2018 Grades -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

PAULIE GRADES OUT 2018 SQUADS -- Part I

After a few days to enjoy the Holiday Season and Christmas, Professor Paulie has put the glasses back on, gone through the research and stats and has his final grades for six of the 2018 Louisville women's sports squads. 12 grades to administer and, in the cases where there are split seasons (basketball and others) to consider, I've used the "latest" season for evaluation. Today, we review Basketball, Cross Country, Field Hockey, Golf, Lacrosse and Rowing.

Let's get into it. The athletic listing is alphabetical. 

BASKETBALL  12-0 is as good as you can get in terms of a record. Some close calls, yes, and a couple of quarters that didn't exactly stand out as excellent, but, with the entire body of work so far in the 2018-19 season...there is a lot to like. With Asia Durr, Sam Fuehring, Arica Carter, Jazmine Jones performing as expected, a bit of pleasant surprise from Bionca Dunham and Dana Evans and the timely contributions from Kylee Shook, Lindsey Duvall, Mykasa Robinson, Seygan Robins and Jess Laemmle 

12-0 so far. Taking the Battle of the Bluegrass and achieving a #3 national ranking -- it's pretty easy to write an "A" at the top of this squad's body of work so far. 




CROSS COUNTRY In the 2018 part of their schedule, the name to know has been Dorcas Wasike. She won six of the seven meets she participated in and finished in the top 15 in the NCAA Championships. The Card Runners, as a squad, did not fare quite as well, although they did win the dual meet at Tennessee to start the season. Freshman Ivine Chemutal, like Wasike from Kenya, was usually next in line behind Wasike in Cardinal runners. The bestowing of ACC Runner of the Year and All-American to Wasike is quite impressive. 14th out of 15 in the ACC Championships, though, indicates a deeper and more talented roster is needed. We'll give out a "C" overall, with a "A" to Dorcas. 

FIELD HOCKEY When you have the best goalkeeper in the world on your roster, opponents tend to notice you. Participating in the ACC is no walk in the park. Ayeshia McFerran did what she could do to get the Cards back to the NCAA Tournament, but a 13-6 record and defeat to Wake Forest in the ACC Championships (that most likely turned the NCAA Committee's head negatively), kept the Cards out of the NCAA Tournament. Beside McFerran's defensive feats, Bethany Russ, Erica Cooper and Mercedes Pastor were the leading offense threats for Justine Sowry's flock. A 3-3 record in ACC competition ultimately marks the squad as "average" and that's the grade I'll assign them -- a "C". 


GOLF  In five events this fall, the Louisville women's golf squad competed with the best in the nation and won their final event of the fall. Out of the eight golfers on the squad who participated in events, Junior Lauren Hartlage scored the best for the Cards. Mairead Martin, a 5'2" freshman out of Ireland, had the second lowest average (5'2" -- can there be "Attack Yorkies" in golf)?  The third place finish in the fall final home event...The Cardinal Cup was good, but UofL was 19 strokes behind the winner (Illinois). Hartlage and Mairead are good enough to play about anywhere, the Cards need to find another strong "threesome" out of Thibodeau, Shah, Cason, Nay, Trockel and Bechadergue. In head coach Courtney Trimble's final season, the Cards are representing. Based on the win in Georgia and third place finish at the Cardinal Club -- I've decided on a "B-" for the "chip and putt" Cards. 

LACROSSE  In Scott Teeter's first season, a rebuilt and patched together roster had early success with a 5-1 record before the trials and rigors of the ACC schedule contributed to a final 6-11 record, 0-8 in the ACC. We saw the promise of the future in the Blalock sisters (Caroline and Sarah)  and strong efforts from Tessa Chad, Jillian Balog and Madison Hoover. The season, basically was a "mulligan" (to use a golf term) because of a shortened roster and lack of experience...but the Cards showed fight with hard-earned wins at Cincinnati and Mercer -- plus home victories against Marquette and Vandy. 2018 could have been a whole lot worse, given the situation Coach Teeter walked in to...so I'll assign a "C-" here after considering all this group had to go through. 


ROWING   Derek Copeland's rowers hit the water for three fall events, plus the Red and Black Regatta. They won the prestigious fall "Head Of the Hooch" in Chattanooga -- getting Championship "4" and "8" first places against traditional powerhouses Alabama, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. The Rivanna Romp saw the Cards finish second in both "4" and "8" competition...losing to the incredible Virginia squads in Virginia. We see a Louisville squad that competed well against the best the nation as to offer east of the Mississippi and can see our way clear to handing out a "B" to the women of the water. 

We'll grade out women's soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field and volleyball soon. I'll offer the grade assignments for these final six to either Jared, Case or Jeff. 


paulie
xxxxx



                                                       ###############

Tuesday Cardinal Couple

The Ridiculously Early Worldwide Season Analysis

The fall season for sports is barely underway for soccer and not officially underway for field hockey and volleyball yet at all, but we have had a chance to see all of these teams on their respective fields of play, so it's time for a ridiculously early analysis of what we've seen.

Field Hockey

Justine Sowry's stick squad has two exhibition competitions to base our observations on.  First a Saturday mid-day tilt against Iowa, who finished last season in 18th in the RPI, missing the 19 team cut for the NCAA tournament.  Nonetheless, the Hawkeyes traditionally have put up some reasonable competition, but it wasn't to be found Saturday.

Midfielder Elisa "Chili" Garcia

A 4-0 win in regulation surely inflated the expectations of the Trager Defenders.  This heightened expectation would have only been slightly dimmed by Iowa's sudden victory goal in the 7v7 overtime session that they played despite a non-tied regulation outcome.  The  3-1 victory in the 1v1 shootout also would have served to encourage the team as well.

The next day saw the alumnae return to the field and a bit of a deflation of that excitement.  Sowry thought the team came out flat (listen to the radio show Saturday for the comments), and an early goal by the alumnae may have brought the competition back into focus for the current team.  Conditioning certainly helped as well as the current squad went on to thoroughly control the second half with a winning score of 7-1

What We Saw

We saw a team that plays a solid defense and makes chances on offense...a good basic recipe for a solid season result.

We did see some minor problems on penalty corners, though.  Specifically we saw some technique issues on stopping the ball inbounded from the baseline hashmark.  Ideally, the ball gets stopped and then hit by another player, either at the goal, or over to another player or two to take a shot.  Several times in the two games, however, the ball popped up into the air when it was stopped.  This drastically limits the options on the attack, and unsurprisingly, the team did not score on these bobbled attempts.  This is an issue that should be readily resolved with some targeted practice on the technique.

We have an excellent 1v1 goalkeeper in case of shootouts in Ayeisha McFerran, which also translates into defense of fast breaks, which I don't think we'll see much of, but it's good to know that we have a GK that can handle them.

A Reasonable Goal

Elite Eight, or Final Four appearance

Soccer

With two exhibition games completed as well as two regulation games in the books, we may have the best sense of where the soccer team is.

A crazy goal at Northern Kentucky handed the team an exhibition loss, so we'll put that one aside for a moment.  A good pre-season win against IU is encouraging, and a 2-1 win over Wright State in the season opener is also encouraging.  The second regulation game saw a very good Washington team get the 2-1 win.

What We Saw

We saw a team that creates some real chances on offense with reasonable protection on defense.  This is, clearly, an overall young team, but there is some leadership to help out.

Senior Forward Casey Whitfield

It's fantastic to have senior Casey Whitfield back, and she has already proven her value with several assists, but has yet to find the back of the net herself.  A mere 2-1 win over Wright State may sound a bit disappointing, but there was a significant barrage of shots that technically weren't on goal, but bounced off of the posts and crossbar.  Keep that up, and points will start showing up on the scoreboard.

This team has some potential this year.  I'm not going to hold my breath for a national championship, but we should see a better outcome than last year, and that's the definition of progress.

A Reasonable Goal

Return to the NCAA tournament.  Win a tournament game.

Volleyball

We've got the least data on volleyball, with only an intra-squad scrimmage in the rear-view mirror.  That also means any scores are pretty much meaningless as players switch back and forth between the two sides of the competition pretty much on every play in the Red & Black Scrimmage.

So, let's get directly to...

What We Saw

Passing and digging was much improved over what we saw last year.  We already had some evidence that this was the case based on some interviews and getting to see an early practice, but it's encouraging to see it in person in more of a game-type of setting.

We also saw, however, a number of service errors, and some hitting errors as well that need to get cleaned up if we're going to have a strong season.

A few things that I saw that I really liked...we have three left-handers on the squad, which gives other teams a different and slightly unusual look to attacks that can throw off their spacing a bit.  Southpaws also tend to put a bit of a different spin on serves, which can cause the other team some problems.  Speaking of serving, I saw Gabbie Wiley, one of the lefties, serving a jump serve in pre-season practice last year, but she didn't use in during the season.  I saw more work on it in pre-season practice this year, and she brought it out for the scrimmage.  I'm hopeful we'll see it during the season as well.

Freshman Right Side and Setter Morgan Miller

Freshman Morgan Miller, also a leftie, looks pretty good on the right side, and is a competent setter as well, so I would expect to see her on the court in that right side position and giving the squad almost a double-setter look.  Might we even see Katie George take a swing if Miller has to take the set?  It's possible.  Incidentally, the other leftie is our backup true setter Kali Eaken.

Erin Fairs and Maya McClendon both can play full rotation as left side and back-row attackers which makes for more balance in the attack, and more options for our setters.  Our middles, primarily Tess Clark and Maggie DeJong are just as amazing as they were last year.

A Reasonable Goal

Return to the NCAA tournament.  Maybe a sweet sixteen appearance.

Tuesday Cardinal Couple -- Volleyball week wrap-up

.

( Welcome to another Tuesday at CARDINAL COUPLE. We have a two-for-Tuesday special with Jeff's article catching us up on Louisville Volleyball today and Sandy's Laundry day!

You have a great chance to see Anne Kordes' exciting team three times beginning Saturday in two different venues. If you haven't caught a UofL Volleyball match this season...you owe it to yourself to see these ladies in action. It'll be your first of many treks to see Lola, Gwen, Emily and the squad do battle! )

This week in Volleyball

Louisville played this weekend in volleyball at South Florida in Tampa, and at Pitt in Pittsburgh...what a road-trip that was...and I didn't make the trip, so I don't have much to offer in match recaps other than what Paul already posted, but I do think its worth it to do a week wrap-up as there is some other news to be shared.

-- UofL Team News

-- Top 25 upsets

-- New, or not so new, rankings

-- First RPI release

UofL Team News

As was mentioned in other articles, Gwen Rucker is back playing full bore, with no apparent lingering effects of her illness.  She had some great stats, particularly against Pitt.

Also racking up some great stats, as was mentioned, was Emily Juhl.  Its great to have so much depth and so many offensive weapons.  Emily seems to be recovering from her off-season surgery well and returning to form.  If you've never heard (yes, I said heard) her serve in Cardinal Arena, you should come to the match Saturday.  Its intimidating!  Its great to have her back and performing well as it gives us yet another great offensive weapon.  Lola may be the star, but with so many options, opponents really can't afford to key on her completely or they'll get beaten up by the likes of Gwen, Emily, and Brooke Mattingly, who continues to play great ball, and others.

Courtney Robison got her cast on her right arm removed this morning and has, apparently, been cleared to play by her doctor.  That gives her most of a week to get back in practice and back into form.  Its great that she didn't have to be in a cast for that long.

Lastly, as an amusing anecdote, on the return trip from Pittsburgh, flying through Chicago, the team was surprised to see, when they got to their gate to board the flight to Louisville, that the Field Hockey team was on the same flight.  I wonder if the ever-personable flight attendants on SouthWest led the passengers in a C-A-R-D-S cheer.

**********************************************************************************

Top 25 Upsets

Pretty quiet on the upset front for top-25 ranked teams this week.  The only upsets within the Top 25 shows that #5 Washington had a really great weekend, with slight upsets over both #3 USC, and #4 UCLA.  When you're ranked in the single digits, it pretty much takes a team ahead of your losing, in order for you to move up.  Its pretty nice when you get the opportunity to make that happen, not once, but twice, in a single week.

The bigger upset is #11 BYU losing to unranked St. Mary's (Ca.).  St. Mary's (Ca.) also had a good week as they knocked off #18 Pepperdine. Pepperdine had a bad week as they also lost to unranked Santa Clara.

#19 Iowa State lost to unranked-but-getting-votes Kansas, and #25 Tennessee got swept by now-unranked Kentucky, which certainly will help our RPI.

**********************************************************************************

New, or not so new, rankings

Well, there was some movement in the rankings, just not for us.  I thought that BYU loss might cause them to drop enough to land behind us, but not quite, as they ended up dropping 7 spots to land just in front of us at #16.  We retained our #17 ranking.  Washington's big weekend nets them a tie for 2nd with Oregon.  St. Mary's (Ca.) is now getting votes, but isn't ranked.  Tennessee, unsurprisingly, dropped out, but are, of course, still getting votes.

Western Kentucky is turning out to be quite a bit more of an RPI booster than I think any Louisville folks expected, they keep creeping up the list and have made it to #20 now.  Nothing but love for the Hilltoppers from me.

We play Texas in a week, and they're still hanging out at #9. They play #14 Kansas State on Saturday before coming in to Louisville Monday night.  Someone remind me to throw out some "Hook 'em"'s on Saturday night because I don't want us to have to play them coming off of a loss.

Illinois is at #21, Purdue at #12...so things seem to be settling down in the coaches' polls after some big early season movements.

***********************************************************************************

First RPI release

The NCAA put out its first RPI (Ratings Percentage Index, in case you care to know what that acronym expands out to) for the Volleyball season.  The RPI tends to get a lot of scrutiny paid to it when it comes tournament selection time, which is why you'll see Anne Kordes pay a lot more attention to it rather than the coaches poll.

Good news!  UofL is ranked 4th in the RPI.  With wins over 6 Top 50 RPI teams...#10 Purdue, #17 Kentucky, #23 Miami (Fl.), #31 WKU, #37 Duke, and #43 Illinois...and only two losses...#1 Penn State, and #50 Notre Dame...we're looking pretty good.

Texas is #15 in the RPI, so a win over the Longhorns in a week would be a nice boost for us as well. The next highest Big East team is Marquette at #42, and then the aforementioned Notre Dame.  We play Marquette, in Milwaukee, on October 21st, and then back here at Cardinal Arena, on November 9th. We do not have another match against Notre Dame in the regular season.

***********************************************************************************

Next?

This weekend, we welcome Seton Hall to Cardinal Arena (not The KFC Yum! Center for this one) for a noon first serve on Saturday.  Another noon start Sunday against Rutgers...this one is back downtown.  And while technically the volleyball world considers it next week, not this week, I'll go ahead and mention that Monday night brings #9(poll)/#15(RPI) Texas for a 7pm first serve.  This one, too, is downtown at the KFC Yum! Center.  Texas will be the last big RPI match we'll likely play for the season, so bring your friends and neighbors for this one.


( Just a quick reminder that the first round action in picking your favorite UofL women's athlete is underway on the left side of the board and our first match in the first round has become a nail-biter between Gwen Rucker and Nikki Boltja. You have through today to vote and determine who moves on to the "Elite Eight". We'll feature Rowing's Erin Bennett against Cross Country's Michelle Molodynia starting Wednesday...) 
.
..
...

Today laundry features mixed loads needing special attention!

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Staff columnist Sandy Walker offers a downpour of valuable information on this rainy Tuesday in Louisville. Grab the raincoat, umbrella and skip the sandals today! 


Tournaments, tournaments and more tournaments – All here on U of L campus facilities.   Recruits, tournament tickets, kitties, L – Club Brick problems and more history.

BASKETBALL

Last week before full practices!!!!

See Tournament Championship ticket information below.

·         Calendar reminder for the women’s basketball tip-off luncheon.  Mark Tuesday October 23, 2012 beginning at noon and held at the KFC YUM! Center. 

Jeff Walz will be the featured speaker.  Check for details at http://www.uoflsports.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/091312aaa.html .

Emmonnie Henderson

·        

On campus visits still in process.   Emmonnie Henderson

(@E_BallSoHard_32) and

Mercedes Russell (@MerSladezz)



Mercedes Russell



 are scheduled for campus visits of October 26 with additional home visits by our coaches to be scheduled.

·        

Linnae Harper (@OhH_NaeNae) appears to be a favorite of Mercedes Russell as she indicated as a choice of who she would like to play with.



Linnae Harper



 

Saniya Chong

·  Saniya Chong reportedly is still interested in Louisville. 

       

• 

  

  Brianna Ruiz

     Despite a summer knee injury, 5’ 10” Del Oro senior guard Brianna Ruiz
• is still heavily recruited and is reported to have 20 scholarship offers.  Louisville is to have visited September 20.

·         Imani Wright keeps appearing in multiple web forum rumors and discussions.

************************************************************************************* 

CHAMPIONSHIPS

Due to the work of the Tom Jurich and the University we are fortunate to have the facilities and the personnel to attract the attention of the NCAA and their decision to bring multiple post season games/matches to Louisville.   I know it may seem a bit early but time has a way of sneaking up on us so get your calendars out and set these times and dates to print.

******************************************

CROSS COUNTRY

We are fortunate to have the NCAA Cross Country Championships being held at Louisville’s Tom Sawyer State Park on November 17, 2012.  Tickets are available at the park upon arrival and collected as you park.  Entry fee is $10.00 per person.

******************************************

VOLLEYBALL

On December 13 and 15 Louisville will host the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship.  The events will be held at the best volleyball facilities in the nation, our KFC YUM! Center.  Tickets can be purchased through the NCAA.com website. All-session tickets are $62, and special rates are available for groups and teams wishing to attend.  You can also buy tickets for the event through the Louisville Athletic Ticket Office by calling (502) 852-5151.

******************************************

FIELD HOCKEY

The Big East Field Hockey Championship is being held at Trager Stadium on November 2 & 4.  Tickets are available for each days individual sessions at $5.00 for Adults, Seniors and Youths both get in for $3.00 for each session and college students gain entry for free with a valid student ID.

*****************************************

BASKETBALL

The First and Second Rounds of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament is being held at the KFC YUM! Center on Sunday March 24 and Tuesday March 26.  Other regional game locations will be held either on these dates or on Saturday March 23 and Monday March 25 so you will be able to see other action between the 64 tournament teams.

Tickets are available through the NCAA at NCAA.org, Ticketmaster, the Louisville Athletic Ticket Office at ticketoffice@louisville.eduat or by calling 502-852-5151.   The Ticket Master link opens http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/16004933F2388E3F where then clicking “On sale dates and times” on the right opens a drop down where Season Ticket holders can purchase tickets beginning today, September 25,  and general public ticket purchases begin October 1, 2012.  Tickets are on a first come, first serve basis so let’s make it our mission to show the country the support Louisville has for women’s basketball by filling the arena.  Bring your friends and make it a party.

U of L’s invite to the tournament dance will allow them to not only play their first round game but if successful on the 24^th, they will also play their second round game at their KFC YUM! Center home arena.  All-session tickets are $32 or $18 for youth, seniors or college students.

**************************************************************************************************

KITTIES

We still have 4 baby kitties who need help in their upbringing so that as adult Cats they can eventually be the best citizens possible. They cannot help being genetically programmed as baby kitties instead of baby birdies.  Please help me find good U of L foster homes for these orphan babies who have already been to the vet for their healthy baby checkups.  It would be a terrible thing to contribute to the addition of the undomesticated/feral wildcat population.

************************************************************************************

Prayers to Deceased Athlete's Family & Friends

By Chad Twaro, Southeast Missouri Sports Information

"CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – On Thursday afternoon, senior Meg Herndon from the Southeast Missouri soccer team passed away at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Mo.

Herndon suffered severe injuries in an automobile accident on Sept. 9 and had been hospitalized since.
***
Herndon played 55 matches in her four years with the Redhawks and started 39 times. She helped lead the Redhawks to an Ohio Valley Conference championship in 2011, starting all 19 matches on defense during that season.

A standout in the classroom as well, Herndon held a 3.83 grade point average as a nursing major. She earned a spot on the OVC Commisioner's Honor Roll three times and was a three-time Southeast Scholar-Athlete."

**************************************************
       
L FUND WALL OF HONOR LIMITED TO MEN?

I recently became aware that the L-Club has begun a fund raising campaign which involves the purchasing a $150 brick on the “Letter Winners Wall of Honor”.  The letter-winners wall will be located at the corner of Floyd and Warnock streets with the funds raised will be used to provide scholarships for student athletes.

All of the plans sounds great until and unless you were a female letter winner as the sport name and each row can contain up to 16 letters

"Please fill out the information above.

Each line can be a maximum of "16 characters"

Men's Basketball = 16 letters

Women's Basketball = 18 letters which is > what is allowed.

  

While I absolutely want this project to move forward and be successful, changes need to and can occur.   An additional look at the brick calls for the years of play to be located on the last of 3 available lines.  Perhaps instead of

Name

Sport

Years of Play

The choices could be:

Name

Years with Space then Men’s or Womens

Sport Name such as Basketball

It can be made to work as it would be sad to have a Letter Winner Wall across from facilities which include women athletes with no former women athletes names on the wall.  Contact can be made to the Cardinal Athletics, L-Club at 2100 S. Floyd St., Louisville, KY 40292.

Atlanta Dream with Angel McCaughtry to Play Indiana

in First Round of the WNBA Playoffs

The first game will be played on September 28 at the Indiana Fever’s home court.  It can be watched at 7:00 on ESPN2.

**************************************************************************
*************************

HOW IT WAS – ANOTHER BLAST FROM THE PAST

The women’s basketball team was to play in a tournament in Lexington on the UK campus.  We were privileged to be provided 2, Get this, 2 University of Louisville owned cars to make the trip.  I am serious when using the word privileged as it was really a big deal.  As normal, time was tight and by the time we and our jammed in luggage arrived in Lexington with very little time so our coach needed to participate in a coaches meeting on campus while we needed to get to our hotel rooms, change into our uniforms and return to the campus for our game.

All was well as we dropped off the coach –- notice no assistants existed – and headed into town to our hotel where 4 players were booked per room.  We circled and circled the streets of Lexington without being able to find the hotel name we were given.  One by one, at red lights, a player would leave the first car, ask a person on the street for information, tell the players in the first car then hop into the second car to share the new directions.   As you might figure, eventually the only person left in the first car was the driver with the remaining players literally crammed into the 2^nd car – that is all except me who had actually been successful in learning that the hotel had changed its name and was only a short distance away.  Unfortunately, the light had changed and the cars had left me behind in a pre-cell phone era with no wallet, change, ID or familiarity with the town. 

I made it to the hotel lobby by walking with a helpful downtown shopper while the cars continued to circle for a while longer.  We did make it to the game on time, barely, while making most of our uniform changes in the cars on the way to the arena as there was no time to check into the rooms.  

I am sure that I lost some of the humor in the translation but at the time it was just two car loads of inexperienced college travelers turned loose on the city of Lexington and a story being told 3 decades later.

Sandy W.
.
..
...



Monday pinch hitting

 

Monday Substitute - Wins for Field Hockey and Soccer

Word is that Paul and Sonja are back, but are cleaning up after the block party we threw Friday night...either that or Paul is fighting some computer troubles, I'm not sure.  Either way, let me see if I can help out a little bit and post an update on Sunday events.

(Editor note...a laptop crash and no PC has us at the mercy of the public library for the next couple of days. We're not sure exactly what happened but Co-Co covering it in banana pudding and trying to feed it to Bill the Gaot probably didn't help any.)

Field Hockey wins convincingly at Kent State

Kent State struck first, early, on a penalty corner, but it was all Cards after that.  The Golden Flashes and the Cards got their first penalty corners, and goals, at 3 minutes and 5 minutes respectively, but that would be the only time Kent State produced.  The Cards picked up another score just before halftime and took the 2-1 lead into the break.

After halftime, the Cards picked up two goals within about a minute and still didn't look back from the 4-1 lead.  Chalking up another point 6 minutes later, and then sneaking one in with less than a minute left in play.

The Field Hockey team next travels to #2 ranked Syracuse on Saturday, and #21 Albany on Sunday.

Soccer puts a hurting on St. John's

It was a high scoring affair for the women's soccer team when they faced St. John's here at Cardinal Park.  The soccer team hasn't scored 6 or more points in a game in eight years.  They get style points for holding St. John's scoreless in the process.

The scoring was fairly evenly spread out in the first half, with goals coming in the 8th, 30th, and 42nd minutes, taking a 3-0 lead into the break.

The Cards scored a bit more rapid fire in the second half...finding the back of the net in the 52nd, 59th, and 61st minutes to finish out the 6-0 win over the Red Storm.

Next up, the soccer teams racks up some frequent flyer miles with a road trip to #21 Marquette Friday night at 8pm, then heading south to USF for a 1p.m. start on Sunday.

Volleyball suffers a setback

Notre Dame came into the KFC Yum! Center with an 8-5 record, but 4 of those 5 losses were to ranked teams.  This is never a team you want to take for granted.

The Cards got off to a good start, with mistake free hitting, great digging, and more than a few service errors from Notre Dame. 

Taking the first set 25-16, they got it done with commendable .350 hitting.

Some cracks started showing in the second set where the Cardinals hitting eased off to .256, but still managed to take the set 25-22.

After the break, the Irish got the defensive game on the right track, with great digging, and some good blocking at the net.  A game of runs, Notre Dame claimed it in the end at 20-25.

Louisville started to look a bit ragged in the 4th set, but lots of scrambling and out-of-system play kept the score pretty close.  The Cards reached match point, but Notre Dame didn't give up and scored 5 straight points to snatch the set victory away at 24-26.

The score pretty much tells the tale for the 5th set.  Notre Dame controlled it from start to finish, taking the game, and match, with a 3-15 score.

One piece of good news is that this match saw Gwen Rucker's return to the court with some limited playing time.  With four kills, and two miscues on nine attempts, and three shared blocks it was a good effort, and I'm sure everyone is glad she's feeling better.

Other commendable play came from Brooke "Stomp" Mattingly who tallied up 12 kills, with only three errors on 28 attempts, for a respectable .321 hitting percentage.  She also got credits for two digs, and a share of four blocks.

Lastly, Caitlin Welch topped her career dig effort with 35.  Records like this may be a bit bitter-sweet since they almost always come from five set matches, and the team would much prefer to bring home a win in three or four sets, but nonetheless, "C-Dub" continues to play very well in the libero role and should be recognized for the crucial role she plays for the team.

Volleyball is also getting their share of frequent flyer miles as well with their own Friday/Sunday road trip to South Florida and Pittsburgh.
.
..
...

Emergency Laundry Day for Sandy

Young, trainable baby wild cats, laundry sniff tests, field hockey, soccer, volleyball & Ms. Brakmeier

Paul and Sonja have managed to take advantage of the good weather which allowed them to hitch-hike their way to the Louisville/Florida International football game and have bravely decided to leave the web site in the hands of the interns.  As a way to prove to them that their decision was a good one, take a look at the free to a good home kitten pictures.  The web sites contributors met and decided that perhaps if, as little kittens, genetically programmed future UK supporters could be trained in the proper way to support their team (which includes how to properly use a litter box) once they become adults.  Pick one of these little rascals out from the pictures and give them a good foster home so that as adults they will have already learned to support U of L activities anytime the two teams are not playing one another.  Seriously, there are 4 darling little kittens whose photos have been air shipped to our offices and who need good U of L homes so that they can learn to be good citizens once they grow up.  Support our U of L team as without adoption these kitties could be left to the streets where chances are high that they will  become future undomesticated/feral wildcats.

Which one u want?

LAUNDRY TIPS

How to catch up on the Laundry

“Do you use the "sniff test" to salvage clothes from the dirty pile? Have you bought new clothes instead of doing laundry? Is your home cluttered with laundry piles? Will it take several hours, days, or weeks to get it done? Here's some advice on how to get caught up more efficiently!”  Instructions can be found at http://www.wikihow.com/Catch-Up-on-Dirty-Laundry

**************************************************************************************************

FIELD HOCKEY

There was an absolutely wonderful article where the first Louisville woman to ever be  inducted into U of L's athletic Hall of Fame and aka “Ms. Field Hockey”, and formally identified as Ms. Brakmeier, was interviewed by Eric Crawford of WDRB news on September 19 which a couple of days after U of L named the Trager Field Hockey complex's new locker room after her.  The naming was not in response to her 90^th birthday but it was not a bad present.  This was quite an event for someone who arrived at U of L in 1940 as a student who never left!

Her interview fit perfectly into my earlier How It Was Series as she had great stories of what was necessary to create a situation where a field hockey team could practice and compete.  Some would be bitter but Ms. Brakmeier never seems to vary from her role of substitute mother to all who have passed through the physical education departments doors during those 40 years. 

"Every year during the fall season all of us would walk around the campus. It had a lot of open fields and wasn't all built up then, then I'd say something to some of the workmen and say, 'That seems to be a good field there and would make a good hockey field,'" Brakmeier said. "Well, they'd cut the grass low for us and if it was good they'd tell us and sometimes they'd say, 'Oh, that's not a good field at all.' We never had the same field two years in a row, but they were always very nice and helped us find a good spot."

U of L has pulled off quite a switch as it now “has one of the nation's better field hockey facilities, one of the few in all of NCAA Division I devoted to that sport and no other.”

Best of all was her story of how each years uniforms to be worn at matches were determined.  Just in case you are still a bit delusional regarding the amount of support provided by the University, there was no such thing as University provided uniforms. 

"We'd get them all together and ask, 'All right, how many have red shorts, or black shorts or white shorts?'" Brakmeier said. "We didn't have any financial support at first. Whatever we had the most of, that's what we'd wear. And you'd be surprised how many parents would come forward to buy their daughters a new pair of shorts or something like that. And if somebody needed it I could find them some kind of white T-shirt with Louisville on it."

Read these and other stories of How It Was at: http://m.wdrb.com/default.aspx?pid=2705&wnfeedurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wdrb.com%2fstory%2f19581578%2fcrawford-brakmeier-connects-u-of-ls-present-to-its-past%i3fclienttype%3drssstory

***********************************************************************************************

CARDS TV

Boo to Cards TV!                            Cardinal Couple’s crack team of investigators

were sent out to determine what caused my intermittent picture of last night’s Field Hockey and Soccer games.  They concluded that Timmy had again fallen asleep during his assigned shift and allowed the transmission units to overheat and shut down.  

Timmy is now officially on probation as an Intern.  He promises it won’t happen again.

************************************************************************************************ 

SOCCER

The Women's soccer team played to a 1-1 draw against visiting Syracuse on Friday night at Cardinal Park.   They are now 6-2 for the season.

************************************************************************************************

FIELD HOCKEY

On Friday Night the Field Hockey team Defeated Georgetown 4-2 who are now 6-3 on the season.

***********************************************************************************************

VOLLEYBALL

The Volleyball team defeated Big East Rival DePaul last night 3-0.  On Sunday they play Notre Dame at the YUM! Center at 2:00

************************************************************************************************

Rumor is that tomorrow Jenny will be sharing additional basketball recruiting scoops her team of graduate assistants have learned. I hear that internet traffic concerning possible recruits has been congested.  Also Paul and Sonja will be back the first of the week where I am sure they will untangle whatever messes their fill-ins have created.

Sandy W.