Thursday Cardinal Couple

THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( OUR STAFF COLUMNIST JEFF MCADAMS...WHO HAS BEEN RE-NAMED BY THE CENTRAL CARDINAL CLUB...HAD A CHANCE TO VIEW CARDINAL VOLLEYBALL WEDNESDAY. HERE'S HIS REPORT...)

Volleyball Visit

Fall sports are getting tantalizingly close.  Karen Feguson-Dayes' Women's Soccer team is already playing...and winning..exhibition games, while the other fall sports are all into their practice regimins.

Volleyball is no exception.  As we heard from our interview with Head Coach Anne Kordes, the volleyball team reported to camp on August 9th and started practice on the 10th.  The team is practicing twice a day, and I had the privilege of getting to observe most of the practice yesterday afternoon and evening.

One of the things I was curious about was how much time was spent in practice doing skills development (like digging, passing, setting, hitting, serving, and blocking), versus practicing overall strategy and team tactics.  I didn't have a stopwatch on it, but it seemed to be about a 60-40 split in time in favor of skills development, with shifts back and forth between skills development drills and overall team tactics and strategy practice.  No doubt this serves to keep interest and energy levels higher for players in practice.  I suspect, as practice sessions move forward, more of the time will shift to tactics and strategy.

We've talked on the Cardinal Couple Radio show, and heard from Coach Kordes, that we have a young team, and that was evident in watching them practice.  We also have a team with a lot of amazingly talented players.  Combine those two statements and you have a recipe for seeing all the players on the court making some really amazing shots, but then turning around and seeing many of those same players take some real cringe-inducing swings.  It is, however, still early in the practices, so look for improvement there.  Overall, be ready for a team that could really knock your socks off with some spectacular plays, but be aware that we have a heavy dose of freshmen and sophomores that will probably make some periodic mistakes.  Watch for improvement throughout the season as players get more experience under their belts at this level of play and get more comfortable and confident in their play.  If you want consistency, look to Caitlin Welch, Hannah Kvitle, Katie George, and Brooke Mattingly...unsurprisingly, three of those were our USA A2 Team representatives and I wouldn't be surprised to see Katie George in that program in future years.

Maya McClendon is one of the talented freshmen

I was on a balcony overlooking the volleyball practice gym in the Yum! Center on Floyd street and one thing that really struck me is that our team is really short.  While perhaps somewhat accentuated by my perspective of looking down on the team from above, this is born out by the heights listed on the roster.  Brooke Mattingly, at 6' 3", is the only player that I would consider tall for a volleyball player.  Take heart, though, because there are some real leapers on the team.  According to Coach Kordes, two players...Janelle Jenkins at 5' 11" and Randi Ewing at 6' 0"...can both touch 10' 5" when they jump.

As a comparison, at my peak and my 6' 0" height, I never topped 10' even.  Other impressive high flyers are Emily Juhl, and Maya McClendon.  Javoni Faucette can also easily find her way to the top of the net.

If you want enthusiasm, you'll definitely have that, as this is a team that is clearly fired up and working hard to achieve their goals.  That's good because my visit yesterday has me excited for the season as well.

The first chance to see the team in action is August 24th at the annual Alumnae match at Cardinal Arena.  This is a free event and is always a lot of fun in an informal atmosphere.  The Volleyball Cards open the season with a lot of time on the road, with the first real chance of seeing them in regular season action happening down in Lexington on September 10th, 13th and 14th in matches against Kentucky, Minnesota and Pepperdine at Memorial Coliseum.  The home opener isn't until September 21st at Cardinal Arena against Rice and Virginia Tech...the match on the 20th unfortunately had to be cancelled due to scheduling conflicts.  They finally get to play at the KFC Yum! Center for the conference opener on September 27th vs Memphis.

There are a lot of really tough non-conference opponents on our schedule this year, and with so many of our matches on the road, the team faces real challenges.  With challenges come opportunities, however.  Beating good teams means better RPI ratings and better RPI ratings generally means better NCAA tournament seedings, and hopefully first and second round hosting opportunities.  Also, a road win means a bigger RPI boost and a road loss is a smaller RPI drop than home and neutral court matches.

I'm ready to side-out summer and start cheering for the next Year of the Cardinals.

-Jeff McAdams

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Cardinal Couple Midweek update

WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( Jeff McAdams with the Wednesday report. He looks at softball, field hockey, volleyball today It may be the first day we haven't mentioned hoops since October! It also seems like this is the first article Paulie hasn't done since October. Welcome back, JMcA! Bring a friend! )

 

- Softball vs Pitt...weather permitting

- Also...Softball vs Pitt...weather permitting

- Spring Play for Fall Sports Round Up

It is mid-week and we've lost a sport to report on with the passing of Basketball into the rear-view mirror.  So...

Softball vs Pitt...weather permitting

A chance of rain in the forecast for today, with Softball scheduled to play versus Pittsburgh at Ulmer Stadium.  First pitch at noon.

If you want to see the Louisville Softball team looking good, assuming the field doesn't stay covered under the potential of rain, today might be a good day for it.  Pitt, at 5-7 (16-22 overall), doesn't look to be too much of a threat to the, now 8th ranked, Louisville Cardinals, but it should provide a nice opportunity to see the Cardinal Softball team looking their best.

If you go to the games, just remember my warnings, if you're going to sit out on the outfield berms, Be Alert!  (The world needs more lerts....I think that joke works better verbally than it does in writing)  You could have homerun shots raining down on you at any time that the Cards are at bat.

Also...Softball vs Pitt...weather permitting

Also this afternoon, how about that, Louisville Softball plays Pitt at approximately 2pm.

If you haven't heard, there's rain in the forecast, so keep an eye out for any cancellations or delays.  If  I hear of any, I'll post comment so you can be up to date.

Remember, if you're going to sit on the outfield berms, Keep Alert!  (There are too many homeless lerts already...really, verbally these are great...ok, maybe not)

(Editor note:  This is no truth to the rumor that the Cards Care yellow shirts who have outfield duty have been assigned hard-hats to wear.  For a couple of them, a softball off the top of the cranium just might do some good. )

Spring Play for Fall Sports Round Up

Saturday was a busy day for UofL sports.  We've had updates about Spring sports that were playing
over the weekend, Softball and Lacrosse, but Fall Sports were in action as well.  In addition to the Football Spring game, which caused parking challenges for nearly everyone, Volleyball was in action in spring play at Cardinal Arena, and Field Hockey had a two day tournament in action at Trager Stadium.

The first day of the Field Hockey Tournament, Saturday, involved 11 teams, with the Sunday event being a 7v7 tournament with 12 teams.  Alas, I couldn't make it out to Trager Stadium to catch any of the action.  Assuming you're in the same boat, they will be playing again, this Saturday, the 20th at 2pm, which should leave you plenty of time to make it downtown for the bulk of Thunder over Louisville after the game.

Volleyball lost a tough spring match against a very good, and big, Illinois team in four sets.  Spring play always plays a bit fast and loose with the rules, including unlimited substitutions and timeouts, but the action was fun and it was great to get our first look at Janelle Jenkins and Javoni Faucette.  Janelle red-shirted this fall due to an ACL tear in her senior year of high school play, so she's just now seeing her first action on the court.  Javoni is in her first semester at UofL, having enrolled early after graduating high school in 3 1/2 years.  She played the full rotation of all four sets and looks great.  Get used to hearing Javoni's name, I expect you'll be hearing it from me a lot.  Emily Juhl, part of my UofL All-Sports All-Rod team looks to be back to 100% with booming serves, and great hitting and blocking.  The volleyball team has a lot of offense to replace, with Lola Arslanbeckova, Gwen Rucker, and Kaitlynn James all having gone off to play in Pro ranks, and Tanya Lukyanenko expecting to head off to do the same after she graduates in May.  Volleyball will be playing its last spring play on the 20th in Bowling Green with several matches at Diddle Arena at Western Kentucky University.

-Jeff McAdams
Follow Jeff on Twitter and also check out updates on @CardCoupleRadio also! 

Cardinal Couple Thursday Edition - Big East Standings Check

THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( Staff columnist Jeff McAdams yawns, stretches, hits the snooze button one more time and then has a dream about the Thursday CARDINAL COUPLE article due. We're not sure, but he think Rip Van Winkle was patterned after him. But, when he does finally get around to posting, he's golden. Jeff looks at the BIG EAST WBB today and a volleyball addition. Then goes back in for a nap...The beauty of CARDINAL COUPLE is that there are no deadlines, no rush-rush articles or screaming editors. Just a bunch of chimps who somehow ended up with a website and the ability to type. Enjoy!)


(I was all set...had my schedule for the day laid out...to write up the Friday edition of the Cardinal Couple...then I went back and checked my email and saw that I was slated to write today's edition, not Friday.  You can just call me Mr. Organized.)

Big East Standings

Its very early in conference play, of course, but let's check on the Big East Rankings...mostly because its fun to see UConn not be in one of the very top spots.  Rankings are very jumbled this early on since there haven't been many games played by each team yet, so wins and loses are radically magnified in their impact on rankings right now.

Tied for first place at 2-0 is Notre Dame, Seton Hall, and Villanova.  Notre Dame clearly deserves the lofty rankings.  Seton Hall beat Cincinnati and Pitt, which suggests that they're not a team to be totally rolled over this year, but they haven't contended with any real powerhouses yet.  Villanova knocked off Cincinnati and DePaul...and beat DePaul in convincing fashion...so let's keep an eye on Villanova this year...usually not a powerhouse of a team, but maybe they've got something to them this year?

Tied for fourth is Syracuse and St. Johns at 1-0.  Syracuse got a solid win over Marquette, and St. Johns won a close game against Rutgers.  Hard to draw too much of a conclusion here, although after seeing Rutgers a couple of days ago, I'll be keeping something of an eye on St. Johns as well.

Tied for sixth are the 1-1 teams.  That includes the Cardinals, of course with the win over Rutgers and the loss to DePaul.  Also with us in the sixth spot are UConn, DePaul and Georgetown.  UConn, as I'm sure most of our readers are aware, lost a hot contested matchup against Notre Dame, so no shame there, and they will certainly climb back up in the rankings.  Their win was last night with a pretty lopsided score over Georgetown.  DePaul, well, let's not dwell on their win, but their loss was to Villanova as mentioned above, so they are clearly a beatable team.  Lastly, Georgetown, as mentioned, got pummeled by UConn, which shocks no one I'm sure, and they beat up on Providence for the conference opener.  Neither of those games shines much light on how good of a team Gtown is.

In 10th place, we see the 0-1 teams.  South Florida, Pitt, Marquette, and Providence.  Only Providence has a losing non-conference schedule, so as always with Big East women's basketball, it would be unwise to look past any games with USF, Pitt, and Marquette.

That leaves Rutgers and Cincinnati in the basement, tied for 14th, at 0-2.  Rutgers looked like they're a better team than that on Tuesday, despite the loss.  Cincinnati, with losses to Seton Hall and Villanova doesn't look to be much of a contender, but this early, you just can't tell.

The Big East looks to be a powerhouse conference again this year, though those days are numbers with slated departures from the conference.

Spring Enrollments

I'm only aware of one women's athlete that has enrolled in the spring semester.  And, of course, since I'm writing about it, that means its a volleyball player.

Javoni Faucette graduated from Francis Howell Union High School in St. Charles Missouri in three and a half years...quite an accomplishment...and has started here at Louisville for the spring semester.  Congratulations Javoni, and welcome to Louisville.

If anyone is aware of any other spring enrollments for athletes in other sports, we'd love to hear about them in the comments.


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