End of Week, End of Season - Friday Cardinal Couple

Two Sports Seasons End

Field Hockey and Soccer both saw their seasons end yesterday.

Field Hockey was waiting on results from other competitions in the conference to decide their fate, and the results weren't what was desired in Trager Stadium.

Specifically, the results came down to the Stanford vs Cal game.  UofL was in a tie for last place in the conference with the two California teams, and the conference tournament takes eight out of the nine teams in conference to the conference tournament.  The first tie breaker in standings is the results of the head to head game between two teams.  Louisville had beaten Stanford, but lost to Cal, so needed Cal to win this game, leaving the last place tie between Stanford and Louisville, allowing Louisville to advance with the tie breaker.

Alas, Stanford took the win in the game, 3-1, putting them in, at worst, sole possession of 7th place, but more likely in a tie with Wake Forest for 6th place (2-5 Wake plays 5-2 Virginia later today).  Regardless, that leaves Cal and Louisville tied for 8th.  And with Cal having the tie breaker head-to-head, that leaves Louisville out in the cold for the conference tournament.

                                                           (Use my chair...it's OK!)

With an overall record below .500, Louisville is ineligible for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, definitively wrapping the season for the Cards.

On the Soccer side of things, the team played Clemson to a scoreless draw yesterday.  With regular season play in the ACC being wrapped, UofL ends up 12th in the standings, considerably short of the cut to make the ridiculously small six team tournament draw.

The team's overall record of 7-6-5 does, technically, leave them eligible for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, but with an RPI ranking of 62, that's not going to happen.

For what it's worth, the Cards showed some strong defense in the game yesterday, with Erynn Floyd recording six saves in the 90 minutes of play.

The offense did put some pressure on Clemson, particularly Mackenzie Geigle who had two shots on goal in the final minutes of the game, but nothing was able to break through.

Both teams will now start looking towards spring exhibition play, with an eye towards development of players and tactics for next season.

Volleyball Gets an Extra Rest Day

The typical volleyball schedule, particularly during conference play, sees games on Friday and Sunday, but this week has been and continues to be a bit different for the Cards.

This week is the week that the Cards play their ACC "travel partner", Notre Dame.  The league office saw fit to schedule travels partners with "home and home" arrangements this year, and to make those home and home exchanges happen in the same week.  In past years, the home and home involved a random extra Wednesday match somewhere in the middle of the conference season, and then a late season match.

The Cards took the opportunity to rest Charitie Luper during the Wednesday match, giving Payton Peterson her first career start, which she took great advantage of with 9 kills, a service ace, a block and a half, and five digs in LNFCU arena.

So Louisville, instead of playing the normal Friday+Sunday schedule this weekend, gets an extra day of rest after the mid-week match, and will head up to South Bend for the second half of the home and home tomorrow at 3pm.

Basketball Teams

Yes, plural.  While the basketball season doesn't get started until Monday, we do have a couple of tidbits on teams of local interest.

The Cardinals are in Paris France, exploring the city of light.  Social media placed them at the Louvre yesterday, where they were certainly sporting bigger smiles than the Mona Lisa.  They'll have the weekend to explore still, though I'm sure they're getting some practice time is as well before their Monday game against UCLA. And they're dining at the Eifel Tower tonight...something that has to be on most people's "if I only could" list...

Perhaps less cool than a trip to Paris, or maybe moreso, depending on your mindset, I ran across much of the Bellarmine Women's Basketball team yesterday while I was early voting at Immanuel UCC church on Taylorsville Road (just down the road, and shorter lines than at Bowman Field yesterday, also the church that our wonderful photographer Jared attends).  They were there, and also apparently had a contingent at Bowman Field, to assist with the voting location in whatever way they could.  They primarily were arrayed at the stairs from the parking lot down to the level where the voting is setup.  There are accessible ramps, but they do take you a bit out of the way, so the Bellarmine folks were assisting folks that were perhaps a bit uncomfortable with the steps to negotiate them.  Good deeds by a good team that we should be proud to have representing our city along with the Cards.

I was informed by Assistant Coach, and UofL alumnae, Mo Reid that Bellarmine also begins their season on Monday night at 6:30 at Knights Hall on the Bellarmine's campus.  Their opponent will be Indiana University SouthEast, which is also, of course, also a Louisville area team.  I also go the chance to be meet Head Coach Chancellor Dugan, which was a pleasure.

-- 

JMcA

Soccer Hosts Clemson -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Women's Soccer Hosts Clemson

For the first time in nearly a month, Louisville women's soccer returns home to the friendly confines of Dr Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium. They'll welcome Clemson for a 7:00 p.m. kickoff. You can catch this on ACC Network Extra.

Louisville enters the match with a 4-4-2 record. They dropped to 1-3 in the ACC after three straight conference losses on the road to ranked teams.

Clemson brings a 5-4-2 overall record and a 1-3 conference mark to the match. The Tigers took down Notre Dame before falling to Wake Forest, Florida State, and NC State.

Caroline Conti has been the go-to player on offense for Clemson. The senior has tallied four goals and 11 total points. She is tied with teammate Renee Lyles for top on the team with three assists. In goal, Halle Mackiewicz has been strong. She's logged 34 saves with a .694 save percentage.

The Cards have scored just two goals in the last six matches. They scored eight goals in the four matches prior to that. UofL hopes to reignite their offense.

Louisville and Clemson haven't competed against each other often, but the Cards hold a 2-1-1 series advantage.

Louisville will recognize women in sports during the match tomorrow, per their social media accounts.

These eight areas will be honored: 

1. Softball
2. Women's Golf
3. Swimming and Diving
4. Lacrosse
5. Ladybirds
6. Cheer
7. Women SPAD Professors
8. Women SPAD Association members

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

#16 Louisville women's soccer hosts #9 Clemson tonight -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

10-1 CARDS FACE 8-2-1 TIGERS IN LYNN THURSDAY

it's going to be a turf war tonight on Floyd Street between two top 20 women's soccer programs tonight at 5 p.m. Two offenses who have multiple weapons going against two opposing defense that are allowing less that one goal per contest (Clemson 0.53 - Louisville 0.59) this season. 

The Cards have a slight edge in ACC competition over Clemson with a 3-1 ACC mark -- falling only to #3 UNC in Chapel Hill. Clemson sits at 2-2 in the ACC, suffering a 1-0 loss to UNC, in their last match,  and 2-1 to Florida St. UofL fell to UNC in Lynn by a score of 3-0.

NUMBERS AND SUCH

The visitors are led on the offense by Mariana Speckmaier (five goals) and Maliha Morris (four goals).  Clemson alternates between two goalies (Sandy MacIver and Hannah McLaughlin). They have combined for six shutouts on the season. 

Emina Ekic leads the way for the Cards offensively. She has seven goals on the season and has also provided six assists. Delaney Snyder has found the net four times. Goalkeeper Gabby Kouzelos has tended net for six shutouts this year. 

The squads have met twice overall, with Clemson getting a 1-0 win over the Cards in Louisville back in 2016 and the Cards returning the favor with a 2-1 win at Clemson in 2017. 

There seems to be a bit of a conflict on where to watch the contest if you can't make it out to Lynn. Some say Fox Sports, while other sources indicate ESPN+ will have the coverage.

I did a little research and the contest will be available on Insight on Fox Sports Ohio (Channel 55 locally). I guess ESPN+ will carry it, too, for those who have "cut the cord". The surest way to make sure you don't miss the action is to go out and watch the match live at Lynn Stadium. 

The game was originally schedule for 7 p.m. but the contest was moved up to 5 p.m. Ostensibly so that Fox Sports could present an ACC WSOC doubleheader and show Florida St. at Virginia Tech around 7:30 p.m. I have to wonder why it wasn't the 'Noles vs Hokies that drew the early start instead of the Cards...maybe national rankings of all four teams or viewing numbers?

It could mean a late-arriving Cardinal crowd at Lynn tonight, with people coming in after work, picking up the kids and such. And, that sinking sun in the west could play havoc with the goalkeeper and defense who will be staring into it while they defend the east goal...if it's not a cloudy day. 


This is the biggest home test for the Cards at home so far this year.  It will be a battle of Ekic and company seeing if they can break the very strong Clemson defense and put the ball in the net. And, it will be a test, too, for the Clemson squad to see if they can overcome Louisville's strong defenders. A low-scoring, possibly even a tie match wouldn't surprise me one bit. Scoring first will be a huge advantage. Penalty kicks very crucial to tonight's outcome, I'll wager. 


We'll know about all of this around 7 p.m. or so tonight. This is one you don't want to miss...a lot on the line for both teams and the chance for Louisville to take down a top 10 opponent. 

Have a tremendous Thursday !! 


paulie
xxxxx

Louisville women's basketball --- Learning the plays, honing the skills plus Jared Anderson -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

EDITOR NOTE: This is 2 for 1 Cardinal Couple articles today. Paulie starts us out and Jared Anderson follows. 


WBB CARDS PUTTING IN THE WORK

Julie Sullivan with WBB players. Julie will be on the
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Saturday at 11 a.m.

The University of Louisville women's basketball team had their third practice of the week yesterday at the Little YUM! and I was able to stop in and watch the Cards at work. 

I arrived shortly before 1 p.m. and ran into women's basketball assistaant Nick Evans as I got there. After he took care of a little business, he escorted me to the south court and I grabbed a chair to watch the 12 players go through practice. I ran into my buddy Bullitt East head girls coach Chris Stallings there, also attending the practice and later the Cards WBB radio voice Nick Curran stopped by and sat with us for awhile. 

The players were just coming out of a film session and head coach Jeff Walz was able to chat with us briefly before the players started their drills. A lot of fundamental coaching goes on in these early practices and the shrill Jeff Walz whistle punctuated the action several times...Coach stopping play to make a point, create a learning opportunity or just make a remark on what he had just witnessed. There was plenty to see. 

PAIGE (right) and Jenny.(Left) Paige will be on
the CARDINALCOUPLE RADIO HOUR on Saturday also! 

They have a scheduled format that they follow in the practices and we were given a sheet of paper that outlined it. Besides the players, the assistant coaches were present and about ten "practice boys" were on hand also to guard and scrimmage against the girls. After the shooting and warm up drills were completed, the team worked on a three man weave that turned into a 2 on 1 drill going back down the court. This "cone drill" as it's known needs to be run a specific way and Walz stopped it a couple of times to reinforce the correct way to perform it. I saw great hustle by all three of the women playing point guard (Arica Carter, Dana Evans and Jessica Laemmle) in the drill and it was also obvious that Myisha Hines-Allen came to play Thursday afternoon.  

Walz did make a sly, sarcastic but humorous remark to us after one stoppage...saying that none of them have great listening skills and some of them have had the symptom for three or so years. 

After the cone drill they worked on rebounding against the guys and ran a 4 on 3 scramble and triangle to the other end of the court after securing the ball. There were a few turnovers early on in this drill and Walz decreed that for each subsequent miscue the players would have to run a sprint up and down the court. The guards shone again in this drill and Lindsey Duvall and Dana Evans were particularly impressive with their shooting and passing.  I also saw great effort out of Loretta Kakala and Sam Fuehring going to the boards. Kakala has really quick feet. she's a bit slow yet in getting up and down the court, that was obvious in the sprints they had to run after the drill, but that will come. 

Next was the press offense and guard/post splits. Some nice shooting from Jazmine Jones, both driving to the hoop and outside was seen here and Sydney Zambrotta connected on a few long range missiles as well.  With so many different combinations being employed in the drills, it was hard to get a feel for any type of "A" team yet...although the combination of Kylee Shook, Hines-Allen, Asia Durr, Arica Carter and Fuehring looked pretty effective when they were up against the guys. 

The rest of the practice that I saw included situational scenarios. Terms like hook, Spartan, 41, Top, BLOB and Nova probably don't mean much to the casual hoops fans but Louisville went through all these play-sets and Hines-Allen really looked like a force in them. 

Defending ball screens had all the coaches working with the players and showing different scenarios/reactions to on-court action. Once again, it was the three point guards working with the rest of the players in different combos in trying to get the open shot or defend the shooter in the sequences. 

Shortly before 3 p.m. I made my way to the exit, stopping to thank Walz, Nick and Coach Norman for having me out. 

"Anytime you want to stop in... do it."  Coach smiled as I left, so I think I'll be watching some more prep work. Judging players this early on, especially after just watching one practice, is probably a bit unfair and inaccurate, but here's what I saw. I'll go back. With proper advance notification to Nick, of course, that I'm coming. 

Jones, Durr, Fuehring, Carter, Hines-Allen and Duvall would be my top six performers from yesterday's practice. 

- Duvall has a knack for being in the right place at the right time, passes well, is quick on her feet and can nail the mid-range or deeper jumper.

- It looks like Jones has found some control for her out-of-this-world talent from last year, is playing smarter and more effective basketball and is becoming a vocal team leader.

- Fuehring works non-stop hard. She never takes a possession off and has developed a nice putback shot. 

- Carter is very confident out at the point and her shot looks good. She's travelling the court effortlessly and looks to be 100% and ready to go. 

- The court belongs to Myisha. She's the rock in the inside and is helping Kakala a lot with positioning and motivation. She was also taking a few mid-range jumpers, w ith mixed success. 

- Durr is impressive as always. The shot looks good, she has great court awareness and involves her teammates. 

No one really looked awful yesterday. Jess Laemmle fits right in there as a hustling, quick passing point guard.  Bionca Dunham goes to the boards well but wasn't doing a lot of shooting yesterday...concentrating in trying to get her teammates involved. The drills and sequences that I saw them go through involved a lot of game situations. The squad didn't go five-on-five while I was there against each other...maybe that came later...but, just based on a two-hour look -- Louisville looks to be ready for a great season. 


paulie
xxxxx 


JARED ANDERSON

Thank goodness it is Friday. The weekend is nearly here. 

For our footballers it's going to be a long weekend ahead. The Wolkpack of NC State had their teeth sharpened for a Thursday evening game and took a big chunk out of our Cardinals. 

Me and Ms. Wuf had a good defensive game plan and the Louisville defense was with Paulie admiring Ms. Wuf's beauty instead of defending the pass. Louisville's secondary was nowhere to be seen. However, the pride of Charlotte, Jaire Alexander finally saw some snaps for UofL and played mostly solid defense. Cam Newton used to be the pride and joy of the Charlottians (if that's what they go by) until his recent unnecessary comments that set women's sports back decades. 

Seriously, our football team didn't look hot. The defense was a step slow and second late most of the evening. Coach Petrino was too stubborn on offense to let Malik Williams get a fair share of runs and only wanted to see pocket passing. I'll give major credit to the NC State crowd noise and how it affected game play. Time to prepare for homecoming against Boston College. Tear off the rear view mirror and look ahead, players and fans. 

On a lighter note, Allison Whitefield and Brooklyn Rivers led the way in a women's soccer win at Clemson. The 2-1 win was their first conference win of the season. 

Whitfield's score came off a rebounded shot by Mollie Rouse and gave the Card kickers a 1-0 halftime lead. The goal was her fourth of the year. 

After halftime many of the red and black viewers on the ACC Network Extra feed turned their attention to ESPN to see Lamar Jackson and his squad not play so well. Back at historic Riggs Field, Clemson tied things up just five and a half minutes into play. It was one of the few times the UofL defense broke during the match. 

Brooklyn Rivers scored her third goal of the season less than ten minutes following the Clemson goal. She took a nice pass from Whitfield and knocked it into the back of the net. 

Huge props to the Cardinal defense and their effort against the Tigers. They held the home team to just five shots on goal, Gabby Kouzelos getting four saves, She was in rhythm last night and had some big saves, including a huge one late in the game. 

Cards are now 8-5 and go to 2-3 in the ACC. They already have one more win than LAST SEASON. Their performance has definitely improved this year but they still have a long way to go to see any post-season NCAA tournament action.   

One game at a time. 


Jared Anderson