If you went to or followed Louisville volleyball last night you'd know it was a crazy evening. Besides having to change venues last minute the Cards had to rally from a two set deficit to win in five against rival Notre Dame..
A campus-wide power outage sent students and faculty home around lunchtime yesterday. All events on campus were cancelled because, well, there was no electricity. The Student Activities Center, where Cardinal Arena is housed, joined the rest of the campus in a blackout.
Sacred Heart Academy was generous enough to open up their gymnasium to host the Louisville vs Notre Dame volleyball match. Granted, a high school gym is not equipped to host several hundred fans, but UofL athletics and the ticket office managed to make things work.
The first set stayed back-and-forth until the Cards pulled ahead 15-11. The Irish had called a timeout a point previous to that and it seemed to calm their nerves as they went on a run to tie the score at 23 apiece and then go ahead by one. The Cards had two set point opportunities but failed to capitalize, falling 29-27.
Louisville hopped on the Irish early in the second set when the went up 6-2. Notre Dame tied the score at 7 all and the teams traded points for a while. When Notre Dame went up by five in the final stretch of the set Dani Busboom Kelly called a timeout. The timeout didn't seem to do much as the Cards fell 25-20.
Halftime adjustments seemed to worked well because the Cards came out with fire in their eyes. Louisville went on a 5-0 run to start the second half. Emily Scott played a major role in the next run where the Cards found themselves up 14-4. Louisville hit cruise control the rest of the set, winning 25-17.
The first part of the fourth set remained close with the Irish holding a slight advantage. Louisville tied the score at 13-13 before pulling ahead and holding off a late surge by Notre Dame. The 25-20 victory sent the match into a fifth set (what a surprise for these two teams).
Louisville kicked off the fifth set 7-4 and then 9-6 before Notre Dame called a timeout. The Irish roared back to trail by one 12-11 before the Cards took a timeout to gather themselves and focus on pulling off the victory. They did just that, scoring three of the final points to claim the set and the match 15-12.
Louisville finished the match hitting .247. The first two sets were .103 and .158, respectively, with the final three sets all hitting .300 or greater. Melanie McHenry (19), Megan Sloan (17), and Emily Scott (15) all had big nights on the front line in kills.
Wilma Rivera had one of her busier nights with 63 assists, as expected when you play more sets. Her and Molly Sauer were critical in helping keep the Cards settled and focused. Sauer also led the team with 28 digs. She had help from McHenry's 19 and Amanda Green's 13.
Piper Roe had a big night after hitting .500 and ending with no errors. Scott and Sloan also limited their errors to four each.
The 11 service errors were a little too much (Louisville had 20 in a five-set match at Georgia Tech recently), but that number was matched by Notre Dame.
The match showed a few things for Louisville. This team can adjust to change such as the last minute change in location. This team can push through a challenge and keep fighting to find ways to win. They have the will to win. The coaching talents of Dani Busboom Kelly, Dan Meske, and so on have put Louisville on another level and played a critical part of the win last night.
Coach was complimentary of Notre Dame in how they force opponents to work for their points. She was proud of how her team handled the things and being able to grind through for the victory.
Louisville improves to 14-4 on the season and a 7-0 mark in conference play. With power restored to campus they will return to Cardinal Arena this Friday against Virginia Tech.
Worldwide is out of town for work and missed it, but Paulie found his way over to Sacred Heart. He seemed to enjoy the free water and his guess of 1000 spectators was about double what the box score had listed.
In typical Paulie fashion, his phone and tablet ran out of juice before the end of the match, but he, along with Matt Bradshaw (from The Cardinal student newspaper) did get post-game remarks from Coach "Dani B".
I'll look for his comments on more description of last night.
Thank you to Paulie for switching days with me as I will be boarding a plane at Standiford Field by the time this article is published (thank goodness for the scheduled publishing feature). Assuming my flights from here to Tallahassee with a layover in Atlanta go well I shall be checking up on Katy down in Florida State by midday and ready to celebrate her birthday tomorrow. I will also get a first-person perspective on how powerful and damaging hurricanes can be. Please keep everyone affected by this disaster in your thoughts and prayers.
On another note I highly recommend you make your way to Floyd Street on Friday to catch men's soccer, field hockey (free admission on this one), or volleyball. If you stick around long enough you can even catch softball (free admission) take on Kentucky and Western Kentucky as soon as the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour concludes.
#22 Louisville Volleyball continues their home stint with a midweek match-up against Notre Dame. The game is set to begin at 7:00 p.m.
Following a pair of sweeps at home this weekend against mid-tier ACC opponents the Cards moved from 25 to 22 in the AVCA Coaches Poll. The Cards are 13-4 and 6-0 in the ACC while currently riding a seven-game win streak. At home, Louisville is 6-1 with the sole loss coming against Kentucky.
Melanie McHenry is way out in front with 217 kills. Megan Sloan has 164 and Amanda Green has 142. Jasmine Bennett sits a little further back with 112, but her stats are skewed after having sat out for a handful of games.
Wilma Rivera has more assists by herself with 650 than all other opponents, who have a combined 623. Molly Sauer is nearing triple-digits with 72 assists.
Sauer captains the defense with 268 digs. She has friends on the floor with McHenry tallying 126 and Rivera with 112.
Louisville's biggest weakness up to this point has been service errors with a whopping 166. That number is well beyond the 92 service aces on the year. However, the ratio isn't too bad when looking at opposing teams' 113 service errors against 53 aces. Improvement lately for the Cards in that stat brings hope that failure to clear the net is a thing of the past.
Notre Dame enters the game with a 10-6 overall and 4-2 mark in the ACC. Historically, the Irish have been a solid program, but have hit a few bumps in the road recently. They are still dangerous, nonetheless.
The Irish have relied heavily on their defense. They've held their opponents to a .153 hitting percentage, including holding four opponents under .100. Their defense ranks best in the ACC and 16th in the country. The back line has also helped pace the Irish defense as well. Their 16.88 digs per set sits atop the conference.
There is a pair of freshman on the roster for Notre Dame who have made a notable impact. Zoe Nunez is second on the team with 170 kills and leads the team with 590 assists. Sydney Bent is third on the team with 105 kills.
Notre Dame has won eight of their matches in straight-set fashion. Their only non-sweeps were a 3-2 victory at Georgia Tech and a 3-1 victory against Wake Forest.
Both teams have played against Purdue on the road. The Cards lost a heart-breaker in five sets while the Irish were downed in four.
Louisville swept Duke while Notre Dame fell in five sets to them. The Cards swept Wake Forest while the Irish claimed the win in four sets. The Cards also got a sweep at Georgia Tech while Notre Dame held onto win in a five-set thriller. Louisville squeezed by at Clemson, going down to the wire in the fifth set while the Irish swept the Tigers. Louisville won at North Carolina in five sets while Notre Dame claimed the win in straight sets. The Cards took a four-set victory at NC State while Notre Dame fell in four sets to the Wolfpack.
Notre Dame leads the all-time series 21-14, but haven't beaten the Cards since Sept. 23, 2016, in a sweep in South Bend. Louisville has won three straight matches since then against their conference rival, 3-1, 3-2, 3-2.
Tonight should be no different than the series history suggests. Both teams are similar on paper with the Cards having an edge on the record, ranking, and quality of opponents. I expect to see either a four-set or five-set bloodbath between the two teams with neither of them taking a set with ease.
Louisville hopes to remain undefeated in the ACC alongside Pittsburgh while Notre Dame tries to remain in the top six in the conference with a win.
If you cannot make the event I suggest you tune into the ACC Network (ESPN Watch Live online or on the app). Our own Worldwide will be present for the event, although he typically does not tweet while in attendance at volleyball. Paulie will be monitoring the action either live or on the ACC Network.
Just mere hours before something dreadful happened on one end of Floyd Street, Dani Busboom Kelly's serve-and-net Cards were making something nice happen on the other end. As Jeff promised last Saturday on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour, Louisville came out of this week at 5-0 on the ACC season. They didn't do it in a total of 6 sets, as Jeff assured us would happen, but they did get the sweep of Duke last night, despite the Blue Devils staying relatively close. The Cards won 25-15, 25-16, and 25-21 to move to 12-4 on the year and 5-0 in the ACC. They remain in the tie for first in the conference and should be in a position to hold or advance their standing in the top 25, depending on how tomorrow's match against Wake Forest goes.
The Cards came out hot yesterday, hitting a smoking .552 in the first set. They had no errors on their way to a comfortable victory in the first. After stretching the early lead to 10-4, Louisville didn't look back on their way to the first set win. The second set was a bit similar, unusually. The Cards did add 3 errors in the second, but despite Duke's early efforts to stay in the set, the Cards turned a 9-7 advantage into an 18-8 advantage in the blink of an eye. Louisville hit .346 in that one, which was a general improvement on the typical second set we've seen so far this season.
Of course, the Cards had to save that set meltdown for some other time. Louisville hit a whopping eight
errors in the third set, but still managed to finish with a respectable .250 hitting percentage in the set. Duke came out of the set break prepared to jump on any Louisville mistakes, though, and jump they did. After an early back and forth, the Blue Devils took advantage of 4 Cardinal errors to turn a 4-6 disadvantage into a 10-6 lead. The Cards got the hitting into better shape after that rough stretch to win 13 of the next 19 points and regained the lead at 19-16. Duke was unable to recover from the body blows and Louisville finished off the sweep.
Duke is not all that great. The loss drops them to 1-4 in conference and 7-7 on the season. However, Louisville has to win these games, and it's better to see them win sweeps rather than the five set barn burner style of game they won against Clemson. The Cards have struggled a bit with consistency, but it is only Coach DBK's second season. First you compile your talent, then you get them to win games, then you get them to win games consistently. We started step two of that process last season, finishing atop the conference, but step three is eluding us. Poorly timed injuries to key players and thinning at positions that can't spare the bodies have put Louisville in a bit of a bind against some of the better teams on their schedule, but as long as the Cards keep their nose down and continue to hit the ball better each night, they'll be just fine.
Speaking of hitting the ball better, it would appear that a second Louisville player was listening in on the "Case Bashes People with Good Intentions" Hour last week. Melanie McHenry had a great game against Duke, finishing with 15 kills and only 4 errors. She did have a service error but contributed to a block assist and had only one receiving error in 11 receiving attempts. McHenry is the lifeblood of this team offensively, as the team seems to feed off of her energy and hitting. Wilma Rivera is equally as important to the success of the offense, but I feel as though when McHenry is having an off night, everyone else struggles too. Also on offense, Piper Roe, Megan Sloan, and Emily Scott continued to impress with their opportunities. It was Amanda Green's turn to struggle a bit, with 6 kills and 4 errors, but I'm not concerned about her ability to bounce back quickly before the next game.
Louisville stays at home for their next match tomorrow against Wake Forest. Wake, like Duke, sits at 1-4 in conference, but they're a dismal 6-11 overall. Louisville *should* see another sweep tomorrow, so we'll be watching to make sure they're consistent in their hitting and force Wake to beat them, rather than the Cards beating themselves. The match is at 1PM and will be available on ACC Network Extra.
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour
For the second week in a row, all four writers will be in the studio together today.
We'll talk soccer, volleyball, field hockey, and maybe even a little lacrosse, softball, or basketball. With fall sports in the thick of their seasons and spring sports getting a bit of offseason work in, this is a fun time to be a Louisville fan (as long as you ignore that one fall sport that appears to be doing their best)
Join us at 11 AM for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour on WCHQ FM.
Despite Georgia Tech's previously undefeated home record, the Louisville Cardinals headed do to Atlanta yesterday and handed the Yellow Jackets their first home loss and third conference loss of the season. GT dropped to 0-3 in conference with the loss while the Cards remained undefeated. Louisville now sits at 10-4 on the year with a good chance to move to 11-4 (4-0) tomorrow when they take on Clemson in South Carolina.
Louisville's win last night was of the sweep variety, as the Cards took the three sets 25-16, 25-21, and 25-17. Georgia Tech was never close in the first two sets but were sitting at 23-21 in set number 2 before the Cards put the game away with back to back blocks of Mikaila Dowd. It was the same issue that we have seen in the second set numerous times this season where the Cards just lost focus a bit and lost that hitting edge. Fortunately, the additional errors in this one were not enough for Georgia Tech to steal a set and extend this match. The crowd in the arena seemed very into the match, especially during that second set where it seemed like they might have a way to claw their way back. Had Louisville dropped the second set, the rest of the match may have gone quite differently.
After the set break, Louisville caught fire. After a quick barrage of points traded led to the two teams being tied at three, the Cards went on to win 15 of the next 20 points to go up 18-8 and effectively ice the game. Louisville hit .543 in the set with 21 kills, only 5 fewer than their previous two sets combined. 21 kills is insane, as it means that only 4 points came from opponent errors or blocks. The Cards did everything right in the third set and it showed. One could argue that the show of quality from UofL was actually a negative for Georgia Tech, but even if playing a poor defense, the hitters have to find their spots. Louisville was doing that in the third set.
Louisville was paced in the third set by Megan Sloan, who snagged 8 of her team leading 12 kills in the third. Emily Scott finished second on the team with 11 kills on the night and did so on only 16 attacking attempts. Scott had no errors and added in 6 block assists to stand out to me as the hitter of the night. Melanie McHenry was consistent, finishing with 8 kills at 2-3 per set, but still struggled with errors. McHenry is one of the best all-around players on the team and has a ton of talent at the outside hitting position, but she has been slumping hard of late. For Louisville to finish with the type of season they did last year, and also improve on that finish, they'll need McHenry to break out of whatever fog is holding her down.
All in all, the victory is a good one for Coach Dani Busboom-Kelly's squad, despite the minor downturn in the second set. The Cards looked dominant in two of three sets and they'll need performances like that throughout entire matches down the stretch against some of the better ACC teams. They'll especially need to be able to recreate that kind of performance if they'd like to have any success in the NCAA tournament. Another chance to test the rotation will come tomorrow against a struggling Clemson team. The Tigers are 9-7 on the season and fell to 0-3 in conference with a home loss to Notre Dame last night. Clemson will be playing only their fifth home match of the season tomorrow against Louisville, and they had their fourth largest crowd in history last night, but in their three matches against Boston College, Syracuse, and Notre Dame, the Tigers picked up only one set. Louisville should be able to play their game tomorrow and leave town with a tidy victory. That match is set for 1PM on Sunday and will be available on ACC Network Extra.
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour
Jared gave a good preview of the packed weekend in his article yesterday, so why not join us for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour to start it all off. The "A-Team" will be in the studio in full force this week and we've got plenty to talk about. While the week may have been a bit slower than an average fall sports week, we'll discuss victories aplenty and preview the big games the rest of the weekend. Tune in to WCHQ at 11AM for all of the joy and excitement of Louisville women's sports. Check out the links on the side of the site for more info!
Last season, the only match I managed to make it to for volleyball was when NC State came to town. It was a huge ACC matchup in Cardinal Arena late in the season. Last night's match against the Wolfpack was not quite as high profile as 2017's version, but it was still an important match, acting as both teams' ACC opener. It was made even more important for Louisville because of their less than stellar performance last weekend and their uninspiring performances on the road thus far this season.
The Cards put both of those demons behind them for the time being as they beat NC State 3-1 in a fairly close match. Louisville won 25-19, 28-26, 20-25, and 25-18. Barring the slip-up in the third, Louisville very nearly took down the Pack in straight sets, which would have been an even bigger confidence boost. Unfortunately, you don't have to look very far to locate the source of the third set struggle, as the Cards hit only .087 in the third. Overall, it was a much better match than last week, as Louisville finished with a .227 over four sets. It's not a world beating hitting percentage, but it was serviceable, and will win you matches if your opponent hits only .160.
A big improvement over last weekend came for Melanie McHenry, who was very much not herself against the Cats and Mocs. Kentucky had her locked down while she was just missing spots badly against Chattanooga. McHenry finished with 8 errors, still, but also killed 17 points and contributed to 4 total blocks. McHenry has shown that she can be the offensive leader of the team and Coach Dani Busboom Kelly has shown that she wants McHenry to do so. Now we just need to see a bit more consistency from the sophomore for her to become a feared hitter across the land.
McHenry was joined in double digit kills by Amanda Green (13), Jasmine Bennett (12), and Megan Sloan (10). Wilma Rivera was very much in system, assisting on 53 of 60 kills and being forced into only 8 digs. Molly Sauer was stalwart on defense, picking up 26 digs and adding 4 assists. Nobody on the team was particularly useful on the serve, as the Cards finished with 11 service errors and only 3 aces. Serving has been a strength of this team early in the season, so we'll consider last night an exception rather than the rule.
After a big win to begin the conference season, Louisville will stay in the Tarheel State for their next match, taking on North Carolina tomorrow at 1PM. The Cards started off the ACC last season with a huge winning streak. Let's see if they can duplicate such success this season. They're off to the right kind of start.
Corners Doom Field Hockey at Wake Forest
The Cards dropped their second ACC game of the season yesterday in Winston Salem as a 7-2 penalty corner disadvantage led to a 4-2 loss at the hands Wake Forest. It was Wake's (1-1) first ACC win of the season and the Demon Deacons were unranked going into the game. Louisville is sure to fall from their number 7 position after the loss but there is a long season remaining. The Cards will look to get back on track tomorrow against Appalachian State before returning to ACC play against Virginia next Saturday.
To open the scoring, it was Bethany Russ capitalizing on a penalty corner rebound. It was the first of two Louisville scores and the first of two times they would take the lead. The second came in the second half when Whena Munn broke the 1-1 tie off of a goal during the run of play. Louisville played well in the open field, and defended the run of play solidly. Unfortunately, Wake earned corner after corner, finishing with 7 corners that led to 15 shots (9 on goal). Ayeisha McFerran picked up 5 saves but all four goals for the Deacs came as a result of a penalty corner conversion. Louisville finished the game with only 4 shots, both on goal shots finding the back of the cage.
Penalty corner conversion, both offensive and defensive, is often an indicator of game results. Louisville completed 50% of their chances. Wake completed only 57%. However, the difference also comes in volume. 1/2 is usually going to fall to 4/7. Without having watched the game, I can't speak to exactly what was happening for the Cards to be hit so hard and give up so many corners, but I know that if you're giving up so many attempts on goal, you're usually going to have a bad time, even with the best goalie in the world.
There isn't much else to say on this one. Coach Sowry will surely have the team poring over film on the off-day as they seek to determine what went wrong. The Cards have had some good wins, but again, their inability to create consistent offense (still no more than 2 goals in a single game) has come back to bite them. I don't know what the answer is, but I'm sure that everyone related to the team is trying their best to figure it out as well.
Wrap-Up Thoughts on WSoc vs Notre Dame
After nearly turning my iPhone into a brick while attempting to update yesterday, I was waiting patiently for my computer to update so I could finish fixing everything. While not being able to do anything, I decided to check in on Cardinal Couple and saw someone request my thoughts on Thursday's game in the comments. I had a nice big comment written up when my computer decided that it didn't need to ask me if I wanted to restart to finish the updates; it just went for it. Anyway, let's get into what I saw Thursday night against the Irish.
Straight out of the gate, Louisville did not look fully prepared to play. The Cards were sluggish and almost refused to run to the ball. Numerous times, players were jogging while within striking distance of a Notre Dame pass. There was simply no urgency from Louisville. In addition to the lackadaisical ball hunting, the Cardinals were also getting out-physicaled left and right by the Irish. I could probably count on one hand the number of fifty-fifty balls Louisville came away with in the first half. If not for some spectacular defensive play by the back line and a save by Gabby Kouzelos, Louisville could have been in major trouble in the first half. For most of that time, I considered it only a matter of time before the Irish broke through. They looked like the better team for much of the night.
During the second half, Notre Dame's pressure intensified. They put five shots on goal in the second half, forcing Kouzelos into four second half saves. The potential first goal of the game was saved off of the line by a Louisville defender after bouncing dangerously past Kouzelos. Still, Louisville lacked hustle and creativity. Every ball won by the defense was slammed forward with no intent. The area talent scouts seated behind me had the same thoughts saying, "They've got no ideas." It was true. I was busy mentally lamenting Louisville's passing rate (it was extremely low) when the sequence that led to the first goal began. Louisville was able to make crisp passes into space, avoid defenders, and get forward dangerously before Brooklynn Rivers headed home what was ultimately the winner. It was a similar sequence later in the game when Maisie Whitsett regained the team points lead with her goal.
Louisville is a better team when they pass well. They have some straight line speed, but they were not physical enough against Notre Dame to commit to the long ball style of play. I would much prefer to see them continue to create thoughtful attacking chances rather than just hitting the ball upfield and hoping for the best. Additionally, the time for slowly growing into a game has passed. Poor starts like the one Thursday night will haunt against better finishing teams or on a night that the defense is not up to their very best as they were Thursday. I'm not sure what was going on, but let's hope it was isolated.
I won't be able to make it to Sunday's game against the Orange, but this season's results show that Syracuse is not the threat that Notre Dame was. That said, Louisville cannot come out slow and play down to their opponent. I'll depend on Paulie and Jared to relay the "perkiness" of the team and how they look compared to Thursday night. Louisville finished last season with only 11 points in the conference standings, and they've already got 6 through their first two games. A win against Syracuse would be huge for this team's standing in the conference and the nation and for their confidence, as well. Let's see what they figured out in film review and training between the two games.
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour
Jared and I are both MIA from the studio this morning, but that doesn't mean you won't be treated to
a (nearly) full house with a great show. Daryl Foust sits in with Paulie and Jeff, and she's got more than enough talent to replace the two of us. The Crew will talk the three major fall sports that were in action of the last couple of days and do what they do best in bringing the Joy and Excitement of Louisville Women's Sports. Tune into WCHQ FM at 11 AM for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour via 100.9FM, wchqfm.com, the WCHQ app, and on Facebook Live.
After the women's soccer team fell at Purdue Thursday night, Coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes squad probably passed Coach Dani Busboom Kelly and the Louisville Volleyball team somewhere on I-65. The Net Cards headed up to Purdue for a three match set yesterday and today, taking on Lipscomb, Xavier, and Purdue.
Louisville played Lipscomb in the first match of the tournament yesterday at noon and may have been looking ahead to the other two matches a bit. Lipscomb made themselves seen and refused to be walked over by the better team in Louisville. In fact, the Bisons were able to take an extended third set off of the Cards at 28-30 and led 18-14 and 22-21 in the final set before Louisville was able to wake up and finish the match. Louisville ultimately took the match 3-1, but played a much closer match than I'm sure they anticipated.
As is to be expected in a match that goes additional sets, the final raw numbers were a bit higher than normal. Melanie McHenry led the Cards with 17 kills and was followed by Jasmine Bennett (14) and Megan Sloan (10). Molly Sauer added 5 (!!) service aces to her 23 digs and 5 assists, and Emily Scott contributed to 9 of 13 team blocks. Lipscomb did not have the ability to take Wilma Rivera out of her typical role as she assisted 45 of the team's 59 kills and added 2 kills of her own.
As a match that the Cards ultimately won, it is hard to find exactly where they went wrong. They won the first two sets 25-20 and 25-14, but after that they may have forgotten that it was a best of five series. Errors are easy to point at as a culprit, as the Cards committed only 4 total in the first two sets followed by 7 and 5 in the third and fourth respectively, but there is more to it than that. I don't think Lipscomb suddenly got a lot better during the halftime break, so it is definitely something to look out for in the future. Earlier in the season, Louisville was having trouble getting out of second sets. Now do we have to worry about them looking past lower tier teams? Let's hope not.
In the second match of the day for the Cards, they took on the Musketeers of Xavier. Xavier was 1-5 coming into the match and they left it at 1-6. Ultimately, they put up no real resistance to the Cards, with Louisville completing the sweet 25-18, 25-15, 25-14. Xavier's best hitting percentage in the match came in the first set when they hit .074. Both other sets were negative. In addition to Xavier's best hitting set, Louisville committed 7 errors in the first set, leading to the relative closeness of that score. The Cards cleaned it up a bit after that and walked out of the building with two wins. They'll take on Purdue, the biggest test of the weekend tonight at 7:30PM.
Once again, Melanie McHenry led the way with 15 kills, this time with no one joining her in double digits. Claire Chaussee was closest with 8. Melanie had a very big game, completing one of her highest hitting percentages of the season at .440. I know that Xavier was a very down team, but being able to complete kills and find spots even against a bad team is important. If you can do it against an inferior opponent, you have a better chance of doing it against better teams.
Wilma Rivera was called on to get 6 digs in this one, second only to Molly Sauer's 9, but she was still able to contribute 28 assists out of the team's 35 on 40 kills, so it's safe to say she was still comfortably in her role. The Cards again put up double digit team blocks with 12 but had far too many service and hitting errors.
While I just made a case about Louisville overlooking lower tier teams and then talked about them thumping Xavier, I still think the point is valid. Xavier is very bad, and Louisville still was not the cleanest against them. Had Xavier been of the talent level of Lipscomb, the match probably would have been very similar. Louisville will play tough matches and they will play less tough matches in the ACC. The goal is to always win the games that you should, and I would hate for the Cards to drop matches that they shouldn't due to a lack of focus. There is still plenty of time to get it together this season, but they'll need to do so relatively quickly if they'd like another shot at an ACC title.
Field Hockey Falls To UNC
Louisville began their conference season the same way that they ended it last year: a loss to North Carolina. The Cards actually struck first in this one with a goal by Katie Schneider, assisted by Madison Walsh, 10 minutes into the game. Unfortunately, that goal would be one of only three shots on goal the Cards could muster as the Tar Heels dominated for most of the rest of the game.
The majority of the action (and all of the scoring) came in the first half, as UNC put up 12 total shots. They scored three times in the half, and 3-1 would be the final score. UNC was content to come out of the half playing more defensively, as they only put up 4 shots in the second half, even while winning 4 corners. Ayeisha McFerran started in goal and finished the game with 6 saves. One of the UNC goals came off of a rebound off of McFerran's pads and another came from penalty corner. Both are hard to blame on McFerran and the turnover in Louisville's defense may be starting to show. The Cards have always been a strong defensive team but now have two losses where they've given up three goals in a single half.
There is not much good to glean from this match. North Carolina was able to do pretty much whatever they wanted. They are the number 2 team, sure, but Louisville was number 11 and you'd like to see UNC have to work for it a bit. The Cards were outshot convincingly 16-5 (10-3 SOG) and that's with UNC letting off of the gas in the second half. I harped on the defense a bit before, but not having consistent attacking can also contribute to too much pressure on the defense. Louisville lost a lot in the attack over the summer and Coach Justine Sowry will need to find some answers fast or the high hopes that Louisville had of building on last season may be slipping away already.
Field hockey takes on California in their next match on Sunday at 2PM. That is a home game but is also available on ACC Network Extra. Cal is 2-1 on the season with a 5-0 loss to #4 Maryland and will take on UNC today at 1PM. Cal's wins were a 5-1 win over Providence to start the season and a narrow 1-0 victory over Miami (OH) this past Sunday. The Cards will hope to get back on track with a win tomorrow.
After taking the day off last week, I'm back in the studio today for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. We'll have plenty to talk about this week with nearly every fall sport in action, so be sure to tune in to WCHQ FM at 11AM. The show is available on local radio at 100.9 and online via the website (wchqfm.com), the app (WCHQ FM), or on Facebook Live. Join us as we bring you the joy and excitement of Louisville women's sports as only the Cardinal Couple Crew can.
Until next time, Go Cards!
-CH-
Field hockey pictures in today's article provided by Jared Anderson. As always, check out more of his work at jdaphotos.com.
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.
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.
After upwards of 24 hours of traveling over a 3 day period, to spend less than 20 hours in Minneapolis, I'm back in the 'Ville. I'm tired, disappointed in the outcome of events in Minnesota, but oh so very glad I made the trip.
EDITOR NOTE: Jeff was nice enough to join us on the radio yesterday while watching his Tesla drive him back to Louisville, I haven't heard if he picked up beer cheese or Huber Beer yet...but you CAN hear the show HERE
VolleyThoughts
The UofL Volleyball playing year has come to a close with a disappointing 1st round NCAA
tournament loss to a surprisingly good Northern Iowa team.
My thoughts about the season are still all a-jumble, but I want to try to get some down here.
First and foremost, if you take anything away from my chaotic thoughts, take this one away. This team over-achieved compared to what was expect of them...by a lot! Picked in pre-season to finish 8th in the ACC, which would likely have left them on the outside of the NCAA tournament looking in (again), with a new coach...not only new to UofL, but new to being a head coach altogether, this team put together an amazing later season run through the conference only losing two matches, and taking the co-championship with Pitt and earning the NCAA automatic qualifying bid for the conference. Drawing an NCAA tournament draw that pitted them in the sub-region of the 7th seed vs the much closer 4 seed in Lexington.
So what happened in Minnesota? While I haven't had the chance to go back and rewatch the match (and I'm not sure I will) to analyze, my first instinct points to blocking. Not our blocking so much, although we were certainly a better blocking team than we have been in recent past, but to the opponents blocking. If you look at the later season losses and matches where we struggled, the one theme that I think I found is that the other team blocks well. In the UNI match, we were even in total blocks on the stat sheet, but not all blocking efforts make the stat sheet. Deflections and tips that don't result in a point don't show up in the stat sheet at all, and good blocking teams don't just rack up stats, they deflect and tip shots that give the defense a better chance to play the ball and get a good in-system offense set. Getting tips and deflections also causes the hitting team to try to start adjusting their shots to hit around, tip over, or just power through the block, all of which are actions that can be fraught with peril. Any time you can get the other team reacting to you, rather than the other way around, you have a leg up.
We had an amazing defensive trio this year in Molly Sauer, Gabbie Wiley, and Alexis Hamilton. We got less playing time late in the season from Alexis due to a wrist injury, but these three did an amazing job covering the digging and passing duties using just two players at a time, particularly on serve receive, when most teams would use three. Add in a sprinkling of all-around playing from the likes of Amanda Green, and Melanie McHenry, and our digging and passing were much improved over last years, and drastically so over two seasons ago. In basketball, turnovers and rebounds can generate offense (particularly if you're playing Walz-style of basketball), the equivalent in Volleyball is digging and passing. We lose Gabbie to graduation, and looking on the current roster, the name that jumps to mind to fill that spot would be Natalie Palastro. We do have two signed Libero/Defensive Specialists, including a standout from Nebraska name Maggie Mullen who I expect will compete for this role.
In other graduations, we will lose Maggie DeJong (apparently we have a firm quota of one "Maggie" per season) in the middle. I expect Piper Roe to step up to fill that role. Again, we have a signed freshman from Appleton, WI named Emily Scott, but I expect this role to be Piper's unless something crazy happens. Tess Clark will also be departing, and the current roster player that would most naturally slot into that spot is Megan Sloan, but we incoming freshman Aiko Jones out of Jamaica who looks absolutely dynamic, as well as a Wisconsinite, Claire Chaussee. I can see both competing for the role as incoming freshmen. Lastly we graduate Coline Coessens, who mostly helped out as a serving specialist, but did occasionally play full-rotation with all around skills. Not being confined to one specific role, I expect her contributions will be replaced with a patchwork of players and adjustments in play over the overall team.
This was a great year for UofL Volleyball, it hasn't matched the most successful years of the squad over the years, but given the starting point, I don't believe there is any room for complaints here at all. This was a huge step forward for the squad, and I expect more to come as this team gets molded more and more in Dani Busboom Kelly's image.
I look forward to spring play, and the start of play next fall.
"You and I" might be advancing, yes, but I love the future
of this team.
Basketball In Action
Two basketball games today. The men host Seton Hall at the KFC Yum! Center at 4 p.m, while the women are hoping to outrun the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State with a 3 p.m. tip. While the men will be looking to get back to their winning ways, the women will be working to continue to remain undefeated and go to 8-0 to start the season (with wins over 3 Top 25 teams in there already, lest we forget). If you can't make it downtown, the men will be shown on ESPN2, while the women's stream will only be available on the added-cost SDSU streaming service. I'll give Nick and AJ the listen on 790 AM (probably streamed) instead, and perhaps pull up the #3 Notre Dame vs #1 UConn game starting at 4 p.m.
Muffet McGraw vs Geno Auriemma is always an entertaining match-up of two very good teams, both of which we'll be playing later this season.
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour
Looking for wins to talk about from yesterday? The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour was a walk-off
Grand Slam home run of a broadcast. It was particularly awesome if you ignore the dufus who couldn't even manage to stay on a phone call.
It was a bit of a different lineup from our usual, but man was it fantastic. Julie JC "no periods" Sullivan, Paige "Wiener Dog Lover" Sherrard, and Daryl "#4" Faust joined Paulie in studio, and we couldn't ask for better analysis and discussion of Volleyball, Basketball, and Soccer than from this crew. I did manage to maintain a phone connection for long enough to talk about the Volleyball loss some as I was driving across the hinterlands of Wisconsin, and then got to listen to the rest of it via the wonders of Internet streaming.
Let's start on an upbeat note, shall we? At least mostly upbeat. Football, in their season opener did knock off Purdue up at Lucas Oil Stadium by a score of 35-28. This victory is diminished slightly by some bad ball security, and a shocking number of penalties. As I saw someone say on Twitter this morning, an ugly win is better than a pretty loss, so we'll take it, learn from it, and move on.
Credit to Purdue for keeping it close and forcing the Cards to score the last 10 points of the night to win this one. And, once again, Lamar Jackson shows why he is the reigning Heisman trophy winner with a huge performance in Indy.
485 Total Yards for LJ8...which was over 100 more than the entire Purdue team managed.
Volleyball
Kent State
Volleyball had two matches yesterday in The Cardinal Classic. The first, in the early afternoon was
against Kent State. KSU was clearly the outclassed team all weekend, but they were a fun team to watch, mostly because they scrambled a lot, and did a pretty good job of it. With the result is that they kept all of the games surprisingly close in score, though I don't think they won a set all weekend. The Cards won, in straight sets, 25-14, 25-17, 25-19.
A slight change to the starting lineup in this one, with Piper Roe starting in place of Maggie DeJong. Unofficial word that I heard is that she pulled an abdominal muscle in warmups for the Kent State match, very minor, and she saw action again in the evening matchup. Piper made the best of her opportunity, putting down 7 kills on 9 attempts, for an absolutely eye-popping .778. Melanie McHenry and Tess Clark again formed the third leg of the offensive stool, both hitting .318. Melanie got 8 kills on 22 attempts, and Tess got 10 on 22 attempts, just with two more hitting errors than McHenry (3 vs 1). Megan Sloan made an appearance in this match, and also took advantage of her opportunity with 5 kills on 10 attempts in only 2 sets played.
Defense was mostly by committee, though Piper did contribute well in blocking as well, with a solo and four shares, nearly half of the team's total of 7. Digs were pretty evenly distributed, with Wilma Rivera getting the most at 13 as opponents continue to target her to try to take her out of her setting duties. The two dynamic duos in the back row, Molly Sauer, and Gabbie Wiley, along with Molly and freshman Alexis Hamilton accounted for a total of 18, (7 for Molly, 9 for Gabbie, and 6 for Alexis). The 6'2" McHenry continues to show her versatility in all-rotation play by also picking up 6.
Overall a good outing, and then evening came.
Illinois
Illinois came in to form the marquee matchup of The Cardinal Classic. An (honestly, surprising to me) unranked Illinois team came in and showed that, despite having a new coach (probably a big part of why they were unranked to start the season) they haven't dropped a beat. The Cards were looking for revenge for the elimination from the NCAA tournament in 2015, also in Cardinal Arena, but it wasn't to be. Illinois came away with the win, 25-18, 25-15, 25-20.
Full credit to Illinois, who is still a very fine team, that never gave up on a ball, and with size and power that the Cardinals just couldn't match. While Louisville was getting a lot of deflections and tips at the net, they just didn't have the size and height to get solid blocks, with only three total for the match.
UofL struggled to remain in system, and just didn't play very sharp. I have no doubt that the team will be looking at plenty of film from this one, to find their mistakes and ways to improve. One of Coach Busboom Kelly's saying comes into play, here, "Win, or learn." There will be lot's to learn from in this one.
The Wide Netters head back out on the road next, with a trip out west to Vegas, for the UNLV Challenge. There, they'll meet up with UC Irvine, Weber State, and of course host UNLV. From what I've seen of this Cards team, and despite knowing precious little about these opponents, I do expect UofL to come out of this weekend with three more in the win column.
Don't give up on this team. They may be only 2-3 in their record at this point, but those three losses are to ranked teams and a team that should be ranked, and probably will be in tomorrow's poll. Also, in that win column is a win over a ranked team. I would stand up UofL's strength of schedule to this point against any team in the country. There are good things ahead, here.
Field Hockey
Sowry's squad looks to get back to the winning ways today at noon, where they also take on the Kent State Golden Flashes. Let's hope the Field Hockey squad has as much success against them as the Volleyball team did, and help set a pattern for the Football team to follow three weeks from now when they tangle with Kent State here in Louisville.
Field Hockey is on the road for this one, in Columbus OH. They'll be coming out angry after taking the loss to Ohio State, Friday. No video or audio of this one, that we're aware of.
The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour
The latest episode of The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour is up on the soundcloud, and my snarkerator was a finely tuned machine yesterday. We had audio from Dani Busboom Kelly after the volleyball win over WKU Friday, and had a wonderful live chat by phone with Cortnee Walton in our Catching Up series. One takeaway from that, be sure to listen for her on the call a number of ACC Network Extra events this year. Otherwise, we did touch, at least briefly, on all of the various sports competing...things get busy in the fall. Check it out, won't you?
