WKU swept by Cards Volleyball -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS VOLLEYBALL DOWNS WKU IN THREE SETS

A big night for Louisville Volleyball,  down in Bowling Green. The Cards protected their #3 ranking with a straight set sweep of WKU 25-15, 25-19, 25-19. 

SET ONE

Louisville jumped out to a 8-3 lead on the Toppers and extended that to a 15-11 advantage at the media timeout break on a WKU setting error. It was 20-13 Cards on a Chloe Meester kill and the Cards took the win 25-15 on a WKU service error. 

SET TWO

The Hilltoppers scored the first four points of the second set. but UofL battled back to tie it at 5-5. The Cards built an 11-8 lead, but EKU rallied to tie it 12-12. Louisville regained the lead on a 3-0 run and led at 20-16 on a Chloe Meester kill. Louisville was up 24-17 but WKU cut that lead to 24-19 before Meester ended it with a kill to give the set to UofL 25-19.

SET THREE

The Cards took an early 5-2 lead on a Blackshear kill. WKU battled back to get within one at 9-8. The contest was still close at 15-12 after a Payton Petersen service ace, and the Cards increased that to a 19-12 edge. Louisville was ahead 24-17 before WKU made one last run, but a WKU service error gave UofL game, set and match 25-19. 

Blackshear and Chicoine led Louisville in kills with 12 and 11 each. 

Louisville faces UK next...in Lexington.  They'll play Sunday, Sept 20th. in Memorial Coliseum. It's scheduled for a 3 p.m. and ABC will have the feed. 

Cards VB to face WKU at WKU today -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 HILLTOPPERS ARE 5-4 COMING INTO THE LOUISVILLE MATCH

Louisville Volleyball travels to Bowling Green to face WKU today and the contest is, unfortunately..not going to be shown anywhere on cable except for ESPN+. That's right,kiddies..pay per view strikes again. 

The match is scheduled for 6 p.m. central time, which means 7 p.m. in Louisville. 

The Toppers are 5-4 and their losses have come to Oregon, Wright State, Ball State and EKU. They have defeated SEMO twice, Pepperdine, Wright State and James Madison. 

The WKU roster has a local talent that people in Louisville might remember. Camilla Adams came out of Providence...right  across the river from "The Ville".   

I'll probably follow the action on stat tracker and we'll have the report for you in our Thursday edition. 

paulie

Volleyball Travels To WKU For Mid-Week Match Up -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

A PAIR OF 3-0 SQUADS DO BATTLE IN DIDDLE WEDS. NIGHT

In what looks to be Louisville's toughest test so far in the early 2022 season, the Cards will face WKU in the Battle of i-65, or clash of the undefeated, on Wednesday night. E.A. Diddle Arena, also home of WKU basketball on "the Hill" will serve as the match-up locale for the Toppers and UofL.  These two last met in 2019, when Louisville took a tough 3-2 match in Bowling Green. 

It's a intrastate and an interstate battle. (drum roll...thanks, I'll be here two weeks)

Four current Cardinals were on that Louisville squad that played WKU in 2019. Nena Mbonu, Alexa Hendricks, Aiko Jones and Amaya Tillman. My guess is you'll see plenty of those four in tonight's match, which will be shown on ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET

Louisville holds an 18-0 advantage in the series between these two squads. 

The Cards began their season sweeping all three games in South Dakota, besting NKU, South Dakota and Missouri in straight sets. Louisville goes into the match as the #3 team in the nation, up one from last week. 

Here's a little on tonight's foe: 

WKU has also won their three games in straight sets this season, defeating Miami (OH), Bradley and Kansas City in the Bradley tournament in Peoria, IL. Paige Briggs and Lauren Matthews led WKU in kills with 32 each over the three gmes. Briggs is a 5'10" senior outside hitter out of Ortonville, MI, who played against Louisville back in 2019 and had 11 kills in the loss. Matthews is a 6'0" middle blocker out of Indianapolis who had 13 kills in the 2019 match against the Cards. 

The Toppers have two players out of the Louisville area. Cameron Mosely is a junior defensive specialist who attended Manual High School and Callahan Wiegandt is a freshman setter from Holy Cross. If the last name sounds familiar, "Callie's" dad John may be familiar to a few of you, he's the athletic director at Bellarmine. 

Another Callie, Callie Bauer is the setter for WKU, and she must be a pretty good one, she was named the C-USA Volleyball Player of the Week. She had 108 set assists in the three games at Bradley. She's a redshirt freshman out of Hudson, MI. 

WKU is coached by Travis Hudson, who is in his 28th season as WKU's head coach. 

One thing the Toppers do that I'd love to see Louisville start, is that they broadcast games on the radio. if you live in the Bowling Green area, you can pick up the call on ESPN Radio 102.7 I'm not sure how far that signal extends, but i might see if I can pick it up...I can sometimes pick up Louisville FM stations when I drive to Lexington. 

Louisville will most likely depend on the powerhouse hitters of Claire Chaussee, Aiko Jones, Anna DeBeer and Amaya Tillman that have gotten them to 3-0. Raquel Lazaro has been a pleasant surprise at setter and was named the MVP of the tournament in South Dakota. Elena Scott has played well at libero and the middle blocker spot has multiple contenders has and several Cards step in and do big things, Phekran Kong, Cara Cresse and Sydni Schetnan.and I've probably missed one or two... 

WKU tends to attend their clashes with Louisville on campus quite well, so there will be a lot of cheering for "Big Red's" squad in E.A. Diddle. Arena..$6 tickets are reported still available for the match and youth get in for $3. Bowling Green is about a 90 minute drive out of Louisville (if it isn't rush hour) down I-65 and the match action will probably be worth the time spent getting there (and coming back) if you decide to go. I'd probably go myself, but I have a previous thing scheduled today and can't back out of it. 

Coverage will be on ESPN +, as mentioned and if you are subscribed to the service, you can follow live stats at the gocards.com website. Our Jeff McAdams will be in attendance for the match, you probably won't get a lot of tweeting out of him, but he's worth the follow. I'll look for him charging down the stairs to lead the C-A-R-D-S cheer when WKU calls timeouts. 

Jared will have a recap of the match in Thursday's Cardinal Couple. 

paulie

Alyssa Cavanaugh -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Community Mourns Again

The regional volleyball community has taken another body blow in 2020.

Alyssa Cavenaugh, who played a major role in WKU's emergence as a significant team on the national level passed away Friday.

While this is tangential to UofL, many Cardinals knew Alyssa, and basically everyone greatly respected her.  Alyssa was diagnosed with Leukemia in 2018, and suffered the typical difficulties of cancer treatment, including chemotherapy.  She received a bone marrow transplant from her father in February of 2019 and had announced that she had been cancer free for a year in January of this year.

While not explicitly stated by the WKU release, apparently the cancer subsequently reemerged.

Alyssa was a Louisville native, playing her high school volleyball at Assumption.  Her tenure at Assumption overlapped with UofL players Katie George, Courtney Robison, Molly Sauer and Alexis Hamilton.

Tributes from many volleyball players have been shared, including numerous UofL players.

The Louisville volleyball community was rocked earlier this year with the deaths of Lesley and Rhyan Prather, along with Carrie and Kacey McCaw when their vehicle was struck head-on in Missouri as they were travelling to a volleyball tournament in Kansas City.

Lesley Prather's sister is Sarah Petkovic who is the Louisville Volleyball Director of Operations.  Both Lesley and Sarah were great volleyball players at UofL found in the record books using their maiden name, Drury.  Lesley, who was a Louisville firefighter, was recently posthumously awarded the Louisville Firefighter of the year award.

Carrie McCaw played college volleyball at Syracuse.  UofL and Syracuse held a special honor when they met in competition this year at L&N Federal Credit Union Arena October 9th and 10th.

It has been a challenging year for all sports, but volleyball in the region has had it particularly hard.

Our thoughts are with the Cavenaugh family, her friends, teammates, and others that knew her.  WKU was a great opponent in the 2019 season, with two competitive matches including one in the NCAA tournament.  Alyssa Cavenaugh was no small part of building the WKU program to that level.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

A slimmer crew for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast, with Case Hoskins and Daryl Foust away celebrating various birthdays.  Paulie, Jared, and myself held down the fort.

We explored the implications of Duke WBB cancelling all the rest of their season.  We also celebrated the academic success of several UofL women's sports teams. With Case being off, the broadcast has not been transferred to Anchor FM yet, so the You Tube version is the only one currently available.

Check it out below!

JMcA

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


   

Friday Cardinal Couple - Teams in Action...Coach Crum

Volleyball Preview

Just about all of the fall sports teams are in action this evening, with most on the road as Paulie covered yesterday.  Volleyball has a particularly busy weekend ahead, however, with three matches in two days.  A quick rundown on the opponents.

Western Kentucky University

When the ranking for the week in volleyball came out, WKU, who was in the "Receiving Votes" grouping in the preseason, had climbed into the top 25 ranking at 24.  This means that the first three matches of UofL's volleyball schedule this year will all be against top 25 teams.  Nothing like starting off with a bang.

In the opening weekend, The Hilltoppers traveled to the Miami (OH) Best Western Sycamore Inn Invitational...Longest. Tournament. Name. Evar...where they dominated the weekend.  Honestly, none of the other teams at the tournament were national powerhouses, with host Miami (OH), and other guests Northern Arizona, and Southern Illinois...though Southern Illinois does do well in the cool mascot championship, as the Salukis.  Only Miami (OH) was able to take a single set off of The HillToppers during the weekend.

WKU also had a mid-week game, on Tuesday for their home opener, this week, sweeping the Tennessee State Tigers...who do well in the nicest fans championship after a visit to Cardinal Arena in 2014.

The takeaway here is that WKU looks to have a good team, but they haven't really been tested, yet.

Kent State

Durango...the UNO mascot. A bull on ice...fascinating.

Saturday afternoon brings the Kent State Golden Flashes into the Arena.  They come into the
weekend with a 1-2 record.  The opening weekend in Iowa, they took two losses, first to the hosting Iowa State Cyclones, and then to the New Mexico Lobos...so many great mascots in this article, I love it...before finally winning one against the University of Nebraska Omaha Mavericks...ok, they can't all be great mascots.  All three of these matches were sweeps.

Take away here is that Kent State is an average team, they beat a let's-be-honest-they're-not-very-good Omaha team, but lost to a couple of decent, though not national powerhouse, teams in Iowa State and New Mexico.

Let's hope this match gives the Cards a chance to catch their breathe after such an intense start to the season, but they need to be sure not to overlook this team.

Illinois

Illinois is not ranked, and not even receiving votes.  A little surprising, perhaps Illinois is in for a bit of an off season, at least for their standards.

Chief Illiniwek...the Illinois mascot. Great leg extension! 

Typically in top 25 rankings, or at least in the discussions for them, Illinois is a team to always watch out for.  They are coming into this weekend undefeated at 3-0 after a weekend in Bozeman Montana, but they, like WKU, haven't really been tested, yet.  Only host Montana State was able to take a set off of the Illini, while Gonzaga, and Air Force could not. I don't care what their mascot is (The Falcons), as a tech geek and a plane and flying buff, Air Force is always cool in my mind, in any context.

This weekend will be the first real chance for Illinois to see how they match up with those that aren't almost completely ignored in the national volleyball conversation.  They'll be trying to tune their play for the rip-roaring Big 10 conference season coming up later in the season.  You can never overlook Illinois, but The Cards will be looking for some revenge after Illinois ended their season, in Cardinal Arena, in the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament.

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Matches in The Cardinal Classic get started today at 4pm with Kent State and Illinois, the Cards should play around 6:30pm depending on the length of the first match.  Saturday, Illinois and WKU start us off at 10:30am, with UofL starting around 12:30.  The evening session on Saturday will start at 5:30 between Kent State and WKU, with the UofL match starting around 7:30.

Don't forget the new security theatre limitations on carrying bags into Cardinal Arena, because UofL cares about you feeling safe, even if their processes don't actually make you any safer.

-- JMcA


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EDITOR NOTE:

 Our thoughts and concerns go out for Denny Crum and his family. Coach, who recently turned 80, suffered a mild stroke while on a fishing trip in Alaska. Fortunately, he received very prompt medical care and treatment and there is a chance he could be released this weekend. Fortunately, he was on the fishing trip with a doctor. 

The guy who gave us several near heart-attacks and strokes during his coaching career was reported to be alert, in good spirits, having conversations with his wife Susan who is at bedside with him and hoping the Cards will win their football game tomorrow night against Purdue. 

From all of us at Cardinal Couple....hang in there Coach and we wish you a full, complete and speedy recovery. They referred to you as "former" coach in a few media releases....but you'll always be "The Coach" of the University of Louisville basketball program to me and one of the reasons that I love being a Cardinal fan. I'll carry a rolled up racing form to honor you the rest of today....just like you had the rolled up program on the sidelines with you for so many years.

Two National Championships and still one of the coolest guys around. You got this.


Do you know the warning signs of a stroke? Or what to do if you or someone you are with has one? I urge you to refresh your knowledge on this issue. Minutes save lives and serious damage. Being able to check the signs is vital. 

Paulie