UofL shifting structurally this week -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Good morning readers,

Last day of June already... its been 6 months since Wedding day!

On campus, changes are happening this week where financial systems are converting to new ones on July 1st and the HR dept is also restructuring so it'll be another busy one for me.

There was a budget meeting on campus this past week too in which resulted in the following email to be sent out to the UofL community resulting from decisions made by the board:

"Unfortunately, the challenges facing the university made a tuition increase necessary this budget year. Athletics also will implement a student fee beginning in fall 2025 in support of student-athlete services and student experiences. These were difficult decisions for us, understanding that finances remain the main obstacle to students pursuing higher education."

International Basketball

Elif Istanbulluoglu and the Turkish national team didnt win the FIBA championship but they did qualify for the World Cup.  Elif appeared in 3 games scoring 4 points, a steal, a rebound and an assist in 21 total minutes on the floor.  

As Always,
Go Cards
~Daryl

Jurich ceremony a good start...now lets get him reinvolved in the athletic program --SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 It'sTime To Bring Tom Home

While the Saturday ceremony on campus for Tom Jurich was long overdue and a wonderful sight to see, let's hope it is just the start of his re-introduction to Cardinals Athletics. 

The Tom Jurrich Ceremony

We were a powerhouse in athletics during the Jurich reign, and he certainly would be a huge help to Josh on campus in restoring the Cards to the top of the heap. 

True, we are in the ACC now, and the conference isn't going to roll over and play dead to Louisville athletics to establish superiority...but Jurich always had a knack of getting coaches who could get the best players and this coaching tree that women's athletics has now would no doubt be thrilled to have him back sharing ideas and helping Josh Heird continue to build this program. 

The federal investigation that eventually led to Jurich's termination was a witch hunt...there are so many program who have done far worse, and the board of trustees were idiots for getting rid of the architect of what we see today on campus. 

CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR PODCAST

We have much more on this on our weekly Cardinal Couple podcast. Give it a listen below: 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast 6/28/15

paulie

 

Tom Jurich Ceremony Today -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Ceremony Celebrating Jurich on Campus Today

We talked last week about UofL's announcement of Tom Jurich Way coming on a random weekday and how there should be more pomp around it. I'm sure that it's not because of that conversation, but UofL is having a ceremony to honor Jurich today. It's not a curtain call at a football game, but it's still a great celebration. 

Today's ceremony will begin at 10am, so there's still time to get down to campus if you're reading this early. Tom Jurich will speak, and he'll be preceded by John Ramsey and Mayor Craig Greenberg. The event will be held at the Lenny Lyles Plaza between Cardinal Park and Ulmer Stadium. The event is open to the public and fans are encouraged to attend free of charge. 

I spoke last week on the show about how Jurich was Louisville athletics to me growing up. I'm thrilled to see that the relationship between him and the University appears to be on the mend, and I hope that he can act as a somewhat of an advisor to Josh Heird going forward to continue to propel the program in the right direction. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We're back again this week with another threesome on the teebox. Jared, Paulie, and I will talk mostly about the schedules this week as we try to make our way through the summer slump. We'll be off next week for the July 4th holiday weekend, so tune in this week to stay up on the news before the break. Check out the show after it posts around 1PM, and be sure to subscribe so that it comes to your feed automatically. 

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Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

2025 Volleyball Schedule Announced -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Good morning readers, 

Welcome back to the weekend.   Hopefully some cooled off temps are in our near future as the week was a blistering one here in Louisville.  

Photo: Jared Anderson

Another fall sports schedule has been unveiled as the VolleyCARDS program announced its 2025 slate so lets take a closer look. 

What stands out to first is that the Cards will open the season hosting the annual Cardinal Classic where we welcome Auburn, Morehead State and St. John's to L&N Arena over Labor Day weekend with the final match tipping off at 3pm Monday afternoon.  

After that, they'll head downtown for a bout with the fighting Illini at the KFC Yum! Center.

Next, theyll head to Ft. Worth Texas for a 'neutral site' matchup with the Texas Longhorns in the inaugural Shriners Showdown.  Pitt and UK will also be in town for their own catfight. 

The following weekend, UofL heads to Omaha to face off in the Bluejay Invitational hosted by Creighton and then will head back to Louisville for some rivalry matchups with UK and WKU at the KFC Yum! Center.  

The Cardinals will then open conference play with 20 total matchups ending around Thanksgiving.    I did notice that UofL will face off with Notre Dame in back to back matchups in a home and away series on Halloween weekend. 

As Always, 
Go Cards

~Daryl 

WSOC Adds More Twins -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Sign Morris Sisters

Louisville women's soccer was already set to have one pair of twins on the roster in the 2025-26 season with incoming freshman Karina and Kiley Peat from Wilmington, North Carolina. If that wasn't enough, though, their quantity of twins will be twice as nice as the team announced the signing of Taylor and Trista Morris earlier this week. 

Photos from Racing Louisville via GoCards

The Morris sisters were committed to join UofL next year anyway, but Karen Ferguson-Dayes will get the talented local products a season sooner as the two decided to reclassify and leave high school one year earlier. Out of the J. Graham Brown School, the two play club soccer for Racing Louisville. About the two, KFD had this to say: "Super excited to add Taylor and Trista to our 2025 class. Taylor is a dangerous and elusive forward who has a knack for scoring goals and Trista is an excellent defender who has the ability to play centrally or wide at the back! Both Taylor and Trista are high level athletes and it just made sense to start their development now!"

In high school, Taylor scored 104 goals and had 23 assists. She was a second team All-State honoree and twice was named first team All-Region and first team All-District. Trista scored 36 goals and had 41 assists out of the back. She was All-State honorable mention, made the All-Region first team twice, and was named to the All-A Tournament team three times. 

As a former high school soccer player in Louisville, two talented players coming out of Brown caught me off guard. When I played (which was getting to be quite a while ago at this point), Brown fielded a co-ed team and were regularly run off the pitch. For them to have developed not only a girls program but a fairly good one is a testament to the growth of soccer in the city since Louisville City and Racing Louisville set up shop. 

As we get ever closer to opening day (August 14th), we'll soon see players wrapping up their summer club duties and getting together on the training grounds at UofL. The addition of the Morris sisters means that Louisville will have 11 newcomers to the squad this season, so the sooner they can start to gel as a team the better. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Report on Turkey women's national basketball team -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 TURKEY NARROWLY LOSES TO ITALY TO GO TO 2-1

They went to overtime, in this battle of two undefeated squads in the European Euroleague women's basketball quarterfinals, but Italy prevailed over Jeff Walz, Elif Istanbulluoglu and the Turks 76-74 in quarterfinal action. The loss drops the Turks to 2-1 in Group A and they are tied for fifth among the 16 teams participating. 

Elif, a 6'2" power forward on the Turkiye senior squad, hasn't exactly been leading the squad, but has played twice, according to the FIBA stats..with two points in two games. she did not see the court in the loss to Italy. One has to do a lot of searching to find the information on the European results and get a box score, I discovered, in the preparation of today's article

France leads Group A at 3-0, followed by 2-1 Turkey, 1-2 Greece and 0-3 Switzerland. 

Italy leads Group B at 3-0, Belgium leads Group C at 3-0 and Spain leads Group D at 3-0. 

Turkey defeated Greece and Switzerland before losing to the Italians. 

The 16 teams that compete in the league are Turkey, Italy, France, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Lithuania, Serbia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Portugal, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Great Britain.

The Turkey team also has on the roster a name Cardinals fans will remember in Teaira McCowan.She played at Mississippi State. She left the WNBA's Dallas Wings temporarily, as did a few other WNBA players, to go play in Europe, but will rejoin them when the tournament is over. We follow the Wings fairly closely here at Cardinal Couple since Myisha Hines-Allen and Paige Bueckers play for them, but...they are just 3-12 on the season, tied for the worst record in the league. 

Good luck to all our former D! American players in the FIBA games. 

paulie

Cardinal Closet Update -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Good morning readers, 

Daryl checking back in.   Appreciate Jared's willingness to jump in for me yesterday after the power went out for a bit.  

I'm not sure what possessed me to walk across the entire campus yesterday to head over to the bookstore to check out the merch and possibly update my UofL attire for the fall season.  I did end up getting something for Thomas' upcoming birthday so it wasn't a useless trek across campus in the scorching heat.   

(( For the record, this is not a paid advertisement... UofL pays me, yes.  But this was not an extra bonus, although that would be nice ))

In the summertime, I try to update my UofL closet and the bookstore has always had some gems as far as styles, design and price goes.  And they have definitely caught up with the times (holy crop tops) since when I was a student a decade ago.   

The store is located in the SAC (Student Activities Center) on Floyd Street.   I definitely have my eye on a few things I would like to score before fall sports return.  They have something for everyone; students, alumni, fans, parents, you name it!  

 You also never know who you may run into while browsing. :D Its located right next door to a very popular Starbucks and the Sports Administration program and the L&N Federal Credit Union Arena.

 You can also shop online at the following link UofL Campus Store

As Always,

Go Cards!

~Daryl

UofL Extends Contract of Mark Beckham -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Photo by GoCards

Hey, Cardinal Couple readers! Jared checking in here as Daryl and I are switching a couple days around this week. Tune back in tomorrow and she should be back.

We have definitely entered summertime here in 'The Ville' as 90-degree weather has arrived and is here to stay for a while. The 2024-2025 NCAA year has officially come to a close with LSU taking down Coastal Carolina in the baseball championship over the weekend. We do want congratulate the Louisville baseball team on a successful postseason run and a Final Four finish.

Photo by GoCards

In the world of UofL women's sports, things have been fairly quiet. We've seen a few folks transfer in and out for different teams. A couple transfers out to note include Char Lorenz (softball) and Maya Maxwell (women's soccer). We did see a contract extension for Louisville women's tennis coach Mark Beckham.

Beckham has been around Louisville for a few decades. He attended Eastern High School. He spent his entire collegiate career playing for the Cards and then joined the men's program as an assistant coach for 15 years. He then transitioned to the head coach role for the women's team in the fall of 2007.

The Cards posted a strong 2025 season. The finished with a winning record 13-10, a ranked win over #35 Clemson, and winning their opening round of the ACC Tournament. UofL rose up to #60 in the rankings.

Beckham's extension runs through June 30, 2028, keeping him at the helm for at least three more years. He joins four other coaches to receive contract extensions recently including rowing coach Derek Copeland and lacrosse coach Scott Teeter.

Happy Monday and Go Cards!

Jared

Honoring Tom Jurich Long Overdue -- SUNDAY CARDNAL COUPLE

 CEREMONY TO TAKE PLACE SAT. JUNE 28TH ON CAMPUS

The architect of the successes we see in Louisville women's athletics these days can be traced back to the hiring of Tom Jurich, back in 1997. 

Coming in from Colorado St., Jurich took a look at the sleepy UofL Belknap campus and affected change. A drive down Floyd Street is a testimony to that. Starting at Soccer's Lynn Stadium, across the street at football's Cardinal Stadium and headed northbound all the way to Softball's Ulmer Stadium, the facilities that stand there today are almost all Jurich planned and pushed through into reality. When I was an undergrad at UofL, once you got past the Eastern Parkway overpass, the was a small bar where students could occasionally get away with under age of 21 drinking , if the right bartender was on duty. That spot, today... is Denny Crum Hall, a facility where the dormitory sits for mostly college scholarship athletes. Each room has a fully furnished kitchen, washer /dryer and living room. It's a far cry from the old Threlkeld Hall, where I lived for a couple years, before moving in the fraternity complex that are now renovated and no longer houses the Delta Upsilon, Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Kappa Tau and Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternities. I even spent one night locked in a sorority house on campus, but that is a different story for a another time. 

And, let's not forget the KFC YUM Center

He also stressed the academic excellence that changed the program's attractiveness in athletics...increasing the graduation rate to 63%.

Under his leadership, the Cards won 87 conference championships and 43 conference tournaments. He took the Cards for Conference USA to the ACC. 

And...the coaches. On the women's side, Jeff Walz, Justine Sowry, Karen Ferguson Dayes and Sandy Pearsall are just a few of the coaches that Jurich brought to campus. Coaches that have shaped their programs during their time at UofL.

 

Arguably, Jurich has been the most significant figure in college sports this century. 

The recognition for Jurich is long overdue. The man was treated very unfairly in his firing back in 2017  and it took eight years for UofL to finally realize what he did and, now, finally he is being honored for what her did here. 

On a personal note, when I decided to start a website about UofL women's sports, Tom Jurich was one of the first two people I talked to get an opinion on how it might be perceived. He gave me a enthusiastic  "thumbs up" on the idea...and without his confidence and encouragement on doing a site about women's sports, I probably never would have made the leap. That was way back in 2009. 

It's been long overdue, Tom, but congratulations and... thank you.

paulie

Former Cardinal Leads Racing Louisville -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Racing Louisville GM a WSOC Alum

With Racing Louisville knocking off the team currently in second place in the table last night as part of their best start to the season since the team began, it's worth taking a look at the new face turning the knobs and pulling the levers. Racing announced in mid-May that their interim general manager, Caitlyn Flores Milby, would have the interim tag removed and serve as the permanent general manager. Flores Milby's contract goes through the 2026 season with an option for 2027. At the time of the announcement, Racing was 3-2-3 (W/D/L), which was already the team's best start through eight games. Since then, they've continued their good run of form, going 3-0-2 and scoring fewer than two goals in just one game over the last five. Racing is currently fifth in the league, with the top eight making the playoffs. The team has not made the NWSL playoffs since the team's inception in 2019. 

Photo via Racing Louisville Communications

But let's look back at who is driving this. Obviously the players on the field and head coach Bev Yanez are playing huge roles, but it's important to remember the issues the team was having under previous administrations. With Flores Milby taking over, she brings excitement and joy to the program, while still being a home grown talent. Flores Milby attended the University of Louisville, rostering for the women's soccer program as a freshman in 2014. After only seeing action in one game that season, Caitlyn (then just Flores) transitioned into a role as team manager. She received her bachelor's degree in sports administration from UofL before returning to her home state to pursue a master's degree in sports leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Flores Milby remained tied to Louisville, coming back after her master's to begin work with Soccer Holdings (the ownership group of Racing and Louisville City) to intern as an operations and Merchandise intern in 2017. During that time, she continued her relationship with Karen Ferguson-Dayes and the UofL program. Since that first season with the organization, Flores Milby says it has "been [her] goal to make professional soccer successful in Louisville." In her own words, she's been willing to do whatever it took, including "setting up on-field signage at Louisville Slugger Field on game day, selling merchandise, bringing thousands of people to our state-of-the-art facilities through our recreational leagues, or ensuring Racing Louisville’s players received the support they needed." Her rise through the organization saw her hold roles as Event and Selection Program Coordinator for ECNL, League Manager for LouCity and Racing Academy, and Racing Louisville Director of Operations starting in 2022. 

Flores Milby wants everyone to be able to see that anyone can have a role in professional sports. The team and UofL put together a video celebrating her that was released yesterday. 

"Cardinal Forever. General Manager. Mother" on Instagram

We wish the very best for this Cardinal Forever in what is hopefully the beginning of a long and successful career at the helm. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We're back this week, and it'll be Paulie, Daryl, and me putting the show together. Who knows what we'll talk about. It's the summer slump and some of the news that we've gotten so far this summer isn't quite so joyful. We'll do our best to keep it all about the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics, though, so be sure to tune in! Check out the show after it posts around 1PM, and be sure to subscribe so that it comes to your feed automatically. 

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Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

New Volleyball Commits -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Announce Three New Commits

One might say that the Dan Meske Era has now officially begun. Louisville volleyball has, over the last week, co-announced (along with the players) three new commitments via social media. These will be the first players in the pipeline to join the Louisville program under their new head coach, so it's exciting to see how Meske is seeking out the next talent to step onto the floor for the Cards. All three are 2027 recruits. 

The first announcement came from Carsyn Comer. Comer is a 6'-2" right hander who is listed primarily as a middle blocker. The 2027 recruit hails from Westfield High School in Westfield, Indiana and plays her club volleyball for Munciana, based out of Yorktown. Comer's parents were both collegiate athletes at the University of Toledo: her mom played basketball while her dad played football. Comer was a 2023 AAU All-American and was on the 2024 JVA All-National Team for U17 players. 

Next came Elizabeth Bower, from Nampa, Idaho. Bower is a 5'-9" defensive specialist/libero who plays for Skyview High School and Idaho Crush. Bower also comes from an extremely athletic family, with her father being a D1 basketball player and her mother a D1 volleyball player. Elizabeth is following in her three older sisters' footsteps as she looks to play at the collegiate level: Whitney is an assistant coach at Utah and is a setter in the PVF, Eden is an OH at Auburn, and Alex was on the All-Big 12 Freshman team last season for BYU. 

The most recent commitment came from Keilani Ledaja-Brewer. Keilani is a 6'-0" outside hitter from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Cards pull her from the backyards of Tobacco Road, so that's certainly a win. Ledaja-Brewer lists herself as "confident, a leader, and a cheerleader for [her] team" which is something that Louisville volleyball fans love to see from their players. VBadrenaline.com gives her approach touch a 9.8/10 rating, so we may have another player on our hands that can leap out of the gym. 

All in all, Meske's tenure is shaping up to be exciting before it even truly gets underway. The Cards will be looking to maintain the momentum from their successes last season, though there is only one way to top finishing as the national runners-up. 

Until next time, go Cards!

Case 

Char Lorenz transferring -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Good morning readers and Happy Juneteenth, 

Daryl here checking in midweek with you all.  Case was swamped with work and the University of Louisville observes the federal holiday so we opted to swap the coverage. 
 

Softball

Some UofL sports news and some rather devastating to the Cardinals softball program, star freshman from Munster Indiana, Char Lorenz announced Wednesday afternoon that she was transferring out to head south to LSU. 

 She played in 50 games, all starts, primarily in left field lingering somewhere around 2–4 in the lineup. She also led team in batting average at .368%, slugging .677%, and 53 RBIs. Lorenz broke the single-season freshman record with 53 RBIs on the year, tallied 15 multi-hit games and a team high 15 multi-RBI games, hit 9 home runs, 11 doubles, and 5 triples. She stole 13 bases and committed just 3 errors for a .967 fielding %.

Photo: Jared Anderson

I dont think any of us at Cardinal Couple expected this news coming out of softball but honestly not surprised either.  I can see the opportunity for the small town native to get a big shot in the SEC and a better payday after a stellar first year at UofL.  We are sad to see her go but wish her nothing but the best... unless its against the Cards!! 

With that news, reminder the roster also graduated Sam Booe, Izzy Harrison, Maddi Grant and Ally Alexander and picked up two pitchers out of the state of Ohio, Anna Wise and Madi Reeves.

Ps. shoutout to my dog Jack, its his 16th birthday today!! 

As Always,
Go Cards

~Daryl 

Cards Field Hockey Lands Three on CSC At-Large Academic All-District Team

 Bianco, Plumb, Osborne named to CSC At-Large Academic All-District Team

The qualifications for making the College Sports Communicators At-Large Academic All-District Team are being at least a sophomore academically and athletically at carry at least a 3.5 cumulative grace point average. The women's at-large team consists of the following sports: beach volleyball, bowling, rowing, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, and water polo. Women's athletics at UofL participates in four of these 12 sports  on the DI level...rowing, lacrosse, golf and field hockey. 

Let's look at the three "stick girls" that were named to the All-District team.

--Izzy Bianco is a senior midfielder out of Berlin, New Jersey. Athletically last season she ranked second on the team with five goals and three assists for 13 points. 

Aimee Plumb

--Aimee Plumb is a redshirt senior midfield/forward from Canterbury, Kent England. It is the fourth consecutive time that Plumb has been on the CSC At-Large Academic All-District Team. She finished her career at UofL as a three-time All-American, and scored four goals her final team. 

--Ashley Osbourne is a graduate senior as well. She was a defender out of Ballard High School in Louisville, KY. She was a starter as a junior and graduate senior, and played six games as a senior before getting injured as missing the rest of the season. 

The Field Hockey Cards went 6-11 overall last season and 1-7 in conference play. The 2025 season starts Friday, August 29th against Michigan State. They'll have two exhibition games prior to that against Bellarmine and at Miami (OH). 

paulie

Istanbulluoglu and Walz Joining Turkiye Women's National Team -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Elif to Play and Walz to Help Coach

Louisville women's basketball coach Jeff Walz and current player Elif Istanbulluoglu have been selected to be a part of the Turkiye Women's National Team for 2025 FIBA Women's Eurobasket. Elif is one of 17 players named to the roster. Walz was named an assistant coach. The event will be held from June 18-29 and will take place in Czechia, Germany, Italy, and Greece.

Elif is a rising junior for Louisville. She saw an increased role during her sophomore campaign, averaging 10 minutes per game and seeing action in all 33 games. She averaged 3.0 points per game and 2.0 rebounds per game and had a strong shooting percentage of .442 field goal percentage.

Walz has been the head coach for Louisville for 18 seasons. He has amassed 486 wins and boasts an impressive .769 win percentage. Walz has guided Louisville to all four of their Final Four appearances in program history.

While the 2025-2026 Louisville women's basketball schedule has not been released yet, we know for certain that the Cards will host both South Carolina and Kentucky this season. With Monique Reid assuming the head coaching duties at Bellarmine, we hope to see a crosstown rivalry scheduled either as an exhibition or as a regulation game.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

2025 WSOC Schedule Announced -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Hello readers! 

Daryl back with you to cover the joy and excitement of UofL Women's sports.   This time 2 weeks ago, we had no schedules on the athletics website but as of today, there are now two full fall sports schedules listed on the gocards website!  

Photo: Jared Anderson

The Soccer squad is coming off coming off a 2024 season where they went 7-6-5.

The program announced the Cardinal's 18-game schedule and it is highlighted by 11 home games at Dr. Mark & Cindy Lynn Stadium. The Cardinals were 6-2-3 in games played at Lynn Stadium a season ago.                 

UofL will start the non-conference season out on the road for the first time since the 2019 season. Louisville will start the season with 2 SEC opponents starting with Auburn on 8/14 and Vanderbilt in Nashville on 8/17. It will be just the second meeting all-time against Auburn and the first meeting against Vanderbilt since 2019. In that match, the Cardinals knocked off the #9 Commodores 1-0 in OT.

The Cardinals will return home to begin a 6-game homestand the following week. The Cards home opener is set for 8/21 against Detroit Mercy and will close the week with a matchup against Wright State on 8/24. It will just be the second meeting all-time between the Cardinals and Detroit Mercy while the Cards have won the last 3 matchups against Wright State. 

The next week features home games against USC Upstate on 8/28 and Coastal Carolina on 8/31. It will be the first time the Cardinals have faced both teams in program history.

The homestand will conclude the following week after matchups against Kent State on 9/4 and Dayton on 9/7. The Cards are 1-0-1 all-time against Kent State and have won four of the last five games against Dayton.

ACC play begins with a road match against Florida State on 9/11 before the Cards return home for three-straight matches. Louisville will square off against Virginia Tech on 9/14, Clemson on 9/19 and Miami on 9/22, all at Lynn Stadium. The Cards are 4-3-2 all-time against the Hokies and 7-2-1 all-time against the Hurricanes.

A 3-game road swing follows the homestand as the Cardinals will travel to Notre Dame on 10/3, Wake Forest on 10/9 and Boston College on 10/12. The Cardinals forced a scoreless draw against 13th-ranked Notre Dame last season and are unbeaten in their last three matchups against Boston College.

Two of the final three games will be at home as the Cardinals host Virginia on 10/18 and SMU on 10/30. The final road game of the season will be in between those games as the Cards travel to NC State on 10/23.

Make is a great week!

As Always,
Go Cards!
~Daryl 

The Cards in WNBA in 2025 -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 HINES-ALLEN, EVANS AND ENGSTLER IN WNBA

Following former Cards in the WNBA..the 2025 participants are Myisha Hines-Allen (Dallas Wings), Dana Evans (Las Vegas Aces) and Emily Engstler (Washington Mystics). With all the 13 teams having played at least none games now, let's take a look at how the past cards are doing in the "W".

Hines-Allen enter her eighth year in the WNBA. The first seven were with the Washington Mystics,but she wears the Dallas Wings jersey in the 2025 season. After 12 games,the Wings are at 1-11 and in seventh place in the WNBA Western Conference and has the worst record ni the league.  Hines -Allen is averaging 21 minutes a game, and scoring 6.7 ppg. She's pulling down 5.6 rebounds a game. The Wings lost yesterday to the Las Vegas Aces 84-88.

Track and Field's Newest National Champion -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Synclair Savage Wins Long Jump

Louisville track and field has a new national champion, as Synclair Savage became the fifth outdoor national champion in program history on Thursday by winning the women's long jump. The redshirt senior has had an incredible season after returning from injury, and she has now capped off her career in the best way possible. Savage has been on a mission late in the season, and her determination and clutch gene were on display Thursday. 

Photo via GoCards

Savage entered the competition seeded in eighth of the 24 participants after she set a program record in the NCAA East Regional two weeks ago. Entering her final attempt at the leap, she stood in fourth. All she did with the last jump was set a new personal best, breaking her own school record, and moved to the top of the list. Her jump of 6.72m (22'-0 3/4") cleared second place by just one inch, though Savage was actually less wind assisted in her jump (+0.7 vs +1.4). The #1 seed had the same advantage as Savage, so her jump was just a heck of an effort. Savage's new PB broke her old program record by three-and-a-quarter inches! A huge congratulations to her for the new hardware. 

Jayden Ulrich had her first attempt at a championship come up a bit short, but she finished fourth in the women's shot put. That result is good for All-American honors, but I'm sure Ulrich will be slightly frustrated to come home one position off the podium for the second year in a row. Ulrich was able to improve on her throws from both the ACC Championships (17.56m) and the East Regional (17.97m), but her 18.26m throw in the NCAA Championship wasn't quite there. She was a quarter of a meter behind third (18.5). In fairness to the competition, Ulrich would have needed an almighty heave to finish better. Ulrich's personal best in the shot put is an 18.66m throw, which would have only been enough to move her up to third, as second was 18.85m and first was a whopping 19.01m. The gold medalist was Mya Lesnar, daughter of the former UFC Champion and WWE wrestler, Brock. 

Louisville currently stands at 4th in the team points, as Savage and Ulrich's results were supported by a 12th-place All-American finish for Ashley Callahan in pole vault and a 24th-place finish in the 3000m steeplechase by Layla Roebke. Roebke had a great season, peaking with a personal best 9:49.08 in the event in the East Regional, but the conditions weren't favorable on Thursday as she came home at 10:14.24. 

Photo via GoCards

The Cards still have Lucy Fellows, who started the heptathlon yesterday, and Jayden Ulrich's second attempt at a championship in discus to go. Ulrich enters the discus throw with the NCAA leading throw this season, so she'll look to stay on top as the competitors work to unseat her. Louisville looks on pace for an incredible team finish, which would be a great way to honor all that everyone on the team has done this season. 

No Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

After Paulie and I returned last week, we hoped to keep the momentum going this week, but unfortunately scheduling hasn't worked in our favor. We'll be off again this week with an eye on returning to the show next week with a larger crew on hand. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

CARDS WBB TO FACE SOUTH CAROLINA IN 2025 ACC/SEC CHALLENGE -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS WILL HOST GAMECOCKS IN CHALLENGE

Louisville women's basketball has never been known to back down from a challenge, and it looks like they may have an early one on the schedule when Dawn Staley brings her South Carolina Gamecocks to the KFC YUM! Center to face Walz and the Cards in the ACC/SEC annual challenge.

The national runner ups will come to town on Dec 4th. An official tip time and TV designation has yet to be determined. 

This will be the third year of the challenge for the squads...the Cards previously faced Oklahoma and Ole Miss in the past and are 1-1 overall in the challenge. South Carolina is 2-0...beating North Carolina and Duke. 

South Carolina's 2025-2026 roster is a formidable one, with returnees Raven Johnson, Tessa Johnson, Maddy McDaniel, Joyce Edwards, Chloe Kitts, Ashlyn Watkins, Maryam Dauda  and Adhel Tac. Transfers in Ta'Niya Latson and Madina Okot will bolster the roster and freshmen Ayla McDowell and Agot Makeer could play significant roles as well.

Dawn Staley has already booked an impressive early schedule...with a trip to USC on Nov 15th and Texas, Duke and UCLA in Las Vegas to close out November. The Gamecocks have also scheduled trips to play Florida and Kentucky in December. 

Kitts will cause problems for the Cards. The 6'2 senior forward was the SEC Tournament MVP last season and draws this compliment from Staley..: 

"She's a dawg playing this game and has become what we projected she could be when we first recruited her". 

Kitts on playing for the Gamecocks:

"You have to realize you go through highs and lows. You might have a good stretch of games...you might have a horrible stretch of games. You just have to try and find a healthy balance and believe that every thing is going to be OK." 

Overall, South Carolina is 18-4 against the Cards 

paulie

 

Field Hockey Schedule Announced -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

2025 Headlined by Hosting ACC Championship

Usually when we get schedule announcements, it means that the season is right around the corner. That isn't quite the case this year, as the Louisville Field Hockey schedule page boasts a countdown that still has over 70 days until the next matchup. Nevertheless, it's exciting to see the schedule announced already, and we can begin to look at what the season might bring for the Cards. Louisville will play a 17-game schedule, with eight of those being in conference. Trager Stadium will cap off the season by hosting the ACC Field Hockey Championship for the first time since 2017. That event will be held November 4th through the 7th. 

The Cards will play 10 games at home during the regular season before hosting the ACC tournament, and they'll play their traditional home scrimmage against Bellarmine to open the year. The Bellarmine scrimmage is a bit unique this season, as the Cards will also take on the Knights later in the year. Bellarmine represents Louisville's only non-conference game once the conference schedule starts, which is a bit of a departure from years past. As you may recall, the expansion of the ACC, and therefore the expansion of the schedule, means Louisville plays eight conference games per season now, up from the six it has been since the Cards joined the league. 

Last year, after Louisville's conference opener against Stanford, they still had Ball State, Ohio State, and UC Davis on the calendar. Those games afforded Louisville the opportunity to get away from the brutal ACC (although Ohio State was no slouch). This season, though, the Cards will play eight of their nine non-conference games before heading to Palo Alto on September 26th. The Cards welcomed Stanford to the league last year with a 2-0 Louisville victory. It turned out to be Louisville's only win of the season in conference play, so they'll look to repeat their winning performance against the Cardinal but parlay that into more conference success in 2025. 

In non-conference play, Louisville will (after scrimmaging Bellarmine at Trager and Miami (OH) in Oxford) open the season by bringing in Michigan State and Ohio University. The Spartans went 8-10 last season and matched Louisville's 1-7 conference record. The Cards are 7-9 against MSU all-time, but while Louisville has won the last five meetings, the teams haven't played since 2019. Coincidentally, MSU did play at Trager last season, but it was in a road matchup against Bellarmine. MSU had six common opponents with Louisville last year (which isn't terribly surprising since the Cards had a B1G heavy schedule), and they matched Louisville's 2-4 record in those games with wins over UC Davis and Ball State and losses to Cal, Maryland, Ohio State, and Northwestern. Ohio (who defeated MSU 3-2 last year) is a team with which Louisville has a rich history. The two have squared off an incredible 41 times since first playing in 1982. Ohio owns the series at a stunning 28-13 clip, but most of those victories were early in the Louisville program. The Cards have won seven straight and nine of ten, with the last meeting being a a 6-0 Louisville win in 2021. The Bobcats were 7-11 last season with a 3-5 MAC record.

Louisville's first road trip will be to Bloomington, Indiana, where the Cards will face Drexel and IU. The matchup against Drexel will be just the second meeting all-time between the Cards and Dragons. Louisville lost the first game 2-1 in 2011. Drexel was 14-5 last season and went 6-0 in conference before their dream year was derailed by a shocking upset against Monmouth in the first round of the CAA tournament which caused them to miss out on an NCAA bid. Three of their four non-conference losses were against ranked teams (Maryland, U Albany, and Saint Joseph's) and the fourth was an overtime loss to Yale. IU also lost in the first round of their conference tournament, falling to the eventual B1G Champion, Michigan. Louisville didn't play IU, who went 9-9 (4-4) and missed the NCAA tournament, last year, but they won the last meeting in 2023 1-0. The Cards are 18-7 against the Hoosiers all-time and have won the last ten matchups. 

The game against IU starts a four-game B1G stretch for Louisville, with the next three coming at home. The Cards face a gauntlet just before conference play, taking on defending national champion Northwestern, Iowa, and Ohio State. Louisville lost 2-0 in Evanston and 4-3 (OT) in Columbus last season, and last played Iowa in 2023. The Cards beat the Hawkeyes 2-1 in that game and are 9-6 against Iowa all-time. Louisville's record against the Wildcats is in the Cards' favor at 9-5, but they're 5-5 in the last ten and have lost two straight. Louisville is 13-19 against Ohio State. After the B1G portion of their schedule, they'll get no real break before playing Stanford, as they hit the road to play Saint Joseph's, last season's NCAA runners-up. 

Conference play begins on the road on September 26th, with a single game weekend against Stanford. Louisville returns to Trager to face Wake Forest on October 3rd and plays Bellarmine on Tuesday October 7th. They'll then grab a bus to North Carolina to play Duke on the 10th for their third game in eight days. UNC on the 12th makes it four games in 10 days and Louisville will be begging for a breather. 

A bye week would be nice, but Louisville does at least get a single game weekend at home against Cal to follow. That game will be on Friday, October 17th, and they'll get a week in Louisville afterwards before playing Virginia at Trager on the 24th. It's an early Friday game, as the Cards have an interesting getaway day from a home Friday match. Louisville travels to Boston College for the Sunday matchup on October 26th. The final regular season game of the season is a Saturday Senior Day against Syracuse on November 1st. 

It'll be a big year for Louisville as they look to recover from a rather disappointing 6-11 (1-7) 2024 season. The Cards won't have an easy road ahead, but they'll get it all started before we know it. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

What will losing Nyla Harris mean to Louisville WBB-- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 HARRIS "FEELS FREE" AGAIN AFTER LEAVING CARDS TO GO TO UNC

Harris in her new "Carolina Blue"

Nyla Harris was one of five Cardinals WBB players to play in all 33 games in the 2024-35 season. She was the fourth leading scorer on the UofL team, but the second leading leading rebounder. You read that right, she outrebounded all Cards WBB players but graduated Olivia Cochran. 

Grace Mbugna is a powerhouse rebounding machine coming in as a freshman

A lot of teams would go into panic mode after losing their top two rebounders. And, yes, it may affect the Cards at first, but consider that Louisville has 6'4" Isla Juffermans back and adds 6'4" Grace Mbugna (Danville Christian), 6'3" freshman Yevhenia Putra (Ukraine), 6'2" senior Laura Ziegler (St. Joseph's) and still has 6'3" sophomore Anaya Hardy on the roster. Height wise, the Cards will be just fine on the front line. The Cards also have super sophomores Taj Roberts and Mqc Randolph returning. 

In Harris' case, it was going to play her senior year at a school that was the first to express interest when she entered the transfer portal and also, in UNC, one of the schools that was in her final five when she was an incoming freshman.  

In Harris's words..."I'm happy again...I feel free. I'm going to be real again and not in a box anymore. The decision to go with UNC is 10 times better and I will be able to shine on the court. The biggest thing, going into my senior year, is happiness and being surrounded by players who care about me."

She'll be the third tallest player on the roster for the TarHeels, behind 6'5" sophomore Bianca Thomas, who averaged 2.4 points a game last year and 6'4" redshirt sophomore Ciara Toomey, who averaged 3.2 points per game.  

Taj Roberts is posed to have a incredible sophomore season

The Cards will miss Harris a bit, but when you have the powerhouses Mac Randolph, Taj Roberts, and several other transfers coming in, Walz has restocked the front line "cupboard" instead of leaving the shelves empty.  With six players 6'3" or taller, rebounding should be the least of Louisville concerns in the 2025-26 campaign. No one rebuilds better than Jeff Walz

Sometimes. players go. All you can do is thank her for the years she gave the Cards and wish her the best in her decision. 

paulie

Softball Adds Pitcher for 2026 -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Madi Reeves Joins Cards From Miami OH

Photo from GoCards

As hinted at in yesterday's post, Louisville softball had plans of another roster change. Lo and behold, the announcement came pretty quick. Right-handed pitcher Madi Reeves joins the Cards from Miami (Ohio) and will have two years of eligibility remaining.

Reeves earned several awards in her two seasons with the Redhawks including MAC Freshman of the Year, All-MAC First Team, and NFCA All-Region Third Team.

In her young career, Reeves has thrown 40 complete games in 83 outings. She has compiled a 3.36 career ERA and 361 total strikeouts in 418.1 total innings pitched. She led the NCAA last season in innings pitched.

Photo from GoCards

She joins a stacked bullpen alongside Alyssa Zabala, Brooke Gray, Lindsey Mullen, Ryann Sanders, and recent transfer Anna Wise. The long list of experienced pitchers should help relieve any pressure or overwhelming duties from any individual player.

There have been whispers of a key player from last year's team entering the portal, but nothing has been confirmed nor has that player's name been given. We will keep you updated if we hear any more information on this or if it is nothing more than just a rumor.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared