Christmahanakwanzika Wishes -- Thursday Cardinal Couple

Christmahanakwanzika Wish Lists

It's that time again, when we write down our Christmahanakwanzika Wish List for various UofL Women's Sports teams.

Hey, last year I asked for a press box for Lacrosse and now we've got a spiffy new structure next to the railroad track beside Little Yum, so wishes do come true sometimes.

Volleyball

A sweet 16 (or beyond) appearance.  I've been to every UofL NCAA tournament volleyball in person since 2008, I believe, and I've never been to a volleyball sweet 16 (well, other than when it was hosted at the KFC Yum! Center, but I'm not counting that because UofL wasn't playing in it).  The program narrowly missed it this year, and I hope next year to see an even more improved team and further success in tournament play.

A 6-2 offense.  I've heard talk that this is being considered for next year.  6-2 offenses are, in my opinion, a lot of fun to watch.  We've got 3 good setters on the roster in Kali Eaken, Lindsey Palmer, and Morgan Miller.  When this was first mentioned to me, I was thinking Kali Eaken and Morgan Miller as the two setters, but a few days ago, I realized that Lindsey Palmer could have a major role as a setter in a 6-2.  We haven't seen Palmer running the offense as setter because, at 5'8", she's not a very effective blocker and with a traditional 5-1 offense, the setter needs to be able to block when they're in the front row.  With a 6-2, however, the setter is always playing out of the back row, so they don't need to be able to block.  We lose the setter dump that Katie George so loved, but that's a small price to pay for always having three attackers available in the front row.

Lacrosse

We've got a press box now, how about some concessions for the fans?  Or perhaps a permanent structure with a locker room for the visiting team.  Like Volleyball, a deeper run in the NCAA tournament beyond the second round would be great.

Tennis

For the both the men and women on this one.  More courts!  I've heard that this one might already be in the works as well.  It would likely take the form of adding more outdoor courts in front of the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center where the old soccer practice field is.  With the spiffy new Lynn Soccer Stadium, the practice field isn't really needed anymore, and the Tennis programs would benefit by being able to host full tournaments rather than just competitions against individual opponents.

Swimming and Diving

While it's not directly for the program, I wish for a successful Olympics in Rio for various current and former members of the Swimming and Diving squad.  This, also, is for both the men and the women.  We've talked a lot about Kelsi Worrell's success, but perhaps alumna Tanja Kyliannen could be representing her native Finland.  Joao de Lucca, for the men, will likely be representing Brazil and is a proud UofL alum.  On the current squad on the men's side, Sophomore Carlos Claverie could be making an appearance for Venezuela.

Basketball

I think our wish lists here probably all look a lot alike.

Let's call better rebounding a stocking stuffer as it has already improved considerably over the beginning of the season, but could still use some tightening up.

Lay-ups.

Lethargy-B-Gone for the defense.

Softball

Success in post-season play.  Ulmer recently got an upgrade, so there's not a whole lot to ask for from a facilities point of view.  Well, there are some things we could ask for, but that would be a bit greedy, so we'll skip those.

I'd like to see the UofL Softball team advance to a Super-Regional.  Softball hasn't had a great deal of NCAA tournament success in the past couple of years, not having won a game at all since the first game of the 2014 Regional against IPFW.  They have not advanced to a Super-Regional since I've been going to games at all.  Hopefully they'll do well enough that we would be hosting these events this spring, but if not, I'll certainly be looking to make an effort to road-trip for them.

I haven't put together lists for all of the women's sports teams, feel free to add some lists for other teams, or even add items for these teams in the comments.  I'd love to hear what you would like to see out of these programs. Our biggest wish of all, though...is that all our readers have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

-- JMcA

Tuesday Cardinal Couple - Coaching Updates

Tis the Season for New Coaches

Softball

Friday's Cardinal Couple edition brought the news of a new assistant coach for Field Hockey.

Cardinal Softball has added a new assistant coach as well, and this one will be a familiar face to long-time UofL Softball fans.  Stacey May-Johnson was a Volunteer Assistant Coach with Sandy Pearsall from 2008-2010 while she was pursuing her Master's of Science in physics.

May-Johnson has an impressive Softball resume in addition to her solid academic credentials.  She played her four years of NCAA softball at Iowa where she earned Big-Ten conference freshman of the year in 2003, followed up with three years of being selected to the All-Big-Ten Conference team as well as NFCA All-Midwest Region team.

After graduating from Iowa with a BA in Accounting and a BS in physics, Stacey played for the National Pro Fastpitch League's Chicago Bandits for four years (2006-2010), and followed that up with 2 years of playing on the US National Softball team (2011, 2012).  She served as an Assistant Coach at her alma mater, Iowa, from 2011-2014.

May-Johnson joins Courtney Scott as an Assistant Coach on the Sandy Pearsall squad, along with Jay Miller as a Volunteer Assistant Coach, and Lisa Pinkston as the Director of Operations for Softball.

Swimming and Diving

I wanted to pick up a couple of past announcements that we have been remiss in not covering here at Cardinal Couple.

Diving

Konzheng "KZ" Li has been added as a Diving Coach for the UofL Swimming and Diving team.

KZ has previous Head Diving Coach experience for college teams at Michigan, Minnesota, and George Washington where numerous of his divers earned conference championships, and made NCAA championship appearances.  Several divers under his tutelage have earned NCAA championships as well.

Li has also coached in Australia, and has served as a coach or head coach of some 20 US National Teams, including for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

KZ's personal diving resume sports more than 50 international diving competitions, three of which were appearances in the Olympics with the Chinese National Team, including his very own Olympic medal, a bronze earned in 1984 in Los Angeles.

Li replaces the retiring Mike Zehnder.

Swimming

Also under Arthur Albiero, Associate Coach Ryan Wochomurka has been promoted to Associate Head Coach and Men's Recruiting Coordinator.

Wochomurka has been with the Cardinal program for seven seasons.  Ryan is an alumnus of Auburn, and was a member of the US National Swim Team from 2002-2004.

Monday Cardinal Couple -- Sandy's Laundry Day

MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE


(Staff Columnist Sandy Walker appears a daily earlier than normal this week, due to some creative scheduling to fit Cardinal Women's Basketball and her column today focuses on several of the team's schedules as well.)

Today’s Focus Is On Many Small But Important Laundry Loads.

Now that I am back from my travels to New Orleans and back I find that I had so much laundry that it has taken awhile to sort through it all which includes a picture of the Cardinal Faithful at the top of the column. LIC4!

                                                         BASKETBALL

Formula for a Louisville Win at Providence  

On a night when Sara Hammond was not having her best game others stepped up to create such a balanced attack that Providence could not shut Louisville down by focusing on only one.  Note: Shoni Schimmel with 17 Bria Smith scored 17 Nita Slaughter 12 and Monique Reid 11.

                               University of Connecticut ahead

Be sure to check the site tomorrow for Quentin and Paul’s planned in depth pre-game report regarding Tuesday’s away game at Hartford against UConn.   It is reported to be available on the CBS Sports Network at 9 PM.

                                               Bearcats to visit the KFC YUM! Center

We have to wait until this Friday to again see the basketball women in person.  They will be playing Cincinnati at the home beginning at 7:00.   The fans have been great with almost 10,000 at last mid-week week’s game against Rutgers but it is time for us to step it up.  This week the holidays are behind us and the game is not on a weekday night so this is the time for Louisville to challenge Tennessee for the #1 school for fan attendance.

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GOLF

UCF CHALLENGE

Women’s Golf is gearing up for a February 10-12 winter challenge located in Sorrento, FL. while later  in the month they will strain themselves to spent time in Miami Lakes, FL so they can participate in the Sir Pizza Challenge.  A trip to Hawaii follows in March.   Congratulations to the team’s scheduler!  I am sure their future recruits are taking note and just in case they are I found a woman’s golf recruiting form at http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-golf/spec-rel/lou-w-golf-recruit-form.html.

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LACROSSE

The Lacrosse team’s scheduler should confer with the golf team’s person  for instead of suffering through Florida and Hawaii  like their fellow Louisville athletes, instead, in less than a month, they begin their schedule here at the U of L LaCrosse Stadium on Feb. 10^th, 16^th and 23 against Canisius, Ohio State then Old Dominion.  Coach Kellie Young enters her 6^th season as head coach.

(Editor's note)

Lacrosse is a sport that several of us here at CARDINAL COUPLE haved vowed to learn more about this season. Our current plans are to send Sandy to a lacrosse boot camp and have her go through the day-to-day practices and activities that the players in training participate in. We'll probably have Timmy the Intern and a EMS staffer or two accompany her. In our never-ending quest to provide you the best in Louisville womens' athletics, we feel this is a novel idea and ground breaking.

We just haven't told her about it yet...


http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-lacros/mtt/young_kellie00.htmlCoach.

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TRACK

Fortunately for the track team, indoor arenas not only exist but are scheduled for their January 25-26 participation in the IU Relays being held at Bloomington, Indiana and in the Rod McCravy Memorial being held at Lexington, KY.  Without the indoor arenas, imagine the hurdlers in full snow bunny outfits where all of the hurdles are knocked over by their bunny feet shoes.  Instead, they have posted three wins and hit 18 Big East qualifying marks on the final day of the Kentucky Invitational, which was last Saturday.   Details of the meet are available at http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-track/recaps/011213aaa.html.

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TENNIS

Xavier and Morehead State arrive in Louisville for a match at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center this Sunday, January 20 with Southern Illinois and Miami of Ohio following on Saturday the 26^th.  They keep a pretty busy schedule through February with the Big East Championships set for Mid-April.   You can check out their complete schedule at http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-tennis/sched/lou-w-tennis-sched.html.  They go into this season for “the first time in program history”, with two players ranked in the top 100 going into the dual match season.   Those players are Junior Rebecca Shine and junior teammate Julia Fellerhoff ranked No. 84 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).

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SWIMMING AND DIVING

Our swim and diving team has only 4 events left before the Feb 27 Big East Championships at Indianapolis.  They swept visiting BIG EAST rival Cincinnati Saturday afternoon at the Ralph Wright Natatorium. The Cardinal men won 184-100 and the Cardinal women won 188-104.  All but 1 of the upcoming matches are away starting in Dallas but on the January 26^th they will be in Lexington Kentucky before a final match against Indiana is held at the Ralph Wright Natatorium on February 1.

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SOFTBALL

The softball team scheduler seems to have split allegiances with that of the golf and Lacrosse teams folks.   They open the season Feb 8th. in Las Vegas and will then spend time in Jacksonville, Florida for games on the 15^th, 16 and 17^th.   The women will play Stony Brook, Bethune Cookman, Ohio State, Jacksonville, and again against Stony Brook.  They next show a split decision of scheduling with games at Ulmer Stadium on February 22, 23 and 24 in the Cardinal Classic.

Feburary in Las Vegas, Jacksonville or Louisville can be hit or miss on the weather. Here's hoping for blue skies and sunny days for Sandy Pearsall's squad. 

didyouknowthatPearsallistheonlyheadsoftballcoachinthehistoryoflouisvillesoftball?thecalifonianativeplayedcollegeballatoregonstaeandstillthrowsbattingpractice