Splish Splash -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Arena Deal Drama

Well now, the KFC Yum! Center arena deal negotiations certainly got a lot more dramatic in the past day, didn't they?

In case you missed all of the...let's say "entertainment", even though it wasn't all that pleasant to watch...yesterday, three different organizations met yesterday to put their stamp of approval on UofL's new lease for playing at the KFC Yum! Center downtown.  The deed was done, but not without some conflict.

The University of Louisville Athletic Association met first, in the morning, and while there were some pointed questions, most notably about Tom Jurich's opinion on the deal (answer: a seemingly unenthusiastic acceptance), the measure passed easily.  In the afternoon, concurrently, the University of Louisville Board of Trustee's and the Louisville Arena Authority Board met.  Both approved the deal, the Arena Authority in a rather perfunctory manner, while the UofL Board of Trustees meeting was contentious.

I don't think there's a great need to go into the details of how the meeting went down as Insider Louisville, Business First,  the CJ, and others have detailed and fair recaps of the events as they happened from reporters that were in attendance and taking copious notes.  The results from the Board of Trustees vote?  Of the 13 members, 4 abstained, 2 didn't vote, and 7 voted yes.

So, UofL will pay the Arena Authority 2.4 million more dollars than they were previously; and will give up their rights to their October dates at the Arena, although they will still work with the Arena to schedule the Men's Basketball Red and Black scrimmage in October.  UofL did gain the ability to add a surcharge to ticket prices, to help offset the hit of the extra payment, so ultimately, it's going to be the fans that pay for this.

Swimming in Budapest

The Cardinals contingent has arrived in Budapest for the World Championships.  While the overall
aquatics championships have been going on for about a week, the swimming events don't start until Sunday morning (about 3:30am Eastern time, if I remember my timezone conversion for Budapest correctly).  Swimming and Diving Head Coach Arthur Albiero is on the coaching staff for Team USA in Budapest.  Two UofL swimmers are in the competition, graduate Kelsi Worrell, and rising Junior Mallory Comerford.

Look for results as these two compete throughout next week.

Faye Brust Joins Lacrosse Coaching Staff

UofL Lacrosse offensive standout Faye Brust has returned to Louisville to join the UofL coaching staff under head coach Kellie Young.

Brust was an offensive powerhouse during her four years at UofL with her name appearing in another of different places in the record book.  Until this past year, she held the record for most free position goals, she is 2nd in goals, and 3rd in points, in the season record books.  She had 143 career goals, in a career cut short by an ACL tear midway through her senior campaign.

With that resume, just from her time playing at UofL, it's unsurprising that she will be joining the Cardinals staff as Offensive Coordinator.  Prior to return to Louisville, Brust was Offensive Coordinator at Furman University, and has experience in club coaching as well.

Brust is, as are many standout Lacrosse players, from Maryland, with her hometown being Bel Air.  (We hope she got a chance to say "hi" to the Fresh Prince during his stint there...wait, what?  Wrong Bel Air?  Well, there goes that joke.)

Welcome back to the Ville, Faye!

-- JMcA

OK for Kay! Morissette named to All-American Squad -- Tuesday Cardinal Couple

Lacrosse All-American Honors

Kaylin Morissette has become only the second Cardinal to be named to the IWLCA All-American team first team.  She was preceeded in this honor last year by Nicki Boltja.  Boltja was on the sidelines for the Cardinals this year serving as a volunteer assistant coach after earning the honor in her senior year.

Morissette earned second team honors last year, while Faye Brust and Monica Negron were selected for the third team.

Faye Brust was named to the All-West Region as was mentioned last week here on Cardinal Couple.  No doubt Brust's campaign for All-American status this year was hampered by her late season knee injury causing her to miss several games leading into post-season play.  Also named to the second team All-West Region were Cortnee Daley and Hannah Koloski.

Brust is a graduating senior, but Kaylin Morissette has the opportunity to create Cardinal history by potentially being the first two-time All-American First Team member if she accomplishes the feat again next year.  Cortnee Daley also has another shot at the honor as she also has another year of eligibility.  Hannah Koloski is merely a sophomore this year.

Baseball

Things have just about wrapped up for women's sports here in the Spring, but you could certainly do worse than to give some attention to UofL Baseball, right now.  Dan McDonnell's squad set a record for winning 25 games in conference in their first year in the ACC.  The UofL squad also received a host of All-Conference honors including ACC Coach of the Year.

The team goes into the ACC conference...well, we'll call it a tournament, anyway...as the top seed and favorite to win.  The ACC Baseball tournament format is curious, there are two play-in games for seeds seven through ten, then the top 6 seeds, plus the play-in winners play in two pools with seeds 1, 4, 5, and 8/9 in one pool, and 2, 3, 6, and 7/10 in the other pool.  The pool winners then play a game for the championship.

Charlie Springer, over at UofL Card Game can always be counted on for good UofL Baseball coverage.

JMcA

Jayhawks next...Lacrosse players honored -- Tuesday Cardinal Couple

Let's Look at Kansas Softball

As Paulie mentioned yesterday, UofL Softball surprised a number of us by getting a bid to the NCAA.  Probably more shocking is that the ACC got 7 teams in the tournament, with Notre Dame...only one game ahead of us in conference play, four games overall...getting the 16th seed and a Regional hosting opportunity. 

Truly, I still don't get it.

But let's take a look at our opponent for Friday.  The Kansas Jayhawks.  Normally I would say their win over Arkansas would count as a signature win, but the Razorbacks seem to have fallen on hard times, compared to their past powerhouse years, having not even received an at-large bid to the tournament. 

The Kansas non-conference slate was rather underwhelming with a highlight in at-the-time-ranked-number-one Florida that resulted in a 1-7 loss.  The Big-12 does have some good softball teams.  A win over Oklahoma, the 11 seed in the tournament carries some weight, though they did lose the other two games in the series to the Sooners. 

Unfortunately for the Jayhawks, that's about the only good win I see on their schedule.  A series sweep at the hands of a decent Texas team is not anything to be really ashamed of.  Despite Texas Tech not making the tournament, they have traditionally been a good team, so a couple of losses there probably doesn't sting too badly either.  And as Paulie mentioned yesterday, coming into the tournament off a series sweep of Iowa State certainly doesn't hurt in the momentum department.

As far as teams that both the Cardinals and Jayhawks have both faced, we don't get a lot of separation here either.

Kansas swatted Georgia Tech in their non-conference meeting, and we swept the series.  Illinois State got two attempts at both of us with remarkably similar scores.  Both of us took down the other redbirds with a 10-2 run-rule in 5 innings, but The Jayhawks came out on top 4-2 in the other meeting, where we came out on the wrong side of our 4-3 meeting, though it did take 8 innings for that result. 

We both picked up wins over the aforementioned Arkansas Razorbacks, the Jayhawks squeaked a 4-3 win, while we hung an 11-5 win on them.  UMKC dropped games against each of us, 5-2 vs Kansas, and 3-2 against us.

The NCAA Softball tournament basically consists for double-elimination tournaments at each Regional location, the winner advancing to a best of three series with an opponent at a Super-Regional (which, if you think of it is a double-elimination for a 2 team tournament), with the winners of that going on to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City.

The WCWS is structured essentially as two parallel double-elimination tournaments, but with some of the losses kicking the teams across to the other bracket.  The winners that emerge from the two brackets then play a best of three series for the championship.  It's an unusual overall tournament format, but I've grown to really enjoy it over the past few years.

Louisville starts play on Friday, the 15th at 5pm (EDT).

Lacrosse Honors

Four Louisville Lacrosse players were named to the All-West Region teams, which makes them eligible for All-American honors that will be announced on Monday the 18th.

Kaylin Morissette, was an All-American last year, and looks to be headed that way again in her Junior year with this first team selection.

Faye Brust, perhaps partly due to missing five games with a knee injury, was named to the second team, which makes it a bit more of a challenge for her to repeat as an All-American.

Co-Captain Cortnee Daley also earned the second team nod, and sophomore Hannah Koloski join Brust on the second team.

JMcA

Lacrosse falls in NCAA Tournament to Northwestern 10-7 -- Saturday Cardinal Couple

BRUST'S RETURN NOT ENOUGH...WILDCATS WIN OVER LOUISVILLE

Faye Brust's return to action after a knee injury on April 4th certainly buoyed the LAX Cards spirits...the 2 1/2 hour rain delay probably dampened them a bit...but the outcome was about what we've come to expect against Northwestern in Lacrosse...




A close game but eventually a loss to the Evanston, IL. member of the BIG 10.

The 10-7 win by the Wildcats knocked Louisville out of the NCAA Tournament. A game that wasn't to Kellie Young's liking:

"This is not how we wanted our tournament run to go. I am proud of our defense, we held their top two scorers scoreless. We ran a new defense and our kids applied it and performed well in the first half. You can't win a game if you can't get the draw. We need to want a national championship, that is our next step." 

The draw control battle was won by the Wildcats 12-7. Kaylin Morissette getting five of the Louisville mid-field possessions. 

The Cards had success early in finding Cortnee Daley for scores...she had the Cards first two goals...and Faye Brust scored her first goal in over a month to give Louisville a 3-1 lead halfway through the first half. So far, so good...

Northwestern rallied to tie it at 3-3. Hannah Koloski put the Cards briefly back on top (the final time Louisville would hold the lead) at 4-3 with eight minutes left in the first half but Northwestern found the net 90 seconds later and the contest went into the intermission at 4-4.

A 2 1/2 hour rain delay, thunder and lightning in the Evanston area, gave Northwestern plenty of time to dissect and analyze the Cardinal defense and it paid dividends for the home team...scoring twice in the first seven minutes of play. 

Morissette had two of the Cards three scores in the final half...cutting the Wildcat lead to 7-6 with 15:12 to play...but the Northwestern defense clamped down and held the Cards to just one score the rest of the way....Morissette cutting the lead to 9-7 with four minutes left in the contest on an unassisted goal. 



Tough way to end the season. 

Northwestern is now 4-0 lifetime against Louisville. If Kellie Young is getting the "Jeff Walz can't beat the Wildcats" complex in regards to facing these Big 10 Wildcats...one can't really blame her. 

The scores have been close, the Cards have led in the contests and...if this all sounds a bit familiar...it's a mirror to WBB's most recent series against those other Wildcats that prowl Lexington.   

Young's quest for the future is admirable and fits well within the desire of all Cardinal fans...to get to and win championships. It will be particularly hard, though...when you're in the best lacrosse conference in NCAA DI and other perennial powerhouses like Maryland are recruiting the same area you are. 

The Louisville Lacrosse facilities are adequate...visiting teams would probably like a locker room instead of a tent and a permanent press box instead of a state fair concession booth would be nice. It might get a little more live game media coverage for the squad besides CARDINAL COUPLE and The Cardinal Student newspaper. 

Neither of these things are overly important in the recruitment of players, of course, but given the state of the art soccer, field hockey and softball facilities Louisville now has to offer...you have to wonder when it'll be Lacrosse's turn for an upgrade. 

To be the best you have to beat the best...and get the best...so that will be job #1 for Young, her staff and returning and upcoming players next season.

That, and finding a way to beat Northwestern.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>  

FREQUENCY MODULATION RETURNTH

We're back on the air again this morning after taking last week off for the Kentucky Derby. It'll be a full studio with Worldwide, Sam the Intern, Monk, Punkin and Paulie.

We've got exclusive interviews with Sam Purcell and Samantha Williams plus other audio from Sandy Pearsall, Maryssa Becker and Kelsi Jones. We'll be discussing hoops, softball and lacrosse. There might even be a WorldWide quiz in the hour as well.

Join us at 11 a.m. EDT on 100.9 FM WCHQ or on the internet at www.crescenthillradio.com. Link below: 

THANK GOD THERE'S NO VIDEO FEED...

It's radio that is totally unrehearsed, poorly planned and

miserably carried out. And that's just Worldwide's contributions...that's the beauty of it. Gather the chimps by the entertainment center and break out the banana pudding...CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO is on the air! 

paulie
xxxxx

Tuesday Cardinal Couple - Lacrosse Edition

Lacrosse gets an NCAA bid

The NCAA tournament brackets for Lacrosse were unveiled Sunday night, and UofL received an at-large bid.  The Cards will face some familiar foes in the 1st and potentially 2nd rounds.  The tournament starts for the Lax team with 8 seed Northwestern.  This is a rematch with the team that eliminated them from the tournament last year, in an 11-8 contest.  The Cards also played Northwestern this year up in Evanston, IL and lost in a close contest, 12-10.

Last year's loss came less than 36 hours on the heels of a gutty double-overtime win over Ohio State.  This year, if the Cards can get by Northwestern, they will potentially face...Ohio State.  Louisville and OSU haven't played this year, but last year did provide adequate evidence of how closely matched these two teams were.  In addition to the aforementioned double-OT loss in the tournament, these teams tangled in the regular season with OSU coming out victorious despite a late game comeback by the Red and Black.

The other potential 2nd round opponent is Notre Dame. Again, as is seemingly the case in many sports, the Louisville and Notre Dame Lax teams have a tendency to play some very close games.  The meeting between the two teams two years ago resulted in a double-overtime loss for the Cards.  Last year, in non-conference play, Notre Dame erased a first half Cardinal lead to take the game 12-9. This year, reunited in conference play, Louisville takes the win 10-8 in South Bend.

Should the Cards win in the 2nd round, perennial juggernaut Maryland will likely await.  After a 1st round bye, they will face either Jacksonville or UMass.  UMass is "also receiving votes" in the rankings, and Jacksonville got into the tournament on an automatic bid from winning the Atlantic Sun conference.  Neither is likely to present much of a threat to Maryland.

Seven of the eight women's lacrosse playing ACC schools got bids to the NCAA tournament.  Of the other seeded teams, only one isn't an ACC team (Stoney Brook as the 6 seed in the region with 3 seed Duke).  In current rankings, UNC, Syracuse, BC, and Duke are in spots 2-5, Virginia is 8th, Notre dame is 12th and Louisville is 18th with only Virginia Tech being absent from the rankings and tournament from the ACC.

The question that seems to be floating in the air is how Louisville will do without Faye Brust.  To my knowledge, there hasn't been any new information from the Louisville Lax program concerning Brust's return.  The initial report after the North Carolina game where she injured her knee was that they were going to let the swelling subside for a couple of weeks and evaluate whether she would be able to play.  With a diagnosis of a torn ACL, I think her chances of a return are slim at best.  Last year GK Ashley Herbst played in a few late season games with a torn ACL, but as GK, much less mobility and pressure is needed on the knee, and even with a more stationary position, she clearly wasn't able to play at 100%.  An attacker, such as Brust, will need much more stability, and strength from her knee to play than a goalkeeper would.

So, with 5 games post-Faye, let's look at a few stats.  Brust tore her ACL very early in the game against UNC, and while she played briefly in the 2nd half of the game, she wasn't a factor, so I'm starting the post-Faye period with the UNC game.  First off, our overall record was much better with Faye than without. 9-3 vs 1-4. 

Though, to be fair, the conference schedule...and the ACC is an absolutely brutal Lacrosse conference as we've talked about before numerous times...is heavily weighted towards the late season, so much of that record disparity can be chalked up to conference vs non-conference scheduling.

So who steps up to replace Brust's scoring?  The Real Joe Hill suggested in a comment yesterday that it would be Hannah Koloski.  Unfortunately, it looks like her scoring production hasn't changed all that much since the North Carolina game.  She was scoring at 3.25 points per game (ppg) before UNC, and 2.2 ppg for UNC and later.  That's roughly consistent with her ppg numbers for wins and for loses overall 3.5 for wins, 2.15 for loses.  Looking at wins and loses before and after the UNC game results in similar numbers as well. 3.5 in wins before UNC, 2.3 in loses before UNC; 3 in wins since UNC, and 2 ppg in loses since UNC.  So, basically, when Hannah does well, Louisville does well, but it doesn't appear that Brust being out of the lineup has had any affect on her play, though we have to keep in mind that the sample sizes here for all of these stats is pretty small.

Another player I thought might make an impact without Brust on the field is Anna Kopecka, a redshirt senior from Prague.  The stats for her play are a little trickier since she didn't play in the first 7 games.  What the numbers do show in general is improvement over the year.  Counting only games in which she played, the Czech scored .4 ppg before the UNC game, and 1.2 ppg since.  It also looks like Louisville does worse when Kopecka scores more, though with her play improving in the later part of the season when the team was taking more of the loses, let's not put too much stock in that.  She has .6 ppg in wins, and 1 ppg in loses.  Before the UNC game the numbers look a little better, with 1 ppg in wins, and 0 ppg in loses.  After Brust's departure, however, the numbers flip again, with 1 point in the win over Notre Dame, and 1.25 ppg in the other four games which were losses.  Again, we're talking very small sample sizes, here.

What appears to be the best barometer for Louisville wins that I could find is the production from Kaylin Morissette. Besides her draw control prowess, which is a big advantage for Louisville, Kaylin can, at times, score in bunches.  In the season, before the UNC game, Morissette was scoring at a 3.1 ppg clip, dropping to only 1 once the UNC game started. 

In Louisville wins, Morissette had 3.1 ppg, with only 1.6 in loses.  What may be at play here is that without Brust in the game, opponents are able to key on Morissette more as the difference in wins and loses with Brust playing was considerably smaller than after her injury. Morissette had 3.2 ppg in wins before the UNC game, and 2.7 ppg after.  In the other five games, Kay had 2 ppg in the win, and only .75 ppg in the four loses.

So looking at the numbers, it looks like Kaylin is the key to Louisville winning.  I haven't done an exhaustive analysis of all of the players, and I was only looking at scoring, not other factors such as assists, ground balls, or turnovers.

Regardless of what the numbers show, action will get underway Friday, at 4:30pm in Evanston, IL on Northwestern's home field.

-- 

JMcA

Lacrosse starts ACC Tournament play today...Walz to coach on U19 team -- Thursday Cardinal Couple

( In the Thursday edition of CARDINAL COUPLE, we look at Lacrosse heading to the ACC Tournament and Walz headed to Russia. An international flair mixed with free position shots for you as we move toward the weekend!) 


LAX FACES DUKE IN ACC TOURNAMENT


No one said the first year in the ACC for Louisville Lacrosse would be an easy affair...and the Cards ended up right where the preseason prognostications put them, in seventh place...as they move from conference schedule to conference tournament today.

Charlottesville, VA is the home of the University of Virginia and it is where Louisville will look to survive and advance in the ACC Tournament against #2 seed Duke today at 4 p.m.

The two did hook up in conference play at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium on March 14th. The Cards led early in this one and took it to the wire before falling to the Blue Devils 10-8.

Faye Brust, Kaylin Morissettte, Hannah Koloski and Cortnee Daley had two goals each in the loss. Two Duke goals in the final 1:20...including one with a second left...were the difference. We also had a great post-game interview with the Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel, who started the program in 1996, after the game. The recap with Coach Young was...well...a bit subdued and very short. 


The Cards finished regular season play 10-6 and are currently ranked 11th in the nation. Without Faye Brust (knee injury) the attack has suffered but Louisville did knock off #10 Notre Dame to end the season. The Blue Devils ended the regular season with a loss to top-ranked North Carolina in Durham, NC. Louisville could use a win here, or at least a very close game to bolster their hopes to play in the NCAA Tournament this year.

Kaylin Morissette was the sole Card to be selected to the All-ACC Lacrosse team and was a first team selection. 

It'll be on ESPN 3 if you want to play along at home...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WALZ RETURN AS USA BASKETBALL COACH

The headline may be a bit misleading...Jeff Walz never left the USA to coach anywhere else.

 (imagine Walz coaching the Chinese National team)

What we're trying to say is that the mad scientist will hook up again this summer with Dawn Staley head coaching and Kim Barnes Arico keeping those two in check as they select and take a team to Chekhov, Russia for the USA U-19 World Championships.

The trio won the FIBA Americas U18 title in Colorado Springs last summer. One would surmise that those girls (including Louisville's Mariya Moore) might have the inside track to make the U19 squad...but approximately 30 girls will be involved in the tryouts. You have to be born on or after Jan. 1, 1996 to be considered...CARDINAL COUPLE'S Sonja just missing the cutoff date...

Tryouts are May 14-17, in Colorado Springs at the US Olympic Training Facility and action begins on July 18th against Spain. 

16 nations will quest for the title...a title won by the USA the last five consecutive times. 

Oo-da-chee! (Which is 'good luck' in Russian)

paulie  

Sunday Quick Hits, Scores, and Splits - Sunday Cardinal Couple

(Sorry for the late update this morning, Paulie and I had a bit of a miscommunication and both of us have travels going on the next couple of days.  In the meantime, let's all wish Paulie a joyous Happy Birthday in the comments!)

Quick Splits for Swim and Dive

Someone needs to check Tanja Kylliainen for gills, as she won three golds in the ACC Swimming Championship, setting three ACC records in the process, as well as pulling in the MVP award for the meet.  While she hasn't quite hit the mark yet, some of her records are putting her into overall American record setting territory.  Tanja isn't out there alone, however, teammate Kelsi Worrell picked up an individual ACC championship with a record setting pace in the 100 free.  She also picked up the win in the 100 fly, and claimed a silver in the 50 free.

Other finishers of note in the meet include Andrea Cottrell with a bronze in the 200 breaststroke, and the team took a bronze in the 400 free relay.

Lacrosse Chills Canisius

The scoring came fast and furious for the Cardinal Lacrosse team as they tried to stay warm in the sloppy cold weather on Floyd Street.

Cortnee Daley and Faye Brust both found the back of the net four times in the victory over the New Yorkers, who, by reports, insisted on playing the game on the outdoors Lacrosse field rather than taking it indoors to the warmer and drier confines of the Trager practice facility by Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium.  I wonder if they thought the cold, rainy, sleety weather would be an advantage to the northerners, but the tricks on them as Cortnee Daley hails from not much further south in Pennsylvania, and, of course, our draw control expert, Kaylin Morissette, comes to use from Canada and merely laughs at New York's cold weather resume.

Suffice it to say that this game was never in too much doubt.  While its still early in the season and there are plenty of lessons to be learned to improve the Cardinals' play, they jumped on the board in the first half, scoring three times before Canisius was able to get one between the pipes.  The Cards and and The Golden Griffins would trade a couple of goals apiece to go into halftime 5-3.

The second half was all Cards, though.  While shutting out The Griffs...I wonder if they stopped in at Griff's on Cardinal Boulevard for dinner after the game...in the second half by turning up the defensive intensity, the net got a workout as ten shots managed to find their way between the pipes before the final buzzer sounded and the teams were able to go dry off and warm up with a final score of 15-3.

Sophomore Ashley Peacock stopped four shots in goal, while the GK for The Griffs, Rebecca VanLaeken got in front of six to help keep the score from getting even more out of hand.

Lacrosse takes their first road trip, heading out to Colorado to take on Denver in a 3pm Saturday game.

Team USA Volleyball Tryouts

A quick hit, actually, probably a lot of quick hits in Colorado Springs this weekend as the US National Volleyball program holds their annual tryouts for the various US Collegiate teams that will play this summer.

The Cards have seven, a veritable invasion of the Rocky Mountain State, taking part in tryouts.  Libero Roxanne McVey; our pair of starting middles, Tess Clark and Maggie DeJong; both setters, Katie George...because she doesn't already have enough to do this summer...and Lyndsey Palmer; outside hitter and transfer from USF, Erin Fairs; as well as the play-her-everywhere-but-mostly-outside-hitter, Janelle Jenkins; are all taking part.

We here at the Cardinal Couple wish them all the best and look forward to hearing of summer travels to come.

- JMcA

Louisville Softball and Lacrosse announce fall schedules -- Thursday Cardinal Couple

Softball hosts seven games in fall

If you can't wait for the thrill and excitement of University of Louisville softball this spring...you don't have to! Sandy Pearsall has released the fall schedule for the Bat Cards an the next three weekends will feature action at Ulmer Stadium. 

Saturday, September 20
12:00pm - Louisville vs. Bellarmine
2:30pm - Louisville vs. Eastern Kentucky
4:30pm - Bellarmine vs. Eastern Kentucky
Sunday, September 21
11:00 am - Bellarmine vs. Wallace State
1:30pm - Louisville vs. Wallace State
4:00 pm - Louisville vs. Bellarmine
September 26
7:00pm - Louisville vs. Alumnae
October 4
12:00pm - Louisville vs. Campbellsville
2:30pm - Louisville vs. Campbellsville 



Softball at UofL is free and the newly renovated Ulmer

Stadium doesn't have a bad seat in it. The Cards return six

starters and 13 letter-winners from the 2014 AAC 

Championship team.



All AAC Kayla Soles and Whitney Arion are back...plus All-

NCAA Central Region pitcher Maryssa Becker. Hard-hitting 

Kelsi Jones and Brittany Duncan return for their senior 

seasons also. The Cards continue with the youth movement

having eight freshmen or new players on campus...so it'll be

your first chance to look at the future of the Cards as they

prepare for their first ACC season this spring.


Batter up! 




*                      *                   *                  *


FALL LACROSSE FEATURES





Kellie Young and the 

Louisville Lacrosse team are

taking a different approach

to their fall season...hitting

the road for

their first four matches

before returning to cozy Louisville 

Lacrosse Stadium.


2014 Fall Schedule
Sept. 27...at Boston University...Boston, Mass.
Sept. 28...at Harvard Tournament...Cambridge, Mass.
Oct. 5...at John Hopkins...Baltimore, Md.
Oct. 11...at James Madison...Harrisonburg, Va.
Oct. 17...Team Banquet...Louisville, Ky.
Oct. 18...Alumnae Game...Louisville, Ky.
Oct. 25...vs. Marquette and vs. Detroit Mercy...Louisville, Ky.


LAX Louisville returns some of our favorites and past 

Cardinal Couple Radio guests in Faye (Fabian) Brust, Kaylin 

Morissette, Steph McNamara, Cortnee Daley and Kayla 

Sleece. They'll help 12 freshmen get acclimated to the 

Louisville Lacrosse Program. 


The Cards went 16-4 last season and won the BIG EAST 

regular season and tournament titles. They also advanced 

to the second round of the NCAA Tournament before falling

to Northwestern.


Time to break out " Joker and the Thief"...Lacrosse is 

back, baby ! 


JOKER AND THE THIEF - WOLFMOTHER


*                       *                     *                   *

Finally today, we bring you further on Fuehring. This from the
Observer's website CARD GAME. Thanks to Charlie Springer for the permission. You can access Charlie every day at:

CARD GAME

Fuehring had great feeling about Louisville before making the trip

Charlie Springer • September 17, 2014 • 0 Comments

Samantha Fuehring says knew before she got to the University of Louisville on her official visit that UofL was where she wanted to play her college basketball.

“Before visiting, I always had a gut feeling. And I just woke up one day and said I need to go here,” Fuehring told NJ.com. “And just visiting there made everything much better. I felt like I fit in. The coaching staff was great, the girls were funny, and everything was just amazing there.”

Samantha Fuehring

Fuehring, a 6-foot-3 forward, averaged 20.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per game for a Lodi, N.J. Immaculate Conception team that went 22-6 last season. She is ranked 26th by ProspectNations.com and she picked UofL over California, Dayton, Rutgers, Seton Hall, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Tri-State Media.com describes Fuehring as “an edgy, hard-nosed forward with perimeter skills and a college-ready body. Sam prefers to bang inside than score outside but does both with a high level of efficiency. She plays with intensity and is a fierce competitor.”

U of L’s 2015 class, which is ranked No. 2 nationally by All-Star Girls Report behind only UConn, also includes No. 2 Asia Durr (guard), No. 15 Taja Cole (guard), No. 27 Erin DeGrate (center) and No. 33 Brianna Jones (guard).

paulie 

Tuesday Cardinal Couple -- Rowing title and another year of the Cards?

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

First, Some Results

The UofL Rowing team competed over the weekend in the AAC conference championship in Rowing.  I'm not sure how to put this other than to say that Louisville dominated the competition.

The Rowing competition consisted of time trials followed by the Grand Final in three different levels of 8+ person and 4+ person competitions.  In all 12 outings, the first boat across the finish line was Cardinal Red.  I went and watched the highlight video on the AAC website, and most of the finishes weren't competitive for first place.  By and large, the excitement was between Rutgers, UConn, and UCF for second, third and fourth places.

Unsurprisingly, given the above, there were four rowers - Darya Marchanka, Morgan Dunham, Hannah Ritter, and Jami Montesano - that earned placement on the AAC first team, along with three - Lucy Wilshier, Andrea Zorn, and Elise Valantine - on the second team.  The Coaching Staff of the Year award also went to Louisville, and how could it not, given that performance.

Another "Year Of The Cardinals"?

Hard to believe that last year about this time, all of the talk was about "The Year Of The Cardinals",
and everyone (yours truly included) was falling all over themselves recounting the various successes of UofL Athletics in 2012-2013.

No one could argue that 2013-2014 has been as successful as 2012-2013, but honestly, no one could have realistically expected it to be, either.

To be sure, however, 2013-2014 has been a good year, and its not yet over.  The Rowing team, as mentioned above, has just absolutely obliterated the competition in the conference and earned a berth in the NCAA championships in Indianapolis May 30th-June 1st.  We'll be continuing to follow the Rowing team as they finish out their competition for the year.

I'd like to take some of my columns over the next several weeks and look back on the successes achieved by some of the women's athletics teams at UofL.

Let's start with...

Lacrosse

The UofL Lacrosse squad achieved unprecedented success this year.  I'm almost obsessive about pointing out that the Lacrosse program at UofL is only seven years old, because its a lesser known sport and with the successes they achieved this year, a casual UofL fan could be excused for not realizing that it hasn't been around longer.

Preseason, our Lacrosse team was picked to finish third in The Big East, behind Georgetown and UConn.  In the preseason poll, no one voted for UofL to finish in first place (coaches aren't allowed to vote for their own school).  UofL had three selections for the preseason All Big-East Team, in Monica Negron, Kaylin Morissette, and Nikki Boltja...three names that I've learned well enough that I don't have to double-check their spelling anymore.  The three selections were overshadowed by the six selections from Georgetown and four from Rutgers.  Without a doubt, in the preseason, Georgetown was considered the cream of the crop of Big East Lacrosse.

The season opened with a loss, though to be sure a loss to Duke is nothing to be embarrassed about.  They followed that up with an overwhelming victory over Detroit, but we beat them pretty badly last year as well.  Next a close win over Old Dominion, who we substantially beat last year and all of a sudden some doubts about how well this season is going to go start to creep in.

A win over William and Mary, and then a good win over Denver that we lost to in a similar margin last year and things are starting to look up a little.  Next a heart-wrenching loss to a very good Ohio State team 11-12 which was an 12-11 victory for the Cards last year, followed up with a loss to another good team in Notre Dame, but one that we had taken to sudden-death double overtime the previous year.  At this point, a 4-3 record doesn't look terribly exciting, but one can take heart that the schedule to this point has involved playing a number of very good Lacrosse teams, so let's not give up hope.

A chance to start the winning ways with Canisius which was a solid win last year, but alas the
weather didn't cooperate and the game was cancelled.  The last non-conference game was against Vanderbilt, and a good win in overtime in Nashville is encouraging leading into the conference slate.

And the encouragement was needed as the conference slates starts off with the big one.  Playing Georgetown, on their home field in Washington D.C....and an upset, but very close, win.  Next on the road trip is Cincinnati...maybe in a few years they'll be ready to join the adults Lacrosse table, but right now they're not there.  I think they were tying together the shoelaces of some of the Louisville players to try and make it competitive, but it didn't work.

Finally finishing off the road trip with a weekend visit to Philadelphia to play both Temple and Villanova in one weekend.  A victory over Temple probably isn't terribly surprising, but such a solid win over Villanova perked up some ears.

Finally, returning home, and starting to think that maybe this team can win out the season.  UConn and Rutgers come to town one weekend and Marquette the next and all get cut down by what's now a rolling juggernaut of a UofL squad.  In doing so, laying claim to the Big East regular season championship.

Off to the conference tournament, again on Georgetown's home field in Washington D.C.  Knocking off first Rutgers and then homestanding Georgetown to capture yet another, and last for UofL, Big East Conference Championship.  History is made in the process, by ensuring UofL a bid for their first ever NCAA tournament in Lacrosse.

The tournament starts with a matchup against mighty Ohio State.  In six previous meetings with the Buckeyes, Louisville has only won one, last year, and it was a victory by only one point.  Also remember the meeting previously this year was also a one point victory, but that one for OSU.  Another fearsome battle ensued, your Cardinal Couple correspondents were glued to GameTracker and one of us to Twitter...a surely frustrating way to keep up with the progress of a game, but better than nothing.  Coming away with another sudden-death double-overtime win to advance to the second round of the tournament.

Mighty Northwestern awaits to put an end to an amazing year for the Cardinals Lacrosse team.  Like the opening game of the season, a loss to Northwestern is nothing to hang your head about.  Scoring eight points against one of the best teams in the country has to be encouraging to a program still in its early years.  Northwestern will be playing this weekend in the Lacrosse final four, having pulled off a minor upset, by one point, over another very good Florida squad.  Northwestern will be the only squad in the Final Four that isn't from The ACC, with Maryland, Virginia and Syracuse filling out the four teams.

Speaking of The ACC...UofL will be back playing Lacrosse next year, but this time in The ACC.  Going into the NCAA tournament with an impressive 16th place ranking in the country, UofL was still behind seven of the eight women's lacrosse playing teams in The ACC.  New challenges for sure await, but also new opportunities to learn, improve, and build this program to greater heights.

The UofL Lacrosse team picked "Finish" as their word for this year.  The team finished the year in grand style, and while it ended in a loss, its important to remember that its very difficult to finish playing with a win.

 This team has outperformed anything that was expected of them, and will be back and hopefully taking it to yet another level next year.

We're proud of you, Louisville Lacrosse.  We can't wait to see you take on the competition in The ACC next year.

-JMCA
.