Lots of News for WBB/VB/WSoc -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

There are plenty of happenings going on around Louisville women's athletics and ACC women's sports. Basketball is the big one on everybody's minds, but we also have some volleyball and soccer to hit too.

Cards Travel to UT Martin

The big news today surrounds Louisville women's basketball. The Cards play their first true road game of the season when they visit UT Martin for a 7:00pm ET tip. This will only be streamed on ESPN+, but there is the always-reliable radio option too on 93.9 FM The Ville. Nick Curran and Cortnee Walton are back on the mics for this one...although in Cortnee's new duties as women's basketball director of operations...she's not always a sure bet for being on the broadcast. 

Louisville played #5 UCLA in Paris, France at a neutral site to open the season, a game where the Bruins were able to win down the stretch. The Cards then came home for the first time and cruised past Southern Indiana.

UT Martin is 0-2 to start the year. They fell at home to North Alabama 66-63 before going on the road to lose to Tennessee 90-50. The Skyhawks do have a Kentucky native on the team. Anaya Brown is a graduate of Lafayette High School in Lexington, KY. Brown is second on the team in scoring at 11.0 points per game, only behind Kenley McCarn, who is averaging 14.0 points per game. Kenley's younger sister Kaitlyn also plays for UT Martin.

The Skyhawks have shot well from the floor at .416 and have been fairly effective from three-point range at .306. They've struggled with rebounding and defense, but it's hard to gauge what to expect out of an opponent just two games in.

Taj Roberts Named ACC Rookie of the Week

Sticking with women's basketball, Taj Roberts earned ACC Rookie of the Week accolades in the first ACC awards of the season. She is the first Louisville freshman since the 2020-2021 season to earn the honor. 

Roberts kicked off her collegiate career with 21 points against UCLA, highlighted by four three-pointers. She is the first Louisville freshman since Hailey Van Lith to top 20 points in their debut. Roberts followed up the season opener with 11 points against Southern Indiana.

Volleyball Moves Up

Following a pair of sweeps on the road plus a key loss by Penn State, Louisville volleyball moved up to #3 in the latest AVCA rankings. While the AVCA rankings do not directly reflect the Selection Committee rankings, they are often very similar. The goal is to finish in the top four so the Cards can host the entire tournament at the KFC Yum! Center, provided they continue to win.

Louisville still has six more matches in the regular season. They return home this weekend to host Duke and RV North Carolina. They then hit the road for a weekend against Virginia and Virginia Tech. The final two matches are rematches against #1 Pittsburgh and #7 Stanford.

NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament

The NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament was announced recently. While Louisville did not make it in, which is what we expected, the ACC fared extremely well. The ACC set a conference record with nine teams in the 64-team tournament.

The ACC teams in the tournament are:

1-seed Duke (ACC Regular Season Champion)

1-seed Florida State (ACC Tournament Champion)

2-seed North Carolina

2-seed Wake Forest

3-seed Stanford

4-seed Notre Dame

4-seed Virginia

7-seed Virginia Tech

California

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Softball Starts OKC Challenge -- WSoc Flies to BYU -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Softball Starts OKC Challenge

Softball began their week-long OKC Challenge well before many of us were awake yesterday.  The OKC Challenge is an event designed by the sports performance team that involves several workouts and obstacles that the student-athletes compete against each other in.  In short, it's a way to make workouts and conditioning more fun and competitive.

Carmyn Greenwood is captain of the red team.  Her teammates include Charley Butler, Taja Felder, Caitlin Ferguson, Cassady Greenwood, Payton Hudson, Chardonnay Harris, Elana Ornelas, Jenna Servi, and Jordyn Wolfe.

Maddy Newman is captain of the black team.  Her teammates include Lexi Carver, Rebecca Chung, Madison Ciaccio, Celene Funke, Eden Mayo, Taylor Roby, Paige Schindler, and Riley Schindler.

The red team took the win on the first day.  Day One featured exercises such as a 400 meter run and hanging from a rope/towel. Pretty much what Paulie does each morning after his third cup of coffee.

Head coach Holly Aprile goes into her second year as Cardinal Softball skipper with optimism but also with a couple of key departures to fill. Circle standout Megan Hensley has graduated, she led Louisville in home runs last year (13) and was third in batting average at ,314. She was 9-4 in her pitching efforts also. Sidney Melton has graduated as well. The excellent third basemen led the Cards in hitting at .338.

If you're hoping for some type of onsite coverage from us at Cardinal Couple I hate to tell you that it won't be happening.  The Cards met before 5:48 a.m., and started their event shortly before 6:00.  Some of us like our beauty sleep, which, based off the results in the mirror, we need A LOT more of.


Soccer Flies Out to BYU

Still a couple days away from their second round match against BYU, Louisville soccer heads out to the Beehive State.  BYU is located in Provo, Utah, not far south of Salt Lake City.

The Cards, who took down Lipscomb in the first round, advanced to their second ever second round.  Props to Coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes.  Coach KFD is the only coach in Louisville women's soccer history to lead her team to the NCAA Tournament. Today is a travel day for the team.



As the match gets closer we will give a breakdown and a preview of the match. Paulie is also hoping to get a phone interview with Coach Ferguson Dayes from Provo for Thursday's article .

Paulie also takes an early look at UofL WBB efficiency after three games. Be sure to check out the upcoming editions of Cardinal Couple for that. 

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Women's Soccer to Host Opening Round of NCAA Tournament -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Women's Soccer to Host Opening Round of NCAA Tournament

Less than 24 hours after we heard the great news of Field Hockey making the NCAA Tournament and having the privilege of hosting we find out the Women's Soccer will follow suit.

Louisville was named to the 64-team tournament.  The Cards will host Lipscomb on Friday at 6:00 p.m.

Louisville finished the regular season with a record of 12-3-2 but a first round loss in the ACC Tournament adds a tally to the loss column.  The Cards sit in the Top 25 at #22 and have an RPI of 28.

This will be the sixth time Louisville has received a bid to the NCAA Tournament and their second straight.  All six times have come under the guidance of head coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes.

Lipscomb received the automatic bid from the Atlantic Sun (ASun) Conference after defeating Kennesaw State 1-1 (4-3 penalty shootout).  The Bison were the 2-seed and had defeated JIT tom reach the finals.  Kennesaw State was the 5-seed in the six-team tournament and had won two matches, including an upset over 1-seed Florida Gulf Coast, before falling in the final.

The Bisons improved their record to 13-5-2 following the tournament.

Offensively, 10 players have scored a goal for Lipscomb.  Olivia Doak leads the team with 25 points following 10 goals and five assists.  Molly Grant and Maycie McKay are tied for second with six goals and seven assists apiece.

The Bisons average 2.05 goals per match while allowing 0.90 goals per match.  Defensively, Lipscomb has been one of the best, surrendering a mere 18 goals on the year.  Starting goalkeeper Melissa Gray has 77 saves and just 14 goals allowed.  Backup keeper Hannah Parrish has six saves and four goals allowed.

Lipscomb and the Cardinals had no common opponents in the 2019 season. The Bisons are on a hot streak and have won their last seven games. Their victory in the A-Sun Tournament came as a result of a 4-3 penalty kick edge after two overtimes had been played to break a 1-1 tie.

Tickets are on sale for $10 per chair back seat and $5 per general admission ticket.The weather should snap out of this arctic blast we're currently experiencing and , hopefully, be close to 50 degrees by first kick., according to long range forecasts.

Whoever triumphs victorious in this one will face the winner of BYU and Boise State. The BYU Cougars received the #2 seed in Louisville's region and is 18-0-1 on the season and ranked #4 in the nation. Boise State drew the automatic qualifier out of the Mountain West Conference Tournament with a 2-0 win over San Diego State. They are not ranked in the top 25.


Make it a nice day trip to Louisville's Belknap Campus this Friday to see Field Hockey face Michigan at noon and Women's Soccer face Lipscomb at 6:00 p.m.

Both Field Hockey and women's soccer will be holding a press conference today at 1:45 p.m. at the KFC YUM! Center, following the Chris Mack presser, to discuss their upcoming tournament bids. Paulie will be on hand to capture the words, thoughts and comments of Justine and Karen and he'll have that audio for you in the Wednesday Cardinal Couple.

(PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON) 


PACKING THEM IN...

The numbers don't lie. The WBB Cards lead the way in ACC WBB attendance this season. There is nothing else to say. We're #1 !!


Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Cards denied women's soccer NCAA Tournament bid

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THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Four BIG EAST schools receive bids to NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament

-Louisville WBB vs. Texas A&M Friday night.

Someone needs to hand the NCAA a yellow card. Can we send this one up to the instant reply booth? The University of Louisville was not chosen to participate in the 2012 NCAA Women's Soccer Championships and neither was South Florida....who battled Louisville to a 0-0 tie over two overtimes and a shootout in BIG EAST Tournament quarterfinal action. The four teams receiving bids are Marquette, Georgetown, Notre Dame and....Rutgers? 

The first three I've listed above I have no problem with. Marquette won the regular season title, their first BIG EAST Tournament title and finished with a 16-2-2 record and went 9-0-1 in the BIG EAST. They are ranked #13 in the nation. Well done, MU!

Georgetown had a very good season also. 15-3-3 and 8-1-1 in the BIG EAST. Played for the BIG EAST Tournament title for the first time in school history. Ranked #31 by the NCAA. Another school worthy of the bid. 

Notre Dame fared well also on the season. A 13-5-2 record with a 8-1-1 BIG EAST compliation. It's their 20th. straight NCAA Tournament bid. They won the NCAA tournament in 2010. Ranked #21 in the NCAA rankings. Take your seat on the plane, Irish. 

But Rutgers? Someone explain this selection to me like I was a six-year old, please. I just don't get it.

They were 5-5-1 in the BIG EAST. Louisville was 5-3-3 and USF 6-2-2. Overall, the Scarlet Knights were 12-7-1. Louisville was 10-4-3. USF 10-5-4.

Rutgers is #47 in the NCAA rankings. Louisville #45. South Florida #52.

The only possible reason that makes any sense with regards to including Rutgers before Louisville in the tournament selection would be that they defeated the Cards in the regular season.

Obviously, that must mean more than league finishes, overall records, NCAA rankings and common sense. And, if that's the case...why bother with a BIG EAST Tournament?

Louisville got a bad break. To use a more popular term...they got hosed. Something to motivate the Cards for the 2013 season.

OVERALL RECORD       BIG EAST RECORD     RANKING

Louisville 10-4-3                 South Florida 6-2-2             Lou. #45
South Florida 10-5-4           Louisville 5-3-3                  Rutgers #47
Rutgers 12-7-1                    Rutgers 5-5-1             South Florida #52

NCAA SELECTION:  Rutgers

COMMON SENSE SELECTION: Louisville and South Florida

Someone explain it to me.

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The #9 ranked Louisville women's basketball team starts the regular season in large fashion, hosting #12 Texas A&M in the KFC YUM! Center Friday night at 7 p.m. A lot of media types are calling it the best opening regular season game this year.

We can't disagree. A&M comes in with just two starters back from last year, but a highly-ranked and talented freshman class. Louisville loaded with talent...all but Tia Gibbs and Asia Taylor ready to play and looking forward to filling the Arena.

$2 tickets available at the box office with your Kroger Plus card. No home football Saturday, so you have no excuse not to be there.

Who will start for the Cards? We were mildly surprised to see Megan Deines in the starting lineup for Jeff Walz's Cards against Eckerd...but soon found out she was worthy and capable of the nod. Given that A&M center Kelsey Bone (6'4") is likely to cause some worries for the Cards underneath the boards...wouldn't surprise us to see 6'4" Sherrone Vails draw a starting assignment, but the front-line combo of Sara Hammond and Shawnta Dyer didn't look bad against Eckerd. We expect Mo Reid to see 15-20 minutes. Cards will try to counter the Aggies' height with quickness and transition one would assume. We'll throw a lineup out and let us know what you think of it in the comments section or by e-mail.

Shoni Schimmel
Shawnta Dyer
Sara Hammond
Bria Smith
Megan Deines

It's a "Red Out" game, so dress accordingly and show up! The Cardinal fan base can be an intimidating factor to opponents'...so be loud!  Walz wants the place packed, so take advantage of this early-season opportunity to support the Lady Cards!

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