Sunday Cardinal Couple - Fall Sports Kick Off

 Soccer Nets Exhibition Win

A full weekend of soccer for the city of Louisville, with Racing Louisville playing today against NJ/NY Gotham FC, Louisville City picking up yet another win, 2-1, last night over Tulsa FC, and both men's and women's UofL teams in exhibition action, the men on the road against Alabama Birmingham, and the women hosting Ball State in UofL's Lynn Stadium.

That's right, it was Cards vs Cards on Floyd Street for only their second meeting ever and the UofL Cards were looking to even the score, which they did, taking the win, 2-0.

Ravin Alexander and Mikayla Hampton were the scorers, both finding the net about halfway through the 2nd half of play.  Both put their shots in the left side of the goal.

Louisville played very aggressively, pressuring the Ball State offense all the way down the field and giving the Muncie team fits.  Ball State substituted liberally to try to find success, but were stymied.  The aggression paid off.  Louisville attempted 21 shots compared to Ball State's five.  11 of UofL's shots were on goal, and only one was for Ball State.

Credit to Ball State's goalkeepers, who did yeoman's work in the net, chalking up 9 saves between them, but I would bet they would have liked a little more help keeping Louisville out of the box and up at the other end of the field to begin with.

Delaney Snyder was expected to be one of the prime goal scorers for the UofL this year, and she didn't get on the pitch at all.  No word was given for her absence. 

Corinne Dente, another promising Louisville  student-athlete did not "hit the pitch" either, still clearing up a leg injury from last season. Karen Ferguson Dayes started a "youth movement" against BSU, with five freshmen in the starting lineup. And, it seemed to go well. 

The women will officially open their season of non-conference play up with a Thursday evening game against Western Michigan, and if you have listened to, or are planning to listen to the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast, Case almost had it right, the Western Michigan mascot is Buster Bronco.

All in all, it was a great evening out at Lynn, a bit humid, but the temperature was nice.  My niece and nephew joined me, and we all (including my sister-in-law, who got to have a quiet evening at home) had a delightful time. It was a good turnout for the Cardinal Couple crew, we had Jared on the field snapping photos (which you see here) and Paulie and Sonya up in the press box following the action. 

An always good indicator of a game is the time of ball possession for each squad. Louisville dominated here with a 56% to 44% edge.

Another "clean sheet" for Gabby Kouzelos in goal,  No real threats on her, except for a first half attempt that looked like it caught her a bit off-guard, but sailed harmlessly over the top of the net. 

USA U19 Advances to the World Cup Championship

Payton Verhulst came off the bench to have the 2nd most minutes on the court for Team USA in the U19 World Cup in Debrecen Hungary.  The US, after a slow start, gained some separation over host Hungary to eventually cruise to a 75-42 win.

Verhulst finished with four points, including a field goal and a pair of free throws, five rebounds, and two each of assists and blocked shots.  Sonia Citron led all scorers with 17, followed closely by Diamond Johnson and Caitlin Clark both with 14.

The semifinals and finals are, alas, not on the FIBA Youtube channel as they are being carried on ESPN+, the premium add-on to ESPN's streaming service.

In the championship game, the US will have a rematch with Australia who advances in a 62-50 win over a, perhaps, surprisingly good Mali team who got wins over Japan, Canada, South Korea, and Russia before finally falling to Australia.

Hungary and Mali will play today for 3rd place at 11:30am EDT, with the US and Australia tipping of the for the World Cup at 2:30pm EDT.

This has definitely been a great opportunity for Verhulst to play against some of the world's best players in her age group, and the benefits should accrue for the Cards this winter when she hits the court with UofL.  Will she be able to come in and have an immediate impact on the Cards?  Time will tell, but my magic eight ball says that signs point to yes.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

There were only three of us on the CCRHP yesterday, Paulie, Case, and myself, as Jared was at Kentucky Kingdom riding rides at a company event.  Daryl was keeping herself in prime button pushing shape, which paid off in the evening with her at the controls at the game against Ball State back in the ACC Headquarters off Arthur Street on campus. .

As fall sports get ready to get under way, we discussed what's upcoming for Volleyball, Soccer, and Field Hockey, including their appearances at the Fall Sports Media Day.  We also discussed the non-conference schedule for Women's Basketball that was unveiled this week. And, we discussed the successes of USA U19 FIBA during the past week.  Check it out below, or on any of your usual podcast sources.

JMcA

Soccer Opener; FIBA U19 Results; WBB Schedule -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Women's Soccer Opens Season with Exhibition vs Ball State

Despite some confusion throughout the week about the nature of this game, it was never in doubt that Louisville would open the season tonight against Ball State. Earlier this week, during fall sports media day, Coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes emphasized that tonight's match would be an exhibition. That was news, as the game had not been listed as such on Louisville's schedule, nor was it called out as an exhibition in Louisville's schedule press release. However, last week's schedule press release from Ball State did call the game an exhibition, indicating that it has been considered one by the two sides for quite some time. That said, all that really does is give the Cards one less game on their regular season schedule. 

For the time being, it may take some of the pressure off of the team which has quite a few questions to answer. We saw what Louisville women's soccer looked like in the spring without Emina Ekic at the helm and it wasn't the prettiest action on the field. The Cards became a bit of a one trick pony on offense with Ekic, a point we've belabored here at Cardinal Couple, so getting an exhibition game to try and figure out what the team formation looks like now that the freshman players have been added to that roster from the spring should be very helpful before the real season opener next Thursday against Western Michigan. 

These two Cardinal teams last faced off in 2016, a forgettable season for Louisville. UofL went 7-7-4 that season, missing out on both the ACC and NCAA tournaments. Ball State was Louisville's seventh of eight non-conference opponents that year and the matchup came in Louisville's sixth straight home match. Louisville dominated the game with 23 shots (11 on frame) compared to just 4 (2) for Ball State. Unfortunately, the Ball State goalkeeper was up to the task, snagging 11 saves. The game was won with a Ball state golden goal in the 108th minute. We don't need to get into a whole discussion about college soccer tie rules (either tie in regulation or play the full overtimes, please), but that game was one of eight that Louisville played in 2016 that went into extra time. 

No one that played in the game for Louisville in 2016 remains on the roster, so it will be a fresh start for this Louisville team. The Cards will hope to get their feet under them as they look to build on the last few years in which they have seen growing success. Things will be hard without Ekic, as we have discussed, but there is a lot of talent on this team. Tonight's game will be the first opportunity to see whether that talent will be able to come together to continue to propel the Louisville women's soccer program forward. The match in Lynn Stadium will begin at 7:30PM. It is free to the public and attendance at soccer matches this season are free. All visitors are subject to the UofL bag policy, but no COVID-19 policies are readily available for information.

USA Thumps Spain in Quarterfinals 

Payton Verhulst didn't get the start yesterday afternoon against Spain, but she did play the second most minutes of any non-starter for Team USA. The Yanks continued their domination of the event with a 98-64 victory over the Spaniards to advance to the semifinals to face Hungary today at 11:30 AM. 

Spain's 64 points were the most scored against USA so far in the tournament, and 34 points has been Team USA's smallest margin of victory. Their next closest game was a 40-point win over Australia in the second game of the group round. Spain also played USA to their two closest quarters so far in the tournament as USA won the second and fourth quarters of yesterday's game by only three and four points, respectively. After a 30-18 victory in the first quarter, though, Team USA was never in danger of yielding the lead. 

As it was against Taiwan, yesterday's victory was a group effort. Six players scored in double figures, with four of five starters accomplishing the feat. Collectively, the team shot 54.1% from the floor, going 40% from three-point land. Verhulst's 13 points were tied with Diamond Johnson as the most by a non-starter and fourth-most on the team. Payton added in five rebounds, an assist, a block, and a steal. She was 5/7 from the floor and 3/4 from beyond the arc. Against a much tougher opponent than the previous game, this performance may be more impressive than the one she gave earlier in the week. Caitlin Clark led the team with 17 points and she (6/6) and Sonia Citron (7/7) were both perfect from the free throw line.

USA and Hungary have played two common opponents in the tournament, as Taiwan was in Hungary's group and Hungary played their Round of 16 game against Italy from the USA's group. Hungary beat Taiwan 99-42, a dominating win but not quite the 129-45 victory that USA put up. The more interesting comparison is the game against Italy. Hungary snuck past Italy in the opening round of the knockout stage 54-48. Team USA opened the tournament with a 96-37 victory over Italy. We'll keep up with this game during the show, and Jeff will cover the results in tomorrow's article.

Women's Basketball Releases Non-Con Schedule

Though we already knew a few games on Louisville's schedule this season due to press releases, the official non-conference schedule was released in full yesterday. Louisville will play six home games, three road games, and two "neutral" games. The Cards get just one exhibition game this season, as they'll host Union College on November 4th. 

I put neutral in quotes, because the second of Louisville's neutral court games is an effective home game for the opposing team. The first, as we know, is the season opener against Arizona in South Dakota. Hardly any concerns about the crowd going one way or the other there. The second, however, is the Hall of Fame Women's Showcase. This game will be a rescheduling of the matchup against UCONN that was scuttled last year due to COVID-19. The game will be played in Uncasville, Connecticut, a mere 45-minute drive from Storrs. That game will round out what is likely to be a tough week for the Cards, as they'll play three games in eight days. Louisville hosts Kentucky on the 12th of December and EKU on the 16th in the Jimmy V Classic before heading to Connecticut for the Clash of the Titans on December 19th. That will be Louisville's final non-conference game on the schedule.

Prior to the Kentucky matchup, Louisville will play six previously unannounced games, along with the ACC-Big Ten Challenge game against Michigan. The season opener will come against Bellarmine on November 16th, meaning we are just outside of three months from the beginning of the college basketball season. The Cards get a short turnaround before hosting a second mid-week game against UT-Martin on November 18th. 

There's no rest for the weary, though, as Louisville will jump straight on a plane for a swing out west. The Cards head to Washington to take on the Huskies on November 20th before going down the coast to Cal Poly on November 23rd. The team will presumably come back to Louisville for Thanksgiving before heading to Fort Collins to play Colorado State on November 28th. 

The first week of December sees Michigan on the 2nd and Belmont on the 5th before the aforementioned tough week against Kentucky, EKU, and Connecticut. Louisville's non-conference schedule includes five NCAA tournament teams and four teams that won at least 20 games last season. In a season where some teams barely played 20 games, that achievement is even more impressive. The Cards could easily face five ranked teams in the non-conference schedule and will have plenty of challenges before getting into ACC play.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

The show is a bit thinner today with Jared and Daryl out for various reasons, but we should have plenty to discuss given all of the news that has come our way this week. We'll cover fall sports media day, the basketball schedule release and look a the season opener for women's soccer. Join us as we bring you the joy and excitement of UofL women's athletics on this week's Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. As always, 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

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Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Teeter and FIBA - Friday Cardinal Couple

Daryl is back to peak button pushing form with her time being split between the Louisville Bats and UofL gearing up for fall play.  So we're using some help side defense here in the Cardinal Couple writing team. Jeff's in the net today, push for a penalty corner opportunity.

Scott Teeter and Canada Lacrosse

Scott Teeter was apparently craving some Tim Hortons and needed an excuse to head back north.

He has been named the head coach of the Canadian Women's National Lacrosse Team.  Of course Teeter has a long history of coaching with the national program of our neighbors to the north, with this just being the latest installment.

The Canadian National team will compete next year in the 2022 World Lacrosse Women's World Championship in late June to early July.  The Championships will be held at Towson University in Maryland.

The team will also compete in the 2022 World Games in a 6v6 version of Lacrosse that features a smaller field, shorter quarters, and shorter shot clock.  We've drawn comparisons between Lacrosse and Basketball in the past, so this would be somewhat equivalent to the 3x3 form of Basketball that many of us have enjoyed recently, with faster pace of play in a condensed space.

The World Games will be in Birmingham Alabama in mid-July.

For warm-ups for these events, the Teeter will lead the teams in Fall Classic and Sixes team events in mid-October.  These events will also be in Towson, MD.

Of course, after making a crack about Tim Hortons, neither Towson, MD, nor Birmingham, AL have any significant availability to the franchise.

FIBA U19 Update

The FIBA U19 World Cup had the day off yesterday, but will back in action today with Payton Verhulst.  The event is in the knockout stage of play at this point with the US team easily dispatching Chinese Taipei, as they're being referred to in this event, also known as Taiwan, on Wednesday with the US tying their own scoring record with 129 on the scoreboard.

Today's opponent is Spain.  The Spanish took easy wins in group play over South Korea and Brazil before narrowly defeating France 65-61.  They eliminated Japan in the first round of knockout play, 71-64.

JMcA

Verhulst, and a Trio of Olympic Wins - Sunday Cardinal Couple

FIBA U19 World Cup Update

Payton Verhulst and the US U19 Women's Basketball team played their first game in Debrecen Hungary yesterday afternoon, and absolutely pasted Italy, 96-37.

With a lopsided score like that, you would expect playing time to be spread liberally around the team, and that certainly was the case, here.  Verhulst started the game, and played the most time of anyone on the roster, but tallied less than 23 minutes on the court.

Everyone on the US roster got on the court, and everyone put the rock in the hole at least once.  Five players were in double figures.

Payton scored six, made up of a pair of field goals and a pair of free throws.  Add in five rebounds and an assist, and it was a decent outing for the incoming freshman.

The US is in group play with Egypt, Australia, and obviously Italy.  As much as the US put it to Italy yesterday, Australia, perennially a strong contender in women's basketball, beat down Egypt even worse, more than tripling them up, 99-28.

Today's games match up US against the Aussies at 2pm EDT, while Italy and Egypt will be looking for their first win against each other.  All of the FIBA U19 World Cup games are available on Youtube on the FIBA Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/FIBA.

A Trio of Olympic Women's Golds

As the Olympics wind down, the Cardinal Couple Crew have mostly enjoyed watching and cheering.  Daryl and Jared are the real Olympics enthusiasts, but all of us have paid attention and followed various sports the pique our own individual interests.

Three women's teams reached the pinnacle yesterday or early this morning.

Basketball

Post play was the deciding factor as Brittany Griner, A'ja Wilson, and Breanna Stewart combined for 63 of the US's 90 points in the game, while holding the Japanese hosts to 75.

At the risk of reinforcing stereotypes, the tallest player on Japan's Olympic roster is 6'1" (Maki Takada, and Himawari Akaho), so they struggled with Stewie's 6'4", Wilson's 6'5", and Griner's 6'9" stature.  Wilson got five blocks, and three for Stewart and Griner.  Meanwhile, Breanna pulled down a whopping 14 rebounds.  Credit goes to Diana Taurasi for eight assists, with Stewart and Wilson taking advantage of the defense collapsing on them with five assists each.

Volleyball

The USA Women's Volleyball team swept a traditionally very good Brazilian team 25-21, 25-20, 25-14 to win the gold.  This is the first gold for USA Volleyball in the Olympics, though the program had won three silver and two bronze medals.

First serve in the match was at 12:30am EDT, and I didn't stay up to watch it, so I'm hoping to catch a replay of it today, perhaps.  Box scores also seem to be unobtainable.

Water Polo

A sport that rarely makes the Cardinal Couple pages, but the USA Water Polo team also won gold in a solid win over Spain in Water Polo.  Introduced on the women's side for the 2000 Olympics, the USA Water Polo squad has never failed to medal, including golds in 2016, and 2012.

Ashleigh Johnson gets much of the credit in this one.  The first African American women on a USA Women's Water Polo squad, she blocked 73% of Spain's shots on goal, compared to 19% blocked by the main Spanish goal-keeper.

The US offense kept up a relentless attack, at the other end of the pool, leading the team to a 14-5 victory to continue to the US dynasty in women's water polo.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

A full house on the CCRHP this week, and a full agenda. We covered basketball, field hockey, the excitement of having actual events on the schedule for the week, the Kaplan NCAA gender equity report, and more.

It was a great show and is available both on Youtube and your favorite podcast service.

JMcA