Sunday Cardinal Couple -- Decision Sunday for Lacrosse, Softball

SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Softball, Lacrosse face season ending scenarios

UofL women's sports fans have an odd doubleheader of sorts today available for viewing...Softball against UCF today at noon and Lacrosse at 2 p.m. versus Northwestern.

Losses today by either squad will end their seasons. Kellie Young's squad has gone further than they ever have before in the history of the sport at UofL...making the NCAA Tournament and winning their first round match. The Northwestern squad they face today is fifth seeded in the 26 team tournament field, at home and has won 19 consecutive NCAA Tournament games when playing in Evanston, IL.

Softball gets a UCF squad that had trouble shaking a pesky Rutgers team yesterday...the Knights had the bases loaded in the seventh inning, one out and trailing 8-5...but could not deliver the upset. UCF was the #1 seed in The American Softball Tournament and a win over Louisville today would
make the Cards a very remote possibility for the NCAA Tournament with a RPI of 50.

We think both squads have a very good chance of keeping their seasons alive today, though. Lacrosse is on a 12 game win streak and getting solid production from their attack, midfield and defensive players. Kellie Young has multiple scorers in Faye Brust, Nikki Boltja and Kay Morissette who can take a game over in a matter of minutes. Good news, also for those fans who want to watch it...

The contest starts at 2 p.m. ET and will be streamed free of charge on the Big Ten Digital Network's site. It also will be televised on the Big Ten Network on tape delay, starting approximately 3 p.m. ET.

Softball dropped the regular season series to the UCF Golden Knights but has been playing much better ball since their visit to Orlando and getting the best pitching they've had this season from Rachel Le Coq, Maryssa Becker and Caralisa Connell. Sandy Pearsall's "Hit and Catch" Cards have also been on a home run frenzy in Houston...putting six over the fence in two games.

The American Digital Network will show the final between Louisville and UCF starting at noon ET.


Comparing the two seasons, the two squads...its been a supremely surprising and satisfying season for Lacrosse. Kellie Young told me months before the season began that this group had a chance to be something very special and she was right. Softball...on the other hand...returned a solid hitting lineup, strong pitching, talented newcomers and a new facility but fell short of most people's expectations by not winning the AAC after being the preseason pick to do so.

Redemption songs available for singing today for Pearsall's squad and another "finish" opus awaits Young's netters.

The NCAA Softball selection show will air tonight at 10 p.m. on ESPNU. We hope the Softball Cards can eliminate any doubt of participating by taking care of business today.   


Good luck to both squads today!

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Finally, UofL women's golf ended their three-day stay at the NCAA Regionals in 18th place. The top eight from each region advance to the Championships...so golf has ended for the season...ironically...when most people are starting to renew it for the year.

paulie

Saturday Cardinal Couple -- Lacrosse, Softball advance in Tournaments

RADIO TODAY @ 11 AM
http://www.crescenthillradio.com

SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE


- Boltja gets game winner in double O.T. for Lax

- LeCoq, Keller lead Softball past Bulls 8-0

- Women's golf slips to 17th. after Day 2

It was a thriller in Evanston last night and Nikki Boltja came through in the clutch.

The senior scored on a free position shot with 4:37 left in the sudden-death second overtime to give the LAX Cards a 11-10 win over Ohio State in NCAA first round action. After Kaylin Morissette won the draw control to start the sudden death period, the Cards moved into OSU territory and Boltja was fouled...setting up the game winner.

It looked like Louisville had it won in the first (not sudden-death) extra session. With 1:13 remaining, Cortnee Daley was fouled and made her free position shot to give Louisville a 10-9 lead. Louisville controlled the draw, but a turnover with 36 seconds left got the ball back in OSU's possession and the Buckeyes came down field to score with 8 seconds remaining to force the second overtime.

Boltja had four goals for the Cards in the win. Faye Brust and Cortnee Daley added two each for UofL.

The Cards scored early in the contest...winning the opening draw and Boltja dashing to the goal to put one past OSU's goalie Tori DeScenza less than a minute into the contest. 

The Cards will face Northwestern Sunday at 2 p.m. in round 2 action.

#	Prd	Time	Team	Type	Assists	H-V
1.	1st	29:13	LOU	Boltja, Nikki (68)	Unassisted	0-1
2.		27:35	OSU	Dabrowski, Cian	Unassisted	1-1
3.		24:32	LOU	Patterson, Laura (7)	Boltja, Nikki (25)	1-2
4.		18:53	OSU	Chase, Katie	Free position shot	2-2
5.		17:17	OSU	Dabrowski, Cian	Unassisted	3-2
6.		11:40	LOU	O'Malley, Colleen (12)	Boltja, Nikki (26)	3-3
7.		11:11	LOU	Brust, Faye (68)	Unassisted	3-4
8.		10:50	OSU	Fee, Morgan (2)	Unassisted	4-4
9.		9:54	OSU	Ayers, Kelsea	Dabrowski, Cian	5-4
10.		9:09	OSU	Facchina, Mary Kate	Free position shot	6-4
11.		8:27	LOU	Corbett, Carissa (7)	Boltja, Nikki (27)	6-5
12.	2nd	21:01	OSU	Ayers, Kelsea	Unassisted	7-5
13.		17:59	LOU	Daley, Cortnee (38)	Free position shot	7-6
14.		17:23	LOU	Brust, Faye (69)	Unassisted	7-7
15.		15:10	OSU	Porretto, Jennifer	Free position shot	8-7
16.		14:51	LOU	Boltja, Nikki (69)	Unassisted	8-8
17.		13:10	OSU	Porretto, Jennifer	Unassisted	9-8
18.		5:54	LOU	Boltja, Nikki (70)	Free position shot	9-9
19.	OT	1:13	LOU	Daley, Cortnee (39)	Free position shot	9-10
20.		0:08	OSU	Chase, Katie	Unassisted	10-10
21.	OT2	4:37	LOU	Boltja, Nikki (71)	Free position shot	10-11

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Cardinal Softball slammed their way past USF in the semifinals of the AAC Tournament in six innings 8-0.

A grand slam home run by Katie Keller was the big blow that sent USF starter Sara Nevins to the bench and gave Louisville a 5-0 lead in the second inning.

The Cards added a run in the fourth when Brittany Duncan singled in Kelsi Jones. Duncan accounted for the final two RBI's in the sixth when she sent a towering shot over both centerfield fences with Katie Keller on to push the margin to eight.

Rachel LeCoq, despite a rocky start, pitched her way out of a first-inning, two on and one out jam and ended up going the distance....allowing just five hits in six innings.

They got the game in just in time. Rains hit Houston and forced the postponement of the UCF-Rutgers game until 4 p.m. today. The title match goes Sunday at noon.

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Cardinal women's golf fired a 301 in the second day of the NCAA East Regionals but slipped to 17th place in Tallahassee.

Leading the way yesterday for the Chip and Putt Cards was Laura Restrepo with a 74. Tara Lyons carded a 75, Katie Petrino checked in at 76 along with Emily Haas. Shannon Gramley finished the 18 with a 83.

The Cards have a 596 total for two days...30 strokes back of leader Vanderbilt.

paulie

Friday Cardinal Couple -- Soles second shot sends Cards to semis in AAC

FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

       ***** GAME FINAL UPDATE*****

Rachel Le Coq tosses a five hitter and Katie Keller slugs a grand slam homer to lead Louisville over South Florida Bulls 8-0 in six innings. We'll have more in the Saturday Cardinal Couple. CARDS WIN!!  CARDS WIN!!

- Softball slugs past Owls 5-3. Will face USF today

- Women's golf 15th after Day One of NCAA Regionals

- Lacrosse faces OSU today in NCAA Tournament

They were playing long ball yesterday in the ballpark in Houston...Louisville softball with four home runs and Temple with one as the Cards advance to the AAC semis with a 5-3 win over the Owls.

Kayla Soles two run bomb in the bottom of the sixth with Katie Keller on second was the winning hit...it was Soles' second home run of the day and her ninth of the season.

The Cards got two fence clearers in the first...solo shots by Brittany Duncan and Katie Keller to take a 2-1 lead. After one inning of pitching, Caralisa Connell gave way to Rachel LeCoq. The Louisiana senior went four innings...allowing two runs on one home run before giving way to Maryssa Becker in the sixth. The win goes to Becker.

With the game knotted at 3-3 in the bottom of the sixth, Keller singled and moved to second on Taner Fowler's sacrifice bunt. That brought Soles to the plate...her shot over the fence to left barely staying fair to put Louisville ahead.

The Cards get USF today at 5 p.m. The Bulls downed Memphis yesterday. Other winners were UCF and Rutgers.
Host Houston fell to the Scarlet Knights 5-1 and UCF blanked UConn 8-0 in five innings.

The UofL game against USF is at 5 p.m. All games are being shown on the American Digital Network...over at The American website

The network provided a short clip of the Louisville v Temple highlights and it is linked below:

http://theamerican.org/watch/sportfile.ashx?sports=/2013/12/28/WBB_1228131617.aspx&s=231630


( Is it just me...or does the Temple pitcher look like Sara Hammond?)


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Louisville women's golf finished the first round of the NCAA East Regional at the Southwood Gold Club in Tallahassee, FL shooting a 295. The Cards sit in 15th. place, tied with Kentucky, with 36 holes left to play. Atop the leaderboard is Vandy at 277.

Tara Lyons fired a 71 for the 18 holes. Katie Petrino carded a 73, Laura Restrepo 75, and Emily Haas and Shannon Gramley both finished at 76.

The top eight teams after 54 holes from the three regions advance to the NCAA Championships. The Cards hit it early this morning...teeing off at 7:45 a.m.

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Lacrosse is in Evanston, IL preparing for today's first round NCAA game against Ohio State. The team received a gala sendoff from the YUM! practice facility on campus yesterday and UofL Card Game observer Charlie Springer was there to catch some photos.

Lacrosse has accomplished some amazing things this season and Kellie Young has built the program in seven years into a force that will have to be reckoned with when they play in the ACC next season. Although senior leaders Ashley Herbst, Monica Negron and Nikki Boltja will be gone...Louisville still has a ton of talent returning.

FAYE BRUST

Against Ohio State today, UofL makes their first ever NCAA appearance. The Cards inexplicably weren't chosen for the NCAA Tournament last year despite posting a 11-6 record, winning their last three regular season, in-conference games and getting off to a 7-1 start.

Louisville (15-3) and Ohio State (13-6) met in Columbus earlier this season...the Buckeyes getting a narrow 12-11 win. It was the only time this season that Kay Morissette was bested in draw controls. Louisville led 6-2 in the first half but four consecutive OSU goals tied it after 30 minutes. Four in a row in the second half put Ohio State ahead to stay...the Cards scored the final two goals in the match but could not get the tying goal as time ran out.

OSU leads the series 6-1...Louisville win coming in 2013 at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium by a score of...you guessed it...12-11.  The Buckeyes enter the NCAA Tournament losing in the ALC semifinals to Northwestern 9-8. Attacker Katie Chase had five of the OSU scores in that one.

They play at 8 p.m. tonight. No TV that we know of...


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Touchdown Teddy goes to Minnesota

Finally, congratuatons to Calvin Pryor, Marcus Smith and Teddy Bridgewater from the UofL football team. All were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft last night.

Teddy was the last pick of the first round...which made for a late viewing night for those watching on ESPN. He was picked by the Minnesota Vikings. Louisville sending a fair share of athletes and coaches to that state lately...with Gorgui Dieng, Richard Pitino and Asia Taylor all in the land of 10,000 lakes (and 1,000,000 mosquitos).

paulie

Tuesday Cardinal Couple -- Lacrosse has tossed a excellent season so far.

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

Lacrosse Continues to Climb

...in the national rankings.  The progress is slow and steady, but gains continue to be made.

With the regular season and conference tournaments completed, there isn't much time for the Cards to continue the program-best progression up the rankings, but tournament appearances do have a tendency to make radical changes in the season ending polls.

In both of the major polls, the Cards climbed a spot this week to number 16, while the RPI has the Cards moving up to the 23rd spot.

I say it a lot, but this is an amazing accomplishment for a program that has only been competing for seven years here at UofL.  Part of this rise has to be attributed to...

Faye Brust

...who has picked up another honor - this time, the WomensLax.com Player of the Week.  This is on
the strength of her two goals against Rutgers in The BigEast Semifinal game and her amazing six goals in the tournament championship against Georgetown.

This impressive tally brings the BigEast Tournament Most Outstanding Player into a tie with Nikki Boltja for goals in the season at 67.  The pair take that tie into third place for goals nationally, and second place for goals per game.

Based on the success of those two, let's take a look at...

Some Other Stats

...where Nikki Boltja has more assists than Faye Brust and so has found her way into fourth place for points and points per game nationally (points are counted as goals plus assists).  Meanwhile Kaylin Morissette continues to dominate the center and holds second place in the draw controls per game stat.

As a team, Louisville ranks fifth nationally in scoring offense and tops the list in the draw controls.


The Louisville Lacrosse team will play in first round NCAA Tournament action on Friday, May 9th. against Ohio State in Evanston, IL. Game time is 8 p.m. Louisville (15-3, 7-0). The teams faced each other on March 4th in Columbus...Ohio State taking a 12-11 win. The Buckeyes scored five consecutive goals in the second half to take a three goal lead over Louisville but the Cards scored the final two goals of the game to make it a one-point win for OSU.

Louisville's defense looks to be playing considerably better than they were in March and with the scoring prowess of Brust, Morissette, Boltja and Cortnee Daley...we see the Cards getting the win and moving on to face Northwestern on May 11th.

The 26 team bracket can be viewed at:

http://www.ncaa.com/interactive-bracket/lacrosse-women/d1/2013

jeffmca

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday Cardinal Couple -- Lacrosse on a roll

THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Lacrosse needs to sweep the BIG EAST

Louisville Lacrosse is on a roll recently. Which is, actually...kind of a bad thing when you look at the way the game is played. Carrying the ball in the wicket at the end of the stick is the preferred method of transportation of the orb, with a few well-planned passes and an eventual shot on goal. Rolling is usually detrimental. There are ground ball stats...but they involve recovering one and not producing one.  

Nevertheless...Louisville has won their last four games, is ranked #19 in the coaches poll and Canadian sophomore Kaylin Morissette was named BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week last week. (She can also score in bunches). She is the mistress of draw controls. The draw control is not a term for supervisory authority over artists. It's kind of like the jump ball in hoops and is performed after each goal. To describe it in detail would take another five paragraphs.

With two conference games in the books and two wins...they sit atop the BIG EAST standings with Connecticut and are 8-3 overall.

The three losses have not been blowouts and have all come on the road. They've been against teams ranked higher than Louisville. #7 Duke won 14-11. #11 Notre Dame defeated Louisville 12-9. #17 Ohio State squeaked by the Cards 12-11. Two of the three will be conference mates with Kellie Young's crew next season in the AAC

UofL is in a  very good place...position wise...with five regular season/conference games left before tournament time...but Louisville needs to "win out" and win at least the opening game in the BIG EAST Tournament to have a shot at an NCAA bid.

The ACC is the powerhouse of women's lacrosse.  Six ACC schools made the NCAA Tournament. The tournament had 28 participants. I know, it's a weird number. There are automatic bids for other conferences. Three of the Final Four were ACC schools and North Carolina won it all.

Despite a 11-6 record, the Cards did not get an invite to the tournament in 2013. The 3-5 conference record was probably a big factor in that...so conference wins are worth their weight in gold.

Louisville has already defeated Georgetown...in Washington D.C...who was tabbed the preseason favorite. Georgetown and Syracuse were the only two BIG EAST teams to make the NCAA Tournament in 2013. Syracuse is in the ACC now. Louisville needs to finish second at worst.

They will get a chance to play current co-leader Connecticut here in Louisville. They will also get Rutgers and Marquette at home to complete the regular season. Those should be wins...given the seasons both have had so far.

This weekend will be key toward winning the final five. They travel to play Temple on Friday (currently in sixth place) and Villanova on Sunday ( currently in third place). 

The team is jelling and absolutely destroyed rival Cincinnati 23-2 Sunday in the Queen City. Everyone scored, it seemed, except Coach Young and the assistant SID.

13-3 for the regular season and a conference tournament win should secure Louisville a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Depending, of course...on how many teams the NCAA decides to have participate in the 2014 Tournament. 32 seems like a good number to us...four regions with eight teams each.

It makes sense.

That is why the NCAA will probably decide against it...most of the rhetoric and policy that comes out of the governing body of college athletics is nonsense.

Get out and support the squad for the final three at home. The Connecticut game is on Thursday, April 17th. It's a 4:00 pm start. Take off work early and go. The Cards play Rutgers two days later at 1 p.m. The home finale is Thursday, April 24th. against Marquette at 4 p.m.

The BIG EAST Tournament is May 1st and May 3rd. The top four teams in the standings participate. It takes place in D.C. Current standings are listed below:

Louisville	2-0	1.000	37	15		8-3	.727	165	97		3-0	5-3	0-0	8-2	W 4
Connecticut	2-0	1.000	27	20		7-4	.636	121	110		3-2	3-2	1-0	7-3	W 6
Villanova	1-1	.500	24	23		6-5	.545	111	104		3-2	3-3	0-0	5-5	L 1
Marquette	1-1	.500	19	18		5-6	.455	97	127		3-1	2-5	0-0	5-5	L 1
Georgetown	1-1	.500	25	19		4-7	.364	124	126		2-4	2-2	0-1	3-7	W 1
Temple	1-1	.500	21	25		4-7	.364	97	126		4-3	0-4	0-0	3-7	W 1
Cincinnati	0-2	.000	8	37		6-6	.500	109	144		3-2	3-4	0-0	5-5	L 3
Rutgers	0-2	.000	22	26		6-6	.500	89	117		4-3	2-3	0-0	4-6	L 2