SUMMER NEWS AND HOOPS RECRUITING -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

We've all survived the Fourth of July and are back to our regularly scheduled summer. I was planning on writing the Wednesday article before some car troubles delayed me and Paulie was nice enough to cover for me.

Speaking of Paulie, the news is good. He's up to 1/2 mile a day of walking, mostly without a cane. He anticipates driving soon, maybe we should post that well in advance so motorists in our area have a heads-up.

Women's golf, who has been quiet since the season ended, announced five members who were named WGCA All-American Scholars. Congratulations to Shannon Gramley, Lauren Hartlage, Louisville Oxner, Delaney Shah, and Molly Skapik. Remember that grades come before sports!

Paulie mentioned yesterday that Rachel Pease from the cross country team was named as an ACC Sportsmanship Award Winner this year. Rachel made us all proud with the sportsmanship she showed and proved to us all that winning isn't everything. Her actions were so heroic that she deserved a shoutout for a second day in a row.

Unrelated to women's sports, social media has been buzzing about former men's basketball player Russ Smith. A member of the 2013 championship squad has been averaging over 60 points per game in the Chinese League.

Morgan Miller is officially listed on Oklahoma's volleyball roster. We were fortunate to have the six foot lefty for a couple of seasons. M&M was versatile and could play just about any position you threw her in. She transferred out of UofL to move closer to home.

For all of the softball lovers out there (I'm talking to you, Jeff) Jordan McNary has found a passion for coaching. She's been assisting the Louisville Sluggers softball team during their summer play. Louisville has seen many former Sluggers throw on the Cardinal Red and black for their collegiate career. A fantastic player becoming a fantastic coach over there!

Thankfully, we only have a month left of no sports. Women's soccer kicks the season off at Ohio State on August 9th. After that we are thrust into the fall season with numerous sports playing.

Until mid-August comes we can only contain our excitement and hope for continued success this season with all of the teams.

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With the recruiting "live" period starting today for women's college basketball, Jeff Walz and his staff will be busily traversing the nation checking out the future talent.

The EYBL is in town out at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center (66 courts!) and the Cardinal staff is checking out that action as well.

Some of the names?

With two recruits already on board for 2018...the Cards will probably be looking for an additional one or two. Aquira DeCosta and Nylassa Smith are two top prospect still remaining out there that haven't committed. The Cards will, of course be watching multiple classes for talent to add to the program.

Happy hunting staff!

Jared

Southpaw specials...Cardinal Couple Saturday

Cardinal Couple Collaborative Southpaw Special Squad

It's been a while.  I know you have been craving a Cardinal Couple team honor, so today we bring you The Cardinal Couple Collaborative Southpaw Special Squad.  An honorary team of all left-handers.  We only have appearances from three of the Louisville women's teams because, here's a fun fact for you, there is no "left-handed" equipment for Field Hockey, so it's nigh-on impossible to tell the lefties when they're out on the field in that sport, and similar for Lacrosse.  So we have honorees from Basketball, Volleyball, and Softball, as these are the sports where handedness really makes a more significant difference.

Softball Honorees

We'll start on the diamond.  We have three full lefties on the Softball Squad.

Jordan Vorbrink

A sophomore this year, Jordan saw action last year as a freshman, with appearances in 24 games, and 15 starts at either first base, or in the outfield.  Seemingly a specialist in triples, tying for the team lead, she almost had a cycle in one game, lacking just a single in the attempt.  Jordan is a local, playing high school ball at Mercy Academy

Morgan Meyer

A senior leader on the team, co-captain last year, "Mo" played in 45 games last year, with 37 starts in the outfield.  A real speedster, Meyer has found a home in the outfield, covering acres of grass to deny hitters their success.  Before making her presence known in the outfield, she frequently made base running appearances, taking advantage of her quickness and speed to advance on even marginal hits.  Morgan is definitely a country girl at heart, but also hails from the Derby city, and also is a Mercy graduate.

Jordan McNary

To round out the true-lefty softballers, Jordan McNary shares a lot of traits with Morgan Meyer.  She's a senior speedster that patrols the outfield, appeared in 45, started 38.  She also tied with Vorbrink for triples.  Also a Kentuckian, McNary hails from Madisonville, and went to Hopkins County Central HS.

Volleyball Honorees

To the wide net, and another trio of lefties.

Gabbie Wiley

From Hannibal MO, and Hannibal High School, Gabbie Wiley had a great year as a defensive and serving specialist for the Cardinal squad that generally struggled through the year.  Gabbie played in a more attacking role in high school, and has taken a couple of years to adjust to playing a more defensively oriented role on the team, but came into her own this year, with several matches where she equalled Libero Molly Sauer's dig totals, with only half the rotations to do it in.  In service, the left-handed serve puts a different spin on the ball which tends to cause serve receive problems.  Notre Dame seemed particularly hapless this season in handling the southpaw spin.  Gabbie also was on the ACC Honor Roll and Athletic Director's Honor Roll, as a pre-med student, no less.  Gabbie was a junior this year.

Kali Eaken

The Cardinals primary setter this year, Kali also hails from Missouri, but from the city of fountains, Kansas City.  Kali initially committed to and enrolled at Kansas State, but after a redshirt freshman year, transfers to UofL to continue her career.  Eaken struggled with several injuries throughout the season, which limited her playing appearances some, but the impact when she was on the court was significant.

Morgan Miller

Morgan Miller comes to us from Magnolia, TX, the second recent Cardinal to hail from that town, following in the footsteps of Roxanne McVey, though they attended different high schools, but did play in the same club system.  The Cardinals are losing the play-her-anywhere services of Janelle Jenkins, who is graduating and heading off to be awesome in whatever she does, but Morgan Miller is from a similar mold.  A competent defensive player, with a good serve, those skills are probably the areas where she has the most room for improvement, as she is already, as a sophomore, a quite good hitter from anywhere on the court.  We don't see her hitting in the middle often, as UofL already has a great roster of middles, but I'm confident she could do a fine job of it.  Otherwise, swinging from the right, from the left, from the backrow, or maybe even not swinging at all, but instead setting others for attacks, she can do it all.  A true utility player with a great eye for the opponent's court, she has excellent ball placement on attacks.

Basketball Honorees

Sydney Zambrotta

"THREEEEEEEEEEEEE 'Z'" is already a common refrain from Cardinal PA guy Sean Moth.  This freshman sharpshooter hails from the venerable Christ The King high school in New York.  Zambrotta, who has also bolstered the ranks of the Cardinal Couple All-Syd/Sid/Szyd team, has already seem some clutch minutes, but we should only expect her contributions to grow as she progresses through her freshman year and further.  At Christ The King, Sydney also played Soccer in the fall, and Lacrosse in the spring, keeping busy all year around.

Asia Durr

Cardinal Couple seems to have an affinity for "Asia"'s, as we continue to follow the career of excellence of Asia Taylor currently tearing up the court in the land down under.  This Asia comes to us from Douglasville, GA and St. Pius X Catholic HS.  Really, who will ever forget her 36 point performance vs Syracuse a couple of weeks ago?  Another sharpshooter, she has just about the range of Shoni Schimmel, but plays great defense as well.  Durr has great handles, and can dribble drive with the best of them.  She's back at full speed this year after being hampered by injury somewhat during her freshman campaign.  We can't wait to see what the next 2 and a half years hold for this star, and for once we won't be excited for the final countdown.

Some Honorable Mentions

Nicole Pufahl

Softball has a couple of players that throw right handed, and I believe are predominantly right-handed, but bat left-handed, so we wanted to give them some love.

Lillie Goetz and Sidney Melton both bat left handed.  Frequently you'll see right handers bat left handed in Softball to be "slappers", but Lillie swings for power from the left side, with a pair of home runs in as many games, both grand slams, no less.  Sidney Melton also doesn't just slap at the ball, tallying some triples in the 2016.

An unusual combination, Nicole Pufahl (who's last name I still can't spell right without checking), throws left handed and bats right handed.  This suggests that she may be predominantly left handed, but learned to bat (with some serious power as well) right handed at some point.  Why?  We're not sure, but we're OK with it.

Radio Today

Today's broadcast will be pre-empted by "Baking with Paulie."  We'll be highlighting turnovers in today's baking show.  Do check it out, it should be a bunch of fun on WCHQ FM 100.9 or streaming at http://www.crescenthillradio.org.  As useless as I am in the kitchen, I'll be fetching coffee.

-- JMcA

VOLLEYBALL DOWN IRISH IN FOUR SETS...THREE SIGN FOR 2017 WBB CLASS -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

IT'S MILLER TIME FOR WIDE NETTERS IN WIN OVER NOTRE DAME

Lest you worry...the UofL Volleyball team didn't go out and celebrate with hoppy beverages after the 22-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-22 win over Notre Dame last night in the KFC YUM! Center. Instead, we refer to the play of sophomore Morgan Miller...who had 14 kills, 18 assists, two assists and three blocks in the Cards' four set victory. 

The Cards got help from other players as well. Melanie McHenry added 14 kills and 18 digs, Janelle Jenkins (so good to see her back out there, right?) delivered 13 kills and Molly Sauer had a career high 38 digs. 


A bit of a lineup change was the catalyst for UofL's success Wednesday night and Anne Kordes approved the message: 

"How fun was that? Molly Sauer passed out of her mind. We did not have many practices to work on this new lineup but they played well and adapted on the fly....I am so happy for our kids!" 

(It was a great deal of fun...Anne...from a viewer's standpoint.) 

The Cards stayed within range of Notre Dame in the first set...eventually getting within one at 21-20...and forcing a Irish time-out. While Worldwide led the fans in the "CARDS" cheer...Notre Dame devised a strategy to win the set. It worked, the visitors getting four of the next six points to take the 25-22 win.

Louisville came out fired up in the second stanza...a 6-0 run contributing to a 16-8 lead. Notre Dame re-grouped, however and cut that margin in half at 22-18. Miller clinched it for Louisville, though, with a kill and tip to gain the final two points...and a 25-21 win. 

After the break, the Cards jumped out early again on the South Bend school with a 8-2 edge. Notre Dame, once again, showed fight, though and cut that to 10-8 and eventually evened the set at 16-16. It was time for Tess after that...getting four kills in a 9-4 Cardinal run to win 25-20. 

UofL slipped away from UND in the fourth set...taking a 14-9 lead and carrying the momentum to a 20-16 advantage. It looked over at 24-20...but the Irish gained a couple of points before the Cards closed the door with a 25-22 win.

Nice to see Louisville battling on...despite the 9-16, 4-11 record. Even better to see them pick up their first home ACC win of the year. With two convincing wins in a row, the Serve and Set Cards are finishing the season strong and, just as importantly, building a nucleus of young players (McHenry, Sauer, Miller, Bennett and others) that will forge the future of the squad.  

The action moves Friday night from the KFC YUM! Center to Cardinal Arena. (Louisville men's basketball will occupy the Chicken Bucket). Kordes' Krew hosts Virginia...who sits at 14th. in the ACC with a 5-21, 2-12 record. 


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DUVALL, KAKALA AND EVANS MAKE IT OFFICIAL

Three 5-star recruits in the 2017 Louisville Women's Basketball recruiting class stated their intentions to play for Jeff Walz yesterday. This stellar class is ranked #1 in the nation by ESPNW Hoop Gurlz and the Cards went west, north and local to add these three to the fold. 

LINDSEY DUVALL is the local element...hailing from Mt.Washington, KY. The Bullitt East Charger is ranked as the seventh-best player at the guard position by ESPNW Hoop Gurlz and has played varsity hoops since the seventh grade. 

What should we expect from the 5'7" Bardstown Road baller? 

She manages the game well...one of those floor leaders that knows the game and makes her teammates better. She can destroy you from the deep or take you to the hoop. She is a shut-down artist on defense and is a full court whirling dervish that Cardinal fans will come to love during her career as a Card. 

Duvall chose the Cards over Kentucky, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio State and South Carolina. Paulie plans on making the 15 minute drive to Charger gym to see her play this season when he can. Well-coached and full of confidence and passion for the game....Duvall will compliment the current group of Cards guards nicely.


DANA EVANS is the northern signee...out of West Side High in Gary, IN. Another guard...the 5'6" fireball is ranked #3 in the guard position and #7 overall by ESPNW Hoop Gurlz.

Think of Asia Durr type explosiveness when you consider Evans. A speedy point guard that breaks down defenders off-the-dribble and can stop and punish defenses with a mid-range jumper. 

Evans represented USA Basketball in the U-18 national championship and delivered the gold. 

Defenders will fear and Cardinal fans will delight over Evans' ability to accelerate in the open court and she's a defensive nightmare for opposing point guards. Along with Duvall, Louisville probably has the best 2017 recruiting back-court and Evans might just be the fastest player on the squad next season. 

Tons of schools were after Evans...way too many to list here. It came down to Louisville, Tennessee and Purdue. She chose wisely.  

LORETTA KAKALA is the western signee. Out of Manteca, CA., she's another five-star recruit...ranked as the second best post in the class and 25th. best overall player by ESPNW Hoop Gurlz. At 6'3"...she brings a tough, physical presence to the paint and has a soft touch around the rim. She can step out to sink the mid-range jumper and scouting services and coaches rave about her advanced footwork and counter-post moves. 

"Retta" also played Volleyball and threw the shot-put and discus in high school (remind you of anyone?) and was named to the CalHi Sports Underclass All-State team as a junior.

Power game. Runs the floor well. Dominant in the post. All of these terms used to describe her. Defensively, she creates mismatches with her size in the paint and will be able to have a dominant presence down low. 

Her choice of Louisville eliminated Arizona State, San Diego State, Cal, UCLA, Utah, Washington, Kansas and Georgia Tech. 


Consider the Cardinal recruiting classes the last four years. #8 in 2014. #1 in 2015. #6 in 2016 and #1 again in 2017. From coast-to-coast...from big city to small burg...from speedy guards to dominant posts, Jeff Walz and his staff find them, recruit them and bring them in. 

Is the class finished? We've learned over the years to never say finished when Jeff Walz has a plane ticket and a cell phone. Could the Cards land Michaela Onyeware? Word is she'll be announcing Saturday morning. No word on Chennedy Carter yet. 

Louisville women's hoops is going to be a blast to watch this year, in the future and if you haven't secured your season tickets...we humbly suggest that you do.


paulie
xxxxx

Cardinal Couple - Election Day Edition

First Off

Because Cardinal Couple is a 501(c)3, I won't be taking any partisan positions here, but it is election Tuesday.  If you haven't done so, yet, either through early voting or just getting up earlier in the morning than I do, please go vote.  This is important stuff, all the way down-ballot, so please go vote for the candidate of your choice.

Volleyball

Paulie promised an analysis of the volleyball matches from the weekend, and you all probably know me well enough to know that I'm happy to oblige.

Duke

First up was Duke for the Friday match.  Duke is a pretty dern good team, sitting 2nd in the ACC just behind UNC trailing by only one match, though unranked nationally.  Duke has some height, and it shows in the blocking stats with the Blue Devils tallying 9 to our 3.  I feel somewhat like a broken record in saying that the Cards struggle against good blocking teams...FSU, UNC, Syracuse, and now Duke are prime examples of this.  I'll bring out one bright spot in this one.  UofL only committed 2 service errors, a refreshingly low number compared to many of the matches this season.

For individual kudos, Molly Sauer picked up 20 digs, which is a pretty impressive number for a 3 set match.  While Gabbie Wiley tallied 10, which is equally impressive (remember, she only has about half the rotations to get hers compared to Molly).  Also credit on this stat to Melanie McHenry with 8, and very impressively for a middle, Tess Clark got 5.  Somewhat counter-intuitively, I suspect as others get stronger in their passing, it lets Sauer take up less of the court, but (and here's the counter-intuitive part) increase her dig stats as she's able to get a more solid pass rather than trying to stretch her coverage so widely and her passing suffering for it.

The return of Janelle Jenkins to the line-up is almost certainly encouraging to the team, but she wasn't much of a factor in this one with only 1 kill and 4 digs.  The offensive highlights go to Tess Clark with 11 kills for .450, and Jasmine Bennett with 7 for .261.  These numbers (and the kills attempted numbers, 20 and 23 respectively) suggests that while we're getting our digs and passes, they may not be as on target as they should be, and indeed this was my impression from watching some of the match.  The more we can pass accurately, the more we can run middle attacks and the better we do as a team.

I continue to see improvement from Morgan Miller on the attack, with 6 kills, but errors bring her average down to only .074.  If she can clean up her play, she will be a force to be reckoned with.  Some of that will improve as our passing and digging improves.  Our outsides tend to get set with marginal quality sets because Kali Eaken is struggling to get to off-target passes, yet more examples of how one phase of play being off leads to a decrease in the stats of the following phases.  Melanie McHenry is also struggling with some of this.  She had 8 kills on 35 attempts for a .086 average.  That's a large number of swings, but she is frequently the only offensive option when our passes are off, so she is hitting into double and sometimes triple blocks which drops her success rate tremendously.  With another couple of years under her belt, she may figure out how to hit around and through those blocks a bit better, but she does very well for a freshman, and I remain super enthusiastic about her presence on the team.

Wake Forest

Wake Forest is a middle of the pack of the ACC team, but several positions ahead of Louisville in the standings, so the Cards sweep over the Demon Deacons represents something of an upset based on the conference standings.  No video on this one that I was able to find, so my impressions come completely from stats.  The Cards faced an additional challenge, though not an unfamiliar one, in this match as Kali Eaken was unavailable to play.  This moves Morgan Miller out of the hitting rotation and splitting time with Lindsay Palmer at setter.  This means that the Cards were certainly happy for the return of Janelle Jenkins back to the attacking ranks this weekend.

The offense was provided by the usual suspects, Melanie McHenry with 12 for .214, and the middles Tess Clark and Jasmine Bennett, (6 for .556!, and 7 for .545!).  Morgan Miller did double-duty by putting down 5 attacks relatively error-free for .200 as well as her setting duties.  Digging and passing was by committee, which is the way I really like it.  Molly Sauer had a relatively low total of 9, which was matched by Lindsay Palmer, McHenry got 7, 5 for Gabbie Wiley, 4 for Morgan Miller, 3 for Tess Clark, and 2 for Janelle Jenkins.  Service errors were back up to a higher number than I would like with 9, but thankfully Wake Forest gave most of those back with 7 miscues of their own.  An overall .272 hitting percentage isn't anything to write home about, but it's a step in the right direction.

Conclusions

The progress from the early season is significant, as fans we need to keep telling ourselves that, and as the team continues to clean up a few things, the results will improve.  Digging and passing remains our weakest link, but improvements are visible.  Many of the main contributors to the team are young and gaining experience quickly.  Don't give up on this team, they're a great bunch of folks, and aside from a bit of frustration at the results they're seeing, they are enthusiastic and see hope for the future.

- JMcA


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November is Cardinal Couple Donation Month

We won't talk about this much, today...given it is Election Day...but with voting comes the freedom to
choose. We hope you will exercise your freedom.

You also choose what you want to read on the Internet. We are glad you chose CARDINAL COUPLE today. We hope you come back. Often.

If you would like to donate to CARDINAL COUPLE, you can either send us a check or money order to CARDINAL COUPLE  PO Box 91521  Louisville, KY  40291  or donate to us on Pay Pal. WE won't make any campaign promises...we'll just promise to deliver the joy and excitement about Louisville women's athletics...and more...each and every day. That's a pretty good platform and we're happy to stand on it. I endorse this message.

Paulie

Volleyball Improves on the Weekend - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Volleyball Loses, But Improves

Case touched on the volleyball loss to Minnesota from Friday, and Saturday was a partly more of the same, another three game loss by the Cards (25-19, 26-24, 25-20), but the tone and gameplay was considerably different.

First, let's point out that Wisconsin, the victors of the match last night, is a very good team, led by, as I've mentioned before, in my estimation the best setter in the country in Lauren Carlini.  Wisconsin currently sports a number 2 ranking behind perennial powerhouse Nebraska.

This was definitely a battle of defenses.  Louisville hit for a pitiful total of .094, while Wisconsin was only able to muster an also pretty bad .155.  Consequently, what may be the bright spot for the Cards is Molly Sauer's 19 digs, which in the 3-set match is darn impressive.  Melanie McHenry contributed 11 as well, which is very good for a non-libero.  Both teams also had a pretty impressive blocking game going, with UofL being credited with 13 blocks, and Wisconsin listed for 13.5.  The Louisville blocks were a bit more evenly spread.  The only solo credit goes to McHenry, while she and Janelle Jenkins each got in for 4 shares, Morgan Miller contributed on 3, and our middles Tess Clark and at least for this weekend featured the return of Maggie DeJong to the middle, got 6 apiece.  Coline Coessens got in on one as well.

Unfortunately the stats look pretty bleak beyond that, certainly our hitting percentages weren't great as hinted at above.  The bright spots are Maggie DeJong with 4 kills for a .200 avg, and Janelle Jenkins with 14 on 43 attempts for a .209 avg.  Nothing really to write home about in either case, but against a great team like Wisconsin with strong blocking, it's not bad.  Morgan Miller hit for a .500 avg, but that was only on 2 attempts, so it's a bit misleading.

What may be the worst look on the stat sheet is in the service errors.  In a 3-set match, to have 12 service errors is painful.  And that number alone almost accounts for the score differences in the sets.  Kordes has this team serving very aggressively, mostly to pretty good effect (Remember, aggressive serving doesn't just result, hopefully, in service aces, but also in the other team having to be out of system, which isn't covered in stats), but they may need to dial it back a little and get the errors under a bit more control.

Let's not forget, however, that stats sheets don't tell the whole tale.  Blocks, for example, only record play ending blocks, not deflections and tips that make it easier to pass the ball, which is one of the ways that the Kordes Krewe did much better last night vs Friday night against Minnesota.  Also, UofL was without the services of two starters this weekend.  Kali Eaken and Jasmine Bennett were not available.  Word is that Bennett was ill and didn't make the trip, but no word on Eaken, presumably something similar.  Losing Bennett for the weekend is a bit of a blow, but the only real shift in the lineup was to move Maggie DeJong back into the middle, a position with which she has a lot of familiarity.  The loss of Eaken for the weekend is a bit trickier to deal with, partly because that setter to hitter connection is so critical, and as a new setting squad, not well established for the Cards.  This is also the 3rd match out of the 8 so far that UofL has been without Eaken, which doesn't help establish a rhythm.  Last night, the Cards compensated by using both of the other setters on the squad.  This wasn't quite a 6-2 offense, as the goal of the 6-2 is to keep your setter in the back-row at all times, leaving 3 attackers in the front row.  In this case, the Cards subbed the setters for each other, so Lindsey Palmer was setting from the back-row, but when the position came around to the front-row, Morgan Miller subbed in for Palmer to do the setting in front.  Why?  The concern primarily is that Lindsey Palmer is only 5'8", and frankly is a bit of liability for blocking, while Miller, with 4 inches of height on Palmer, can participate in the blocking scheme to much better effect.  The switching of the setters does complicate that setter to hitter connection even further, though.  Despite all of that, however, we do see that improving as the matches pass, though there still is work to be done, there.  Hopefully the return of Eaken to the starting line-up will help that further.

One minor note to follow up on something noticed by some fans last weekend.  Brianna Lester was not present during The Active Ankle Challenge at the KFC Yum! Center last week.  I did spot her on the sidelines in the stream last night, so all appears to be well with her.  No word on her absence last weekend, but again, it likely is something as simple as an illness.

The Wide Net Cards are back in action this Thursday when Kentucky comes to town.  UK also started the season in the Top 25 rankings and subsequently dropped out.  A 4-set loss to Marquette on Friday probably won't help their cause any in that respect.  Hopefully the Cards can get back to their winning ways in this match, particularly vs Kentucky, who haven't been beaten by UofL since 2012.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

We were at it again yesterday.  Paulie, Case, and myself all back in the studio and less distracted all did an hour on the radio again talking about the joy and excitement of UofL Women's Athletics.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

It was a good show, covering Football, Volleyball, Soccer, and Field Hockey.  Check it out!

College Gameday Coming to The Ville

We got the official announcement this morning that ESPN College Gameday is coming to Louisville for their first ever Gameday broadcast at UofL.  The game is set for a noon tip, but there is some question of whether that will be moved.

-- JMcA

Sunday Cardinal Couple - Volleyball in Bowling Green

Bowling Green Ohio, not the one down south in Kentucky.  Although we did find out that there is a link.  BG OH was named for the one in Kentucky by a postal worker that had worked delivering mail in the Kentucky version of Bowling Green.

Anyway, on to the Volleyball.

Hampton Inn Invitational

Oakland

(Photo by Bryan Eakin)

The Kordes Krewe played three matches over the weekend in the Hampton Inn Invitational hosted by Bowling Green State University.  The first match was a four setter vs Oakland (from outside Detroit, not the one east of San Fransisco).  The Oakland Grizzlies were playing with a few injuries.  One player was wearing sunglasses indoors, so I suspect a concussion there; while another was on crutches.  Meanwhile, one of their better Defensive Specialists, Alli Gutschow, was playing with a noticeable limp in her step.  Despite it all, The Grizzlies put up quite a fight and played with heart, and never gave up, as can be witnessed by the set scores: 25-17, 27-25, 29-31, 25-19.

On the Cardinal side of the net, all I can say is, "Give a warm welcome to Ms. Melanie McHenry."  Get used to that name, you're going to be hearing it a lot in the next four years of volleyball.  Melanie is one of our freshman, hailing from Speedway IN (the Speedway HS Sparkplugs...that needs to be mentioned just on the basis of mascot cleverness) and is a 6'2" outside hitter with multiple skills.  She plays full rotation and does well with digging and passing.  She also fires a pretty aggressive serve, an anecdote on that later.  McHenry tallied 24 points, with nine miscues for a .300 average.

The other double-digit offense went to Janelle Jenkins with 15 and a .333 average.  Tess Clark came just short of adding the extra digit with nine but did it with an efficient .412.  Coline Coessens put up an 8 on 22 swings for .273, and Jasmine Bennett picked up three and Kali Eaken snuck one in as the setter.

On the defensive side, double-doubles for McHenry and Jenkins with 11 and 10 digs respectively.  Molly Sauer had a typical (well, typical for her) 19.  Ashley Pettibone, mostly playing as a serving specialist got three,  Eaken got 10 as Oakland tried to target her to take her out of her setting game, and Gabbie Wiley picked up six.

The Cards are showing a great serving game early this season.  Jenkins got three aces, Eaken and Pettibone picked up two each, while Wiley and McHenry each got one.

VCU

(Photo by Bryan Eakin) 

The Cards swept VCU in the evening session, 25-22, 25-23, 25-23.

Former Cardinal, and Cardinal
Couple All-Sid/Syd/Szyd Team member, Sydney Cooper now plays for VCU, but seemed to be out with a knee injury.  The Rams played tough, but were overpowered by The Cards.

McHenry again had a great match tallying another double-double with 11 kills and 10 digs.  Her hitting percentage wasn't all that high, though, with a .167, but she did pick up a service ace.  Other offense came from about the same stable of hitters that we saw in Oakland.  Tess Clark chalked up eight kills, Janelle Jenkins got nine, and Coline Coessens got four.  The butterfly emerging from the cocoon in this match was Jasmine Bennett, though.  She connected with setters Lyndsay Palmer and Morgan Miller a number of times on a slide out to the right side for 10 kills that were devastating to the opposing defense.

On the defensive side of things, Sauer continues to make it hard to write about her.  How many different ways can you say that she played excellently and chalked up dig numbers well into double digits, 15 in this case.  In addition to McHenry's 10, Coessens dug 10, Jenkins just behind with 9.

Single aces for McHenry (getting used to this name yet?), Jenkins, Bennett, and Sauer.

Eaken didn't play this match.  After taking a bit of a hit in the match against Oakland, the coaches decided to hold her aside as a precaution for concussions.  Kali suffered a pretty severe concussion during pre-season, didn't play at the Red & Black scrimmage, and largely hadn't practiced in almost two weeks.  So the coaching staff decided to take a little extra precaution here.

BGSU

The last match of the Hampton Inn Invitational matched up the Cards vs the host BGSU.  After a couple of bonus volleyball sets in the Oakland match, and three close sets against VCU, the Cardinal faithful were ready for a nice easy match to get on the road.  It wasn't to be.

A five set affair, 15-25, 25-18, 25-22, 17-25, 15-11.  BGSU showed that they should rise above their 7-22 record from last year.  Although they're not off to as great of a start on that as they would've liked, now at 1-2 (they also lost to Oakland), they are a tough team that will start tallying some victories quickly.

Double-doubles in this one?  Yup, there's that McHenry name again, joined by Jenkins again.  15 kills and 12 digs for Melanie, and double 11s for Jenkins.  Tess Clark almost got into double digits once again with nine, but an impressive .444 average.  It turns out this Jasmine Bennett upstart can play pretty well, too.  Give her 11 kills and a stellar .529 average.  Morgan Miller came in off the bench in a hitting role in this match with Kali back at setter.  She barely played in the first set, but still tallied 13 kills in the match with a solid seven digs as well.

On defense, in addition to the 12 and 11 for McHenry and Jenkins, Molly Sauer had a bit of an off match as she "only" tied for the team lead with 12 digs.  She did also pick up two service aces, to help the cause.

Speaking of aces, though, let's go back to McHenry once again.  Four service aces for the freshman and I have to describe one because it was particularly awesome.  Late in the 5th set, the score was about 13-10.  McHenry backs up to serve, right in front of the healthily populated BGSU student section (props to the BGSU students for showing up to support their team).  The students start chanting "FRESHMAN" at McHenry.  In response, she fires a hard serve that clears the net by only about an inch, targeted directly at BGSU's libero.  A shank pass that went out of bounds and the student section was no longer a factor.

Active Ankle Challenge

The Cards are in action against this weekend for the Active Ankle Challenge.  There is a venue
change for this event as it is moving down the KFC Yum! Center downtown thanks to a cancellation of an event at the downtown arena.

If you are a ticket holder, you should have received an email concerning how tickets will be handled for this, but if not, here's the summary.

If you have season tickets for the matches at the KFC Yum! Center, you will be sent tickets for these matches at no extra cost, and they will be your usual season ticket seat locations.  If you have season tickets for the matches at Cardinal Arena, which was to include the Active Ankle Challenge, you will be refunded for the cost of those tickets AND be sent tickets for the matches in the KFC Yum! Center at no cost.  Obviously, if you have season tickets to both, they will be your normal seats as mentioned above, otherwise, they will be the best available seats.

If you have purchased single match tickets to the Active Ankle Challenge matches at Cardinal Arena, those cost of those tickets will be refunded AND you will be sent best available tickets to the KFC Yum! Center matches at no extra cost.

Tickets will be mailed to the address on record for your account.  If you have purchased a parking pass for the KFC Yum! Center matches, alas it will not be usable for this event.

Kudos to the UofL Athletic Department for the stepping up with the upgrade for the venue for this coming weekend, and the generous handling of the ticket upgrades for ticket holders.


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THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR

In case you missed the live broadcast....you can catch the replay at the link below. Thanks to Case Hoskins for joining in, Worldwide via phone and LG&E for getting the power back on in time to do the show.

LINK:  
THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR 8/27/16

-- JMcA

Christmahanakwanzika Wishes -- Thursday Cardinal Couple

Christmahanakwanzika Wish Lists

It's that time again, when we write down our Christmahanakwanzika Wish List for various UofL Women's Sports teams.

Hey, last year I asked for a press box for Lacrosse and now we've got a spiffy new structure next to the railroad track beside Little Yum, so wishes do come true sometimes.

Volleyball

A sweet 16 (or beyond) appearance.  I've been to every UofL NCAA tournament volleyball in person since 2008, I believe, and I've never been to a volleyball sweet 16 (well, other than when it was hosted at the KFC Yum! Center, but I'm not counting that because UofL wasn't playing in it).  The program narrowly missed it this year, and I hope next year to see an even more improved team and further success in tournament play.

A 6-2 offense.  I've heard talk that this is being considered for next year.  6-2 offenses are, in my opinion, a lot of fun to watch.  We've got 3 good setters on the roster in Kali Eaken, Lindsey Palmer, and Morgan Miller.  When this was first mentioned to me, I was thinking Kali Eaken and Morgan Miller as the two setters, but a few days ago, I realized that Lindsey Palmer could have a major role as a setter in a 6-2.  We haven't seen Palmer running the offense as setter because, at 5'8", she's not a very effective blocker and with a traditional 5-1 offense, the setter needs to be able to block when they're in the front row.  With a 6-2, however, the setter is always playing out of the back row, so they don't need to be able to block.  We lose the setter dump that Katie George so loved, but that's a small price to pay for always having three attackers available in the front row.

Lacrosse

We've got a press box now, how about some concessions for the fans?  Or perhaps a permanent structure with a locker room for the visiting team.  Like Volleyball, a deeper run in the NCAA tournament beyond the second round would be great.

Tennis

For the both the men and women on this one.  More courts!  I've heard that this one might already be in the works as well.  It would likely take the form of adding more outdoor courts in front of the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center where the old soccer practice field is.  With the spiffy new Lynn Soccer Stadium, the practice field isn't really needed anymore, and the Tennis programs would benefit by being able to host full tournaments rather than just competitions against individual opponents.

Swimming and Diving

While it's not directly for the program, I wish for a successful Olympics in Rio for various current and former members of the Swimming and Diving squad.  This, also, is for both the men and the women.  We've talked a lot about Kelsi Worrell's success, but perhaps alumna Tanja Kyliannen could be representing her native Finland.  Joao de Lucca, for the men, will likely be representing Brazil and is a proud UofL alum.  On the current squad on the men's side, Sophomore Carlos Claverie could be making an appearance for Venezuela.

Basketball

I think our wish lists here probably all look a lot alike.

Let's call better rebounding a stocking stuffer as it has already improved considerably over the beginning of the season, but could still use some tightening up.

Lay-ups.

Lethargy-B-Gone for the defense.

Softball

Success in post-season play.  Ulmer recently got an upgrade, so there's not a whole lot to ask for from a facilities point of view.  Well, there are some things we could ask for, but that would be a bit greedy, so we'll skip those.

I'd like to see the UofL Softball team advance to a Super-Regional.  Softball hasn't had a great deal of NCAA tournament success in the past couple of years, not having won a game at all since the first game of the 2014 Regional against IPFW.  They have not advanced to a Super-Regional since I've been going to games at all.  Hopefully they'll do well enough that we would be hosting these events this spring, but if not, I'll certainly be looking to make an effort to road-trip for them.

I haven't put together lists for all of the women's sports teams, feel free to add some lists for other teams, or even add items for these teams in the comments.  I'd love to hear what you would like to see out of these programs. Our biggest wish of all, though...is that all our readers have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

-- JMcA

Tuesday Cardinal Couple

The Ridiculously Early Worldwide Season Analysis

The fall season for sports is barely underway for soccer and not officially underway for field hockey and volleyball yet at all, but we have had a chance to see all of these teams on their respective fields of play, so it's time for a ridiculously early analysis of what we've seen.

Field Hockey

Justine Sowry's stick squad has two exhibition competitions to base our observations on.  First a Saturday mid-day tilt against Iowa, who finished last season in 18th in the RPI, missing the 19 team cut for the NCAA tournament.  Nonetheless, the Hawkeyes traditionally have put up some reasonable competition, but it wasn't to be found Saturday.

Midfielder Elisa "Chili" Garcia

A 4-0 win in regulation surely inflated the expectations of the Trager Defenders.  This heightened expectation would have only been slightly dimmed by Iowa's sudden victory goal in the 7v7 overtime session that they played despite a non-tied regulation outcome.  The  3-1 victory in the 1v1 shootout also would have served to encourage the team as well.

The next day saw the alumnae return to the field and a bit of a deflation of that excitement.  Sowry thought the team came out flat (listen to the radio show Saturday for the comments), and an early goal by the alumnae may have brought the competition back into focus for the current team.  Conditioning certainly helped as well as the current squad went on to thoroughly control the second half with a winning score of 7-1

What We Saw

We saw a team that plays a solid defense and makes chances on offense...a good basic recipe for a solid season result.

We did see some minor problems on penalty corners, though.  Specifically we saw some technique issues on stopping the ball inbounded from the baseline hashmark.  Ideally, the ball gets stopped and then hit by another player, either at the goal, or over to another player or two to take a shot.  Several times in the two games, however, the ball popped up into the air when it was stopped.  This drastically limits the options on the attack, and unsurprisingly, the team did not score on these bobbled attempts.  This is an issue that should be readily resolved with some targeted practice on the technique.

We have an excellent 1v1 goalkeeper in case of shootouts in Ayeisha McFerran, which also translates into defense of fast breaks, which I don't think we'll see much of, but it's good to know that we have a GK that can handle them.

A Reasonable Goal

Elite Eight, or Final Four appearance

Soccer

With two exhibition games completed as well as two regulation games in the books, we may have the best sense of where the soccer team is.

A crazy goal at Northern Kentucky handed the team an exhibition loss, so we'll put that one aside for a moment.  A good pre-season win against IU is encouraging, and a 2-1 win over Wright State in the season opener is also encouraging.  The second regulation game saw a very good Washington team get the 2-1 win.

What We Saw

We saw a team that creates some real chances on offense with reasonable protection on defense.  This is, clearly, an overall young team, but there is some leadership to help out.

Senior Forward Casey Whitfield

It's fantastic to have senior Casey Whitfield back, and she has already proven her value with several assists, but has yet to find the back of the net herself.  A mere 2-1 win over Wright State may sound a bit disappointing, but there was a significant barrage of shots that technically weren't on goal, but bounced off of the posts and crossbar.  Keep that up, and points will start showing up on the scoreboard.

This team has some potential this year.  I'm not going to hold my breath for a national championship, but we should see a better outcome than last year, and that's the definition of progress.

A Reasonable Goal

Return to the NCAA tournament.  Win a tournament game.

Volleyball

We've got the least data on volleyball, with only an intra-squad scrimmage in the rear-view mirror.  That also means any scores are pretty much meaningless as players switch back and forth between the two sides of the competition pretty much on every play in the Red & Black Scrimmage.

So, let's get directly to...

What We Saw

Passing and digging was much improved over what we saw last year.  We already had some evidence that this was the case based on some interviews and getting to see an early practice, but it's encouraging to see it in person in more of a game-type of setting.

We also saw, however, a number of service errors, and some hitting errors as well that need to get cleaned up if we're going to have a strong season.

A few things that I saw that I really liked...we have three left-handers on the squad, which gives other teams a different and slightly unusual look to attacks that can throw off their spacing a bit.  Southpaws also tend to put a bit of a different spin on serves, which can cause the other team some problems.  Speaking of serving, I saw Gabbie Wiley, one of the lefties, serving a jump serve in pre-season practice last year, but she didn't use in during the season.  I saw more work on it in pre-season practice this year, and she brought it out for the scrimmage.  I'm hopeful we'll see it during the season as well.

Freshman Right Side and Setter Morgan Miller

Freshman Morgan Miller, also a leftie, looks pretty good on the right side, and is a competent setter as well, so I would expect to see her on the court in that right side position and giving the squad almost a double-setter look.  Might we even see Katie George take a swing if Miller has to take the set?  It's possible.  Incidentally, the other leftie is our backup true setter Kali Eaken.

Erin Fairs and Maya McClendon both can play full rotation as left side and back-row attackers which makes for more balance in the attack, and more options for our setters.  Our middles, primarily Tess Clark and Maggie DeJong are just as amazing as they were last year.

A Reasonable Goal

Return to the NCAA tournament.  Maybe a sweet sixteen appearance.

Tuesday Cardinal Couple - All M&M Team

M&Ms are a favorite candy (and registered trademark of Mars, Inc...some legal blah blah here), but they also are the initials for some fantastic UofL athletes.

So, I present the Cardinal Couple 2015 All-M&M team.

First Team

Mariya Moore

Most Cardinal Couple readers will be familiar with Mariya Moore.  Currently in Russia playing with the U19 US National Team, Mariya is well known as a guard on the UofL Women's Basketball team with quite the shooting touch.  If the U19 play is any indication, she's been developing some defensive prowess as well.  A rising sophomore, we should be seeing Moore in the red and black for another three seasons.

Maya McClendon

Maya McClendon's older sister made quite an impact playing at perennial Volleyball powerhouse Penn State.  Maya is shorter, at only 5'9" compared to her sister's 6'1", but has more hops and may very well be a better overall player.  A rising junior, McClendon has another two years of play to build her legacy.  The McClendon's are from Louisville, and both sisters attended duPont Manual High School just across Cardinal Blvd from  UofL.  Maya typically plays the full rotation on the court, but may see a break from passing duties this year with Erin Fairs being expected to play full rotation as well.

Morgan Miller

Sticking with Volleyball, we have an incoming freshman from Magnolia Texas (Magnolia High School).  Sharing a hometown with last year's libero Roxanne McVey (but different high school), Morgan is just loaded with the "M"'s, with both first and last names, hometown, and high school all being "M"'s.  Miller is listed as a setter and right side hitter.  With a whopping four setters listed on the UofL Volleyball roster, and Katie George returning, I wouldn't expect to see Morgan taking the 2nd hit very often, but as the only player listed as right side, you may very well see her on the court quite a bit, depending on whether another player shifts over to the right side to play (I'm thinking the play-anywhere Janelle Jenkins might go to the right side this year).

Morgan Meyer

Morgan Meyer and Morgan Miller have already proven that they can make me stop and make sure I'm saying the right name when trying to talk about either of them because the names are so phonetically similar.  They are on totally different teams, though.  Meyer is a rising junior on the softball and is listed as an outfielder.  This past season, however, we mostly saw the speedster Meyer as a pinch runner, typically coming in to round the bases in lieu of slugger Brittany Duncan.  With two of the four graduating seniors this past year being outfielders, or at least occasionally in the outfield, I hope Meyer will get some more time in the field and at bat this year.  "Mo" Meyer is also a Louisvillian, having attended Mercy Academy.

Michelle Molodynia

Speaking of speedsters, Michelle is on both the Cross Country and Track teams.  Technically this makes her a three sport athlete as the NCAA considers Indoor Track&Field to be a separate sport from Outdoor Track&Field.  Michelle is the only women's athlete that I didn't know about before beginning research for this team.  A rising Senior, Molodynia hails from Niagara Falls, Ontario.  You would think, as a Cross Country runner, she would stick to the distance events for T&F, but she is listed as a middle-distance runner, competing in the 800meter to 1mile range of events.

Second Team

While Cardinal Couple is primarily about women's athletics at UofL, I'll add a second team honor for the M&M guys.

Mangok Mathiang

Another basketball name that you probably know already.  Mangok, joined with Montrezl Harrell to begin a trend of odd silent letters in names.  He also continued a trend of excellence.  Born in Sudan Africa, he is a resident of Melbourne Australia, Mathiang represented his home country down under in the World University Games.  While the Aussies didn't fair too well overall in the basketball competition, Mangok led the WUGs competition in rebounding and ended up 8th in scoring with five double-doubles.  A rising sophomore, he graduated in the same class with lock-down UofL soccer defender Chatham DeProspo from IMG Academy in Florida.

Marcus Motill

The only other name that I didn't know before beginning research for this team selection, Marcus is also a runner on the Track&Field team primarily competing in the indoor season.  He has run everything from 60meter to 1000meter in the indoor season, and has added in 60meter hurdles, high jump, long jump, pole vault, shot put and heptathlon in the indoor season.  Motill has also run the 400meter in the outdoor season.  A rising junior, he hails from Stamford, CT.

JMcA