Louisville Volleyball a #1 seed in NCAA Tournament -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

VOLLEYCARDS TO OPEN FRIDAY VS. SAMFORD

Louisville Volleyball reacts to their 1-seed

We did have to wait a while to find out, while watching the NCAA Volleyball Selection Show, but the Louisville Cardinals are the #1 seed in their region and will open NCAA Tournament play Friday, December 2nd.at 7 p.m. against Samford.   The Cards weren't announced until the final of the four brackets were revealed. 

Purdue and Tennessee will also travel to Louisville to square off against each other in the LNFCU, They'll play at 4 p.m.

The Samford Bulldogs earned an automatic qualifier bid after beating Furman in three sets Sunday to win the Southern Conference Volleyball Tournament. Samford went 19-12 in the regular season and was 11-5 in Southern Conference play. 

All told, five ACC teams made the tournament. Louisville, Pitt (a #2 seed), Georgia Tech, Florida State and Miami

Seven SEC schools got in (Kentucky, Georgia, Auburn, LSU, Florida, Tennessee and Arkansas) and the Big10 had six make the tournament. (Ohio St, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Penn State, Purdue and Nebraska.) 

We'll have more on this as the week advances. We had photographer Jared Anderson and Volleyball writer Jeff McAdams at the selection show, but they were not included in the entire post-show interview with Louisville Volleyball head coach Dani Busboom Kelly. 

Louisville ends the regular season with a 26-2 record and was 17-1 in ACC play. 

Shortened interview with Dani Busboom Kelly.

Interview with Anna DeBeer.

Interview with Amaya Tillman.

Another commercial break?!

You can see the entire bracket at the link below: 

2022 NCAA Volleyball bracket

(photos by Jared Anderson)

paulie

WBB falls to Ohio State 67-60 -- Vollleyball wins in three sets. --FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

#2 UofL WBB DROPS 67-60 TO OHIO STATE

It was more of a boxing match between two heavyweights that a basketball game last in the Value City Arena in Columbus, but Ohio State get the 67-60 decision over the Cards. Louisville shot 36.9% for the game, missed nine of their ten final shots and saw four OSU players reach double figures against them on a night against a powerful, aggressive Big 10 squad.

No one really started to gain an advantage in this game until late in the third quarter. The Buckeyes broke open a 45-45 contest with 2:10 left in the third when Kirsten Bell scored on a OSU layup, got fouled by Molly Lockhart and sank the following free throw. After a missed Dana Evans jumper, Janai Crooms took a Bell rebound and bullied her way past the Cardinal defense to give OSU the 50-45 edge. 

The quarter ended that way and, although Evans nailed a three to start the fourth quarter, OSU pushed back to a six point lead and held that advantage pretty much the rest of the way. 

Louisville ended the match going 1 for 10 from the floor to end the contest. OSU held a 62-57 lead after Norika Konno made a layup with 3:47 left in the contest. The Cards would not connect on a basket again until Konno made a layup with 17 seconds left to cut the Buckeye's lead to 65-60.

 In the pivot-able fourth quarter, Louisville went 5-18 (27.8%). Ohio State countered with 4-9 shooting. Seven Cardinal turnovers in the fourth, also, certainly didn't help their cause. This contest stayed at 62-57 for over three minutes late in the fourth and Louisville missed all seven of their shots in that time frame, negating any possible comeback 

This one is one I'll wager a lot of Cardinal fans will prefer to forget. Louisville trailed by two after the first quarter but had a nice second period from Evans, who got six of her team-high 18 points in those 10 minutes and the Cards held a 33-31 edge at the break.

Bionca Dunham finished with 10 for the Cards, all in the first half. For some reason, the Cards quit going inside to her, Kylee Shook (6 points) and Elizabeth Dixon (8 points) as the game wore on. And, Jazmine Jones, saddled with foul trouble early, never made much of an impact on the contest in 20 minutes, fouling out after 1-8 shooting and one rebound. 

As we've seen so many times before...what gets accomplished by those who are on the court at the end in a close game either make it or break it for a squad. Based on last night, applications may be available for a couple of those five, end-of-game spots. 

When you are playing a rough-and-tumble BIG 10 opponent, sometimes you have to rumble right back on them instead of trying to outrun them. 

Jeff Walz said after the Oregon game that this UofL squad wouldn't go through the season undefeated. Probably he, and definitely I expected a "L" to enter the squad's record so early after knocking off Oregon, though. 

(PHOTO CREDIT TO SHELBY FRIEZELL)


THE FRED REPORT

Using Freddy Kreuger for
"Nightmare in Value City Arena"

FREE THROWS -- Louisville attempted 12 and made seven. That's 58.3% and doesn't impress much at all. Consider only four Cards attempted them and three were successful in hitting them. Someone needs to get Bionca on the stripe and get more practice, practice, practice in. No letter awarded here for the effort. Meanwhile, Ohio State went 19-23. Ouch.

REBOUNDS -- The Cards held their own with the big "Bucks" and won the boards battle 34-32. Bionca was the boards battlers, with 11, completing her double-double. Kylee grabbed five in 23 minutes. A small case "r" is the assignment here. 

EFFORT/EXECUTION -- Louisville did lead for most of this one, but failed to finish. Costly turnovers, not sufficiently guarding the three-point threats and that dismal fourth quarter showed this team couldn't close out in an "away" environment with a small (3600) but enthused home team fan base. No letter to award here. 

DEFENSE -- The Cards lost the second half 36-27 and, although they kept the scoring relatively low, Buckeye posts Rebeka Mikulasikova and Dorka Juhasz played typical hard-nosed and aggressive Big 10 hoops and that combo (26 points) plus the steady play of guard Kirsten Bell (14 points) proved to be too much for the Cards to handle and contain. We end the Fred report with no letter here either.  

FINAL FRED TALLY:  -_-_e-_

So, in their first true away game, on another school's court, it was less than the desired result. The hope is Louisville learns from the debacle, works hard on the shortcomings and proves a bit better against another team Sunday that plays a similar style in NKU. 

Learning what works. Playing every game with energy and passion. Objectives for this "still jelling" Cardinal WBB squad.

Lessons learned on a chilly night in Columbus. 

Personally, I'm just glad I found my way out of the basement maze where the media room and press interview was conducted. Hanzel, meet Gretel. Hiking a half-mile to hear coach speak after a loss wasn't exactly on my bucket list.


WALZ SPEAKS

Coach Walz addressed a small group of media (me and Sonya made up 1/2 of the contingent) after the game. Hear his words at the video below. 

WALZ POST GAME OSU 12/5/19

paulie
xxxxx



Now, for some brighter news...

Volleyball Sweeps Samford

The volleyballers got it done in fairly easy fashion last night in Bowling Green as they swept the Samford Bulldogs, 25-21, 25-12, 25-22.

The opening set was a bit of a nail biter. The opening set of NCAA plays always seems to be as teams (and fans!) aren't sure of the new, higher pressure setting of "Win or go home."  The Cards felt a bit tentative and out of sorts.  They fell back to their training and planning and got it done, though.  Out of the gate, Anna Stevenson showed early that she was going to have a great match with 4 kills on 5 attempts in the first set.  She would go on to a ridiculous .857 hitting percentage after missing a shot near the end of the match to bring it down to that from the .917.  The total was 11 kills on 13 attempts, with no errors.

The second set was a Cardinal romp, with the Cards firing on all cylinders and Samford seemingly unable to do anything to slow the roll.  The Bulldogs would take their first timeout with the Cards leading 5-0.  Samford did show a little bit of spark, though, keeping the lead from growing significantly through the middle part of the set, but then the Cards would put together a couple of big runs to finish it out with ease.

The last set started out as another barn-burner, with the Cards jumping out to a big lead, but Samford would fight back.  The teams traded runs and sometimes just points, but that's not what you want if you start out the set behind 10-3, and Samford would never close that lead for good.  The Cards reached a 24-18 set point and the Cards fans in attendance, only a fraction of the red-clad attendees with Western Kentucky being the host team, were feeling jubilant.  Samford would put a slight damper on that, however, reeling off four straight.  The Cards did get the final point and exited Diddle Arena on a high note.

The Cards second round match will be tonight, against at Diddle Arena, against host WKU, who dispatched Kennesaw State in a sweep of the nightcap.  Let's give KSU some props, however, for keeping all three sets close, the Hilltoppers won it 25-23, 25-20, 25-23.  The match will be at 7pm local time, 8pm EST.

The Cards beat WKU early in the season, the second weekend of the season, in fact, in four sets 25-18, 22-25, 25-22, 25-15.  This was the only match WKU lost all season and in C-USA post-season play.

-- 

JMcA

WBB Prepare for Ohio State -- VBall Begins NCAA Tournament -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WBB Prepares to Face Ohio State

#2 Louisville WBB is set to face Ohio State in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge tonight in Columbus.  Tip-off is set for 8:00 p.m., on the Big Ten Network.

The Buckeyes enter the game with a 4-3 record. Recently, they went 1-1 in the Southpoint Shootout in Las Vegas.  They took down Northern Iowa 64-46.  Their loss came to a tough South Dakota team, 68-53.  The Coyotes made the NCAA Tournament last year.

Ohio State also played UConn this year at home.  The Huskies came out on top 73-62 in a contested match-up.  The other loss came to Ohio.

Ohio State's three other wins outside of Northern Iowa included Kent State, Valparaiso, and an overtime over Cincinnati.

The Buckeyes are averaging 69.9 points per game.  They have shot .438 from the floor on the year with a .307 mark from three-point range.  Free throws have been a weakness for Ohio State, shooting just .565 from the line- something the Cards would be smart to take advantage of that.

Another weakness of Ohio State is ball control.  The Buckeyes have turned the ball over 119 times this year for an average of 17 per game.  They have dominated down low, out-blocking opponents 35-13. A young team for head coach Kevin McGuff, 10 of his 13 players are freshmen or sophomores. According to some sources, Ohio State has had the toughest schedule in the country through their first seven game, and bringing in the #2 Cards only augments that difficulty of opponents.

The OSU defense holds opponents to .346 from the field and a sub-.300 mark from deep.  Their free throw defense has been atrocious as opposing teams knock down roughly 73% of their free throws.  Ohio State's defense is allowing 62.4 points per game, a mark UofL's offense has been way above.

Dorka Juhasz. Not only does she rebound and score
but she takes a pretty nice photo as well.  

Dorka Juhasz (10.2 ppg) and Kierstan Bell (10.0 ppg) are the sole players averaging scoring in double-figures.  Juhasz has also led the team in rebounds through their first seven games, averaging 8.5 per game.  Janai Crooms and Braxtin Miller have carried the team in assists with 38 and 22, respectively.

Louisville is 2-0 all-time against Ohio State.  Both meetings came in Columbus.  The most recent was in November of 2017 when the Cards prevailed 95-90 in overtime.  Asia Durr set a school record with 47 points and tied a school record with nine three-pointers in the game.

Paulie and Sonya will be in attendance as well as a photographer friend of mine, who will take my place for the game.  You'll get plenty of live coverage from our women's basketball guru and he'll have some postgame footage to add to it.

If you can't attend, the Big Ten Network will be televising the event. It is available on most cable providers in our Metro Louisville area and ll you who have "cut the cord" can probably figure out a way to watch on-line. And, you can always go to the dependable Nick Curran and A.J. for the radio feed, on 790 WKRD AM

Matt Andrews, radio voice for Buckeye women's basketball, held the same position for Louisville before he left for Columbus. Like Nick, who also calls Louisville Bats games during their season, he also does minor league baseball broadcast for the Columbus Clippers. Reports are he's already gotten word to Paulie via sources that the media buffet in the Value City Arena doesn't rival the one in the KFC YUM! Center.

On a side women's basketball note, you can check out Paulie's interviews with Jeff Walz and Dana Evans at the top of yesterday's post.  Just click on the link and it'll redirect you right to an audio recording or follow the two interviews at these audio/video links below.

JEFF WALZ 12-4-19

DANA EVANS 12-4-19



Volleyball Faces Samford in NCAA First Round

Just down the road from Louisville in Bowling Green, KY will be another Cardinal team in action.

UofL Volleyball prepares for a first round match-up against Samford today at 6:00 p.m. ET.  Make note that Bowling Green is an hour behind so the game will be 5:00 p.m., their time.

Louisville, who is 19-9 on the year, is making its 28th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history.  The Cards earned an at-large bid and are one of four ACC teams to make the tournament.

Samford is in its second-straight NCAA Tournament appearance after going 24-5 on the year, finishing 15-1 in the Southern Conference, and winning the SoCon Tournament 3-2 over ETSU.  This is the Bulldogs' fifth tournament appearance, all coming in the last eight years.

Kelsi Hobbs has been the leader for Samford this year.  She was recently named the Sports Imports/AVCA Player of the Week.  She was also named Most Valuable Player of the Tournament.

The Cards, who were 14-3 to start the year, finished 5-6 after Melanie McHenry went down with an injury.  They did, however, go 4-2 to close out the year.  As they continue to adjust without their senior leader the Cards will have their hands full.

Host Western Kentucky will face Kennesaw State in the second match of the day.  The two winners will square off on Friday. The second round is schedule for 8 p.m. Louisville time.

A unique viewing opportunity for those unable to attend. Hilltopper Sports Satellite Network - HSSN on Facebook will stream the match. Link for that is:  

https://www.facebook.com/pg/GOHSSN/videos/

"Mr. Worldwide" Jeff McAdams will be present for the game, and I think it's safe to assume his mom, Ms. Vivian will accompany him.  I cannot guarantee you'll see a lot of  tweets out of  his @CardCoupleRadio Twitter account, but Jeff will split the writing duties with Paulie tomorrow.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Louisville Volleyball in NCAA Tournament, draws Samford -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDS, BULLDOGS SET FOR THURSDAY 6 P.M. MATCH

There probably wasn't much doubt that the University of Louisville Volleyball squad would make the field of 64 at all, the major questions were who would they play, where and when? 

On last night's NCAA Selection Show on ESPNU, the drama played out until the very end. Finally, the final regional was announced, we saw Western Kentucky hosting and playing Kennesaw St. and then Louisville flashed on the screen to be facing Samford. 

A 6 p.m. E.T. Thursday match on Dec 5th. at Diddle Arena in Bowling Green for UofL Volleyball. Win and advance to play there again at the interesting selection of Friday at 6 p.m. It seems there is a basketball game on Saturday in the arena, so Volleyball has to play Friday. The Lady Toppers are bringing in Arkansas for hoops on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

The Cards gave WKU their only loss of the season back on Friday Sept 6th. in the LNFCU. A 3-1 set "W" for the Cards 25-18, 22-25, 25-22, 25-15. Before the cart gets too far in front of the horse, though...Louisville does have Southern Conference Tournament champion Samford to face first. The Bulldogs won the three-day event in Spartanburg, SC by beating The Citadel, Furman and East Tennessee State. 

Samford (24-5) has won their last 12 matches and went 15-1 in conference to win the regular season title as well in the Southern. They faced WKU in non-conference play and fell 3-0 in sets to the Hilltoppers. Other losses were against East Tennessee St., Northern Kentucky (who made the NCAA Tournament also) and Tulsa 

The main kill artists for the Bulldogs are Kelsi Hobbs (459), a 6'1" right side hitter who is a senior and sophomore Lauren Deaton (421), an outside hitter. Briana Holmes leads Samford in blocks with 128. Setting is the major job for Corinne Meglic (1260) and Emily Naubert is Samford's dig leader with 442. 


Where is Samford?  In Birmingham, AL. is the answer. No Louisvillians on the Bulldog roster but middle blocker Sierra Rayzer is from New Albany, IN. The junior played at Christian Academy (IN). 

Jeff McAdams was at the Selection Show viewing with the team and also got a few interviews after the selections. We have them at the bottom of  today's article. We'll also have more information later in the week about the bracket, Cards and WKU. 

A nice draw for Louisville, it would appear, for the first two rounds, but powerhouse Texas awaits if the Cards climb by Samford and (WKU/Kennesaw St.). 



-- Fans can purchase all-session tickets for $12 per ticket at WKUTickets.com 

-- Additional information on the tournament can be found at https://www.ncaa.com/championships/volleyball-women/d1

-- The bracket pairings can be printed from:  https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/print/volleyball-women/d1/2019 


Dani Busboom-Kelly on the draw: 

"We were excited to hear out name called. While we don't know much about Samford yet, we know they are good since they are in the field of 64. We won't have to worry about travelling and dealing with that, so, that is a huge plus for us. It will new new for us to play on the Thursday/Friday match in the first round but it is a quick turnaround for us."

Player/Busbooom-Kelly interviews on tournament: 

Tori Dilfer 

Aiko Jones

Dani Busboom Kelly 

paulie
xxxxx