UofL Extends Contract of Mark Beckham -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Photo by GoCards

Hey, Cardinal Couple readers! Jared checking in here as Daryl and I are switching a couple days around this week. Tune back in tomorrow and she should be back.

We have definitely entered summertime here in 'The Ville' as 90-degree weather has arrived and is here to stay for a while. The 2024-2025 NCAA year has officially come to a close with LSU taking down Coastal Carolina in the baseball championship over the weekend. We do want congratulate the Louisville baseball team on a successful postseason run and a Final Four finish.

Photo by GoCards

In the world of UofL women's sports, things have been fairly quiet. We've seen a few folks transfer in and out for different teams. A couple transfers out to note include Char Lorenz (softball) and Maya Maxwell (women's soccer). We did see a contract extension for Louisville women's tennis coach Mark Beckham.

Beckham has been around Louisville for a few decades. He attended Eastern High School. He spent his entire collegiate career playing for the Cards and then joined the men's program as an assistant coach for 15 years. He then transitioned to the head coach role for the women's team in the fall of 2007.

The Cards posted a strong 2025 season. The finished with a winning record 13-10, a ranked win over #35 Clemson, and winning their opening round of the ACC Tournament. UofL rose up to #60 in the rankings.

Beckham's extension runs through June 30, 2028, keeping him at the helm for at least three more years. He joins four other coaches to receive contract extensions recently including rowing coach Derek Copeland and lacrosse coach Scott Teeter.

Happy Monday and Go Cards!

Jared

Tennis Begins Season Perfect -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Sweep UNC Greensboro at Bass-Rudd

Photo by GoCards

The first spring sport to start their season is Louisville women's tennis. The Cards are coming off an abysmal 2024 season, boasting a 4-19 record and going 0-13 in the ACC. They closed out last season on a 17-match losing streak.

Louisville started this season off on a much better note, sweeping UNC Greensboro 7-0. All six singles players won their match-ups and all three doubles match-ups went in favor of the Cards. Only doubles point is award in the overall scoring with the point being awarded to the team in a best-of-three series.

The Cards are relying heavily on the youth on the team as the seven-person roster consists of one senior, one junior, four sophomores, and one freshman. Louisville also is relying on international talents this season. Two players hail from Spain, one from Ukraine, and one from Estonia. Two players come from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina and one comes from College Park, Georgia.

Photo by GoCards

Court 1: Alice Otis won 2-1

Court 2: Lika Peresypkina won 2-0

Court 3: Elena Noguero won 2-0

Court 4: Allie Gretkowski won 2-0

Court 5: Germany Davis won 2-0

Court 6: Berta Miret won 2-0

Louisville heads down to Tennessee next weekend to face Middle Tennessee and Chattanooga.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Women's Tennis Signs Two -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Add Lila and Otis

Louisville women's tennis added two new players for the 2024-2025 season, head coach Mark Beckham announced recently. Alice Otis and Elisabeth Iila (iila) both signed with the Cards this summer.

Otis transfers in after one year at South Carolina and one year at Denver. During her freshman campaign with the Gamecocks, Otis earned four singles victories while playing in the five and six spots. She then transferred to Denver, where she went 20-11 on the season. She was named to the All-Summit League Team and was named 2024 Summit Newcomer of the Year.

Iila is set to begin her college career this fall, coming in from Tallinn, Estonia. In her young career, Iila has made a name for herself in both the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior rankings and ITF rankings. In the junior division, Iila has been ranked as high as #168. In the ITF World Rankings, Iila has been ranked as high as #1342 and currently sits at #1381.

The 2024-2025 schedule has not been released yet but the Cards look to improve off of last year's season, which saw plenty of struggles.

Walz noon presser today

Jeff Walz will hold a presser today at noon to discuss program updates and the 2024 Aflac Oui-Play  game in Paris vs. UCLA.

He'll be speaking from the media room at the Planet Fitness Kueber Center. 

We are working on having someone cover the presser and will review it in the Friday edition of Cardinal Couple. 

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Tennis Releases Fall Schedule -- ESPN Louisville ESPY's -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Tennis Releases Fall Schedule

Louisville women's tennis released their fall schedule this week. The Cards are set to start in about a month and half, but like past years, the true regular season and record won't be counted until the spring portion of the season begins.

Mark Beckham's squad will head up to Bloomington Sept. 22-24 for the Indiana Invitational Hoosier Classic. This is slated to be a hidden dual match format. Dual matches are often three pairs of doubles teams competing for a collective one point and six individuals competing for one point each.

A trip to West Virginia is next as the Cards will appear in the Martha Thorn Invitational Oct. 6-8.

The ITA Ohio Valley Regionals are next on the schedule Oct. 13-15. Tennessee has been selected as the host school for the event this year. Kentucky, Indiana, Purdue, Vanderbilt, Memphis, MTSU, and Dayton are also slated to appear at the event.

Louisville will close out its fall season at the end of October at the Jon Cade Invitational at Mississippi State.

The Cards will spend plenty of time away from the Bass Rudd Tennis Center this fall, but will certainly have plenty of events this spring.

ESPN Louisville ESPY's

ESPN Louisville held their version of the ESPY's, where they highlighted and feature athletes and sports of various levels here in the region.

The big award (for us, at least) was Female College Athlete of the Year. Rightfully so, Hailey Van Lith received the honor. The sophomore led the Cards in scoring at 14.4 ppg and was top four on the team in rebounds, assists, and steals. HVL also played a crucial role in the Cards' fourth Final Four appearance in program history. "Go f-ing win this sh*t, Hailey" will live on for a couple more years!

Another award to point out is the Kentuckiana Female High School Athlete of the Year- Brooke Gray of Ballard High School softball. Gray is a rising senior who helped lead the Bruins to a 39-0 record and a Kentucky State Championship from inside the circle. The lefty is still officially uncommitted so she is sure to be on the radar for Holly Aprile and Co.

In other news, we extend our sympathy to Paige Bueckers. The announcement yesterday indicated she  will miss the entire 2022-2023 season due to a torn ACL. We have seen more than our fair share of major injuries among dozens of Louisville athletes over the years.

( I wonder if Kentucky has a toll-free food poisoning phone number?) 

Also, thank you to Daryl for covering for me Tuesday. As if a cold and COVID-19 weren't enough to interrupt my July, food poisoning decided to help me kick off August. The unnamed restaurant where I contracted food poisoning then offered me a complimentary meal due to what happened. The irony of "Well it didn't kill him the first time so let's try again" is certainly worth a chuckle. I'm not 100% yet, but glad to be back!

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

NIL Compensation -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Kentucky Approves NIL Compensation

Friday's With Daryl have been put on hold again as Daryl spent last evening commanding the video camera crew at Louisville Slugger Field. The Bats started their home series against Indianapolis, which, coincidentally, Louisville City FC hosts Indy 11 this weekend. I-65 is sure to be busy the next few days.

The Commonwealth of Kentucky created all kinds of commotion yesterday. What started off as a day to discuss the possible NIL bills floating around different states quickly turned into Governor Andy Beshear signing an executive order making Kentucky the first state to allow NIL compensation by an executive order decision. Six states have already approved NIL compensation through their respective legislation. This will take effect July 1.

Several University of Louisville coaches and notables in the Athletic Department took to social media to express their thoughts on the matter, all seeming to be in approval of the decision.

Vince Tyra: "On behalf of our student athletes at the University of Louisville and other Kentucky institutions, we are incredibly grateful for Governor Beshear's Executive Order allowing them to earn additional compensation on behalf of their Name, Image, and Likeliness. Bringing the state of Kentucky into competitive balance with other across the country, and more specifically, the Atlantic Coast Conference was critical. His leadership, in collaboration with our universities and legislators in Frankfort, was welcomed and needed in leveling the playing field for our institutions and, more important, for our student-athletes."

Jeff Walz: "We applaud Governor Beshear on this ground breaking decision. This is the right thing to do. This allows our student-athletes to enhance their profile in the profession of their choice. This is about opportunity, and we are all for it."

Scott Teeter: "We commend Governor Beshear and the state of Kentucky on this thoughtful decision regarding Name, Image, and Likeliness. The success of our student-athletes has always been our highest priority and this decision provides them with even more opportunities moving forward."

Karen Ferguson-Dayes: "I'm very happy to hear that Governor Beshear issued an executive order on Name, Image, and Likeliness for the state of Kentucky. I fully support our student-athletes having an opportunity to advance themselves forward and this is a very positive step."

Mark Beckham: "I'm happy  and excited for my athletes to have the opportunity. The things they can do are limitless, which is a good thing. This is a new day in college athletics though; they can legally make money. We will see how it works, hopefully it is for the best."

Derek Copeland: "It makes sense that people should benefit from their own Name, Image, and Likeliness. These student-athletes work very hard to build and maintain their personal brand and should be rewarded when they do it so well. I am glad that our governor has taken these steps to allow for this to happen."

Arthur Albiero: "Kudos to Governor Andy Beshear by recognizing the importance of NIL to all student-athletes in our state and for the urgency with which he is treating this matter. I support the changes related to NIL as a path for our student-athletes to maximize their opportunities. It also keeps our state on a level playing field with the rest of the country. I am grateful to Governor Beshear's leadership."

Many of the men's coaches, including Scott Satterfield and Chris Mack, provided statements on the matter, all in favor.

There are still plenty of questions to be asked in regards to the NIL approval as well as how much different student-athletes will make. On the women's side, we expect to see Hailey Van Lith to be one of the players being able to do well with NIL based on her following. Women's basketball in general gets a lot more exposure than many other women's sports so those players have a good chance at doing well. Someone like Anna DeBeer, who has had an excellent career so far, could also benefit well. Mercedes (Mechi) Pastor is one of the most well-known collegiate field hockey players and has an international presence and may do well too.

What does that mean for places that cover UofL athletics, or collegiate athletics in general?

Well, first, we are one of those. The answer is plain and simple: we don't know. Cardinal Couple does not generate profit and does not make money by using different players' NIL. We do report the joy and excitement of UofL women's athletics. Will this even affect our normal operations here? Paulie is looking into this more and working with the terrific SIDs so we know how this will directly affect us.

Our Cardinal Couple Hour is back again tomorrow. We never know for sure who is going to pop in on the broadcast, but we can pretty much ensure Paulie, Jeff and Jared will be there.  We will dig into the Name, Image, and Likeliness more, but we will not have an answer to the question in the previous paragraph yet. However, the world famous CC Quiz will happen tomorrow. We always welcome you to join at home. Hint: study up your mascots.

Happy Friday, have a good weekend, and Go Cards!

Jared

A HISTORY OF UOFL WOMEN'S SPORTS -- CHAPTER 10 -- WOMEN'S TENNIS -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WOMEN'S TENNIS

As we enter the final stretch of our History of Louisville Women’s Sports we look at Chapter 10: Tennis. As we have done with the previous week, we will refer to women’s tennis simply as tennis.

Louisville officially traces its tennis program back to 1979. There has been roughly 150 players to walk through the doors since then.

Many players have had successful careers. Kelly Ford and Natalie Laszkowski are tied for the career record in singles wins with 102 each. Meg Peavy has the highest winning percentage with 0.855. The Bass-Rudd Tennis Center is the current home for the Cards. They have the option to play indoors or outdoors with the inside containing six courts and eight courts on the outside. It is considered one of the best collegiate tennis facilities in the country. The Bass-Rudd Tennis Center first opened its doors in 1994 and the Cards have been there since Day One.

Mark Beckham has been head coach since 2007. Beckham played for the UofL men’s team during his college days. Beckham guided the Cards to their first NCAA Championships appearance in program history. Their highest ranking under Beckham is 38th. He led his team to a Regional Runner-Up finish in the 2013 ITA Regional Doubles Championship. Beckham has reached well beyond 100 wins in his career. Beckham was an assistant coach, primarily for the men's team, before he was elevated to the head coaching job for UofL women's tennis. 

Beckham is a Louisville native and played his high school tennis at Eastern High School. 

The 2010-11 season is notable.  He had BIG EAST Freshman of the year Julie Fellerhoff on the roster. He had the highest ranked doubles team in Division I in Fellerhoff and Mandy Brown and the highest ranked singles player in Becca Shine. 

Unfortunately, despite the existing of Louisville Tennis tracing back to 1979 there is very little documentation on anything outside of letter-winners. Nothing is posted about season results or how they fared in the different conferences such as Conference USA, Big East, AAC, or ACC. The history books don’t even reference coaches prior to Mark Beckham.

Admission is free for all tennis matches, indoors and outdoors. There are bleachers at the ends of the courts for easy view of the matches. You can sometimes catch us out watching the matches live and I try to make a match or two a year to get some photos.

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

Jared

Tennis Falls; Softball Rescheduled -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Tennis Falls at Ranked Syracuse

Men's basketball wasn't the only team to find themselves outmatched against Syracuse this week as the women's tennis team took on the 25th ranked Orange at Bass Rudd yesterday. Louisville found themselves tied after losing the doubles point and winning the first singles match to finish, but that singles match would wind up being their only victory. The Cards ultimately fell 6-1, though they did have multiple matches go to tie breaking sets. Louisville played close for most of the competition, with head coach Mark Beckham saying that it came down to losing too many deuce points and not putting score pressure on the opponent. 

Raven Neely was the only Cardinal to be victorious and was part of the doubles team that led 5-2 before their game was rendered moot. The overall loss drops Louisville to 9-3 and is their third straight loss. The Cards are surely frustrated, but there is still plenty of time for them to turn it around, as they still have 12 matchups on the schedule. Louisville hosts Clemson tomorrow at Noon before heading on the road for a week's worth of matches. Hopefully they'll be able to right the ship and get back to the winning ways they saw in the non-conference schedule.

Softball Game 1 Rescheduled

Due to inclement weather in Knoxville, Louisville's first game of the Tennessee Classic has been pushed to the afternoon. The Cards will now take on Kansas at 2:30 instead of the previously scheduled 9:30. As of now, they are still scheduled to face Bradley once today and once tomorrow, but I feel as though there is a good chance that it becomes a Sunday double header for the Cardinals and Braves. Keep up with Louisville Softball's twitter page for news about additional potential reschedules and for score updates.

EDITOR NOTE: ALL Softball cancelled today in Knoxville. They'll try to resume Sunday. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

For the first time in awhile, the four knuckleheads are back in the studio together for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. We'll have plenty to talk about as we recap the week in Louisville women's athletics, including Louisville WBBs second loss of the year and their Jekyll and Hyde follow-up performance. Tune in to WCHQ at 11AM via 100.9 FM, wchq.com, the WCHQ App (which has gotten a big update), or via their YouTube channel.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Spring Sports -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

The Good, The Bad, the Ugly

Jared Anderson brings us today his initial look at three UofL women's spring sports. Softball, Lacrosse and women's Tennis. The original The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was a 1967 movie directed by "Spaghetti Western" king Sergio Leone. It starred Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach. The plot revoloved around three gunslingers looking for buried fortune in New Mexico during the American Civil War. A whistling theme song with a jangling guitar and chanting voices accompanying was performed with different variations throughout the movie.  If you've never seen it, it is a must. 

LINK TO THEME SONG:  THE GOOD THE BAD THE UGLY THEME SONG

With women's basketball having some time off to relax (focus on school, practice, film study, and recover) I decided to turn everyone's attention to some of the other women's sports going on right now.  Spring sports have started and the GoCards calendar is back to being full again.


Softball

The Good

After opening weekend the Cards are 3-2.  Megan Hensley, Danielle Watson, and Taylor Roby all tossed innings during that stretch.  The combined ERA of the group is below 1.00.  They have combined for 42 strikeouts (Watson 15, Hensley 13, Roby 14) and have only walked nine batters (Watson 5, Roby 4).

As of this point the bullpen has surrendered no home runs, two triples, no doubles, and 18 singles for a total of 20 hits.  Half of those came in the game against Utah State.

The Bad

Offensively, the Cards have scored 26 runs.  However, those runs came in three games, meaning UofL came up empty-handed in both of their losses.

Louisville has recorded 37 hits on the season, which isn't a bad mark.  Neither is the 14 walks.  The problem is that many runners get stranded on base. Take away the walks and any fielding errors by opposing defenses and the scoring is nearly cut in half on the year.

The Ugly

In the first game of the season an error in the seventh inning lead to a pair of runs for Idaho State, putting them up three.  The game plan changes a lot in the last inning on a one-run game as opposed to a three-run game.  An error in the final inning of the game against Northwestern helped the Wildcats take a 1-0 lead.

Better teams will capitalize on errors, which Louisville has tallied eight so far.  Fielding errors have been an issue in years past and were difference makers in plenty of games.

Overall

The 55-game regular season has barely begun and you cannot judge a season based off opening weekend.  With Holly Aprile being new Louisville is still adjusting to her style of play and there will be kinks in the system here and there

Lacrosse

The Good

Louisville lost both of its games so far- 21-11 at Northwestern and 15-12 at Marquette.  Scott Teeter is in Year Two as head coach after nearly starting from scratch with the players and support staff.  Overall, we have seen a positive attitude and a better work ethic from the program.  The team has shown fight no matter the score.

The Bad

The schedule is tough.  Seven of the 17 opponents were ranked in the preseason Top 20 and two others were in the receiving votes category.  Once conference play rolls around things get tougher seeing as the ACC is one of the best lacrosse conferences around.

The Ugly

Like the Northwestern game score many games are going to be blowouts.  There are well-established, dominant programs out there that will look to have a field day against a program currently in its rebuilding period.  The trick is not giving up on the team as they try and fight their way uphill, trekking through several feet of mud, or snow, or whatever obstacle stands in their way.

Overall

For a program that seemingly had to start from scratch in certain aspects it's exciting to see this team appear competitive at times.  Morale appears to be high as players and parents alike believe in this coaching staff, even though we are still a couple years out from reestablishing Louisville Lacrosse as a force not to be reckoned with.

Tennis

The Good

The Cards are 9-0 on the year and started conference play with a 7-0 sweep over Pittsburgh last weekend.  Three wins were 7-0 and eight of the nine were 5-2 or better.  Even if the season is still young with 16 games remaining the unblemished mark should be a motivational booster for an experienced Louisville squad.

The Bad

Up to this point this season Louisville has not faced an NCAA Tournament worthy team.  Furman snuck into the tournament last year but was blasted by 3-seed Duke in the first round.  The upcoming schedule features 11 games against opponents that made the draw last year (Cards face Duke twice) including most of the ACC.  Only the top-16 are officially seeded an a good portion of those were ACC teams.

The Ugly

Conference play has been a sore spot since joining the ACC.  It is the point of the season where things crash and burn.  Louisville has survived the first round of the ACC Tournament once, where they then got swept in the second round.  This conference has been unforgiving to a program that is trying to find its feet and become something.

Overall

I'm not saying that the season is all downhill from here, but I do want to advise that the perfect record through mid-February can be misleading.  Mark Beckham has had his team look better each year so they could get a few wins they aren't supposed to, but they will have a tough time making the 'Big Dance' in May.

The calendar is dry for the next couple days before the weekend picks up for most sports, including a 3:00 game against Miami for Jeff Wal'z squad Sunday.  The Hurricanes are coming off a big upset last weekend and have hopes of doing it a second time.

Happy Wednesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Women's Tennis Recruits -- 10 Rowers Earn Awards -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Women's Tennis Signs Three Recruits for 2018-19 Season

After losing two stars to graduation the women's tennis team has loaded back up in preparation for next season.  Louisville has signed a freshman and two transfers, who will be eligible to  play immediately.

Dina Chaika joins the Cards as an incoming freshman from Lermontov, Russia.  Her hometown sits a short distance north of Georgia (the European country) and a bit west of the Black Sea.  Chaika comes in after being one of the top tennis players in all of Russia as well as earning a ranking as high as #46 as a 14-year-old in all of Europe.

Nikolina Jovic comes in from Gamecock country down in South Carolina with three years of eligibility remaining.  The Bosnian native (women's soccer's Sanela Hodzic hails from there as well) won several national awards in high school and earned WTA world ranking points.

Dina Wong is a rising junior after transferring in from New Mexico.  The Hawaii native went 16-5 as a freshman including an unblemished record in conference play.  Wong took the role of the No. 1 spot in singles last year and was part of the No. 2 doubles team at New Mexico.

Although I have never met Coach Mark Beckham personally I know that Paulie speaks highly of him.  I will put my faith in Coach Beckham as he hopes to improve from last year's 13-13 record.

Matches at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center have free admission whether it is being held inside or outside.  Just make sure to be aware of a mishit and a tennis ball headed your way!


10 Rowers Named to All-ACC Academic Team

All of the other spring sports have named their academic teams, but rowing seems to be a bit behind.  The wait was worth it as Louisville had 10 players named to the All-ACC Academic Team.

Seniors Rebecca Busk, Kirsti Harrison, Callie McGowan, Hannah Richardson, Sophie Schulz, Kim Streetz, Allison Zimmermann, junior Abbi Fitts, and freshman Violette Legrand were the 10 honorees.  The Cards led the way with 10 players on the 62-player roster.  Four other schools placed second with eight each.

UofL closed out the season ranked 20 in the US Rowing/CRCA coaches' poll and fifth in the ACC.  This team had high levels of success on the water and in the classroom this year, something they continue to improve each year.

What Day is it and Other News and Notes

We have reached the final business day of June and when you tune into the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour tomorrow it will be the halfway point of  2018!  Have you held true to your New Year's resolution?

It is National Hug Day so go hug a friend, family member, or the first person you see on the street!  For me, I have to point out it is National Camera Day, but no new UofL pics coming until August.  If you've attended a lacrosse match on Floyd Street you would be familiar with the food trucks that make appearances so it is a good time to acknowledge National Food Truck Day.

The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour is set for its normal time, 11:00-12:00.  As always, you can tune in on 100.9 fm if you're in the Louisville area or hop on Facebook Live to see what they might be up to in the studio.  You'll have the pleasure of Case this week before he leaves for vacation.  However, I'm counting money and surviving surprise audits for a fourth straight Saturday so they question is "When will Jared have a Saturday off of will Sunday be added to his work schedule next?"  Stay tuned to see what happens!

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

- Jared -

Odds and Ends...WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

MAYBE MYISHA? ACC DOUBLE BYE GONE? 

We'll skate all over the rink today and catch up on a few things. With no particular agenda or theme...let's just call today's column "catch-up". Or ketchup. You name it, I'll write it. 

From hoops to tennis, softball to radio...we ramble all over the Cardinal Athletic landscape today (with no Field Pass and one step ahead of Ray Bronger...) 



DINNER WITH COACH


HINES-ALLEN BETTER? (FROM THE WALZ RADIO SHOW)


We have a reader (and probably more than one) who religiously attends the Coach Walz Radio Show each week. The show took place last night at the Bardstown Road Chili's. I try to listen on radio (93.9 FM) when I can but had a prior commitment last night and missed it. I've never attended one...but here's the "live, on the spot" report I got from our pal in attendance: 

-- Myisha Hines-Allen did practice Tuesday (and practiced well, according to Coach Walz) and should be in Blacksburg for the game against Virginia Tech. No word on B.J. except that it takes a lot of pain involved if she has to sit and that was the case in South Bend on Monday. 

-- Walzisms. 

"You can be consistently inconsistent." 

(On players in his dog-house) "I don't have a dog-house. I don't have a dog."

(On whether his daughter Lola would be a forward or guard for him) "I won't be coaching by then. I'll just sit way up in the arena and be a fan. A proud parent."

(On social media) '"These kids get way too caught up on social media. They read what people tweet them and you'd be amazed at what some of the fans say. I tell them to ignore social media" 

(On fan education) "People get way too caught up on scoring. On stat lines. A player can have 18 points and still play badly but they'll hear 'Oh, you had a great game! 18 points'. There are no defensive stat lines. We look at the whole picture." 

-- Finishing well

Coach Walz sincerely believes that the Cards best basketball is ahead of them. He wants the team to start peaking in March. (What that means for the five games left in February...we're not exactly sure.) Coach feels that they'll probably be a five seed in the ACC Tournament....the top four right now being Notre Dame, FSU, Duke and NC State. 

Let's take a look at that. I can optimistically see Louisville (7-4) beating their final five in the conference schedule...at VT, hosting BC, UNC and Virginia and ending at Wake Forest...and finishing the regular conference slate at 12-4. The Cards aren't going to catch either Notre Dame or Florida State, let's be realistic here.

Duke holds the tie-breaker over Louisville and is currently 8-3 in conference. They finish with Pitt, Syracuse, at Wake Forest, Miami and at North Carolina. I can see one or two losses at the most potentially...that would leave them at either 12-4 or 11-5. If they win out or go 4-1, the Cards cannot catch them. 


NC State (7-3) has six games remaining. They also hold the tie-breaker over Louisville. They go to Georgia Tech, host Virginia Tech, visit Boston College, host Wake Forest and UNC and finish at Virginia. Two losses here put them at 11-5. If they finish 5-1...they secure a double-bye seed. The thing is...it's hard to find two teams in this bunch that can potentially beat them. 

I don't see Syracuse getting there. With Duke and Notre Dame left it just seems unlikely.  

Difficult for the Cards to get the double bye, but not impossible. All they can do at this point is just win and hope for a few upsets. If you are headed to Conway, SC for the ACC Tournament...you may want to arrive for Thursday games. One game at a time, one win at a time. Remember, it's the ACC. Anything Can Culminate. 



(Thanks to our intrepid reporter for the Walz show details)


CORTNEE ON LOUISVILLE FIRST

If you missed redshirt-senior Cortnee Walton's appearance on the critically acclained LOUISVILLE FIRST morning radio show on WKRD 790...you missed a great segement. Cortnee absolutely owned it! 

She covered a wide range of subjects with Howie and Matt...including career at Louisville, intern at WAVE TV, women's basketball, other Cardinal sports and her friendship with Asia Taylor. 

A great hour listening to Cortnee. Be sure to catch the podcast rebroadcast which is at this link: 

CORTNEE WALTON ON LOUISVILLE FIRST


Good job, Mom!  She starts around the 40 minute mark. 

Paulie was on with the guys Tuesday...here's the link:

Paulie on Louisville First 

I join them around the 35 minute mark. 



ANYONE FOR TENNIS? 

Don't look now...but Louisville women's tennis has started the 2017 season 6-0.


  

Wins against UT-Martin, Murray State, Detroit, WKU, E. Michigan and Liberty...all at the Cards facility The Bass-Rudd Center. Despite an injury to Elle Stokes that has her sidelined for a couple of weeks, the Cards contingent of Aleksandra Mally, Jessie Paul, Sena Suswan, Olivia Boesing, Tiffany Huber, Abby Pahz, Ariana Rodriguez and Mariana Humberg are getting it done for the Serve and Volley Cards. Just two seniors in those nine...which bodes well for future Cardinal racquet and baseline success. 

Head coach Mark Beckham is impressed: 

"We're not the same team we were last year. We are improving. The biggest thing is that we look like we're beating them handily but it's because we are playing so well and making opponents look not as good as they truly are. That is a positive thing." 

The Cards face Georgia State Friday. 



SOFTBALL ON DECK

Cardinal Softball is 48 hours away! 

Sandy Pearsall's sluggers start the season in Vegas on Friday at the UNLV Sportco Kickoff Classic. The Cards will play two on opening day....Southern Utah at 6:45 pm and CSU Bakersfield at 9:00 pm. All times are, as Worldwide likes to say, estimates. 

A ton of starters back, the two top pitchers and very impressive freshman class on hand for Pearsall. Touch 'em all and field your position! We'll look for possible Internet viewing and update ya. 


paulie
xxxxx

Louisville Spring Sports Media Day -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

SIX COACHES, SEVEN SPORTS FEATURED ON LOUISVILLE SPRING SPORTS MEDIA DAY.

On a crisp, cool Monday morning representatives from Lacrosse, Softball, Men's Golf, Men's Tennis, Women's Tennis, Men's Swimming and Women's Swimming gathered on the second floor of the YUM! Practice Facility to discuss the hopes, dreams, progress, expectations and goals of their respective programs. 

We concentrated on softball, lacrosse and women's tennis...the three we'll be covering most and got some nice interviews with the players and coaches. 

PAULIE GETS THE LOWDOWN FROM KELLIE

LACROSSE is going through a rebuilding phase of sorts...with just four seniors and a highly decorated and influential class just departed. There is still plenty of talent left, though...good enough to get Kellie Young's squad a #18 preseason ranking...and optimism and excitement about what lies ahead in the 2017 season. I sat down with Young, junior defender Emily Howell and senior midfielder Heidi Smith to ask a few questions. They being their season in a mere five days and seem to be ready to get after it. Here's the audio from the fun and informative 10 minutes...

LINK: YOUNG, SMITH AND HOWELL

ELLE AND OLIVIA SERVE AN ACE

WOMEN'S TENNIS is already in full swing...excuse the pun...and I got a chance to talk to head coach Mark Beckham and seniors Elle Stokes and Olivia Boesing. The squad is 4-0 so far in the spring schedule with wins over Tennessee-Martin, Murray State, Detroit Mercy and Western Kentucky. Stokes is out for several weeks with an arm injury but excited for her teammates and promises to be back to participate in most of the ACC slate if things go well.

Louisville Cardinal sports editor Dalton Ray and I teamed up for the chat with the "serve and swing" Cards and their coach: 

LINK: BECKHAM, STOKES AND BOESING

JORDAN STILL THE FASTEST! 

SOFTBALL heads to Vegas to begin their season on Feb. 10th. We've chatted a lot in the past couple weeks with head coach Sandy Pearsall and senior left-fielder Jordan McNary and both were present again Monday to "field" questions from Paulie. I did coax Coach Pearsall to share her fun story about "The Christmas Bull" and reviewed campaign strategy and the future with Jordan. 


LINK: COACH PEARSALL

LINK: JORDAN McNARY

A great time getting together with the faces and futures of Cardinal athletics this spring. We even got a brief glimpse of women's basketball head coach Jeff Walz, Christine Herring and a important-looking man carrying blueprints...not there on an interview or comments capacity, mind you...but possibly there to see what changes and designs will be made to the second floor of the YUM! Practice facility office space and reception area after women's basketball season. 

Or maybe where the "mad scientist" will be putting the secret entrance to his laboratory where he comes up with the Walzian Theorems.  

An impressive showing by the media as well...a couple of TV stations, our pal Howie Lindsey, daring and debonair Dalton Ray and others. We hope that they'll continue the coverage on a consistent basis as these seasons unfold.  

SWIMMING DOVE INTO THE DISCUSSIONS

I'm not sure if I'm totally in favor of the different format used from the Fall Sports Media Day, where each coach got to field questions before the reporters were turned loose to talk to the players. This was a "eat your lunch and go talk to people" concept. Time constraints may have been in play...with Football having a press conference later in the afternoon and having six instead of three coaches at the table might have taken awhile...but it was a great couple of hours with the players and coaches, nevertheless. 

We look forward to the upcoming seasons for these sports and we'll be here to give you our unfiltered and unique coverage on them.

tuesday's gone with the wind...
paulie
xxxxx