Softball Still in the South
In their last weekend of Softball in Florida, the Cards split Saturday's games against Michigan, and host USF.
The Cards got started early, in a 9am first pitch against Michigan. Michigan has traditionally been a major power in college softball, particularly back under the leadership of legendary coach Carol Hutchins, but they are not quite that national power these days. They're still a good team, to be sure, but not what they once were. The Louisville squad was able to get a couple of hours of rest before they had an early afternoon game against host USF. The Bulls took this one, 6-1.
The game against Michigan was quite a battle, going eight innings before being decided, but the Cards did come out on top. They got started right off the bat, if you'll forgive the pun, with Easton Lotus in leadoff. Usually we talk about her getting on base and promptly stealing second, but in this case, she just went directly for the triple, no base stealing need. Chelsea Mack followed with a single to left field, and USF was able to hold Lotus at third. But you know we can't go without base stealing, so Mack promptly stole second. Jordan Williams gets the pair of RBIs with a single, bringing home both Lotus and Mack.
Fast forward to the fifth inning, and this one is pretty straightforward. Bri Despines comes to the plate to lead off the inning sends Mr. Spalding for a ride, clearing the fence in left field. Job done.
Michigan scored a third run in the bottom of the 6th, and a scoreless 7th for both sides led to an extra inning. They were playing with the rule where an offensive player starts on second base in extra innings, and Williams got that placement. Ava Venturelli was able to sneak a hit through the left side, advancing Williams to third, Venturelli was able to advance on the throw. Venturelli was pinch hitting for Taylor Monroe, who re-entered at this point to finish the base running. Turning the lineup over after an Ally Alexander walk to fill the bases, Easton Lotus doubled down the left field line, bringing home Williams and Monroe. The Cards would hold the Wolverines scoreless in the bottom of the 8th to take the win.
The only score for the Cards in the afternoon event was in the third inning, where Lotus got a single, followed by the same by Mack, and then again by Despines. And I know you're as shocked and confused as I am, but there was no base stealing in this inning. Finally, another single, this one by Madison Pickens, scored Lotus.
Unfortunately, that would be it for Louisville and with USF scoring six, Louisville dropped to 9-5 on the season...still respectable.
The Cards are back in action today, again with an early 9am start, against Wisconsin. The Cards did already take a loss to Wisconsin on Friday, 4-1, and will be looking for the revenge today. At the time of this writing, early in the game in the bottom of the 2nd, the Cards lead 3-0.
Looking forward, Ulmer field will finally welcome play to it's pristine grass and dirt on Wednesday in an intra-city battle against Bellarmine. That will be a 5pm start. The weather forecast looks pretty good for it, with a chance of showers, but a high predicted for the day of 63F, which should be about the temperature at first pitch. I'll take it.
Lacrosse in the West
The Lacrosse squad headed out west to California contingent to play the Cal Bears, and this one was an absolute battle until the very end. The Cards did finally get the victory, 10-9, at the beginning of the second overtime period.
Lots of the Cards scoring has been by committee, but we did have a standout yesterday, with Reese Whiteman putting in half of the goals for the Cards. The sophomore put two in the net in the first quarter, another pair in the third, and started off the fourth quarter with her fifth and final score. Lauren Figas, Negai Nakazawa, and Rian Adkins each got on the board once, all in the second quarter. Izzy Seikel scored with about one minute left in the third quarter, and got the game winner at the beginning of the second overtime to seal the deal for the Cards.
Lacrosse heads back east for a Friday noon game against North Carolina, which will, of course, be a big challenge for the Cards as the Tarheels are ranked number two in the nation, behind only Boston College.
Basketball Gameday
Speaking of ranked North Carolina teams. WBB will welcome the #9/#10 Tarheels into the KFC Yum! Center today for a 2pm start.
UNC only has four losses on the season, to UConn, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, and FSU, all of which are reasonable and respectable losses. They're coming into the game today on a six game win streak, and having just beaten Syracuse in NY (68-58).
UNC doesn't have a lot of really high scores, they're lead by Maria Gakdang and Alyssa Ustby, scoring at a rate of 11.3 and 10.7 points per game. Lexi Donarski and Reniya Kelly both fall just short of that double-digit mark at 9.9 ppg for both.
As you might expect for a quality team, they beat their opponents on average in every statistical category, so not much insight is to be found there. Donarski will be the biggest outside threat, taking the most threes on the team and being among the highest percentage shooters at about 40%. Kelly is the most efficient from beyond the arc, hitting at around 43%, but she attempts fewer than Donarski.
Be aware that today is the program's celebration of Girls and Women in Sports Day (which was officially a few days ago), along with Girl Scout Day. Of course those are two demographics that overlap quite a bit in any case. So expect the crowd to be enthusiastic and high pitched. There will be cookie sales on the concourse by the entrance starting in the 3rd quarter if you haven't gotten your fix, yet.
VolleyCards in the Pros
A quick Volleyball Cards in the Pros update.
Yesterday the Pro Volleyball Federation held their first All-Star match in Fischer's Indiana. One Card made it onto the All-Star rosters, Charitie Luper with Las Vegas. She was not originally named to the rosters, but after Leketor Member-Meneh suffered an ankle injury and was determined to be unable to play in the All Star match, Luper got the call up to fill that vacancy. Luper's team, Team Shondell (Dave Shondell, head coach at Purdue was the coach) did win over Team Collier (Michelle Collier, head coach at Georgia Tech).
Going to back to Thursday, it was a good day for more local Cards, as Elena Scott started the match for Indy Ignite in the libero jersey for the first time. It was expected that it was only a matter of time for her to win the jersey over Kylie Murr, and Thursday was that day. Also in that match, Anna DeBeer made her pro volleyball playing debut. She's still recovering from the injury she suffered in Louisville's National Semifinal win over Pitt, the coach of the Ignite said she was at about 80-85%, but she has healed enough to enter as a serving sub. Alas, she entered the match twice to serve, and both plays resulted in points for the opponent, so two plays was the sum total of her appearance, but it's a start in her return to the court.
Both former Cards received significant cheers from the crowd when they were announced in their respective positions, Scott during the starting lineup, and DeBeer when she first substituted into the game.
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast
Last but not least, Case, Daryl, Paul, and myself were on the CCRHP call yesterday. Busy times as we try to cover the main sports in action with basketball, lacrosse, and softball all getting time.
Check it out at it's Spotify home:
After posting the article, I checked back in with Softball, and the Cards are leading Wisconsin 5-1 in the middle of the 5th inning.
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