WBB: Dana,defense defeat Ducks 60-42 -- Softball, Volleyball, Lax News -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 DANA EVANS TIES CAREER HIGH IN WIN OVER OREGON

The Louisville Cardinals Women's Basketball team is going to the Elite Eight. 

It'll be Cardinals vs Cardinal Tuesday night, as Louisville earned their berth to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight with a convincing 60-42 win over the Oregon Ducks Sunday night in San Antonio's Alamodome. The #2 seeded Cards will face the #1 seed Stanford Cardinal Tuesday night in the Alamo Regional final. 

Dana Evans exploted for 29 points against Kelly Graves' Oregon squad, going 11-21 from the floor and sinking four of her six free throws against the PAC 12 foe,. The Cards took off on a 15-2 run to start the second quarter to build a 10-8 lead to 25-10 with 3:21 until halftime and take control of the contest. Evans had 11 of the Cardinals points in that key second quarter and led all scorers with 13 first half points.  

Louisville's defense was also the main feature on Sunday night. They held Oregon to 30 points-below their season average and just 32.1% shooting (18-56) from the floor. Oregon made just 2 of the 18 three-point attempts they tried and were held to less than 10 points in three of the four quarters. 

The Cards led 29-14 at the halftime break and Oregon had missed all nine of their three-point attempts. The Ducks could not match Louisville's speed in the transition game and the Cardinals defense was creating havoc on the Oregon guards. Oregon did lose starter Maddie Scherr in the first half with a foot injury and another starter in Nyara Sabally in the second half with a leg injury, but the Cards were containing 6'7" sophomore center Sedona Prince, who had just four of her ten points in the first twenty minutes. 

The Ducks would make a couple of attempts to get back into the contest in the third quarter, after the Cards increased the lead to 34-16. They won the third quarter 19-14 and had cut the Louisville lead to nine on a couple of occasions in the third quarter and were within 10 at 43-33 by the end of the third quarter. Their last attempt to make it a game came to start the fourth quarter, Oregon's Prince scored the first two buckets of the fourth to get within six points...but Evans responded with two threes and a free throw to stretch the advantage back out for Louisville to 5-37 with 6:21 to play.  

The door had closed on Oregon and the Cards cruised in comfortably from there, leading by 20 late after a Van Lith jumper and SportsCenter moment -- when Kasa Robinson stole the ball, and made a behind-the-back pass while in transition to Evans who went in for a layup to make it 60-40 Cards. 

Evans 29 points tied her career high. Kianna Smith reached double figures for the Cards with 11 points and Hailey Van Lith added eight, as UofL goes to 26-3 on the season. 

THE FRED REPORT

Cards continue the wonderful
roller-coaster ride of 2020-21

FREE THROWS -- "Free ones" proved to be a welcome scarity for both teams Sunday night with only 17 total fouls. this was obviously not a Dee Kanter or Eric Brewton led officiating crew. Dana was the only Cardinal to attempt charity tosses, she was a bit off of her 90% accuracy rate -- making 4 of 6. That's 66.7% and fall just short of our 70% mandate for a letter, so we cannot award an "f" here. 

REBOUNDING -- The Cards led most of the way in the battle of the boards, but Oregon ended up with a 40-37 edge. That occurred because of the Ducks horrid fourth quarter shooting3-14 (21%) which allowed them several second-chance opportunities. Van Lith and Robinson led the Cards with seven each. The Cards held their own against a taller Ducks sqaud on the boards and I'll offer a small-case "r" here for the blocking out and hustling for missed shots that Louisville executed. 

EFFICIENCY/EXECUTION --  Just seven turnovers from the Cards and they actually won the points-in-the-paint battle 28-24. Louisville also led in second-chance points 18-13 and the floor shooting got better as the night went on, the Cards werre 41.3% from the floor. Also, no one had more than two turnovers for Louisville, which was refreshing to see. I think  a CAPITAL "E" is definitely deserved here. 

DEFENSE -- This is where the Cards won the game. Holding the foe to way-below their season average, forcing 14 turnovers, getting six steals, and shutting down and frustrating Prince and Boley most of the night. No question about awarding a CAPITAL "D" here. 

FINAL FRED TALLY:  _-r-E_D 

(You know these three are proud of
what this squad is accomplishing) 

So, the Cards move on and take on another West Coast, Pac-12 foe Tuesday in Stanford. It'll be Louisville's toughest test yet in the tournament, but, that's to be expected in the "survive and advance" concept. Louisville is one of two #2 seeds still dancing,  (Louisville and Baylor), three #1 seeds are still around (Stanford, UConn and South Carolina), and we have a #3 seed in Arizona, #4 seed in Indiana and #6 seed in Texas that consist of our Elite Eight. 

Jeff Walz and Kianna Smith will discuss it on a Zoom teleconference today at 11 a.m. and we'll monitor the words and post it here later today. 

HERE'S THAT LINK: 

JEFF WALZ AND KIANNA SMITH PRESSER 3/29/21

Play ball, y'all. It's the most wonderful time of the year. 

SOFTBALL SLUMPS AGAINST HOKIES

The Softball Cards couldn't find the bats against Virginia Tech and Keely Rochard yesterday and fell 8-0 in a run-rule five inning contest at Ulmer.  The Cards managed just one hit against one of the best hurlers in the ACC, a Cassady Greenwood single and the normally sound Louisville defense had five errors in the loss. 

The Hokies touched Cardinal pitching for 11 hits, two home runs and two doubles in the game at Ulmer, and they take the weekend series three games to one. 

Taylor Roby takes the loss, allowing three runs in two innings of circle work. 

The Cards (10-14, 4-9)  head to Pittsburgh next, for a four game series, starting on Thursday. 

(Softball Photos from Jared Anderson) 

BOSTON COLLEGE DEFEATS LOUISVILLE LAX

Homestanding #5 Boston College struck early and often against Louisville Lacrosse yesterday and won easily against Scott Teeter's squad 18-3 in ACC LAX action.

The Eagles jumped out to an 13-2 first half lead over Louisville, scoring the final 11 goals of that first half. The Cards were tied with BC early at 2-2, after Bella Karstein and Ally Hall found net success for UofL, but, the Eagles proved to be too much to handle the rest of the half. 

A 30-16 shot advantage for Boston College and they dominated the draw controls 16-7 in sending the Cards to their sixth loss of the year and fifth loss in ACC contests. 

The CARDS will try to get back on the winning side of things when they travel to Blacksburg to face the Hokies on Saturday. 

VOLLEYBALL SWEEPS NCST

(Remember when...??) 

#14 Louisville Volleyball improved to 12-2 on the split season and 10-2 in the ACC with a three-game sweep of the visiting NC State Wolfpack. 

The Cards won two close sets early at 26-24 and 25-22 before putting the Pack away 25-13 in the third set. 

Anna Stevenson led Louisville with 11 kills, and Sunday's sweep propelled the Cards to the top of the ACC standings. Stevenson had six of UofL's 12 blocks in the contest and Anna DeBeer and Aiko Jones added seven kills in the Cards win.

Louisville appeared to be in good shape in the first set, leading 23-16, but a 7-0 Wolfpack run tied the contest up. The Cards took three of the final final four points, though, to pull out the "W" 

The Pack came out strong in the second set, taking a 14-7 lead early on, but, Louisville fought back with a 10-2 run to recapture the advantage at 17-16 and held off the Wolfpack for the three-pint second set win 25-22. 

It was all Louisville in the final set, the Cards jumping out to an early 9-2 advantage and easily containing the visitors the rest of the set for the 12-point set victory.

Louisville now heads to Miami for an April Fools Day contest and then to North Carolina for April 2nd action as they wait to see the pairing for the NCAA Tournament. 

CARDINAL COUPLE NCAA PICK "EM"  CONTEST

"Who's in the lead? Paulie ? 
Naaahhh, check the numbers again!" 

We've got 56 games completed and seven more to go in our annual NCAA WBB Tournament  "pick em" and here's Bracket Czar Jared's updated totals for the contestants: 

Paulie still hangs on to the top spot with a 47-9 mark. He has five of the eight Elite Eight picks still alive and has a UConn vs. South Carolina championship game predicted, with the Huskies taking it all. 

Kenny S is two games behind at 45-11. He also has five of the final eight alive and has a Stanford vs, UConn final forecast, with the Cardinal taking the title. 

Callie Blue is in third at 44-12, but had Kentucky winning it all and had just four of the final eight alive. 

Other totals:

43-13 -- Jason

42-14 --  David Watson, Worldwide Jeff

41-15 -- Arthur

40-16 -- Jared

39-17 -- Blue Lou, Clemson Cuz

38-18 -- Case, KStarksr, Vivian

37-19 -- Sonya, Nole Knowledge

35-21 -- Nick O, Bea

33-23 -- Curtis

31-25 -- Joe Hill 

24-32 -- Cardinal Couple Chimps

I'll do a audit of the Czar's numbers later this morning, but, he's pretty good at math and keeping his spread sheet accurate, I doubt I find any discrepancies in the count. We've had no reported attempts to improve standings with bribes yet, Dave-O has been strangely quiet lately...after his pre-tournament trash-talking and The Cardinal Couple Chimps are claiming Jared read their bracket incorrectly and they are 55-1 overall. 

Those crazy chimps...

Have a meaningful Monday!

paulie

   

 

Cards over Ducks - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Paradise It Is

It was a place with palm trees, which is always a win in my book, and the Cards won the actual game, too.  The Cards were victorious over the top ranked Oregon Ducks, 72-62, in the Paradise Jam on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.

Do you call this the biggest upset in UofL Women's Basketball history?  I think there's an argument to be made for it.  Of course, the 2013 win over Baylor gets an argument, and frankly you could probably come up with others.  The Baylor win, and now this Oregon win are the only wins UofL WBB has over top ranked teams.  Against Baylor, the Cards were the 5th seed in the NCAA tournament, while the Cards are currently ranked 8th, so based on the rankings/seedings, this one is the bigger win.

The argument on the other side of that coin comes from having watched Baylor in 2012-2013 and the fact that it was in the post-season, rather than this early season win.  Which do you think is the biggest win in UofL WBB history?  Let's hear it.

On to the deets, though.

Much like the Baylor game, where Shoni Schimmel and Nita Slaughter shone brightest...you remember The Shot, punctuated by Rebecca Lobo's "Come on, now!" but you might also remember Nita Slaughter's 7 of 9 shooting from beyond the arc...Kylee Shook and Dana Evans will get the spotlight in this one.  Kylee finished with 18 points, including one from beyond the arc along with a pair of blocks and 15 rebounds, for the double-double and the all tournament team berth.  Dana tallied 17 points and 6 assists on her way to the tournament MVP award.

Also like the Baylor game, there was lots of supporting cast.  The rebound and outlet pass that led to The Shot?  5'6" Jude Schimmel getting the rebound over two much larger Baylor players, also getting 6 points and 3 assists, also Bria Smith with 13 points and 3 assists.  In this game, Elizabeth Balogun had 11 points, a pair of blocks of her own and four rebounds.  Jaz Jones had 10 points, 3 assists, and 3 rebounds despite some significant foul trouble.  Bionca Dunham and Norika Konno got 6 points and a pair of rebounds each. Konno played brilliantly while Jones was saddled with foul trouble and on the bench.

And this is the picture Sports Illustrated runs in their
recap of Louisville's win? Uh, Ducks didn't cut down the
nets, SI. Cards=Red. Oregon=Green. Nice proof-read. 

The Ducks had this one in control in the first quarter, leading 24-13 by the end of the first frame, but the Cards would win it all back in the 2nd quarter, winning the 10 minutes by 24-8, for a halftime score of 37-32.  The 3rd and 4th quarters would be more competitive, with the Cards adding 4 to the margin in the 3rd (14-10), and only adding a single point in the 4th quarter score-fest (21-20).

I only got to listen to the Nick and AJ call on this one, but Coach Walz give credit to Video Coordinator Lamont Russell with the Mad Scientist idea of putting Kylee Shook up at the top of the key on defense to disrupt the offensive set for the Ducks. Even Oregon head WBB Coach Kelly Graves said it :"Louisville wanted this one more than we did."

So what happens with rankings tomorrow.  The men's side of the league has been topsy turvey, (Hi Evansville, and Stephen F Austin!) meaning the UofL men will probably find themselves in the top spot, what happens with the women?

Well, it's unlikely that they'll jump from 8th to top ranked, although the upwards mobility could be
significant.  In addition to Oregon dropping, expect Baylor to relinquish the number 2 position after losing to 5th ranked South Carolina in the other half of the Paradise Jam.  3rd ranked Stanford struggled, but won over 10th ranked Mississippi State while 4th ranked UConn easily handled Dayton in their only outing this week.

So, I think that leaves Stanford in the top spot, UConn 2nd, and South Carolina 3rd.  Is there a chance for Louisville to climb to 4th?  I think it's possible.  Where do Oregon and Baylor land?  5th and 6th are possible.  That means Texas A&M and Oregon State end up dropping a couple spots, which does seem vaguely unfair to those teams, but I think that's the reality of the situation as it unfolds.

We'll find out tomorrow afternoon when the updated rankings come out.

Volleyball Selection Tonight

The Volleyball selection show is at 8:30 tonight on ESPNU.  The Cards should easily have a berth, and hosting is essentially out of the question, so what's left is to find out to which location the Cards will go.

Volleyball tends to stick fairly closely to the RPI for the 16 seeds that get to host, of course, we don't have the latest RPI standings until after the bracket is revealed.

What teams are in the region that are likely to host?  Pitt, is basically assured a hosting berth, and may even get to host the regionals depending on how far Wisconsin falls after their loss this week.  The committee does try avoid setting up in-conference matchups in the first two rounds, however, so that's unlikely for us.

Other possible locations include Kentucky (currently 7th in RPI), Marquette (currently 12th in RPI, though likely to drop after getting knocked off my St. Johns in the Big East final), and WKU (currently 15th in the RPI).

But, the GPS says there is a Volleyball
game here? 

Of those candidates, where would you like to see Louisville go?  I think I prefer Diddle Arena in Bowling Green over heading into UK territory.  It's a bit longer of a drive, but still easily reachable for fans, without having to go in to play on a rival's home court.  Also, frankly, I think we stand a better chance of getting past the sub-regional with WKU as the seeded team as we've already knocked them off once in the season and the team has grown and improved since then.

I'm probably going if it's within 10 or so hours. We'll find out tonight

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Paulie and I held down the fort for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour yesterday. Sonya was in studio auditing the broadcast. 

It's 11:02, when is this song over" 

Volleyball and Basketball were the topics du jour.  We recapped the volleyball loss to Pitt and the basketball wins for the week, including over UTA (or UTC in Paulie-speak), and Oklahoma State.

There's a good chance that we will not be on the air next week due to scheduling issues.  Paulie will be out of town following the WBB squad to Columbus, and depending on what happens with Volleyball selection, I may on the road to cheer them on.  Availability of Case, Jared, and Daryl are still to be determined.  Stay tuned, we'll let you know.

In the meantime, check out this week's show at:

https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/1395334880646526/

-- 

JMcA

CARDINAL COUPLE SPECIAL REPORT -- WBB DOWNS OREGON 72-62

CARDS DROP #1 DUCKS 72-62

Yes, it really happened ! 

Louisville WBB turned the game around starting in the second quarter and dispatched the #1 team in the nation -- the Oregon Ducks -- by 10 in their final game of the Paradise Jam. 

Four Cards in double figures scoring, led by Kylee Shook with 18 points (and 15 rebounds). She was named to the all-tournament team. Dana Evans 17 points and tournament MVP. Elizabeth "E" Balogun with 11 and Jaz Jones with 10. 

Defense did it again, holding Oregon to 34% from the floor. 

CARDINAL COUPLE will have much, much more on this tomorrow from Jeff McAdams in his Sunday write. 

Just know this. #1 has gone down and Louisville WBB did it ! 

WBB Prepares for Thanksgiving Tournament -- Bold Predictions -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Women's Basketball Prepares for Thanksgiving Tournament

Bad news, folks.  As of right now, there is no place to view the women's basketball games in the U.S. Virgin Islands for free.  The GoCards website provides a link to the FloHoops website.  You can subscribe for $29.99/month or $150/year to save money.  Either way I won't be spending that much money on it.

The Cards will face three opponents in three days while out of the 50 states.  They're set to play one game per day beginning Thanksgiving Day.

Radio is a great option. Cards Radio 790 WKRD will have  Nick Curran and Adrienne Johnson there to bring all the action. They provide a concise, accurate and informative view of games. Download the app.

Louisville will face UT Arlington on Thursday at 1:00 p.m., E.T.  The Mavericks went 24-8 last year and made an appearance in the NIT.  They have started this season 4-0.

Louisville will square off against Oklahoma State on Thursday at 1:00 p.m., E.T.  The Cowgirls went
14-16 last season.  They are 5-0 this year.  The Cards are 0-2 against Oklahoma State, with the most recent game coming right before Christmas 1993.

The prime time game of this event will be when Louisville matches up with #1 Oregon on Saturday at 3:15 p.m., E.T.  The Ducks have started the year 4-0 and also defeated Team USA in a preseason exhibition.  Oregon went 33-5 last year and fell in the Final Four to Baylor.

The Cards and Ducks are 2-2 all-time against each other.  Louisville beat Oregon 77-61 back in November 2017 en route to one of Louisville's most successful seasons in program history.

Oregon head coach Kelly Graves took his squad to Syracuse and left with a 81-64 win. A close first half against Q and company at 31-30, but the Ducks exploded for 31 third quarter points against Syracuse and went on to win fairly easily.

Graves also called Q a few days before the game with a odd request. He wanted to know what outfit Q would be wearing during the game. The stylish Syracuse coach is back to his designer, fashionable suits this season after going with sweats and tracksuits last year. Graves suggested he switch back to the more casual attire against the Ducks.

Q countered with a classic response, noted that Oregon was #1 in the country and must have received all the Nike clothing gear, including Syracuse's. Said he'd be back in a suit for the rematch.

We can only wonder if Graves will call Walz and inquire about what the Louisville coach is packing, clothing wise, to take to the Virgin Islands.

Paulie will break down the three games more in-depth later this week. I'm not sure what Paulie is wearing this morning when he goes to edit today's article, but I do know he's a fan of retro/throwback Louisville sweatshirts he's collected over the years and "puffy pants".


Jared's Bold Predictions

I've been known to make some wild, bold predictions before.  To make things interesting I decided to add some to today's article.

I'm not going to reveal what I'm wearing the rest the season, though. And, I'm not waiting by the phone to see if "Q", Graves or Walz call me to consult on clothing selections. I just want to see Paulie return to his 70's motif for the rest of the season.

And, if Nike dumped a bunch of clothing items on me, I'd probably return them postage due. After all, Louisville is an adidas school.  OK, the bold predictions:

• No Louisville player will score more than 27 points in any game this season.  Plenty of Cards have shown they can break 20 points but none of them can pull off 30 and 40-point games like Asia Durr could.
• The Cards won't break 100 this year.  It happened three times last year and twice the year before.  They were in perfect position to hit the triple-digit mark last game, needing just 42 points in the second half, but they couldn't do it.  UTA and OKST would both be possible 100-point games, but with three games in three days expect to see the starters get plenty of rest.
• UofL will finish the home season perfect.  Miami ruined that last year and Florida State the year before.  Since moving to the KFC Yum! Center, Louisville has not had more than three losses at home.  Walz has never had a perfect home record in any of his seasons with Louisville, but only one year did they have more than three home losses.  This will be the year he hits that perfect home record mark.
• Louisville will lose to Oregon by more than 12 points.  Oregon is just that good this year and Louisville has had plenty of early season woes with defensive troubles and missed easy shots.
• The Louisville-Kentucky game will be decided by single-digits.  Three of the last five match-ups have been decided by less than 10 and both teams are ranked in the Top 15.  Rhyne Howard now has her rookie year under her belt and will have a home crowd on her side.

Thoughts on these bold predictions?  Have your own?  Comment below!

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Louisville Women's Basketball, Volleyball and Men's Soccer wins! -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

(PAULIE filling in at the keyboard for Case and a well-deserved day off! )


WBB JUMPS ON DUCKS EARLY IN 74-61 WIN

The FatHeads. Julie Sullvan will write about them tomorrow.

Get on them early. It was what the UofL Cardinals women's basketball team wanted to do Sunday afternoon at the KFC YUM! Center against the Oregon Ducks in the preseason WNIT Finals. 

Mission accomplished. The Cards win the tournament! 

UofL went on an early 9-0 run over a three minute span in the first quarter to go from a 5-4 deficit to 13-5 lead and Oregon would get no closer than six the rest of the day. Asia Durr had seven of the points in the run and 26 in the contest, making the All-Tournament Team along with Most Valuable Player Myisha Hines-Allen (17 points, 12 rebounds). The Cards improve to 5-0 on the season and are #5 in the nation. 

Louisville led this one 23-14 after one and Durr had 14 of them on 5-7 shooting and Hines-Allen added seven in a quarter where the Cards forced six Oregon turnovers. 

Louisville kept the foot on the gas in the second quarter, winning the 10-minute session 20-13 and led by 18 points at 42-24 after a Hines-Allen jumper with 1:50 until half. It was a thing of beauty to watch...the bench produced 13 first half points...Dana Evans and Syd Zambrotta contributing 11 of these with 8 for 12 shooting. 

The Cards already had two players in double figures at the halftime break in Myisha and Asia and had forced 14 Ducks turnovers. UofL was shooting a hot 55.6% from the floor and were 9-10 from the charity stripe. 

One had to wonder and worry a bit about an Oregon rally. These quackers trailed Texas A&M by five in the semifinals at College Station Thursday before roaring back to win 83-68. 

It didn't happen. 

Jazmine Jones dropped in eight points in a five minute stretch to keep the Cards comfortably ahead in the third frame and Hines-Allen produced the final four points in the quarter to keep the Cards head of #10 Oregon 61-46 with ten minutes to go. The Ducks would sneak back to within 11 a couple of times in the final action...but two Durr baskets and Hines-Allen inside pushed UofL back out to a 74-58 lead with 1:17 to play and the Cards take a 13 point victory over a very good Oregon squad 74-61. 

THE CARDS WIN, THE CARDS WIN !!!!


THE FRED REPORT

FRED GWYNNE - Herman Munster
is today's Fred Figure. The Cards could
have used his height Sunday

FREE THROWS -- 12-14 (85.7%) gets a big "O.K!!" from us, with four players going 2-2 and Sam Fuehring going 4-6. She did not get a chance to prove the Walz "3 is better than 2" theorem, since her misses were the first of two both times. WE HAVE NO PROBLEM AWARDING A CAPITAL "F" HERE. 

REBOUNDING -- When you face a squad that has seven players 6'2" or taller, you can expect that grabbing boards might be a bit difficult for you. Oregon won the backboard battle 29-27, despite Hines-Allen's 12 for Louisville. Ruthie Hebard is one of the best forwards in the nation and controlled nine missed shots for the Ducks. WE CANNOT AWARD A LETTER HERE, but hats off to Myisha for her efforts. DOOO-BLAY puts on her hard-hat and reports to the site each and every game. 
I'll give her a special "R" for her board work. 

EXECUTION/EFFORT -- Louisville started hot and remained hot for the entire 40 minutes Sunday. 24 made baskets on 20 assists and despite 17 Cardinal turnovers and 11 Oregon steals, displayed great energy and got great bench participation from Jones and Zambrotta. Louisville's starters shot 57% in the contest (24-42) and WE'LL GIVE UP A CAPITAL "E" FOR SUNDAY'S EFFORT. 

DEFENSE -- Holding high intensity and prolific scoring Oregon to 61 points is a remarkable feat. They came into the contest averaging 95 points in three games. The Ducks had 20 turnovers and shot just 44.4% for 40 minutes. Road fatigue? Maybe, but Sabrina Ionescu didn't score in the first three periods (Great job Louisville guards!) and she finished with just eight points. THE CARDS EARN THE CAPITAL "D" HERE, NO DOUBT ABOUT IT! 

FRED RECAP:   F-_-E-D


SO...

We doubt Coach will travel this
week dressed like this but that
outfit would have been welcome
Saturday at football! 

-- With the convincing win and now 5-0, will the Cards creep up from #5 in the nation? #1 UConn is still 3-0 and #2 Texas remains unbeaten also. #3 Baylor did fall 82-68 to #8 UCLA and #4 South Carolina went to 4-0 with a win over Wofford. 

The WBB Cards are #1 in the latest RPI report. Movin' on up! 

-- Sam Fuehring is a warrior and has gained maturity. She was getting slammed by Ionescu all game and had to be separated from her twice in the contest. She kept her calm, though, something a freshman or sophomore Sam might have not done. She finished with 10 points and about 3,000 charges drawn, most of them not called by the all-star but basically average referring crew on Sunday of Dee Kanter, Cam Inouye and Bruce "Papillon" Morris. 

-- Turkey Time. The players will get a few well-deserved days off before returning to action on Friday against Murray State in the KFC YUM! Center. We did find out in the post-game presser that Myisha and Asia are big fans of sweet potato casserole as a side dish and, yes, marshmallows are approved of in the dish. Coach Walz will jump on the recruiting trail with trips to California and Texas before coming home to carve the turkey (Or it is ham. Or both?) for the family. 

-- We do pay attention to turnovers and Sonya and I explored another stat Sunday. Who forced the turnover? We tracked them for the first three quarters and on Oregon's 17 miscues...14 were forced. Sam Fuehring with 4 forces, Myisha Hines-Allen responsible for three, Arica Carter and Kylee Shook two each Dana Evans, Jaz Jones and Asia Durr one each.  Out of the Cards 13 turnovers through three, 11 were forced. Ruthy Hebard led the Ducks with four, Lexie Bando with two forces and five players with one each.

Great, another stat to track...


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VOLLEYBALL WINS THE MARATHON 3-2 OVER UNC

Melanie also played football in
High School. Don't tell Petrino! 

At Cardinal Arena, the Volley Cards got an exemplary effort from Melanie McHenry and her 30 kills as Louisville won in five sets over troublesome North Carolina 25-21 25-17, 23-25, 21-25 15-11. 

The Cards go to 22-6 on the season and 16-2 in the ACC, good for a first-place tie with Pittsburgh. 

On Senior Night, it was a sophomore that was the star for Louisville. Head Coach Dani Busboom Kelly of the Cards shares her thoughts: 

"I really can't single out just one person. I feel like the whole team stepped up. They started looking each other in their eyes again and decided we're going to do this. McHenry carried us today, she's been due for a great match. She had two great matches, back to back, this weekend. It's awesome to see her perform that way.  Gabbie Wiley led our team in digs and that's extremely difficult for a defense specialist but she was awesome today also. 

In the deciding set, UNC popped out to and early 5-1 lead before Louisville fought back and took a 7-6 edge. Tied at 11, the Cards swept the final four points of the match with the final point coming on McHenry's 30th kill. 

Jared and Worldwide have joined the
Louisville Volleyball squad! 

Louisville has a ten-game win streak in Cardinal Arena against ACC foes but will end the regular season on the road at Boston College on Wednesday and Syracuse Friday. 


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KICKIN' IT

Congratulations to Louisville men's soccer and their 3-2 win Sunday night over San Francisco at Lynn Stadium in second-round NCAA Tournament action. Tate Schmitt with the game winner in the 78th. minute of action.

Louisville advances to the Soccer Sweet Sixteen and will host Colgate Sunday down on Floyd Street. 

Louisville is 12-2-4 on the season. 

We got this photo late last night from the intrepid Jared Anderson at Men's Soccer. Seems he found Louisville Field Hockey star Minnie Mink in attendance and got a selfie with the "scorer, that's what I do" sophomore. Whether she discussed next year's predictions is not known as of this article being published. 

I spend 20 minutes trying to rotate the picture and finally gave up. Lay on your side if you want a better view, or maybe Worldwide will saunter over to our site late today and use his I.T. skills to turn it around. (Jared's the one on the right, or bottom, depending on when you view this).   


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EXPRESSING THANKS

Thursday is Thanksgiving. A day where we take the day off from the site and, this year, I have much to be thankful for. A new hip that works great, three of the best writers around that grace these pages daily and contributions from Julie Sullivan and David Watson. I am so grateful they are a part of this independent, non-profit daily look at the joy and excitement of Louisville women's sports and Cardinal athletics. 

We are fortunate and thankful to take to the airwaves once a week at WCHQ 100.9 FM for The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour and blessed to have the services of "Monk" -- Kathy Weisbach in studio with "Punkin" alongside to engineer and guide us through our 60 minutes of madness and minutia each week. Each week she sacrifices her Saturday morning to hear us babble and that's a Most Valuable Player award-worthy effort! 

Our latest show: https://soundcloud.com/chradio/cardinal-couple-20171118

We are most fortunate to have excellent readers that are knowledgeable and generous. 
You are Cardinal Couple and we never forget that. You inspire us. Keep us going. 

We are in our November Donation period right now and you can help us continue what we do here at this website. We accept Pay-Pal donations and checks can be sent to: 

CARDINAL COUPLE
c/o PAUL SYKES
P.O. BOX 91521
LOUISVILLE, KY  40291

Thank you.



paulie
xxxxx

Louisville Women's Basketball, Volleyball Featured Today! -- Sunday Cardinal Couple

Sunday Schedule

Well, at least the events today are spread out nicely, although it would be nice if they were in a bit closer geographical proximity.

Let's run them down in order.

Volleyball

Volleyball kicks off the afternoon at 1 at Cardinal Arena.  The Cards are looking for revenge for an early conference season loss to UNC today.  If you'll remember, in the first matchup, the Cards went into the set break at Chapel Hill up two sets to none with 25-19 and 25-18 wins.  The Tarheels regrouped, though, and came out for the 3rd and 4th sets and flipped the script, winning 25-18 and 25-19, setting up the decisive 5th set.  The Tarheels got that one 15-12 for the match, and the Cardinals came back home smarting from what should have been a solid win that turned into a loss.  I suspect Florida State and Miami were none too thrilled, either, as they were the next guests into Cardinal Arena the next weekend who went down to defeat...the first matches to really show the mettle that this UofL squad really had, (and started to show that FSU really wasn't as great as expected pre-season).

Today, UofL is coming off of a very large victory against NC State in Cardinal Arena Friday night.  That match may very well have been the deciding match of the ACC conference season championship.  The Cardinals need to win the rest of the way, including today, and next weekend vs Boston College and Syracuse, to ensure they hang onto the share of the conference championship and that automatic qualifier bid to the NCAA tournament.  A loss in any of the three matches would mean that we would need Pitt to take another loss as well, and with the rest of their schedule consisting of Georgia Tech (today), and then Virginia and Virginia Tech next week, the likelihood of that happening is rather low.

If you can't make it to campus, this one is available, as normal, on ACC Network Extra

Basketball

The women go into battle at 3pm for the WNIT championship at the KFC Yum! Center.  10th ranked Oregon has advanced through the other side of the WNIT bracket.  Louisville sits in the #5 spot, of course, in early season like this, rankings are particularly impermanent.

The Cards will be looking out for scorers Ruthy Hebard (6'4" F), and Sabrina Ionescu (5'10" G) who had 24 and 16 against Texas A&M.  Ionescu had a triple-double with 11 assists and 10 rebounds.  Other scorers to be wary of are Lexi Bando (5'9" G), and Maiti Cazorla (5'10" G) who both put up 10 against Texas A&M.  Cazorla almost reached double-double territory with 8 assists.  First off the bench vs A&M was Oti Gildon (6'1" F) who scored 12 and pulled down 9 rebounds.

Not coming downtown?  Get the call on CBS Sports Network.

Men's Soccer

Things move back to Floyd Street at 5 p.m. with the Men's Soccer team kicking off their NCAA tournament run against San Francisco.  The Cards bring a 4th seed into the tournament, and a win today will likely bring 13th seed Michigan into Lynn for the next round game.  The Blue have to get past Colgate to do it, that match also starts at 5 p.m..

Still not on Floyd Street?  ESPN3, has this one, still on the ESPN streaming platform like ACC Network Extra, albeit a little more prominently displayed.

Can you complete the Cardinal sports marathon today? Also, be advised that the NCAA Field Hockey championship game is being played at Trager Stadium today as well so parking could be a tough ticket today on the Belknap Campus.


I won't go into a lot of detail here, plenty of sites out there to cover it, but Louisville Football splashed away in absolutely horrible, wet and cold conditions in Papa John's Oven yesterday 56-10 over Syracuse, I stuck in out until the end, dressed like Ralphie's brother Randy in A CHRISTMAS STORY. Lamar Jackson is from another planet or something. Amazing. 381 total yards and four touchdowns. Cards with seven wins now and at UK next week to close the regular season.   -- Paulie -- 

Radio

MYSTERY PICTURE. What classic comedy movie is
this photo from? First correct response gets entered for
a $20 Panera Card! (No, it's not Paulie and Jeff's
 excellent Adventure...) 

We were down a knucklehead yesterday in the basement on a hill.  Jared was off being a big fancy.banker, but Julie JC Sullivan classed up the joint in his place, and even brought Paulie his very own stuffed plush Touchdown Squirrel.  You should be able to find the replay at 

https://soundcloud.com/chradio/cardinal-couple-20171118 when it goes live.

We've gotten some wonderful support from our readers and listeners, and I can't say enough how much that is appreciated.  We know we have amazing readers and listeners and we never take that for granted, and we're thrilled that you like what we do enough to help defray some of the costs of doing it.  November is the one month of the year that we actually ask for that support.

Thank you again, and we'll see you at whatever next game you go to.

-- 

JMcA


A PAULIE NOTE: 

Since I have been asked a few times and I don't mind at all sharing with you, we've budgeted and planned that it will take a little over $3000 to cover expected and fixed costs at CARDINAL COUPLE LLC for 2018. This year, so far, it has been a tad less than that, with a month and change to go in the year and I have gone into my pocket a bit for stuff. I keep a small balance in the checking account to avoid overdrafts and services charges.

So far, this year, with donations and sponsor support, we are slightly over 1/3rd of the way there in reaching that goal. We have received $1250 in donations. Won't you consider helping get us to our goal?

NOVEMBER is donation month. Help us.

Thank you if you have donated!
Thank you if you are considering donation and I hope you follow through with it.
We ARE a non-profit LLC that keeps our costs and expenditures as low as possible.

Paulie

For Boley, it's "Go NorthWest, young woman"...Green left out -- Wednesday Cardinal Couple

6'2" E-Town star chooses Oregon 

The phrase..."Go West, Young Man" is attributed to newspaper publisher Horace Greeley.  Tweaking that a bit for women's college basketball...Hodgenville, KY McDonald's All-American and former Notre Damer Erin Boley has decided to "go Northwest" and join the Oregon Ducks to finish her college basketball career. 

It ends the speculation that be might be joining the Cardinals, Cardinal or 'Dores (Louisville, Stanford and Vanderbilt) squads and will put her on a Pac 12 squad that also has high-profile guard Sabrina Ionescu. Boley will sit the 2017-18 season and then have three years of eligibility remaining. She reveals: 

"I kind of knew what I was looking for this time around. I was there (Oregon) just this past weekend and felt like I fit in perfectly with the team and loved Coach Kelly Graves and all the coaches. I feel like it's a place for me to make my new home and Oregon's the school for me this time around." 

Boley, along with Ali Patberg, decided to leave the Irish at the completion of this past season...where Notre Dame reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament but were upended by Stanford in the Lexington Regional final 76-75. The Irish won't be hurting too badly with the defections, though...Marina Mabrey, Jackie Young, Brianna Turner, Arike Ogumbowale and Kathryn Westbeld all return for Muffet McGraw. 

Boley undoubtedly has the tools to make a difference at Oregon. Her former coach at Kentucky Premier David Tapley observes: 

"She's a complete player. She can play back to the basket. She can take you off the dribble, shoot the three-pointer and she's a 4.0 kid. She's a gym rat. She's a kid that wants to be pushed and she's a winner." 


*******************************************************


NYAH GREEN NOT PART OF THE 2016 USA WOMEN'S U 16 TEAM.

2019 Louisville verbal Nyah Green is considered one of the best, if not the best, of her class.  When the 18 player roster was announced for the 2016 USA Women's U 16 team on Monday, though...Green's name was not on the list. 

The 6'1" off-guard from Allen, TX is ranked #1 at her position by ESPNW for her 2019 Class. That apparently doesn't mean much to coaches Carla Berube (Tufts), Steve Gomez (Lubbock Christian U) and Vanessa Nygaard (Windward, H.S.).

What in the wide world of sports is going on here?  Green made the cut to 37 players...but failed to get to the next round? Politicking from a group of unknown coaches? Just a bad practice day? 

Some top 50 ESPNW 2019 players who are part of the final 18. #1 Samantha Brunelle, #6 Haley Jones, #8 Jordan Horston, #9 Aliyah Boston, #10 Ashley Owuse and #14 Zia Cooke.  

No players from Kentucky or Indiana are on the list of 18. Six of the 18 are 6'3" or taller. 

Shenanigans going on here? 

At the very least, a motivational factor for Green to carry with her over the next couple of seasons. 


paulie
xxxxx