WBB to Face UNC -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

So, things have gotten a bit odd. As Paulie wrote yesterday and elaborated in the comments, Cardinal Couple has been suspended from media access by the University. This is the result of a misunderstanding, and Paul is trying to work with UofL on getting the issue resolved. For now, we'll continue writing and covering the teams as we normally would, but without some of the privileges that we had before. To protect Jared's photography access with other organizations, this also means that we'll be without Jared as a writer, and we won't use his photos for the time being. 

We'll do our best to keep bringing you the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics until we're told otherwise. 

Cards Battle Heels in Chapel Hill

Some of that excitement is set to get underway today. Louisville is facing another top-25 matchup late this afternoon (or early this evening, whatever your flavor), when they take on the Tarheels of North Carolina at 4PM. Today's game will be in Chapel Hill, where #12/11 UNC is currently undefeated. Somehow, despite having played 11 games this season, UNC is just 4-0 at home. They've played four home games, two away games, and five games in neutral sites. 

The Tarheels are 9-2 overall this year, and today's game will be their first ACC matchup of the season. UNC opened the year with a 91-82 loss to South Carolina in an exhibition game in Atlanta. They beat NC Central and Elon handedly to open their true calendar before going to Las Vegas for the WBCA Challenge and losing 78-60 to UCLA. UNC won six straight after that, including three wins in their Thanksgiving tournament in Cancun, but all six were over relatively mediocre opponents. Kansas State was the only power conference team in the bunch, and the other wins came over Fairfield, NC A&T, UNCG, South Dakota State, and Columbia.

photo by Taris Smith | UofL

After that streak, UNC hit the road and opened December with an incredibly tough matchup against Texas in Austin. They came away from that battle with the #2 Longhorns saddled with a 15-point loss. A get-right game against Boston University followed on Sunday, and they won by 42. All of that is to say, who knows how good UNC truly is? They have played two ranked teams (three if you count SCar), and they have lost all three pretty solidly. That said, all of them came away from home and all three teams were in the top five. 

Louisville will certainly have their hands full. The Cards haven't had a marquee win just yet this season, either, and today's game will mean a lot for both teams in terms of their tournament resume and their conference standing. UNC is beating teams by a whopping 23 points per game. They score 79.6 and hold opponents to 56.9. Remember, though, that their games have come against some lesser competition. Louisville's games haven't all been against world beaters, either, though, so it is what it is. 

The Cards will need to watch out for Indya Nivar on the offensive and defensive ends. Nivar leads the team in points, scoring 12.6 per game, and she is tied for second in rebounds with 5.7. Nivar also has nine blocks on the season and a whopping 43 steals. Next highest on the team is 14. She shoots 50% from the floor this year and is making 31% of her threes. One spot to potentially slow Nivar down is to send her to the free throw line. The senior transfer guard from Stanford is making just 58.1% of her attempts from there. 

photo from opendorse.com

On the inside, Louisville's bigs will need to contend with Ciera Toomey. Toomey leads the team with 16 blocks and pulls down 7 rebounds per game. She's also scoring 11.2 points per game, hitting 62.5% of her field goal attempts and 73.9 of her shots from the free throw line. Louisville fans will be familiar with another of North Carolina's players in the paint, as Nyla Harris still suits up in the baby blue. Harris is scoring 9.9 points per game this season and is tied with Nivar in rebounding average. Harris has struggled with foul trouble a bit, as she is averaging just 17.7 minutes per game, but she is a spark when on the floor. 

Both teams are looking for their first win over a ranked opponent this season, and Louisville is looking to stay at the top of the standings in the young ACC calendar. A win would put Louisville at 2-0, with both games having come on the road. That would be quite an enviable position, especially having beaten a tough Clemson team already. We'll see it all unfold later today as the game gets underway at 4PM. It will be the highlight game in the slot, as the ACC carries it on the true ACC Network.

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

CARDINAL COUPLE HAS BEEN HACKED -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

X ACCOUNT FOR CARDINAL COUPLE HACKED...UOFL SUSPENDS OUR ON SITE COVERAGE. 

We have been informed by UofL that they have seen comments that were inappropriate and unacceptable on Dec 4th on myr X account and the director of media relations there has pulled our credentials.

We were hacked. There is no way in the world we would ever do such a thing. 

We will get to the bottom of this and eliminate the hacks. It'll be up to UofL whether they let us cover again. As far as me, I no longer attend events live due to kidney issues, but I hate that they have suspended Daryl, Case and Jared

It wasn't us. 

paulie 

VolleyCARDS vs Texas A&M preview -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 FRIDAYS WITH DARYL 

On the TWELFTH day of December , my true love gave to me?! Another blanket of snow covering the city of Louisville this morning.  And honestly, I do enjoy it.. it's pretty to look at but not fun to be out in.  Surprisingly, UofL did not cancel operations this time.... GRRRR.  

Like I commented after last week's storm that happened the night before finals, this time it came the day of winter commencement.  Congratulations to the Class of 2025!!

Also on today's slate is a big Sweet 16 matchup for the Volleyball squad with the #3 seed Texas A&M Aggies.  This one will be held in the overall #1 seed region of Lincoln Nebraska. 

About the Aggies

A&M is 25-4 on the season.  Their last loss came in the SEC tournament to the #3 Texas Longhorns who had been lingering around the top 3 all season.    The Aggies did beat the #2 Longhorns back on Halloween at home when they got up 2-0 and ultimately won in 5 sets. They beat Campbell and TCU to advance to face the Cardinals in the Sweet 16.   Two of their losses came back to back at TCU and against SMU at the beginning of September.  

Prior to their loss in the SEC tournament, the Aggies had not dropped a set since 11/2.  

Louisville is 2-5 against the Aggies all time however the Cardinals captured the most recent matchup taking a five-set victory on their home court in 2019. Texas A&M holds the advantage in four of the seven team statical categories leading in kills per set, assists per set, hitting percentage and aces per set, while the Cardinals hold the advantage in opponent hitting percentage, blocks per set and digs per set.

Logan Lednicky has recorded double-digit kills in her last 19 matches and sits 23 kills away from No. 3 on Texas A&M's career kill list.

Ifenna Cos-Okpalla has logged five or more blocks in her last three games and is 11 blocks away from ranking third on the programs all-time block list.

This one will be on ESPN2 at 7 p.m.

Around the NCAA

UK beat Cal Poly to match up with Creighton who beat Arizona State, on Saturday 12/13

Pittsburgh beat Minnesota in 3 sets to face Purdue who beat SMU 3-1. 

As Always, 
Go Cards
~Daryl 

WBB Wins 93-62 -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Ball State No Match in Battle of Cardinals

Louisville women's basketball is running out of games in 2025. After last night, they have just three remaining before they turn the calendar over, and the non-conference schedule is winding down as well. The Cards took on Ball State last night, and they'll hit the road to face North Carolina this weekend. After that, there is one more home game against EKU and a neutral site matchup against Tennessee before the Cards move into the proper conference schedule. Facing a somewhat more difficult opponent last night than they have seen in some of their home games of late (excluding South Carolina), Louisville handed Ball State their third loss of the year with a strong 31-point victory. 

Louisville wasted no time in this one, jumping out to a 21-12 lead after the first quarter. The Cards shot just 35% from the field in the first and made just 1-7 three-pointers, but six free throws helped them extend that lead over Ball State. The two teams played fairly close early on, with Ball State having multiple chances to take the lead, but after a pair of free throws moved Louisville from a 6-5 lead to an 8-5 lead, Ball State would not meaningfully reduce the deficit for the remainder of the game. The Cards ended the quarter on an extended 15-7 run and that was pretty much that. 

Louisville shot much better in the second quarter, making 5-8 threes and shooting 60% (12-20) from the floor overall. As a result, they won the quarter 29-13, extending the large lead by even more at the half and setting themselves up to cruise through the second half. The Cards had a chance to break 100 in this game, but the shooting cooled off slightly in the third quarter and some missed free throws in the fourth kept them from running it up. 

All in all, UofL shot 48.5% in the second half and went 36.4% from three. That was a slightly better in overall field goal percentage than the whole game (47.9%) but slightly worse from three (38.5%). Louisville scored a whopping 42 points in the paint, had 17 second chance points, and picked up 50 of their 93 from the bench. Louisville mostly cruised in the second half, winning the half by just six. But when that ultimately contributes to a 31-point victory and you were at the end of your bench for most of the fourth, it's not all bad. The Cards scored at least 20 points in every quarter. 

The Cards were led by a big night from Skylar Jones, who finished with 20 points in 18 minutes and also contributed seven rebounds, three assists, and three steals. Her seven rebounds were second to Anaya Hardy's ten, as Hardy picked up yet another double-double by scoring 12 points. Mackenly Randolph also had 12, and Laura Ziegler had a big night, taking advantage at the free throw line especially, to score 15 points. Ziegler was 6-6 from the stripe. It was a quiet night for two players we don't usually say that about, as Taj Roberts scored just four, and Elif Istanbulluoglu had no points on 0-3 shooting in 20 minutes. Incredibly, it was Elif who kept it from being another night in which everyone who played scored. 

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Imari Berry and Peyton Bradley, who both had some of their best games of the year, scoring ten and eight points respectively. Berry also had a rebound, two steals, and three assists, while Bradley added two assists. Overall, the Cards assisted on 14 of 35 made baskets, which isn't great, but they also had 15 turnovers, so the offense could have used some cleaning up. Louisville also didn't force a ton of turnovers, as Ball State also finished with 15, but the visiting Cardinals couldn't find the bottom of the net. Ball State went just 35.6% from the field and 21.1% from three point land. Add in a sub-70% night from the free throw line and it was just an unfortunate night all around. Ball State went 0-9 from beyond the arc in the first half. 

The FRED Report

F - Free Throws: Louisville was kind of back and forth at the free throw line last night. They went 6-6 in the first and 6-7 in the third, but they took no free throws in the second and went 1-4 in the fourth. They finished 13-17 (76.5%), which is good for a lowercase 'f' 

R - Rebounds: The Cards had 45 total rebounds and scored 17 second chance points. That is pretty good, but they only won the rebounding battle (and points in the paint battle) by nine. I initially felt like Louisville should have a bigger advantage here, but they had 25% more rebounds than their opponent, so that seems worthy of a capital 'R'. 

E - Effort/Execution: The Cards played well throughout and didn't lose focus near the end, but they should have been a bit cleaner. Louisville sent Ball State to the line 23 times, and they committed 15 turnovers, giving up 17 points off those turnovers. I'm going to award a lowercase 'e' because the shooting night is too hard to ignore, despite the turnovers. 

D - Defense: Louisville forced only the same amount of turnovers as they committed, but they converted that into more points (22) and they picked up 10 steals. They also kept Ball State from getting clean looks and saddled them with the terrible shooting. I'm going capital 'D'. 

That gives Louisville a final tally of f-R-e-D, which will probably get it done most nights. There will be games in which the offense isn't working quite as well as it did last night, so more turnovers forced and fewer turnovers committed would be nice, but we'll take what we can get. 

Louisville is next in action on Sunday against UNC. The Tarheels are enjoying another strong start to the season as they are 9-2. Their losses are to #3 UCLA in Las Vegas and #2 Texas in Austin. That said, they've played basically no one else, and their best win is an eight-point win over Kansas State in Cancun on Black Friday. The Heels beat Boston University 82-40 on Sunday and have a full week off before facing the Cards. We'll see what Coach Jeff Walz can do to motivate his team in a big road test early in the conference slate. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Cards WBB face Cards WBB Wednesday Night -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 BALL ST. COMES TO BALL WEDNESDAY NIGHT

It's a Cardinals vs. Cardinals match up Wednesday night. And, no...two Louisville teams are not playing each other,.,,Ball State WBB, out of Muncie,IN is coming to town to play Louisville WBB in the KFC YUM! Center. The Louisville Cards are 6-1 in the series. 

Might want to get a nap in...this one doesn't start until 9 p.m.

Ball State is in the Mid-American Conference and is 8-2 overall... They beat fellow ACC member Pitt by 14 after Thanksgiving but have lost to Davidson  (by 22) and to UIC (by two).. 

Other BSU wins were over Old Dominion, IUPUI, Memphis, Northern Iowa, Ark St., NKU, Cincinnati, Alabama St and Oakland City.

You see Bree

The Northern Cardinals are led by Bree Salenbien, who has scored 20 or more points in five of the BSU games. She spent four years at Gonzaga, if the name sounds familiar. 

It should be a high flying affair in he YUM! Wednesday night. It'll be on ACCN if you can't do the late hours live at the YUM!. 

paulie. 

WBB this week in pictures -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Good morning all and hello holiday season.   

We are having our holiday party at work today and I am counting down the days until campus is closed for winter break.    

Appreciate Jared stepping in to cover Sunday's WBB match so lets highlight some of Jared's work these last few games.   He spends many nights attending, capturing and editing the joy and excitement of UofL women's sports so lets take a look. 

 

Vs South Carolina 12/4/25

Walz has always complimented Cardnation's high basketball IQ.

Anaya Hardy had her first career start against #3 South Carolina.

Gotta be the shot of the game.. that is some hounding defense in front of a former Card, Tia Gibbs.  

Coack Walz giving the ref an earful - I always enjoy looking at fan's faces in the background. 

Reyna Scott driving to the bucket -- I'd say the stripe out promotion was a success.

The HOFer Dawn Staley and Walz in the background

Taj was nailing the shot from downtown! 

Great to see the Abramson's on the sidelines.

Vs New Hampshire 12/7/25

Some bench players got some playing time Sunday afternoon.

Great to see Paulie's fav yorkie, Jess Laemmle on the call! 

Everyone say 

THANK YOU JARED 

for these excellent images for our viewing pleasure :D

As Always, 

Go Cards!

~Daryl

 

WBB Cruises Past New Hampshire -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Blows Past New Hampshire

It may not have been the most exciting Sunday from a basketball standpoint, but Louisville women's basketball took care of business, defeating New Hampshire 94-43.

Most eyes were turned to the NCAA Volleyball Tournament and the College Football Playoff selections and bowl selections as was apparent by only two non-UofL photographers at the game. I gladly sat next to my photographer friend who shoots for USA Today and we had our fair share of elbow room. The crowd wasn't much better as the attendance was a little over 6,000.

Louisville dominated in every aspect of the game, especially on the defensive side. The Wildcats were limited to 14 first half points and just four in the first quarter. New Hampshire committed 21 turnovers, which the Cards converted into 40 points off turnovers.

No starter saw more than 19 minutes as Jeff Walz chose to rotate through his entire available roster for the game. Taj Roberts and Skylar Jones powered the offense with 15 points each and Mackenly Randolph added 11 points. The big news of the game was Laura Ziegler hitting the 1,000 career rebound mark.

Louisville shot just shy of 50% from the floor and 40% from three. They had 44 points in the paint and the bench contributed 47 points. The Cards limited their own turnovers to just eight.

All around, it was a dominant performance by the Cards in a game where they were expected to win big. Winning by 51 is a bit more than most people expected, but in today's day and age of trying to impress the NCAA Selection Committee, sometimes you need to win by painfully large margins.

FRED Report

Former SNL cast member Fred Armisen

Free Throws: 14-21 for 66.67% is not an ideal number to have, but the Cards did turn a couple missed free throws into second chance points, which we will give credit for an reward a lowercase "f".

Rebounds: UofL won the rebounding battle 48-32. They only gave up eight offensive boards. Six Cardinals had four rebounds or more. Capital "R".

Effort/Efficiency: In a game like this, you don't need much effort to win, but based on some of the stats provided earlier with shooting percentages, points off turnovers, and points in the paint, the Cards were incredibly efficient. Capital "E".

Defense: Holding a team to 43 points, single digits in a quarter, and only 14 points is enough to earn high scores. New Hampshire shot 29% from the floor and 21% from three. No question on the capital "D".

I'll gladly take a score of f-R-E-D but I would like to see the free throw shooting improve before conference play begins. The 60% free throw shooting against South Carolina was a factor in the loss.

Louisville improves to 8-3 on the year. They stay home at the KFC Yum! Center for a late 9:00pm tip against Ball State this Wednesday.

Happy Monday and Go Cards!

Jared

VOLLEYCARDS ADVANCE IN NCAA TOURNAMENT -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Louisville takes Marquette in Five Sets

Louisville Volleyball moves on to the round of 16 with a four set win over the Marquette Golden Eagles in the LNFCU Arena Saturday night. 

The sets.went.21-25, 25-11, 23-25, 25-19, 15-12. 

The Cards were led by Chloe Chicoine's 28 hills. Others in double figure kills for Louisville were Payton Peterson (19). Cara Cresse (13) and Kalyssa Blackshear (11) Chloe did not have the most ills in the match, though, as Marquette's Natalie Ring delivered 29.

SET ONE

The Cards had a early 9-7 lead after a Marquette attack error...but the two squads were tied at 13 after a Natalie Ring kill. It was 19-18 Marquette and the Cards were still close late. .trailing 22-20, but the visitors got three of the next four points to take the set 25=21 

SET TWO

Louisville jumped out to an early 6-3 lead on a Hannah Sherman kill...then went on a 6-1 run, taking a 12-4 on a Chicoine kill. The Cards doubled the score at 16-8 after another chicoine kill and led 21-9 after a Petesren kill.and outscred Marquette 4-2 the rest of the way to win 25-11.

SET THREE

UofL looked awful early and fell behind the Golden Eagles 8-1 to start the match. It was 11-5 Marquette after a Emma Park kill. The Cards did come back to tie the match at 19-19 on a Cresse kll....and led 23-22 on another Cresse kill...but lost the final three points of the match...two Marquette point coming on ring kills...for a Marquette 25-23 win. 

SET FOUR

The Cards jumped out to a 5-1 lead and stretched it to 8-3 on a Kalyssa Blackshear kill. The Cards had a 16-11 advantage on a Sherman/Petersen block and stretched the lead to 22-14 on a Cresse/Petersen block.  A Blackshear kill ended the fouth in favor of the Cards 25-19.

SET FIVE

Louisville took command of the final set early at 5-1 on a MU hitting error. Marquette battled back ti geet within one at 8-7...but the Cards regrouped to go out to a 11-7 lead. The Cards clung to a 13-11 lead but benefitted from a Marquette service error and Chiocine kill to take the set and match.

Want to see that dramatic fifth set again? Or for the first time? Go HERE 

So, the Cards advance and will face Texas A&M next...Friday, Dec 12th. @ 7 p.m. ET.

A&M knocked off TCU, who the Cards have not faced this season. 

 

A hard fought win against an opponent that may have been overlooked in a lot of circles, but Marquette  came in with nothing to lose and fought valiantly 

WBB

Louisville women's basketball faces New Hampshire today at noon in the KFC YU!M! Center. It'll be on ACCNX if you can't attend

All photos from Jared Anderson. 

paulie

Cards Cruise in NCAA Opener -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Sweeps Loyola Chicago

There wasn't a ton of drama in last night's match, as Louisville opened their 2025 NCAA Tournament with a relatively easy win over the visitors in L&N FCU Arena. An easy win was desperately needed for Louisville, who were coming off of a pair of difficult losses to the other front-runners in the ACC to end the season. That includes a loss to Stanford in this building their last time out. The Cards appeared to have shaken those demons, as they won with a 25-17, 25-9, 25-12 romp of the Ramblers. 

Loyola came out with some intensity in the first set, keeping up with Louisville for about the first 20 points of the match. After a Loyola kill made it 8-10, though, Louisville rattled off the next seven points to make it a 17-8 advantage for the Cards. Louisville would go on to hit .400 in the set, while Loyola finished with a .121 hitting percentage in the first. 

Unfortunately for Loyola, that .121 was their best hitting percentage of the match. Even worse, it was the only set in which they weren't negative. They finished the match with an .011 overall percentage. Louisville certainly had something to do with that, as they finished the match with 12 blocks, which accounted for 60% of Loyola's errors. Moreover, part of the problem was that Louisville just defended well. The Cards had 39 digs, nearly double the 21 kills totaled by Loyola. 

Offensively, the Cards had 43 kills and only eight errors. Three of those were Loyola blocks, so Louisville was pretty crisp, with just five unforced errors. Louisville's .400 in the first set was under their overall percentage of .417, as they hit a whopping .588 in the second, before coming back down to earth with a .351 in the third set. The Cards were incredible across the board on offense, with three players tying for second with nine kills behind Kalyssa Blackshear leading the way with 10. Cara Cresse, Chloe Chicoine, and Payton Petersen were the three with nine apiece, and none of the four hit more than two errors. Chicoine had the lowest hitting percentage of the four, and it was still a stellar .381. 

Defensively, it was (who else) Hannah Sherman joining the party. She, Cresse, and Blackshear all had four block assists each and Sherman added two solos. Blackshear had one, as well, as it was a big night for the freshman. If there was one spot to still complain for Louisville, it was the service line, as there is some cleanup to do. The Cards had five aces, with Cresse leading the way with two, but they had nine errors. Despite that, they did still win the service battle with a net +3, as Loyola had seven errors and no aces. 

It was critical for the Cards to make quick work of Loyola, as they have a short turnaround with the second round match taking place tonight. Louisville's opponent also had the benefit of a sweep, as Marquette surprised the 7th-seeded Hilltoppers by sweeping WKU yesterday in L&N. As noted in the gocards writeup, tonight's match will pit sister against sister. Freshman Hannah Kenny's older sister, Calli, is a sophomore for the Golden Eagles. Tonight's match will get underway at 6PM. If you weren't able to secure a ticket, you'll be able to catch the match on streaming. It isn't listed officially just yet, but it is most likely to be carried on ESPN+. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case