday, it seems. 

Louisville increased the lead to 2-0 when the the elder Plumb (Aimee) got a feed from Chloe Cuzzupe with 21:26 gone in the match. The visitors went into halftime with UofL holding a 2-0 lead. Louisville had 12 first half shots, and BSU just one.  

The home team got on the scoreboard with just three minutes passed in the third quarter when Emma Van Hal scored off a pass from Paloma Rengifo. Louisville would push the score to 3-1, though,.at the end of the quarter when Rylie Wollerton got an unassisted score. 

Louisville would push the advantage to 4-1 when they scored on a penalty corner about five minutes into the final quarter.with Izzy Bianco got her second score of the contest..this time Mia Duchars and Sophia Parker were responsible for the feed and set. BSU closed out the scoring with four minutes left in the contest...Nadine Loeps doing the honors...to maethe score 4-2. 

The Louisville win pushes them to 5-3 on the season, and drops Ball St. to 1-5. UofL comes  home to face Boston College next...on Friday. 

VOLLEYBALL FALLS TO #5 NEBRASKA IN THE KFC YUM CENTER

About a half hour after Field Hockey got started, we saw a top 5 match between Louisville and Nebraska. The good aspect of the day was I got to talk to Coach Walz and Coach Kelsey at the match. The bad thing was...Nebraska wiped the floor with the Cards. They brought brooms, and swept the Cards

Let's not kid ourselves, this was a beat down that painful to watch.  The straight sets 25-16,25-17, 25-20 Cornhuskers win was on national TV too, on ABC. 

The attendance,aided by more than just a few Nebraska fans, filled the lower bow land the curtains were drawn back in the upper levels for fan seating as well.  Sonya (not Wanda) Sykes and I were on media row, in the end zone, getting bombared by "kills" in pre and regular game and watching a Cornhusker squad hit .305 against the VolleyCards, Louisville hit just .133 

SET ONE

Louisville jumped out to a 5-3 lead on an Anna DeBeer kill, but Nebraska went on a 4-0 run to take a 7-5 lead. It was a lead they would not surrender and a 9-3 run built Nebraska's lead to 16-8 on a Lindsay Krause service ace, The Cornhuskers stretched that to 21-12 on a Cards return miscue and took the win 25-16 on another Krause kill. 

SET TWO

Nebraska jumped out to a 6-2 edge to start the second set and pushed that to 12-3 after a Cards hitting error. It was 15-7 Cornhuskers after a Anna DeBeer kill, but the Cards got a time out when they fell behnd 20-11. The Cornhuskers took the set  25-17, closing the set out with a kill from Harper Murray. 

SET THREE

The Cardinal faithful hoped that a halftime talk and coachng sesion would bring Louisville back into this match...and...for awhile, the Cards did put up a strong effort. Louisville grabbed an early 8-5 lead after a Charitie Luper kill. Nebraska tied it at 11-11 on a block and the teams exchanged the leads...still tied at 16-16 after another Luper kill. Nebraska, though, went on a 4-0 erun to grab a 20-16 lead and UofL could get no closer than three the rest of the way...a Murray kill ending game and match at 25-20.

A demoralizing defeat after all the hype of a top 5 match up...and maybe this Louisvlle squad isn't a top 10 team...time will tell...I suppose, but on Sunday they looked like an also ran in the ACC instead of the #4 squad in D1. 

Time to learn from the beat, and as John L Smoth used to say, tear off the rear view mirror an move forward. 

The Cards (8-2) return to action on Friday, when they'll host California in the on- campus LNFCU arena. 

pauie

( volleyball photos by JARED ANDERSON..THE BIRTHDAY BOY}