Cards Collapse Against Cuse -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Stuffed 73-72 by Orange

Road warriors they are not. Louisville women's basketball gave up a nine-point lead with five and a half minutes to go against Syracuse to lose another road game..The Cards are just 4-3 in their last seven games and still have a rematch against Notre Dame in South Bend on their schedule. Officiating gripes aside, Louisville has another road game in the northeast this week before a big game against Virginia Tech in the KFC Yum! Center on Sunday, February 18th. 

Louisville traded punches with Syracuse to open the game. Louisville jumped ahead early but were unable to stretch their lead to any more than four points for the better part of the quarter. A pair of free throws by Kiki Jefferson made the score 16-10 with 3:45 remaining in the first, and the Cards kept the Orange at arm's reach for the remainder of the quarter. Syracuse was unable to cut the lead, which Louisville grew to eight, to any less than three before Jayda Curry's buzzer beater set the final quarter score of 25-19.

In the end, this game was just out of reach...
despite Nyla Harris's best efforts.

The second started much the same, with the two teams trading baskets, misses, and turnovers. This time, however, Louisville had a six-point cushion to start. After a Nyla Harris layup gave the Cards a 33-26 lead with 6:51 to go, that cushion started to slip away. The next possession saw yet another offensive rebound by Syracuse (who had 13 in the first 15 minutes), but a Merissah Russell steal prevented a second-chance opportunity. The offense was what began to give, with Syracuse chipping away at the lead one basket at a time. A Georgia Woolley jumper cut the lead to one with two minutes remaining in the half before a couple of trips to the free throw line pushed the Cards back out a bit. Among those four free throws came Louisville's only miss of the afternoon. Louisville got the lead back to six with eleven seconds to go, but Dyaisha Fair returned the favor of Curry's buzzer beater and one-upped it by making a three from the logo. Louisville led 40-37, with the Fair three breaking the otherwise 15-15 tie in the second.

Syracuse opened the second half with the ball and the quarter started with a missed jumper, rebounded away by the Cards. It was quick offense for UofL, as just nine seconds later, Jefferson buried a three to push the lead back to six. A steal by Olivia Cochran led to a fastbreak Nyla Harris layup, and all of the sudden, Louisville was back in front by eight. Another miss (so far Fair was the final Orange player to touch the ball on every possession of the half) eventually sent Jefferson to the line, where she extended Louisville's advantage to their largest of the day: 10. Syracuse scored their first basket of the quarter on the ensuing play, and the game would remain within single digits for the duration. 

Outside of the nine-point lead I mentioned in the opening, Louisville also pushed their lead to nine with 4:32 to go in the third. This came after Syracuse had managed to cut the deficit to five, and it was short lived. With Louisville's lead coming mostly on the back of Syracuse misses, the gap shrunk rapidly when the Orange stopped missing. Less than three minutes later, Louisville was staring at a three-point lead while on defense. Another miss was followed by a Sydney Taylor layup to give the Cards a bit of breathing room. Turnovers and blocks gave way to a trip to the line for Nina Rickards, who sank two with 35 seconds to go to give Louisville a seven-point lead. Dyaisha Fair (who else) made a layup to set the score at 57-52, but Louisville couldn't do anything with their 19 second possession. Eylia Love's jumper fell away, so the third quarter ended with the Cards nursing their five-point lead.

For the majority of the fourth, Louisville looked in control. They calmly pushed the lead back to nine, but then the wheels fell off. While the stats sheet shows Louisville's latest nine-point advantage at 5:38, they were hanging on at that point. A Jefferson layup set the score at 63-54 with 6:47 to go. That basket was the last before a 10-2 Syracuse run, which extended out to a 15-5 run for the Orange to take the lead and a19-9 run over the remainder of the game. A pair of Olivia Cochran free throws put Louisville back in front with 2:03 to go, and a layup with 1:14 remaining put the Cards ahead by three. On that possession, Louisville nearly turned the ball over before Coach Walz drew up a play in the timeout that led to the score off the out of bounds play. 

The last minute was a bit chaotic. Syracuse held for a fairly late shot, and cut the lead to one with 55 seconds left. Louisville was able to hold as well, and ultimately got a Jefferson jumper in the paint. It was blocked, and Alyssa Latham was credited with her sixth as a result. Latham had four fouls, and the freshman probably should have had more, but it was the hack that came after the block, which Jefferson recovered, that was more frustrating. Latham picked up the steal, and Syracuse called a timeout to draw up their final play. Up by one, Louisville had a foul to give, but played clean defense. As the shot clock wound down, Georgia Woolley took the potential winner, but it missed. Louisville was unable to corral the rebound, and it fell to Kennedi Perkins. 

As Perkins made a move to initiate a drive, Cochran reached out and grabbed her at the waist. It was a long reach, and there wasn't a terrible amount of play for the ball, but the foul made sense. With a foul to give and a one-point lead, fouling sends Syracuse out of bounds with 2.5 seconds remaining. It's a much worse position to be in than driving the lane where you might pick up a shooting foul. We can argue the strategy if you want, but it's sound, in my opinion. Where it gets thorny, though, is when the officiating crew decides that one of the most common fouls in a late game situation is an intentional foul. Instead of an out of bounds play needing to result in a basket, Syracuse sent Dyaisha Fair to the line for two. Not only that, but they got the ball back after she made the pair. For the second game in as many opportunities (including the men), the Louisville Cardinals were screwed on late-game officiating in the JMA Wireless Dome (Carrier Dome Forever). Louisville's 72-71 victory evaporated with no time passing and they lost 73-72.

Jeff Walz is going to get a fine. It would be bad if he got a suspension, but he's going to get a fine. He even knows it, as he said as much while making the comments that will lead to it. The officiating in this game was bad. The officiating in the fourth quarter was abysmal. Syracuse finished with 12 blocks and seven steals. They only finished with 20 fouls, and one of those came on a double-technical. Louisville was whistled for 19 fouls and finished with one block and six steals. Hmm. One of those 19 (18, if you prefer, since one was a double-technical) was the "intentional" foul that sealed the game. The fouls were just one part of the issue, but it really doesn't matter.

At the end of the day, frustrating officiating or not, Louisville shot 24 free throws. They had a nine-point lead late in the game and they let it slip. They watched another road game against a ranked team go the opposite direction. I praised the Cards on the show Saturday about putting together a complete game against Notre Dame. Just looking at the quarter scores might imply they did so in this game as well, but that would ignore the 15-5 run that gave up the late lead. Louisville should have put their foot down and closed the game out. Instead, they took quick shots and made unforced errors to keep Syracuse in it. The final result is the same as games in Chapel Hill and Raleigh: a loss. Louisville has had every opportunity to stay at the top in the ACC, and they have (mostly) themselves to blame for not being there.

The FRED Report

I don't feel like doing a CASE Report today. This game was frustrating, and I kind of just steamed for a while when it ended. 

F - Free Throws: Louisville gets a glittering capital F here. They took the aforementioned 24 free throws and made 23 of them. That's really good. Syracuse was 11-13 from the line, and it would have been a lot nicer if they took two fewer, but so it goes.

Fred Jones looks on in horror.

R - Rebounding: I remarked during the game that the Cards were on their way to no letter in this category. That came when Syracuse picked up their 13th offensive rebound in the early portion of the game. Despite some improvement from UofL, I'm going to stick with my initial assessment. Louisville lost the rebounding battle 41-40 and they ultimately lost the second-chance points category as well (14-12). Syracuse had 20 offensive rebounds. The last one led to the game winning free throws. 

E - Effort/Execution: Another collapse. What else is there to say? Louisville had more turnovers than Syracuse (14-13) and they were crushed inside. They won the points in the paint battle by a pair but were out blocked 12-1. Giving up offensive rebounds left and right was also less than ideal. To their credit, the Cards had 16 assists on 23 made baskets, but they made 11 of those baskets in the first quarter. After a 64.7% first, Louisville shot 40.4% from the floor in the game. They made just four baskets in each of the remaining quarters, and they were 3-12 from beyond the arc. No letter.

D - Defense: The Cards held Syracuse to just three points under their average scoring. They gave up four more points than in the first matchup between the two teams, but the total score isn't everything. The offensive rebounds are playing in here, just as they did elsewhere, because it's just bad. The lack of forced turnovers and steals is tough as well. For the second game in a row, Louisville also let a player score (nearly) 30, as Fair finished with 29. No letter.

Maybe I'm being too harsh later in the report, but Louisville's ability to close out the game was harsh. Final tally is F-_-_-_. Not much positive in this one. 

One of the positives was Nyla Harris. Harris had a career high 22 points, and she made it a double-double with 11 boards. Harris was joined by Kiki Jefferson (13) in double-digit scoring, but she was the only Cardinal that even flirted with ten rebounds. Nina Rickards and Jayda Curry each had nine, and the latter was hampered late in the game by foul trouble. Rickards added five boards, four assists, and two steals, and she did so with just one turnover and no fouls. Only Elif Istanbulluoglu joined Rickards with no fouls in this one. Elif had three rebounds in her 11 minutes, but posted no other stats. 

Louisville falls to 20-5 and 9-3 in conference, and they move from 1/2 game ahead of the Orange to 1/2 game behind. Syracuse's off day does not come until the last game day of the season. With just the Wolfpack in their way on February 29th, Syracuse will be fighting for one of the top seeds in the ACC Tournament until the end. The Cards, on the other hand, are clinging on to the last double-bye in the standings. They're officially behind NC State, by virtue of the tiebreaker that they lost, and they still have to play league-leading Virginia Tech and Florida State at home before going on the road to Notre Dame to close the season. North Carolina has fallen to 7-5 in conference, and that loss is looking more and more frustrating for the Cards.

The only thing to be done, though, is to move on and play one game at a time. Louisville has Boston College next, and all you can do is play the games on your schedule. The Eagles are 3-10 in conference, holding the head-scratching win over Miami as well as victories over the only two teams below them in conference (Pitt: 1-11 and Wake: 0-12). Thursday's game will be on ACC Network Extra, and tip-off is at 7PM. 

Softball and Lacrosse to Come

Lacrosse and softball were in action yesterday, but the women's basketball game took most of the oxygen out of the room. Jared will have more on both of those games for you tomorrow. Look forward to his recaps of the comeback that wasn't in Boulder and the completion of the weekend sweep in Ft. Meyers. 

For the record, the Softball Cards shut ot FGCU 7-0 and Lacrosse lost a close one in Boulder to Colorado 16-15. Be sure to catch Jared's recaps in hisTesday article

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

WBB Defeats Gonzaga -- VB in NCAA Tournament -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Beat Zags to Claim Betty Chancellor Classic Title

Sunday was a rather busy day for Louisville Athletics. We saw a rare case where both the women's and men's basketball teams win. It was also the NCAA Selection Show for volleyball.

Louisville women's basketball won their second game in as many days when they defeated Gonzaga 81-70. The 11-point margin of victory was just enough to take the title in the Betty Chancellor classic. The Cards fell to Alabama on the opening day of the round robin tournament before defeating Liberty on Saturday and Gonzaga on Sunday.

The Cards relied on strong second and fourth quarters to earn the win. They were clutch down the stretch, outscoring Gonzaga 20-6 over the final sixth minutes of the final quarter. Kiki Jefferson led the team with 21 points while Nina Rickards went 8-8 from the floor for 16 points.

UofL scored the first four points of the game in the span of 35 seconds. However, Gonzaga wouldn't buckle over the quick deficit and would battle back to even the score at 1... moments before the media timeout. Scoring slowed the back end of the quarter and the Zags would hold a two-point edge at 21-19.

The two foes would trade points to open the second quarter before Louisville's defense woke up. Sitting tied 27-27, the Cards would go on a 12-2 run to build a 10 ;point lead. Gonzaga would score to bring the lead within single-digits but the Cards always had an answer and would go into halftime with a 47-36 edge.

Halftime seemed to be a momentum killer for Louisville, who was outscored 20-12 in the third quarter. Louisville's lead diminished to four points shortly after the media timeout. The Cards pushed the lead back to eight before Gonzaga scored the final five points of the quarter. Still, Louisville led 59-56.

The Cards opened the final quarter on an 18-6 run before Gonzaga called a timeout in hopes of stopping the bleeding. The break seemed to work for the Zags as the went on an 8-0 spurt down the stretch to bring the score within nine. The rally seemed to come too late though and a pair of UofL free throws with 32 seconds left sealed the deal.

The officiating was a bit tighter than we've seen this year with the two teams combining for 43 fouls. The refs seemed to be called a lot on the Cards and ery little on Gonzaga. Jeff Walz was not a fan of it, and got "t'd" up in the first half after expressing displeasure UofL barely saw the charity stripe despite the fouls. The Cards attempted just seven free throws on the game. Jefferson took six of them. gonzaga was 19 for 23.

Jefferson spent most of the game on the floor with 36 minutes. She posted a line of 21 points, five assists, four rebounds, and three steals. Rickards' outing included 16 points, five assists, two rebounds, and two steals. Jayda Curry also scored in double figures with 13 points, highlighted by 3-6 shooting from three-point range. Elyia Love and Oliva Cochran spent much of the game in foul trouble with the former having four fouls and the latter fouling out.

F-R-E-D Report

(Today's "Fred". Braves superstar Fred McGriff)

Free Throws- Louisville shot 6-7 from the charity stripe. Despite the limited opportunities, the Cards capitalized on them and shot 86% from the line. Capital F.

Rebounds- Louisville was outrebounded 23-19. Each team had six offensive boards. No Cardinal player had more than four rebounds and Louisville's post players were almost completely ineffective in the category. No letter here.

Effort/Efficiency- There's no question that the effort was there considering the Cards played their third game in three days. Louisville found ways to halt Gonzaga every time they tried to make a run and rally. The Cards shot close to 59% from the floor and 37% from three. The had more assists (19) than turnovers (16). UofL capitalized on Gonzaga turnovers with 17 points. More impressively, they scored 18 fast break points. Plenty of reason for a Capital E.

Defense- Allowing 70 points is never a good thing. It's the third time this season UofL has done so. Gonzaga shot a little over 50% from the floor but the Cards did force 21 turnovers, which proved to be the difference in the game. The Zags were limited to three fast break points due to Louisville's transition defense. There's enough argument for a lowercase d here.

F-_-E-d is an okay result but there is plenty of room for improvement.

Louisville improves to 6-1 on the season. They remain away from home when they visit Ole Miss on Wednesday.

Volleyball Goes Dancing in the NCAA Tournament

(Cards gather to wait for their name to be called) 

The NCAA Selection Show was yesterday evening. We had no doubt Louisville would make the 64-team field but their overall seeding was a bit up in the air.

The good news is that Louisville will host the opening two rounds of the tournament at the KFC Yum! Center. The bad news is that the Cards were one spot away from hosting the second weekend in town too. UofL was given the 2-seed in their region.

Who is the top seed in the region with Louisville? Well, the Selection Committee seems to have a thing for drama as they paired Louisville and Pittsburgh together in the same region. The Panthers earned the final 1-seed by a slim margin according to the Selection Committee. I guess the Cards winning five of the eight total sets in the two matches between the rivals this year didn't mean much... or UofL sweeping ACC Champion Florida State while Pitt lost to them. Louisville's loss to NC State is most likely the difference maker. 

The NCAA lady who explained it on the broadcast seemed pretty tight-lipped about the reasoning and my guess is she'd already been asked a  few questoned about Pitt over Cards...and he two of them in the same bracket.  . 

Nebraska, Stanford, and Wisconsin earned the other 1-seeds. Louisville is joined by Kentucky, Texas, and Oregon in the 2-seed realm. The ACC also has 5-seed Georgia Tech, 6-seed Florida State, and unseeded Miami in the tournament. The top eight seeds in each region received a seed number.

WKU also got selected and they'll open against Coastal Carolina in Knoxville.

(Rowdy Raider is coming to town again!)

Louisville's sub group in the opening weekend features Wright State (21-10), whom the Cards will face Thursday at 7:00pm ET, as well as 7-seed Auburn (20-9) and Western Michigan (30-2). Louisville defeated Wright State in the third game of the season, 3-1 (20-25, 25-18, 25-20, 26-24).

Tickets for the weekend (Thursday-Friday) session can be purchased on UofL's website at GoCards.com.

Go HERE for a printable bracket. 

Happy Monday and Go Cards!

Jared

WBB Drops Close Game to Alabama -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Can't Complete Comeback; Fall 78-73

In what was ultimately a wild back and forth battle between the Cards and the Crimson Tide in Katy, Texas yesterday afternoon, Louisville came out behind when they couldn't quite hold onto their lead after overcoming an 8-point second quarter deficit. The game saw 12 ties and nine lead changes, including three ties and four lead changes in the fourth quarter. (It may actually be six lead changes as its impossible to figure out what counts. If Bama had the lead and then it was tied and Bama took the lead again, I didn't count those.) It's difficult to look at the stats and pinpoint one thing that was overly bad for Louisville. In the end, I think it was just an average performance against an above-average team that played better. Such is the way it goes. Fortunately for the Cards, there is little time to dwell on this one, as they'll take on Liberty at 12 today with a chance to bounce back.

The first few possessions of this one could have been a glimpse into how it would turn out. Louisville missed a shot on the first possession of the game, then committed a foul before getting a steal on Alabama's first offensive effort. The Cards took the lead on a layup and then saw the lead disappear on a made Alabama three. With a chance to regain the lead, the Cards went 1-2 from the line to tie it instead. Louisville shot just 40.9% from the floor and 66.7% from the line, and they committed 26 fouls while Alabama turned it over 20 times. We had it all right in front of us in the first three minutes of the game.

The Tide were able to stretch their early lead to six points at 11-5, but a short run by Louisville tied it up with three to go in the quarter. The Cards never took regained a first quarter lead after going down 3-2, though, and they hit the first quarter break trailing by four after a buzzer-beating basket from Alabama. The tied shot 61.5% from the floor and were 4-8 from beyond the arc in the first quarter. They only made nine threes in the game, but those four in the first quarter came at the most opportune times to apply key pressure to Louisville. Louisville was 0-2 from three-point land in the first and their missed free throw count matched the deficit in the game. 

Things didn't improve much for Louisville in the second quarter. The two teams traded baskets (and turnovers) for the first few minutes as the lead ping-ponged between Bama +2 and Bama +4. Another key three broke the streak and the Tide used the momentum to build their lead back up to eight, the largest it would be in the game. Louisville didn't look ready to recover. After a layup cut it to six, the Cards gave Alabama every opportunity to break it open even further. A turnover led to a missed three that Bama collected the offensive rebound on. They missed the layup but were able to corral it again and put up another three. Fortunately for the Cards, this one was off the mark as well. Unfortunately for the Cards, so was Sydney Taylor's response effort at the other end. On the ensuing possession, another offensive rebound for Alabama finally led to second chance points and the Cards saw the chance to bring the game back to them by cutting the lead to two or less disappear as it grew back to eight. The final minute saw a bit of back and forth and Louisville, with the last basket, trailed by five at the half.

The third quarter was Louisville's only positive quarter of the game from a score perspective. Louisville led it by a pair with a 22-20 effort. Midway through the quarter, a three by Taylor saw the Cards take their first lead since the opening minute. It was short live, though, as Alabama's Sarah Ashlee Barker scored on the next possession to take the lead back for the Tide. Thus began the trades that continued through the fourth quarter. Louisville scored a layup in with 1:17 remaining in the quarter to match their largest lead of the afternoon at two. The last quarter saw more of the same from Alabama, though, as a key three from Barker took the lead back. Louisville had a chance after Nyla Harris pulled down an offensive rebound off of a Taylor missed three, but a steal by Barker led to a fast break to put the Tide up by three. Louisville held for the last shot of the quarter, but the layup was off the mark.

Which leads us back to that back-and-forth fourth quarter. Louisville scored back-to-back baskets to take the lead in the fourth but couldn't hold onto it. After a free throw by Alabama tied it at 61 with 7:25 remaining, Louisville wouldn't lead again. Twice, Alabama hit threes to break the tie. Since Louisville couldn't buy one of those, they struggled to keep up. The second of those came to break a 69-69 tie with 27 seconds remaining. Louisville cut the deficit to one two more times in the game, but Alabama made the free throws they needed to stay ahead. Final score 78-73.

I said that Louisville didn't do anything particularly bad, but I suppose that's not true, strictly speaking. Their three-point shooting stunk. The Cards finished 3-14 from outside, good for just 21.4%. Alabama was 9-24 from three, good for 37.5%. In addition to that, the two teams made nearly the same number of baskets (27 for Louisville compared to 26 for Alabama), so the fact that the Tide were making their threes was that much worse for the Cards. Bama also took 12 fewer shots than Louisville, so the Cards just really didn't take advantage of their numerous chances. They did finish with 21 offensive rebounds and converted those into 23 second chance points, but if they couldn't hit threes, they needed more possessions, which means more scoring on the first try and better defense on the other end. Alabama collected 13 offensive rebounds for 13 second chance points, minimizing Louisville's advantage.

While Louisville was not good from the free throw line, and their number of missed foul shots was larger than the final deficit, they only missed one more free throw than Alabama. The two teams both had 24 chances from the line, and Louisville made 16 of those. That 2/3 rate isn't winning any awards, but you can point to the other side and say that Alabama had every opportunity to get more free points as well. It just wasn't Louisville's day.

Alabama's Sarah Ashlee Barker put up a decent game for the Tide. Prior to fouling out in the final minutes of the game, she put up 18 points tying Nyla Harris to lead all scorers. She was just 7-16 from the floor and 2-8 from three, but her baskets came at very inopportune times. She was also tied for the team lead in rebounds and added two steals and two assists. Alabama had five players in double figures.

Louisville was led, as I mentioned, by Nyla Harris. Harris also fouled out, but her fifth foul came with just six seconds remaining. Very inconveniently for Louisville, it was an offensive foul with the Cards down three. It was a tough call for Harris, who added eight rebounds, an assist, and two steals to those 18 points. She was 8-13 from the floor and 2-2 from the line. Sydney Taylor was right behind Harris with 17 points. Taylor, who we probably expect to be the team's shooter, struggled yesterday. She went just 5-15 from the floor, 3-9 from beyond the arc (yes she scored all of Louisville's threes), and 4-8 from the free throw line. Louisville needed a few more makes or a few less takes from the guard. Nina Rickards was effective off the bench, picking up a double-double with ten points and ten rebounds.

The Reports

Not a great one for the Cards statistically, so lets have a look.

F-Free Throws: We've talked at length about 16-24. It's below 70% and you need better than that to win games. Whether Alabama missed theirs as well or not is irrelevant. No letter.

R-Rebounding: Louisville came away with 37 rebounds, including 21 on the offensive end. Bama finished with 33. Although it's close overall, Louisville had more rebounds than Alabama on both ends of the floor. The Cards collected one more of their own misses than Alabama and three more of Bama's. I don't think rebounding was the reason they lost, and I'm counting the second chance points as a reason to make this a Capital R.

E-Effort/Efficiency: They didn't shoot very well and they turned the ball over 18 times. Statistically, it's not great. However, this team weathered a few punches from Alabama and they were right there in the game at the end. They never gave up, so I'm going with a lowercase e with the caveat that it's just for the effort.

D-Defense: Alabama was almost 50% from the floor. Louisville forced 20 turnovers, but man you've got to prevent a bucket or two. The Tide shot no worse than 41% in any quarter and made at least one three in each. Louisville also gave up 13 fast break points and scored just 11 of their own. Perhaps worse, Louisville scored just 10 points off of the 20 turnovers. I'm struggling here, because I'm giving defense a worse grade based on offense, but that's just the way it goes. No letter.

C-Care: Louisville turned the ball over 18 times. We can probably just cut this and the a category here. But we won't. Since we look at the relative performance, Louisville has fewer turnovers than Alabama and fewer than Bama's average. The Tide entered the game 13th in the country with 24 turnovers forced per game. Louisville had more than 60% of that average, though, so it's just going to be a lowercase c.

A-Assists: As I said, 18 turnovers hurts here. We'll get that part out of the way because it's an ATO ratio below 1. Yikes. The Cards finished with 13 assists, which very nearly makes up half of their baskets. 48% is not 50%, though, so it's no letter.

S-Steals: Seven steals for Louisville yesterday. It's one more than Alabama but it's half a steal less than what I set as the arbitrary threshold years ago. Lowercase s.

E-Efficiency: Insert Tracy Morgan "nope. no. uh-uh" gif here. It was not great. Poor shooting overall. Poor shooting from three. Poor shooting from the line. No letter.

That's final scores of _-R-e-_ and c-_-s-_. Those are not likely to win games.

Yabba-dabba-doo not do that again, Cards.

We'll look for a better performance out of Louisville today when they take on Liberty at noon. Like yesterday's game, this one will be on ESPN+ only. Be sure to tune in and check out Jeff's recap of, hopefully, a win tomorrow. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

With the noon kickoff at home in the rivalry game and family in town for the holiday, it's a thin crowd for today's episode of the podcast. Paulie and Jeff are around to hold down the fort, though. They'll discuss Jeff's trip to Pittsburgh and volleyball's bounce back win over Georgia Tech as well as the loss for basketball and what is next for both teams. As always, you can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

Cardinal Couple YouTube: Link

Anchor (podcast host): Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

WBB Adds Nina Rickards -- Lax Falls to Notre Dame -- Tennis Falls to FSU -- Softball on the Road -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Our musical chairs of taking over articles continues. While Paulie was originally covering for Daryl, Paulie ended up taking the day off. Daryl was working her duties at Louisville Slugger Field as the Bats recorded a rare win. Katy and I made our way downtown for the game but did not see Daryl.

Nina Rickards Commits to Louisville

Louisville women's basketball picked up another player in the transfer portal yesterday. Nina Rickards joins the Cards after four years at Florida, per her Twitter.

The 5-9 guard from Queens, N.Y. started nearly every game in her career with the Gators. Last season, Rickards averaged 12.1 points per game while shooting 40% from the floor. While not known for her three-point shooting, Rickards was reliable from the free throw line, knocking down nearly 76% of her attempts.

Jeff Walz and Co. are up to nine confirmed players for the 2023-2024 season with hopes to add a couple more before the season starts up.

Lacrosse Concludes Regular Season with Loss at Notre Dame

Louisville lacrosse wrapped up the regular season with a 15-9 loss at #7 Notre Dame. The Cards finished the season 5-11 with a 2-7 ACC record.

Notre Dame started strong, claiming the opening quarter 8-0 including a goal 14 seconds into the game.

The Cards did get on the board early into the second quarter before the Irish extended their lead to 10-1. Louisville would close out the quarter on a 3-0 run to go into the half 10-4.

Louisville closed their deficit to 12-9 midway through the fourth quarter before Notre Dame scored the final three goals of the match. Nicole Perroni was able to snag one of Louisville’s nine goals, setting a program record with a goal scored in 35 consecutive games.

The ACC Tournament begins Sunday with Louisville hosting Duke at 2:00 p.m.

Tennis Falls to Florida State in ACC Tournament

After an upset over Syracuse to close out the regular season and an upset victory over Boston College, Louisville women's tennis fell to Florida State in the second round of the ACC Tournament.

The Seminoles started off taking the doubles point. They then won on courts two, four, and six to claim the victory. Courts one, three, and five remained unfinished after it became impossible for Louisville to win the match.

Louisville finishes the 2022-2023 season with a 10-15 record. Eight of the 10 members of the roster completed their senior season so Coach Mark Beckham will have some work to do on the recruiting trail and in the transfer portal.

Softball Travels to Virginia

Fresh off a win at Western Kentucky, Louisville softball is back in action with a series at Virginia. The Cards enter the game with a 29-14 record.

The Cavaliers carry a similar record at 29-15. They took down James Madison in a midweek game but fell in a three-game series at Florida State prior to that.

Virginia is 8-10 in the ACC, currently putting them in eighth place. Louisville's 10-4 conference record places them fourth.

With nine games remaining in the regular season, Louisville needs just six wins to match their 35-win season in 2019, the highest in the Holly Aprile era.

Tonight's game is set to start at 6:00 p.m. and will be aired on ACCNX.

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

Jared

*Photos per Louisville Athletics*