SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE
***** GAME RESULT*****
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Louisville went on a 13-0 run to end the first half and (4) second half threes by Tia Gibbs helped the Cards maintain the lead to defeat USF 79-59 Sunday afternoon. We'll have much more in the Monday edition of CARDINAL COUPLE
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- Lacrosse pre-season banquet recap
- WBB faces Bulls today
-Volleyball post-season banquet review
Louisville Lacrosse held their pre-season Crease Club banquet Saturday Night in the PNC Plaza @ Papa John's Cardinal Stadium for an appreciative crowd of players, parents and fans of the program.
Seniors Hillary Bushway and Monica Negron were the Misresses of Ceremony for the dinner and greeted the capacity crowd along with assistant coaches Crysti Foote and Vicki Latino. The attendees got to see a Game Day video of the 2014 Lacrosse team and heard commentary from the coaches and seniors. After Amy Poteet's Invocation, a delicious meal was served while Coach Young gave her season preview of the squad.
Before Young spoke, she pulled a surprise on senior Nikki Boltja....showing the crowd her #9 jersey framed to hang in a place of honor in the lacrosse offices. Boltja seemed genuinely touched and very humbled by the honor.
Young had glowing comments for each of the thirty players on the squad and revealed "the word" for the season. Last year, it was "champions" and this year it is "finish".
Finish a drill, finish the day. Finish the job, finish the game.
Another video followed...one with highlights...and then the keynote address speaker Kelly Berger Rabil spoke to the crowd.
A former player under Young at James Madison University and member of the 2013 USA World Cup Championship team, Rabil recalled her beginnings in Lacrosse and the joys and heartaches that were part of her high school and college years. She recalled how Coach Young left before her senior year to take the job at Louisville and her sadness about Kellie leaving.
Rabil suffered from two ACL knee injuries, one in each knee...one year apart as she finished her college career. Many players would have abandoned the game at that point but Rabil persisted and eventually made the US National Team and the World Cup squad. Her dedication and drive are inspiring examples we all could follow in our life-situations.
After a touching poem tribute to their teammates, Bushway and Negron gave way to Foote and Latino...who ended the program.
Louisville Lacrosse. #ONAMISSION (twitter-wise). It's going to be a great year for Young's warriors.
paulie
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The Bulls of South Florida
ride in to the YUM Center today in an effort to knock off the #5 team in the
country, hoping to score a marquee win against a top team. Meanwhile, the Cardinals are defending their
home court, and protecting seeding in the post season.
Just three weeks ago today,
the Cardinals were in sunny Florida taking on the Bulls.
The Cardinals won that
affair, 62-54, but not before the Bulls gave the Cards all they could handle in
a slow start.
In Florida, Jude was not
playing due to the ankle injury. The
Cardinals were led in scoring by Shoni Schimmel (25) and two others were in
double digits for the day, Bria Smith (10) and Sara Hammond (14). The Bulls were led in scoring by Courtney
Williams who blistered the Cards in the first half of play. Inga Orekhova, a long ball threat for the
Bulls, was held to a single point on the day.
Alisia Jenkins was the only other double-digit scorer for the Bulls, who
had all but one player score on the day.
The Cardinals started the
game slow, an all too familiar happening these days. Courtney Williams scored 16 of her 19 points
in the first half. Half-time adjustments
held Williams to just 3 second half points.
The Cardinals had a good game
with scoring 23 points off of 19 turnovers and beat the Bulls on the boards,
also scoring 20 second chance points. In
an unusual Louisville stat, the Cardinals had a lone 2 points off the
bench.
The Bulls are no doubt
looking for redemption and would love to avenge the recent loss on their home
court. The Cards will need to handle
Orekhova again, she is a legitimate 3 point threat who can score in
bunches. Additionally, taming Courtney
Williams on the day will go a long way in securing the Cardinal victory.
As the team heads down the
stretch of the season, each game holds added importance. The Cardinals are currently in a battle when
thinking about post season seeding. We
have been talking about it a lot, lately, and for good reason.
A bad loss, at this point in
the season, could remove any chance of a #1 seeding. As it is, not only will the Cardinals need to
take care of their business, they are going to need help from our future
friends in the ACC.
Current thinking has our team
with a likely 2 seed in the tournament.
With Louisville, Notre Dame and Stanford all as regional hosts, they
will all play on their home court. Notre
Dame and Stanford are projected as 1 seeds, so this leaves two #1 seeds either
going to Louisville or Nebraska (the other host of regionals).
The remaining # 1 seeds are
projected to be Connecticut and Duke.
IF the committee follows it’s typical pattern, placing teams closest to
their home geographically, Connecticut would come to Louisville. It goes without saying, we do not want to see
Connecticut in Louisville for the regionals.
In my opinion Duke is the
most vulnerable of the #1 seeds. Here in
lies the importance of winning out the season, excepting UConn. If Louisville can win all games, except
UConn, and if Duke could take a couple of losses, Louisville could sneak out a
#1 seed. This is an ideal scenario, thus
eliminating facing UConn a potential 4th time on the season (before
the championship game). Duke has a pretty tough remaining schedule,
Notre Dame twice, NC twice, Maryland (who seems to be in a free fall) and NC State
(they are a rising program at the moment).
If we get a #2 seed, I am not
sure the selection committee would place UConn in Louisville. The goal of having teams host regionals
(this is the only year it is going to happen) is to increase fan attendance. Pitting UConn against a team for a potential
4th time is not the way to increase butts in the seat. I project UConn goes to Nebraska. If Duke maintains it’s projected #1 seed, I
think we see Duke in Louisville.
However, this is going against geographic placement, which the committee
historically relies heavily on.
I have digressed a bit
here. However, it all goes to the
importance of winning. Beating USF is
one step closer to controlling our own fate.
Lest you be caught unaware,
after today’s game against USF, the Cardinals only have 4 regular season home
games left. Do you need me to spell it
out for you? That means after today,
there are only 4 games left to see Shoni Schimmel, Tia Gibbs, Antonita
Slaughter and Asia Taylor. 4 games.
It is hard to imagine this
program without Schimmel, Taylor, Gibbs and Slaughter. The clock is ticking my friends. You do not want to miss this dynamic group of
players. Get in your seats. If you are not a season ticket holder, get
downtown and buy yourself a seat in what has to be the greatest value around
for 2 hours of quality entertainment. I expect tickets to be going fast as this
incredible class winds down their collegiate careers.
Tick tock, tick tock.
Jenny o’bryan
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Volleyball also held their banquet Saturday. Being a Fall sport instead of
a Spring sport like
Lacrosse, this banquet was a celebration of the season
completed and of the seniors that are graduating and moving on to new chapters
of their life.
Emceed by the inimitable Sean Moth (Voice of The Cards), the program
featured an opportunity for each senior to address the crowd and share their
thanks to various people who have supported them on their journey.
Several awards were presented, including the Team GPA award, won by setter
Katie George on the strength of her 4.0 GPA in the fall semester, as well as The
Cardinal Award presented to Nicole Alderson who is the Academic Advisor for the
Volleyball. Nicole is credited with supporting the team in achieving over a 3.5
GPA for the Fall semester.
Coach Anne Kordes was the featured speaker and she spoke very highly of the
graduating seniors, along with some comments about some of the other
players...apparently she thinks Maya McClendon needs to eat more. Maya made a
show of eating more chocolate cake in response.
We also heard a bit about what each of the graduating seniors are planning
for next steps in their lives. Carly Sahagian wants to do event planning.
Randi Ewing will be finishing up her Masters in Communication and is currently
interning with WLKY with hopes of landing a Sports Broadcasting position.
Brooke Mattingly will be completing her Masters in Art and is planning on
becoming an Art teacher...as an aside, if you've ever seen any of her artwork,
much of it in sculpture, you know that it is simply amazing. Emily Juhl will be
starting Dental School here at UofL in July. And lastly, Caitlin Welch is doing
some volleyball coaching at the club level and is hoping to coach for a high
school as well...I suspect she is hoping to continue playing volleyball at
higher levels as well and will be keeping my eyes peeled for her name in
connection to US National Team Programs.
While focused on the past season, we also get a glimpse of the future.
Liberos Eleni Georgiafandis and Roxanne McVey were both in attendance having
enrolled in the spring semester.
Janelle Jenkins was unable to attend as she is in Texas with her family
mourning the passing of her grandfather.
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Louisville battled the Bulls closely in the first period...leading by no more than three. A Hines-Allen layup gave the Cards a 7-4 lead with 7:17 to play and her jumper made it 11-8 Louisville at the five minute mark. Her eight first quarter points led Louisville to a 13-12 edge...a quarter where neither team shot especially well...at 33% each.
FREE THROWS. Louisville was 11-18 from the line (61%) and does not receive a letter here. Only five Cards attempted free throws in the contest...Moore 4-5, Hines-Allen 5-6, Walton 0-2, Carter 1-1 and Jackson 1-4. 
Putting them away. When the fourth quarter rolled around the Cards closed the door on a top 25 opponent. They did it with defense and playing smart basketball. Louisville had no turnovers in the final 10 minutes.
The momentum needs to carry over to Thursday night...when Virginia comes to town. Louisville wants...Louisville needs that top four ACC finish in the regular season and a two game road trip faces Walz's bunch next week. Performances in the final four regualr season games like the one turned in against USF would pretty much ensure the Cards would finish 15-1 in conference...and establish Louisville as a reckoning force in the post season.
