WSOC Shuts Out Notre Dame 2-0 -- A Look at the Weekend -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Women's Soccer Shuts Out Notre Dame

Louisville relied on second half goals by Brooklynn Rivers and Maisie Whitsett to defeat Notre Dame 2-0.  The victory propels the Cards to an 8-1-0 record and a 2-0-0 start in conference play.

The two conference foes, who currently play every other year, have had a history of close matches.  In 2016, the Irish won in double overtime at Lynn Stadium.  In 2014, Notre Dame claimed a 1-0 victory in South Bend.  Back tracking to 2011, the Cards defeated Notre Dame twice- 1-0 in South Bend and 2-1 in the Big East Tournament semifinals.

The Cards had a few opportunities to score in the first half and should have had a one- or two-goal lead, but the shots sailed over the crossbar.  If they were kicking field goals things would have been going great.

In the 60th minute, Mollie Rouse passed off to Allison Whitfield, who set Rivers from just outside the box.  Whitfield's ball crossed the box to the far side where Rivers had a height advantage over the defender to head the ball in.  The goal was the sixth of the season for the junior.

Whitsett added to the lead 18 minutes later.  Emina Ekic passed off to her right after drawing two
defenders her way.  Whitsett was there patiently waiting and had an angle, sending the ball in for her eighth goal of the season.

Goalkeeper Gabby Kouzelos had her hands full with a Notre Dame offense that was desperately trying to get onto the board  Kouzelos had Sports Center worthy saves, fighting to preserve the shutout.  She was credited with five saves on the night, but mixing her way into the defense a lot more than that.  Niamh Nelson helped Kouzelos out on one in the first half.  Kouzelous knocked the ball down on one of her saves but bounced toward a Notre Dame player.  Nelson slid in to kick it away and earn a save for herself.

In the post-game interviews, we got a golf cart drive-by during the Rivers interview and a train offered its congratulations at the end of the Karen Ferguson Dayes clip.



Video Interview with Brooklynn Rivers

POST GAME KAREN FERGUSON DAYES AFTER NOTRE DAME


A Look into the Weekend

--Friday, Sept 21

Women's golf visits Franklin, TN (Callie McKinney's hometown) for the Mason Rudolph Championship.  The Cards will compete with some of the best teams in the country.

Field Hockey visits Wake Forest.  The Cards claimed a victory at Trager last year in shootout fashion and the Demon Deacons are looking for revenge.  Wake Forest heads into the match 3-4 and unranked, but the ACC is too dominant of a conference to base things just off the record.

Volleyball visits NC State.  The Wolfpack has a similar record to the Cards, but could prove to be trouble in Raleigh if Louisville doesn't pick up the pace.  However, this is about where the Cards sat going into conference play last year so don't count them out.

Men's Soccer hosts Pittsburgh.  On paper the Cards should win, but it depends if they play like they did versus Kentucky or if they play like they did versus Duke.

--Saturday, Sept 22

Softball hosts an inter-squad scrimmage in preparation for their upcoming fall schedule.

Football visits Virginia.  This Cardinals team just looks bad and things could get ugly on the road
even against a lesser ACC team.

Women's Golf goes into the second day of the Mason Rudolph Championship.

--Sunday, Sept 23

Women's Golf wraps up play in Tennessee with hopes of another high finish.

Field Hockey visits Appalachian State.  They're 4-4 and barely breaking top 50 in the rpi.  On paper this should be an easy victory for UofL.  Never underestimate an opponent or you will regret it.

Volleyball visits North Carolina.  The Tar Heels are struggling this year, but they've owned the series against Louisville lately.  The Cards got the late season 3-2 thriller at home last year but had lost four straight since joining the ACC before that.

Women's Soccer hosts Syracuse for an early afternoon match.  Syracuse is so far down the list in rpi (223) that you'd need a big fishing pole to reach that far.  This could be a great opportunity to improve to 9-1-0 and start 3-0-0 in the ACC.  A win would almost solidify a top 25 spot in the next coaches poll.

There's not much happening on Floyd Street this weekend other than Lynn Stadium's busy weekend of Thursday, Friday, and Sunday so your best bet to catch any of the Cardinal Couple crew is the Sunday match.


ON A LIGHTER NOTE: 

Get your weekend off to a rousing start by checking out the clip below of Groucho Marx and crew singing the praises of Lydia the Tatooted Lady. 

Be warned, that song WILL stick in your head if you're not careful...the antics are hilarious as well. They don't write 'em like that anymore. 

LYDIA THE TATTOOED LADY

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

- Jared -

SCOTT TEETER INTERVIEW...WSOC PREPARES FOR NOTRE DAME -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

INTERVIEW WITH LOUISVILLE LACROSSE HEAD COACH SCOTT TEETER

Wednesday morning brought the opportunity to talk with Louisville Lacrosse coach Scott Teeter in his office at the "Little YUM" -- the facility that houses the basketball teams at UofL and Lacrosse. It's always quite fun talking with Coach Teeter, he brings a great perspective to anything he discusses and I also wanted to get an update on his and Jen's one-month old son Lucas. 

Lacrosse S.I.D. Nick Evans sat in on the interview as well...you gotta love Nick...his personality and the work he does for Louisville athletics. We also got guest appearances (walk on roles) who brought valuable information from assistant coach Renee Poulott and the effervescent Director of Operations for Lacrosse Patty Norton. We had five in the office at one time, enough to go over and scrimmage women's basketball next door. 

OK, that probably wouldn't have gone so well...so, on to the interview. 

As the interview rolls, listen for the following points: 

-- How are the Teeter's doing with the birth of Lucas? 

-- How are things looking with fall lacrosse so far? 

-- How was Coach Teeter's experience coaching the Boston Storm? 

-- Who will the Cards play in the fall and how many are at home? 

-- Why "satellite" clinics?  Scott explains the process and reasoning.

-- What's the word on freshman Shay Clevenger? 

-- Scott's overview of the 2019 roster and depth.  

-- Scott vs. Ken Lolla ?? 

A great visit yesterday with the Louisville Lacrosse head coach Scott Teeter and a chance to catch up on the fall work they do. You can see Louisville Lacrosse, as Coach mentioned, on September 30th. at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium, when they take on Marquette (10 a.m.) and Butler (1:30 p.m.). It's also Alumnae Weekend for Lacrosse, so don't miss this great opportunity to see Louisville LAX this fall! 

A special thanks to Nick Evans for setting up the interview and to Coach Teeter, who reminded me I gave him Mendelssohn in the Kentucky Derby. 


LINK TO COACH'S INTERVIEW:  INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT TEETER



WSOC PLAYS NOTRE DAME TONIGHT

University of Louisville women's soccer puts their perfect ACC record on the line tonight against visiting Notre Dame in Lynn Stadium. The 7 p.m. match pits the 7-1 (1-0) Cards against a 4-4 Irish squad that was ranked in the top 25 early in the season but has since dropped out of that category. 

The media had the chance to talk to Coach Karen Ferguson Dayes and Louisville middle defender Gabrielle Vincent yesterday, so I headed over there after my interview with Scott Teeter. Links for those two WSOC interviews below: 


We also got an unexpected musical interlude during the Karen Ferguson Dayes interview. Ah, those tricky interns.... 

A special thanks to Coach for doing this, Gabrielle for participating and WSOC SID Kim Pemberton for setting the opportunity up: 

Go. Cards. Beat. Irish.

INTERVIEW WITH GABRIELLE VINCENT

INTERVIEW WITH KAREN FERGUSON DAYES


Have a tremendous Thursday and please come out and support UofL Women's Soccer tonight at Lynn Stadium against Notre Dame! 

paulie
xxxxx

Softball Interview with head coach Holly Aprile -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

INTERVIEW WITH HOLLY APRILE

Cardinal Couple had the chance to catch up with Louisville head softball coach Holly Aprile Tuesday afternoon to discuss softball and the UofL fall exhibition schedule. 

The Cards played EKU at Richmond, KY on Sunday and split with the Colonels 5-0, 4-5 according to reports. A chance for Aprile and the staff to see all the players in action and face some competition other than themselves.

Speaking of intra-squad competition, Softball will have a Red vs. Black scrimmage on Saturday around 12:30 p.m.. 

Admission is free. Be advised that concessions will not be open, though, and the event was designed primarily for player's families to attend...although you are welcome to stop by. 

My interview with Coach Aprile (also known as Paulie talks to Holly) took place on the Ulmer Stadium field on a bright and warm day. Softball S.I.D. Lori Korte caught some of it on video, so look for a segment of that to maybe surface on Go Cards or elsewhere. We have the audio version in today's article.

As you listen, here are a few listening points: 

-- How did the scrimmage goes against EKU? 

-- Coach Aprile has been here two months..how's the move from Pittsburgh going?

-- What aspects of "Holly-ball" can Cardinal fans look forward to this fall and in the regular season? 

-- The upcoming fall contests for the "Hit and Pitch" Cards.

-- What players are mentioned ? (two are returnees, one red-shirted last year).

-- How is Coach adapting to campus?

-- Did coach celebrate National Cheeseburger Day and where's a spot she enjoys eating? 


A great afternoon to talk a little softball with Coach Holly Aprile on a day that would have been pretty ideal to "play two"! We appreciate the chance to get together with her and a special thanks to Lori Korte for setting it up. LINK TO AUDIO BELOW: 

HOLLY APRILE INTERVIEW


paulie
xxxxx

Louisville women's basketball schedule filled with challenges -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

UCONN, KENTUCKY PART OF THE 2018-19 WBB SLATE

Never let it be said that Jeff Walz shies away from the tough match-ups or the road.

The Louisville women's basketball non-conference schedule starts the season spending basically the month of November travelling before coming home in late November to play in the KFC YUM! Center. Much like Walz and his penchant for spanning the globe to check out prospect (Coach was recently in Japan and Canada checking out players). UofL WBB will be the road warriors to start the 2018-19 season.

The Cards get it underway on Tuesday, Nov. 6th. with a trip to Western Kentucky. The 'Toppers may look a little different this year on the bench with former Walz assistant Michelle Clark Heard no longer there (she's moved on to Cincinnati) but another former Cardinal assistant in Greg Collins will take the fight to the Cards. 

Jim Foster is gone at UTC. I'm gonna miss that guy.
Caption this picture, if you will. 

Three days later, the Cards continue in Tennessee with a trip to the southeast corner of the Volunteer state for a contest against Chattanooga.  The Mocs also recently had a coaching change with Katie Burrows replacing Jim Foster. Katie's a former UTC WBB player and also was an assistant to Foster at Chattanooga. 

Louisville takes a few days away from the opponents before their next foe. They'll travel to Boise, Idaho to face the Broncos of Boise State on Monday, Nov 19th.
Gordy Presnell has been the Broncs skipper for 12 years and has coached for 30 years. His squad won the Mountain West championship last year and came to Louisville to start their NCAA quest. The Cards defeated them on March 16th. 74-42 

The western swing continues with UofL landing in Vegas next for the Southpoint Shootout. First up is Arizona State on Friday Nov 23rd. Charli Turner Thorne has coached the Sun Devils since 1996 and has over 450 wins for the Tempe, Arizona school.  Her Devils made it to the NCAA Tournament second round last year -- beating Nebraska to open before bowing out to Texas 85-65 in Austin, TX. 

The next night, the action swings to playing Hartford in the Shootout. The Saturday, November 24th. tussle against the Hawks. Kim O'Neill is the head coach of the Connecticut school and she started her tenure there in 2016. She led  "that kind of bird" to a 19-13 record and the finals of the America East conference championship before they ran into a foraging bunch of Black Bears and fell to Maine 74-65. Never mess with Mama Bears...

Finally, the Cards come home. Monday, November 26th is the 2018-19 debut for Cardinal WBB in the KFC Yum! Center and they bring the Miami (OH) RedHawks in for another bird battle. You might remember Megan Duffy from her WNBA career and/or the time she spent as a player at Notre Dame. She's been at Miami since 2016 and her version of red birds went 21-11 last year...making the WNIT Tournament but ending their season in the first round against Duquesne 69-56 in Oxford, OH. 

Louisville hosts Nebraska next for a Thursday night battle of the boards on November 29th. The Cornhuskers are coached by Amy Williams, who came south from South Dakota to take the program over in 2016. Amy was named Big 10 Coach of the Year last season and the 'Huskers went 21-11 last year. Their season ended, as mentioned above, with a loss to Arizona State in first round NCAA Tournament play 73-62.


Asia Durr's squad takes on another two from Tennessee next in the KFC YUM! Center, beginning with Tennessee State on Sunday December 2nd. These Nashville Tigers got caught by their own tail last year with a 6-21 record...including a 95-56 de-clawing by Louisville on Dec. 12th, 2017 in the KFC YUM! Center. Jessica Kern became the ringmaster of these Tigers in 2016...Tennessee State is one of five major colleges in Music City...can you name the other four? 

UT-Martin is the Cards ninth opponent of the season and they come to visit on Tuesday, Dec. 4th. More birds in the YUM!...the SkyHawks were 19-16 in 2017-18 and visited Louisville on Tuesday, Dec 5th. last year. They didn't fly so high by the river, losing 91-56. Kevin McMillan, one of the nicest coaches in the game, has 10 years in at UTM. 

The home stand continues on Dec 9th., when Matthew Mitchell brings the the Kentucky Wildcats to town. UofL went to Memorial Barnyard last year and staged their own dance with a 87-63 hoe-down over Big Blue. Matty's minions went 15-17 last year and didn't go anywhere last year...except back to the locker room in Nashville after ending their season when they got chased out of the SEC Quarterfinals by some Bulldogs from Starkvillle ...81-58.

The Cards don't return to games until Saturday, Dec. 15th. when they bring Northern Kentucky to town. A rough 9-22 season last year for the Norse, who compete in the Horizon League. Emmy Souder, from the Mercer County's Kentucky girls basketball state championship team, will be a freshman at NKU this season. Head coach Camryn Whitaker has been the head coach at Northern Kentucky since 2016. The Cards haven't played NKU since 1989 and are 10-11 against them overall. 

Dec 20th. features the Cards taking a road trip to Mount Pleasant, Michigan to chip away at the Central Michigan Chippewas. This Thursday night contest is Louisville's last non-conference before entering ACC play. CMU made a great deal of noise last year with a 30-5 record. They knocked off LSU and Ohio State in the NCAA Tournament before running into Oregon in the Sweet Sixteen in Spokane and losing 83-69. The "Chips" are dealt by Sue Guevara, who has been there 11 years. She led CMU to an upset win over #23 Louisville back in 2010. Sue was a softball coach for 10 years at Saginaw St. before switching to hoops. OK, you Jeopardy wanna-be's...do you know what a Chippewa is? 



The Cards do have one more non-conference game in the regular season, some Huskies from Storrs are dog-sledding down at the end of January. We'll discuss that one in much more detail down the road.  

A challenging slate before conference play. Coach Walz most likely is a fan of the St. Jerome quote pictured here from yesteryear. 

In addition to the non-conference slate, the Cards will play 16 ACC games. WE'll cover that another time here at the couple once we start to find out a little more about the opponenets and how they're looking in their non-conference slates. 

Here's a link to the complete 2018-19 UofL WBB schedule: 2018-19 Cards WBB schedule

49 days until Louisville WBB begins the regular season...I need one of those tear-off, day-by-day office calendars. To Office Depot! 


IT'S NATIONAL CHEESEBURGER DAY!

Jump off the diet and go for one today.

Kaelin's Restaurant, here in Louisville, KY, claims to have invented the cheeseburger. In case you want to challenge them, they're on Newburg Rd. across from St. Agnes Catholic Parish. 

The Courier-Journal investigated that last year: LINK BELOW.

DID KAELIN'S INVENT THE CHEESEBURGER?

To celebrate...here's Jimmy Buffett's song immortalizing the sandwich: 

CHEESEBURGER IN PARADISE -- JIMMY BUFFETT





paulie
xxxxx

Defense Does It -- Field Hockey Downs Northwestern 1-0 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

RUSS'S SCORE ENOUGH AS FIELD HOCKEY BLANKS NORTHWESTERN FOR SOWRY'S 100TH WIN AT UOFL 

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

Louisville Field Hockey takes on top 10 competition in Trager Stadium, gets a lone score by Bethany Russ and wins 1-0. Coach Justine Sowry gets her 100th. win as head coach of the UofL Field Hockey squad. 

Not exactly a carbon copy of the Cards win over Boston College on Friday, but Louisville "held pitch" and the defense looked spectacular in defeating #11 Northwestern Sunday afternoon during their final game of the four-game home stand. 

This win started as a tightly played defensive struggle for the first 20 minutes. Then, the Cards got their second penalty corner opportunity of the first half, Whena Munn in-bounded to Russ, who powered a shot toward the net that glanced off a Northwestern player's stick and into the goal. The second straight week she's scored and it ultimately proved to be all Louisville needed offensively. 

Jared Anderson' catches the strength
of the Trager water cannons. 

Northwestern was relentless on the attack in the first half and earned six penalty corners. Senior, best-in-the-world goalkeeper Ayeshia McFerran got one save in those attempts and defender Meghan Schneider was there to prevent another scoring attempt from the Wildcats. The Cards took a tenuous, single goal advantage into the water-cannon break at the half. 

The Cards intensified their offensive pressure in the second half and had eight shot attempts, compared to the Evanston, Illinois opponents one. Louisville also got three penalty corner attempts in that final 35 minutes and the Wildcats none. The ball wouldn't go in for either side, though, and Northwestern pulled their goalkeeper out of the contest with about five minutes remaining to gain the attack advantage on the Cardinals. 

It didn't matter. 

Louisville's defensive held strong and true and preserved the lead to go 6-2 on the season.  Coach Justine Sowry offered this about the second half: 

"I thought it was a little better in the second half. The game management was very impressive. They (Northwestern) had it coming at us. The biggest piece for on the day for me was our defensive play in the defensive 30 and our red zone tackling of the ball outside the circle. We didn't want to give up corners today and, besides a couple of undisciplined moments, we did a tremendous job.


We offer you the UofL, You Tube post game interview below, as well as our longer, uncut version: 

JUSTINE SOWRY POST GAME VIDEO

CARDINAL COUPLE'S POST GAME SOWRY AUDIO


We also got audio and video from red-shirt sophomore Meghan Schneider, whose big defensive stop helped preserve the shut-out: 


MEGHAN SCHNEIDER POST-GAME VIDEO


MEGHAN SCHNEIDER POST_GAME AUDIO FROM CARDINAL COUPLE


As an added attraction, we also offer this highlights clip of the contest: 


HIGHLIGHTS FROM NORTHWESTERN VS. LOUISVILLE



Louisville hits the highway for three out of their next four. First stop, a visit to Winston-Salem, NC to face Wake Forest on Friday, Sept. 21st. We're not sure just how much damage that Hurricane Flo is going to drop on that area of North Carolina, and our thoughts and prayers are with those residents (including a significant number of Sykes family members who live in the Burlington, Haw River and Durham, NC areas). 



(Special thanks to Jared Anderson on the field hockey and football pics for today's article. Need a great and inexpensive photographer? Jared IS YOUR MAN!! Find out more about him and his work at his website...https://www.jdaphotos.com/ ) 



NOBODY ASKED ME, BUT...(WELL, ACTUALLY THEY DID).

It seemed like Sunday was a day to ask Paulie about Louisville Football wherever I went. Mind you, I don't cover football, I'm a fan and sit in my seat and try to stay positive. We're a UofL women's sports site. A LOT of UofL women's sports fans were asking me questions, though...so here's my 26 cents worth :

MY FIVE POSITIVES ON THE WESTERN KENTUCKY GAME: 

-- Malik Cunningham led the Cards to 14 - 4th. quarter points. He may not be quite ready for prime time football yet, but he's 2-0 and showed some sparkle.

-- Dae Williams looked pretty impressive running the ball in the few opportunities he got. Why the Cards didn't go to him in the red-zone more often is anyone's guess.

-- We got a kicking game. Two nice field goals from Blanton Creque. 

-- Rodjay Burns got a chance to shine again at punt return and broke one for 36 yards.

-- Tabarious Peterson looked OK at outside linebacker with six tackles. 

MY FIVE NEGATIVES ON THE WESTERN KENTUCKY GAME: 

-- The Cardinal defensive secondary needs a lot of work. Not an exemplary showing Saturday night for those guys.

-- Pre-Season, it was mentioned that this might be the best core of wide-receivers Louisville has had in a decade. I don't think so, at least not yet, from what I saw in the stands. Too many drops. 

-- After spending the entire off-season building an offense around Puma Pass, that's been a disappointment so far. Whoever said we might be a better football team this year without Lamar Jackson...uh, time to take your meds again. I don't see it. 

-- The Cardinal offensive line is playing pretty badly. 

-- UofL needs to extend the $3 beer until halftime. 

Our buddy Charlie Springer, over at UofL Card Game, always has a unique and informative take on Cardinal Football. Check out his thoughts at his site. Link below:

www.uoflcardgame.com

If you want another great insight to Louisville football, please check out Mike Gilpatrick's fine site....RIVER CITY CARDS...for his takes and analysis on the quarterback battle and his "grade" for the Cards: LINK below.

(Picture is of Mike doing his best "Bobby" impression from the stands...only "Gilly" would think of trying something like that.)

http://www.rivercitycards.com/


Carry on, Cardinal fans! 





paulie
xxxxx


  

Victorious Saturday report - Sunday Cardinal Couple

They're Wins, But...

Three major team sports were in action for the Cardinals yesterday.  Football eked out a come from behind win over Western Kentucky in a game where basically no one seems terribly satisfied with how the Cardinals played.  Things were better at Cardinal Arena yesterday afternoon, but there is definitely still room for improvement in the Cards Volleyball play.

The Cards beat the Tennessee - Chattanooga Mocs in straight sets, 25-17, 25-18, 25-14.  While, honestly, the stat sheet looks pretty good, with a .471 hitting percentage as the highlight, the play still felt a little bit lackluster.  I really thought the Cards would be ready to come in after a bad loss to Kentucky and play their best and dominate the mid-major Mocs, and the Cards did win solidly, but it didn't feel like their best effort.

The Cards line-up continues to be a little bit fluid, with Piper Roe finding her way back into the starting lineup in the middle blocker position...a position that was largely filled by Emily Scott last weekend.  Coach Busboom Kelly continues to try out different combination of hitters and DS substitutions.  The bright spots in the hitting this match came from Amanda Green and Megan Sloan with 14 and 12 kills, respectively.  Both also hit efficiently in the process, with Megan ending with a .400 hitting efficiently, and Greene tallying an amazing .591.  The only higher hitting percentage came from the middle, with Jasmine Bennett putting down an error free 7 of 9, for .778.

Defensively, the highlight was blocking, with six total blocks for the Cards, though that is still a bit below what this team needs to be putting up for big success.  It was a good afternoon for Wilma Rivera at the net, though, with two solos and a share of another.  Amanda Greene also soloed a block.  Jasmine Bennett got a hand in on three.

Credit to another freshman, Mia Stander, who got some significant court time in the DS roll.  Credit her with a service ace, and 3 digs.  Of course, we can't forget team stalwart, Molly Sauer, who dug a pretty typical (for her, arguably the best libero in college volleyball) 15.  Rounding out a good game for Amanda Greene, her 10 digs give her a double-double in the match.

With this match, the Cards have finished their non-conference slate, and launch into the meat of the season with conference play.  For the Cards to have post-season aspirations, they will need to nearly run the table in conference play, and the last likely chance at a signature win over a Top 25 team will be against Pitt on Oct 21st.  The conference schedule starts in North Carolina, Friday the 21st a 7pm against NC State.  The Cards will stay relatively nearby with a visit Sunday the 23rd at 1pm at UNC.

Soccer Shines

Women's Soccer probably had the best day yesterday, with the 2-0 win over Pitt.  The Cards advance to 7-1-0 on the season.

Karen Ferguson-Dayes squad pressured the Panthers all night, ending the evening with an 18-4 shot advantage, and not letting the hosting Pittsburgh team get a shot off in the second half at all.  The UofL barrage does result in a fairly impressive stat line for Pitt's GK, Amaia Pena, who ends the evening with 8 saves.  I'm sure, however, that she would gladly give up most of those saves for a stouter defensive effort to keep the opponent off the board.  Pitt only got a single shot on goal the whole game, giving Gabby Kouzelous the save stat for the night.

The Cardinal scorers were Maisie Whitsitt, on a feed from Brooklyn Rivers in the 5th minutes of the match; and Mollie Rouse, with a feed from Arianna Ferraro early in the 2nd half.  As the above shot stats would indicate, the Cards offense would have other opportunities to score and weren't able to convert.  Emina Ekic had a couple of good opportunities in the game, and Delaney Snyder had two back-to-back good attempts that didn't find the back of the net.  The Cardinal's attack was relentless, with Sarah Hernandez missing just wide in the 84th minutes of the game.

UofL will be back home Thursday in the friendly confines of Lynn Stadium on Floyd Street for a 7pm start against Notre Dame, where I suspect Paulie will have more success getting on the field to get a post-game coaches interview with  than I did, getting shoo'ed off the court, at Volleyball yesterday afternoon.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Check out yesterday's Cardinal Couple Radio Hour broadcast and here my near panic when our opening music wouldn't play.  The technical difficulties did get sorted out in a few minutes, but thanks to my cohorts in the studio, Paulie, Case, and guest Mike Gilpatrick for rolling with a bit of an unusual opening.  We did go on to talk about the week's action in Volleyball, Soccer, and even snuck in a little Football at the end.

Regardless of the challenges, it's always a fun hour in the magnificent media mansion on Mellwood.

https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/297663757727890/

-- 

JMcA

Another Split Friday -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Field Hockey Takes Top-10 Match-up

After a tough weekend last week with a hard loss to North Carolina and a narrow overtime win over Cal, UofL field hockey bounced back with a 1-0 win over Number 9 Boston College. It was a closely contested match, as you might expect between teams just one ranking apart in a sport so compact as field hockey. As we've mentioned many times before, nearly the entire ACC is ranked in the top 25 and the rankings for field hockey are quite good. Where teams are ranked is almost always a great indicator of their quality and there are not many major upsets. This might be best shown by Louisville's lack of movement in the rankings following a loss to a highly ranked North Carolina and a win over unranked Cal.

Last night's match was as close as one can be and still be decided in regulation. The Cards and Eagles went the full 70 minutes without scoring and it was an untimed penalty corner that was the deciding factor. Bethany Russ scored on the shot assisted by Maria Gomez and Katie Walsh. It was Russ's second goal and the Cards second untimed game-winner of the season. It was Louisville's fifth corner of the match, giving them a less than desirable corner percentage, but 20% is better than the 0-9 that Boston College converted.

Besides the corner disparity, the match was very close statistically. Boston College played only one less player than the Cards and both teams finished with 11 shots. Louisville had better chances, putting 8 of their 11 on goal. Boston College was only able to put 5 shots on goal, all of which Ayeisha McFerran saved. Neither team committed a foul, leading to an exciting and clean game. 

Despite the lack of finishing, this offensive outburst was a bit better for Louisville than the past couple of games. Eleven shots is higher than Louisville has been able to compile recently and 8/11 shots on goal is a strong indicator of good passing and chance creation. Boston College was still able to get chances of their own, but the Louisville defense was up to the task. The next step for Louisville will be get back to converting more of their chances into actual goals. The Cards have not been shut-out this season, but they have also not scored more than two goals in any game. With three losses so far, it is clear that the defense is not quite as stout as it has been in years past. Louisville may have a few more games this year where the opponent scores two or more goals, and the Cards' offense will need to be able to respond. 

Louisville is back in action tomorrow at noon against Northwestern. If you've kept up with the site or with the field hockey team at all, you'll know what a bugaboo the Wildcats are to the Cardinals. Louisville will be looking to pull the all-time series closer to level. NU currently leads the series 7-3 and took the last match almost exactly a year ago 2-0. A strong performance on Sunday could give the Cards their second perfect weekend of the season, the only other so far coming against UMass-Lowell and Delaware. Tune in to ACC Network Extra or head out to Trager for what should be an exciting matchup on a nice day. Our after-game links below:

Coach Sowry Post-Game

BETHANY RUSS POST-GAME

Ayeshia McFerran post-game

Volleyball Thrashed by Kentucky: 3-0

It was a night to forget for Dani Busboom Kelly's squad as Kentucky took a sweep off of the Cards in Cardinal Arena and took the lead in the 2018-19 Battle for the Bluegrass. Louisville's largest lead of the night was at 7-4 in the first set, and they held a 4-3 lead in the second. Both times, Kentucky took extended runs to put the sets a bit too far out of reach for the Cards. In the third, Louisville looked absolutely helpless, falling behind 9-2 with their only two points coming from Kentucky service errors. I tuned into the match just in time to see a challenge go against the Cards for the first point of the third set and it was all downhill from there.

Louisville's wounds were mostly self inflicted in this one, as the Cards racked up 21 errors over three sets. Their final hitting percentage was just 0.080. The Cards committed at least as many errors in each set as Kentucky committed on the whole night (6). That's most definitely not a winning formula. To make matters worse for a woefully hitting Louisville team, Kentucky was swinging lights out. The Cats were led by Leah Edmond, who finished with 14 kills and hit .600. Alli Stumler and Brooke Morgan had 8 and 7 kills, respectively, and neither committed an error. Louisville couldn't hit, and they had no answer defensively for Kentucky. Again, not a winning formula. 

Louisville was led in kills by Melanie McHenry with 8, but she also led the team in attack errors with 7. Jasmine Bennett was the biggest threat on offense, finishing with 7 kills and .308 hitting, but even she had three errors. The cleanest hitter for the Cards was Piper Roe, who finished with 4 kills on 6 attempts with no errors. It was a rough night for Wilma Rivera, who finished with 3 digs, a service error, and was 0/3 with three errors in attack. She did finish with 24 of the team's 25 assists, but the Cards were outscored by 30 points on the night so the shine comes off a bit. 

As I said from the jump, this was a night to forget. Kentucky looked good. They certainly did not look like the team that we've rattled off as having a bunch of losses so far this year. Even at 4-4 on the year, the Cats were ranked in the top 20 coming into last night. They showed last night why they were a top 5 team in the preseason. Coming into a hostile environment and absolutely dismantling the hosts was tough to watch as a Louisville fan. Quite frankly, I hope the Cards don't have to play Kentucky again this season. That said, Louisville looked bad. They were caught out of system numerous times, the attacking errors were inexcusable, and the defense was sorely lacking. 

There will not be much to glean from film of this match, so it will be important for Louisville to move past this match mentally before they go into a conference season where they have a legitimate chance to make some noise. Sometimes the ball doesn't go your way. It's important for the Cards to not let one bad performance snowball into a season killing skid. Louisville takes on Chattanooga today at three with a chance to get the sour taste out of their mouths. The match will be on ACC Network Extra, or you can head down to Cardinal Arena to see the Cards bounce back yourselves. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

We're back on the air this morning bringing you the joy and excitement of Louisville women's sports. Even after tough losses, there is always something positive to find and we'll be sure to find it and deliver on today's Cardinal Couple Radio Hour.

No Jared this morning, so we'll be without his insight, but Mike Gilpatrick of River City Cards joins us and we'll bring you coverage from the all of the contests over the last week and previews of those upcoming. Tune in to WCHQ FM at 100.9, wchqfm.com, the WCHQ App, or on Facebook Live at 11 AM and sit a spell with us

We'll be happy to have you.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Pictures for today's article once again come from our own Jared Anderson. As always, check out his full portfolio at jdaphotos.com

A Look at the Weekend -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

A Weekend Packed Full of Events


After having nothing for the entirety of Wednesday or Thursday we finally have sports again.  Let's dive right in and see what's happening.


--Friday, September 14--

Men's Golf opens up their season at home hosting the Cardinal Challenge.  The event is scheduled for all day and will be at the Louisville Golf Club near the outlet mall in Simpsonville.

Men's Tennis splits up into two locations with part of the team headed up to Cincinnati for the Greater Cincinnati Collegiate Invitational.  The event is actually north of Cincinnati, located in Mason, not far from King's Island.  Their other half will be in Nashville for the Vanderbilt Commodore Scramble.  Both events are scheduled for all day.

Men's Soccer travels up Northeast to Red Sox country for a premiere ACC match-up against Boston College.  #7 Louisville is coming off a 3-0 victory against #2 Duke and hopes to improve to 2-0-0 in the ACC with a victory against the Eagles.  Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

Another sport also plays Boston College today.  Field Hockey is at home at Trager Stadium against the Eagles  #8 Louisville and #9 Boston College will battle it out to see who will get their second conference win.  UofL took the win on the road 4-1 last year.  This game is set to begin at 6:00 p.m.

Volleyball looks to get revenge from a 3-0 loss at Kentucky last year when they host the Wildcats at Cardinal Arena at 7:00 p.m.  #20 Kentucky has had a rough start to the year at 4-4 but has played a few top teams just like Louisville.  The Cards sit at 6-3 and hope to improve that record in a sold out venue that is set to be a Red Out.

--Saturday, September 15--

Men's golf continues hosting the Cardinal Classic in the second day of the event.

Both halves of men's tennis will continue play at Cincinnati and Nashville.

Cross Country begins their season on the road in Nashville.  They'll kick off the Commodore Classic at 9:00 a.m., run over to cheer on tennis on their route around town and hope to start off the season with a win.

Volleyball hosts their second match in less than 24 hours, facing Chattanooga at 3:00 p.m.  Maybe I can convince Paulie to join me for the first half before heading down Floyd Street to catch Card March.  It might be difficult to mentally hype yourself up for a quick turnaround, especially after the excitement of playing a rival the night before.

Women's Soccer hopes to continue their hot start when they open ACC play at Pittsburgh.  If the offense can get going early in this 7:00 p.m. start time then they could return home 8-1-0 before hosting Notre Dame next week.

Football might have a normal game after last week's monsoon.  They'll host Western Kentucky in a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.  A 31-7 victory last week may have been skewed in favor of Indiana State because of the rain so this game should define the season a little bit more.

--Sunday, September 16--

Men's golf wraps up play in the Cardinal Classic.

Men's tennis will finish in Nashville after the Cincinnati group having completed their event on Saturday.

Field Hockey returns to action with another ranked opponent visiting Louisville.  #11 Northwestern will visit town.  They won both match-ups against the Cards last year including a 2-1 overtime victory against the Cards in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.  UofL will look for revenge starting at noon.

Softball begins their fall schedule with a double-header at Eastern Kentucky starting at 1:00 p.m.  This will be the first in-game action we will see Coach Holly Aprile have with the Cards.

Was your calendar big enough for all of that?  At least this coming Monday will be an empty schedule, giving all of us time to catch our breath.


What Day Is It? 

Borrow one of those 64-packs of Crayola's from a youngster you know, or get creative with those left-over half cans of paint you have in the garage or shed, because it's National Coloring Day.

How should you celebrate?

You could color something. Grab your favorite medium of expression and bring some brightness to the world! Paulie tells of a tradition that he took part in each coloring day at a place he worked where they sat out pages from a coloring book, a bunch of crayons and employees got an extended break during the day to create their own masterpiece.

Or, color your hair. Maybe put some food coloring in one of your favorite dishes and eat blue macaroni and cheese for lunch. Donate art supplies to a kindergarten or day care. Or wear creative, bright-colored clothing to work or the mall.  Be sure and include red in what you do, after all, you are Cardinal fans and we have to represent!

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

- Jared -

WNBA -- Storm surges past Mytics for title -- Give For Good Louisville Day -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

STEWART, HOWARD KEY SEATTLE'S SWEEP OF WASHINGTON

It wasn't so magical or mystical in Washington's arena last night. In maybe a foreboding predecessor to what's coming next week to the east coast in Hurricane Florence, the Seattle Storm surged into Fairfax, VA and George Mason University's Eagle Bank Arena and washed out the Mystics 98-82. 

It wasn't really that close for a lot of the contest. "Stewie" Brianna Stewart and Natasha Howard combined for 59 points (30 and 29 respectively) to solve the mystery of the Mystics in a three-game sweep. 

Sue Bird, notorious for one broken nose and four-letter expletive fame, added 10 for the victorious west coast squad. The Storm used just eight players, two of which saw 10 minutes or less, to take control of the third game and weathered a Washington run that cut a 47-30 halftime deficit to 72-67 with 6:49 to play. Seattle countered with eight straight points to quell the last-ditch effort and secure the win. 

Myisha Hines-Allen saw a fair amount of action for the Mystics last night and had a nice effort on court with six points of three for four shooting. She also gathered four rebounds in her 20:38 minutes on the hardwood. Elena Della Donne led the Mystics with 23 points and Kristi Tolliver contributed 22. Della Donne may have also had the most interesting post-game remarks as well when she offered: 

"There's been a huge transformation with the culture of this team. Last year we were brand new. I didn't know Kristi's favorite beer. That's a pretty important thing to know about "Panda" (Tolliver's nickname). Now I can go to the bar and order everything she needs." 

Tolliver countered with: 

"I'm gonna need a lot tonight".

No word on what Myisha drinks or if Della Donne is picking up her tab as well. In attendance, but probably not knocking back cold, frosty ones were UConn coaches Geno Auriemma and Chris Dailey...on hand for the Stewie coronation. There wasn't a Jeff Walz sighting in the arena but his old boss Brenda Frese was there. 

There was no Donald Trump sighting either.

So, the WNBA season comes to an end.

Our Cardinals "in the show" had a few "ups" and some major "downs" this season. Asia survived life in Indy (after the Mystics dumped her) on a squad that finished 6-28...the worst record in the league by one over the New York Liberty...where Shoni made a cameo appearance before drifting out to Las Vegas. Angel played with passion and fire for the Dream before blowing her knee out at the end of the season. Myisha watched a lot of basketball for "Theo" bald's squad before getting a chance late in the season to be a contributor. 

One would expect at least three of the four will get a chance on WNBA rosters next year...maybe even Shoni, too. Several Cards from the 2018-19 squad could get the chance to play WNBA next year. There is European and Australian hoops ahead for Myisha and Asia Taylor. We'll see how they do across the seas. 

Last night, Della Donne also spoke post-game about even though things may have not gone their way at the end of the season....there was still room for improvement and how she felt that they hadn't peaked yet. How it wasn't the end for them. 

Unfortunately, it is the end... for 2018, at least. 

Maybe the Mystics will come back and make another run for the title next season. Maybe Myisha is on that team. Hopefully, Asia Taylor gets a return call to play for someone and Angel heals and comes back stronger than ever. We hope Shoni gets chance to lace 'em up and fire threes. We expect Asia Durr to be running the courts in a WNBA jersey next year and maybe even a couple of more from the 2018-19 Cardinals. 

We'll be waiting. Maybe Elena Della Donne will even buy us a beer while we wait. 


GIVE FOR GOOD LOUISVILLE

Today is Thursday, September 13th and it is Give For Good Louisville Day. It started at midnight and it is a day where you can help out any of 500+ local participating non-profits with your donation.

We've got a suggestion for you on one you can give to...and that's radio station WCHQ 100.9 FM. It's where we bring you The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour each Saturday and also Paulie's weekly dive in to horse racing with the Handicapping Heroes show.  

We're very grateful for the opportunity presented us on non-profit, community WCHQ FM. A chance to talk about Louisville and other women's sports for a full hour each week. We're the only ones doing a full hour about Louisville women's athletics live on the radio for an hour that we know of. We've been told that our concept is also unique across the station. No one does what we do the way we do it. 

We'd like to ask you to consider a donation to WCHQ FM. The station will be broadcasting live all day with many of the musical acts and personalities on air for you. Although none of the Cardinal Couple nor Handicapping Heroes crew will be manning microphones today in the magnificent and majestic media mansion on Mellwood, we strongly urge you to  "Give For Good". Pick whichever organization you want and maybe include WCHQ as well.

If you're a womens' sports fan, UofL fan, radio fan, horse racing fan or even a "Louisville First" fan...please consider a donation. 

Go to the link below to send your donation: 

https://www.giveforgoodlouisville.org/organizations/crescent-hill-radio-inc

Make a difference. Give what you're comfortable with. Give for good, Louisville. 

Thank you!



paulie
xxxxx