WBB corrals Broncos 98-82 -- Volleyball sweeps Canes -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FIRST QUARTER SURGE LEADS LOUISVILLE TO FIFTH WIN

"Hey, guys...I found a baby"  (CAPTION THIS PIC) 

Louisville women's basketball looked like a top ten team last night for the first ten minutes in a 16-point win over visiting Boise St. in the KFC YUM! Center Sunday afternoon. In the final 30 minutes, they struggled with BSU in a highly competitive contest against a squad that just would not go away. Narrowly missing 100 points is a testament to the fact Louisville can score. Allowing 82 points and allowing the Broncos 61.4% shooting alludes to the Jeff Walz axoim "If you're going to make a mistake, make a new one." Yesterday, it was defensive continuity that was lacki 

Maybe it was the legion of 8331 red clad fans in the Downtown arena. It could of have been the brilliant red-light themed pre-game aura surrounding Denny Crum Court during the Louisville introductions. Whatever it was, the blue-clad visitors from Idaho came out a step slow to start this contest and the Cards capitalized. 

Jazmine Jones, Kylee Shook and Bionca Dunham were "plugged in" early and UofL grabbed an early 8-5 lead in the first 2 1/2 minutes. It was part of a 12-0 run for Walz's squad that led to an 18-5 advantage with 4:20 left in the opening session. The Cardinal starters Jones, Dunham, Evans, Shook and Balogun were on a roll. Walz inserted Elizabeth Dixon and Norika Konno into the contest and the party continued. A 13-6 run ended the first period, Shook and Evans had seven points each, UofL was shooting 75% from the floor and the scoreboard read 31-14. This football-like score had the fans rollicking.  

The start of the second quarter featured a bit more parity between the squads. Evans drilled a three to keep the advantage at 18, at 40-22, but the Broncos had shaken off the early jitters, were getting guards Riley Lupfer and Jayde Cunningham involved and playing UofL pretty evenly. Walz worked Yacine Diop and Kasa Robinson into the contest and the buckets continued to pile up for both squads.

58-34 at the half, thanks to a Evans layup at the horn . Louisville was still shooting at a 71.4% clip (25-35) and was dominating in paint points 36-16. 

Three Cardinals (Shook, Evans and Jones) had already reached double figures in scoring and Evans had distributed six assists in the 20 minutes. 

I'd like to tell you that the onslaught continued in the final 20 minutes. I'd be lying if I did, though.

Boise (3-3) won the second half 48-40

Louisville maintained the 16-20 point cushion they had built up in the first half but the Broncos were looking pretty good against their ACC opponent, hitting shots and going to the boards with authority. UofL did put together a late third quarter 12-2 run to hold their largest advantage of the night at 81-56, Dixon accounting for eight of the points. 

The Cards shooting fell off in the final quarter to 33%. Walz added Lindsey Duvall to the 10-player rotation and she responded well with five points but Boise was still plugging away. Their 11-17 fourth quarter shooting (64.7% )and inside banger Rachel Bowers one-women war against the Cards front line with 14 points brought the Broncos back to within 16 with a 13-4 fourth quarter run in the first four minutes. Suddenly it was 88-71 and the blue squad had "uncle mo" going for them. 

The Bronco players were loose and joking with referee Mark Hardcastle. Seeing a dangerous trend developing, Jeff Walz decided to make a wholesale substitution move and re-inserted Jones, Balogun, Evans and Dunham for Dixon, Duvall, Robinson and Diop. 
It's Walz's job to win games and the move was made instead of letting the current players on the court get a chance to weather the storm.

"Hey, where's the baby I found ?" 

BSU would get within 15 a minute later and actually win the fourth 24-17 but the Cards stemmed the tide and the Broncs were contained the rest of the way, only outscoring the Cards 11-8 in the final five minutes.  A 16-point Louisville win 98-82.

It wasn't a blowout, the Cards did get tested and found something new to work on -- defense -- and also proven, yet again, that they do have three reliable scorers in Jaz, Dana and Kylee... plus waiting-in-the-wings "Liz", who seems to have embraced the "first off the bench" role. "B" is steady, does the job and is productive.  "E" will explode again very soon, as the season rolls on -- learning a new system takes awhile. 


FRED REPORT

FREE THROWS -- The Cards almost reached our standard of 70% with a 16-23 effort from the charity stripe. Jaz shook off her early woes and sank her final six charity attempts. Konno and Dixon came off the bench for a combined 6-8 from the line. We'll offer a lower case "f" here, only six of the 11 Cardinal players attempted "free ones". 

Fred the Bear for today's "Fred" The Cards gather
another pelt Sunday. 

REBOUNDING -- Louisville won the boards battle 34-25. It was rebound by committee, Jones leading  the way with six. The front line trio of Shook, Dixon and Dunham was limited to 13. BSU had no one with more than three, the elusive "team" rebounding stat led the way for them with four. Balogun, Konno and Jaz combined for 15. We'll award the Captial "R" here, primarily for the 18-9 first half effort. 

EXECUTION/EFFICIENCY --  If the contest had ended after the first quarter, no problem with a capital "E" here. And, Louisville did commit only 10 turnovers and won the points-off-turnovers 25-10. But, when you play a un-ranked team basically even for 30 minutes and your bench produces just 27 of your 98 points, it's only worth a small case "e" to me. The "jelling" continues on, as Walz told us it still would be after the Cards first game. 

DEFENSE. Yes, Louisville forced 20 turnovers. Eight in the first quarter. But, BYU blistered the nets for over 60% shooting. Either that's incredibly lucky or you're having trouble guard shooters and preventing assists. BSU guard Jayde Christopher racked up 14 assists against the porous UofL guarding attempts. They almost matched Louisville with points-in-the- paint 52-48. Two of their front-liners went 15-20 against the Cards. No letter here. 

FINAL FRED TALLY f-R-e-_


THEY SAID IT

Gordy Presnell started out the post-game chats. A good guy. Albeit a brief encounter with the Louisville media, he spoke glowingly about his team and credited Louisville as well. 

BSU's GORDY PRESNELL PRESSER (AUDIO ONLY)

It was another combination-type Cardinal post-game media event, with players Kylee Shook and Jaz Jones joining Walz midway through his remarks. Per usual, he pounded Paulie about a question (defense) and revealed the stunning theory that "most points win a game". Farmer Tom derailed the whole thing later when he asked Jaz if she was going to video the upcoming Virgin Islands trip. Gee, post-game presser are fun. 

WALZ, SHOOK AND JONES POST-GAME


SOOOO...

Let's review the pluses from yesterday's contest. The Cards won and are now 5-0 to complete the home-stand. Jaz and Dana continue to still be a powerful 1-2 punch against opponents. Kylee is proving her ascension to a starting role was a wise call and Norika continues to show she's a worthy and productive early addition to games.  Liz Dixon has calmed down, for the most part, now coming off the bench and sinking her inside attempts. 98 points doesn't exactly stink, let's face it

Louisville found a new thing to work on after yesterday and that is maintaining defensive pressure against a better-than-average opponent. All, part of this jelling process, I suppose. 

Next up, a trip to the Virgin Island with three games in three days starting Thanksgiving afternoon. UT-Arlington, Oklahoma State and Oregon. Louisville should be 2-0 when they battle the #1 Ducks on Saturday. By far, the toughest contest of this early schedule awaits and we'll see...the Cards have shown their a top-ten team. They'll need to put together 40 minutes of excellence to survive Saturday. We'll see how it goes. 

(WBB PHOTOS FROM JARED ANDERSON.) 


VOLLEYBALL GETS OUT THE BROOM VS. MIAMI 


ON SENIOR DAY at the LNFCU, the Cards honored Melanie McHenry and then went out and got a  3-0 sweep over the Canes 25-19, 25-21, 25-19. 

Claire Chaussee delivered 13 kills and 11 digs to help propel the Cards in their second-to-last game of the regular season. Also in force for the VolleyCards was Amber Stivrins and Aiko Jones....this version of UofL's "A" Team had nine kills each and Anna Stevenson added seven kills and a impressive five blocks. 

The Cards jumped out to a 14-7 first set lead, weathered a bit of a Miami Hurricane flare-up but rallied from a 19-15 lead to prevail by six. .344 hitting from the accurate Cards and Anna Stevenson's block ended the set.

Set two had Miami active early but UofL tied it at 11-11. Leading just 20-18, Louisville went on a late 3-0 run, augmented by Miami errors. UM called a timeout, but their late rally wan't enough...another Miami miscue gave the Cards this one by four. 

In set three, the Canes battled the Cards to a 13-13 tie in the early going but Louisville turned to Aiko and she deflated the stormy conditions to lead the Cards to the final set, six point match closer. 

An optimistic effort from Louisville, who now travels to #2 in the nation Pittsburgh for a Thanksgiving Eve battle against the powerful Panthers. 

19-8 on the season for Dani's crew as they head for the re-match in the Three Rivers City. 


Have a magnificent Monday!

paulie
xxxxx    

Louisville Volleyball -- Canes blow by Cards in three sets in Miami -- Saturday Cardinal Couple

Poor hitting, passing sends Cards to .500 in ACC

The by-line almost sounds like a combination baseball and football recap...but volleyball was the game in Coral Gables, Florida Friday night and the University of Miami swept Anne Kordes' UofL wide netters in three games...25-22, 25-21 and 25-15. 

Louisville hit a poor .089 for the match...and that wasn't the only problem the Cards had on the hardwood.

"Passing continues to be our Achilles heel," smiddles involved . We had to rely on our outsides and I thought Janelle Jenkins had a great match offensively, defensively and the stat sheet does not show all the things she was doing for us. Miami is in late season form and they picked us apart and limited our options which is tough to overcome."


Louisville fell behind 15-9 in the first game and couldn't

overcome the deficit...despite three straight Katie George serves that got the Cards within three at 21-18. Gabby Wiley's ace pulled the Cards close at 24-22 but the Canes got a kill to win by three

The Cards led 13-10 in game two, but saw UM go on a 8-0 aid UofL head coach Anne Kordes. "It makes it a struggle to get our run that effectively took the visitors out of the contest. Louisville staged a late rally with three points to close the gap to 23-21, but Miami regrouped and took the final two volleys.

Louisville looked ready to contest the match in game three...leading 8-3...but the Canes took off on a 22-7 run to take game and match. The Cards were stymied by -.103 hitting. 

Next up for UofL (14-10, 6-6)...a Sunday trip to South Bend to face Notre Dame.  

     *                   *                   *                  *                 *

WE bet the Mountaineer would listen if he was a
UofL fan. (Maybe he's thinking about that...)

Be sure to catch the CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO SHOW on WCHQ 100.9 FM ( and at crescenthillradio.com) at 11 am.
Worldwide and Paulie will review the UofL women's sports and preview next week. Field Hockey, Volleyball, WBB and much more are all on tap. 

We're the only weekly show that recaps Louisville women's athletes each and every week. Give us a listen! 

Volleyball vs MTSU, UNLV, and Miami (Fla.)

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SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE PRESENTS:

(Columnist JEFF McADAMS takes us through the Fri-Sat UofL Volleyball matches with his 

always excellent observations, analysis and comments!) 

Chalk up 3 W's for the Kordes Krew

It wasn't always pretty, and there was some epic come-from-behind play going on...and I'm not talking about football.

MTSU

Middle Tennessee State University is a school that has frequently given the Volleyball Cards challenges.  Eliminating UofL in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2007, and giving them a bit of a scare in the first round of 2010.  They're a pesky team, that can be counted on to give solid play.

In the first set, MTSU again gave the Cards a bit of scare, with MTSU leading most of the way.  After coming off two big wins last weekend, I suspect there may have been of big game let down, again.  Much like the let down after the Kentucky match, however, it lasted less than a set...if that's how this team is going to react to post-big-game-let-downs, that's not bad.

The second set was never much of a contest, and the third looked to be much the same.  The Blue Raiders made a run at a comeback, but then a bunch of errors derailed their efforts.

The setting pair of Hannah Kvitle and Katie George...still splitting the second hit duties...spread the offense around quite a bit, but the most success and momentum building happened up the middle with Brooke Mattingly, and Tanya Lukyanenko.  Tanya was back in the middle position to fill in for Gwen Rucker, who was on the bench all weekend, but not dressed out, due to illness.  With Tanya playing in the middle the fans had more opportunity to appreciate the play of Carly Sahagian, a transfer from the University of Tennessee.  Carly hit a mistake free 6 of 14, for .429 which put her third in percentage behind the .462 numbers of Brooke and Tanya...that's ignoring Katie George's single successful attempt that gives her a statistical 1.000, but isn't really fair to compare with hitters taking upwards of 10 swings a match.

UNLV

Keep your eyes on this team.  While I don't expect them to be back at the KFC Yum! Center for the national championship December 13th and 15th, I think a lot of people are underrating their play, as I think the VolleyCards did coming into this match.

I would say that the Cardinals weren't really fully awake for this 11am start-time, but the Rebels were effectively functioning on an 8am start time, so that excuse doesn't really stand up to scrutiny.

With only .109 hitting in the first set, and no blocks...Gwen's presence was really missed there...the first set looked really rough for UofL.  It ended up being a tight game with the Rebs taking it 23-25.

The second set was only marginally better.  Kaitlynn James started to come alive with several successful attacks that blunted the UNLV momentum and helped UofL scratch out a win in the second set...taking an extra point to get there...at 26-24.

Anne Kordes was clearly unhappy with her team's play heading into the break...I wonder if they had to repaint the locker room walls as I imagine she blasted her players for their poor play in the first two sets.  Whatever she said, and however she said it, the team responded.  With .560 hitting in the set and 4 blocks, this looked more like the team that played Purdue and Illinois last weekend.  Winning the set 25-6, I imagine UNLV wishes they could forget this one.

Credit UNLV with digging deep and making the 4th set a contest.  They responded to the withering attack of the third set and stepped up their play.  Both teams had big runs, first the Rebels, then the Cardinals, but after being chastised during the set break, UofL continued playing well and was able to put the match away.

Miami

The marquee matchup of the Louisville Invitational was Louisville vs Miami.  Miami, technically unranked, is getting votes in the coaches poll for an effective 26th.  This isn't a team to be trifled with.  Kaitlynn James continued to play well after the afternoon match...really a great day for her overall.  The most efficient play, though, came from Brooke Mattingly...who I'm going to start calling "Stomp" because after she makes a great play, she stomps on the floor and cheers...really a honest, heartfelt expression of excitement that her teammates, and the fans, really feed on.  "Stomp" hit an phenomenal .714 and helped out in a couple of blocks.

In the first set, Miami got out to a solid lead.  At 22-15 the crowd largely thought the set was over and were thinking about how to respond in the second set.  Kaitlynn, Lola, and Tanya thought otherwise as, starting with Kaitlynn's serving, Lola and Tanya killed and blocked their way to a 7 point run.

Good solid play in the second set got Louisville to a solid match lead.  It looked like the Cards were going to have another good sweep of a good team.

The third set, however, went to the Hurricanes powered by a 9-0 run.  Louisville dug down deep and started to make a comeback, but ran out of time.

Solid play across the board in the 4th set netted UofL the match and tournament win.

Takeaways

I think there are a couple of UofL teams that I'm glad I'm not going to be in their practice sessions this week.  While both UofL Football and Volleyball came away with wins, there's plenty to praise and critique in the play of both teams this weekend.  Both teams also came away with unblemished records for the weekend, but I suspect practices will be grueling dissections of what went wrong at times.

I'll leave the analysis of Football to those who know more about it, but for Volleyball, we've got good and bad.

The good is that we saw what this team can do when they meet adversity.  They dug down and gritted out some wins even when things weren't going their way and they weren't executing well.  To be able to dig down and turn their play around within a match like they did several times this weekend speaks well of the team's ability to tap into reserves of discipline and pull themselves together.  We saw that happen this weekend during set breaks, timeouts, and even just between plays.

The bad, of course, is that they played in such a way to begin with that they found themselves in situations where they had to tap those discipline reserves.  It would be great if all of their matches just went well enough that they wouldn't need to turn their play around.  Of course, eventually a team will be tested, so its good to know that they have it in them to make the comebacks in tough situations.

Up Next

The Cards start their conference slate, starting Friday at 7pm with DePaul, followed by Notre Dame on Sunday at 2pm, both at the KFC Yum! Center.  Come check them out.

Sunday Cardinal Couple -- Volleyball wins two

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Sunday Cardinal Couple

-Volleyball takes two

The #12 University of Louisville volleyball team continued its hot streak by defeating UNLV and Miami (FL) yesterday to win the Louisville Invitational. The Cards triumphed over UNLV in the morning session 23-25, 26-24, 25-6, 25-21 and downed Miami 26-24, 25-19, 19-25, 25-17 in the nightcap. 

UNLV falls in four sets to Louisville

Kaitlynn James took charge of the net in the match against the Runnin' Rebels with 16 kills. 

Louisville started slowly by losing the first game after trailing most of the way before taking a brief lead at 21-20 late. UNLV ran off four straight points, though, to get a 24-21 lead and hold on for the win. 

Louisville responded in the second game slowly again, falling behind 14-6 at one point before James went to work. Her three straight kills got Louisville to within three at 15-12. Managing to tie the contest at 20-20, James gave the Cards a one-point lead with a kill and UofL pulled out a close one by two.

After the break, the Cards roared out to an early lead they never looked back from. Runs of 3-0 and 9-0 had  Anne Kordes' team sitting comfortably at 16-3. Emily Juhl put the Runnin' Rebs out of their misery with a slam to give Louisville the 19-point romp and a 2-1 lead in the match. 

UNLV was not ready to quit, though, and jumped to a 8-5 advantage in the final game. They increased that to 12-5 before UofL pieced together a 9-1 run and a 14-13 edge. The Cardinal hot streak continued behind Lola Arslanbekova and it was 23-18 after a service ace by her. James finished the match with a kill and the 25-21 win.

Cards fend off Miami in four sets

Lola stepped up big in the evening session with 21 kills and UofL improved to 11-1 on the season with a four game win against the Canes. 

The Cards started slowly in game one and trailed deep into the contest at 22-15 before four Lola kills and a block and two Tanya Lukyanenko kills and a block late rallied the Cards to the narrow two point win. Lola had 10 kills in the first game. 

Louisville jumped out to an early lead in the second contest 16-11 but Miami rallied to get back to just a four-point deficit at 21-17. After a timeout, the Cards regrouped and won four of the final six points to take a 25-19 win and go 2-0 in the match. 

The teams played fairly evenly in the third game until a 9-0 Canes run boosted them to a seven point advantage that the Cards could not overcome. At 24-16, UofL managed to get three straight points but Caitlin Welch's serving error gave Miami a six point win.

Louisville and Miami played the final game evenly at the start until a 6-2 Cardinal run took a 7-7 score to a 13-9 UofL lead. Miami would get no closer and the Cards coasted in with a 25-17 victory. 

Middle blocker Gwen Rucker sat out both contests with an illness.

Lola earned MVP honors for the Cards and James and Brooke Mattingly joined her on the All-Tournament team. 

( BE SURE TO CHECK BACK LATER TODAY FOR JEFF MCADAMS ANALYSIS AND REPORT ON THE WEEKEND VOLLEYBALL ACTION)

2500 for the evening game. On a football Saturday. Best college sports town in America.  Right here in River City.

We don't do a lot with football here, of course...we're a women's sports site...but wanted to share with you this series of texts between me and a buddy who was unable to attend and watching on TV...

Buddy:  ACC? No wonder ND wants to leave. EZ pickings.
Paul: ACC! ACC! ACC! I just busted one of my thundersticks.
Buddy: U staying for 2nd half?
Paul: For at least 3 quarters. Need to get over to 80 u 80.
Buddy: U at 80 u 80?
Paul: Leaving in a few. It's on TV there. Ladies behind me driving me nuts. 
Buddy: What in the world?
Paul: Need D. C'mon cards!
Buddy: Ugh. Fumbled kickoff? 
Paul: We're fine. Good deflect. Run clock out now.
Buddy: L1C4.
Paul: Wow. I've still got my sunglasses on. 
Buddy: Go change your drawers.
Paul: LOL. A W a W no matter how u get it.   
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