Field Hockey wins on Senior Day -- Loretta Kakala transferring -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

BETHANY RUSS GOAL IN O.T. SENDS CARDS PAST MIAMI

In cool and damp conditions and for the second straight contest, the Louisville Field Hockey squad found themselves faced with overtime in their Sunday contest at Trager against Miami (OH). This match had been a scoreless affair, much like the Friday tilt with Duke, until the RedHawks capitalized on a penalty corner with no time left in the first half. 

Louisville drew even with about eight minutes gone in the final half. Meche Pastor sent a baseline shot net-ward that Madison Walsh corralled and put past the RedHawks goalkeeper. For Madison, it was her first score of the season. 

Miami was relentless on the attack, though, and with about 12 minutes of action remaining, drew a couple of penalty corners. The RedHawks found success on the second corner and Leonor Berlie got her second score of the contest to put Miami in the lead. 

As the end of regulation drew near, a succession of green and yellow penalty cards (four in all) started stacking up on the RedHawks and the ultimate came when Miami head coach Inako Puzo received a red card for comments and was ejected from the contest with 32 seconds remaining in regulation. Just a few seconds earlier, the Cards had earned a penalty corner and Bethany Russ got her first score of the contest to tie action at 2-2.

Miami nearly won it at the end of regulation when their leading scorer on the season -- Paula Portugal -- found herself in front of Cardinal goalkeeper Ayeshia McFerran with the ball. Her shot sailed high over the net, though -- the Cards had escaped the last ditch effort by the RedHawks and this bird battle was headed to overtime. 

With the 7v7 format in overtime in place, Miami (OH) actually had just six players on the turf because of the late yellow card on attacker Noor Breedijk and Louisville used the player-up advantage to control action, ultimately getting a penalty corner chance just a minute-thirty into extra action, where Russ delivered again, her ninth goal of the season...this time on a pass from Alli Bitting to end the sudden-victory session. 

More on Puzo...you could hear the Miami skipper's comments and complaints up in the press box and his continuous dissatisfaction and belittling of the officiating crew caught up with him. It's the first time I can remember a coach getting ejected from a field hockey contest that I've seen. He watched the remaining action through the fence on the McDonald's side of Trager. I did see him after the contest back on the field surrounded by his wife and children -- an unfortunate loss of control and decorum by him...earlier...which, although may have not cost the RedHawks the contest -- his assistants seemed in control of the situation out of the field -- but his unfortunate actions certainly didn't help the RedHawks chances. 

Louisville hits the highway for their final three games of the regular season. The Cards will visit ACC foe Syracuse on Oct 21st, swing over to Albany on the 23rd and end up at Kent State on Oct. 28th. 

Paulie caught up with Coach Sowry and the four seniors...Ayeshia McFerran, Maria Gomez, Taylor Stone and Katie Walsh...after the contest and you can hear those interviews below: 

MIAMI POST GAME JUSTINE SOWRY

SENIORS AFTER 3-2 WIN OVER MIAMI


LORETTA KAKALA LEAVING LOUISVILLE WBB SQUAD


The tweets started surfacing Sunday and my voice mail, inbox and texts started piling up in an rapid fashion. 

Redshirt freshman Loretta Kakala had made public via her Instagram account and Twitter feeds indicated that she was transferring from the University of Louisville women's basketball squad. Heading to Pacific (CA) University. 

And the question came up.....why? 

I guess we'll never really know. Indications seemed to lead to the stated desire to play closer to home and get a fresh start with the possibility of more playing time at school very close -- fifteen minutes -- to her home town of Manteca, CA.

Speculation developed after the Cards 2017-18 season what role she would play on the 2018-19 Cardinal WBB squad. Most figured she'd contribute a few minutes on the front line, with returnees Sam Fuehring, Kylee Shook and Bionca Dunham getting the majority of the minutes at power forward and center and incoming transfer Yacine Diop from Pitt definitely contributing there. 

Reports from a source near the program indicated that her conditioning wasn't exactly going as planned but these reports were not confirmed by me and the announcement of her transfer on Sunday caught many Cardinal WBB fans by surprise. The bottom line is, as it is in most transfer situations, is that you want to do the right thing for the player and their student-athlete experience and if it's determined that the player might be more comfortable and receive more playing time elsewhere...then they should go pursue those desires and goals. 

Hello there! 

A check of the UofL roster at the GoCards site still had Kakala listed, but sometimes it takes a bit to change this information, especially when the announcement is made on a Sunday. And, sports information rarely posts or discusses transfers out, which is understandable. 

The 6'2" center played in four games in 2017 for the Cards...a total of 43 minutes (10.8 a game average). She totaled 12 points on 6 for 16 shooting and had 12 rebounds. She red-shirted after the fourth contest. 

Pacific has a D-I women's basketball program and competes in the West Coast Conference. 10 conference members...maybe best known for Gonzaga, BYU and Pepperdine. The Tigers were 15-17 last season with a 7-11 conference mark and finished sixth in the conference. 


So, "Retta"...we barely got to know you and wonder what might have become of your career at UofL but...as women's college basketball fans...certainly wish you good times, a great career and the best of luck at Pacific. 

Transfers in. Transfers out. All an increasing part of the college basketball games these days. The bottom line analysis is that any college basketball roster is going to change throughout the year and those changes, whether they be injury, red-shirt or transfer...have to be dealt with in terms of what is best for the student-athlete and the team must move forward. 


paulie
xxxxx

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

Sunday Cardinal Couple - Field Hockey, Picnic, and Volleyball

Field Hockey Alumnae Game

The kick-off to the Field Hockey calendar is their annual Alumnae game.  Former Cards come from near and far (Vic Stratton probably gets the "farthest from home" award, being from New Zealand) to take on the current squad in a game where the Alumnae are, well, pretty much pre-ordained to go down in glorious defeat.

It's a fun event, alumnae get another chance on the pitch, and hopefully retain enough skills and conditioning (or least sheer numbers) to give the current squad some challenges.  This year? Mission accomplished.  The current squad put up 8 goals on the returnees, but the veterans did get a goal, and put some real pressure on the current squad, which should serve well as part of their warm up for the season.

Veteran returners Taylor Stone and Katie Walsh showed why they are leading this team.  Ayeisha McFerran, who has gained so many International accolades, and particularly Irish, in the past weeks, was relatively quiet.  To be honest, the defense on the current squad team was stout enough for the most part that she spent much of her time with that squad (the GKs, McFerran and backup Hollyn Barr split their time with each side) leaning on her stick, or against the side of the goal frame.

As for new(ish) faces, keep an eye on Mercedes Pastor out of Buenos Aires, Argentina.  She's a 5'1" midfield/attacker and was consistently a part of developing plays and made her presence known in the opponent's circle.  After regulation play, they set up for a shootout to whoever wanted to take shots from either squad.  Some nifty moves were made, and most scored.  Pastor took the last shot, and I think no one decided they wanted to follow it, when she dribbled in and then lofted a shot over the GK and bounced it into the goal.

Soon enough, the teams both came together in Coach Sowry's tradition circle to talk over the competition.  This circle was less about critique of play and more about honoring the alumnae, both those there and who couldn't be there, for their role in building the program.  Both teams introduced themselves around the circle and everyone just generally enjoyed the time together.

We did get post game audio and video with Coach Sowry and alumnae Gianna Perrone and Stephanie Byrne.  The rains did start at the end of the Sowry post-game, so excuse the location shift for the talk with the alumnae.

Picnic? Yes, Picnic

After the Field Hockey festivities concluded, a leisurely walk down Floyd Street to SAC made for a just about a perfect arrival time for the first of what the Volleyball program intends to be an annual event, a season ticket holder picnic.

Paulie joined my mother and me for this one, while Jared went the other direction down Floyd to catch some of the Men's Soccer exhibition action against Evansville.  The Cards would end up winning that one 2-0.

Good BBQ was had, and a fair time for season ticket holders to mix and mingle and catch up with
each other after the off-season, and also get to chat with the players and the coaching staff.  Coach Busboom Kelly did address the crowd and drew some questions from slips that had been submitted earlier by the crowd, mostly delegating answering duties to various players and the coaching staff.  Among the questions asked: 

Q: Who's the best dancer on the team?

A: (by Claire Chaussee, I believe) Bri Lester, who then was asked to prove it, and did so with Aiko Jones' assistance.

Q: Who is the most improved on the team?

A: (by Associate Head Coach Dan Meske) Megan Sloan, but if you asked everyone on the team that, you would get lots of different answers.

Hear some of the attendees for the event here:

https://soundcloud.com/user-748907999/dr0000_1457mp3

Volleyball Red and Black Scrimmage

As the team went off to prepare for their Red and Black Scrimmage, the crowd started to filter into Cardinal Arena (with some very real appreciation for the air conditioning after the muggy afternoon weather) and made their way to seats.  Most fans continue to arrive, until Cardinal Arena was maybe half full, a pretty good turnout for a pre-season volleyball intra-squad scrimmage.

In past years, players would frequently switch between the Red and White teams (yes, they were wearing red and white jerseys, even though the event is called the Red and Black Scrimmage), but there was none of that this year.  The white team was weighted with the bulk of the returning veterans and expected starters...though not all of them.  Despite the red team being heavily loaded with newcomers, they put up a real fight against the white squad, picking up one set out of the 4 set match.

(Photo by Jared Anderson - JDA Photography)

Particularly impressive was Claire Chaussee, a 5'11" freshman outside hitter from Sun Prairie,
Wisconsin.  She had 10 kills for the red team, matching veteran Amanda Green's 10 for the red, but also adding 11 digs for a double-double right out of the gate.  Chaussee impressed as an all-around player with a dynamite serve, a great swing, and, already as a freshman, a good head for the game.  Oh, and she also has some wheels, chasing down a shanked pass deep in the out of bounds area behind the court that I thought was unreachable.

Also shining on the red team was transfer Kelly O'Neil.  Classified as a sophomore and transferring back home from Arizona to Louisville where she played high school ball at Mercy Academy.  O'Neil is a 5'7" DS, and gathered 20 digs for the red team in the match.

On the white team side of the net, mostly veterans figured into the play.  Melanie McHenry, starting out her junior year, continued to be a dominant player, picking up a match high 13 kills.  She was followed by a newcomer to the team, Marijke van Dyke with 12, and Piper Roe picked up 10 in the middle along with 4 blocks.  Molly Sauer, unsurprisingly in the libero jersey for the white team, came away with 30 digs.

As for overall takeaways from this event, first you'll be amazed at just the sheer number of players on this team with a roster of 19, and as of right now, everyone seems generally healthy.  Aiko Jones had her swinging hand wrapped, and seemed to be flexing it like it was giving her some minor issues, but not enough to stop her from swinging away.  Consider that there are at most 12 players on scholarship, and consider what that means about how many players have decided that they want to play at Louisville and are willing to pay their own way to do so.

There is a lot of talent among the new faces on this team.  Claire Chaussee really stood out to me, with Aiko Jones showing amazing athletic ability that, with some refining, will result in an amazing player.  We've got DSes coming out of the woodwork, with Kelly O'Neil being perhaps the biggest addition.

Dan Meske pointed to Megan Sloan for most improved, but I'll nominate Akela Yuhl for the honor.

This is a difficult comparison as they play completely different roles on the team, with Sloan being solely a hitter, and Yuhl being solely defense, but Yuhl progressed from being the stereotypical walk-on player where the crowd was just excited to see her take the court last year, to this year being able to hold her own among a crowd of good DSes.  She's not a stand-out player, but the progression from last year to yesterday is impressive.  Most notably, she was composed and aware of everything going on out on the court, positioning herself well and just playing good volleyball.

The setter position is where we will be weakest, or at least won't have the depth of other positions.  Wilma Rivera is a great setter, and will serve us well in that role, but beyond that, it gets a little rough.  Our back-up setter is Anaya Martin, a 5'7" freshman out of Tyrone, GA.  She has talent and skills (she set for the red team), but she does need some time to mature and hone her abilities.  That will happen, but for now, if we lose Rivera for some reason, it's going to be a little bit of tough going.

All in all, I think this team will surprise on the upside.  There's not a whole lot of room to improve, qualitatively, within the ACC, being defending co-champions, so this team is looking to the NCAA tourney primarily for their goals this year.  The team wants to defend Card Arena again this year, with the goal of being undefeated at home, but they also look to hang some more black banners.  The motif that has been established is that conference banners are red and NCAA banners are black.  At present there are many red banners in Card arena, but only 4 black (representing Sweet 16 appearances, the most recent being 2005).  This team looks to add to that, and all indications are that they have a really good shot at it.

Action Friday in Cardinal Arena with a double-header in the Cardinal Classic. Tennessee-Martin at 12:30 p.m. and Southern Illinois at 7:30 p.m. Don't miss it!

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

A knucklehead-full house yesterday at the Magnificent Media Mansion on Mellwood. We had the entire "A" team on-board and they were on their "A" game.

The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour was a fun show with lots of recap and analysis by our soccer expert Case on the Cardinals season opening victory over Wright State.  We heard audio from Emina Ekic and Coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes.

You can check out the FaceBook Live replay at:

https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/231627561028232/

-- 

JMcA

Angel, Asia, Ayeshia and Myisha: How Are They Doing? -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

NUMBERS ON THE CARDINAL TRIO IN THE WNBA

UPDATE: Ireland defeats India 1-0 to advance to the Women's Field Hockey World Cup quarterfinals. Louisville's Ayeshia McFerran with a shutout in goalkeep and several great saves for the Irish...now 2-0. 

As the WNBA heads to their All-Star game, we though we'd catch you up on how the three UofL WBB players in the league are faring. 

ANGEL McCOUGHTRY -- ATLANTA DREAM

The Dream are having the most success of the three teams that have Cardinal WBB players on them and Angel is a huge part of Atlanta's success. Atlanta is 16-9 on the season, in second place in conference standings and 2.5 games behind league leader Seattle as of 7/25/18, and Angel is the second leading scorer for the Dream with 16.5 points per game. 

The Dream defeated Los Angeles 81-71 Tuesday night and Angel had 19 points to lead Atlanta in scoring. She also grabbed seven rebounds in the win, which was streaking Atlanta's eighth win in a row. Putting in a team-high 31 minutes, Angel also pilfered three steals. Tied after three, the Dream outscored the Sparks by 10 in the fourth quarter. 

McCoughtry is the second leading scorer this year for Atlanta with  16.5 p.p.g and averages 28 minutes on court. She's started 24 of the 25 Atlanta games. She be in the All-Star game Saturday, playing for team (Candace) Parker.

Interesting that the WNBA has eliminated the conference vs. conference match up in the All-Star Game and the player selections were made by a "draft" between the two players that have the squads named after them...Parker and Elena Della Donne. 


MYISHA HINES-ALLEN -- WASHINGTON MYSTICS

At 14-11 and in seventh place in the overall league standings, the Mystics are 4.5 games back of the league leaders. Myisha Hines-Allen, who has been on the roster all season is serving primarily as a back-up player on the front line in her rookie season in the WNBA. 

In Tuesday action, the Mystics ran into a tough Connecticut Sun foe and fell 94-68 despite winning the first quarter. Myisha saw 11 minutes and picked up four points and three rebounds in the loss. 

She's played in 22 of the Mystics' 25 games this season and has 1 start to her credit. She's been averaging 11 minutes per contest and scoring 3.9 points per game. 

Such are the trials and tribulations of being a rookie on a team that has an unquestionable superstar like Delle Donne. The Mystics play three guards a lot to set up Della Donne and we're no WNBA experts here but have noticed that Washington averages -1.0 rebounds less than their opponents this season. Maybe Myisha could help that stat? Interesting that Hines-Allen was averaging 18 minutes a game in the Mystics' first nine games (where they were 6-3) but time has dropped off since then. 


ASIA TAYLOR -- INDIANA FEVER

Woe is the plight of the Fever, the worst team in the WNBA with a 3-23 record. Asia Taylor was picked up by Indiana after Washington released her and has provided a back-up role on a team that seems to have lost their identity and has no clear leadership on the court. Asia played in the Tuesday night 92-72 loss to league-leading Seattle but saw just three minutes with no points and no rebounds.

For the season with the Fever, Asia has played in 13 contests with no starts. She averages 2.0 points per game and 8.3 minutes a night. 

Surprising that a team with Candice Dupree and Cappie Pondexter, who both have 12 years inn the league, could be so bad. Three very talented rookies in Victoria Vivians (Mississippi St) and Ohio State stars Kelsey Mitchell and Stephanie Mavunga have seen plenty of time but Indiana just can't seem to find a winning balance. 

Losers of seven out of their last eight, maybe Indiana and head coach Pokey Chatman needs to shake things up a bit and give our Asia a bit more time on the court? Let's be perfectly frank and honest here. Could it get any worse for the Fever? Give A-Tayy, the rookies and Natalie Achonwa a chance to see what they can do. 

We wish all three Cardinals Forever the best of luck in what's left of the WNBA schedule and hope that their successes are huge the rest of the way. 


USA FIELD HOCKEY TIES ENGLAND 1-1

In their second contest in the Women's Field Hockey World Cup, the United States pulled off a pretty big surprise by tying #2 ranked England 1-1 yesterday in London, England. Almost 11,000 on hand for this one...The English taking a 1-0 lead after a scoreless first half but USA getting the equalizer from Erin Matson (UNC) about five minutes later for the tie and final score. 

Trying to find a box score for this event is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Coupled with the fact that the events are now pay-per-view, it's almost like the USA Field Hockey Association is trying to drive fans away instead of fostering interest. I never came up with a box score. Let me know if you find this pebble on a beach. 

UofL's Nicole Woods is part of the 30 player roster and Taylor Stone plus Katie Walsh on the Development roster. Woods has graduated from UofL. Stone and Walsh will be seniors for Justine Sowry in the 2018 season. Not sure if Woods played or not since I didn't purchase the event. 

Ireland, with UofL goalie Ayeshia McFerran in net, will take on India this morning at 9 a.m. EST. I'm debating buying this one. 


Grudingly. It's only $3 but it's the principle here. 


paulie
xxxxx

A Look Ahead at Field Hockey -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

A Brief Preview of Field Hockey

If the title looks familiar to you, let me say thank you for frequenting Cardinal Couple. Last week, I wrote a short piece about the upcoming women's soccer season. I called it a preview, but it ultimately became just some opinions about how the team might perform with the changes that have been made to the roster. With a lot of news about field hockey on and off the site this week, I figured it would be a good time to do the same thing for the field hockey team that I did last week for women's soccer. Admittedly, I know quite a bit less about field hockey than I do about soccer, but I have followed the team with interest since coming on as a writer at Cardinal Couple.

First, a quick look at some more honors that came in for UofL field hockey players. Four players on the team have been tabbed as potential future USA players, as Taylor Stone, Katie Walsh, Carter Ayers, and Meghan Schneider have been invited to Olympic Development camps. They'll join Ayeisha McFerran as players hoping to represent their country (McFerran is already on the World Cup roster for Ireland). I mentioned it last week, but these opportunities to train with the best players in your age group in the entire nation are incredibly helpful in the development of skills and understanding of the game. UofL Coach Justine Sowry is an incredible coach and teaches her players all kinds of things, but she would likely be the first to tell you that having additional training from other sources is nothing but helpful in situations such as these. Congratulations and good luck to these players.

Last year's season ended with a first round knockout in the NCAA tournament. After an overall 12-6 regular season record and a deep conference tournament run, it would not be unfair to say that a first round exit was a bit disappointing. However, the loss came at the hands of a good Northwestern team, and Louisville showed fight, losing only in overtime. Louisville's performance in conference last season (4-2 and a run to the semifinal game) is a much better indicator of their future success this season, as the ACC is widely considered the best field hockey conference by far. Louisville will hope to build on the experiences and success that they had last season going into a new year, in which much of last year's team returns.

Let's first look at the schedule. Outside of the conference matchups, which we already know will be rematches, Louisville plays seven games against non-conference opponents that they played last regular season. This includes rematches with Ohio State, Michigan, and Northwestern, who accounted for 4 of the 8 Louisville losses last season, and a game that counts against Miami (OH), with whom the Cards played only an exhibition last season. Following the alumnae game on August 18th, Louisville will dive straight into the meat of their schedule starting the very next day. They'll open the season with Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio State (all rematches), a breather game against UMass Lowell (which will need to be taken as seriously as any other game), and then a rematch against a Delaware team on the road that won the national championship two years ago (Card won last season 3-1 at home). If the Cards aren't awake to start this season, they could find themselves in an early hole. If they're chomping at the bit, ready to improve on their last year, though, they could open the season 5-0 with some impressive wins already under their belts.

Louisville will play a total of 19 regular season games, including the standard 6 against conference opponents. This schedule appears to be every bit as beefy as last season, if not more. Coach Sowry will need to get her team ready from the very beginning, as there is no time to ease into the schedule. Fortunately, she has a team of very experienced players that should be ready to answer the call. Of 16 players on the current roster (which does not include incoming freshman), 9 are juniors and seniors. These include the previously mentioned McFerran, Stone, Ayars, and Walsh, and adds in the influential Whena Munn and backup goalie (who was huge early last season) Hollyn Barr. The Cards did see four major losses last year with Abby Grimes, Marigrace Ragsdale, and Nicole Woods graduating and Minout Mink returning home after deciding the international life was not for her. Though the players filling these gaps have plenty of their own experience, we won't truly know the impact of these losses until the season is underway in earnest. All four players played in 22 of 22 games last season with Grimes, Ragsdale, and Woods all starting at least 21. The four players were all in the top 6 in team goals, and Mink was the team's leading goal scorer. These players will be missed to be sure, but only time will tell exactly how much.

Fortunately, the team stands to weather the departures. Every returning player on the roster saw at least 100 minutes last season, so the experience and knowledge of Coach Sowry's system is there. For better or worse, that majority of the schedule comes against teams that these players have faced before, so there is familiarity in the opponent as well. While the opponents know just as much about the Cards, there is benefit to newer players being comfortable with an opponent while trying to cement their roles. Louisville could have some bumps this season, but I would be shocked to see less than a .500 conference season and a .600 season overall. Those numbers may not be enough to get into the NCAA tournament, but those are only floor numbers for me. I believe that with the experience that this team returns, the ceiling is much higher. It all starts at the alumnae game on August 18th. We'll find out then.

The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Once again, Jared has chosen his job over his hobby and will abandon us at the station for his job at the bank. What a jerk, amirite? In all honesty, we look forward to Jared's return to the studio for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. Until then, we'll press on without him. Paulie, Jeff, and I will return to the studio on Mellwood and may or may not be joined by a special guest (Paulie really doesn't keep me as in the loop as you might think). Tune in to WCHQ FM at 11 AM for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour on any platform that you listen to radio. WCHQ is available at 100.9 FM when in the signal range, but can be listened to anywhere on the WCHQ app or wchqfm.com and you can watch the show on Facebook Live on the WCHQ FM Facebook page.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Worldwide Looks On The Bright Side -- Sunday Cardinal Couple

First off...

You might have figured out that many of us here at Cardinal Couple like musical references and borrowing themes from songs.

Today's theme: "Always Look On the Bright Side of Life" from Monty Python's Life of Brian.

You can listen to the tune HERE....be advised there is one "potty" word in the lyrics...if that kind of thing brings you down. There were plenty of potty words out at PJCS yesterday...

To that end, we're going to keep this first section really short.

Football

Boston College, who is, let's face it, the traditional doormat of the ACC Atlantic division, came in to
PJCS and hung an L on the Cardinal Football team, 45-42.  Novels could be written about this one, and I suspect, if you combine the output of various sports media properties associated with Cardinal Athletics, essentially one has already been written.

Paulie reports that Louisville played
 "efense" quite a bit  ( no "D") 

Moving on.

Swimming and Diving

The SMU Classic has wrapped up and UofL Swimming and Diving finished the competition in 2nd place.  8th ranked USC just narrowly edged UofL out of the top spot, by half a point.  UofL came into the competition ranked 7th, and beat out 6th ranked Michigan by 8 and a half points.

Mallory Comerford won all 3 of the events she entered, the 500 free...she's not just a sprinter, folks...the 100 free, and the 200 free relay.  Beyond those victories, there were a lot of 2nd and 3rd place finishes.

The other victory for the Cards last night was in the 200 medley relay, with Alina Kendzior, Maria Astashkina, Grace Oglesby, and Lainey Visscher.  Molly Fears, who won the 1-meter springboard event Friday evening, came in 4th in the 3-meter event.

This meet was a great showing, in a unique format, by one of the most successful teams at UofL right now against very high level competition.

Field Hockey

Minnie

We've said it many times before.  ACC Field Hockey is mind-bogglingly good.  UofL met the latest
challenge in the conference gauntlet with the #11 Cardinals squad meeting the #5 North Carolina squad.  

While it was a bit of a lackluster first half, they did go into halftime tied with the TarHeels at one apiece.  The Cardinals goal came on a corner with 12 minutes left in the first half.  Marisa Martin Pelegrina inbounded the corner, Katie Walsh provided the stop, and Minout "I score goals" Mink fired it home.  If you're keeping track, and I think Jared has given up at this point, that's a team leading nine for her on the season.

The Cardinals would score again early in the 2nd half on another corner.  Abby Grimes gets the tally on this one off the stop by Marigrace Ragsdale.  The insert came from Marisa Martin Pelegrina.  UNC would tie it up again at 2-2 on a rebound from a shot.  The final, game winning, score of the game came just a couple of minutes later with just under 10 minutes left in the game when Taylor Stone to the rock to the hole unassisted.

Ayeshia

With about 8 minutes left in the game, UNC called a timeout and lifted their GK to get a little more offense on the field.  The Cards were able to hold off the extra attacking and finish out the game with the 3-2 win.

This is another huge positive result for the Field Hockey squad.  After their woes early in the season on penalty corners, it's good to see them pull that part of play together and get two goals out of their corners.

In ACC standings, this win leaves the Cards tied for 1st with only Virginia, dropping UNC to 3-2, compared to the 4-1 records of UofL and UVA.  Duke also holds a 3-2 record to hold the tie with UNC in 3rd.  Beyond that, the standings are Wake Forest at 2-3, Syracuse at 2-4, and Boston College at 0-5. The Cards face the Hoos next (at Virginia) for top spot in the conference. 

Next Up

On tap today, all four of the golf and tennis squads are in action.  Only Men's Tennis is here in the 'Ville, at Bass-Rudd hosting the Louisville Invitational.

For a entry in the  Panera Card drawing...be the FIRST
to identify this guy in front
 (by name in movie) in the
comments section.

In team sports, Volleyball finishes the weekend at home with a 3 o'clock start (note the later than
typical start time!) against Georgia Tech.  I've said in past articles and on the radio that GT really shouldn't be a major challenge for this UofL team the way the Cards have been playing, Dani Busboom Kelly, after the Clemson match Friday, disagreed, and GT really is something of an enigma.  In one week of play, they lost in four to Boston College, who isn't an absolutely awful team...but they're not very good, either.  Then they go in Friday and beat Notre Dame in 4.  OK, Notre Dame isn't the powerhouse they used to be, they're rebuilding (and rebuilding fast!), but they can put up some stiff competition and GT rose to the challenge.  Admittedly, Notre Dame is also a bit of an enigma this year, having split a two match home and home weekend with Ohio State, though that's somewhat explicable by pointing out that each team won on their home floor.  Then they went 1-1 on a weekend at home losing to Miami and beating Florida State.  And, ok, you can kind of explain that by pointing out that FSU isn't nearly as good as we thought they were early in the season, but they are still a good team.

The takeaway from all of this I think can only be, if you're trying to predict outcomes in ACC volleyball right now, Good Luck!  If UofL shows up and plays the way that we know they are capable of playing, this should be a win today, but things are topsy turvy enough around the conference that it's really hard to get a good feel of how good various teams are, and that certainly includes the engineers from Atlanta.

This one will be on the ACC Network Extra. Could we possibly get out buddy Cortnee Walton doing some audio?

CCRH

Julie JC Sullivan also goes by the
moniker "Bird Lady".  

The recording of The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour is up on the Soundcloud.  You can listen to the replay, here.  I was able to catch most of the broadcast via TuneIn in my car on my way to Indianapolis where I joined my mother for a zany 20 minute dash in and out of an opening weekend Ikea store.  What I will say is that the Swedes (did you know that they're actually headquartered in The Netherlands, now?) know how to do traffic and crowd control really well.  Over 7,000 had entered the store as we were going in at around 1pm, and yet we were able to make it in, pick up what we needed and get out in 20 minutes.  Impressive!

Back on topic, I was able to hear Jared, JC, and Case cover the latest, and deal with the tense confusion of pre-recorded shows ("This event will have been played by the time you hear this.").  They did a fine job, and it was an excellent show, please check it out if you didn't hear it at broadcast time.

-- 

JMcA

On Field Hockey, Volleyball and Tom...MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FIELD HOCKEY CHIPS AWAY AT CHIPPEWAS 

When a squad get off 27 shots compared to the opponent's two, when 17 are on goal and the foe has none on goal...and the visitor comes into your place 0-10 on the season, you might expect a pretty lopsided score.

That wasn't the case, though, yesterday at Trager Field. #12 University of Louisville did defeat the Central Michigan Chippewas 2-0 in front of abut 300 fans...some who were displaying pro-UofL and Tom Jurich posters...but it wasn't a blowout. 

It was the fourth win in a row for the Cards (8-4) and they swept the quartet of home games over the last two weeks. Coach Justine Sowry did play a multitude of different combinations in the UofL victory and was effusive in her praise for the Chips: 

"I think Central Michigan played well. They had good energy, they defended well in numbers. I think they are better than what their records shows and their goalkeeper had an outstanding game today." 

That goalie, Lily Amadio, had a total of 15 saves against Louisville. Down at the other net, Coach Sowry gave Ayeshia McFerran and Hollyn Barr equal minutes defending the pipes with 35 each. They had no saves in a contest where the ball rarely got out of UofL's offensive possession. 

Our favorite, Minnie Mink, got the scoring started for the Red and the Black after 25 minutes of scoreless action on the pitch. She popped in an unassisted goal on a nice reverse stick shot from the top of the circle. The squads went to the halftime locker room at 1-0 and Louisville had a 16-0 shot edge. 

Louisville continued the storming of the pitch in the final 35 minutes...Nicole Woods getting the final net-finder with 12 minutes left in the contest. The Beverly, MA senior has five goals on the season but wasn't too worried about that...telling me in the post-game interview that she wasn't even sure how many scores she had on the year, the important thing was just the ball getting into the back of the net however and whoever does it. 

Jared catches me trying to figure out technology

It is usually a dicey situation...playing a Sunday non-conference match-up after a huge conference Friday win...like the Cards had against Syracuse. A letdown, bit of a hangover after downing the Orange? A fatigue factor? Not so much, according to Justine Sowry...but Katie Walsh commented about that a bit more in the interview below. 

The Cards leave the friendly confines of Trager to spent a weekend in New England next. They face Boston College ( a 6 p.m. Friday NIGHT game...pay heed UofL planners) and then onto New Hampshire for a Sunday 1 p.m. tilt. 

Great photo work Sunday from Jared Anderson. You can see the rest of his shots he snapped at the contest on Facebook. He's a ball of energy, from press box to field..then rinse and repeat. Coincidentally, Minnie scored in the presence of Jared as he framed her up. Or was it coincidence? 

We have Paulie's interviews with Coach, Nicole and also junior and Louisville Ballard grad Katie Walsh below. 

A win is a win and they're all important in trying to make the NCAA Field. Louisville FH accomplished that and moves forward without the rear-view mirror attached. 

PAULIE AND COACH JUSTINE SOWRY

KATIE WALSH AND PAULIE

NIK NIK NICOLE WOODS POST-GAME WITH PAULIE


VOLLEYBALL DEFENDS CARDINAL ARENA WITH SWEEP

From a visitng "0-fer" squad on one end of the campus to an undefeated guest on the north end of Belknap. Louisville Volleyball took down undefeated Miami yesterday in Cardinal Arena in a straight-set sweep  25-17, 25-22, 25-20..

The Cards were led by sophomore outside hitter Melanie McHenry and her 15 kills. Junior Jasmine Bennett was also active at the net with eight blocks...featuring two of them at the very end of the third set to end the game. 

Louisville held Miami to .097 hitting for the match and Coach Dani Busboom Kelly was quite pleased with the job Louisville did spreading the offense and maintaining a nice rhythm in the hitting attack. 

The Cards jumped out to a early 5-2 lead in the first game. Miami rallied to make it 11-9 but the Cards went on a 6-1 run to put the contest in their hands. In game two, Louisville grabbed a 9-3 early lead but Miami responded to tie at 19-19. The Cards got a timeout, refocused and scored the final three points for the three-point win. Continuing the trend, Louisville jumped out early, withstood a Miami charge that put them ahead 19-18 but, thatnks to Bennett and crew, Louisville went on a game-ending 6-1 run. 

The Wide-netters head to Virginia next for a road trip that takes them to Charlottesville (UVA) and Blacksburg (Va. Tech). With yesterday's win, the Cards are now 8-5 on the season and 3-1 in ACC play. 


BOARD MEETING ON TOM

As I type this article up here on Monday morning, the Board of Trustees is in executive session discussing the events of last week. We could learn the fate of Tom Jurich later today and we'll jump back in and post that when (and if) it is determined .

I haven't talked to a coach or player yet in the past five days that wants Tom to go and I have to agree with them. He has built so many things here at UofL and not just contribution-wise-on-buildings and structures. He built a strong women's program here. He got us into the ACC. 

Keep Tom. 

Update: No one was fired today at the meeting. Because of it being a "personnel" issue, interim President Postal would not discuss either Rick Pitino or Tom Jurich. We could learn of a possible interim Athletic Director on Tuesday. Other than that, there is nothing else of major importance that came out of the board meeting. 


FINALLY...

Our hearts go out to those involved in the senseless Las Vegas shooting during the concert. Over 50 dead. Over 400 injured. 

Apparently, a "lone-wolf" attack. From the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Hotel. A coward, killing himself as police tried to enter the room. 

This madness makes no sense to me. Country music singer Jason Aldean was on stage, playing before a crowd of over 22,000 at the Route 91 concert. 

A fun, festive evening transformed into a bloody slaughter...filled with panic, choas and terror. We worry about our current University situation, folks, but this is real. And sad. A mystery. No clear indication of what the motive could have been...yet. 

Why? 


paulie
xxxxx