Women's Soccer and Olympics -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WSOC falls 1-0 to DePaul in exhibition

The University of Louisville women's soccer team traveled to DePaul yesterday to face
the Blue Demons in an exhibition soccer match...
falling to the hosts 1-0. 




Not much more is available than that, as is the case in most sports' exhibition matches. I had to
go to the DePaul Athletics home site to glean that
bit of knowledge...perhaps more will be available
at the Fall Sports Media Day tomorrow. 


The Fall Sports Media Day features the women's
soccer, volleyball and field hockey coaches...plus
selected players. It's an introduction to what lies
ahead for the three sports and a great opportunity
to pick up audio for our Saturday radio show as well.

They even feed us lunch, a can't miss opportunity.

Held in the Lynn Stadium Soccer complex, we had a
great time last year hearing the coaches and getting
interviews with the players. We'll recap our time at
the venue in Saturday's Cardinal Couple and have a
few clips to share on the radio show at 11 a.m. on
Saturday on THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR. 
The show airs at 11 a.m. on WCHQ 100.9 FM locally
and can be heard on the internet at the link:

www.crescenthillradio.com


Speaking of the show, we've been doing quite well
over there...we were the top show based on replay data
for July and have started out August just as strong. 



Thank you, listeners! You are CARDINAL COUPLE and we appreciate it. I recently received an e-mail from a listener
in Stuttgart, Germany who attended UofL in the 90's. 
She is stationed there with her husband who serves
our armed forces. She appreciates the daily updates
on her "home" for four years and is just an example
of how our following base transcends borders and 
regions. 

"Sie sind willkomen und danke Frau!" 

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OLYMPICS

Are you bleary-eyed and suffering from lack of sleep
like ol' Paulie is lately? Yep, binge watching the Olympics
time of year around the Sykes household...so much
to choose from and so many story lines that are there.

USA women's basketball toyed with Serbia before going on to a 110-84 win yesterday. Diana Taurasi must have found the fountain of youth in Brazil...she is popping (and hitting) three at an amazing rate. Angel McCoughtry is having the time of her life...did you catch her 360 layup score on a 
fast break with about a minute left in the game? Putting a little relish on that can of corn. 

How about the stiff test our beach volleyball duo got yesterday from Switzerland? Or the continued successes of Michael Phelps and USA women's swimming wunderkind Katie Ledecky? 

What are your favorite sports to follow in Rio? I'm a basketball guy first, followed by beach volleyball and swimming. What are your thoughts and impressions of the Olympiad? Let us know. 

Meanwhile, the UofL women's basketball team soaks up sun and culture at a Cuban resort. A tough life...

paulie
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It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year! - Monday Cardinal Couple

OK, it's a Christmas song, but I found myself singing it in the Jeep on the way to work this morning.

The Olympics Are Here!

We're a couple of days in, now, but this is one of the most joyous times of the year...wait...every two years, when either the Summer or Winter Olympics roll around.

I self-style myself as an Obscure Sports Guy.  I love the sport of Basketball as any red blooded Kentuckian pretty much does, but I get excited when I see a new sport, or a sport that doesn't get mainstream sports and non-sports media attention.  That opportunity doesn't arise often, but The Olympics are one of the consistent times when that happens.

The Olympics, and particularly the media coverage of the Olympics tends to highlight the "stories," which I must admit I have a bit of a soft spot for.  This year, the big "story" that I've heard has been Yusri Mardini.  The Syrian refugee, competing as part of the Olympics Refugee Team.  Her refugee boat, as it was crossing part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece had its engine fail.  She, another competitive swimmer and two other strong swimmers, the only people among the 20 on the boat built for 6 that could swim, spent over three hours in the water swimming, pulling the boat of refugees, to Greece.  Quite a story indeed.

The Olympic stories are frequently about underdogs or overcoming challenges.  It's great that they
shine a positive light on great stories that otherwise wouldn't be seen or heard.  The same goes for some of the "obscure" sports.  Many of these sports only see nationwide, and even worldwide, coverage during the Olympics.  Sports like Judo, Fencing, Field Hockey, and plenty more never see national television, and The Olympics offer an opportunity and a forum for those sports to be exposed to so many people that wouldn't otherwise see them.  The Olympics also provide a framework and an "event", for people to talk about what obscure sports they've been watching and enjoying.

So, in addition to my well-known-in-Cardinal-Couple-circles love of Volleyball, I've been getting super excited the past couple of weeks anticipating getting a chance to watch Handball, Canoe/Kayaking, Water Polo, and Badminton (yes, badminton...have you ever seen Olympic level badminton?  It's intense).  Of course, this year, I've been keeping an eye on the pool with so many current and former UofL swimmers at the games.  I also caught some of one of the US Rugby games with UofL Field Hockey alumna Jessica Javelet.  As I write this, I have the live stream of US vs Australia Field Hockey up...I think maybe Coach Justine Sowry might be watching as well.

______________________________________________________________________________


CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR

Here is the link for the Saturday radio show. 

LINK: https://soundcloud.com/chradio/cardinal-couple-20160806


JMcA

Worrell falls short in 100 meter fly -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

KELSI WHIRL FALLS OH, SO BARELY SHORT IN OLYMPIC SEMIS

0.03 seconds. A minuscule amount of time. Even by the time you say it out loud...'zero point zero three seconds' it is long since gone. 

Yet, in the world of swimming...a world where fractions of seconds can be as huge as the pool the athletes compete in...it can be the difference between success and defeat.

Kelsi Worrell finished 0.03 seconds behind Xinyi Chen (China) in the semis last night to finish ninth. The top eight advance to the finals. Her final time was 57.54. It was considerably behind the top qualifying time in the semis last night...set by Sarah Sjostrom at 55.84...and more than half of a second behind her winning time in the qualifier earlier yesterday morning (56.97). 

For Worrell, who was the winner of the US Olympic Trials earlier this summer, it may have been her last chance to earn a medal at the Rio games...unless she is picked up for the 400 medley team later this week. 

0.03. You can't even type the four characters that fast. But, that space in time determined how today's article was made and brought some sadness and disappointment to thousands of local Olympic viewers last night.

I hope Kelsi gets a chance to participate in the relays. I hope she gets a gold if she does. She doesn't deserve to have her athletic career this summer come to a halt because of the length of a fingernail.

ANGEL TAKES COURT TODAY

The USA women's Olympic basketball team takes to the court today at 11 a.m. to face Senegal. Our Angel McCoughtry most likely will come off the bench to give her teammates a boost on defense, hustle and shooting. 

The game will be shown on NBCSN. You can also catch it on line on the NBCOlympics.com basketball channel. I was having some fun exploring around with that last night. If it's going on in competition at Rio...it's being shown on line somewhere. It's a sports-lovers dream.

CARDS IN CUBA

Word gets to us that the Louisville women's basketball team defeated the Cuban National Team 80-69 yesterday in Havana. Asia Durr had 14 points for the Cards. We're still searching for a box score. If we find one we'll post it.

A special thanks to Ira Green, UofL WBB asst. SID for providing the info via Twitter...

RADIO, RADIO...

If you missed THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR Saturday, the link for the re-broadcast is below.

LINK: THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR AUG 6th, 2016

A fun show, indeed where we talked Olympic, volleyball, women's soccer and played audio from Jeff Walz, Cortnee Walton, Myisha Hines-Allen, Lindsey Duvall and Chris Stallings. 



paulie
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Kelsi Worrell -- A Hero Returns -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WORRELL RETURNS TO LOUISVILLE BEFORE TRAINING FOR OLYMPICS

They stood and waited...young and old...for the passengers to disembark from a Southwest Airlines flight from Chicago.

Not just any flight. The flight carrying Olympics swimmer Kelsi Worrell.

Plenty of Louisville shirts. Posters, balloons, American flags and chants of 'USA,USA'. The young woman that has had Louisville glued to the television from 8 -9 p.m. over the past couple of weeks was coming back to the 'Ville after making the USA Olympic swimming team in the 100 Butterfly and friends, family, fans and teammates were there to greet her and cheer her accomplishments. 

UofL is having a press conference/media event Thursday at the YUM! Practice facilities' press room for her and the other five with Louisville ties that will be representing their nations in swimming in Rio. It'll be the only media chance to see them before they splash off for Olympic training. We'll be there to get the words. 

Besides Worrell...Tanya Kylliainen (Finland) represents the women's swimming team at Louisville. On the men's side...Joao DeLuca (Brazil), Grigory Tarasevich (Russia), Carlos Claverie (Venezuela) and Marcelo Acosta (El Salvador) will take to the water. Arthur Albiero, head Louisville swimming and diving coach, will also be on hand.

The joy and excitement of UofL women's sports was clearly on display at the Louisville International Airport. Here's hoping it carries over to the 2016 Olympics! 

Click the link below for the arrival celebration: 

LINK: KELSI'S BACK!


paulie
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Kelsi Worrell...smooth water ahead -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

JERSEY NATIVE READY FOR OMAHA

This time of year...many UofL fans think of college baseball when Omaha is mentioned. Due to the unforeseen elimination of Cardinal baseball in the Super Regionals...Omaha has a alternate meaning now...it is the site of the Olympic Swimming trials from June 26-July3.

Kelsi Worrell and 19 other UofL swimmers will make the trip to Nebraska...Omaha is a 10 hour drive from the Ville via I-64, I-70 and I-29...to compete for a spot in Rio. 

The 100 meter butterfly is where Worrell creates waves. She set the world record in the event during the 2015 NCAA Championships. This year, she shaved 4/10's of a second off that record...clocking a 49.43. Worrell was the first woman to break 50 seconds in the event. 

Kelsi Worrell is not one-dimensional. She swam on a 4x100 medley team last December in the Duel In The Pool and helped set another world record. 

Kelsi Worrell has asthma. As she has gotten older, her condition has steadily improved. Finding the right medications and making adjustments in training and breaks have helped her overcome asthma attacks. 

Overcoming adversities. Worrell has had a few to battle since coming to Louisville in the fall of 2012. Sprained ankles. Mononucleosis. In the classroom, she's also a champion...named to The College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-District Honorable mention squad...which recognizes student-athletes for their accomplishments in the classroom and athletics. 

She was also the ACC Swimmer of the Year. 

Worrell will tell you that out of the water she's "clumsy" and didn't actively pursue any other sports in high school other than swimming. No problem, Kelsi Whirl...stay in the pool as long as you want. 

In the world of competitive swimming, Worrell has shown time and time again that she has what it takes to acheive greatness. We look forward to seeing her in the trials and in Rio. Keep maving waves, KelsiWhirl. 

Worrell wins again --Friday Cardinal Couple

LOUISVILLE SWIMMER IN A LEAGUE OF HER OWN

Kelsi Worrell unsurprisingly crushed the women’s 100-meter fly final at USA Nationals. Worrell entered finals with a 57.53 seed time, and lowered it to a blistering 57.27 this evening. She blazed the first 50 meters in 27.06, and returned in a 30.01. Although she won handily, the Louisville standout actually added 0.03 seconds from her entry time of 57.24

Worrell's goal...as one can easily imagine...is to compete for the United States in the Olympics. The records for the 100 meter fly are held by Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom. 55.64 for the long course and 54.61 for the short course. 

How great would it be to have (2) UofL athletes competing in Rio in 2016?  Both Emmonnie Henderson and Worrell have their work cut out for them...but each has made dramatic strides in improvement over the last couple of years and the best is yet to come out of both...in our opinion. 

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We're tickled to see that the UofL women's basketball squad is playing WKU on a Saturday. My illustrious columnist Jeff McAdams and I are in the early stages of formulating a "meetup" for Cardinal fans that will be attending the game in Bowling Green.

Louisville football does have an away game in Pittsburgh that day...maybe a combined game watch and then game attend scenario can be worked out if the times are compatible. 

We'll have much more on this once we get a start time. 

paulie
xxxxx 

Emmonnie Henderson to concentrate on track and field in 2015-16 -- Thursday CARDINAL COUPLE

HENDERSON TO PURSUE OLYMPIC DREAMS

Dual sport student-athlete at UofL Emmonnie Henderson has decided to put her basketball career at Louisville on hold this upcoming season to concentrate on making the US Olympic team as a shot putter and discus thrower in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janerio, Brazil.

" I wanted to take the year off from basketball, with hopes of returning, to focus on making it to the Olympics. It's been a goal of mine and I know I couldn't do it without the help of coach Dale Cowper and Jeff Walz, so I'm very grateful to them." 

"E" will throw in the indoor and outdoor track and field events for UofL. The indoor season traditionally runs from December through February and the outdoor season starts in March and ends in June. 

Henderson was to be one of the front-line veterans returning for Jeff Walz...which had only her, Myisha Hines-Allen and Cortnee Walton returning as players who played in the paint last season. UofL will have two freshmen in Erin de Grate and Sam Fuehring competing for playing time under the baskets...as well as Sydney Brackemyer, who sat out her 2014-15 freshman year with a knee injury. Mariya Moore, who can seemingly play all five positions for the Cards, might get some looks at the "4" now...in addition to her wing and guard skills. One never really knows about those last-minute additions and walk on, either...until we see them on the bench or at a practice. 

10 is a borderline comfort level number. Geno has done it with fewer players on the roster in the past...the persistent threat of injuries and those nights when it seems everyone has three fouls with 10 minutes to go make us hope for maybe a little more depth.

One thing is for certain...out of the 10 players currently slated to appear for UofL women's basketball in 2015-16...nine of them are freshmen or sophomores. 

Depth wise...Louisville loses about 10-15 of playing time in Henderson. As a reserve coming off the bench her first two seasons..."E" has been best noted for streak shooting, rebounding skills and being known as an aggressive defender that had a penchant for picking up fouls quickly. 

The dream to represent one's nation in the Olympics is a strong motivator and Henderson has shown significant strides in improvement at the discus...winning the ACC Outdoor Championships in the shot and discus and finishing third in the NCAA Championships in the discus.

She is ranked 12th in the United States in the discus and 23rd in the shot put. She was consistantly the Cards best thrower in both events and her discus skills improved over 25 feet this past season...making her a threat to win any event she entered. 

Jeff Walz weighs in on the decision: 

“Emmonnie expressed her goal of qualifying for a spot to compete in the 2016 Olympics,” head coach Jeff Walz said. “I truly believe this is the best move for her. We always tell our student-athletes that we want to look out for their best interests, and I think the best opportunity for her to make it to Rio to focus solely on track and field this school year.”  

We certainly wish "E" the best of luck in chasing the Olympic dream and hope to see her win many events this season in tosses for the Cards. How great would it be to see her competing in the Olympics and all of CardNation would love to see her return to the Cardinal WBB squad for the 2016-17 season. 

paulie
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