Louisville Volleyball is Going to the National Championship! -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Volleyball is Going to the National Championship!

Let's go! The Cards win! Louisville beats Pitt 3-2 (25-18, 23-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-2) to advance to the NCAA National Championship!

Before we get into the meat and bones of the match and the celebration, let's take a look at some of the other events that happened in Omaha yesterday.

In the first match of the night, 1-seed Texas go against the semi-surprising 2-seed San Diego. The Tereros would pull off a 28-26 first set victory before the Longhorns woke up and dominated the next three sets 25-16, 25-18, 25-20. Texas dropped just their third set of the NCAA Tournament.

The much-anticipated match-up between 1-seed Louisville and 2-seed Pitt followed roughly 30 minutes later. The late 10:00 p.m. ET start had both teams' fan bases in their pajamas and drinking coffee at night.

Louisville and Pitt tied for the ACC regular season title with the Cards earning the tiebreaker. Some in the world of volleyball titled this one as the "ACC Championship That Never Happened". It lived up to that hype.

Notes about the Final Four:

-This was a rare Final Four that saw no SEC or Pac-12 teams.

-Two of the Final Four teams (Louisville, San Diego) have women's head coaches.

-Louisville and Pitt are the fourth and five ACC teams to make the Final Four (2011- Florida State, 2021- Louisville and Pitt).

-This is the first time an ACC team has made the NCAA Championship game.

-Texas is the only one of the Final Four teams to have won a national championship or even make a championship game appearance.

-Dan Meske was named AVCA Assistant Coach of the Year

-This is the fourth Louisville team to compete in a national championship (men's basketball- three times, women's basketball- two times, men's soccer- one time). Louisville has quite a few individual champions and student-athletes compete in championships over the years too.

Now, onto the match as we take a look at all five sets.

Set One: Louisville 25, Pitt 19

A service ace started the match for the Cards and ignited a 6-0 run for the Cards. In fact, Louisville had two aces in that stretch. Pitt would not go down and would go on a mini run to bring the Louisville lead to 7-6 and then tie it at 9-9. A couple of small runs helped the Cards go up 17-11, 19-12, and 23-15, allowing the Cards to put themselves in an almost-comfortable lead. Momentum was all in favor of the Cards at this point. A paid of Anna DeBeer kills were the final two Louisville points in an opening set highlighted by strong serving.

Set Two: Pitt 25, Louisville 23

Louisville saw themselves in an early 3-1 lead, but the Panthers weren't about to let themselves go down big or early again. Pitt would take a 7-5 advantage before two straight points evened the score again. A strong Pitt attack saw the Panthers pull ahead 11-8. The Cards would cut their deficit to one that saw Pitt lose a challenge, but the fourth service of the match halted the momentum and give Pitt a 12-10 lead. The Panthers would go into the media break up 15-12. The Cards struggled to go against Pitt's front line defense and Dani Busboom Kelly called a timeout down 19-16. A block by Aiko Jones and DeBeer's fourth ace of the night brought Louisville within two at 21-19 and caused Pitt to call a timeout. After trading points, DBK burned her last timeout down 24-22. The Panthers would ultimately take the set to even the score at halftime.

Set Three: Louisville 25, Pitt 22

Coming out of halftime, DeBeer logged her fifth ace of the night and the Cards went on a 3-0 run before Pitt would score a couple to make it 3-2. Another 3-0 spurt by the Cards highlighted by an Aiko Jones forced Pitt into an early timeout. Pitt would score four straight to even the score before a Claire Chaussee kill stopped the run. Neither team could build much of a lead and Chaussee tied the score at 15-15 with her famous sky high jump for the kill. A net violation by the Cards put Pitt up 19-16 and DBK would call a timeout. The Cards would rally to even the score at 22-22 and Pitt would burn a timeout. A pair of aces by Elena Scott and a kill by Chaussee helped the Cards end the set on a 5-0 run and take a 2-1 lead.

Set Four: Pitt 25, Louisville 22

A similar sight unfolded at the start as Louisville went up 3-0 and then 5-2 before PK Kong went to the bench to get checked out for a minor hand injury. Louisville's attack helped spark the next couple points as Pitt called a timeout at 7-2. Pitt wouldn't go down without a fight, though. They pieced together a run to bring the Louisville lead to 8-7. Then Louisville got hot for a bit. Everything seemed to click for the Cards. A monster kill by Jones and Scott's fourth ace put the Cards up 15-10. Timeout number two for Pitt. After Louisville's lead got cut to 16-13, Busboom Kelly called a timeout to give her team a breather and to refocus. Louisville's errors got the best of them as the score was evened at 17-17. Insert a quick 3-0 Louisville run capped off by a block by Amaya Tillman to help put the Cards back on top. Louisville used its last timeout of the set after the Panthers evened the score at 22-22. Sloppy play continued for Louisville as Pitt went on to take the set.

Set Five: Louisville 15, Pitt 2

Louisville started the deciding set on a 3-0 run. Kong's block forced Pitt to call an early timeout. Then, Chaussee found the corner for a kill and Kong logged back-to-back blocks to extend the lead to 6-0. The block party continued to push the lead to 8-0. Pitt managed a point and Louisville followed with a 4-0 run to go up 12-1. Louisville closed the door from there to take the win!

WOW! Talk about a helluva fifth set! The Cards left no doubt on which team was going to walk away victorious.

Claire Chaussee led the Cards with 25 kills and a .429 attack percentage. Anna DeBeer had 15 kills and Aiko Jones added 12 kills on a .310 attack percentage. Raquel Lazaro had 49 assists. Elena Scott had 28 digs. DeBeer and Scott each had five aces. PK Kong recorded a career high 10 blocks in the match. Amaya Tillman logged seven blocks and Jones had six.

Dani Busboom Kelly looks for the hat trick after winning national championships as a player and assistant coach, now going for her first as a head coach. Louisville looks to be the first women's team on campus to win a national championship. 

Louisville and Texas will face off at 8:00 p.m. ET on Saturday for the national championship. We will recap all of the excitement on our Cardinal Couple Podcast tomorrow morning. Note: The podcast will be at 10:00 A.M. this week, since we figure some of our readers might be interesting in watching  Louisville Football in the Fenway Bowl at 11:00 A.M

(All photos courtesy of Louisville Athletics and Louisville Volleyball)

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

Jared

Volleyball Rolls in First Round of Tournament -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Sweep Samford to Advance

Louisville invited three teams to the L&N Federal Credit Union Arena this weekend with the intention of beating two of them so they could invite a few more to the Yum! Center next week. The Cards got off to a good start in that goal, as they took on the 16th seeded Samford Bulldogs in the late match yesterday evening.  After Purdue took care of Tennessee in the first game of the evening, one half of Saturday's matchup was set. Louisville didn't take too long to set the second half.

The Cards cruised in the first set, winning 25-9, and would not have much more difficulty after that. The first saw Louisville finish with 15 kills and just one error to register an 0.636 hitting percentage, which contrasted greatly to Samford's -0.071 first set hitting. The Bulldogs were, on the whole, outclassed in this one, which isn't terribly surprising considering it was a 1/16 matchup. While it's possible, there is a lot less room for tournament magic in volleyball than basketball. Louisville had advantages in size, speed, and accuracy, and all three showed up. The Cards finished with six blocks, which isn't all that many given their history, but it was six more than Samford. Of the six, three came in the first set, leaving five more errors in the set for Samford to find on their own. Louisville committed two service errors along with their one hitting error (an errant shot by Amaya Tillman) to give Samford the three more points they scored on top of their six kills.

While focusing on the negative there at the end, I should say that the set was never in doubt. Louisville took the first three points before ultimately going up 9-2. Samford managed to cut the deficit to 11-5, but six points would be the smallest deficit they'd face for the remainder of the set. The second set, despite being Samford's best, was actually even less close than the first. While the Cards dropped to a woeful (sarcasm intended) 0.591 hitting percentage and Samford came up to 0.172, Louisville again took a 3-0 lead and this time turned it into 10-1. The Bulldogs were able to get the deficit down to 16-8, and even had a 3-point run to get to 20-11, but their points were very spread out and Louisville won the 24-13 set point on a Samford service error.

The third saw Louisville commit four errors, continuing their odd trend of two extremely clean sets and one head scratcher, but it didn't make much difference as they pushed Samford's hitting back down below zero. It was Louisville mistakes that made the third set "close" as Samford actually reached 10 points before Louisville got to 20. In those 10 points, though, Louisville committed all four of their errors and had two service errors. They also scored 18 of their own points.  The Cards closed out the match on a 7-2 run, which started with a four point stretch of an Anna DeBeer kills, an Aiko Jones kill and ace, and a Raquel Lazaro kill. 

Speaking of Aiko Jones, she led the way for the Cards today. Aiko was the only Cardinal to pick up double digit kills, finishing with 11, as Claire Chaussee was defended well (she still ended up with nine kills). Amazingly, no player committed more than one hitting error, which contributed to Louisville's 0.514 overall hitting percentage. In addition to the 11 kills, Jones added an assist, two aces, just one service error, and two block assists. While her error was just one of Louisville's six (that can apply to hitting and service, funnily enough), her two aces accounted for all of Louisville's on the night. While 2/6 is better than the 1/9 registered by Samford, it still isn't great, and you'd like to see it cleaned up a bit. 

Chaussee added an assist and a solo block to go with her nine kills and also picked up seven digs. Amaya Tillman, unsurprisingly, was the defensive leader at the net, grabbing two solo blocks and a block assist. In the back, Elena Scott picked up 10 digs and added five assists. While they may not all of have been on Raquel Lazaro digs, Lazaro coincidentally ended with five of those. Anna DeBeer looked a bit more comfortable defensively, grabbing eight digs and contributing to a block assist. She also picked up five kills. Hopefully, that can be a sign that she is getting back to form at the right time for Louisville.

The Cards take on Purdue this evening at 6 PM in the L&N FCU Arena. While Purdue is not the ninth-ranked team the Cards faced in September, playing anyone a second time is difficult. The Cards swept that first match at home, so Purdue will be looking for revenge and playing for their season. Louisville, among many advantages, should be more rested despite getting the later match last night, as the Boilermakers took five sets to finish off Tennessee. The winner of this evening's match will take on Baylor, as the Bears held off a Rice upset bid in the 4/5 match. While every match from here on out will be tough, Louisville just has to keep their head down and focus on one at a time. Tonight's match, like last night's, will be on ESPN+. Should the Cards advance, every match for the remainder of the tournament will be on ESPN networks.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We're back again this week with what should be a full house. We'll have the exciting volleyball win to cover, but we'll also have to talk about the unfortunate occurrence in the KFC Yum! Center earlier this week. All in all, we'll keep it light as we focus on the joy and excitement of UofL women's athletics. 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

Volleyball Nearly Sweeps ACC Awards -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Nearly Sweeps ACC Awards

Louisville volleyball's dominating showing this season, especially in conference play, helped them take four of the five ACC Awards.

Claire Chaussee was named ACC Player of the Year. Chaussee, a bit of a dark horse for the award at the beginning of the year, beat out others such as Julia Bergmann of Georgia Tech and a trio of Pitt players. Chaussee tallied 370 kills this season while averaging 3.81 kills per set. She reached 1000 career kills this season.

Amaya Tillman was named ACC Defensive Player of the Year. Tillman ranked sixth in the country with 1.53 blocks per set and logged 141 total blocks. She was also named ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2020.

Raquel Lazaro was named ACC Setter of the Year. Lazaro transferred in from USC for her final year of eligibility. In her lone season with the Cards, Lazaro had 925 assists on the year while averaging 9.95 assists per set. Her season high is 57 assists in a five-set comeback win over Georgia Tech.

Coach Dani Busboom Kelly was named ACC Coach of the Year. Under Busboom Kelly, Louisville went 26-2, was named a 1-seed for the second straight year, won their third straight ACC title, ranked second nationally in blocks, and ranked 10th nationally in hitting percentage.

The lone award Louisville did not take was ACC Freshman of the Year. Emma Farrell of Wake Forest took that award. Louisville did not have any true freshmen play this season due to redshirts, so a  Louisville player could not win by default.

Louisville also had five Cards named to the All-ACC First Team. Chaussee, Tillman, Lazaro, Aiko Jones, and Elena Scott all received recognition. With the exception of Lazaro, the other four Cards have been named to the All-ACC Teams in the past.

The Cards gear up for the NCAA Tournament and will host Samford on Friday at 7:00 p.m. at L&N FCU Arena.

(Photos by Jared Anderson)

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Field Hockey Drops Home Finale; Volleyball Sweeps -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Fall to BC 4-1

Louisville field hockey hosted their regular season finale hoping to claw back some momentum before heading to Durham for the ACC Tournament next week. The plan got off to a good start, with Aimee Plumb giving the Cards the go-ahead goal just five minutes into the game. Unfortunately, the good vibes wouldn't last past the first quarter. After the break, Boston College tied the game and took the lead in the first five minutes of the quarter. When they came out of the locker room after halftime, BC pounced again, making it 3-1 two minutes into the second half. A fourth goal with five to go in the game was icing on the cake for the Eagles, and Louisville saw their third loss in as many games to close out the season.

Louisville outshot BC 14-8 in yesterday's game, but they were even in shots on target at seven. Sasha Elliott came back down to earth after an unbelievable season, posting just three saves against four goals, but hopefully she was just due for a less than outstanding game and she can put it behind her. Of BC's four goals, only one came on a penalty corner, an uncommon occurrence against what has been a stout Louisville defense this season.

The Cards offense didn't do quite as much to pull their weight as the defense would hope either. Just a 50% shot ratio is not a recipe for success, especially considering that the team had more penalty corner attempts than they did shots on goal. Louisville was 0-8 on corners in yesterday's game. Boston College was 1-1. The offense was fairly well distributed for the Cards, with five players taking shots, but only Aimee Plumb and Mattie Tabor put multiple shots on goal. To Boston College's credit, they had done their homework. Julie Kouijzer took three shots. As you might expect, they all came on corners. The Eagles were expecting it, too. All three of Kouijzer's shots were blocked by defenders.

You'll notice I'm not going line-by-line on yesterday's game like I do for many others. The truth is that it wasn't a very good performance all-around. Jared politely left a postgame interview with Coach Sowry off the table as she wasn't in much mood to talk about it. Louisville came in to yesterday's game with a chance to improve their seeding for the ACC tournament with a win over BC, and they didn't do it. Louisville takes the six seed (they have the tiebreaker over Duke), and they'll play either Syracuse or Virginia based on tiebreaker. We talked a bit last week about how you might want to be the sixth seed and make a run in the ACC tournament rather than be the five seed and draw UNC in the second game. 

My stance was, and is, that a loss to BC (who is now just 8-9 overall) hurts more than a pair of wins over Syracuse and Wake would help when it comes to NCAA seeding. After the clunker at Cornell on Sunday, Louisville may find themselves on the outside looking in come selection time. We'll all have to wait and see. The ACC tournament will air in full on ACC Network starting at 1 PM on Tuesday. Which games will be played in which slots are not finalized yet, but the quarterfinals are at 1, 3:30, and 6. 

Cards Sweep Duke at Home

After the tough loss against Pittsburgh on Sunday, Louisville recovered their busy week by taking care of business with sweeps of both Notre Dame and Duke. The two teams have seven wins combined in conference, so struggling with either would not be ideal. As it was, the Cards sat ND down against in front of a record crowd and returned to L&N Federal Credit Union Arena looking like they'd do just about the same thing to Duke.

Louisville opened with a 25-12 set win, posting a 0.529 hitting percentage with just one error. They held Duke negative at -0.083, and the romp looked as though it might be on. In that set, Louisville took a 7-1 lead and, after a bit of trading, extended it to 24-9. The Cards had two blocks and three aces to go along with their ten kills, but also benefitted from two service errors and a handling error by Duke. The Blue Devils looked all out of sorts, and Louisville was firing on all cylinders.

Right up until they weren't. The Cards took another 6-1 lead in the second, and they would later stretch that to 19-11, but their 25-20 set victory was much less convincing. It may have had something to do with the fact that they had 9 errors, only 9x their average per set. Duke had fewer errors in the second set, but Louisville still managed to outhit them 0.063-0.000. What I'm getting at here is that the second set of last night's match was not the pinnacle of volleyball performance. Despite the poor hitting, Louisville's win was never really in doubt, as the 19-11 lead was trimmed only to 20-16 before trades effectively closed the set.

The third set was the nail-biter, with both teams hitting in the 0.160s. Louisville cleaned up their errors, cutting them to just four, but Duke found more gaps than anyone had all match, picking up a match leading 12 kills in the final set. Louisville didn't have the benefit of a big run in the set and actually played from behind for most of the race to ten. The Cards took the lead at 9-8 following a service error and an attack error, but they wouldn't take the lead for good until the same sequence gave them a 12-10 advantage. After a Duke kill, Louisville won three straight points to take a 15-11 lead that they wouldn't yield. The Blue Devils pulled to within two on multiple occasions through the rest of the set, but Louisville's resolve (and their own struggles) kept the Cards out front. After Cara Cresse committed an error to give Duke hope on Louisville's first match point attempt, she made up for it by combining on a block with Raquel Lazaro to win it.

If you didn't know better, you would have thought some practical joke moved the service line in the third set, as the two teams combined for 13 service errors in the final frame. Five of Louisville's nine errors came in that set, while Duke committed 14 overall. Louisville was vastly superior at the line for the entire match, finishing with six aces to Duke's three for a net advantage of eight points in the service game. Louisville's blocking wasn't as dominant in this one as we've seen in the past, with Louisville winning just 8-7. The impact on Louisville was large, as seven blocks represented half of the errors they committed, whereas Duke committed 24 errors on the evening. Louisville's blocking defense usually has that effect on teams, forcing more errors than the stat sheet recognizes as blocks, but Duke also just isn't very good. 

Aiko Jones led the team in kills for the first time in awhile last night, picking up seven. She committed five errors, but her role leads to more errors than others. More concerning was her carrying a third of the team's service errors, but it was a good match for her overall as she added an ace and 1.5 blocks. Claire Chaussee and Amaya Tillman, as you might expect, were tied for second at six kills apiece. Nena Mbonu continued to carve a role with four kills, but the big surprise came from Lazaro. She finished with five kills on seven attempts while picking up 17 of Louisville's 23 assists. Adding four block assists and seven digs, it remains obvious that Lazaro is a star.

Speaking of stars, Anna DeBeer returned to the floor last night... kind of. DeBeer was fully dressed and participated in warm-ups last night before coming out of the locker room in street clothes ahead of the match start. This was apparently planned, and not a setback during warmups. It's good to know that DeBeer is close to returning as the season gets ready to hit the home stretch. The Cards have a week off before beginning their final third of the conference season. After the three match week culminating with Duke last night, Louisville will have tomorrow off. The Cards will welcome in the two state schools of North Carolina next weekend in their penultimate home stand.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

With another non-noon kickoff for Louisville football, we'll have a robust crew in house for the show this week. While there are some downers to talk about, we'll keep the optimism up as we discuss the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics. Maybe if we talk nicely enough about him, Coach Walz will let us go down the new slide at the basketball practice facility. 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

Volleyball Sweeps; FH Continues ACC Slump -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Makes Quick Work of BC

The Cards went on the road to Boston College yesterday afternoon and, though the win hasn't been officially recorded on Louisville's or the ACC's websites, moved to 5-0 in the ACC. Louisville sits tied with Pitt atop the league, though the Panthers have the much tougher Sunday opponent in Georgia Tech. While Louisville's next matchup is also 4-1 in ACC play, Syracuse is just 8-7 on the season. The Orange have played just one team with a winning conference record, and their loss last night gave Notre Dame its first conference win of the season.

All that aside, Louisville still has to take care of business in every match. For the time being, they are still doing so without the services of Anna DeBeer. So far, they've been mostly unbothered from a results perspective, and that continued last night. Claire Chaussee once again earned the lion's share of the attack attempts, taking 28 of the team's 86 swings. She converted 14 of those and committed just three errors for a hitting percentage of 0.393. Pretty nice for a pin hitter. Amaya Tillman was right behind her with 19 attempts, and she was the only other Cardinal to post double digit kills with 11. With no errors, that was a clean 0.579 percentage. Leading the way in that category was PK (Phekran Kong), who put up an 0.857 on 6/7 hitting.

The blocking numbers in this one are all out of whack, as the statbroadcast format shows only total blocks. Louisville finished with 12 as a team, but I can't break down the solo blocks from the assists. I can tell you that in addition to her solid hitting night, Amaya Tillman contributed to eight blocks. I can also tell you that five Cardinals contributed to more than one block and seven Cardinals contributed overall. In fact, more players earned at least an assisted block than earned a kill. Sydni Schetnan was the one that put her name on the sheet in the blocking column but not the kills column. It might also be nice of me to mention that Louisville did all of this blocking in the first two sets.

Boston College was largely overmatched, as Louisville won the match 25-15, 25-20, 25-13. The Cards hit 0.430 as a team, committing just seven total errors, and BC hit 0.099 with 23 errors. It was a night to forget from the service line, as Louisville had just one ace and five errors, but the Cards made up for it elsewhere in the match. Raquel Lazaro seems to be back to 100%, as she assisted on 34 of Louisville's 42 kills and added six digs and three block contributions. That didn't stop someone else from getting the assist on match point, though, as Paige Morningstar served for match point and assisted Chaussee's 14th kill to give the Cards the win.

Louisville is back in action tomorrow at 1PM on ACC Network Extra. The Cards are at Syracuse tomorrow before returning home next weekend to take on Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. The Cards will twice get Pitt and Notre Dame in back-to-back matches with travel in between, but those are problems for a later date. Tune in to ACCNX tomorrow to see the Cards in quality more befitting of a college team than a rec league (looking at you BC).

Field Hockey Falls at Wake Forest

Louisville's woes in ACC play continue as the Cards are now 0-3 in conference after falling to the Demon Deacons 2-0 yesterday evening. Through the first half of the conference season, only Louisville and Duke are winless, though even the 4-8 Blue Devils are ahead of the Cards for the time being as they're just 0-2. Louisville's offense was lackluster again, as the Cards were outshot by Wake, and the team's usual second half passion was nowhere to be found.

Louisville opened the match with some fire, as an early penalty corner forced a save by Sasha Elliott. The Cards wouldn't give up another offensive opportunity for the remainder of the quarter, as they used two penalty corners to force three saves and later had another shot blocked. Unfortunately, four shots and no goals through one quarter doesn't get you anything, so the teams moved on to the second. Louisville once more came out hot with a penalty corner just 34 seconds into the quarter, but the ensuing shot was blocked. 

Wake had had about enough of that by that point, and the remainder of the second quarter belonged to their offense. The Deacs put together four shots, with only one coming from a penalty corner, and held the ball for the rest of the half. Louisville was up to the challenge, as Elliott snagged three saves and the fourth shot was blocked, but Wake had smelled the blood in the water. The two teams went into the half with the same number of shots and Wake holding a one shot advantage in shots on goal. 

Out of the half, Louisville earned the first shot, but Mattie Tabor's effort was wide of the mark. The next possession gave Wake a shot of their own, forcing another Elliott save. A few minutes later, the Demon Deacons earned another penalty corner and forced another save. Undeterred, Wake's offense continued applying the pressure and earned a penalty stroke. On the shot, Sky Caron earned her fifth goal of the season and Louisville trailed 1-0. The Cards would get another shot just before the quarter ended, with Katie Schneider forcing a save, but they headed to the fourth still trailing.

With a little desperation kicking in, Louisville found themselves with a bit of a spark to open the fourth, as they worked an offensive play into the Wake circle. Katie Schneider forced another save, and Minna Tremonti was on hand for the rebound. Unfortunately, Tremonti's shot was wide, and the threat dissipated. It was Louisville's last shot of the evening. Wake took control of the offense from there and was relentless in working to secure an insurance goal. A shot with ten minutes left was saved. As were shots with nine and seven minutes left. The onslaught continued, though, and Elliott had done just about all she could. Wake iced the game at the 53:37 mark with a goal from open play to give the Demon Deacons the final 2-0 lead. 

The effort in goal gave Sasha Elliott a career high nine saves, but it was the offense that let her down, not the defense. Coach Justine Sowry called it a "disappointing result" and said that the Cards were just unable to capitalize while Wake made the most of their chances. The road doesn't get much easier for Louisville in their next match, as they'll take on 16th ranked Liberty on the road. Louisville is 3-3 in ranked matches this season, sweeping non-conference foes. Tomorrow's match is at 12PM on ESPN+.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

I'm out this week celebrating my wife's birthday, but the show continues ever onward. You'll have at least Paulie and Jeff, but I make no guarantees about the other knuckleheads. Jeff will be excited to talk about the successes of volleyball, and I'm sure Paulie will be less excited to talk about the other results of the week. Nevertheless, the show will do what it always does, bringing you the joy and excitement of UofL women's athletics. 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

I Win, You Win, We All Win -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Everybody Wins on Friday

This weekend started off about as perfect as possible for Louisville Athletics. Field hockey took a 1-0 win against James Madison in their home opener. Volleyball down #9 Purdue in straight sets. And the surprise of the night was a 20-14 football victory at UCF.

Field Hockey Takes Home Opener Against JMU

A chilly morning proved to be quite ironic as the turf temperature at Louisville field hockey appeared to break into the 90's. The #5 Cards got to showcase their new turf for the first time this season in their home opener against James Madison.

A second half goal by EJ Imorde proved to be enough for the Cards to down the Dukes, 1-0.

Louisville had the advantage the entire first half, maintaining possession a majority of the time and holding a 4-1 shot advantage going into the break. They couldn't seem to find the cage on those shots. Passing was a bit off point, which one could argue that the new turf factored into that. Louisville installed a new turf in the offseason. After having a chance to walk and sit on it, the new turf is fluffier and has a sponge-like feel when walking compared to the older, harder turf. A change such as that can lead to passes not traveling as far or with as much velocity as expected.

The halftime adjustments proved fruitful as Louisville came out swinging in the second half. Within seconds, the Cards were pressuring inside the inner circle and earned themselves multiple corners. The two teams found themselves in close quarters in the inner circle midway through the third quarter when EJ Imorde found the ball by her stick and enough of an opening to knock her shot into the back of the cage. The goal was the first of the season for her.

James Madison had a couple good looks like in the second half but the Cardinal defense stayed true and posted their first shutout of the season.

Louisville improved to 5-0 this season with the win and Coach Justine Sowry had plenty of positive words following the victory. We also had the chance to chat with Imorde about her goal and her thoughts on the game.

You can click on the two links below to watch the post game interviews.

EJ Imorde Interview

Coach Sowry Interview

Louisville stays home at the friendly confines of Trager Stadium to host #4 Michigan on Sunday at noon.

Volleyball Bounces Back with Sweep Against Purdue

After suffering a loss to Ohio State last weekend, #4 Louisville volleyball bounced back by taking down a different Big Ten opponent. The Cards swept #9 Purdue 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 27-25).

Set One: Louisville 25, Purdue 18

Louisville rushed out of the gate with three straight points before Purdue responded by tying the score at 4-4. A 5-0 run helped the Cards pull ahead by a small margin. The Boilermakers clawed their way back into the set, cuttings Louisville's lead to 16-14. Bending but never breaking, Louisville went on a 6-0 run highlighted by a pair of aces to pull ahead comfortably and never relinquish their lead.

Set Two: Louisville 25, Purdue 20

The second set proved to be a bit more of a challenge as Louisville a majority of the set playing catch up. Purdue would go up two-to-three points and the Cards would also find a way to even the score. Tired of playing catch up, the Cards took their first lead since the beginning of the set with an 18-17. Despite their best efforts, Purdue could not find a way to even the score so Louisville claimed the set and went into halftime up 2-0.

Set Three: Louisville 27, Purdue 25

Thrilling, exciting, nerve-wracking... all terms you could describe the final set. The two teams would ping-pong the score for the opening portion of the set, including a 13-13 tie about midway through. Purdue was eager to take a set and found themselves with a slight edge. They continued to push further and found themselves up 24-18. Cue Hollywood script. Highlighted by a few key blocks and several attack errors by the Boilermakers, the Cards would go on a 6-0 run to even the score. With the crowd back into it, Louisville would not let themselves falter after Purdue grinded out a point for a 25-24 lead. Louisville would take the final three points to claim the set and match.

The final point had plenty of controversy. Purdue was called for being in the net, awarding the point to Louisville. Purdue challenged the point and the officials spent several minutes reviewing the play. Fans became impatient and voiced their frustrations as they awaited the call. Ultimately, the net call was overturned but the officials discovered a touch on Purdue, awarding the Cards the final point.

Back row passing was the struggle of the match for the Cards. Louisville found themselves in an unusually high amount of out of system rallies. Nonetheless, the veteran Louisville squad handled it well en route to the sweep.

Serving was much improved from last week. The Cards limited their service errors while dishing out five aces and forcing Purdue into plenty of hectic return situations.

Amaya Tillman and Anna DeBeer led the cards with 10 kills apiece. The always reliable Elena Scott logged 19 digs while Raquel Lazaro had 34 assists.

The Cards improved to 6-1 with the Top-10 victory. They host Lipscomb at 7:00 tonight. Xavier and Purdue will play the first match at 4:00.

(PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON)

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We're down to three this week for the podcast, but, what a powerful three. 

The world famous Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast is good to go for our regularly scheduled 11:00 start today. Daryl is out taking care of some bats or watching some Louisville Bats and will not be able to join us. Case has some ongoing events this weekend and will not be with us. Paulie, Jeff, and I will gladly talk about our fall sports for an hour, though.

Cardinal Couple You Tube Link:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Lb0KWORvn2eARnCZfjxww

Happy Saturday and Go Cards!

Jared

Volleyball and Field Hockey Continue Winning Weekend -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Downs No. 15 San Diego

Louisville volleyball dropped their first set of the season last night against the Toreros, but they recovered to win a thrilling 3-1 match that saw extra points in the fourth set. The Cards took a 25-18 win in the first before dropping the second 13-25. They came out of the break firing to regain the advantage with a thundering 25-11 win in the third and had to come back after a late charge in the fourth to win 26-24. The Cards led in every statistical category, this was just a matter of playing a very good team that wouldn't go down easily.

Louisville jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first before SD scored and brought it back close. For the remainder of the set, the Cards were unable to stretch more than that three point advantage until Aiko Jones followed her own kill with an ace to give them a 21-17 lead. San Diego scored one more point to break the run but Louisville use a block, an ace, and a kill while benefitting from an error to win the last four points. Neither team was particularly crisp in the first, with the Cards finishing with a 0.286 hitting percentage and the Toreros seeing just a 0.132. Louisville's low percentage was due primarily to the San Diego defense, as they committed just three errors.

The second set saw Louisville commit twice as many errors as they had in the first while San Diego cut their number from seven to one. The roles were generally flipped as the Toreros hit 0.379 in the set with Louisville putting in an 0.161. After Louisville won the opening point of the set, San Diego won the next six points and ultimately took a 9-3 lead. The Cards were unable to get any rhythm going in the second, never winning more than two consecutive points. SD had four aces, three blocks, and benefitted from two service errors in the set on the way to their win.

As I mentioned, though, Louisville recovered after halftime in a big way. The Cards returned the favor granted by the Toreros in the previous set, giving up the first point and then winning the next six. Louisville did them one better and held a 9-2 lead. USD was unable to score consecutive points in the set until they grabbed a pair of kills from Katie Lukes to make the score 10-23 and then 11-23. Louisville shut the door quickly on their dominating set, having committed no errors and hitting 0.696 in the frame. 

Both teams struggled mightily in the fourth set with their hitting as they combined for 18 errors in the set, with only six of those being blocks. Both hit their worst percentages of the afternoon, with Louisville's 0.105 edging out the 0.073 from San Diego. The poor hitting didn't take away from the excitement, though, as I mentioned the brief dip into extra points. San Diego jumped out to a quick lead with a 4-1 run helped by a pair of Louisville errors. The Cards won a couple of points to close the gap slightly before the teams traded points. Another error put the Toreros up 9-6 before they got the yips. Louisville went on a 6-0 run that was aided by a service error and three errors from San Diego. The Cards added a block and a kill, and it looked like they may start to pull away. It wasn't meant to be the case, though, as the teams traded points with SD grabbing two extras in the mix to bring the set level at 15-15. After a service error gave Louisville a lead, things got a bit nervy for them as San Diego won the next five points. 

No team with a 2-1 lead in the fourth set wants things to go to a fifth set, so Louisville buckled down and closed the gap to 20-19. An error broke their run but they picked right back up with a pair of kills to tie it at 21-21. Traded points again put the teams in a stalemate before Louisville grabbed a block to go to match point at 24-23. It looked as though Amaya Tillman would grab back-to-back blocks to win the match but the ball was out off the touch to tie it at 24. Louisville made short work of the extra points session, though, as Aiko Jones got a kill and Tillman got a second chance to shut down Katie Lukes for the win. Tillman didn't miss the moment a second time as she grabbed the solo block to win.

Tillman's block was her second solo block of the night and she picked up four block assists to lead the match defensively at the net. Tillman added seven kills, good for fourth on the team. In a bit of an odd situation, only six Cardinals scored kills in the match. They were led by Claire Chaussee and Aiko Jones who both snagged fifteen. The Toreros keyed in on Anna DeBeer as she was only able to score eight kills. Cara Cresse scored six out of the other middle position and Raquel Lazaro got the last of Louisville's 52 kills. Lazaro was busy all over the court, as she assisted on 44 of the other 51 kills, scored a service ace, assisted on a block, and had the most digs on the team with 14. Aiko Jones was busy from the line as well, adding three aces to her fifteen kills. 

Louisville struggled a bit from the serve, though, with eight aces compared to nine errors. The negative ratio didn't hurt too much as San Diego matched it with six and seven. That gave the teams a tie on the serve, but Louisville made their hay elsewhere. Louisville led the blocking battle 11-6, something we'll hope to see a lot this season. While Grace Frohling made herself known with 13 kills, Louisville held Breana Edwards down in the same way San Diego did to DeBeer. Katie Lukes stood in the Chaussee role in picking up the slack with 17 kills to lead the way. It was a strong effort from the Toreros, and they'll look to bounce back against OSU today.

Louisville will get Ohio State tomorrow, hopefully with the Buckeyes coming off of a five-setter today. Jeff will have more on that match preview tomorrow before he heads down to the L&N Federal Credit Union Arena for a 2PM match. Tomorrow's event will be on ACC Network proper, so be sure to tune in.

Field Hockey Leaves No Doubt in 4-1 Win

Louisville welcomed Penn to the 2022 season in the ACC/Ivy League Crossover with a bit of a thumping as they scored early and often on the Quakers in Chapel Hill. The Cards will get Princeton at Karen Shelton Stadium tomorrow after the 13th-ranked Tigers fell to UNC 4-3 yesterday evening. 

The first quarter was largely uneventful as neither team was able to make an impression on the play-by-play outside of a pair of substitutions. Aimee Plumb changed that for the Cards when she scored her second goal of the season with an unassisted goal six minutes in. Both teams went on to have one more shot in the period, but neither was on frame. 

Louisville came out with a bit more fire in the second quarter, with Plumb earning a penalty corner just two minutes in. Katie Schneider doubled the Louisville advantage off a Julie Kouijzer assist just 9 seconds after the corner was awarded, but the stats don't recognize the goal as a conversion. I'm not quite sure how that works out, so I'm going to say it counts, giving Louisville a 1/2 rate on the afternoon. With six minutes left in the half, Penn earned their first corner of the game, forcing Sasha Elliott into her first save. The Quakers turned that into another penalty corner, which they were able to convert the second time around. The Cards blocked the first shot attempt, but the goal was scored after the rebound. Louisville wasn't deterred, though, putting their lead back to two goals ahead of half time. Again, Aimee Plumb was involved, as she forced a save from the Penn goalkeeper. Katie Schneider was in the right place at the right time, recovering the rebound and finding space to score her second goal of the match unassisted. 

Penn made a goalie change at the half, but it was Louisville under pressure in the third quarter. Sasha Elliott went to work, picking up four saves in the quarter. Louisville's defense was heavily involved as Penn earned four corners in the period. Louisville penalty corner kill was strong once more, as they kept the cage clean on every attempt, weathering the storm well. The offense struggled for the Cards, though, as they didn't make an impression on the stat sheet at all in the third. That offense came right back in the fourth with Emilia Kaczmarczyk scoring her first goal of the season on an unassisted attack two minutes into the quarter. Louisville continued the pressure with a shot by Aimee Plumb being saved and another Kaczmarczyk shot being saved on an ensuing corner. Penn held tough after the goal to move them to 4-1 and worked hard to close the gap. Their best chances came with just under five minutes remaining when they put together a sequence of three straight corners. In effort, Elliott was forced into two saves and Julie Kouijzer earned a defensive save on the final corner.

The stats don't look particularly great for Louisville in this one, as the defense was forced to win this one despite the final score. Penn had more shots on goal than Louisville had overall shots, and they had more penalty corner attempts that Louisville had overall shots. The Cards finished with eight saves, seven by Elliott, and gave up just the one goal. Louisville's calling card was efficiency, turning eight shots into seven on frame and four goals. It will be difficult to keep most teams out of the cage when they give up so many opportunities, but as long as the Cards can make the most of their own chances, they'll be in a lot of games. Louisville takes on Princeton on ACCNX tomorrow at 11AM.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We'll have plenty to cover this week with a ton of wins and a lot to look ahead to in the upcoming days. There will be four of us on the call today to bring you the show so be sure to tune in. 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!

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Until next time, Go Cards!

Case