Louisville to Honor NCAA Runners-Up at Alumnae Match -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Hosts Alumnae All-Star Match Today

Louisville volleyball has been announcing the all-stars that are returning for this afternoon's alumnae match throughout the week, and many of the names are those that were rumored last week. In addition to today's match, UofL will be hosting a season-opening "Block Party" at L&N Federal Credit Union Arena, including a ring ceremony for the 2024 runner-up finishers, a team Q&A, an autograph session, and an opportunity for fans to take photos with the runner-up trophy on the court. 

The latest announcement for today's match were the coaching staff for the all-star team. One of those coaches will just be heading across the floor, as Sarah Drury Petkovic moves over from the current staff to take part in leading the group. The other is another one of the all-stars herself, though she is unable to play. Anna DeBeer will join Petkovic at the helm of a stellar alumnae team. 

Though they won't have DeBeer, the all-stars will still have a strong hitting contingent, as Aiko Jones, Claire Chaussee, and Charitie Luper join the team. Louisville's blocking and defense will be put to the test with those three on the attack. On the flip side, Louisville's offense will have to contend with a strong alumnae defense as well. The all-star team will roll with Elena Scott at libero and Emily Scott (no relation) at middle blocker. Emily, if you'll remember, was also a national champion for UofL in the high jump. She finished her volleyball career with 207 kills and 133 blocks, despite playing in just 138 total sets. Also joining the alumnae are Elle Glock at setter and Jamie Vasilou, who primarily served as a serving specialist in her time with the Cards.

Today's match won't be available for streaming, so you'll have to get into the arena to be a part of this one. First serve is scheduled for 2PM and the doors will open at 1PM. I suspect the line is already forming (which may or may not be a joke depending on what time you are reading this). It should be an exciting match and will be Louisville's final competitive tune-up before opening the season on Friday, August 29th against Auburn. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We'll have three on board today as Jared takes in the final weekend of the fair. Paulie, Daryl, and I will still have plenty to discuss with the soccer season fully underway and the other two fall sports in their exhibition schedules. You can 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

Yeast Runs Into Record Books -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Indoor Track and Field Seeing Success

The Cards are once again in the midst of competing in the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center for three straight events hosted by three different schools. This weekend, they're participating in UK's Rod McCravy Memorial Invitational. The event began in the snow yesterday and will wrap up starting today at 11am. 

Yesterday saw Louisville pick up eight individual top-five finishes, with two event wins. Surprisingly, Kiyah Yeast didn't pick up one of those top-five finishes, despite a 38.19 in the 300m that took almost two seconds off her personal best and beat the previous school record of 39.10 (Je'Nyia Burton; 2022) by almost a second. Yeast finished just 0.15s behind UCF's Twaniese Johnson in 5th and just 0.71s behind the winner, UK's Oneika McAnnuff.

The Cards' victories came from familiar names in Soledad Jean and Synclair Savage. Both won in the events you may expect, with Savage taking the win in the long jump with a 6.24m leap which would be top 5 in the country and best in the ACC before the meet. Jean, meanwhile, made her season debut in the high jump and cleared 1.75m in her victory. 

Other jumps saw Natalie Lark finish second in the pole vault with Paris Bond (pb for PB) coming home in fourth. On the track, McKenzie Bell ran a 1:33.24 in the 600m to place third and take the second fastest time in program history. Jalasia Lewis took fourth in the event with a 1:37.80. The last top five finisher in a final was Jade Whitfield, with a fifth place finish in the women's weight throw. Olivia Jenkins won her heat in the women's 60m sprint to advance to today's semifinals. 

Pro VolleyCards

As Jeff mentioned yesterday, a number of Cardinals were making their season or career debuts in professional volleyball last night. It went better for some than it did for others. 

In LOVB, Anna Hall and Claire Chaussee's Madison squad was swept by Austin. Hall had two kills on 11 attempts but led the team with three blocks. Chaussee had a bit more success offensively, though not a ton. She was 8/25 with three errors (two blocked). Austin outhit Madison .247 to .093. 

On the PVF side, Aiko Jones and the Atlanta Vibe fell in five sets to the Omaha Supernovas. Jones was hitting into a brick wall, unfortunately, with three blocked hits on four attack attempts. I promised it went well for someone, though, and that was Charitie Luper in the Vegas Thrill vs Grand Rapids Rise match. The Thrill won in reverse sweep fashion, and it was Luper leading the way. In a manner not unfamiliar to her, Luper led all hitters with 18 kills on 50 attempts. She had just three errors and two were blocked. She also added a block of her own, had 15 digs, and dropped in an ace. If you were curious whether Luper's dominance was limited to a Cardinal uniform... it isn't. 

As Jeff mentioned, the remainder of the pro cards will be in action tonight, with Elena Scott and Anna DeBeer playing for Indy and Tori Stringer and Wilma Rivera playing for Columbus. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

I'm back after a couple of weeks off, and we'll have four on the call today for the first time in a bit. We'll talk basketball, volleyball, and some odds and ends. Spring sports are just around the corner, and schedules are being released. You can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

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Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Volleyball Sweeps Chicago State in NCAA Opener -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Maldonado Diaz Leads in Louisville Romp

Louisville opened the NCAA Tournament last night in the KFC Yum! Center and welcomed Chicago State into what was likely the largest crowd the Cougars faced all season. It was Chicago State's first ever NCAA tournament appearance, and Louisville didn't welcome them to the party very gently. The Cards didn't necessarily play their cleanest match, but when all was said and done, Louisville outhit CSU .290 to .009 and won the match 25-10, 25-18, 25-13. 

Dani Busboom-Kelly got plenty of players tournament experience yesterday, with 13 Cardinals seeing the floor. Those players included Payton Peterson, who got the opportunity to play with her mom Bobbi scouting in the stands. Bobbi is the head coach of the Northern Iowa squad that Louisville will face today. Peterson played in one set and got two kills on four attempts while also picking up a dig. The 8th-seeded Panthers of UNI defeated Illinois 3-1. 

Louisville set the tone very early, winning the first seven points of the match. From there, it was pretty straightforward. Although the second set score is a lot closer, Louisville and CSU tied at 3-3 and the deficit was never smaller than one after that. CSU won three points in a row to bring the score to 12-11 at one point in the set, but Louisville won the next five to put the set fairly well in hand. Like the first, the Cards were all over the Cougars in the third, with Louisville jumping out to 10-1 lead. There is not a lot to dig into with the play-by-play, as there wasn't very much drama. 

Louisville was led offensively by Sofia Maldonado Diaz, although the usual suspects of Charitie Luper and Anna DeBeer were hot on her tail. Maldonado Diaz had nine kills and hit .368, while also adding a solo block and four block assists. She picked up an assist and two digs to go along with the offense. Luper also finished with nine kills, but hit just .273. Luper added an ace, a block assist, and five digs. DeBeer was relatively quiet outside of her hitting (seven kills; .235) as she registered no other stats except for five digs. 

Defensively, Louisville was stout, allowing just the .009 hitting I mentioned earlier. The Cards finished with ten blocks, compared to just four for CSU. Hannah Sherman was the blocking leader, as she finished with seven block assists. The Cards had just two solo blocks (PK had the second), so the defense was reading CSU very well. Louisville also allowed no aces, while the Cougars committed five serving errors. The serving game benefited Louisville decently, as they were net +6 in that category. Louisville had five aces and just four errors. 

Louisville will face a familiar foe this evening when they take on UNI. The Cards swept the Panthers earlier this season, but that win was actually their first in the historical series. The two teams have played in early season events on four occasions, but their last meeting prior to this season was in the 2017 NCAA tournament. You may remember that upset loss, a sweep at the hands of UNI in Minneapolis. All five matches in the series have been sweeps, coincidentally, with UNI taking wins in 1987, 1989, 2013, and 2017. Louisville will be looking to add to their list of victories in the head-to-head tonight. As DBK mentioned in her postgame comments, this Louisville team is nothing new to UNI. In addition to having played earlier this year, UNI's head coach has had plenty of reason to watch every Louisville match to this point. 

The Cards should be prepared for a major test. There haven't been many upsets in this year's tournament so far, but Missouri proved last night that the top-two seeds are not invincible. SMU fought off a sweep by winning the third set in their match, but the 7th-seeded Tigers ultimately won 3-1. The winner of tonight's match between Louisville and UNI will face Purdue in the next round. Purdue was the beneficiary of one of the few upsets that have happened. Loyola Chicago swept the 5th-seeded BYU Cougars before becoming the second team to be swept by the Boilermakers in the tournament. Should Louisville win, next week's match will be in Freedom Hall. 

Tonight's match gets underway at 6PM eastern time and will likely be available to watch on ESPN+. No official broadcast is listed yet. 

WBB Looks to Bounce Back in Big Matchup

After the shocking fourth quarter collapse against Oklahoma earlier this week, there's no rest for the weary when it comes to Louisville women's basketball. The Cards face another huge test tonight, this time on a neutral floor. Louisville will take on UConn in the Women's Champions Classic at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Tonight's game is part of the first ever edition of the Women's Champions Classic, so I imagine there will be plenty of eyes on the game. 

UConn is currently ranked #2 in the country, taking seven first-place votes in last week's AP Poll. The Huskies have two ranked wins so far this season, having beaten UNC 69-58 on the road and Ole Miss 73-60 in the Bahamas. Apparently they've decided to do the thing where they're good no matter where they play again. 

Louisville will be looking for their first major win of the season, having come close in a number of big matchups. Tonight's game will air on FOX and is scheduled for 9PM. With the event styled the way it is, tipoff will be dependent on the first game, which features Tennessee and Iowa. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Daryl and I are out this week, but the three stooges remaining hosts will have plenty to talk about. Jeff will be buzzing to talk about exciting volleyball, and I'm sure Jared and Paulie will be thrilled to give him the floor and ignore the WBB midweek game. You can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

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Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Taj Roberts Named ACC Rookie of the Week -- ACC Volleyball Awards -- Volleyball Tournament Reaction -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Roberts Named ACC Rookie of the Week

For the second time this season, freshman Tajianna Roberts was named ACC Rookie of the Week. Although Louisville only played one game over the last week, Roberts played a crucial role in the road win against Colorado.

Roberts scored 13 points while shooting 50% from the field. She added four steals as well as a pair of rebounds and a pair of assists. This is the sixth time this season where the freshman guard finished in the double figures in scoring. Roberts used a 5-0 run to help spark the Louisville 16-0 run in the fourth quarter.

Louisville returns home tomorrow night to host #11 Oklahoma. Tip-off is a bit earlier than normal, slated for 5:00pm. This game also features the return of former Louisville player Payton Verhulst, who is now with the Sooners.

ACC Volleyball Awards Features Multiple Cardinals

The ACC announced the annual ACC Volleyball awards yesterday. Elena Scott and Nayelis Cabello earned accolades.

Elena Scott was named ACC Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight time. It is her fourth All-ACC award in her career. This season, the Louisville native averaged 4.43 digs per set played with a total of 456 digs on the year. She also had 110 assists and led the Cards with 33 service aces. Scott's career tallies include 1,861 digs, 419 assists, and 137 aces. The digs and aces both rank in the top-10 in program history.

Nayelis Cabello was named ACC Freshman of the Year. Cabello played a major role in Louisville's 6-2 offense, where she rotated with Elle Glock. The newcomer averaged 5.32 assists per set with a total of 554 this season. She also added 162 digs and 15 blocks. She was named ACC Freshman of the Week six times this season.

Scott was named to the All-ACC First Team alongside Anna DeBeer and Charitie Luper. Care Cresse was named to the All-ACC Second Team while Cabello was named to the All-ACC Freshmen Team.

ACC Player of the Year was awarded to Pitt's Olivia Babcock. ACC Setter of the Year went to Stanford's Kami Miner. Dan Fisher was named ACC Coach of the Year as Pitt won the ACC and was named the top overall seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

Louisville opens up play in the NCAA Tournament on Friday night at approximately 7:00pm against Chicago State.

Volleyball Tournament Reaction

With the release of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament Sunday night, the biggest question for Louisville fans was answered. What seed would Louisville get? They earned the final 1-seed.

Pittsburgh earned the top overall seed. The Panthers lost one match all season and won the ACC. Nebraska and Penn State each earned 1-seeds, both with two losses.

Louisville beat out Stanford and Creighton, both of whom the Cards beat this season. Stanford did turn around and even the season series against Louisville this past weekend. The Committee seemed to weigh Louisville's wins over Stanford, Creighton, SMU, Wisconsin, and Kentucky pretty heavily. Kentucky earned a 3-seed while the other four on that list are 2-seeds. UofL went 5-1 against 2-seeds and 3-seeds, but went 0-4 against 1-seeds. 

Stanford went 5-3 against teams 3-seed or higher. The Cardinal (singular) won three sets against the Cardinals (plural) but Louisville won four sets, which might have helped been the deciding factor.

While Creighton went 29-2, they went 1-2 against teams 3-seed or higher. The Blue Jays fell to Louisville and Nebraska, but did sweep Kansas. The weakness of the Big East most likely played a factor in the seeding.

The ACC saw much love from the selection committee. Four of the top eight seeds are ACC schools: 2-seed Pitt, 1-seed Louisville, 2-seed Stanford, and 2-seed SMU. Nine ACC schools made the NCAA Tournament, The other five include 7-seed Florida State, 7-seed Georgia Tech, 8-seed North Carolina, 8-seed Miami, and NC State.

The Commonwealth of Kentucky also saw a fair amount of love with four schools dancing: 1-seed Louisville, 3-seed Kentucky, Morehead State, and Western Kentucky. The three non-Louisville schools were placed in the Pitt Region, highlighted by top seeds Pitt and SMU. I don't see any of the three surviving to the Final Four.

Louisville played a lot of matches against teams in the NCAA Tournament this year. Those opponents include Wisconsin, Tennessee, Penn State, South Dakota, Missouri, Northern Iowa, Creighton, Kentucky, Nebraska, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Miami, NC State, SMU, North Carolina, Stanford (2x), and Pitt (2x). 19 matches out of 30 opponents this season in the NCAA Tournament shows that this Louisville team is battle tested. Are the Cards ready for the challenge? Playing at home the entire tournament plays in their favor, but the Cards did lose at home to both Nebraska and Pitt this season.

Keys to Winning the NCAA Tournament:

-Limit unforced errors. This includes service errors and attack errors. Louisville likes to serve aggressively, but taking a little off the serve to keep the ball in gives your defense a chance to make a stop. Attack errors seemed to be more plentiful than kills a few times this season. That's more of a mentality or lack of focus.

-Strong blocking. Louisville is one of the top blocking teams in the country. They averaged 3.0 blocks per set this season. The Cards have established their identity under Dani Busboom Kelly through their blocking.

-Feed the hot hand. This might be an underrated key point. Louisville is not short on playmakers by any means. Different players have stepped up in various matches. Whether it's Anna DeBeer, Charitie Luper, Sofia Maldonado Diaz, Payton Petersen, Reese Robins, Cara Cresse, Phekran Kong, or Hannah Sherman, find the hot hand and feed them. It's no different than feeding the hot shooter in basketball.

Cardinal Couple plans to have in person coverage for all Louisville matches in the NCAA Tournament.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Three VolleyCards Taken in PVF Draft -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Three Cards Selected in PVF Draft

Three Louisville volleyball players were selected in the 2024 Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF) Draft. Anna DeBeer, Elena Scott, and Charitie Luper all heard their names called and have a chance to play professionally in the United States. The PVF Draft featured five rounds for eight teams.

Anna DeBeer (Round 1, Pick 2) was taken with the second overall pick by the Indy Ignite. The outside hitter and Louisville native has spent the last five years with the Cards. During her career, DeBeer has tallied over 1,300 kills and 1,000 digs and became the fourth player in program history to break the 1,000 mark in both categories. She ranks in the top 10 in program history in kills.

Elena Scott (Round 2, Pick 9 overall) was taken with the first pick in the second round, ninth overall by the Indy Ignite. The Louisville native setter-turned-libero has a chance to team up with her current Louisville teammate Anna DeBeer up in Fishers, Ind, and has played for the Cards her entire four-year career. Scott has earned national attention at libero despite playing setter in high school. She ranks in the top 10 in program history in digs and service aces.

Charitie Luper (Round 3, Pick 24 overall) was taken with the eighth pick in the third round, 24th overall by the Vegas Thrill. Luper spent the last two seasons at Louisville after coming from UCLA. She has logged over 600 kills and 400 digs in her two years with the Cards and has eclipsed the 1,000-kill mark for her entire collegiate career.

 

All three players participated in Senior Day and will conclude their careers at Louisville in the coming month. Despite being drafted in the PVF Draft, all three players could potentially sign to play in the other professionally volleyball league in the United States- League One Volleyball (LOVB). LOVB recently formed and does not have a draft, but instead teams have the option to sign players as free agents. Both Anna Stevenson Hall and Claire Chaussee currently play for LOVB Madison, located in Madison, Wisconsin. Former Louisville player Amber Stivrins (Stivrins transferred out early in her career) plays for LOVB Omaha.

 

For now, Louisville volleyball gears up for a pair of big-time matches to close out the regular season. The Cards host #1 Pitt tomorrow night at the KFC Yum! Center and then travel to #7 Stanford on Black Friday. One win over the final two matches should guarantee a top four seed. Winning both matches would lock in a top four seed without question. Losing both matches could knock the Cards down to about #5 or #6, per a source friendly to Cardinal Couple. We will play by ear and take the rest of the season one match at a time.

Photos today brought to you by our friends from GoCards.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Volleyball Opens Virginia Weekend with Win -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Dominate UVA in 3 of 4 Sets

Louisville volleyball is on the road in Virginia this weekend ahead of two huge matches to close the season: hosting Pitt on Wednesday and heading to Stanford on Saturday. Getting out of the Old Dominion with minimal stress would be ideal, and the Cards did their best to make that happen yesterday evening. If you ignore the third set, the final score looked about how I expected. Louisville won sets 1, 2, and 4 25-10, 25-14, and 25-16. Strangely, out of the halftime break, the Cavaliers jumped all over the Cards and took the third set 25-23. For Louisville to flip the switch again in the fourth was encouraging and they'll head to Blacksburg tomorrow still tied atop the ACC.

Since I've already told you the score of the first set, you'll be a bit surprised to learn that Virginia won the first point, tied Louisville at 4, and won back-to-back points to make the score 10-8. I see you doing the math at home. Yes, Louisville went on a 15-2 run to close the first. UVA's resilience to not be immediately demoralized by something like that at home is impressive. 

The second was not quite as much of a beatdown, but again, UVA never really threatened. The two teams tied at 3 before Louisville won three straight points to take a 6-3 lead. UVA twice got within two points over the next few, but Louisville continued to steadily gap the Hoos. After a block by UVA made the score 12-7 in favor of Louisville, the score was never closer than that five points as Louisville sprinted to a 2-0 lead at the halftime break. 

Then came the third. Out of the gate, it was clear that Virginia was not going to lay down and let Louisville walk out of the gym with a sweep. The Cavaliers jumped out to an early 6-2 lead and used that margin to keep the Cards at arm's length for the remainder of the set. Based on the way the previous two sets had gone, it seems safe to say that if Louisville had gained a lead, they probably could have completed the sweep. Virginia may have known that, as well, which could be why they pushed so hard to stay out front. 

Louisville's biggest chance came on a 6-1 run after trailing 12-6. Had the Cards tied at 13 and taken the lead, it could have been different. Instead, Virginia methodically stayed ahead. Again, Louisville got to within one point at 17-18, but UVA closed the door with a 5-1 run to put themselves within two points of the set win and Louisville needing a big run. The teams traded points and Louisville needed a 5-0 run to extend the set. They got four of the points they needed before UVA hit the 25 mark. 

Having been served a bit of humble pie, Louisville went into the fourth on a mission, establishing a gap early with a 7-1 lead. Virginia was able to bring the score within three points on two occasions (11-8 and 14-11), but a 6-0 run after the second put the match more or less to rest. Louisville was outscored 6-5 after being up 20-11, but in a race to 25, it was mostly academic. 

In a bit of an uncommon occurrence for the Cards this season, they hit steadily worse throughout the match. Louisville opened with a .500 mark in the first set with 14 kills and just one error. That dipped to .303 in the second before they hit .239 in the third. That .239 was on 17 kills and six errors, and it was the only set in which Virginia (.273) outhit them. To their credit, the third was the only set in which UVA had fewer than seven errors (3). The fourth saw Louisville hit just .100, but that was up against a -0.059, so the Cards walked away victorious. 

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Charitie Luper and Anna DeBeer led Louisville offensively. Both had 13 kills and just three errors, with DeBeer edging ahead with a .357 percentage. DeBeer added to her offense with 12 digs while Luper contributed an assist, an ace, two assisted blocks, and three digs. Sofia Maldonado Diaz joined the two in double digits with 10 kills while Reese Robins had nine and Cara Cresse had seven. 

Louisville's day at the net was strong, as they blocked 14 shots overall. Cresse and Hannah Sherman led the way on that front, with Cresse putting up two solo blocks and two assisted blocks while Sherman had a whopping three solo and six assisted. The Hoos kept the pressure on Louisville's defense forcing the setters into a combined 21 digs (14 from Cabello), while Elena Scott had 23. Louisville finished with 68 digs as a team, so hats off to UVA for keeping the ball in play. 

The Cards will be back in action tomorrow against Virginia Tech at 1PM. As I noted before, this is the last match before the two closing matches of the season which will have massive implications on the postseason landscape. The Cards and Hokies will do battle on ACC Network Extra. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We'll be without the live show again this week as Jeff is on the road. Jared will be at the football stadium for pre-game Senior Day festivities, but with basketball and volleyball to discuss, we'll carry on with the show. We're set for our normal recording time, the show will get be available for listening at its usual time this afternoon. Daryl and Paulie will be on with me. There are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

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Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

FH and Volleyball Fall on the Road -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Field Hockey Drops ACC Finale at Cal 2-1

Louisville field hockey's offensive woes continued Friday night, as a swing out to the west coast didn't jolt any life into the goal scoring sticks. Facing a Cal team that had not yet won an ACC game, Louisville needed a win to ensure they would make the ACC tournament. At 6-7 (0-5) entering yesterday, Cal had given up 26 goals and only scored 23 on the season. As we discussed on last week's CCRHP, that number in conference was markedly worse. Unfortunately, Louisville couldn't find the back of the cage consistently enough to get the win. 

Cal scored twice in the first ten minutes of the game, with both coming from Liz Klompmaker. Klompmaker is the leading scorer for Cal, and her second goal in this game was her thirteenth of the year. The first quarter saw Louisville give up 11 shots to Cal, with seven of those being on target. Those came with the help of five penalty corners. The Cards managed to earn zero shots in the first quarter. 

Louisville's offense and midfield did manage to turn it around throughout the rest of the game, but they just couldn't score. Despite the massive difference in the first quarter, Louisville and Cal finished the game tied with 14 total shots. Louisville managed to get one more shot on target, finishing with 10, and the Cards took a total of nine penalty corners, while Cal got just one more to finish with six. Louisville managed to cut the deficit to one goal with three minutes remaining in the first half, but they were unable to find an equalizer in the second. 

Rylie Wollerton scored the lone goal for the Cards, and she was assisted by Aimee Plumb. The box score doesn't say it outright, but the goal came four seconds after a penalty corner, so I'm counting it as a PC conversion. That still means Louisville only converted 11%, but it's better than 0. The goal was Wollerton's sixth of the year. 

In goal, Brandelynn Heinbaugh took the start this game and played 56 minutes. Louisville went empty net in the waning minutes to try to tie. Heinbaugh finished with seven saves, which should have been plenty for Louisville's offense to keep them in this game. 

The Cards have one more regular season match before they find out their fate about the ACC and NCAA tournaments. Louisville will take on UC Davis tomorrow at 2PM Eastern. The match will be available on America East TV and the link can be found on GoCards as well. As with pretty much every other match in the current skid, Louisville needs a win to keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive. Unfortunately, their ACC tournament fate is out of their control. Last night saw both Cal and Stanford pick up their first ACC wins as Stanford beat Wake 1-0. Cal will play Wake tomorrow and the two California teams will face off on Halloween. Since one team is guaranteed to finish with two wins, it will come down to tiebreakers for the last spot. As best I can tell, Louisville needs Wake Forest to beat Cal and for Cal to beat Stanford. All four teams currently have one win and Louisville only holds the tiebreaker over Stanford. Wake also plays Virginia, so the wrong results for the Cards could potentially see them as the only ACC team to finish 1-7 and out of the conference tournament. 

Volleyball Loses 5-Set Thriller at Pitt

Two of the top teams in the country went head to head last night and the battle for the top of the ACC went down to the wire. Facing a team that had only dropped four sets all season entering the match, Louisville was able to add just two to that total. The Cards and Panthers went hammer and tongs for the entire match before the Cards ultimately fell 15-12 in the deciding fifth set. Given the pattern, Louisville may have very well won a sixth set if they played it, but they potentially would have lost a seventh. Louisville won the evens and lost the odds, with the final scoreline being 21-25, 28-26, 17-25 (eek), 25-22, 12-15. 

This match was everything you'd expect: even almost across the board. Louisville finished with more kills (70-68), but they were surprisingly outblocked (13-16). Statistically, the serving line was almost a non-factor. Louisville went 1-7 and Pitt went 3-12, giving the Cards a net +3. However, stats don't tell the whole story with serving, and when those plays happened could matter a lot. The big differentiator was the total errors and playing in system. Louisville had 70 assists on their 70 kills, so every kill was played through the offense. Pitt had only 65 assists, meaning they had three free points from Louisville over passes. Louisville also finished with 35 errors to Pitt's 20. Since blocks count as errors for the hitter, that means Louisville had 19 true hitting errors and Pitt had seven. That'll do it, folks. 

Pitt set the tone straight out of the gate by blocking Anna DeBeer for the match's first point. Charitie Luper tied it up, but Pitt went on an 8-2 run to take a 9-3 lead. The Panthers kept Louisville at arm's length for nearly the remainder of the set. As I mentioned, though, the timing of service line swing plays can be very important. With a 23-17 lead, Pitt had a service error, starting a three-point run that gave Louisville life at 20-23. Unfortunately, that knife cuts both ways. A service error from Louisville gave Pitt set point and the Cards could win just one more before the bell. 

The second set appeared to flip the script entirely, with Louisville taking the early 9-3 lead and looking to be in control. As the scores crept up, points were largely exchanged one-for-one and Louisville was flying high at 19-13. All good things must end, it is said, and so it was for the Cards as an 8-2 Pittsburgh run tied the second set at 21. With the Panthers at home and carrying all the momentum, Louisville was in danger. They won two quick points to go up 23-21 and could take a breath, but Pitt punched right back to take set point at 24-23. From there, it was do or die for both teams. Louisville won a pair for their own set point, and the teams traded to tie it at 26. In came another key service error, and Louisville finished the set with a big block to win 28-26.

The third set was nothing to write home about. It was Louisville's worst set from a hitting perspective and Pitt's best. The Cards hit 0.182 and Pitt put up a whopping 0.433. Surprisingly, Louisville's error number (8) was not their highest of the match (they had 10 in the second), but a hitting deficit of 25% is pretty tough to overcome. Unlike the first two sets, the third was close early, with Louisville keeping it within two points up to 13-15. Unforced errors and Pitt blocks came home to roost, though, and Louisville dropped the set out of the halftime break 25-17. 

Down 2-1 against the top team in the country in a very hostile environment, Louisville was on the ropes. The Cards continued to struggle offensively to start the fourth, but the Panthers very generously gifted them three service errors in the first 15 points. Those points were crucial for the Cards, as they were blocked twice and had two hitting errors over the same stretch. Trailing just 7-8, though, Louisville was able to put their heads down and get on track. The Cards committed just two more errors over the remainder of the fourth set and managed to stretch a lead over time to 20-17. They took a 23-20 lead, and it looked briefly similar to the second set. This time, though, they held strong, putting the brakes on a Pitt run after two points and holding on to the 23-22 lead. Louisville won the next two to set up the tiebreaking fifth. 

In retrospect, the start of the fifth may have been a sign that a win wasn't on the books last night. As the match started with a block of DeBeer, the fifth began with a DeBeer service error. Pitt won five of the first seven points, and the Cards looked like they could be in trouble. Louisville managed to bring it back to 6-7, but the ball just wouldn't fall their way. After a kill by Charitie Luper looked to keep the Cards alive with the score at 8-10, Elena Scott had a crucial service error, her only one of the night (DeBeer only committed two). Instead of a chance to make it 9-10, Louisville was down 8-11 and that quickly became 8-12. In a set to 25, that wouldn't be so bad. Unfortunately, the fifth set is a race to 15. Again, Louisville managed to chop out a point and, again, an untimely service error flipped the ball right back. This time, it was Nayelis Cabello committing her only service error of the night. The Cards had just seven service errors and three came in the fifth set. Brutal. Louisville managed to go on a short burst thanks to back-to-back blocks and drew to within 12-13, but Pitt took the last two points to secure the win. 

Obviously, Pitt is very good, but they've been proven to be beatable and this match looked very winnable for Louisville. It's a tough way to end, but the Cards will get another shot at the Panthers on Thanksgiving week in the Yum! Center. In last night's match, Louisville was led by Anna DeBeer and Charitie Luper. DeBeer tied the match high of 22 kills with Pitt's Olivia Babcock. Luper was third among all players with 19. Louisville also got double-digits from Reese Robins, who had 10. Cara Cresse finished with nine kills and Sofia Maldonado Diaz had seven.

Defensively, Elena Scott finished with 21 digs and was forced into seven assists. Both Luper and DeBeer completed double-doubles, finishing with 17 and 14 digs, respectively. Elle Glock also had a double-double (technically) as she picked up 11 digs to go along with her 38 assists. Phekran Kong led the team with six block assists, while DeBeer was close behind with three BA and the only solo block of the night for Louisville.

The Cards are back in action tomorrow as they head deep into the heart of Texas to take on SMU. The Mustangs have been giant killers this season, so Louisville needs to have maximum focus to avoid a losing streak. SMU is ranked 12th in the country and swept Notre Dame last night. Tomorrow's match will get underway at 1PM and will be on ESPN. I'm sure Jeff will have more to say tomorrow about both matches as he was in Pittsburgh last night.

No Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast This Week

With Cardinal Couplers scattered to the wind this week, the choice was down to me as to whether I'd like to monologue the hour. Had things gone a bit better for the Cards this week, perhaps I would have considered it. As it stands, though, we'll have no show this week. We should be back next week barring any unforeseen circumstances.

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Volleyball Sweeps; FH Falls -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Luper Hits Milestone as Louisville Beats Wake

Charitie Luper picked up her 1,000th career kill yesterday as she helped lead the Cards to a decently simple sweep of Wake Forest. Louisville's win moved them to 15-2 and they remain undefeated in conference play. Luper had nine kills, which was good for second on the team and third in the match. Louisville will be back in action tomorrow in L&N Federal Credit Union Arena against NC State. 

The Cards got off to a bit of a slow start in the first set, with Wake Forest taking an early 7-3 lead. Louisville would fight back to tie the match at nine before taking their first lead at 10-9. The Cards wouldn't give up that lead for the remainder of the set, slowly adding points to the deficit until they got hung up at 19. Wake Forest won four straight to make the score 19-18, but Louisville won six of the final eight points to put the set away with a 25-20 win.

The second saw a similar difficulty separating, though the Cards didn't have to dig themselves out of an early hole. The two teams traded points early before Louisville started to distance themselves a bit more after both teams reached 10. Again, Louisville hit a slight wall at around the 20 point mark and Wake was able to cut into the lead a bit. Just like the first set, though, Louisville buckled down over the final stretch and won the set 25-19. 

After the halftime break, Louisville was no longer interested in playing games with their food. The Cards won the first four points and stretched that advantage to a 10-2 lead. The Demon Deacons managed a small run at that point to bring the score to within 11-6, but they would get no closer. Louisville ran away with the deciding set, taking the third 25-12. The Cards hit .481 in that final set, compared to just .143 for the Deacs. 

Overall, Louisville dominated on the hitting side with a .349 percentage. Wake hit just .122 over the course of the match, as their .031 first set dragged down their average. Louisville committed just 11 errors and they had only one in the third set. Louisville also led the way in both aces and blocks. The Cards had 10 blocks, with five of these being solo. Louisville also won the battle at the serving line outright, as they had three aces and six serving errors compared to Wake's two and eleven. 

Luper's nine kills came on .333 hitting and she added two solo blocks, a block assist, and seven digs. Anna DeBeer led Louisville with 11 kills on .391 hitting while also picking up a block assist, two aces, and five digs. Reese Robins hit .462 with six kills and no errors. 

Louisville will take on NC State tomorrow at 1PM. The Wolfpack are 10-5 this season and 5-2 in conference. Their two losses came on the Pacific coast, where they lost to Cal and Stanford by a combined score of 6-1. Surprisingly, the sweep came at the hands of Cal. State's wins have come against the Virginias, Duke, UNC, and Notre Dame, so it's hard to put your finger on this team. Louisville shouldn't have any major issues getting by, but it's best to give everyone your best shot. The match will be carried on ACC Network Extra.

Senior Day Goes South for Field Hockey

Justine Sowry let her disappointment be known after yesterday's 3-0 loss, lamenting Louisville's inability to win 50/50 balls and expressing frustration with a lack of fundamentals. The Cards were playing their final game of the season at Trager Stadium and bringing in a familiar foe in Duke. At the end of the day, Duke walked out with a victory, and Louisville's slide continued. 

The Cards played the Blue Devils close for the first quarter, but it was early in the second that things came unglued. To add insult to injury, it was an exciting former Cardinal, Charlie van Oirschot, that kicked off the scoring for Duke. The Blue Devils added to their advantage seven minutes later to make it 2-0 and it would stay that way until shortly into the fourth when they scored an insurance goal on a penalty corner.

Louisville was outshot 16-6 with a disadvantage of 10-2 in shots on target. Of course, it was easy for Duke to get so many more shots as they held an 8-2 advantage in penalty corners. Louisville continued to struggle in the midfield, finding themselves on the back foot throughout the game. 

Louisville honored seniors Filippa Niebuhr and Caroline Pusey after the game, and we have appreciated all those two have done during their time with the Cards. Louisville has two games remaining in the regular season, and we'll see what happens after that. The Cards hit the road to take on Cal and UC Davis next weekend to close out the year. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We'll have three on the horn again with a noon start for football occupying Daryl and Jared. Just like the last few weeks, we've got excitement in volleyball and not quite as much joy in soccer and field hockey. We'll do all we can to keep it positive, though, as we work to uphold the mission of Cardinal Couple. You can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

Cardinal Couple YouTube: Link

Spotify: Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

FH/VB Split Close Matches -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Beats FSU in 5 Sets

Louisville volleyball hit the road to take on 21st-ranked Florida State last night and took down the Seminoles in a back-and-forth five set match. Louisville dropped the first before taking the next two and losing the fourth to lead to the tiebreaker. The Cards won the fifth set going away, 15-9. The victory was Louisville's fifth in ACC play, keeping them undefeated in conference, and it broke a 17-match home winning streak for FSU. The Cards take on FSU's travel partner Miami on Sunday at 1PM. 

FSU came out of the gates hot, hitting .417 in the first set en route to a 25-16 victory. Louisville hit just .200 with five errors, matching their high for the match, which they'd repeat in the third and fourth sets. Despite the higher error number in the third, Louisville still outhit the 'Noles .235-.207 in that third set. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Louisville responded to the opening punch from FSU with a .429 hitting percentage of their own in the second. They had just two errors compared to FSU's 8, which gave them a .182 for the set. Despite the hitting dominance, Louisville won just 25-21. They'd go on to win the third 25-21 as well. 

The match swung back in FSU's favor in the fourth, as the 'Noles outhit the Cards once more and inverted the score of the previous two sets, taking it 25-21 themselves. Neither team hit the ball out of the gym in the fourth, but FSU had enough juice. Part of what kept FSU so scrappy was the serving line. The Seminoles had nine aces compared to Louisville's four. They were also even at the line, matching the number of aces with the number of errors. Louisville was -11, as they had 15 service errors. Yikes. Those errors helped push the momentum squarely to FSU for the fifth set. After Louisville tied the fourth at 19, FSU had just one kill to score their last six points. Louisville had three attacking errors (including two of their nine blocks) and two service errors, including set point. 

FSU came out and won the first point of the fifth, but Louisville was about done playing games. At least, that's what they thought. The Cards won four of the next five points before FSU took three straight to regain a 5-4 lead. At the second time of asking, though, they were able to put it away. Louisville won the next four points to make the score 8-5 and alternated points until 11-9. All the past errors went by the wayside, then, and Louisville won the last four points of the match on four straight kills by Sofia Maldonado Diaz and Anna DeBeer. 

DeBeer led all hitters with 23 kills in the match (narrowly beating FSU's Audrey Koenig who had 22). DeBeer had six errors as well, but with 51 attempts, she finished with a solid .333 hitting percentage (outhitting the team's .295). Charitie Luper joined DeBeer in double figures with 12 and Sofi finished with nine. The Cards had two players finish with no errors, as PK and Reese Robins each had seven kills and hit over .500. 

Defensively, the Cards finished with one more block than FSU, picking up 10, all assisted. The Seminoles were keen to avoid Elena Scott, as Louisville's star libero had only 12 digs. DeBeer had a double-double with 11 digs and Luper narrowly missed it with nine. Elle Glock and Nayelis Cabello were each forced into five digs of their own. 

Louisville moves to 13-2 (5-0) on the season and they'll take a five-set road victory and run. That win is especially difficult in Tully Gymnasium, where FSU last lost on November 6th, 2023 to then 10th-ranked Georgia Tech. Louisville heads down to Coral Gables next, where they'll face the Hurricanes who are coming off of a five-set win themselves. Miami beat Notre Dame 3-2 last night to move to 11-5 (2-3). They've already played FSU twice and were shockingly swept by Virginia on the road last weekend. Tomorrow's match is at 1PM on ACCNX.

Field Hockey's Skid Continues with 2-1 Loss

Louisville field hockey brought in the top-ranked team in the land yesterday afternoon, and despite their best efforts, dropped their fifth straight match. Louisville was under immense pressure throughout the match but maintained a 1-1 tie until just under seven minutes remaining. UNC scored the game winner to move to 9-0 on the season and push Louisville down to 5-8. The Cards get no time to lick their wounds, as they hit the road for Winston-Salem to face Wake Forest tomorrow. 

Sophomore goalkeeper Emily Young has continued to split duties with Brandelynn Heinbaugh this season, and she has drawn difficult opponents. Young started the last two games and showed pretty well. Against UVA and UNC, Young played just under 60 minutes in each match as the Cards pulled the goalie, and she finished with a combined 11 saves and just three goals allowed. That's a combined save percentage of over 75%, which is pretty nice. Her season save percentage in 7.5 games is .694, which is still no slouch. 

As I mentioned last week, Louisville field hockey needs to find the offense. One or fewer goals per game isn't going to get it done against the quality competition they're facing. In addition to the lack of goals, Louisville isn't threatening much at all. The Cards were outshot 21-4 and 10-3 in on-target attempts. They gave up six penalty corner attempts and had just two. In the end, it was an incredible defensive effort that kept the match as close as it was. 

Louisville's lone goal in this one came as an equalizer in the middle of the second quarter. Chloe Plumb scored the unassisted effort, her fourth goal of the year. Other shots came from her sister Aimee, Chloe Cuzzupe, and Rylie Woolerton. 

UNC is very good, don't get me wrong. However, we've seen some real flashes from this Louisville team, and it seems like there should be more to them than what they've shown in conference play. The Cards have four games remaining and they'll have to win out to finish above .500. Three of those four matches are on the road, with the lone home match coming against a tough Duke team next Friday. They are back in action tomorrow against Wake at 1PM on ACCNX.

Other News and Notes

Louisville softball played two against Indiana last night as they continued their fall ball schedule. The Cards won the first game 5-4 on a walk-off single. Our correspondent had to leave midway through the second game so we've got no reporting on the final from Ulmer. Louisville athletics, as usual, are tight-lipped on the results of scrimmages, so let's just think positively and assume they won. Softball looks to be having fun and can hopefully break through once spring comes around. 

Louisville soccer is back in action at home tonight, but most of us will miss the rare Saturday evening event. The Cards are taking on Notre Dame, who is currently ranked 13th, and we'll hope to see an upset. Louisville has lost five of their last six but they've played pretty tough competition. After the brutal trip to Tobacco Road (losses to UNC and Duke by a combined 8-1 score), the friendly confines of Lynn Stadium will hopefully turn things around. Tonight's match is at 5PM and will be carried on ACCNX. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

There will be just three of us this week as Daryl and Jared are otherwise occupied. As has become a disappointing norm, we'll look forward to talking about volleyball and try not to spend too long commiserating about the others. You can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

Cardinal Couple YouTube: Link

Spotify: Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case