LSU is the National WBB Champ -- Softball cancelled because of weather in Syracuse -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

LSU downs Iowa 102-85 in Championship game

The LSU Tigers are the NCAA DI women's basketball national champs. 

A team that wasn't even considered the best in their own conference (SEC) and came into the tournament as a #3 seed in the Indiana regional (Greenville 2) has grabbed the crown with an incredible offensive explosion from three-point range, including Jasmine Bennett's five for five marksmanship. The Tigers were 11 for 14 from the deep and Iowa shot even better "make-wise'  hitting 14 of their three-point attempts. 

This was no defensive struggle Sunday afternoon and very few predicted there would be. . 

LSU put five players in double figures, with the NCAA M.O.P. Angel Reese netting 15, LaDazhia Williams 20, Alexis Morris totaled 21 points and Bennett led the squad with 22. It was the most points ever scored by a winning squad in the history of the tournament, LSU's first-ever national title and Kim Mulkey's fourth as a DI coach. 

It was also a game that was not even adequately officiated and supposedly had the best DI WBB crew out on the court. Mulkey grabbed at an official and swung wildly in the air at her and no foul was rendered, but Caitlin Clark rolled a basketball back in the direction to where it would have been in-bounded and was "t'd" up. Angel Reese mocked Clark and the Iowa bench by indicating she was going to put on a championship ring and no foul was called, but the refs had Iowa's best players saddled with four fouls when no one on LSU's squad had more than three. 

LINK: 

Mulkey "no tech" and Clark "tech" side-by-side

Ye who scores the most points wins, though and that was LSU. That 17 point halftime lead just proved to be too much for Iowa to overcome.

Honestly, it was a game I didn't have a "dog" in and hoped it might just be a fun, offensive-oriented battle and I got my wish. 

The good news for Iowa is that they get Clark for another season. The bad news is that they're still in the Big 10 and will to battle each night in conference play while losing four key players who played together for three years. 

It might well be remembered as the game where the officiating stank. The NCAA could care less about that, though...ratings for college women's basketball and viewers climb each year and that means more money in the NCAA checking account. 

Bluder "not-commenting" on officiating: 

Bluder postgame

I guess I'll remember Clark's big run for several games and the way Iowa put away the Cards when I think back about this particular NCAA Tournament. Also, how no #1 seed made it to the final game. The ACC had three of the Elite Eight teams and only Virginia Tech made it to the Final Four. 

I do hope this two regional sites instead of four is an idea that gets dropped. Louisville in Seattle was just ridiculous, except that it was near to Hailey Van Lith's home, but how many other Cardinals' fans made that trip up there?Starting the tournament in Ausin instead of the KFC YUM! Center was tough enough for the Cards' fan base.

Another season ended. I hope the time between now and the Cards first WBB game or exhibition this fall goes quickly, and. I'm glad we're a website that covers ALL the UofL women's sports. 

Stay with us for the news, won't you? 

SOFTBALL VS SYRACUSE CANCELLED

The ground temperature never got above 30 degrees in Syracuse Sunday, so the scheduled game between the Cards and the Orange was cancelled. I've never played on an infield that was below 30 degrees, so I can't tell you what differences it makes on ground balls and traction and such -- but it obviously does something. 

paulie

Cards Survive Close Calls -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Takes Closer than Expected Sweep

With just a match against Georgia Tech remaining as the only thing Louisville could do to impress the selection committee for the NCAA Tournament, a comfortable win would have been nice. The Cards have seen their probability of making the tournament go down in recent weeks as their hot start cooled off aggressively in the later portion of the season. As Jeff and I mentioned on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour last week, a win would do nothing for Louisville's chances of making the tournament; a loss would surely sink them. Louisville settled for something in the middle. Yes, they earned the sweep, avoiding a terrible dropped set against a lowly Yellow Jackets squad, but the Cards also needed a comeback and extra points to win a set and kept the other two sets closer than desired.

It was senior night for the Cards, and if it was their last match in the red and black, the four seniors honored last night will be sorely missed going forward. Honored last night were former setter of the year, Wilma Rivera, the always faithful libero, Molly Sauer, and two huge pieces of the offense in Amanda Green and Jasmine Bennett. Rivera was the latest addition to the group, beginning her impact as a transfer last season, but the other three have become names that even people marginally paying attention to Louisville Volleyball would certainly recognize. All four have made the Cardinal Faithful extremely proud and it would be wonderful to see them get the opportunity to continue their careers at UofL for a couple of more weeks. 

Looking at the stats of the match, it doesn't really seem as though this match should have been as close as it ultimately was (25-18, 28-26, 25-21). Melanie McHenry dominated the floor to the tune of 20 kills. The Cards hit .264 to GT's .211, had 10 aces to GT's 2, and outblocked the Jackets 7-4. Despite these, the overall kills were very close as were the errors, assists, and digs. Louisville did a lot of things pretty well; Georgia Tech just seemed to match them when it mattered. 

The Cards jumped out of the gate to a 5-1 lead and then stretched that to 17-10 in the first set before ultimately winning by 7. It was the opposite in the second, as the Cards quickly found themselves in the hole 4-0 and then all the way at 11-4. The Cards kept in close, but trailed for the entire second. They soon found themselves down 24-20, and it looked like they would drop a set to a bottom third team in the league. However, Molly Sauer and Melanie McHenry took over as McHenry staved off set point with a kill on 4 of the next 5 points led by Sauer serving on the final four. The Cards turned a 24-20 deficit in to a 25-24 lead and did what was necessary to win the match in the next five points. 

The third set was the closest from start to finish, as the teams stayed within three points of each other for the first 30 points in the set. After a tie at 15, Louisville decided they didn't like that status quo any longer, so they rattled off 5 straight to take a strong lead at 20-15 on an Akela Yuhl serving run. Georgia Tech struggled back and were able to make it 22-20 before Louisville took 3 of the next 4 points and the match. 

Despite being only a junior, Melanie McHenry wanted to be sure Senior Night was a victory for the Cards. Her 20 kills was double the next highest player in the match and she did so with only two errors in the match for a hitting percentage of .462. McHenry chipped in 4 digs and a block assist. She didn't attempt any serves but had no receiving errors on 16 attempts. The seniors were not flashy last night, but they did their jobs as expected and greatly contributed to the Cards' win. Rivera had 36 of the team's 40 assists on 44 overall kills. She didn't convert any of her dumps and struggled from the serving line, but she added 2 block assists and 11 digs to round out her night. Bennett and Green combined for 15 kills and 5 block assists with Green adding 10 digs. Sauer was as reliable as always and finished with 17 digs, 5 service aces, and an assist.

Louisville will find out their fate tomorrow, as the selection show airs live on ESPNU starting at 8:30 PM. The Cards made the tournament last year before being bounced early, and I'm sure they'd like an opportunity to prove that they could make some noise. Louisville played some very good teams close this season, but what may ultimately doom their tournament hopes is that they were not able to convert any of those quality losses into marquee wins. In the interview below, Coach states that the team was confident that they would see their name tomorrow with a win last night, so we'll see. If it's the end of the road for Dani Busboom Kelly's 2018 squad, it was a fun ride. If it's not, we could see something interesting before it's all over.

Postgame with Coach DBK

WBB Needs Fourth Quarter Comeback to Down ASU

In a break from their season normal thus far, the third quarter really let the Cards down against Arizona State as a 6 point quarter loss had them trailing by 4 going into the final stanza. The matchup against No. 19 Arizona State was the Cards first true test of a season in which they still haven't gotten to see themselves on Denny Crum Court. A fourth straight victory in a fourth straight game away from home is nice, regardless of how it ultimately came about, especially against a ranked team. As I like to talk about with every team, it is good to see a squad be able to win games in numerous ways. Blowing out every team on the schedule would be fun, but we've seen how that can sometimes bite UCONN when it comes to playing a quality opponent. Likewise, you don't want to play every game close, because the ball won't always bounce your way. I shouldn't have to say why you wouldn't want to play from behind in every fourth quarter, but it is good to see the team win a game in which they trailed like this.

Last night's game was an instant classic, as the score was tied 6 times and the lead changed hands another 6. The largest lead that either team had came when the Sun Devils stretched their four point third quarter lead out to six with just 18 seconds gone in the fourth quarter. Louisville was not a fan of that and would tie the game up again at 45 just three minutes later. The game came down to a flurry of a sequence with thirty seconds remaining. Up by four, Same Fuehring went to the line to shoot two free throws. She hit one of two to put the Cards up five with 26 seconds remaining. Louisville then went on to do the one thing you're definitely not supposed to do in that situation on defense and Jazmine Jones, already back playing with bone bruise in her hip, fouled a three point shooter. Kianna Ibis went to the line and calmly sunk all three to cut the deficit to two with 17 seconds left. Fuehring was fouled as soon as the ball was inbounded, this time hitting both free throws to bring the lead back to four with just 16 seconds left. Again, rather than play solid defense and give up a layup if necessary, Louisville fouled. Again, ASU sunk their free throws to make it a two point game, this time with 12 seconds left.

After deciding that doing what you aren't supposed to do on defense wasn't enough, the Cards showed they could mix it up and do the wrong thing on offense as well. Arica Carter mishandled the inbound pass and had the ball stolen away. Durr quickly fouled to show Arizona State they would have to earn the late game tie. Sophia Elenga was happy to oblige, and we were all knotted up at 56 with 11 seconds remaining. Arizona State, playing to preserve the tie and go to overtime, didn't foul. Looking back, they may wish they had. Instead, Louisville was able to work the ball inside to Sam Fuehring, who converted a layup with 3 seconds remaining to set the final score. Arica Carter stole the inbounds pass to atone for her previous mistake and the game was over. Louisville survived to move to 4-0.

As is typical, as Asia Durr goes, Louisville goes. Last night, Durr struggled to score (which is funny to say when she put up 14 points), as she shot only 5-18 from the floor and got to the line only once, where she went 2-2. Fortunately, the rest of the team pulled up the slack, as Fuehring led all scorers in the game with 18 points and Dana Evans chipped in double digit points as well. This was not the fast-paced, offensive affair we have grown accustomed to seeing with Louisville, but the Cards were able to grind it out when it mattered. 

 The CASE Report

It's been awhile, so let's get a refresher on the CASE Report. Each stat category has two goals that we want to see the Cards accomplish, and they're granted a half a point for each goal achieved. Each stat has it's own little primer, so let's just get right into it.

C-Care: In this category, we're looking at how well Louisville took care of the ball compared to their opponent and how well we could expect them to based on the opponent. We talk a lot about the raw turnover number. Obviously, you'd like to see it fairly low, but it comes down to how you perform in each game. Yesterday, Louisville turned the ball over 10 times, compared to ASU's 13. That's a half a point. Arizona State is not a strong turnover forcing team, averaging only 13.75 per game (that's tied for 309th in the country). We'd like Louisville to commit less than 60% of the opponent's average, and 10 is 72.7% of 13.75. Cards finish with a lowercase 'c'.

A-Assists: The assists category kind of speaks for itself, but again, we aren't looking at raw numbers. We want to know how many assists Louisville had on their made baskets, and how well they performed in the Assist-to-Turnover Ratio, which is a good indicator of their passing. We want a 50% assist share and a 2.0 ATO Ratio. The Cards had 15 assists on 24 made baskets, which is good for 62.5%, but they only had a 1.5 ATO. Half point again; lowercase 'a'.

S-Steals: Steals are a raw number stat. We want to know if Louisville was aggressive on the ball and if they outperformed the opponent. The goal is 7.5 per game. The Cards finished with 7. So did the Sun Devils. No benchmark reached and no outperforming of the opponent. No letter.

E-Efficiency: Paulie's FRED Report looks at just free throw efficiency. The CASE Report takes free throw efficiency into account, but we also want to see Louisville taking and making good shots from the floor. We're looking for at least 45% FGs and 75% FTs. Louisville shot 24-59 from the floor for only 40.7% and were greatly held back by only 3-11 from behind the arc. The Cards did just sneak ahead of 75% going 7-9 from the stripe (let's please get to the line more). Lowercase 'e'.

Ultimately, the Cards finish with c-a-_-e. A good game ends with the Cards earning at least 2.5 of the available 4 points, a mark they missed here. To struggle from a statistical standpoint overall (Louisville also lost the rebounding battle and were heavily outrebounded on the offensive end) and still win the game is promising. Louisville will not look so out of sorts normally, and they will surely try to avoid allowing their opponent to go 11-11 from the free throw line in the second half.

The Cards have a quick turnaround as they take on Hartford today at 3PM. The game is still in Las Vegas and the Cards will finally get to return home on Monday. This one is available to be streamed online by following this link or can be listened to on the radio as normal.

The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

With a late football game, our resident banker having a day off, Jeff not being a cartographer and me making the drive back to town last night instead of this morning, we'll have a full house in the studio today for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. Unlike last week when Jeff and I brought you mostly opinion and general chatter, this week you'll get plenty of post game analysis and breakdowns. We'll talk all your favorite sports and bring you the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics. Tune in to WCHQ at 100.9 FM, wchqfm.com, the WCHQ App, or on Facebook Live at 11AM to join us.

Donation Month

As always, November is donation month for Cardinal Couple. Your donations allow us to continue bringing the coverage that we do here. Please do not feel obligated to donate to access the site, but if you enjoy coming to the site and interacting with us, know that any and all donations are extremely appreciated. Take a look at the top right of the site for more information on donation options.

As we go into the last week of Donation Month,
we would appreciate any support you feel is warranted.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Volleyball photos provided by Jared Anderson.

Volleyball Back on Track; A New ACC Champion Approaches; WBB Luncheon -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

It's been awhile! After a couple of weeks off for wedding festivities, I'm back in the Cardinal Couple saddle and ready to bring the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics to these pages. Unfortunately, my reintroduction to the studio will have to wait a week as the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour this week has been cancelled due to scheduling conflicts, but I'll be back on Mellwood soon enough. The bachelor party and wedding week were tons of fun, and now it's on to the real adult things like house hunting. Thanks to everyone for the well-wishes! Now, let's get into the real reason we're here!

Volleyball Takes Down Boston College 3-1

In a bit of a hangover from the loss against Pitt last week, Louisville's win over Boston College in Cardinal Arena last night was a very sloppy one. Louisville erred 6 times in the first game and finished the match with 22, yet still managed to hit a reasonable .284 in the match. The Cards dropped that first game 18-25, and it looked like there may be trouble afoot against the Eagles. BC came into the match at 13-9 (3-7), so a loss would have been quite the surprise. Fortunately, Louisville found their footing and swept the next three games to take the match pretty handily at 3-1.

Despite the talent gap, Louisville did not truly dominate BC in the match. The Eagles blocked well, tallying seven, and the Cards' largest win was 25-17 in game 3. BC was close at 25-20 and 25-23 in the remaining two games. If it was a matter of loss hangover, hopefully the Cards have put that behind them with this win and can carry a bit more confidence into their next game against Syracuse. If it was more than that, Louisville may be in some trouble. 

Statistically, Louisville didn't play a terrible match. Every hitter with at least ten attempts hit at least .214 despite the 22 errors. The Cards did have more service errors than service aces (5-4), but it wasn't like a couple of games ago when they couldn't serve the ball without giving up a point. The Cards chipped in 14 block assists to go with their one solo block for a total of 8. Jasmine Bennett and Marijke Van Dyke jumped off of the page the most to me with 8 kills (.571) and 10 kills (.444) respectively. Amanda Green led the team with 16 kills but chipped in 6 of the 22 errors which tarnishes it a bit. Melanie McHenry played her typical game (which is crazy to say that this is typical), adding in 13 kills. McHenry was also honored for recording 1000 kills in her career. She is only a junior.

The Cards will look to put this win behind them, but may need to take a lesson two from it as their next match is against the Orange of Syracuse tomorrow at 1PM in Cardinal Arena. The Orange are 12-7 (8-3) on the season but are coming off of a tough 3-0 loss to a struggling Notre Dame team. In that loss, Syracuse tallied 15 blocks. If blocks were part of Louisville's struggles against Boston College, that issue is not going to be relieved against Syracuse. Here's hoping that Coach Dani Busboom Kelly can prepare the team effectively for high pressure at the net, and that the Cards can have an accurate swinging game to find their way around the blocks while staying in bounds.

Dorcas Wasike Becomes ACC Champion

While the Louisville women's cross country team struggled on the whole in the ACC Championship race yesterday (placing 14th out of 15 overall), there was one bright spot for the Cards in the event. And it was very bright. Dorcas Wasike claimed the women's championship trophy with a first place finish, coasting to the finish line after six kilometers a full 8 seconds ahead of second place. It was redemption for Wasike, who last year finished the race in second place. This victory was something she eyed all season, and she was determined to hold off those that she called very good runners in the final stretch. Wasike should qualify for the Southeast Regional meet with this victory, which will take place at Winthrop on November 9th. As Louisville will not be advancing to the NCAA championships as a team, Wasike can still make the NCAA championships as an individual. She'll have to finish in the top 25 of the regional meet and be one of the top 4 runners that has not already qualified with their team. Barring this method, she could still be selected as one of the two at large runners, but it would be best to get in the easy way. Best of luck to Dorcas as she continues her pursuit of a national championship to add to her trophy case.

Women's Basketball Tip-Off Luncheon

This was supposed to be the time when Paulie wrapped up the article with his takeaways from yesterday's tip-off luncheon. Unfortunately, I woke up a bit later than expected, pushing my timing for finishing the article back, and Paulie was unable to add in his thoughts before having to leave to tailgate for today's football game. See? Noon games aren't just frustrating because they're early. They have actual consequences. Anyway, I'm not even going to pretend that I have insight as to what went on yesterday other than what I saw on Twitter. Paulie, on the other hand, has plenty to say. You'll have to wait until Monday's article to hear about it, but with women's soccer and volleyball tomorrow, Monday is sure to be a column that you don't want to miss!!

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Additional pictures from last night's volleyball match below. As always, be sure to check out Jared's site for great photos of UofL athletic events.

Volleyball Wins ACC Opener; Field Hockey Stumbles on Road -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Takes Down NC State in Raleigh

Last season, the only match I managed to make it to for volleyball was when NC State came to town. It was a huge ACC matchup in Cardinal Arena late in the season. Last night's match against the Wolfpack was not quite as high profile as 2017's version, but it was still an important match, acting as both teams' ACC opener. It was made even more important for Louisville because of their less than stellar performance last weekend and their uninspiring performances on the road thus far this season. 

The Cards put both of those demons behind them for the time being as they beat NC State 3-1 in a fairly close match. Louisville won 25-19, 28-26, 20-25, and 25-18. Barring the slip-up in the third, Louisville very nearly took down the Pack in straight sets, which would have been an even bigger confidence boost. Unfortunately, you don't have to look very far to locate the source of the third set struggle, as the Cards hit only .087 in the third. Overall, it was a much better match than last week, as Louisville finished with a .227 over four sets. It's not a world beating hitting percentage, but it was serviceable, and will win you matches if your opponent hits only .160.

A big improvement over last weekend came for Melanie McHenry, who was very much not herself against the Cats and Mocs. Kentucky had her locked down while she was just missing spots badly against Chattanooga. McHenry finished with 8 errors, still, but also killed 17 points and contributed to 4 total blocks. McHenry has shown that she can be the offensive leader of the team and Coach Dani Busboom Kelly has shown that she wants McHenry to do so. Now we just need to see a bit more consistency from the sophomore for her to become a feared hitter across the land. 

McHenry was joined in double digit kills by Amanda Green (13), Jasmine Bennett (12), and Megan Sloan (10). Wilma Rivera was very much in system, assisting on 53 of 60 kills and being forced into only 8 digs. Molly Sauer was stalwart on defense, picking up 26 digs and adding 4 assists. Nobody on the team was particularly useful on the serve, as the Cards finished with 11 service errors and only 3 aces. Serving has been a strength of this team early in the season, so we'll consider last night an exception rather than the rule. 

After a big win to begin the conference season, Louisville will stay in the Tarheel State for their next match, taking on North Carolina tomorrow at 1PM. The Cards started off the ACC last season with a huge winning streak. Let's see if they can duplicate such success this season. They're off to the right kind of start.

Corners Doom Field Hockey at Wake Forest

The Cards dropped their second ACC game of the season yesterday in Winston Salem as a 7-2 penalty corner disadvantage led to a 4-2 loss at the hands Wake Forest. It was Wake's (1-1) first ACC win of the season and the Demon Deacons were unranked going into the game. Louisville is sure to fall from their number 7 position after the loss but there is a long season remaining. The Cards will look to get back on track tomorrow against Appalachian State before returning to ACC play against Virginia next Saturday.

To open the scoring, it was Bethany Russ capitalizing on a penalty corner rebound. It was the first of two Louisville scores and the first of two times they would take the lead. The second came in the second half when Whena Munn broke the 1-1 tie off of a goal during the run of play. Louisville played well in the open field, and defended the run of play solidly. Unfortunately, Wake earned corner after corner, finishing with 7 corners that led to 15 shots (9 on goal). Ayeisha McFerran picked up 5 saves but all four goals for the Deacs came as a result of a penalty corner conversion. Louisville finished the game with only 4 shots, both on goal shots finding the back of the cage.

Penalty corner conversion, both offensive and defensive, is often an indicator of game results. Louisville completed 50% of their chances. Wake completed only 57%. However, the difference also comes in volume. 1/2 is usually going to fall to 4/7. Without having watched the game, I can't speak to exactly what was happening for the Cards to be hit so hard and give up so many corners, but I know that if you're giving up so many attempts on goal, you're usually going to have a bad time, even with the best goalie in the world. 

There isn't much else to say on this one. Coach Sowry will surely have the team poring over film on the off-day as they seek to determine what went wrong. The Cards have had some good wins, but again, their inability to create consistent offense (still no more than 2 goals in a single game) has come back to bite them. I don't know what the answer is, but I'm sure that everyone related to the team is trying their best to figure it out as well.

Wrap-Up Thoughts on WSoc vs Notre Dame

After nearly turning my iPhone into a brick while attempting to update yesterday, I was waiting patiently for my computer to update so I could finish fixing everything. While not being able to do anything, I decided to check in on Cardinal Couple and saw someone request my thoughts on Thursday's game in the comments. I had a nice big comment written up when my computer decided that it didn't need to ask me if I wanted to restart to finish the updates; it just went for it. Anyway, let's get into what I saw Thursday night against the Irish.

Straight out of the gate, Louisville did not look fully prepared to play. The Cards were sluggish and almost refused to run to the ball. Numerous times, players were jogging while within striking distance of a Notre Dame pass. There was simply no urgency from Louisville. In addition to the lackadaisical ball hunting, the Cardinals were also getting out-physicaled left and right by the Irish. I could probably count on one hand the number of fifty-fifty balls Louisville came away with in the first half. If not for some spectacular defensive play by the back line and a save by Gabby Kouzelos, Louisville could have been in major trouble in the first half. For most of that time, I considered it only a matter of time before the Irish broke through. They looked like the better team for much of the night.

During the second half, Notre Dame's pressure intensified. They put five shots on goal in the second half, forcing Kouzelos into four second half saves. The potential first goal of the game was saved off of the line by a Louisville defender after bouncing dangerously past Kouzelos. Still, Louisville lacked hustle and creativity. Every ball won by the defense was slammed forward with no intent. The area talent scouts seated behind me had the same thoughts saying, "They've got no ideas." It was true. I was busy mentally lamenting Louisville's passing rate (it was extremely low) when the sequence that led to the first goal began. Louisville was able to make crisp passes into space, avoid defenders, and get forward dangerously before Brooklynn Rivers headed home what was ultimately the winner. It was a similar sequence later in the game when Maisie Whitsett regained the team points lead with her goal. 

Louisville is a better team when they pass well. They have some straight line speed, but they were not physical enough against Notre Dame to commit to the long ball style of play. I would much prefer to see them continue to create thoughtful attacking chances rather than just hitting the ball upfield and hoping for the best. Additionally, the time for slowly growing into a game has passed. Poor starts like the one Thursday night will haunt against better finishing teams or on a night that the defense is not up to their very best as they were Thursday. I'm not sure what was going on, but let's hope it was isolated. 

I won't be able to make it to Sunday's game against the Orange, but this season's results show that Syracuse is not the threat that Notre Dame was. That said, Louisville cannot come out slow and play down to their opponent. I'll depend on Paulie and Jared to relay the "perkiness" of the team and how they look compared to Thursday night. Louisville finished last season with only 11 points in the conference standings, and they've already got 6 through their first two games. A win against Syracuse would be huge for this team's standing in the conference and the nation and for their confidence, as well. Let's see what they figured out in film review and training between the two games.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Jared and I are both MIA from the studio this morning, but that doesn't mean you won't be treated to
a (nearly) full house with a great show. Daryl Foust sits in with Paulie and Jeff, and she's got more than enough talent to replace the two of us. The Crew will talk the three major fall sports that were in action of the last couple of days and do what they do best in bringing the Joy and Excitement of Louisville Women's Sports. Tune into WCHQ FM at 11 AM for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour via 100.9FM, wchqfm.com, the WCHQ app, and on Facebook Live. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Another Split Friday -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Field Hockey Takes Top-10 Match-up

After a tough weekend last week with a hard loss to North Carolina and a narrow overtime win over Cal, UofL field hockey bounced back with a 1-0 win over Number 9 Boston College. It was a closely contested match, as you might expect between teams just one ranking apart in a sport so compact as field hockey. As we've mentioned many times before, nearly the entire ACC is ranked in the top 25 and the rankings for field hockey are quite good. Where teams are ranked is almost always a great indicator of their quality and there are not many major upsets. This might be best shown by Louisville's lack of movement in the rankings following a loss to a highly ranked North Carolina and a win over unranked Cal.

Last night's match was as close as one can be and still be decided in regulation. The Cards and Eagles went the full 70 minutes without scoring and it was an untimed penalty corner that was the deciding factor. Bethany Russ scored on the shot assisted by Maria Gomez and Katie Walsh. It was Russ's second goal and the Cards second untimed game-winner of the season. It was Louisville's fifth corner of the match, giving them a less than desirable corner percentage, but 20% is better than the 0-9 that Boston College converted.

Besides the corner disparity, the match was very close statistically. Boston College played only one less player than the Cards and both teams finished with 11 shots. Louisville had better chances, putting 8 of their 11 on goal. Boston College was only able to put 5 shots on goal, all of which Ayeisha McFerran saved. Neither team committed a foul, leading to an exciting and clean game. 

Despite the lack of finishing, this offensive outburst was a bit better for Louisville than the past couple of games. Eleven shots is higher than Louisville has been able to compile recently and 8/11 shots on goal is a strong indicator of good passing and chance creation. Boston College was still able to get chances of their own, but the Louisville defense was up to the task. The next step for Louisville will be get back to converting more of their chances into actual goals. The Cards have not been shut-out this season, but they have also not scored more than two goals in any game. With three losses so far, it is clear that the defense is not quite as stout as it has been in years past. Louisville may have a few more games this year where the opponent scores two or more goals, and the Cards' offense will need to be able to respond. 

Louisville is back in action tomorrow at noon against Northwestern. If you've kept up with the site or with the field hockey team at all, you'll know what a bugaboo the Wildcats are to the Cardinals. Louisville will be looking to pull the all-time series closer to level. NU currently leads the series 7-3 and took the last match almost exactly a year ago 2-0. A strong performance on Sunday could give the Cards their second perfect weekend of the season, the only other so far coming against UMass-Lowell and Delaware. Tune in to ACC Network Extra or head out to Trager for what should be an exciting matchup on a nice day. Our after-game links below:

Coach Sowry Post-Game

BETHANY RUSS POST-GAME

Ayeshia McFerran post-game

Volleyball Thrashed by Kentucky: 3-0

It was a night to forget for Dani Busboom Kelly's squad as Kentucky took a sweep off of the Cards in Cardinal Arena and took the lead in the 2018-19 Battle for the Bluegrass. Louisville's largest lead of the night was at 7-4 in the first set, and they held a 4-3 lead in the second. Both times, Kentucky took extended runs to put the sets a bit too far out of reach for the Cards. In the third, Louisville looked absolutely helpless, falling behind 9-2 with their only two points coming from Kentucky service errors. I tuned into the match just in time to see a challenge go against the Cards for the first point of the third set and it was all downhill from there.

Louisville's wounds were mostly self inflicted in this one, as the Cards racked up 21 errors over three sets. Their final hitting percentage was just 0.080. The Cards committed at least as many errors in each set as Kentucky committed on the whole night (6). That's most definitely not a winning formula. To make matters worse for a woefully hitting Louisville team, Kentucky was swinging lights out. The Cats were led by Leah Edmond, who finished with 14 kills and hit .600. Alli Stumler and Brooke Morgan had 8 and 7 kills, respectively, and neither committed an error. Louisville couldn't hit, and they had no answer defensively for Kentucky. Again, not a winning formula. 

Louisville was led in kills by Melanie McHenry with 8, but she also led the team in attack errors with 7. Jasmine Bennett was the biggest threat on offense, finishing with 7 kills and .308 hitting, but even she had three errors. The cleanest hitter for the Cards was Piper Roe, who finished with 4 kills on 6 attempts with no errors. It was a rough night for Wilma Rivera, who finished with 3 digs, a service error, and was 0/3 with three errors in attack. She did finish with 24 of the team's 25 assists, but the Cards were outscored by 30 points on the night so the shine comes off a bit. 

As I said from the jump, this was a night to forget. Kentucky looked good. They certainly did not look like the team that we've rattled off as having a bunch of losses so far this year. Even at 4-4 on the year, the Cats were ranked in the top 20 coming into last night. They showed last night why they were a top 5 team in the preseason. Coming into a hostile environment and absolutely dismantling the hosts was tough to watch as a Louisville fan. Quite frankly, I hope the Cards don't have to play Kentucky again this season. That said, Louisville looked bad. They were caught out of system numerous times, the attacking errors were inexcusable, and the defense was sorely lacking. 

There will not be much to glean from film of this match, so it will be important for Louisville to move past this match mentally before they go into a conference season where they have a legitimate chance to make some noise. Sometimes the ball doesn't go your way. It's important for the Cards to not let one bad performance snowball into a season killing skid. Louisville takes on Chattanooga today at three with a chance to get the sour taste out of their mouths. The match will be on ACC Network Extra, or you can head down to Cardinal Arena to see the Cards bounce back yourselves. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

We're back on the air this morning bringing you the joy and excitement of Louisville women's sports. Even after tough losses, there is always something positive to find and we'll be sure to find it and deliver on today's Cardinal Couple Radio Hour.

No Jared this morning, so we'll be without his insight, but Mike Gilpatrick of River City Cards joins us and we'll bring you coverage from the all of the contests over the last week and previews of those upcoming. Tune in to WCHQ FM at 100.9, wchqfm.com, the WCHQ App, or on Facebook Live at 11 AM and sit a spell with us

We'll be happy to have you.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Pictures for today's article once again come from our own Jared Anderson. As always, check out his full portfolio at jdaphotos.com

Friday Sees Mixed Results -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Takes Two at Stacey Clark Classic

After the women's soccer team fell at Purdue Thursday night, Coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes squad probably passed Coach Dani Busboom Kelly and the Louisville Volleyball team somewhere on I-65. The Net Cards headed up to Purdue for a three match set yesterday and today, taking on Lipscomb, Xavier, and Purdue. 

Louisville played Lipscomb in the first match of the tournament yesterday at noon and may have been looking ahead to the other two matches a bit. Lipscomb made themselves seen and refused to be walked over by the better team in Louisville. In fact, the Bisons were able to take an extended third set off of the Cards at 28-30 and led 18-14 and 22-21 in the final set before Louisville was able to wake up and finish the match. Louisville ultimately took the match 3-1, but played a much closer match than I'm sure they anticipated. 

As is to be expected in a match that goes additional sets, the final raw numbers were a bit higher than normal. Melanie McHenry led the Cards with 17 kills and was followed by Jasmine Bennett (14) and Megan Sloan (10). Molly Sauer added 5 (!!) service aces to her 23 digs and 5 assists, and Emily Scott contributed to 9 of 13 team blocks. Lipscomb did not have the ability to take Wilma Rivera out of her typical role as she assisted 45 of the team's 59 kills and added 2 kills of her own. 

As a match that the Cards ultimately won, it is hard to find exactly where they went wrong. They won the first two sets 25-20 and 25-14, but after that they may have forgotten that it was a best of five series. Errors are easy to point at as a culprit, as the Cards committed only 4 total in the first two sets followed by 7 and 5 in the third and fourth respectively, but there is more to it than that. I don't think Lipscomb suddenly got a lot better during the halftime break, so it is definitely something to look out for in the future. Earlier in the season, Louisville was having trouble getting out of second sets. Now do we have to worry about them looking past lower tier teams? Let's hope not.

In the second match of the day for the Cards, they took on the Musketeers of Xavier. Xavier was 1-5 coming into the match and they left it at 1-6. Ultimately, they put up no real resistance to the Cards, with Louisville completing the sweet 25-18, 25-15, 25-14. Xavier's best hitting percentage in the match came in the first set when they hit .074. Both other sets were negative. In addition to Xavier's best hitting set, Louisville committed 7 errors in the first set, leading to the relative closeness of that score. The Cards cleaned it up a bit after that and walked out of the building with two wins. They'll take on Purdue, the biggest test of the weekend tonight at 7:30PM.

Once again, Melanie McHenry led the way with 15 kills, this time with no one joining her in double digits. Claire Chaussee was closest with 8. Melanie had a very big game, completing one of her highest hitting percentages of the season at .440. I know that Xavier was a very down team, but being able to complete kills and find spots even against a bad team is important. If you can do it against an inferior opponent, you have a better chance of doing it against better teams. 

Wilma Rivera was called on to get 6 digs in this one, second only to Molly Sauer's 9, but she was still able to contribute 28 assists out of the team's 35 on 40 kills, so it's safe to say she was still comfortably in her role. The Cards again put up double digit team blocks with 12 but had far too many service and hitting errors. 

While I just made a case about Louisville overlooking lower tier teams and then talked about them thumping Xavier, I still think the point is valid. Xavier is very bad, and Louisville still was not the cleanest against them. Had Xavier been of the talent level of Lipscomb, the match probably would have been very similar. Louisville will play tough matches and they will play less tough matches in the ACC. The goal is to always win the games that you should, and I would hate for the Cards to drop matches that they shouldn't due to a lack of focus. There is still plenty of time to get it together this season, but they'll need to do so relatively quickly if they'd like another shot at an ACC title. 

Field Hockey Falls To UNC

Louisville began their conference season the same way that they ended it last year: a loss to North Carolina. The Cards actually struck first in this one with a goal by Katie Schneider, assisted by Madison Walsh, 10 minutes into the game. Unfortunately, that goal would be one of only three shots on goal the Cards could muster as the Tar Heels dominated for most of the rest of the game. 

The majority of the action (and all of the scoring) came in the first half, as UNC put up 12 total shots. They scored three times in the half, and 3-1 would be the final score. UNC was content to come out of the half playing more defensively, as they only put up 4 shots in the second half, even while winning 4 corners. Ayeisha McFerran started in goal and finished the game with 6 saves. One of the UNC goals came off of a rebound off of McFerran's pads and another came from penalty corner. Both are hard to blame on McFerran and the turnover in Louisville's defense may be starting to show. The Cards have always been a strong defensive team but now have two losses where they've given up three goals in a single half. 

There is not much good to glean from this match. North Carolina was able to do pretty much whatever they wanted. They are the number 2 team, sure, but Louisville was number 11 and you'd like to see UNC have to work for it a bit. The Cards were outshot convincingly 16-5 (10-3 SOG) and that's with UNC letting off of the gas in the second half. I harped on the defense a bit before, but not having consistent attacking can also contribute to too much pressure on the defense. Louisville lost a lot in the attack over the summer and Coach Justine Sowry will need to find some answers fast or the high hopes that Louisville had of building on last season may be slipping away already.

Field hockey takes on California in their next match on Sunday at 2PM. That is a home game but is also available on ACC Network Extra. Cal is 2-1 on the season with a 5-0 loss to #4 Maryland and will take on UNC today at 1PM. Cal's wins were a 5-1 win over Providence to start the season and a narrow 1-0 victory over Miami (OH) this past Sunday. The Cards will hope to get back on track with a win tomorrow.

JUSTINE SOWRY POSTGAME

UNC COACH KAREN SHELTON POSTGAME

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

After taking the day off last week, I'm back in the studio today for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. We'll have plenty to talk about this week with nearly every fall sport in action, so be sure to tune in to WCHQ FM at 11AM. The show is available on local radio at 100.9 and online via the website (wchqfm.com), the app (WCHQ FM), or on Facebook Live. Join us as we bring you the joy and excitement of Louisville women's sports as only the Cardinal Couple Crew can.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Field hockey pictures in today's article provided by Jared Anderson. As always, check out more of his work at jdaphotos.com.

Field Hockey, Volleyball Take Openers -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Earns Sweeps in First Two Matches of Season

Louisville Volleyball opened their season yesterday in the Cardinal Classic, hosting three teams in Cardinal Arena. Louisville played their first game against UT Martin and showed the fans on hand that last season's performances were no fluke by putting together a dominant performance against the outmatched Skyhawks. The Cards finished the match hitting .478 as a team and had a whopping 10 aces. UT Martin was outscored 75-36 over the duration of the match, with the closest game of the three coming at 25-17. 

Despite Melanie McHenry and Amanda Green both finishing with 9 kills, it was really Piper Roe who paced the office, converting 8/11 attempts with no errors to finish the night with 8 kills and a .727 hitting percentage. Roe also added 5 block assists and a dig to round out a very solid match. My player of the match would have to be Wilma Rivera, though. Rivera picked up right where she left off and finished the first match of the day with 2 kills (on 2 attempts), 23 assists, 4 aces, 2 blocks, and 7 digs. Rivera was the Setter of the Year last year and it is good to see her come out of the gate strong. 

Unfortunately..we found out before the first game, Louisville lost a key contributor on defense in Alexis Hamilton. It was confirmed by her family at the later game that Hamilton tore her ACL and will likely miss the remainder of the season. Look for Coach Dani Busboom-Kelly to apply a medical redshirt to Hamilton this year to give the sophomore an additional year of playing time.

In their second match last night, Louisville took on the Salukis of SIU. The team from Illinois put up a bit more of a fight, scoring a total of 42 points, and pushing one game to 25-19, but in the end, Louisville walked away with a second sweep. The Cards again hit well as a team with a .443 performance, and finished the second match with 7 aces. Unfortunately, the aces were outnumbered by service errors, and you know that I like to look for the bad in the good to find things the team can improve.

Despite her effectiveness in the first match, Piper Roe did not start the second match. Roe came away ok with her limited opportunities, though, earning a kill on 4 of 6 attempts, but erring on the other two. It was Emily Scott that started in place of Roe and Jasmine Bennett that played a similar game to Piper. Bennett finished the match with 10 kills on 15 attempts with just one error for a .600 hitting percentage. McHenry and Green were again strong, with 10 and 8 kills respectively, and Rivera again put together a solid match with 38 assists. The new transfer, Marijke Van Dyke, finished the second match completing 4/5 attempts with no errors and may find herself moving up the depth chart if such success continues.

Louisville will wrap the Cardinal Classic today against IUPUI at 5PM and will look for another strong outing. Winning 9 straight sets would be a good way to start the season. I will be looking for the Cards to perform better in the second set, as that was where the best games came from both opponents yesterday. Jeff will have plenty more to say about this opening weekend in his writeup tomorrow so be sure to check back in then!

Field Hockey Defeats Indiana in Opener 2-1

The Cards opened and closed the scoring yesterday with both goals coming on converted penalty corners. Shout out to the box score play-by-play for calling them "penalty kicks". Maybe they let Paulie at the controls for a moment. Louisville's first goal came after 23 minutes from Bethany Russ. Russ was active on the ball yesterday, taking a total of 6 shots and putting 2 of them on frame. 

The Louisville lead would last only 4 minutes, as Indiana scored a goal in the run of play after a bad pass from the defense led to an open breakaway. To the potential surprise of many, Ayeisha McFerran heard her number called yesterday to start the game in goal. She gave up the one goal (but it is hard to blame a goalkeeper for getting scored on in a one-on-one situation) but finished the game with 4 saves, including 3 during a tied second half. 

After Indiana's goal, the two teams went on the be frustrated for about 43 minutes before Louisville's Erica Cooper prevented overtime with a goal with no time on the clock. Louisville was awarded a penalty corner as time expired, and field hockey rules state that the penalty awarded team must be allowed an untimed play to complete their offensive attack. Indiana was unable to clear the ball, and a second attempt from Cooper saw her loft a shot over the IU keeper for a buzzer beating goal. It was the first goal of the freshman Cooper's career at UofL, and it came at a pretty good time for the Cards.

The goal gave Louisville a 40% completion rate on penalty corners for the day while the Cards successfully defended all 5 attempts from the Hoosiers. The defense for this team will be a strong point for Louisville, but the passing and possession out of the back will need to be cleaned up to prevent more open attempts like came in the first half of yesterday's game. It was good to see McFerran back in the goal so quickly and playing well when it was expected that she would miss a few games.

Louisville field hockey is back in action tomorrow at 1PM against Ohio State at Trager Stadium. The game is available on ACC Network Extra.

Rouse and England Place Third

Like Ayeisha McFerran, Mollie Rouse will be returning from international duty with some hardware in tow. The Young Lionnesses were bumped from the finals in a defeat by Japan earlier this week, but took on the host team France in the third place game yesterday morning. Japan went on to defeat Spain 3-1 in the championship. It took penalties for England against France after the teams were tied at 1 with both goals coming in the second half. England converted 4 of their 5 penalties in the shootout and held France to just 2 of 4 (the last kick by the hosts being moot). Rouse will likely not return to the squad before tomorrow's match against Michigan, but may be back with the team by Friday's match against Kentucky. Match fitness shouldn't be an issue after starting nearly every game for England, but her team cohesion, as mentioned before, may be. However, with the surprising speed of McFerran's return to the field hockey starting lineup, I'll be keeping an eye on Coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes onboarding of Rouse. The Cards take on Michigan tomorrow at 2PM. No video is listed for the game.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

We're without Jared today, but should have plenty to fill our Cardinal Couple Radio Hour as more fall sports have gotten underway. We'll talk women's soccer, volleyball, and field hockey as all three have been active and will do our best to generally present the joy and excitement of Louisville women's sports. As always, join us on WCHQ at 11AM via 100.9 FM, wchqfm.com, the WCHQ app, or on Facebook Live. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Volleyball and WBB Earn HUGE Wins -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Volleyball Scores Ticket to Big Dance

Louisville defeated Syracuse yesterday afternoon to clinch at least a share of the ACC regular season championship. ACC Volleyball does not have a conference tournament, so the winner of the regular season earns the ACC's automatic qualification to the NCAA tournament. As Louisville holds the tiebreaker over Pittsburgh, the Cards are guaranteed the AQ. Louisville could still win the conference outright, if Pitt falls to Virginia today, however that is rather unlikely.

While Louisville managed the win yesterday, finishing with a .900 winning percentage in the conference season, they didn't do so without earning the "Cardiac Cards" moniker. After holding off a reverse sweep effort by North Carolina on Sunday, it was Louisville that found themselves playing from behind after losing the first two sets to Syracuse yesterday. With Louisville a bit out of sorts, hitting only .211 and -.050 with 19 total errors in the first two sets, Syracuse managed to win 25-27 and 23-25. Louisville found themselves behind the eight ball and their NCAA hopes may have been on the line with yesterday's match.

Fortunately, Coach Dani Busboom-Kelly had a strong halftime message for the Cards, who came out
taking care of the ball much better. After 19 errors in the first two sets, Louisville had only 15 errors in the final three. In the third set, Louisville worked their way out to a 14-9 lead and maintained the lead, holding off a late Syracuse to push to win 25-21. In the fourth, the Cards took advantage of 0.000 hitting by the Orange to get a big win 25-15. Thus set up a decisive fifth set. After back and forth scoring for the majority of the set, Wilma Rivera took over the serve tied at 10. Rivera has a wicked serve and was able to put the Orange off balance enough that the Cards were able to win four straight points to force Syracuse to call time out at match point. Syracuse won two points out of the timeout, but a Jasmine Bennett kill secured the match for the Cards. 

Bennett had a great game, with 10 kills and 9 block assists. She had five errors but most of the team didn't hit well so we can let that pass. Also having a great game was Melanie McHenry, who finished with a double double. Her hitting percentage wasn't great (she had a triple double if you count her errors), but she got 20 kills and 12 digs, peppering in 4 block assists. Molly Sauer was solid, with 20 digs, 2 aces, and only one service error. Maggie DeJong also went to double digit kills with 14. Wilma Rivera may have had the best game of all, though, finishing with 49 assists, 3 kills, 5 block assists and 12 digs. She had one error and one service error. 

Louisville is playing great volleyball right now, and it's great that a team that finished so poorly last season and was picked to be inconsequential in conference this year has outperformed all expectations. The team is full of talent and Coach DBK is only scratching the surface of putting her mark on this program. The Cards will find out their fate with the NCAA selection show tomorrow night. All of the matches from here on out will be tough, so it may be best to hope for Louisville to get stuck in Kentucky's region, just so there are more opportunities to see them this season. Cardinal Couple will be on the lookout for the latest news affecting UofL Volleyball. 

WBB Sets New Scoring Record en route to Win

Murray State came into the Yum! Center yesterday afternoon to get an opportunity against a top-5 team. They were promptly dispatched, as Louisville set a new scoring record in the victory, winning 115-51. The Cards jumped on the Racers early, winning the first ten minutes 29-8. The halftime score was 57-22 and the beatdown was on. Murray State apparently received the halftime speech of all time, as they came out of the break with their best performance of the game, losing the third quarter only 26-23. Louisville responded with another dominant quarter in the final stanza, finishing 32-6. 

Murray State is not off to a great start in their first season under their new head coach, sitting at 1-4 after yesterday's game. The Racers were picked to finish fifth in the OVC with the preseason player of the year. Their one win came against Northern Kentucky, but they lost by only 1 point on Tuesday against Lipscomb and by only 8 earlier against Butler. Reports say they showed promise in yesterday's game, so they'll have plenty of opportunities to improve as the year goes on. 

Louisville played the way you would expect a top 5 team to play yesterday, but they put up a school record 115 in ways you might not expect. The Cards made only 7 of 21 three point shots and only 14-17 free throws. They shot only 1 free throw in the second half. It was two point efficiency that the Cards rode to victory, scoring 66 points in the paint and posting a 62.5% shooting efficiency on two point field goals. The Cards got 76 points from their bench, showing that they've got quality depth at all positions. 

Louisville had five double digit scorers and two double digit rebounders, with Bionca Dunham posting an amazing 19 and 16 in only 21 minutes. Early season Player of the Year candidate, Asia Durr, had a less than stellar outing with only 7 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal in 20 minutes. She shot only 20% from the floor. When Durr is shooting the ball well, she's unstoppable. When she has a cold shooting start, though, it is a bit tougher for her to get back on track. Walz and Durr will have to work together to develop strategies to keep her out of her own head when she isn't shooting well so that she can turn around cold starts. Myisha Hines-Allen put up 8 points and 12 rebounds in only 14 minutes and peppered in 2 assists and a block. Kylee Shook was the leading scorer in the game with 21 points in 19 minutes. She shot 3-4 from behind the arc and 8-10 overall. Dana Evans, Arica Carter, and Jessica Laemmle were great distributors, with totals of 18 assists and only 5 turnovers.

The C-A-S-E Report

I still haven't figured out quite how to best represent these statistics, so the CASE Report is still fluid, but let's see how the Cards fared in the blowout.

C-Care - The goal here is to determine how well the Cards took care of the ball. Sheer volume of
turnovers is an OK indicator, but as was pointed out in the comments, adjusting for the quality of the opponent's defense would help put the value in context. Louisville finished with 15 turnovers, which isn't great, but it's far less than Murray's 26. According to the old model, Louisville would earn a lowercase 'c'. Using the NCAA statistics site, we can see the opponents average turnovers forced, then compare UofL's performance to the average. Before yesterday's game, Murray State forced an average of 17.5 turnovers/game. Louisville had 85.7% of Murray's average. I'd like to see that number be below 66.7%, so we'll stick with the lowercase 'c'.

A-Assists - Louisville finished with 25 assists. I've decided to not track assists compared to the opponent. We'll look at assist ratio and assist/turnover ratio. An assist ratio of >50% will be worth half a letter and an ATO ratio of >2 worth the other half. Louisville had an assist ratio of 53.2% and an ATO of only 1.667. That's a lowercase 'a'.

S-Steals - Louisville had 15 steals and Murray State had 10. I like the comparison of this stat to the opponent because of the way it compares the two defenses' performances. More than the opponent is half a letter and they were well over the 5 steal benchmark for the other half. We may need to address that benchmark. Definitely an uppercase 'S'.

E-Efficiency - Efficiency is the mark of the offense. We'll work free throws in here instead of comparing it to the opponent.
o with 75% free throws for that half of the letter and stick with 45% from the floor for the other half. Louisville shot a whopping 55.3% from the floor and 82.4% from the stripe. That's enough for an uppercase 'E'.

That wraps up the CASE report with Louisville earning a c-a-S-E. As mentioned earlier, they played the way you expect them to against a very outmatched opponent. Let me know what you think about the revamped CASE report in the comments below. Louisville now gets a break before going on the road to Bloomington to take on the Hoosiers of Indiana on Thursday.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Jared and I are out of the studio today, but that isn't stopping Paulie and Jeff from holding down the fort. They'll be joined in studio by Julie Sullivan and may have other guests in the works. They'll break down some Louisville wins, with Jeff surely to wax poetic about the huge volleyball news. They may even mention a specific football game today. Tune into WCHQ FM at 11AM for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. You can listen at 100.9 FM or via the WCHQ app or WCHQFM.com.

Donation Month

November is Donation Month at Cardinal Couple. Thank you for what has been received so far. It's a good start. More is needed though, per Paulie. Can you help? Pay-Pal, check, whatever you are comfortable with.

We enjoy coming to you daily. WE would like to continue to come to you daily. You can help us continue to do that.

 Mail to:

Cardinal Couple
c/o Paul Sykes
PO BOX 91521
Louisville, KY  40291

Thank you! 

Until next time, Go Cards! (Beat UK!)

-CH-