VolleyCards fall to Penn State in NCAA Championship Match -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 LOUISVILLE FALLS TO NITTANY LIONS IN FOUR SETS. 

A tough Sunday for the VolleyCards, getting all the way to the DI NCAA Title match and falling to Penn State in four sets -- 23-25, 34-32, 20-25, 17-25 in the KFC YUM Center.  

The Cards took out #1 Pittsburgh on their way to the championship game, but also lost their best player in Anna DeBeer in that historic win Thursday night. Did the win over Pitt  take too much out of UofL? Or was it the loss of DeBeer that contributed to the loss? We'll never be able to say for sure, but they really didn't lose much of anything with Payton Petersen filling in for DeBeer...except for the foreboding presence of DeBeer on the court. 

Maybe it was k just a case of Penn State, who knocked off Nebraska in the semifinal, having superior "kill" numbers -- they had 72 to UofL's 53... Jess Mruzik had 29 for the Nittany Lions, eight more that Louisville's leader -- Charitie Luper.  

Maybe that seemingly   never ending second set that Louisville won took it out of the Cards for the remainder of the match. Here's how Dani Busboom Kelly and student-athletes Navelis Cabello and Sofia Maldonado Diaz saw it: 

POST MATCH LOUISVILLE

Maybe it wasn't a case of Louisville playing badly at all, just a situation where Penn State played better. Only Pitt and Wisconsin had hung losses on PSU in the regular season and they did defeat #2 Nebraska twice during the season.

Was it a situation where the Cards didn't have anything to lose and benefitted from the pro--Louisville crowd for the Final Four? I suppose that's one way of looking at it, but still, doesn't lessen the disappointment of the Louisville fans who believed in the team and largely helped make up the largest crowd to ever see a NCAA Volleyball Championship match. 

POST MATCH ANNA DEBEER

On this particular afternoon, Penn State proved to be the best team. But, Cardinals fans will remember this group of girls a very long time, and with the youth that returns and contributed so heavily this season, Louisville will be another force again next year in the ACC and the NCAA in volleyball. 

MORE JARED ANDERSON PHOTOS

PENN STATE BLANKS LOUSVILLE VOLLEYBALL -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 LIONS DEVOUR CARDS IN STRAIGHT SETS 

Maybe we can put this one in the "I did not expect that to happen" category. It certainly was a surprise to Cardinals fans, and the squad...as Louisville Volleyball visited Penn State last night and left with a defeat -- in straight set -- in women's college volleyball last nght. 25-15, 25-19, 25-13 was the final set results, in what appears to be not just a defeat, but a rout. A top ten showdown and the Cards got shot down. 

The first set was fairly close early. The Cards and Nittany Lions were tied at 6-6 and Louisville was still fairly close after a Charite Luper point to make it 13-10 P.S.U. Then, the wheels fell off. Penn State went on a 6-1 run to grab a 19-11 lead. PSU's Quinn Nerger's three straight serving successes had Louisville on the ropes. The Cards would not get any closer than eight the rest of the set. 

In set two,  Louisville did grab an early 4-2 lead, after a Penn State servcie error, but the home squad rallied from a 7-4 deficit to tie the conrest at 7-7. The Cards made a contest of the second set for a good while, the score was16-16 at one point, but four straight Penn State points made it 20-16. That turned into a 24-19 lead and the Cards got handed their second loss when Izzy Starck had a set-ending kill, the Nittany Lions freshman setter that was playing like a fifth year veteran..

Louisville (now 2-1) ran into a Penn State squad that wanted to make a statement in the third set...and they did.  Louisville was able to stay close early, but at 9-8, the Nittany Lions (3-0) roared and all of a sudden, it was 12-8 and Louisville needed a timeout. 

The Cards simply got worse the longer the set went. 14-10 became 18-12 and Lousville looked like a defeated squad. Or, as one Cardinals fan put it.."Penn State played out of their minds and we played like crap."  

Louisville went into  the match ranked as the #4 team in the AVCA poll, Penn State...(now 3-0) was listed as the #7 squad by AVCA.  It looked like the reverse (or worse)  Tuesday nght. The Louisville team that romped Tennessee simply did not play well up north. Just when you thought Pitt was the pnly team to worry about in Pennsylvana...guess who showed up on the floor?  A hungry bunch of lions. 

Louisville heads to northern Kentucky for a weekend of matches starting with South Dakota Friday in a tournament hosted by Northern Kentucky University.

paulie

NCAA Regional Volleyball at the YUM! -- Friday Cardinal Couple

Three Big 10 schools and UCLA set to do battle

The KFC Yum! Center will be the site for the 2014 NCAA Women's Volleyball Regional as the University of Louisville plays host to the Sweet Sixteen teams of Ohio State, Wisconsin, UCLA and Penn State beginning Friday at the KFC Yum! Center.

The fourth-seeded Badgers (30-2) take on Ohio State (23-11) at 5 p.m. in the first matchup . No. 5 seed Penn State (32-3) takes on UCLA (22-11) in the second regional semi-final at 7 p.m. Both matches will be streamed on ESPN3.

The Badgers are making their 12th overall and second straight NCAA Regional appearance after winning the Champaign Regional in 2013. Wisconsin advanced to the NCAA Championship match last year before falling to Penn State in the finals. The Badgers are 2-0 against the Buckeyes this year in Big Ten play.

For the second time in four years, the Bruins are headed to the Bluegrass State for the Regional round of the NCAA Tournament, and just like in 2011, UCLA will face defending champion Penn State in the Regional Semifinals. UCLA is making its 32nd appearance in the NCAA Tournament, improved to 83-28 (.748) with last weekend's victories over LIU Brooklyn and Long Beach State. Since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1998, UCLA is 27-5 (.844) in the first and second rounds of the tournament, 20-2 (.909) in first and second round home matches since `98 and 45-6 (.882) in Westwood in NCAA Tournament contests overall.

Fifth-seeded Penn State is set to make its 12th consecutive regional semi-final appearance


. The Nittany Lions advanced to the round of 16 with a pair of straight set sweeps of Siena and Dayton in the first and second rounds. PSU's streak of 12 straight regional semi-final appearances is the longest stretch in Division I. Penn State returns four starters and 11 letterwinners from last year's NCAA National Championship squad.

Tickets are available at the KFC Yum! Center ticket office

Cardinal Couple Tuesday - Volleyball Regionals Preview

NCAA Volleyball Regionals This Weekend

While the UofL Volleyball team is done for the year, NCAA Volleyball does continue.  This weekend Louisville hosts one of the regional sites for the NCAA Volleyball tournament.

The stage is set with the four teams that will be playing, so I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about what to expect and what you'll be seeing, because of course you already have tickets to go, right?

Wisconsin

Wisconsin comes into Louisville as the marginal favorite to win the region as the 4 seed of the tournament.  (NCAA volleyball seeds the top 16 overall seeds in the tournament, not 16 seeds per region as in Basketball, the other 48 teams are unseeded).  The Badgers, from Madison WI, entered the NCAA tournament after winning the Big Ten Conference. (Like the ACC, the Big Ten does not hold a conference tournament.)  An overall record of 30-2 and a conference record of 18-1, their only losses came, consecutively, at the hands of Washington and Penn State.

Wisconsin, as the seeded team in the sub-regional, hosted the sub-regional in Madison with Western Michigan, Illinois State, and Marquette joining the party.  The Badgers dispatched Western Michigan and Illinois State, both in 3 sets sweeps, to earn their spot in Louisville.  They are ranked second in the coaches poll, and 6th in the RPI.

Wisconsin faced, and defeated, Louisville in the season opener in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge in Minnesota.

Ohio State

Wisconsin will be facing Ohio State, also out of the Big Ten, in the event opener at 5pm Friday night.  An overall record of 23-11 with a conference record of 12-8, the Buckeyes have faced the Badgers twice in conference play this year, both times being swept 3-0.  OSU also have 3-0 loses on their record thanks to Penn State, and Oregon.  They also suffered a bad loss, 3-1, against the Ohio Bobcats.  None of the wins on their schedule stand out as particularly good wins except perhaps 3-2 victorys over Minnesota, and Nebraska.

The Buckeyes are the only unseeded team in the regional.  They defeated Lipscomb in the opening round and then upset 13th seed Kentucky to be able to play in the second weekend.  The sub-regional was hosted by the seeded Kentucky in Memorial Coliseum.

Penn State

The third entrant into the Louisville regional also comes from the Big Ten.  Perennial powerhouse Penn State brings along a 32-3 overall record, 18-2 in conference.  Losses only at the hands of an excellent Stanford team, and good Nebraska and Illinois teams.  The Stanford loss was a 3-2 affair, while Nebraska and Illinois claimed their victories in 3-1 matches.  Nebraska would go on to be swept by Penn State later in the season.

Penn State is the five seed in the tournament, so barring upsets, you should expect to see a Wisconsin and Penn State rematch in the Saturday night match for a position in the Volleyball Championships in Tampa.

UCLA

The only non Big Ten team making an appearance in Louisville, UCLA is, of course, a PAC-12 team, a conference that, across the board, does well in Volleyball.  The Bruins only sport an overall record of 22-11, but they had to come through a brutal conference schedule, resulting in a 11-9 record in conference.  UCLA swept both LIU Brooklyn and a pretty darn good Long Beach State team to make the trip east.

UCLA comes into the regional as the 12 seed and hosted the subregional in the now-drained Pauley Pavilion after a summer flooding thanks to a water main break down the street.

Schedule

The volleyball regional starts Friday evening at 5pm with the regional championship starting Saturday at 4pm, all at the KFC Yum! Center.  I'll be there enjoying some very good volleyball.  Join me.

-jmca

( EDITOR'S NOTE: Let's show the NCAA that we will support events even if the Cards aren't participating. Go watch Volleyball! )

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This has popped up in a few other places but it bears providing the link...there's another Schimmel on the horizon doing some pretty good things as a freshman. Read about Milan in the link below:

MILAN SCHIMMEL HOOPING IT UP IN NEW MEXICO

Cardinal Couple - Sleepy Sunday Edition

SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( Jeff McAdams with the report on Texas' 25-11, 26-24, 25-19 sweep of Oregon in the KFC YUM! Center Saturday Night)

 

Texas Takes the Title

Hosting success

A successful NCAA Volleyball Tournament has concluded.  The first time Louisville has hosted this event, it attracted the 8th highest attendance for a SemiFinals sessions, and the 2nd highest attendance for a Championship match.  If you consider that the highest attendance for a Championship match had the hosting team (Nebraska) playing in the match, that's quite an accomplishment.  Congratulations fellow Louisvillians, I think we represented ourselves well to the NCAA.  Next year we host a regional competetion, and I look forward to announcements of future Championships to be held at the KFC Yum! Center.

Semifinals

Thursday evening saw the semifinal matchups.

Michigan battled Texas to start off the evening with a 7 o'clock first serve.  A mighty battle it was, indeed.  Texas is a big and powerful team, Michigan smaller and scrappy.  This match was a match between a powerful offense, and a great defense.

Texas came out in the first set and dominated the play.  But Michigan had no quit in them.  In the second set, they came out loose and lively and played their game, rather than letting Texas dictate the way the match went.  Taking the 2nd and 3rd sets, they really put the pressure on Texas.  Credit to Texas as well, though, they got back in gear and took the bull by the (long)horns in the 4th again.  The 5th set was competitive, much like the 2nd and 3rd sets were, but Texas managed to hold on to the upper hand and advance.

A really exciting and fun match, but unfortunately Michigan's run had to come to an end.

Because the first match went 5 sets, the scheduled 9pm start for the second match got pushed back to around 10pm, most likely to Oregon's glee.

With UofL's Cardinal Pride filling in admirably in cheering on the Ducks, Oregon took on Penn State and surprised some people.

Oregon was well ranked all year, and playing the brutal PAC-12 conference schedule definitely prepares a team for a good post-season run.  Meanwhile, Penn State always has equally tough preparation with the powerhouse Big-10 schedule.

This match was also a barnburner.  All of the sets had pretty close scores, but Penn State looked like they were in charge in the 1st.  The 2nd, though, certainly woke anyone up that had started to nod off due to the late hour, throwing in some bonus volleyball finishing up at 30-28.  By the 3rd and 4th sets, I think Oregon really played their game and gave a bit of a preview of what was to come stylistically in the Championship match.  The large Penn State fanbase was clearly disappointed by the loss, but you have to credit Oregon with playing their style of play and getting the win.

Two to Tango

So the Championship match last night was between Texas and Oregon.  If the Texas-Michigan match was a storyline about an offensively minded team versus and defensively minded team, the title match storyline was about two very different styles of offense.

Everything is bigger in Texas, including their volleyball players and their sets.  The offense that Texas runs is slow, they set their big outside hitters with very high sets that take a long time to get to the hitters.  That does give the hitters a long time to get lined up and prepared for a high jump and a strong swing, and they take advantage of it.  It also, of course, gives plenty of time for the blockers to leisurely stroll over and put up a good double block.

Oregon, on the other hand, plays like their football team, fast and sharp.  Oregon's sets are flat and quick shots out to their outside hitters.  And while this doesn't give their hitters as much preparation time to line up and get a booming kill, it, crucially, doesn't give the other team enough time for their middle blocks to shift from the middle of the court out to the outside to put up a double block.  The preview of this was in the Penn State match, where you could watch throughout most of the match as Oregon put shot after shot in between the blockers as the middle blocker would almost always be jumping sideways to try to get out to the side of the court, but just couldn't keep up with the speed of the set.  The same thing happened a lot versus Texas, and when the Oregon shots got through the block, they were pretty successful in getting the point.

Unfortunately for Oregon, they weren't as effective at hitting through that blocking hole versus Texas as they were against Penn State, particularly in the 1st set.  The Ducks made a lot of shots right into the single blocks in the 1st set, both in the middle and outside, with disastrous consequences.  In the 2nd and 3rd sets, they did adjust and started hitting in between the blocks, but Texas was just too much for them.

I thought Texas would be in trouble because they play such a slow offensive set that Oregon would basically always have double blocks up on Texas...and they did...but it didn't matter.  It doesn't matter if you have one, two, or seventeen blockers up in front of a hitter if they're tall enough to just hit over the top of them, and that's exactly what Texas did.  Rarely did Oregon get solid blocks on hits, mostly they just watched as the hit sailed over their heads and into the backcourt.  Credit Oregon's defense with getting digs on a lot of the shots, but when the shots are flying as fast as they are off of Texas kills, you just aren't going to be able to get to all of them.

So, in the end, Texas takes the sweep and the 2012 NCAA Volleyball Championship.  Congratulations to the Texas Longhorns on a well played weekend.  Congratulations are also in order, of course, for the Oregon Ducks for advancing to the Championship match, as well as to Penn State and especially Michigan for making it to the Championship weekend.  That was a fun weekend of volleyball, all four teams and fanbases represented their schools well and I hope that everyone had a good weekend in Louisville.  Its a long time to the next first serve in August, but of course we have other team sports...basketball, softball, and lacrosse...to keep us busy for a large part of that time.

( Great report on the action over the last three days, Jeff! Louisville is now a volleyball town, too -- just another reason why we are the best college sports town in America!)
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Friday Cardinal Couple - More BIG EAST Changes

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FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

(Game final from Colorado...Buffs 70-66) We'll have more later on this wild finish)
 
- Non BCS schools vote to leave BIG EAST.

-Texas, Oregon advance in NCAA Volleyball Final Four

-WBB travels to Boulder for showdown with Buffs

On the never ending carousel that also goes by the name the BIG EAST...another development. It looks like Providence, Villanova, Seton Hall, St. John's, Georgetown, DePaul and Marquette have decided to leave the conference that they founded and try their luck elsewhere.

The seven catholic-based schools would retain the automatic bid to the NCAA Basketball Tournaments...should they either decide to go form a new league or go as a group to a different conference. Could the Atlantic 10 become the Atlantic Whole Bunch of Teams? Might they form the Papal Conference and pick the Pope as the new commish? How about from BIG EAST to BIG PRIEST...

What this does is open the possibility and the door for Louisville and Notre Dame to join the ACC a year early. Aren't you glad we've already started our ACC womens' sports reviews early ?

And, just what does all this mean for womens' sports at UofL? A possibility that the Lady Cards might not play Rutgers and UConn in hoops next year? Justine Sowry and Karen Ferguson-Dayes speeding up their look at future conference opponents? Gotta believe Sandy Pearsall is grinning ear-to-ear with the distinct possibility of not having to worry about below freezing temperature games in Storrs, Providence, South Orange and Queens.  

Also, what now for Cincinnati and Connecticut, who desperately wanted to join Louisville in the latest ACC acquisition and now find themselves in a football division without Louisville?

The move by the 'Catholic Seven' has been talked about for several weeks now. It is now a reality. Tired of being driven around as passengers in the economic-engine football sedan, they've stopped by the dealership and bought a new ride.

In women's hoops, we've met some pretty interesting coaching characters over the past eight years in the BIG EAST. Some favorites have been "Q"...Quentin Hillsman,
of Syracuse...who has stormed the court like an enraged K-Mart shopper on Black Friday, passed out on the sidelines and danced in front of the visitor's bench with the precision moves of one of Gladys Knight's Pips. Who could forget Harry Perretta...dressed in the white shirt and tie...untucked by the midway mark of the first half and giving the appearance of a frazzled, stressed out accountant instead of a basketball coach. Doug Bruno, institutionally clad in that blue DePaul logoed long sleeve shirt. C-Viv. Geno. Muffett. Gonna miss some of these folks. A couple will join us out on the Atlantic Coast.

The BIG EAST brought Louisville women's sports titles in volleyball, softball and track. The Cards made a Final Four women's basketball appearance while a member of the BIG EAST. We said goodbye to Collen, Yelin, Clark-Heard, Ord and Bustin in the BIG EAST. We welcomed Walz, Kordes, Sowry, Newbauer, Williams and Trimble.

We started Rowing and Lacrosse in the BIG EAST. We moved from Freedom Hall to the KFC YUM! Center in the BIG EAST. We found out just how horrible it is to tailgate and attend a football game or the BIG EAST WBB Tournament in Storrs and Hartford while a member of the BIG EAST. 

As we like to say here...interesting times ahead. Sit down, buckle up, adjust your seat and close the door. This trip continues...

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Semi-final action from the KFC YUM! Center in the Final Four NCAA Volleyball Tournament provided a thriller in the first match...with Texas needing a fifth game to finally dispose of pesky Michigan. It looked like the upstart Wolverines were poised for the upset, going up 2-1 in games...but the Longhorns used some pretty impressive blocking at the net to slow down the Wolverine offense and advances to the finals Saturday night.

They'll meet Oregon there, who upset #2 in the nation Penn State three games to one. Hopefully, Jeff, Sandy or Jenny will stop by and add comments on this one. Truth be told, I was watching at home on ESPN2 and fell asleep at the halftime break with the games 1-1.

They announced on the "Deuce" about 13,000 in attendance. Not enough to break an NCAA record, but a nice crowd from all reports. Staff columnist Sandy Walker notes that there was  massive confusion over seating for the games...with many duplicate seat tickets printed for the evening that resulted in some last-minute seating shifts and long lines at the will-call and event services stations.

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Lest we forget in all this hub-bub and drama, the UofL WBB squad is in action tonight in Boulder, CO. to face the Colorado Buffaloes at 9 p.m. EST. The Cards will be without the services of Sara Hammond (last we heard) because of the death of her grandmother. Her board prowess will be missed. Time for Vails, Dyer, Walton and Reid to step it up one notch and let's hope the Rocky Mountain rare air equals lots of net-swishes for Shoni and Nita from beyond the arc.

We have a report from Sandy that we may be able to see this one on TV. The link is:

Louisville v Buffs

http://pac-12.com/ScheduleResults.aspx#networkId=Live%20Stream

Also from Basil G. Brooks, out of the CU sports information department, this link (for ALL CU home games).

Colorado Women's Basketball broadcasts


You know how we roll here...turn down the video feed sound and listen to our own Matt Andrews and A.J. with the call on 790 WKRD AM.




The Buffs are not to be taken lightly. 8-0 and striving for some national attention by knocking off #8 Louisville. This matchup eerily reminds of us the 2008-09 season...when 5-0 Louisville went to Nevada and dropped a 85-82 decision. The Cards went on to win their next 14 games.

6'1" forward and redshirt freshman Arielle Roberson, who leads CU with 16.5 ppg, talks about the ramifications of a Buffs victory:

" I think more people would definitely recognize Colorado women's basketball...it would be a big boost in a lot of areas, especially in recruiting. I also think it would give our team a lot more confidence and it would really give something to the fans."

Armageddon in the aspens? Clash in Colorado? Beatdown of the Buffs? Rock steady, Cards.

We'll be back tonight with the recap.

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Finally, fingers crossed and good thoughts, all, for staff columnist Jenny O'Bryan...in for a little out-patient surgery today. The rumors that we're having a tracking chip implanted in her or transplanting her brain with Timmy the Intern's are totally false...




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Cardinal Couple Thursday Spectacular

(OK, maybe not so very spectacular, but we do have a few interesting tidbits to talk about.)


THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( Staff Columnist Jeff McAdams with the report today on women's golf and NCAA Volleyball. Last seen, he was wandering the hallways of the Cardinal Couple Worldwide Corporate offices with a 5-iron in his hand, volleyball under his arm and dressed in nothing but a volleyball net and souvenir program for the NCAA Championships...yelling either "Fore" or "Set" randomly.)

- Tennis in the ACC

- Volleyball Championships have Arrived

- Volleyball All-Americans Announced

-  Hammond to miss Colorado game.

Tennis in the ACC

Paulie asked me, in our look at how our athletics teams match up with our upcoming ACC competition, to cover Tennis.

Tennis...that's the sport where they use that funny scoring system, right?  I must admit to not following Tennis much, so let's take a look at the ACC standings and see where they stack up in overall rankings.

For comparison, the Louisville Women's Tennis team finished up last season 13-10.

In the ACC, last season:

1. Duke (29-3, 11-0)

2. North Carolina (24-7, 10-1)

3. Miami (FL) (20-5, 9-2)

4. Clemson (17-9, 8-3)

5. Virginia (19-10, 7-4)

6. Georgia Tech (16-12, 6-5)

7. Florida State (13-11, 5-6)

8. Virginia Tech (12-13, 3-8)

9. Boston College (10-13, 3-8)

10. NC State (8-16, 3-8)

11. the departing Maryland (7-15, 1-10)

12. Wake Forest (3-18, 0-11)

So that looks like we fit in around 7th or 8th.  That's a little daunting.

Let's see how current and future ACC teams are looking in the ITA Top 25:

3. Duke

8. North Carolina

9. Miami (FL)

15. Virginia

19. Notre Dame

20. Georgia Tech

25. Clemson

I gotta say, that looks pretty impressive.  Looks like yet another sport that will challenge our Cardinals to greater heights. Mark Beckham has two of the finest in the nation in Rebecca Shine and Julia Fellerhoff and they will lead the Cardinal charge.

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VolleyBall Championships have Arrived

If you have followed my ramblings here at all this fall, you know that Louisville has the honor of hosting the NCAA Semifinal and Championship matches.  These matches kick off tonight at 7pm with 3 seed Texas and unseeded Michigan.  The nightcap should get started around 9pm with top seed Penn State playing 5th seed Oregon.

Our Cardinal team finished off the year with a 30-4 record.  Of those 4 losses, 3 of them were to teams that have advanced to the Semifinals (Penn State, Texas, and Michigan)...which takes a little of the sting out of them, I should think.

Oregon arrived in Louisville early in the week, on Sunday, which is somewhat understandable since they would have the most jetlag to overcome.  Because of their early arrival, they borrowed the Cardinals practice facility at the Yum! Center on campus.  They also are apparently borrowing our pep band as theirs apparently couldn't make the long trip.

The other three teams arrived Tuesday.  No news if any of the other teams are borrowing a band from Bellermine or elsewhere.

(Editor note: Timmy the Intern and Co-Co offered to bring a kazoo and harmonica to support the Texas squad musically. They haven't heard back from them yet. They do a great version of "Louie, Louie" and "Stairway to Heaven".)

One roster note of local interest.  Penn State, perennial volleyball powerhouse, has one Deja McClendon as an outside hitter.  Deja is from Louisville, playing her high school ball at duPont Manual.  Deja's younger sister, Maya, has signed to play with the Cardinals next year.

Tickets are still available at the KFC Yum! Center, though the word is that they have generally sold well.  The NCAA, and UofL are looking to break the all-time attendance record for a volleyball match, so come on down and check out the action.

Volleyball All-Americans Announced

Lola Arslanbekova was named a 2nd team All-American, while Gwen Rucker picked up a 3rd team nod.  Caitlin Welch...only a junior, remember...got an honorable mention.

Congratulations to these three and thanks for representing Louisville so well.

Also congratulations to Gwen Rucker for graduating today with a degree in Actuarial Science.

( Great report today from Jeff McAdams and he'll be keeping us in the loop on the action in the KFC YUM! Center Thursday and Saturday...as four teams enter, but one only will emerge as the National Champion.)

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Our prayers go out to Sara Hammond and her family, who just lost their grandmother. Always tough to lose a family member and you all are in our thoughts during this tough time.

Hammond will not accompany the Lady Cards on their trip to Colorado for the Friday night game against the Buffs.

One of the most beautiful and thoughtful statements that we've ever heard about a death of a loved one goes like this. This is for you and your family, Sara.

Your pain is over
Although we still ache
You'd tell us not to
You'd tell us to make...

Every day a bright one
Each moment quite dear
Because we never really know
How long we'll be here.

Your life was special
You touched so many
The lives you changed
Were grateful and plenty

We'll meet again
Of this I am sure
While you're gone, we'll carry on
We will endure.

So, fly with the Angels
Smile down on us below
Thank you for helping
All of us grow.

-Sonja



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Sunday Cardinal Couple - VolleyCards fall to Penn State

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SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-#3 Penn State sweeps Cards in Volleyball

-Meet Jeff McAdams

Back in 1968, Merle Haggard wrote and performed a country classic called "Mama Tried". Hum or sing along if you remember it. Last night in the KFC YUM! Center, in front of a record volleyball crow of 4312, it was "Lola Tried" but the Cards could not defeat the Nittany Lions...going down in straight sets 25-20, 25-17, 25-18.

Cards warm up (photo by Jenny O' Bryan)

No Joe Paterno's or Jerry Sandusky's here. Just a demonstration of skill from superior players on the PSU squad and a learning experience for Anne Kordes' bunch.

It was an acid test, if you will, a chance to see how this highly heralded, BIG EAST top pick would do against a powerhouse, a perennial Final Four participant and a program that recruits and gets the best. 

(Photo by Jenny O'Bryan)

A contest that gave Louisville a look at the next level...as Penn State took the Cards out of their game and handed Louisville their first loss of the year. It also reinforced how important Lola Arslanbekova is to Louisville Volleyball...the senior recording a game high 18 kills. 

For her efforts, Lola was named to the All-Tournament team for the Cards, along with Caitlin Welch. 

The Cards face another tough opponent Wednesday night in the KFC YUM! in Kentucky. 

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We're pleased to introduce you to the newest columnist here at Cardinal Couple. Jeff McAdams is a lifelong Cardinal fan and season ticket holder to several Cardinal Sports. Jeff sprints out of the gate  with a recap of the Cardinal Volleyball matches. We like this initial effort...tell us what you think in our comments section or by e-mail at:

 cardinalcouple@insightbb.com

Of the three matches that UofL Volleyball played this weekend, which does the team wish they could forget? Probably one of the wins.

UofL was victorious over Morehead State 25-21, 20-25, 25-17 25-16, but their play was not at the level that second year coach Anne Kordes would like to see. Maybe it was the early 11 a.m. start time...but the VolleyCards certainly didn't play aggressively in the first two sets. In the third set, freshman Katie George entered the game to take over the setting duties. That change of pace seemed to jolt the Cards into action. Hannah Kvitle and George split the time running the offense for the rest of the match and the team got the job done. 

The bright spot of the match was the defensive play of Caitlin Welch...who seemed to be digging everything in sight. Alli Miller also saw her first collegiate time and got the passing game going well...which got the offense on solid ground. 

Thankfully, the Kordes Krew didn't have long before they could redeem themselves, and redeem themselves they really did, even though that redemption ended up in a loss in the evening session of play against #3 Penn State.

After struggling in the Friday night match against WKU, Lola Arslanbekova returned to form with 18 kills. While her overall hitting was only .227, that's more credit to the Penn State great defense. Lola was swinging well and making opportunities. PSU's defense did a great job of handling many of the shots. The rest of the team also started to come together. With so many newcomers (Six freshmen and three transfers), this is a team that is still learning how to play together. 

In the first two matches against Western and Morehead, they were bumping into each other and watching balls drop to the floor...thinking the other play had it. A tell-tale sign of a team trying to jell. There really wasn't much of that in the Penn State match. The Cards played solid volleyball and started to show some coherence but they were just outplayed by a better opponent. 

Penn State is beatable, but not yet by this Cardinal team. If they meet again at the end of the season (could we dream that it would be on this very same floor in the FINAL FOUR in December?) the outcome might be different.

Despite the loss, there were encouraging signs that the high level of talent that Kordes has partially inherited and partially recruited can come together and play on equal terms with the nation's elite. 

More to come on Wednesday night when the preseason #13 Kentucky Wildcats motor across I-64 to the KFC YUM! Center. The in-state rivalry would make even a game of chess or bean bag toss between these two exciting. The Cards out for payback after last year's loss in Memorial Coliseum. Here's hoping it's the first of Cardinal wins against the Cats this week.  

A 7 p.m. start. We hope to see you there.
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