Cards Field Hockey, Volleyball, Women's Soccer get Sunday wins -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS SWEEP SUNDAY IN WOMEN'S SPORTS

A good day for Louisville women's sports as the Cards Field Hockey, Volleyball and Women's Soccer all got wins on Sunday. Here's how it happened...

FIELD HOCKEY

The Cards Field Hockey squad was in Washington, DC to face American University and Rylie Wollerton tallied two goals in a Louisville Sunday afternoon 3-1 win over the Eagles. 

The Cards actually started this one trailing, when American got a goal with 5:34 remaining in the first quarter off their first penalty corner attempt of the season. The lead did not last long, though...as UofL roared back with a score a minute later when they drew a penalty corner, Izzy Bianco's shot was stopped by the AU goalkeeper, but Sophia Parker was there to rebound  the miss and stick it in the net. The score was Parker's second of the season. 

The two squads battled to a scoreless second quarter, each getting a shot on goal. The respective goalkeepers got stops on the attempts. 

Louisville took the lead for good with seven minutes gone in the third quarter. Rylie Wollerton collected a loose ball off a defender's stick and sent it into the net. The quarter ended with the Cards holding a 2-1 lead. 

UofL added an insurance score in the fourth quarter.  They drew a penalty corner with about ten minutes remaining in the contest and Izzy Bianco sent a shot to the right side of the goal, Wollerton reached out her stick and deflected the ball into the net. It was now 3-1..and the teams remained scoreless the rest of the contest. 

VOLLEYBALL

Next, we travel from Washington to downtown Louisville.

The VolleyCards...#6 (for now) in the nation brought in #15 Tennessee for a Sunday afternoon match downtown at the YUM! arena and a nice sized crowd was in atendance to see UofL take a three-game sweep over the Volunteers.  25-14, 25-22 and 25-20 were the scores in the sweep.

Louisville hit an impressive ,371 in the match and had seven aces and 45 kills... to go to 2-0 on the season. They got a huge effort from Sofia Maldonano-Diaz with 11 kills and Reese Robins hit .727 for the match and added eight kills, Anna DeBeer finished with nine kills for the Cards. 

The Vols could only muster .151 hitting from the hardwood and drop to 0-2 on the season. 

Louisville men's basketball coach Pat Kelsey took the first serve yesterday

(We were expecting Jared Anderson photos for VB and WSOC, but had not received them at the time of publication, We will add them when they arrive).

Note from Jared: the photos were added to the Cardinal Couple Dropbox late last night after several hours of editing from volleyball and women's soccer back-to-back.

WOMEN'S SOCCER

Finally, we end up Sunday evening at the south end of the Belknap campus 

Louisville women's soccer was in the familiar venue of Dr. Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium Sunday night for a match against the Evansville Purple Aces. The kickin' Cards booted their way to a 3-0 win. 

It was a scoreless match for the first 10 minutes or so, before UofL got their first goal...Karsyn Cherry set up MacKenzie Geigle and she did the honors in scoring the match's first goal. With 8:03 remaining in the first half, Louisville struck again, this time it was Cherry with her fourth goal of the season, aided by an assist from Brooke Dardano. The first half ended with the Cards holding the 2-0 edge and a 12-0 shots advantage over the visitors. 

Louisville recorded their final tally when Geigle picked up her second score of the game on a feed from Gianna Angelilio thirteen minutes into the second half.

The Cards go to 4-0-2 on the season and have matched the number of wins they had in 2023. Due to post-game technical issues in the press box and with StatBroadcast, we did not conduct a post-game interview with coach KFD or a player, Not sure who Case and Jared would have chosen, I would have suggested Geigle, but...oh well, there will be other chances to do these later in the season.  

 . 

Paulie

Hermann will not resign

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Despite allegations, Hermann not considering resigning

No quit in Julie.

"I never considered withdrawing because I feel very qualified to lead Rutgers into the future and into the transition into the BIG TEN," Hermann stated in a conference call yesterday with reporters.

She also denied having knowledge of a letter written by the 15 Tennessee players on the 1996 volleyball team when she was head coach of the Vols.

"My former boss at Tennessee never heard of it and I never heard my former players make the allegation. Rutgers officials have talked to me about it in recent days. I was an intense coach and may have made a few mistakes handling my team. I have matured since then. All of my life has prepared me to lead this organization. Whatever mistakes you make as a young person, you've got to learn from them and go and grow. It is my intent to go to Rutgers with this vast experience of super highs and super lows and lead what I hope is an outstanding program into the BIG TEN."

 Other items she touched on during the 10 minute call:

- Hermann said that the company that vetted her for the Rutgers job did ask about a lawsuit file by one of her assistant coaches over a job termination.

- She believes she can raise funds despite what has happened.

- She denied name calling, specifically when asked about calling the players "whores".

"That's not part of my vocabulary...Here's what I would say. Am I an intense coach? Absolutely an intense coach as many coaches are. But, there is a big canyon between being super intense and abusive, and this was not an abusive environment for these women. Was it challenging? It was incredibly challenging. Was I aware that there were players that were unhappy? I was aware of that at the end of the season and I was unhappy."

Rutgers President Robert Barchi stands behind Hermann, saying she was the best of the 63 candidates interviewed for the job. He commented also that

"We remain confident that we have selected an individual who will work in the best interests of all our student athletes, our athletic teams and the university."

So, there it is. Julie isn't planning on leaving and the head of Rutgers University isn't planning on asking her to. Only the university's board of governors can withdraw Hermann's appointment.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie is touring the New Jersey shore today with Barack Obama to see the rebuilding that's been done in the area after Hurricane Sandy and probably won't turn his attention to Rutgers until tomorrow. Although Christie can't terminate the appointment, he does have several ways of applying pressure. He does appoint six of the boards 11 voting members and can perhaps threaten to cut the school's funding or refuse to renominate a member of the board who doesn't support his view. It is unknown whether Christie would use any of these methods.

We asked for answers yesterday and we got some.



We, too, are satisfied that Hermann can do a great rebuilding job at Rutgers and if the Julie Hermann we saw at Louisville is allowed a chance to "do work"...it will be good work and will help restore Rutgers as a viable and powerful athletic program.

To paraphrase the song written by the Staple Singers back in 1971:

"Get out the way and let the gentle(woman) do her thing."

RESPECT YOURSELF


Respect. It begins with the respect and confidence in your own abilities and accomplishments. Ms. Hermann has that.


Hermann has shown the nation (and UofL) that she deserves and has earned the respect for her accomplishments. Sure, there are battle scars. The difference is that she has picked herself up off the mat and is still willing to fight...and win.

We're in her corner and think that she'll take the contest.

( Parts of today's column are from lehighvalleylive.com)


( Editor's note:  It should be clearly noted here that the opinions in this column may not necessarily reflect those of all the writers and staff at CARDINAL COUPLE. They are Paulie and Sonja views in this article. We have received different viewpoints from readers, former CARDINAL COUPLE contributors and writers and anonymous e-mails and commenters. )


-Paulie


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