International Volleyball - Sunday Cardinal Couple

 NORCECA Final 6

sfia Maldanado Diaz

Please don't ask me why the event is called "Final 6" as it's pretty much just one of many NORCECA tournaments.  A few weeks ago they held the NORCECA Final 4 with an overlapping but different set of teams.

In any case, the event is about to wrap up, with just the Championship and Bronze medal matches still to be competed today.

The Cards have four rooting interests in the overall tournament.  As was covered previously, Elena Scott and Cara Cresse are competing with Team USA.  Additionally, Sofia Maldonado Diaz is continuing her representation with the Mexican National Team, while former Cardinal, and Cardinal Forever, Wilma Rivera is continuing her role with the Puerto Rican Team.

 

Maldonado Diaz, is transferring to UofL from Arizona but due to national team commitments hasn't  made it to campus, yet.  Of course, the last time we had a 5th year transfer coming in late due to national team commitments was Raquel Lázaro who was busy playing for Team Spain, and she worked out pretty well for us.

Team USA came out atop Group A by defeating both Mexico and Canada.  Mexico beat Canada to be the other team to advance to the elimination stages.  In Group B the hosting Dominican Republic came out on top with Puerto Rico being the other team to advance.  Those results mean that the US play Puerto Rico last night while the Dominican Republic played Mexico.

The US and Dominican Republic won their matches last night, advancing to the championship match today, while Mexico and Puerto Rico will face off for the Bronze.

Scott and Cresse have only seen limited time on the floor, but have played well in the time that they have had.  I will argue that at least Scott should be seeing more time on the floor.  The other libero on the team is Lexi Rodriguez (Nebraska), who, unquestionably is a good libero...but Scott is better in my opinion.  When you add in Scott's undeniably better ability to be a "backup setter", it's clear to me that she should be getting more minutes on the floor.  Similarly, with Cresse, in addition to being the equal of the other middles on the squad she is clearly a superior server to them, and given that libero's can't serve in international play, good serving middles are extremely valuable.  But USA Volleyball, in their infinite wisdom, decided to put a second year Men's Volleyball head coach in charge of the team, and his perceptions and choices seem to be a bit different than mine.  (There's a rant to be shared here about the extreme political nature of getting playing time with USA Volleyball, but I'll skip that for now.)  Come on USA Volleyball, do better.

You can watch the championship match with Cresse and Scott on Youtube this evening at 7pm.  Youtube's search function has not worked well to surface the live videos from this event, but I have found success searching for "NORCECA Final 6 women 2024 live".  The bronze medal match, which will feature Maldonado Diaz and Rivera, will begin at 5pm.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

The CCRHP had a foursome yesterday, with Case, Jared, Paulie, and myself teeing it up.  Mostly we talked about basketball, and how we expect this squad, with lots of new faces, to come together and gel.  We did sprinkle in some news from other sports, including some of the above Volleyball material.

Find it at it's Spotify home: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/A-Cardinal-Couple-Quiz-e2lf2lh

-- 

JMcA

A Fairly Quiet Saturday for Women's Sports -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

A Quiet Saturday

Not much going on for the sports we cover heavily here at Cardinal Couple.  There was, what I think can best be described as a kicking and punting exhibition in Charlotte on the guy's side, for the women, only Swimming and Diving as well as Track and Field were in action.

We have no updates from the water side, but a few notable results from the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center, where Louisville seems to be poised to do well in jumping events this year.

Synclair Savage picked up a silver in the long jump, while Sophia Day got her college career started with a win in the triple jump.  Autumn Bell and Riley Berger got 3rd and 4th.

Jenna Hensley won the high jump, with another freshman, Aubrey Lane getting her college career going with a 5th place finish.

Kiyah Yeast took 2nd in the women's 60m, with Sinclair Savage right behind in 3rd.  Olivia Jenkins took the 5th spot.

Volleyball Host Settled

After Friday's Volleyball win over Western Michigan, you might have noticed that none of the coverage said much about where the Sweet 16 match would be played.  That's because we didn't know for sure!  There were still 2nd round matches being contested yesterday, and among them was Pitt vs USC (Southern California).

Hosting for Regionals goes to the highest seeded team remaining in the region after the first two rounds are completed.  UofL is the two seed in the region, and Pitt is the one seed, meaning, if USC had upset Pitt - an unlikely, but not unthinkable, idea - the hosting would fall back to Louisville.

Alas, that didn't happen, USC did win the first set of the match, but Pitt hunkered down and got it done in four.  So Pitt will be hosting at the Fitzgerald Field House, and Louisville will have the first match of the day, against three seed Creighton, at noon on Thursday.

Women's Basketball Gameday

A bit of an early start for the Walz crew, with a noon tip vs North Carolina A&T.

Walz was spotted, along with Dani Busboom Kelly, in Charlotte yesterday for the punting and kicking exhibition, but apparently traveled there and back in a private craft, making the travel time reasonable for him to get a pretty good night's rest in his own bed last night.

NC A&T should prove a good competitor for UofL to continue to congeal this aggregate roster.  The progress so far has seemed to be pretty good, but some more mid-major level competition to tune and hone the rough spots will surely be welcome.

(The annual "baby race" is today at halftime !) 

We can't take the Aggies completely for granted, they sport a 3-3 record with the sort of results you would expect from this sort of mid-major.  They sport a beat-em-down win over Guilford College (114-41), and narrower wins over Wake Forest (56-51) and Liberty (56-47).  Loses are to Georgia by a respectable 59-71 margin, Saint Mary's College of California (65-73), and UT Arlington (76-87).

They have four players scoring in double digits per game.  Maleia Bracone leads the way at 12.3 with Jordyn Dorsey right behind at 12.2.  Chaniya Clark, and D'Mya Tucker come in at 11.8 and 11.5.  Don't expect Clark to be an outside threat, being 6'4" she'll likely spend most of her time posted up, but the rest can hoist them from range with some effectiveness.

ACC Network Extra has the coverage on this one, but of course Nick and Courtnee can be found on the radio (or a radio stream) if your preferences run that way.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

(all but Daryl were on the podcast)

A surprise foursome on the show yesterday as Jared was able to pop in and participate from...somewhere in the Carolinas.

Basketball and Volleyball, I'm sure you'll be surprised to hear, were the topics du jour.  Good discussion for both as we recap'ed past events and discussed what was ahead.  We did talk about what then were the different possibilities for volleyball hosting in the Regionals that hve since been settled, and more.

Check it out:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Volleyball-Advances-to-Sweet-16-e2cnfnc

-- 

JMcA

Volleyball Drops a Close one, WBB Today -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Drops a Close Contest

Volleyball couldn't quite get over the hump and close out the contest in front of a raucous crowd of almost 9,000 in the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh.

Pitt achieved the reverse sweep, 25-19, 26-24, 24-26, 21-25, 15-17.  With three sets including bonus points, you know it was a close one, also notice that both teams scored the same number of overall points, fitting given just how evenly matched these teams have been over the past years.  Even the Pitt pre-match hype video highlighted just how evenly matched these teams have been over the years, from conference championships (and a lot of those being co-championships), All-Americans, Final Fours, and more.

Pitt got the crowd going from the start, with a 3-0 lead to start out the first set, but it quickly settled into a back and forth with neither team even being able to gain a comfortable lead throughout the match.  The Cards were able to string together a couple of small 3-0 runs late in the first set to eek out the largest set win of the match, mostly silencing the crowd.

While they wouldn't get the initial 3-0 run, Pitt again looked to be in-charge early in the second set, using a 4-0 run to claim a 7-2 lead.  Louisville would return the favor with Brigitta Petrenko at the service line, closing down the Panther lead 8-7.  Pitt edged out a bit more lead over the ensuing few points, getting to 15-11 before a series of 17 straight side outs, fast forwarded the set to 23-19 with no effective change in the lead.  Even that was short lived, however, as UofL would only get two points on Pitt hitting errors before Pitt would get to set point at 24-21.  No lead would be safe in this match, however with Louisville ripping off a 5-0 run with Elle Glock serving, to again silence the crowd and take the second set win.

After the break, UofL had to feel like they had a slight edge in a battle for the ages, and a 5-2 lead in the third set supported that, but neither team would be able to get a lead greater than three points in the third.  Pitt got their first set point on a UofL serving error, but UofL would hold it off with an Aiko Jones kill before Pitt would get the next two for their first set win.

In the fourth, Pitt would put together a 6-0 run to take a 14-10 lead and putting Louisville on the backfoot.  The Cards would claw their way back into it getting back to within one point at 21-22, but Pitt scored three straight to tied the match at 2-2 and forcing the fifth set sprint.

I suspect Pitt was very aware of the last five-set match between these two teams in last year's National Semifinals that Louisville won by a 15-2 margin.  And up to the side switch, it looked like it might be another lopsided margin...not 15-2 lopsided, but with an 8-4 Louisville lead at the switch, you could imagine the Panthers were not feeling great.  Pitt would put together a four point run to make it a new ballgame at 10-10.  Again, the team would exchange side outs, advancing the scoreboard to 14-14 with no meaningful change of fate for the teams.  With about the closest thing you can get to sudden death in volleyball, Pitt would get the next point the 15-14 lead, before Louisville would again hold off the match point on an Aiko Jones kill before Pitt would go on to win on a pair of Louisville attack errors.

Louisville lead the match in just about every statistical category including hitting percentage at .315 vs Pitt's .265.  The only stat category that Pitt won was service aces at 5-3.  But, yet, Pitt emerged the victor because it's about sets won, not points won, or blocks, or digs, or any other stat.

With .404 hitting at 29 kills, Anna DeBeer definitely wasn't "Not Found",  and Charitie Luper was a not far beyond with 24 kills to hit .327.  Cara Cresse and Aiko Jones each contributed eight kills.  Phekran "PK" Kong was a factor at the net with a solo and five shared blocks.  Elena Scott, unsurprisingly, led with 24 digs, but DeBeer wasn't far behind with 17, Luper claimed 13, and Aiko Jones picked up 10.

So Louisville is likely out of contention for the conference championship.  The current standings show us with the same number of wins as Pitt and Florida State at the top of the standings, but they each have a game in hand.  Pitt doesn't have a complete cakewalk to the end of the season with Miami on Wednesday, though the Panthers are clearly the favorites to win that one.  Once that hurdle is cleared, then they get a Syracuse team on Friday that is winless in conference, and nearly winless overall to coast across the line.  Florida State has already gotten over their Miami hurdle, leaving only North Carolina, and Notre Dame which really shouldn't be challenges for Florida State.  All of this means it's likely that Pitt and FSU end the season as co-champions.

The Cards still have a challenge on the schedule, with Georgia Tech coming to LNFCU on Wednesday at 5pm, where they will be looking for a touch of revenge over the Yellowjackets.

Basketball vs Bucknell

Basketball gets a bit of a later start than usual, tipping at 4pm due to national TV coverage on the ACC Network, against the Bucknell Bison.

Bucknell arrives at the KFC Yum! Center with a pair of losses, and a single win.  Penn State and Temple both beat up on the Bison, with Temple getting a 24 point win, 77-53, while Penn State completely dominated them with a 43 point margin, 94-51.  The Bison are coming in to today's game off of their only win, against Fairleigh Dickinson, 49-44.

We've talked about the question marks with the Louisville team in the leadup to the season, particularly with regards to all of the "new" faces on the team that would need time to gel together.  It appears as if they are doing so quickly, and today should be another game to help that process along.

As mentioned, this is a 4pm start on ACC Network linear and streaming.  If you pull it up on the TV, you'll get Sam Ravech on play by play, and Kelly Gramlich for color...not a bad pair in my estimation, but of course you can also turn to the radio on 970am and get the excellent call of Nick Curran with Courtnee Walton for play by play.

(TODAY'S PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON)

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

(HOW COME I NEVER GET INVITED  TO BE ON THE PODCAST?) 

There was no live component yesterday as I was up in the Steel City hoping to cheer the Cards on to victory against Pitt, alas.  But Jared, Case, and Paulie held down the fort, got the recording despite some technical challenges, and brought some great coverage wrapping up Field Hockey for the year, and covering the ongoing situations with Volleyball and Basketball.

Check it out at:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/WBB-Wins-Big-and-Volleyball-Looks-for-a-Big-Win-e2c3qv9

-- 

JMcA

Volleyball Gets the Spotlight - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Volleyball in Action Alone

Did anyone recognize the player in the first picture of yesterday's article?  Akela Yuhl played with the Cardinals from 2017 to 2019.  A DS walk-on, she didn't see a whole lot of playing time, but filled in at times and found some success.  After she finished her junior year with the volleyball team, Akela did graduate with her undergraduate degree from UofL.  I did find where she is or at least was last year, working with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab while she was working on her Masters through the University of South Alabama.  Dauphin Island is a barrier island south of Mobile Bay in Alabama. 

Her major at UofL was Biology, and it appears that her interest in Marine Biology has continued and has served her well, including being part of a project to study the Mobile-Tensaw-Apalachee River Delta.  A couple of links about the project https://www.disl.edu/news/2022/auburn-disl-collaboration-to-assess-mobile-tensaw-apalachee-delta/ https://www.disl.edu/news/2022/auburn-disl-collaboration-to-assess-mobile-tensaw-apalachee-delta/

We, of course, wish Akela the best as she continues her work and no doubt will contribute to the betterment of our world.

OK, back to the current team, however.  After Friday's loss to FSU, and as excellently outlined by Case in yesterday's CC article, the Cards find them back in a four-way tie atop the ACC conference.  The Cards don't completely hold their own destiny in their hands as they don't have another matchup in the works with FSU, but with upcoming matches still against both Pitt and Georgia Tech, they do have the ability to knock two of the teams out of that four way tie.  They do hold their own destiny in their hands insofar as winning out the rest of the season will at least result in the Cards taking down yet another co-championship in the ACC.

So that campaign begins today.  The Cards have made the relatively short trek over to Georgia Tech's travel partner, Clemson, and will square off against the Tigers at 1pm today in Jervey Gym with coverage on the ACC Network Extra.

Clemson is roughly in the mid-pack of the ACC, a significant upgrade over even just a handful of years ago when they were one of the perennial doormats of ACC Volleyball.  The Tigers did play UofL's travel partner Notre Dame Friday which they won in four sets, with a few bonus points in the first set.  That puts Clemson on a three game win streak, but, with all due respect, the competition hasn't been that great.  Notre Dame, Boston College, and Syracuse are three of the bottom five teams in the conference.

They did take UNC five sets before the Tarheels took the win, and they beat a pretty decent Miami team in Jervey Gym about three weeks back.  The Tigers' out of conference schedule didn't feature much in the way of top-flight teams, other than Florida which took the match in a sweep.

So, don't expect a top-level volleyball match today.  The Cards should win this without too much trouble, but "should" is doing a lot of work there as we've seen UofL really take their foot off the accelerator at times when playing "lesser" teams.

It's always a challenge for a team to come out and play at their top capabilities when the competition isn't as strong, but that's what I really want to see from this Cardinal team today.  It's late enough in the season that they should be a well oiled machine, and in many ways they are, but we've seen too much "let down" at times that make games that shouldn't really be competitive become rather more exciting than expected.

The Clemson offense seems to be fairly well balanced, with Aźyah Dailey, and Kennedy Wagner leading the way from the left side with 2.3 and 2.4 kills per set.  Kate Simington and Adria Powell are 6'2" and 6'4" presences in the middle.  Admittedly, PK and Cara Cresse are taller still at 6'4" and 6'6", but the tall trees in the middle on both sides of the net should make for an interesting battle at the net.

McKenna Slavik will run the show, and at 6'1" holds her own in blocking with about .4 blocks per set.  I assume Devan Taylor will be in the libero jersey, or at least looking at the Clemson season stats, that's who I would put in that role.  She's racking up 3.6 digs per set which is still behind the 4.5+ that Elena Scott keeps alive, but is still a respectable number.

So there is some talent there that needs to be game-planned for, and I'm sure the Louisville coaching staff has done so, now it's up to the players to come out and play up to their potential to demonstrate that they can play at that level, regardless of the competition.

As mentioned, this one gets started at 1pm at Jervey Gym, and is viewable on ACC Network Extra.  Don't forget that Daylight Savings Time ended last night, so if you haven't changed your clocks, you should do so, and take the extra hour that you didn't realize you had to check your smoke detector batteries as well.

Field Hockey Selection Show

Field Hockey awaits their NCAA tournament fate tonight.  Consensus seems to say that they will be getting a bid, but with only 18 places in the tournament, it's not a given, and the quality of the draw will be a big question to be answered.

The Selection Show is at 10pm and will be streamed via the ncaa.com website.  I was unable to find a specific URL where it will be as of yet.

The "opening round" along with the "first" and "second" rounds will be played at campus sites on November 8th, 10th, and 12 respectively, with the semifinals and finals at Karen Shelton Stadium at UNC.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Case was back with Paulie and I yesterday for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast, and just in time to wrap up the season for Soccer, with a pretty serious discussion about whether KFD will be with us another year.  We also recapped a bit of Field Hockey's games in the ACC Championship, and whether their resume is strong enough to get a bid to the NCAA Tournment (consensus says, "yes").  And of course, we look at what went wrong for Volleyball Friday night, and what that means for the renewed logjam atop the ACC (imagine what it's going to be like with Stanford in the mix next year).

Check it out at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Field-Hockey-and-Volleyball-Fall-e2bfu8t

-- JMcA

WSOC downs Duke 1-0 -- FH and VB plays today -- ACC BBall Preseason Accolades -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL


Hello all and welcome back to the weekend!

We are flying towards the holidays it seems and the fall sports schedule is winding down.  The WSOC Cardinals finished up their season last night at Lynn Stadium.  It was kind of warm fall evening, 73 degrees at 7:30pm.   

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween weekend!  Louisville hosts Duke doubly this weekend with the WSOC squad downing the Dukies last night let's hope that momentum continues as the football program is also in town for a Saturday matchup on the gridiron.  


WSOC

UofL 1 - Duke 0

It was an excellent night on the pitch as Emma Hiscock nailed her 2nd game winning goal of the season with the assist from Hayley Howard for a 1-0 win for Louisville win to close out the season. It was a cross kick to the right side of the net right past Duke's Leah Freeman.  

It was the first time in program history beating Duke and it also ended the Blue Devil's post season hopes. Heading into the match, the Cardinals were 0-4-5 all-time against Duke.

Despite finishing with 15 shots and 5 corners, the Blue Devils were not able to put one in the net behind Erynn Floyd.  Louisville finished with 6 shots, 2 on goal and zero corners.   Floyd had 2 saves and secured the victory for the Cardinals as the Dukies really pushed to find an equalizer down the stretch to salvage their season.   

Duke's Grace Watkins and Kat Rader each finished with 4 shots, Watkins had 2 on goal and as a team, they finished with just about their best opportunity to score all night when a shot crossed in front of the slashing Mia Minestrella, but she realized too late that the shot was definitely theirs to take.  I am glad they didn't  -- it allowed the Louisville squad a victory over a Top 25 squad to end the season.  

We will see what the off season brings for this program and likely discuss together this weekend.  Postseason ACC and NCAA Tournaments are out of the picture, personnel changes are a possibility. 

Field Hockey

#12 Louisville will take on #13 Boston College Friday at 2 p.m. in Newton, Mass.
It'll be available on the ACCNX

Louisville enters the weekend with a 12-5 record after a pair of losses to #13 Syracuse and Appalachian State. The Cards and the Eagles are tied for fourth in the league with 2-3 records against ACC foes. 

Louisville leads the series record 6-5  with BC winning the last meeting on Oct. 28, 2023 4-1 at Trager Stadium.  BC brings an 11-5 overall record and a four-game win streak into the weekend following a 3-2 overtime win against Wake Forest last Friday.

Margo Carlin leads the team and stands third in the ACC with 12 goals and has dished out eight assists for 32 points.  Caroline Kelly carries a 1.27 goals against average and a .765 save percentage.



Volleyball

#4 Cardinals host Florida State Friday at 7 p.m. at L&N Federal Credit Union Arena and it's available on the ACCNX. 

Florida State is 15-7 overall and 9-1 in the ACC this season. They registered two home wins over the weekend, with a 3-0  sweep over Boston College (25-17, 25-19, 25-18) on Friday followed by a 3-0 sweep over Syracuse (25-12, 26-24, 25-19) on Sunday. The Seminoles went to five sets but lost to #3 Florida and #11 Georgia Tech at the time. 

Outside hitter Audrey Koenig leads the team in kills with 251 on top of 187 digs, while middle blocker Kiari Robey has recorded 176 kills and 87 blocks.

Head coach Chris Poole is in his 16th season at the helm, ranking as the second-winningest active Division I coach. He has guided the Seminoles to the NCAA Tournament in 13 of his 15 seasons, including 11 straight from 2009-2019.

SOFTBALL SCHEDULE CHANGE

The University of Louisville softball team will conclude its fall season with a doubleheader against Miami (Ohio) Friday at 7 p.m. at Ulmer Stadium. The fall finale was originally slated for Sunday, but was moved due to rain in the forecast. The event is free and open to the public.

ACC Pre-Season Accolades

Senior Olivia Cochran was named to the Blue Ribbon Panel Preseason All-ACC Team while transfers Jayda Curry and Kiki Jefferson were both named to the Newcomer Watch List.

The Hokies finished with 45 of 61 first-place votes and 1,116 points. Notre Dame, which claimed last season’s ACC regular-season title, finished second with 14 first-place votes and 1,052 points. North Carolina and Louisville each claimed a first-place vote and finished third and fourth, respectively. 

THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR PODCAST

Saturday brings another edition of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast. we know we'll be without Jared (in a wedding), Case (whereabouts sketchy) and maybe Daryl...but we'll still endeavor to bring you the joy and excitement off Louisville women's athletics.

11 a.m.  Go to:  https://www.youtube.com/@cardinalcouple2110/streams

As Always,

Go Cards 

~Daryl 

Conference Clashes - SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball vs Pitt Round 1

*Ding Ding* the bell rings, and it's a clash of the heavyweights underway last night at the KFC Yum! Center.  Louisville, thanks largely to the video editing prowess of Asaad Ali, has been playing on the Muhammad Ali imagery, and they did that again for this matchup, with a video analogizing the trio of matchups between Pitt and Louisville last season to the three boxing matches between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

Anna DeBeer getting ready to dent the floor

Pitt and Louisville, two of the top teams in the ACC, perennially, came together for their first match of this season at the KFC Yum! Center downtown in front of a crowd of 11,461.  No one making a serious assessment of this matchup expected an easy win for either team, and despite it being a 3-0 Louisville sweep, all of the sets were close, 25-21, 25-23, 25-22.

The crowd was in great form as the city of Louisville and UofL fans continue to learn just how much fun a great volleyball match can be.  And with a set break recognition of UofL volleyball alumnae, section 114 was about half filled with alumnae making for a real homecoming style atmosphere.

Aiko Jones demonstrating that she's a great 2nd
or 3rd option for setting.

The big question on many UofL fans' minds was which UofL squad would we see.  After suffering through a funk, as we talked about it on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast, between the Stanford match and the UNC match, would UofL come out the crisp fighting machine that started to come back together late in the UNC match?

Well, sort of.  Pitt started out with a 5-0 run in the first set and Louisville looked pretty inept early.  But the Cards dug deep and started 
matching Pitt side outs, and even, slowly clawing back some points.  The Cards wouldn't get the score back to square until 18-18, but Pitt only got a couple of side outs beyond that and wasn't able to hold serve at all, leading Louisville to the 25-21 win.

Cara Cresse says "Nope."  Elle Glock with the
block assist (but Cresse made the contact)

The second set didn't have a lead for either team larger than three points until Louisville was able to eek out to 21-17 on a kill by Charitie Luper.  A pair of points by Pitt brought the lead back within the three point margin where it would remain the rest of the set.

The crowd began to sense that this could be a Louisville sweep, they jammed out to Joker and the Thief, and they got rowdy, and another back and forth set ensued.  Louisville gained a two or three point lead and was able to maintain that lead through the whole set.  Pitt wasn't about to just go away, but just couldn't close the gap either with Louisville eventually getting that sweep of close sets.

Alumni weekend brought many great Cardinals
Forever, including Gwen Rucker and Brooke
Mattingly.

Anna DeBeer lead all scorers with 15 kills, with only a pair of errors on 29 attempts.  Credit Cara Cresse, Charitie Luper, and Aiko Jones with 10, 10, and 9 respectively.  Cresse only errored on one hit and with 14 attempts, hit a whopping .643, and hey, middle hitter assists and digs are always fun with Cresse getting one of each.

Overall, it appears that Cards are back and have flushed away funk.  They'll continue play Sunday vs Virginia at L&N FCU Arena.

Other Volleyball Tidbits

As for overall ACC standings, with Florida State taking their first defeat last night (in five sets) to Georgia Tech, the conference finds itself with a four way tie for for the top spot.  Pitt and Louisville are there, along with FSU and Georgia Tech.  The next set of teams all have three losses.

Congratulations to our Clemson friends with a big five set win over Miami last night.

UofL alumna Claire Chaussee is making a splash in pro play with Athletes Unlimited, playing in Arizona this year.  She's been picked near the top of the draft both weeks so far, and is currently sitting in 6th on the overall leaderboard of the league (after winning the MVP1 vote in last night's match).  She'll be joining the Grand Rapids Rise in the Pro Volleyball Federation when they start their inaugural season at the beginning of the year.

Field Hockey

Justine Sowry took the sticks, along with the players that use them, to Durham, NC for a matchup against number two ranked Duke.

Louisville got on the board first, but not until well into the third quarter.  Rylie Wollerton got a feed from Chloe Cuzzupe to score her second goal of the season.

Duke equalized in the last few minutes of the 3rd quarter and got the go-ahead in the fourth.

Louisville will come back home to the friendly confines of Trager Stadium for a game against 6th ranked Iowa on Sunday at noon.  A lose to 2nd ranked Duke probably won't hurt the Cards post season prospects much, but back to back loses, even to highly ranked teams, could start to raise some eyebrows, so it's important to Louisville to win this one.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

So we'll have a mixed bag of results to discuss on the CCRHP today.  Check it out on the livestream via Youtube starting at 11am on the Cardinal Couple Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@cardinalcouple2110

-- JMcA

Volleyball and Softball - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Volleyball and Softball Today

What's this?  Fall and Spring sports playing at the same time?  Dogs and cats living together?  Is it the apocalypse.

No, of course it's just exhibition play or Softball, but that doesn't make a trip out to Ulmer Stadium any less of a joy.

Let's start things off with yesterday's play.

Soccer Loses to Notre Dame

It was a pretty quick demonstration of how the game was going to go, less than three minutes into the game and 10th ranked Notre Dame opened up the scoring with a open break that gave Louisville goalkeeper Erynn Floyd basically no chance of a save.  The opening score was the only goal in the first half of the overall 3-0 affair.

Despite the missed first save, Floyd was a stalwart in goal, with eight total in the game, including a back-to-back pair in the 38th minute where Notre Dame was able to take a shot off the rebound of the first save, only to be stopped by Floyd again.

The Irish opened the scoring in the second half with a deflection of the post and shot off the rebound.

The last score of the game came off of a penalty kick in the 78th minute.

It doesn't get easier for the Cards, though they do return home to Lynn Stadium, their guest is 2nd ranked Florida State.

Volleyball

To today's action, then.  Volleyball is still on their road trip.  After the trip up to South Bend to beat Notre Dame three quick sets, they came back to the 'Ville, refreshed and repacked to head down North Carolina way to pay a visit to James T. Valvano Arena at William Neal Reynolds Coliseum and play NC State.

A quick perusal of the Wolfpack's schedule doesn't show us much in the way of signature wins or losses.  They did also sweep Notre Dame Friday and lost in four to Georgia Tech.  Neither are surprises, but do kind of fit NC State into the middle range of teams.  It's a bit early to judge much based on ACC standings with most teams having only played three conference matches so far, but NC State, at 2-1 in conference (a sweep of Clemson being the third match) puts them in a three way tie for fifth place behind undefeated Louisville, Pitt, Georgia Tech, and Florida State.

The out of conference loss for the Wolfpack is to Utah, who is typically a pretty good team, but this year?  Eh, I'm not impressed.

The Cards have another weekend, next week, in North Carolina where they'll pick up matches against the other Triangle schools, UNC, and Duke.  After that, they return home for a Friday night match that may very well be one of the premier matches across Volleyball this season, when Pitt comes to visit the KFC Yum! Center.

This NC State match will be served up at 4pm and it will be on the linear ACC Network.  Of course, streaming is an option as well.

Softball

Fall ball for the Holly Aprile squad today, as EKU treks up I-64 for the visit to play on Don Dobina field (does anyone else think of Bob Dobalina when they hear that name?) today starting at 1pm.

This is, as mentioned, exhibition play for Softball, which means we likely won't get much of a recap, or stats, or video, or much of anything else, really.  That's OK as Cardinal Couple does have plans to get in-person coverage of the event.

With a weather forecast of sunny and 85, it would be a fantastic day to get out and enjoy the ambiance of Ulmer Stadium.  I always find myself myself relaxed and refreshed after a visit.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

[THE STATION MAY BE GONE, BUT THE PODCAST LIVES ON}

A fearsome foursome on the CCRHP yesterday.  Case, Jared, Paulie and myself recounted the week of Soccer, Volleyball, and Field Hockey.  We also looked a bit forward, both for programs at UofL, and more broadly the prospects for professional sports teams in Louisville.

Check it out at:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Top-5-Volleyball-and-Field-Hockey-Squads-e2a02rd

for your weekly dose of Cardinal Couple inanity.

-- JMcA

Volleyball Wins Top 25 Matchup, Field Hockey Wins --SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Two Wins Yesterday

(photos by Jared Anderson)

Field Hockey

Well, we weren't expecting to recap a Field Hockey game today.  The 9am start time yesterday was certainly unusual, but it was definitely making the best of a challenging scenario.  Originally scheduled for a 5pm start on Friday, with scorching temperatures expected, the teams decided to push back the game until 7pm to get out of the heat of the day and direct sunlight.  Alas, storms rolled into the area right at 7pm, postponing the game.  Eventually the teams decided to call it for the evening and play the next day (yesterday).  UofL had planned yesterday as a travel day to head to Northwestern for today's game, so the game had to be played early...before UofL hit the road.

With the scene now set, UofL took the stage and delivered a solid performance, beating Northeastern 3-1.  Converting penalty corners has been the biggest bugaboo for this team the past couple of years, but all 3 scores were off of penalty corners, or at least a rebound shot from one.  Let's not say the penalty corner conversion issue is completely solved, the team had 12 attempts and only converted the 3, but that is improvement.

The first came five minutes into the game, with Julie Kouijzer getting the goal.  Aimee Plumb provided the insert, and Minna Tremonti the stop, for Kouijzer to fire home the goal.

Northeastern answered in the 2nd quarter, and the teams would go into halftime tied 1-1.

With no scoring in the 3rd quarter, the Cards would get it going quickly in the 4th.  Mia Duchars was on the insert for this one, with Lara Niebler handling the stop.  Aimee Plumb took the shot and got the goal.

Four minutes later, Aimee's younger, but not smaller, sister Chloe Plumb would get her Cardinals score career underway by deflecting an Emilia Kaczmarczyk shot into the goal.

Jared was there for the game and got postgame comments from Aimee Plumb and Coach Sowry

Coach Sowry

Aimee Plumb

The Cards are back in action today against the number two team in the country, Northwestern.  The game was originally scheduled for noon, but has been delayed slightly to a 3pm start.  I'm quite sure the harried UofL crew don't mind the delay.

Volleyball

The chaos train continued to roll through the Volleyball Top 25 in the opening weekend, but it didn't make a stop in Louisville as the #4 Cards were able to solidly beat the #21 Washington State Cougars in three last night.

Charitie Luper and PK blocking

Seven of the Top 25 lost Friday, with several more suffering that fate yesterday in what will likely result in rather drastic restructuring of the Top 25 rankings tomorrow.

In that context, the 4 vs 21 matchup took on major national significance, and nearly all eyes were on the ACC Network Extra to watch some of the best volleyball of the weekend.  The Cards took the win 25-19, 25-14, 25-23.

Steph Cantway, color commentator for the match on ACCNX last night, suggested that WSU is under ranked, and frankly, I agree.  The Cougars are a very good team, and likely to see a great deal of success in the fragmenting PAC-12.  I would predict a win, except they do need to get through Stanford to do that, and that will be a tall order.

Cara Cresse from the service line.

The Cards won every statistical category in the match, but most notably blocks at 5-1, and aces at 4-1.

Anna DeBeer led the team in kills with 17, with her fellow left side hitter Charitie Luper putting down 10.  Even more impressive is that DeBeer did that with only a single hitting error and on 29 attempts for a whopping .552 hitting percentage.  That's a high hitter percentage for a middle, PK hit .500 with six kills on 10 attempts with a single error, for comparison, but it is phenomenal for a left side.

Aiko Jones accounted for six kills on 20 attempts with but a single error for a very respectable .250.  Cara Cresse got the only solo block of the match, and joined in on a couple of others while PK, DeBeer, and Luper would all join in on a pair each.

Elena Scott tallied 16 digs in a performance that really should surprise no one that's been watching her play the past two years, but yet still manages to amaze.

Elena Scott one footed setting

If you go back and watch the replay of this one, and I heartily recommend that you do so, definitely check out the nearly minute long rally at 13-11 in the first set.  It starts with an Elena Scott serve, finishes with a Cara Cresse kill.  There's a good bit of awareness by Scott that I was particularly impressed with, though.  The first set for the Cards gets taken by Scott and she was standing just about on the 3 meter line.  As a libero, Scott is not allowed to overhand set from in front of the 3 meter line, so as the ball is arriving, you can see Scott lift her left foot off the floor, leaving her right in contact with the floor, and sets the ball with only one foot on the floor.  It's just an impressive bit of awareness and skill from Scott that is earning her chatter as being one of the, if not the, best libero's in the country.

DBK has, very uncharacteristically, lost all of her
coaches challenges so far this season.

Overall, from this match, as well as Friday night's, the balance of this team is impressive.  It's reflected in the stats sheet as well.  While we had definite go-tos last year, mostly DeBeer, and then Claire Chaussee later in the season, the depth and balance of the attack this year is noticeable.  That extends to setting and right side hitting.  When the coaching staff wants to have a quick chat with Glock in the setting role, they don't sub Brigitta Petrenko for her, instead they wait until she's about to rotate to the front row, and sub Reese Robins for her, and bring in Petrenko for Aiko Jones.  Essentially they shifted into a 6-2 offense briefly, keeping the 3-across attack across the front line, and then swapping back when they've had their chat with Glock and are ready to bring her back in.  That speaks to the depth at multiple positions to be able to do that.

UofL will be back in action this afternoon at 2pm against Wright State to wrap up The Cardinal Classic.  As is typical for UofL volleyball at home, it is a sell-out, and can be watched on ACC Network Extra.

Soccer In Action Today

Karen Ferguson-Dayes Soccer squad will continue to look for offensive production this evening at Dr. Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium, when Northern Kentucky University comes to play.  First kick is scheduled for 7:30pm and the forecast looks great for an evening out at Lynn stadium

This may not be a pushover game.  The NKU, in exhibition, tied UK 1-1, absolutely blitzed Shawnee State (Ohio) 8-0, and had a scoreless tie with Cincinnati.  They started the season with a 0-1 loss to Western Michigan, tied Bellarmine 3-3, and beat Miami (OH) 1-0.  The Norse aren't exactly set to go with the National Championship, but they are a respectful team, and given the offensive challenges we've seen from our squad, I could easily see this ending in a scoreless tie, or potentially worse.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Jeff and Case...30 years from now...carrying on without Paulie  

Case, Paulie, and I had a great discussion yesterday, with coverage of Field Hockey, Soccer and Volleyball as you might expect.  But we also had a chat about bikes in Northern European countries, and cargo bikes, and their usage, in particular.

You can check out the fun at anchor.fm or any reasonable podcast directory:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Volleyball-and-Field-Hockey-Open-Seasons-with-Wins-e28i5qo

-- JMcA

MORE PHOTOS FROM JARED

Elena Scott being everywhere, all at once

Elle Glock wins a joust

Kamden Schrand celebrates with Charitie Luper,
along with Elle Glock and Cara Cresse

Another on-target set from Elle Glock

Phekran "PK" Kong attempts to salvage a
misdirected set