No, the title does not imply that the UofL women's sports squads went to Dairy Kastle, Dairy Del or Dairy Queen for a delicious, hot summer day treat. What we are inferring here, in specifics, is that Volleyball gained a three-set sweep over Northern Iowa in Houston and Field Hockey fell 4-2 to Iowa in Evanston, Ill. Let's see how it went down.
CARDS VOLLEYBALL ROLLS ON WITH THE U.N.I .WIN
Louisville Volleyball made short work of UNI in Houston Sunday afternoon with the three set sweep of the Panthers 25-11,25-17, 25-23. Here is the story by set:
SET ONE
Louisville jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the opening set and was still in control at the set break with a 15-6 advantage. The Cards took the last five points in the set and Chloe Meester delivered the killing blow to end it with the Cards ahead 25-11
SET TWO
UNI and Louisville stayed fairly close early in the set, with the Panthers actually leading 3-2. It was a 9-8 U.N.I lead when Louisville finally hitched the horse to the cart and pulled away to a 12-9 advantage. It was 15-10 Cards at the media break and 20-13 after a Blair Thiebaud kill. U.N.I would get no closer than six the rest of the way and Hannah Kenny's ace service set the final at 25-17 UofL.
SET THREE
The squads were tied at 4-4 early and at 8-8. Louisville went on a 3-0 run but U.N.I rallied to go up 17-15. U.N.I.had a 23-21 edge on the Cards but Louisville ran off the next four points to get the 25-23 win on a Brooke Bultema kill.
The Cards return to action on Sept. 16th when they visit W.K.U.
FIELD HOCKEY FALLS TO IOWA 4-2
What's just as tough as having to play#1 in the nation on their home field? Having to play #2 there a day later. That was the scenario for Louisville field Hockey this weekend when Sowry's Cards faced Iowa Sunday after playing M.S.U Saturday .Louisville competed with the Hawkeyes but eventually lost 4-2.
Iowa (6-0) got on the scoreboard first in the eighth minutes of play but Louisville tied it two minutes later on a penalty corner than went from Chloe Plumb to Jaelyn Perez to Annabel Sep. That's how the first quarter ended...at 1-1. Iowa regained the lead early in the second quarter and they went in ahead at halftime 2-1.
The Hawkeyes struck first in the third quarter but the Cards climbed back within one with another penalty corner score when it was Plumb who knocked in her shot on goal. It was 3-2 after three quarters and anyone's contest.
Iowa put the final goal of the contest on the scoreboard early in the fourth quarter and the Cards were unable to counter for the 4-2 loss. Louisville (4-2) plays Boston College next at home on Sept 18th.
"Strength grows when you choose to use it instead of hide it." -- Eleanor Roosevelt
A two and one half hour rain delay yesterday at Trager Stadium for Louisville Field Hockey against Iowa, but, the outcome didn't change any after the extended halftime break -- the Cards falling 2-0 to #2 ranked Iowa on a couple of first half Hawkeye scores.
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(The Cards were NOT playing the ODU Monarchs but this guy showed up anyway)
The loss ended the Cards even-game win streak and was the first time Louisville had been shut out since Boston College blanked the Cards back in March 1-0.
The Hawkeyes put both their scores on the board in the second quarter. Five minutes into action, Leah Zellner sent a rocket to the right corner of the net that Cardinal goalkeeper Mila de Kuijer barely missed getting a glove on. Iowa would add their final score with two minutes until halftime -- Ellie Holley firing a shot on goal that was deflected but put back in by Ciera Smith on a penalty corner.
Then, thunder and lightning entered the Louisville area during the halftime break and action was stopped a minute into third quarter play. The Cards were getting ready to attempt a penalty corner, but lightning was detected in the area. The stands were emptied and the players returned to their locker room .the squads went through a series of 30 minute delays until the storms moved out of the immediate area.
Iowa had a 6 p.m. flight scheduled out of Louisville to go back home. Airline policy dictated that the travel party had to be at the airport by 4 p.m. The game didn't start until 2 p.m., and, as it became obvious this contest wasn't going to end -- or be called -- by 4 p.m., the team decided to skip the airline flight and bus back to Iowa City. The team eventually got back on the turf, but the final two quarters were played with neither team creating much offensive at all and no goals.
In the action, Iowa had an 8-5 shot advantage and 4-2 shot-on-goal edge.
The Cards (7-1) return to the turf Friday, when they travel to #17 Duke.
Our Jared Anderson caught first half action and did hang around for awhile during the lengthy rain delay, but, finally took his sleep-deprived self home. A long weekend for Jared with four games to cover and a photo shoot. We feature his first half pictures here today. .
Hop in the ol' CCRHP time machine with me. We're not going far, and it won't take a second, because it's a time machine, right?
We're just going back to early July of this year, like I said, not far. The fall sports schedules for UofL Athletics were just released. Looking at the volleyball schedule and we see a nine day stretch with matches against Purdue on a neutral court, reigning national champs Kentucky, and Nebraska at Lincoln.
There's no way Louisville comes out of that gauntlet with three wins, right?
OK, back in the time machine back towards the present. Stop! Not quite all of the way back, yet. We're now just 24 hours in the past. Louisville got the wins over Purdue, a sweep in fact. They also had a barnburner, and rather sweaty, 5-set win over Kentucky. The final game of that stretch is imminent. The Cards look good, and have even found themselves the better ranked team than Nebraska. A win looks like a very real possibility, though not a sure thing. Surely it'll take at least four sets to do it, right?
No, it didn't take four sets. The Cards walked into the Devaney Center, with over 8,200 Huskers fans, yet another sell-out crowd, and got down to business. An hour and 45 minutes later, UofL walks out carrying their broom that has gotten so much use this year. Sweeping the Huskers 25-17, 25-20, 25-18.
UofL held Nebraska to just .046 hitting in the match. Much of the credit goes to UofL once again touching the four blocks per set rate that puts the Cards in the upper echelons of blocking teams in the NCAA. Aiko Jones, Amaya Tillman, and Anna Stevenson led that blocking effort. Jones got in on seven, while Tillman shared five plus a monster solo. Stevenson picked up two big solo blocks and shared in another four.
Offensively, Stevenson, Jones, and Anna DeBeer racked up double digit kills, 11, 10, and 10 respectively. Jones' OH .381 is a good performance, but Stevenson's .588 probably did the most to pull the team hitting up to .255.
The first set opened a bit tentatively by both teams, with some back and forth, until they reached a 4-4 tie. The Cards then put together a 4-0 run, the biggest run of the set, up to 8-4. Nebraska's biggest run of the set got them back to within one point at 10-9, but UofL returned the favor to stretch it back to 13-9. The Cards got settled in and put together another couple of 3-0 runs to continue to slowly expand on that lead.
UofL would get the first point, again, in the second set, and again trade a few points with Nebraska early. A mini-run would then get the Card's lead to 6-3, but UNL would battle back to tie the set at 9. The middle of the set would be consumed by lots of back and forth scoring until Nebraska led the set at 17-16. They would never lead at any point in the match by more than one point, however. Louisville would get the next point, however, and then rotate into the Tori Dilfer service rotation. This rotation has proven to be by far the most effective for the Cards. With a front row of Claire Chaussee, Amaya Tillman, and Aiko Jones, all potent weapons, with an escape hatch of Anna DeBeer's high flying, high power, back row attack.
Louisville would use this rotation in this set to go on a five point run, gaining separation out to 21-17. Nebraska wasn't really ready to give up, however, continuing to battle to 22-20 before Aiko Jones decided that she wanted to put an end to it. Two kills by Jones, and a team-up with Stevenson would close out the set for the Cards.
In the third set, Nebraska would battle. It had become clear that Louisville was overall the better team, at least on this night, but the Husker's dug deep and battled. Neither team was able to get more than a two point lead for much of the match. Nebraska held a slim one point margin at 17-16 and then one of those DeBeer back row attacks rotated Tori Dilfer into the service position. Yes, UofL was back to that same rotation. UofL would use it for a 7-0 run, mostly on Nebraska hitting errors and with a big Amaya Tillman solo block. Nebraska would get one last point before the match closed out on Husker hitting errors.
UofL closed out non-conference play in a dominant fashion, with a easily-in-hand win over Purdue, a tougher win over the defending national champs, and a solid win over a perennial powerhouse on their home floor where they enjoy one of the biggest home court advantages of any team in the country. The Cards will move on to conference play, starting with hosting the Florida contingent of the ACC, Miami and Florida State, this coming weekend. Conference matches to keep an eye on are against Georgia Tech and Pitt, ranked 18th and 4th respectively.
Field Hockey Eyes the Hawkeyes
Iowa visits UofL in Field Hockey, with a start time of 2pm at Trager Stadium.
The ACC is generally considered the premier conference in Field Hockey, but this year, the Big 10 is making it known that they haven't given up on the sport. With eight ranked teams, and six of those in the top 10, it's seemingly the Big 10's year in Field Hockey.
Iowa contributes to that Big 10 ranking presence, currently sitting in the 2nd spot in the nation.
Ellie Holley, Lokke Stribos, and Ciara Smith are the goal leaders for Iowa, with six, five, and five. Expect Grace McGuire in the cage for the Hawkeyes. McGuire has only four goals against this season, though all of those came at the hands of ACC teams. Wake Forest was able to get three by her, and UNC got the other. Iowa has blanked everyone else they've played this year.
You can catch this one on the ACC Network linear channel on your TV at 2pm or come out to Trager where Field Hockey admission is always free.
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast
We always want you to tune in to the CCRHP, but we didn't have a Case for it this week.
Case was attending a morning wedding, so wasn't able to join us, but did get Daryl back with us along with Jared, Paulie, and myself.
Of course, we recapped the latest from Field Hockey, Soccer, and a big rivalry win for Volleyball along with previewing upcoming competitions. We also looked at the UofL WBB ACC Schedule.
As always the stream is available below, or via the usual podcast locations
