Cards down DePaul in Softball 5-0 -- Thursday Cardinal Couple

BECKER FANS 10, HITS HOME RUN IN WIN

If Cardinal softball pitcher Maryssa Becker doesn't have a favorite saying, she might well consider the adage "A job done by yourself is usually a job with an excellent supervisor and dependable labor force." 

Sophomore Maryssa Becker registered a career-high 10 strikeouts and hit a home run to help lead the University of Louisville softball team to a 5-0 win over host DePaul Wednesday afternoon at Cacciatore Stadium.

The Cardinals(23-12) jumped to a 2-0 lead first inning. Whitney Arion reached on a fielder's choice and scored on Hailey Smith's double. Smith crossed the plate on a hit by Kayla Soles.

The Blue Demons (13-17) threatened to push a run across in the third. Ali Lenti beat the throw on a bunt single and Morgan Maize followed with a hit to place runners on the corners. Mary Connolly walked to load the bases with one out, but Becker delivered back-to-back strikeouts to get out of the jam.

Becker took the first pitch of the fourth inning over the left centerfield fence for her team-best sixth home run of the season to give Louisville a 3-0 lead.
Kelsi Jones led off the fifth with a shot over the left field fence for her third home run of the season to make the score 4-0.

The Cards added another run in the sixth when Sims doubled and took third on a single by Sydney Benz. Brittany Duncan walked to load the bases for Jones who drew a walk to plate Sims.

Becker (9-4) struck out 10 and scattered four hits in the complete game shutout. Jones went 2 for 3 with two RBIs to lead Louisville at the plate. Soles and Sims also had two hits apiece.


Louisville will return to action this weekend when the Cards play host to No. 8/10 Florida State in a three-game ACC series at Ulmer Stadium. The teams will play at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday with Sunday and Monday's games being televised on ESPNU.

It's good to see the Cards putting out a little offense firepower again. They're going to need it in the rest of April...

Speaking of April...our APRIL CARDINAL COUPLE CONTEST is predicting the total number of runs UofL Softball will score in the remaining 11 games this month. You have until Friday 7 p.m. to get us your entry. You can leave it in the comments section or e-mail your number to Cardinal Couple. It's a free contest and you could win an absolutely fabulous CARDINAL COUPLE Tee-Shirt! As a bonus, if you pick the EXACT number of runs, we'll toss in a $25 gift card.


(Thanks to Louisville SID Lori Kotre for her information we used on today's article)


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In what many consider a surprising move, Notre Dame junior guard Jewell Loyd has declared for the WNBA draft.


It's not the first time this has happened ( Remember Candace Parker and Brit the Grinder?  Griner played all four years at Baylor, thanks to you eagle-eyed readers for pointing it out)...in fact, she's the second underclassman this year to do so...Minnesota's 6'5" sopomore center Amanda Zahui B. has also made herself available. In "B's" case, it is a bit different, she's 22 yrs. old and from Stockholm, Sweden. International players have no restrictions on when they can toss their hat into the ring for consideration.


It is a trend? Probably not...at least not to the extent it is men's college hoops. It is big news? Probably so in South Bend...where Muffet McGraw will now look for someone else to lead the Irish in 2015-16.



paulie

xxxxx

Four advance, four leave tonight -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

BATTLE OF CAROLINAS AND IRISH VS TREES TONIGHT IN NCAA WBB SWEET SIXTEEN

We are getting closer to a Final Four in the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. In Greensboro, NC and Oklahoma City, OK it'll be a scenario where eight survivors enter and four have there survivals extended. Some very good basketball on tap.

We'll look at the matchups in a minute. First, we'd like to extend our best wishes and hopes to the UofL men's basketball squad...who faces ACC foe NC State in the men's Sweet Sixteen. The Cards lost to the Wolfpack in the KFC YUM! Center in the conference schedule...a game where Louisville led at the half but fell upon a cold shooting stretch and numerous defensive breakdowns. 

The Pitino led squad is playing better than that these days and should send Mr. and Mrs. Wuf packing back to Raleigh.

Oh yeah...be prepared for Big Blue boasters today in your travels. Teflon John and his NBA roster decimated Wichita State by 39 last night. 40-0, 40-0 !! Three games away...

Now...to the ladies. In the four games tonight, there are really no major surprises here in the contestant's chairs. The top four seeds advanced to this stage in these two regionals. Only Texas and Dayton in Albany and Gonzaga in Spokane are teams that were not #4 seed or better that made the Sweet Sixteen. Gonzaga, you figured had a good chance...playing in the northwest...Dayton a surprise and Texas was a #5 seed and not that big of a stretch.

UNC vs South Carolina  7 p.m. Greensboro


South Carolina has looked very good in getting this far.... hammering Savannah St. and Syracuse. They'll find the sledding a little tougher against a Sylvia Hatchell squad that handled Liberty and managed to hang on against a Ohio St. squad who rallied back big time to barely lose. 

It's a ACC vs SEC matchup and I'm going with the rough and tumble TarHeels to narrowly send South Carolina back to Columbia. They've gotten lucky once when they survived the Ohio St. spree and luck will be a lady again tonight for Carolina Blue.

Iowa vs Baylor  7:30 p.m. Oklahoma City


It's back to the scene of Kim Mulkey's most disappointing career loss...where Louisville downed Griner and company a couple of years ago. Griner is gone, but Iowa is no Louisville (The Cards dismantled Hawkeye Nation by 34 earlier in the season).

Baylor may not win by as much, but win they will and Kim won't have to do a striptease for the Oklahoma City contingent. Iowa has improved since the Cards clipped their wings but the midwestern farm girls will be headed home Saturday morning. 

Arizona St. v Fla. St.  9:30 p.m. Greensboro

This time, the ACC goes against the PAC Conference and Arizona St. Sue Semrau's Seminoles were second best in the conference but have looked like champions against Alabama St. and FGCU...maybe the easiest path anyone had in getting to the Sweet Sixteen. These Tallahassee lassies will trot forward against a group of Sun Devils that said "no way-o" to Ohio and sent UALR packing

Charli Turner Thorne does have Sophia Brunner and a candidate for Worldwide's All-Name team in Promise Amukamara...but these Charli's Angels won't solve tonight's mystery and are headed back to Tempe..from what we see.

Notre Dame v Stanford  10 p.m. Oklahoma City

It looks like the PAC will go "0-for-Sweet Sixteen" tonight when Tara Vanderveer takes her trees for a toilet-papering by the Irish. (Interesting fact: The Trees nickname only applies to the Stanford band...the sports teams are The Cardinal.)

Muffet McGraw is fully aware that The Cardinal is the only team to beat UConn this year. Ol' leopard-skin-print-lady is also aware that she has Jewell Loyd, Taya Reimer, Lindsay Allen and a team that shrugged off miserable Montana and Dougie Bruno's Blue Demons. Irish eyes will be smiling again tonight (or tomorrow morning) as Muffet's Curds and Whey won't be scared by any spiders, trees or Samuelson's...

paulie
xxxxx

16-0 run dooms Cards in South Bend -- Notre Dame 68 - Louisville 52 -- Tuesday Cardinal Couple

2nd half slump sinks Cards in South Bend 

Brianna Turner hosted a block party Mon. night

I'm hoping this article gets posted to the Cardinal Couple website. There's always the chance Notre Dame's Brianna Turner could appear out of nowhere and swat it off the page. 

In a game full of highs and lows, Turner's seven blocked shots and a second half 16-0 Notre Dame run were high points for the Irish in dismantling UofL 68-52 in the Purcell Pavilion Monday night before 8911 fans and a nationwide audience on ESPN 2.

The Cards actually got off to an encouraging start and were scoring inside...leading 11-7 six minutes into the game. Balanced scoring where all the starters but Moore had put points on the board. 

Shawnta' Dyer gave Louisville their biggest lead of the half on a 'plus 1' that made it 14-9 with 12:34 on the clock...but ND rolled off an 8-0 run to go up by three on a coast-to-coast Madison Cable layup. 

Muffet waves to Worldwide Jeff

Sara Hammond went to work inside for the Cards to keep it close. A layup with 5:05 left made it 23-22 Notre Dame. Hammond's eighth point of the half inside drew the Cards within three at 29-26 with 1:56 on the clock.

A Dyer hook shot set the halftime score at 31-28 UND. Jewel Loyd had nine points for the home team and Sara Hammond had eight for the Cards. Mariya Moore hadn't made a basket yet and Loyd & her teammates defense held her to two free throws. 

Moore broke away from the pursuit briefly in the second half and produced the Cards first nine points. 

Dyer gets this one off in the paint, She was 4-6 last night

The Cards rallied from the three-point halftime deficit and took a 37-35 lead at the 16:20 mark. A nice feed from Jude Schimmel to Mariya Moore led to Moore's fourth basket of the half and Louisville looked energized and ready to battle #4 in the nation to the buzzer. It was Moore 9 - Notre Dame 4 and the freshman had 11 points. 

Unfortunately, the script changed again and Moore would not score again.

The next five minutes turned into a Irish riverdance over the Cards...Jewel Loyd, Taya Reimer and Turner frolicking past the step-slow, shot-slightly-off Cards to go up 51-37 with 11:15 left in the game. The stretch included Jeff Walz getting a technical for protesting a Turner block that looked like a foul. 

Sara Hammond's three would finally put the Notre Dame run to an end...but the damage had been done. 

"Sorry, Cards...I'm on my way to 20. It's what the best guard
in the ACC does. 

Louisville would make one last attempt to get back in the contest...a 9-0 run that followed the Irish run. Dyer's two free throws with 7:47 to go cut the Irish advantage to 51-46 and there was a glimmer of hope that the Cards just might be soaring to pull out yet another second half mastery over an opponent. 

Sadly, UofL would get no closer than that five-point deficit the rest of the way. 

Moore picked up her fourth and fifth fouls within 30 seconds of each other and went to the bench with Louisville trailing 59-48 at the 3:45 mark. The Irish breezed in on a 9-4 run the rest of the way to take a 68-52 win.

Moore experiences Cable difficulties here. 

A rough shooting night for Walz's ballers. 21-63 for 33%. The free throw line wasn't kind to the Cards either...going 7-13 for 53.8% Louisville ended up putting three players in double figures...11 points each for Sara, Mariya and Shawnta'...which is commendable when you consider all the ones that Turner was turning away in the paint. Turner and Reimer are going to be around for awhile...bad news for UofL and the rest of the ACC . The 6'4" bookends are long and prowl the paint well. 

Louisville allowed the Irish 23-47 shooting for 48.9%. Loyd went for 20, Taya Reimer was 8-8 and 16 points and Turner had 11 points, nine boards and seven swats. 

The 16-point loss looks rough on paper...but Louisville was still within striking distance until Moore went to the bench. It reinforces the importance she (and Myisha Hines-Allen) have had on this team as freshman.

The loss also showed us that Louisville simply can't afford to

fall asleep at the wheel for significant stretches in game. When you consider that Moore was the only Cardinal to score for the first 9:40 of the final half one has to wonder what was going on with the other four Cardinals accompanying her out there on the court. 

Last night was a lesson on what the Cards need to do to get to that next level Walz wants them to be at. A veteran team mixed with youth withstands two runs on their home court and delivers a second-half knockout punch. It looked like (to this watcher) the Cards resigned themselves to a loss after Moore sat down and no one stood up to carry on the fight. Someone should have been there to cut into the 11 point Irish lead. Instead, it ballooned to 16. 

Yes, the Cards were getting beaten before Moore fouled out...but great teams step up in adverse situations.  

The scenario is one that Louisville is well-familiar with...they've used it to bury opponents all season long. On Monday night, the roles were reversed. 

Help is on the way next year. Last night, Louisville had no punch left after Moore went to the corner. 

Louisville now sits alone in third place of the ACC...two back of Notre Dame and one behind FSU. The Cards will look to get back on track when Boston College visits Thursday. 

On a night where the Irish front line starters went 12-13 from the floor and sent eight Cardinal inside attempts astray...the best defensive team in the ACC got taught a few lessons in blockage by a sophomore and freshmen. Notre Dame ruled the paint, which is usually Cardinal territory. It was the Cards first double digit loss of the season. 

Worldwide Jeff McAdams was in attendance for this one and he'll either podcast his experiences in South Bend later this week or save them for the Saturday radio show. 

paulie
xxxxx

Monday Cardinal Couple

Big Monday Game in Basketball

In what is certainly one of the biggest games of the year for Women's Basketball, UofL plays one of the perennial powerhouses in Women's Basket in Notre Dame.  This one is in South Bend and is the ESPN2 Big Monday game with a seven o'clock tip.

I doubt we have to do too much scouting for Notre Dame as their lineup is pretty well known to the Louisville faithful.  The biggest threat is likely 5'10" Junior sensation Jewell Loyd, but Notre Dame isn't a one-hit wonder in the guard position, with Loyd being joined with Senior Madison Cable (5'11").

You never want to play a powerhouse team after they come off an upset loss, and we narrowly avoided that with Notre Dame squeaking out a win over Georgia Tech.  The final score was 10 points, but the game was much closer overall.  Notre Dame trailed 34-33 at the half and with as little as 11 minutes left in the game, the scored was knotted up at 51.  Jewell Loyd scored 31, with no other Irish achieving double-digits.  Cable was the next highest scorer with 9.

I'll be in attendance, and hope to get some post-game comments from Coach Walz.

Tennis Loses a Heartbreaker

Tennis matched up against North Texas Sunday in a match that turned out to be quite a nail-biter.  The serve and volley youngsters were tied at three points apiece with Ellie Stokes playing a third set in the last running match.  Unfortunately the Birmingham England Sophomore was unable to pull out the match and the Cards dropped the overall match 4-3.

The Cards got the doubles point to start out with two of the three wins with Ellie Stokes and Freshman Ariana Rodriguez getting a win, and Freshman Jessie Lynn Paul teaming up with the lone Senior on the squad, Manuela Velasquez to clench the doubles point.

In the singles matches, Jessie Lynn Paul and Sophomore Olivia Boesing picked up points.

Tennis takes to the Southeast roadways next with trips to NC State, Duke (this time, it counts in conference), Georgia Tech, and Clemson.  They return to the Bass-Rudd for a 4pm Friday start on March 13th against Wake Forest, and a 11am Sunday start versus North Carolina.

A Correction

Yesterday I mentioned the large contingent of Volleyball Cards invading Colorado Springs for the USA Volleyball tryouts, but the invasion was larger than even I realized as Maya McClendon also made the trip.

- JMcA