FH and Volleyball Host -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Field Hockey Hosts Syracuse on Senior Day

Louisville field hockey has a big game today in their season finale. As expected in the ACC, it's another top-ten opponent. More than that, it's the last game of the regular season and all eyes are on this game. Louisville and Syracuse are the only two ACC teams in action. Biggest of all is that it's a game with incredible impacts on how Louisville's season ends. If the Cards win, they will make the ACC Tournament, which will be hosted at Trager Stadium next week. If they lose, they'll fall to the bottom of the ACC and be the only team left out, due to Boston College holding the tiebreaker via head-to-head win. 

Louisville needs to win this game to make the ACC Tournament, but they'll need to spring a couple of upsets next week as well. The Cards are currently 7-9, which would make them ineligible for the NCAA tournament. A win today would put them at 8-9, but they'd need two wins in the ACC tournament to finish the season .500. That could be quite the challenge. But the NCAA tournament is something that shouldn't even be on their minds right now. The team will be going for a big win against a strong opponent to make this not the last game they'll play at Trager this year. 

Syracuse enters the game fifth in the conference at 3-4. Their four conference losses are their only losses of the season, as the Orange went 8-0 in non-conference play. Their non-conference wins included road victories over Ohio State and Princeton and a home win against Penn State. Their conference wins are over Duke, Stanford, and Boston College. They haven't beaten some of the big teams in the ACC, but they've more or less taken care of the teams they are ahead of. Worse for Louisville is that Syracuse has been relatively comfortable on the road. They're 2-1 in road conference games, with wins over Stanford and BC and a loss to Cal. The Cards can't depend too much on home field advantage to close the gap. 

It's tough to say just how wide that gap is, though. Louisville has played very well at times this season, a point we have belabored here at the site. The head-scratching part is that they seem to be one team one day and a completely different team the next. The Cards will have to put last week's surprising road loss to BC behind them and bring the team that thumped Cal to play today. 

Senior Day festivities will take place before the game, which is scheduled to get underway at 12pm. Today's match will be on ACC Network Extra. 

Volleyball Brings Notre Dame to Yum! Center

Another team closing out its regular season in a particular venue is Louisville volleyball. The wide-netters are far from done with their season, but today's match is the last game scheduled to be played in the KFC Yum! Center downtown. The Cards will likely use the arena as a site if they host NCAA tournament games, but that information will come much later. Today, Louisville will host Notre Dame in the return game of the travel partner home-and-home week. The Cards took a 3-0 win over the Irish on Wednesday in South Bend. 

Louisville's win earlier this week moved the Cards to 9-2 in conference play. They currently sit alone in fourth place, but the path to a share of the ACC title is still more or less in their own hands. Louisville trails Stanford, Pitt, and North Carolina by one game. The Cards will get a second crack at the Cardinal and the Panthers in the last two matches of the season. Louisville won't play North Carolina again this season, but the Tar Heels face Pitt tomorrow and then hit the road to take on Stanford on Friday. They will also still play Miami twice. 

Wednesday's loss pushed Notre Dame to 5-6 in conference play and they're just 8-11 overall. It has been another tough season for the Irish, but weird things tend to happen when these two teams play. Louisville will need to stay sharp and take care of business to take advantage of their extra day of rest before a Carolina road trip next week. 

Today's match will begin at 3PM on ACC Network Extra, and tickets to the Yum! Center are still available. 

No Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

With travel and game times impacting host availability, we'll be off for the show again this week. Make sure to stay tuned for the next show. 

Until next time, Go Cards!