Louisville Field Hockey, Women's Soccer and Volleyball in action Sunday -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Volleyball, Field Hockey on road, WSOC in Lynn 

A busy day for UofL women's sports squads, with three in action. Volleyball is at Boston College, Field Hockey in California and takes on UC Davis and Women's Soccer hosts FSU on campus in Lynn Stadium. let's look at the contests. 

LOUISVILLE VOLLEYBALL IN BEANTOWN

The 11-2 Volley Cards are #4 in the AVCA Poll and 1-0 in conference. It should be a classic one.  They'll take on a B.C. squad that is 10-2 but not in the top 16 rankings.

The Eagles losses came to Vanderbilt and Dartmouth. 

Game time is 1 p.m. and ACC Network Extra (ACCN) will have the broadcast.

LOUISVILLE FIELD HOCKEY GOES TO U.C DAVIS

Cards Field Hockey goes into the UC Davis game with a record of 7-2. They are #12 in the NFHCA poll.

U.C. Davis in 2-6 on the season and is on a four game losing streak. UMass Lowell, Columbia, Northeastern, Yale, Northwestern and Northwestern have delived the defeats. They did defeat Bellarmine and Central Michigan. They are unranked. A 1:30 ET game but no broadcast information is listed.  

LOUISVILLE WOMEN'S SOCCER HOSTS FSU

Cards WSOC kicks it off against FSU and the Noles are 4-1-2 and #22 in the nation. Louisville WSOC is 8-1-1 and not ranked but receiving votes. It's set for a noon start and will be shown nationwide on ESPN.

The Noles have defeated Stetson, FIU, Florida Atlantic and Georgia, , they tied Rice and NCST and lost to Florida. The Noles are not ranked at all....a rarity for them but they do have five National championships....including last season.  Don't overlook them. 

paulie

VolleyCards ground Eagles in a sweep -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 LOUSVILLE VOLLEYBALL GOES TO 21-3 WITH WIN IN BOSTON

To steal a phrase from the 1965 rockin' classic by the Yardbirds, the train kept a rollin' all night long for Louisville Volleyball Sunday afternoon, getting their fifth win in a row over Boston College 25-21, 25-18 and 25-8. (Here's a link to the hit from the band that had Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton all in it at one time or another): 

"Train Kept A Rollin'"

These Cards didnt have screaming guitars, frantic harmonica or a solid, driving bass/drum rhythm section, but they did have the power of Charitie Luper serves, Anna DeBeer kills and Reese Robins power at the net. Reese supplied the power in Power Gym, ironically.  B.C., playing in tiny Power Gym, just may have inadvertantly reminded Louisville of games at the LNFCU on the UofL campus...a small cozy environment that also hads a lot of red in it. 

Here's the details: 

SET ONE

It was actually BC early in the first set, scoring the first three points and grabbing a 6-2 lead on the visitors from Derby City, but UofL battled back behind Anna DeBeer, Luper and Hannah Sherman to grab a 13-11 lead. The Cards stay pretty much on the three-point lead, going up 23-20 on a block..then kills from DeBeer and Sofia Maldonado closed the door on set one. B.C, had fought the good fight but ended up on the short side of the score. 

SET TWO

Louisville did not make the same mistake of letting BC get up early in set two like they did in set one,...the Cards flew out to a 6-2 lead, with a DeBeer ace and kills from DeBeer, Luper and Robins. Louisville had no interntions of slowing down, and built that lead to 15-8,  but Boston College rallied behind the home crowd and cut the Cardinals lead to 17-15.  When the score reached 21-18, the Cards said "enough of this nonsense" and put on the final four points behind kills from Luper, Maldonado-Diaz, Robins and a service ace from Kamden Schrand, A Luper kill brought the final point in win by seven for the Cards. 

SET 3 

(Dare we say it? Charitie may begin at home, but she does pretty well on the road,too)

The Cards toyed with the Eagles early in the final set..leading just 4-2, but Luper delivered three straight service aces and a couple of kills pushed this set to a 9-3 Louisville lead. The Cards kept rolling, and put together a five-point run to take a commanding 16-5. Boston College had effectively tossed in the towel, and Louisville went on a 9-3 game ending run to close out the set at 25-8 and get the sweep of the match. 

Next up....Louisville brings in Duke for a Friday, 7 p.m. contest. The Blue Devils lost in straight sets Sunday at Pitt and they have not fared so well this season...going 5-9 in ACC play and 9-16 overall. The two will meet in the Cards on campus arena...the LNFCU (Louisville & Nashville Federal Credit Union Arena) Let's hope the train keeps rolling on the home tracks, too.

paulie

A Volleyball Kind Of Day - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Volleyball Visits Beantown

(Volleyball heads to Boston, but they wont be looking for Norm, Sam or Diane)

With a few specific exceptions, it feels like this weekend and last has been a little...dull?...in volleyball, across the country.  That's not to say that good teams aren't still playing quite well, they are, but by and large, they've been playing teams that fall down in the mid-ranks of their various conferences.

For the most part.

This is mostly intentional on the part of conferences, as they want to put the big splashy matchups late in the season, right before NCAA selection, to benefit from the recency bias that the committee uses.

(The B.C. court)

So the Cards had their home-and-home travel partners matches with a not-very-good Notre Dame last week, and this week take the northern swing for the ACC where they played a definitely not-very-good Syracuse team on Friday, and today take on an only-a-little-bit-better Boston College.  Syracuse, as Case mentioned yesterday, only has a single win in conference, Notre Dame only has a pair.  They play today, so someone is going to improve their record...a little.  Boston College is 5-8, though, which is, well, not great, but it's something anyway?

So the Cards, at 12-1 in conference are playing the Eagles, at 5-8.  You don't have to follow volleyball very closely to know who the favored team is, here.  As always in the ACC, however, BC is not a team to be taken for granted.  They were responsible for handing set losses to several of the undefeated teams in early conference play.  Stanford, Pitt, and UNC all had their first set loss in conference play come at the hands of BC, and in Pitt's case, it was their first set loss of the whole season.

(when we refer to "B.C." we mean Boston College, not the comic strip...)

As long as UofL continues their balanced attack, solid defense, and gets some good blocking, they'll win this game without too much trouble.  Get cocky, however, and the wheels could fall off.

 

The match today is at 1pm, as is typical for Sunday matches, and you can find the video (not always a given, at BC) on ACC Network Extra (streaming).

 

A Quick Look at Rankings

While I mentioned that this weekend and last has been a bit dull in volleyball across the nation, we haven't been completely bereft of spicy matches.  Last weekend, Miami upset Stanford which really helped solidify our hold on the 4th place ranking, dropping Stanford to 6th from their previous 5th.  Creighton was the big beneficiary of that ranking change, stepping up into the 5th place ranking.  That weekend also saw Georgia Tech vs North Carolina, two pretty good teams, go at it with the YellowJackets coming out on top...barely (25-23, 25-22, 19-25, 20-25, 15-12).

And we look beyond the ACC for another spicy matchup, that should help the Cards out, as 7th ranked Wisconsin, swept 3rd ranked Penn State.  And after the first set completed 25-23, it wasn't even that close, with the 2nd and 3rd sets going 25-12, and 25-13.

That should drop the Nittany Lions down a spot or two leaving an opening for Louisville to move up into 3rd.

(Sweet Home...KFC YUM Center...wher the Cards are so true...)

Looking ahead, there's definitely a good path for Louisville to play their full NCAA tournament run at the KFC Yum! Center.  They have to get a top four seeding from the committee to assure that, and they got that seeing in the early reveal back on October 20th, and that seeding, or better, has only gotten stronger support since then.  Of course, the Cards still have to close out the season with matches against Pitt and Stanford, so there are some potential stumbling blocks in the way, but overall the Cards are in a pretty good place right now.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

(Paulie loves volleyball, it is a inside sport where it isn't freezing)

It was just the two of us (cue Bill Withers) on the CCRHP yesterday, as Paulie and I held it down. We know not where Case or Jared were, just that they were out (conspiratorial theorist..begin...now) and Daryl was having work done o n the house 

We were thankful as we move into the Fall/Winter sports overlap, giving us both Basketball and Volleyball to cover.  OK, neither competition was against very competitive teams, but it was great to have basketball play to be talking about again.

Check it out at Spotify or your favorite podcast directory:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Basketball-Begin-in-Earnest--Volleyball-Cruises-e2qpnph

-- JMcA

Volleyball wraps up season tonight...Football Saturday vs. Cats -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

BOSTON COLLEGE VISITS AS VB WRAPS UP SEASON

The end of the 2016 UofL Volleyball season comes tonight when Boston College visits the Cards in the KFC YUM! Center at 7 p.m. Louisville (11-18, 6-13) will not being going to post-season play and the Anne Kordes era ends as well as the Cards take on the Eagles (8-21, 3-16) in a match that has little more significance than both teams trying to end their season on a win and positive note and, in Louisville's case...sending off a beloved coach with a win. 

Kordes is 274-136 (66.8%) going into her final game. Her Louisville record is 132-61 (72.3%)...the Wide Net Cards won titles and she was coach of the year in three different leagues (Big East, AAC, ACC).

This probably wasn't the type of season that Anne would have picked to end her 20 year career in college volleyball. Even though the Cards only lost three to graduation from last year, a couple of key transfers and a relatively young and inexperienced squad struggled with in-state foe Kentucky and the majority of the ACC opponents this season. 

Kordes leaves behind some very good emerging talent that her successor (still unnamed) can build on...plus a noted recruiting class potentially arriving on campus. Defense and consistency are a couple of things that the new floor boss will need to work on...but with Melanie McHenry, Morgan Miller, Jasmine Bennett, Molly Sauer, Tess Clark, Maggie DeJong, Kali Eaken and others returning...the Cards do have a solid nucleus with game experience back in the fold...pending transfers, of course. Only Lyndsay Palmer and Janelle Jenkins graduate.

Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich is conducting a nationwide search for Kordes' successor...but more than just a few feel that the new skipper should be a guy who is already on the staff...associate coach Alex Wilharm. 

Kordes gives him high marks: 

"Alex has proven he can make an impact in the gym and with recruiting and building relationships within our team and the university. He is a phenomenal representative of the Louisville Volleyball team and the University. He is also one of the sharpest and youngest coaching minds out there. He is going to rise fast."

Sounds like a good fit to us. Jurich has rolled the dice many a time on candidates that, for whatever reason, weren't getting high profile attention. Consider the names Dan McDonnell, Ken Lolla, Charlie Strong and Jeff Walz...just to name a few. 

Neither age nor lack of head coaching experience should be a factor in the hiring, in my opinion...but a few have told me they think it eventually will be in this case. If that happens, Wilharm...who has been the subject already of inquiry from other programs...is probably gone. It would be a shame to lose him. The thing is...Jurich rarely replaces at the top from within the ranks. (See McDonnell, Lolla, Strong and Walz) 

A season ends, a new era begins and the future is full of questions for Louisville Volleyball fans. The program is vastly attractive as a "end destination" job to many...with high attendance, superb facilities, competitive conference and a large fan-base. We await the next chapter after tonight. 


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BATTLE OF THE BLUEGRASS SATURDAY

ESPN has determined that Louisville and Kentucky shall play at noon in the 29th meeting to see who wins the Governors Cup. The series is tied at 14-14. 

I've said it before and I'll mention it again that I'm not a fan of noon kickoffs. First, it means we either cancel or pre-record THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR that we do weekly...experiments with Jeff in the studio and me on game site for game day just didn't turn out as well as we wanted...and it also means we have to prepare for a show without any knowledge of late-breaking events that can sometimes occur Friday or early Saturday. 

It is what it is...though...and we carry on. 

The game. Can the Cards contain the potent Kentucky rushing game that features Stephen Johnson, Boom Williams and Benny Snell, Jr.? Will Louisville get a dysfunctional offensive line back together that was absolutely "el-stinko" against Houston last Thursday? Can the Cats run "The Wildcat" effectively against a fearsome Cardinal defense? Does Lamar Jackson have a field day in rushing and finding receivers against a Cats secondary that has improved immensely since the season began? Do the Cards take their sixth straight?  

I'll visit with THE MORNING JAM crew on WCHQ 100.9 FM this morning at 8:00 to preview the game and the women's sports schedule for the weekend with Kevin and Bryce. Case, Worldwide and I will gather later today to record the radio show and ponder these same questions. Then, it's off to Churchill Downs to record the final segment of HANDICAPPING HEROES for the year. If I have any energy left, a trip downtown to see the final Louisville kills and sets of the season. 

You can listen to The Morning Jam, which starts at 7 AM at the link below:

KEVIN AND BRYCE BRING PAULIE IN FOR THE MORNING JAM

Black Friday? Nope, don't think so. More like a Cards and Churchill Friday. Not a bad combination at all...


paulie
xxxxx