Nine down and Nine To Go for WBB -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS AND DUKE ATOP THE ACC WBB RANKINGS. 

We are halfway through the ACC WBB conference slate now and...even though the city of Louisville is in a polar deep freeze currently, the women's basketball team is "en fuego". 

At 9-0 in conference and 19-3 overall, the Cards and Duke are the only two teams at 9-0 and the much awaited matchup between these two will be on Feb 5th in the KFC YUM CENTER. The Thursday night matchup will be shown on ESPN. 

The Cards are ranked #7 in the nation and Duke checks in at #20. Duke has struggled out of conference, with losses to West Virginia, South Florida, South Carolina, UCLA, LSU and Baylor....for a 5-6 record out of the ACC, Five of the schools they lost to, however, are in the top 25. 

Retired head coach "Katie the Lady" Meier of Miami

Duke has won 11 in a row, though, under Kara Lawson ...but faces a potentially tough outing in their next game, when the face Miami on Thursday in Miami. Head coach Tricia Cullop, formerly out of Toledo, is in her second year at "The U" . Former head coach Katie Meier is now a "special advisor and ambassador" for Miami athletics in Coral Gables and "Katie the Lady" was always a tough out for Walz and company when the two matched up....hanging losses on the Cards in 2022 and 2019.  

Looking at Louisville, their west coach swing , coming up next, should prove to be an interesting test for these Cards. Thursday, January 29th has the Cards on the Stanford (4-4, 15-6)  campus and Feb 1st brings the Cards to Cal (3-5, 12-8) . I do applaud the scheduling that lets  Louisville get both West coast games in a row...but I still have to chuckle when I tell people that the Cards have two Atlantic Coast Conference games in California. 

Toby Fournier is the leading scorer of Kara Lawson's crew, at 17.7 points per game and she had a long laundry list of schools she consider back in 2024. She also grabs 7.7 rebounds a contest. The Toronto Canada native looked at South Carolina, UConn, Stanford, UCLA, North Carolina, Arizona and Michigan. And, she's just a sophomore...if you needed any other reasons to have a headache. Maybe one redeeming feature for an opponent is to foul her...she is 68 for 129 (53%) from the charity stripe. 

So, who are some of the more worrisome foes left in the Cards final nine conference games before the tournament? Duke, obviously...and Cal, Stanford, Notre Dame and Syracuse. 

Any ACC WBB game, though, can be a nightmare for a visiting team, especially on the road...because of the big home team fan support in the league. Maybe it's just best to follow the philosophy of UFC great Conor McGregor when he said

"Success isn't a result of arrogance, it's a result of belief." 

paulie

Cards WBB hosts Va. Tech -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 #13 CARDS FACE HOKIES ON ACC NEWWORK

13-3 (3-0) Louisville women's basketball puts their unbeaten conference record on the line when a dangerous Va. Tech team comes to town for a 4 p.m. match up in the KFC YUM! Center and on the ACC Network. 

Louisville has completed a six pack (of wins) recently and faces an opponent that that never really been an easy pushover for the Red and Black. The overall series between these two is 24-21 in favor of the Cards...not many Cards fans will ever forget the powerhouse Liz Kitley. 

Kitley is no longer playing for the Hokies (thank goodness...) but is back on campus as an "Assistant to the head coach for External Operations" Yeah, sounds like one of those made up title to me as well...ok...kinda like a Director of Media Relations. I mean, seriously, I never knew the "media" ever needed any "direction" ..but I guess VT head coach Megan Duffy likes the company and Va. Tech has managed to survive the loss of Kenny Brooks to that school in Fayette County that wears blue and white. If Kitley comes to the game, she'll be easy to spot, of course...extremely beautiful and 6'5" 

Kitley got her degree in 2003 in human Nutrition, Food and Exercise. I wonder  what those finals were like....Eating the right foods while running?  

But let's get on to learning about the 2025-26 squad from Blacksburg. They re 11-4 coming into the Louisville game, unranked in the national polls and have wins over Towson, Gardiner-Webb, Loyola Marymount, Coastal Carolina, Abbott and Costello (just kidding on that one!!), Niagara, Florida, Presbyterian. Oregon St.  ETSU, FSU, and Radford  Losses have come to James Madison, BYU, Duke and ...most recently...Miami on New Years Day. 

Carys Baker

VT has three players in double figure scoring for the season....Carys Baker (13.7), Carleigh Wenzel (13.0) and Mel Daley (11.6)

It's National Spaghetti Day here in the states...so make sure and pay due diligence by carbing up.  I like mine with those tiny meatballs, garlic bread and maybe a small side salad with ranch dressing. I gotta watch my phosphorus and potassium levels...so light on the red sauce, please...for me. My old buddy Sonny Lentini was "a red sauce" man, his dad was a "white sauce" man...and his daughters are still...beautiful. Enough on that, Paulie. I still miss Lentini's food. 

We'll recap this ball game tomorrow...it is too crazy to "want a bowl" at 8:45 a.m.? 

We go into double figures...ten days..of the prejudicial banning of Cardinal Couple representatives from covering UofL sports from media seats. Maybe we'll hear something once classes start again. one thing is for sure, they can't censor our website. In better days, Sonya and I covered all the home games, attended both visiting and home coaches post-game pressers and had a photographer. Do you want Jared Anderson photos back on this site?  Let UofL know. Maybe let Amy Calabrese know...she is the deputy athletic director/senior women's administrator.

She might even be able to get you a free trip down Jeff's Walz's slide. 

paulie 

 

VolleyCards advance to the Elite Eight -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Good morning readers,
It is finally Friday and I hope you are getting in the Christmas spirit!  I do know that my mood significantly improved yesterday after Cards got the win at Freedom Hall.  I just love being able to drop a UofL Classic reference with relevance!  It warmed my heart knowing thousands of people were filling the building at the Fairgrounds with new memories.  I wasn't able to make it out there during the work day, but I did pull it up on my phone at the desk.

I am proud that UofL continues its historic run! 

                Photo: Jared Anderson

VOLLEYBALL

UofL remains undefeated on the season, continuing their quest for the national championship.

The Cards opened their visit to historic Freedom Hall with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-22, 25-12) sweep of the #16 Florida Gators Thursday afternoon in front of a crowd of more than 3,000. As a team, the Cardinals had 43 kills, hitting .341 with four aces, 36 digs and nine blocks. Amaya Tillman hit a team-high .667 for seven kills on nine swings.

Florida got off to a quick 3-0 start but the Cardinals would not be intimidated as they went on to score seven straight, led by Anna DeBeer and Tillman.   With the lead 7-3 Louisville, Florida called a timeout. The Cards only giving up one more point before getting the serve back with a 9-5 lead. With the serve, Louisville put together another run to extend its lead to seven at 12-5 over the Gators. Florida scored two to get back within five at 12-7, but UofL wouldn't let up, scoring two of their own before stringing together another three-point scoring run, highlighted by an ace and kill from DeBeer.  The Gators would call their final timeout of the set down 17-8. The teams traded points following the timeout before UF rallied for a 3-0 run of their own forcing UofL to call its first timeout of the set with a 19-13 lead.  Coming out of the TO, a big kill from Claire Chaussee would put the Cards up 20-13. The teams once again traded points but solid serving from Aiko Jones would push the Cards to take the final four points of the set, giving UofL a 25-16 victory in set one.

                                                                           Photo: Jared Anderson

Set two would be the most competitive of the three in the match, Florida striking first. taking a 3-1 lead with the Cardinals storming back with three straight for a 4-3 lead. From there, the teams traded points, Florida giving their all to keep their season alive a little longer.  With the Gators up 8-7, back-to-back kills from Tillman and Aiko Jones got the Louisville offense fired up, scoring three consecutive points to take a 10-8 lead. The Cards then took four of the next six points to extend their lead to four at 14-10. Florida rallied to score four straight points and tie the set at 14-14 before a service error gave Louisville a 15-14 lead heading into the media timeout. The Gators were aggressive out of the TO, scoring another three straight to take a 17-15 lead. The Cardinals rallied to tie the set 17-17, but another two points from Florida put UofL down 19-17 late and forced Louisville to call its first timeout of the set. The teams traded points following the timeout, but two straight points off kills from Chaussee and Jones brought the Cards back within one at 21-20 and forced Florida to use a timeout.  After giving up the first point after the break, UofL scored the next two points to even the score 22-22 and force the Gators to call their second and final timeout of the set. The Cards closed the set landing three straight kills to win the second set 25-22.

                 Photo: Jared Anderson 

Louisville carried all of the momentum into the third set, scoring four of the first five points to jump out to an early 4-1 lead. The Cardinals forced the Gators to take an early timeout after scoring two more points to extend their lead to 6-2.  The teams traded points out of the break with UofL maintaining its four-point lead at 10-6. The Cardinals hammered four more straight points, led by Tori Dilfer with an ace and a kill, to extend their lead to seven at 13-6. Florida battled for two points to get back within five, but Louisville kept pushing, going on a 3-0 run to go up 17-9 late in the set. The Gators scored one to stop the Cardinals' run but were forced to call their final timeout after Anna Stevenson landed a kill and block back-to-back to put the Cards up nine at 19-10. Louisville continued to dominate the set, scoring four straight points out of the timeout to extend its lead to 23-10 and cap off a 6-0 run. UofL would go on to take two of the next four points to take the third set 25-12 and finish of the 3-0 sweep. 

                                                                                 Photo: Jared Anderson

The Gators ran out of gas as the Cards poured on the fire power.  Jared was out there snapping photos and Jeff led the C-A-R-D-S chants from the sidelines. 

NEXT UP:

The Cardinals face off against a familiar ACC foe in #8 seeded Georgia Tech on Saturday, Dec. 11 at 6 p.m. ET closing out the Freedom Hall region for a trip to the Final Four.  It will be shown on ESPNU.

The Cards swept GT 6-0 this season when they were the #18 and #14 ranked team in the country. 

The Yellow Jackets swept Ohio State 3-0 Thursday following the Cards' match.  The match was a close one throughout, however, with the GT winning 25-22, 26-24, 25-21.  Georgia Tech has defeated the Citadel, WKU and OSU to secure the matchup with the Cards. 

                                    

Photo: Jared Anderson 

Other matches around the NCAA Tournament:

Pittsburgh sweeps Kansas 3-0

Purdue over BYU 3-2

Pittsburgh vs Purdue Saturday 12/11

Minnesota over Baylor 3-2

Wisconsin over UCLA 3-0

Minnesota vs Wisconsin Saturday 12/11

Nebraska over Illinois 3-0.

Texas over Washinton 3-2

Nebraska will face Texas on Saturday 12/11.

Thoughts on this weekend:

Good luck to the WBB squad as they take on Kentucky Sunday afternoon at the KFC Yum! Center.  The Cats are coming off of a loss 85-94 to DePaul on Thursday evening, a game that was held at Rupp Arena rather than Memorial Coliseum.  Meanwhile the Cards last played on Sunday December 5th with the win over Belmont.  The #7 and 7-1 WBB squad popped over to Freedom Hall on Thursday afternoon to catch the #1 VolleyCards victory over Florida.

The Cardinal Coupe Radio Hour Podcast will go into the Volleyball win in more depth on Saturday at 11 a.m. Don't miss it! You can find it at any of your favorite podcast directories. 

 
                                                                                Photo: Jared Anderson

Good luck to ALL of the Cards this weekend! ~Daryl

Signing Day -- One Day Until... -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Signing Day

Yesterday was signing day for many teams and we saw plenty of Louisville commits across several sports. We saw dozens of names pop up and I'm going to try my best to list the commits for each sport so bear with me here!

Volleyball Signs Three

-Alexis Finnvold, 6'0 setter from Boca Raton, Fla.

-Hannah Sherman, 6'1 middle blocker from Silver Springs, Md.

-Nina Moorer, 6'0 outside hitter from Missouri City, Texas

Softball Signs Four

-Sarah Gordon, catcher from Lexington, S.C.

-Cassie Grizzard, pitcher from Midlothian, Va.

-Madison (Pickle) Winkler, outfielder from Crofton, Ky. (Christian County High School)

-Alyssa Zabala, pitcher from Miami, Fla.

Women's Soccer Signs 10

-Karsyn Cherry, 5'7 defender from Lafayette, Ind.

-Addie Chester, 5'7 midfielder from Muncie, Ind.

-Erynn Floyd, 5'8 goalkeeper from Wilton, Conn.

-Mackenzie Geigle, 5'5 forward/midfielder from Raleigh, N.C.

-Riley Goss, 5'7 midfielder from Suffolk, Va.

-Emerson Jennings, 5'3 forward from Noblesville, Ind.

-Evelyn Pazienza, 5'7 forward/midfielder from Pewee Valley, Ky. (South Oldham High School)

-Emma Kate Schroll, 5'9 midfielder from Dacula, Ga.

-Lizzie Sexton, 5'5 midfielder from Cincinnati, Ohio

-Hadley Snyder, 5'8 defender from Louisville, Ky. (Assumption High School)

Field Hockey Signs One (only one announced from their social media so far)

-Rylie Wollerton, midfielder from Gibsonia, Pa.

Women's Basketball Signs Two (only two announced from their social media so far)

-Imani Lester, 6'3 forward from Raleigh, N.C.

-Zyanna Walker, 5'8 guard from Wichita, Kan.

Women's Cross Country/Track and Field Signs 16

-Taylor Boggess, short distance runner from Louisville, Ky. (duPont Manual High School/ Bellarmine)

-Abigail Bohn, long distance runner from Louisville, Ky. (duPont Manual High School)

-Je'Nyia Burton, short distance runner from Orlando, Fla.

-Kassidy Dill, short distance runner from Milford, Maine (UNC Greensboro)

-Mia Edwards, short distance runner from Cincinnati, Ohio

-Lily Fleetwood, pole vaulter and long jumper from Shawnee, Kan.

-Ella Hale, long distance runner from Oswego, Ill.

-Taylor Herbert, short distance runner from Indianapolis, Ind.

-Megan John, long distance runner from Cincinnati, Ohio

-Styliana Ioannidou, high jumper from Limassol, Cyprus

-Soledad Jean, high jumper and long jumper from Wheatley Heights, N.Y.

-Mattie Kindelsperger, long distance runner from Milan, Ill.

-Katie Martin, long distance runner from Jackson, Miss. (Mississippi State)

-Lexie Paszkiewicz, long distance runner from Bowling Green, Ky. (Bowling Green High School)

-Synclair Savage, long jumper from Acworth, Ga.

-Ainsley Taylor, long distance runner from Owensboro, Ky. (Daviess County High School, pronounced "Davis County")

I could not find any announcements from Women's Golf, Lacrosse, Rowing, Women's Swimming and Diving, or Women's Tennis last night.

One Day Until...

Field Hockey squares off against Harvard in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The Cards and Crimson are set to start at 2:30 p.m. ET., in Ann Arbor, Mich. As of right now, this match appears that it will be aired on www.NCAA.com. We will notify if the viewing location changes.

Daryl can break this down for you more tomorrow, but Harvard enters the match at 15-1 on the year and a perfect 7-0 mark in the Ivy League. Since the Ivy League did not play a conference tournament, the Crimson earned the automatic bid.

The two teams have never played each other before.

Volleyball hosts Georgia Tech. Playing in their first match ever as the #1 team in the country, Louisville welcomes #14 Georgia Tech to LNFCU Arena at 7:00 p.m. The Cards took a 3-0 sweep in Atlanta back on Oct. 3, and will hope to get another sweep.

Louisville currently holds a two-game advantage over Pitt and Georgia Tech, both who are 12-2 in conference play, so a win would build that cushion to three games over at least one of those opponents with four matches remaining in the season after.

Like the remainder of the season, this match is sold out so hopefully we'll see a true full house Friday night.

Women's Basketball officially starts their season. The #6 Cards will travel to Sioux Falls, S.D., to square off against #25 Arizona at a neutral site. Tip-off is set for 4:30 p.m., ET, and will be aired on ESPNU.

Arizona is reigning National Runner-Up, but lost some key players from that squad. The Cards showed great promise on both offense and defense during their exhibition against Union University (Tenn.) and will look to continue that in their true season opener.

No Cardinal Couple Radio Podcast

With a noon kickoff time for Louisville Football this Saturday, it put a damper in our regularly scheduled Cardinal Couple Radio Podcast. With Paulie and I both in attendance for the game and Daryl out for other reasons, we decided to take the week off.

Hey, with the overlap between fall and winter sports, we're pretty busy, so sometimes a day off (if that's what you can call it for some of us) is much needed. We plan to be back next Saturday.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared