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

 

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JMcA