No Fall NCAA Championships -- WNBA Recap -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 NCAA CANCELS FALL CHAMPIONSHIPS

NCAA President Mark Emmert broke the news yesterday that a lot of people expected would happen. There will be no fall championships for 2020.

With the list of conferences suspending or postponing fall sports growing daily this week, the decision was made. Also, the cost to schools and the NCAA to hold these, in a projected environment where fan attendance would likely be low or non-existent, was a key factor. 

Another blow in 2020 for the joy and excitement of college sports. 

Yes, there will still be (for now) conference battles and matchups to provide player motivation. Shortened schedules, but a chance to see if squads can produce the stellar seasons on the UofL campus that compare with 2019's successes. UofL Women's Soccer made the NCAA Tournament last year and advance to the second round. Cards Field Hockey battled their way to the NCAA and posted a 16-6 record before bowing out in the NCAA Tournament to Boston College. Who could forget Louisville Volleyball's NCAA run which produced the memorable win over Texas in Texas? 

I feel badly for the hard-working, dedicated fall student-athletes who now know how last year's spring sports squads feel to have the rug pulled out from underneath them. Knowing that their hard work, in normal times, could lead to that coveted NCAA invite and the chance to compete for a national title. 

A sign of the times. Not a sign we like, but, when over 50% of the conferences have shut down the fall seasons -- a harsh reality has come to pass. 

CARDS IN WNBA

All four of UofL WBB's participants in the WNBA took to the "wubble" last night to do battle for their respective teams. Mixed results for Angel, Myisha, Jaz and Kylee in Bradenton: 

INDIANA 86 -- NEW YORK 79

A rough first quarter for the New York Liberty last night againts the Indiana Fever, falling behind 27-17. Although the Liberty were able to make a game of it in the fourth and get within two, the result was another loss for the yoing squad from the Big Apple. 

Jazmine Jones came off the bench to deliver a solid 24 minutes for New York and produced 11 points and grab four rebounds. She was the third leading scorer for New York. Kylee Shook saw 17 minutes and ended up with two points and three rebounds. The Mitchell's (Tiffany and Kelsey) produced 37 of Indiana's points.

LOS ANGELES 81 -- WASHINGTON 64

The slumping Mystics drop another one, falling behind 47-34 in the first half and Washington has now lost six in a row now after starting out 3-0  A 14-0 first quarter LA run proved costly. 

Myisha Hines-Allen started for the Mystics and played 25 minutes. She had 10 points and two rebounds but ran into a bit of foul trouble battling the LA front line of Candace Parker, Brittney Sykes and Nneka Ogwumike. The Mystics are short-handed, no doubt, and missed Aerial Powers last night, 

LAS VEGAS 87 -- MINNESOTA 77

Some good news for UofL WBB fans in the late game last night, as Angel McCoughtry went for 21 points and five boards in the Aces win. Las Vegas is now in sole possession of second place in the league, a game back of Seattle. 

The Aces put up big numbers in the first half, taking a 53-38 lead. Angel is really fitting in well with A'ja Wilson, Kayla McBride and the impressive Jackie Young. The four players combined for 77 of Las Vegas's points. Sylvia Fowles left the game for Minnesota early on, re-injuring her calf muscle -- and Minnesota just isn't the same without "Big Syl".

Have a fortunate Friday...the weekend's here, you made it!

paulie

 

Volleyball Continues Winning Ways at Wake -- Soccer ties the Irish -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

VOLLEY CARDS SWEEP THE DEACS

Despite my best efforts to bribe Eric the bus driver, Tillie the Tour Guide and other influential persona on the bus, they declined my offerings to remain in Winston-Salem to watch Volleyball on Sunday.

I had to follow it through Twitter and on-line stat methods as we cruised back to the "Ville" after Saturday night's football game in the same city. More on my magical adventure later...some other dignitaries were in town to do work.  



It was a successful jaunt for Louisville Volleyball as they moved to 13-3 overall and 6-0 in the ACC with a three-game sweep of the Wake Forest squad 25-17, 25-19, 25-17.

No major worries or bad play by the Cards in the sweep. Your usual suspects performed well. Melanie McHenry, Aiko Jones...plus a couple of newer names to the list of Cardinal "over the top" performers in Claire Chaussee and Nena Mbonu...prevailed.

Louisville Volleyball watching Louisville Football at Wake

Cards got up early 10-5 in the first set and stretched that to a 20-14 lead. Another name from the arsenal...Anna Stevenson...had four kills for Louisville. 

In set two -- after some closeness in score early -- The Cards pulled away eventually and held on to to win by six. 

It was all Louisville early in the final set. They took a 9-3 lead, withstood a brief comeback by Wake  and forced Wake to call their final timeout at 19-14. Aiko put the final kill on the board and the eight-point win completed the dance. 

Notre Dame next in South Bend on Wednesday for the bunch that got ice cream after their win. A nice treat for a nice feat, right? 


WOMEN'S SOCCER

After 110 minutes of kicking on the pitch, the Irish and Cards were right back were they started with a scoreless match. 

Next, a brief bit about ties. This is where I probably differ from some readers and my fellow Cardinal Couple cronies. Not the ties you wear around your neck, which I don't particularly care for either, but the ties in soccer.

Look, someone deserves to win after 110 minutes of well-played, often amazingly fantastic stops, slides, corners, free kicks and mid-field mayhem and maneuvering. Let them just employ what they already do in the post-season and have a few players line up, try their luck on the goalie and whoever does the best wins the game. And do it after one extra ten-minutes session, not two.  Agree? Disagree? 

Would you want a tie for Jeff Walz's squad?  No. Let someone win.  

In South Bend, the Irish had a slight edge in shots in the first half at 4-2 and a huge corner kick advantage at 6-1. It did them no good. Emina Ekic did her best to break open the offensive drought with two "that should have gone in" kicks on goal in the second half but one sailed high (barely) and one was goalkeeper deflected. Notre Dame ended up with a 11-7 shot advantage and 10-2 corner kick edge for the match. That's crazy. 10-2 on corners? Were the referees wearing green? 

In any event, each team earns a point in the weird soccer scoring system and they move on. #16 Louisville women's soccer is now 11-1-1 on the season and 4-1-1 in the ACC and will host #11 Duke Friday night. Come on out, it's the second-to-last home game of the year.

And, of course....it's tie-optional. 


BACK ON THE BUS

Huge props to all who endured Paulie pranks and puns on the bus trip to see the Cards outscore Wake Forest Saturday night. You're the best and I hope this collection of crazies can do it again real soon.

Things we learned: 

1) Most people do not view peanut butter as a condiment. They are wrong. 
2) Wake Forest fans are crazy nice. They gave us a ton of food to tailgate with, in addition to the massive quantities we already had.
3) Louisville Football is entertaining as hell. 


Good to be back, but, due to my own stupidity and lack of correct reckoning for the drop in temperature, I have a doozy and a dinger of a cold/sinus infection/weather change crud/whatever you want to call it and I'm amazed I got through today's article. Maybe it was foreshadowing when a few of our party got sick from bad food Friday night at a restaurant and had to stay in their hotel rooms instead of going to the game.

Excellence in Tailgating. It's what Al Parrish stands for and it was delivered this weekend.

I'm praying one of my esteemed colleagues will gallantly step up and do Tuesday's write up for me. When you check in Tuesday and you still see this article staring at you, you'll know they didn't and I am too tore up to type. 

I'm going back to bed after I cough and blow my nose for a few minutes. 

Have a marvelous Monday !

Paulie