Volleyball Completes Fleur De Lis Sweep -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Overcome 1st Set Loss to Defeat Arizona State

Louisville volleyball beat Arizona State 3-1 yesterday to complete the Fleur De Lis tournament 3-0 on the weekend. The Cards won 9-11 sets, losing one to Western Kentucky and one to ASU. Louisville now sits at 5-1 on the season, with the lone loss coming last week against Florida. The Cards will next be in action on Friday against Purdue at the Lipscomb Tournament in Nashville, Tennessee.

Yesterday's match looked like it would be good for the home team straight out of the gate. Louisville jumped out to a 4-1 lead and ultimately stretched that to a 9-3 lead over the Sun Devils. Unfortunately, that was the last time the official UofL Volleyball twitter account tweeted about the first set, and the box score suspiciously lacks the play-by-play portion of yesterday's match. Anyway, at some point, Arizona State mounted a comeback. They led the Cards 20-15 before going on to win the first set 25-22. ASU hit only .080 in the set, but Louisville saw their struggles and raised them, hitting .000 for the first set, with only 6 kills compared to 6 errors.

From the first set on, Louisville mostly cruised, with only a few threats from Arizona State in the
remainder of the match. The Cards won the final three sets 25-18, 25-17, and 25-15 to take the match 3-1 and put this weekend behind them. One of the most exciting moments of the remainder of the match came in the second set when Anna Stevenson found herself on the ground with the ball in play on Louisville's side of the court. Stevenson literally crawled along the net to get back into position before popping up just as Arizona State received the ball and slamming down a solo block.

It was one of Stevenson's two solo blocks on the day as she led the team with a total of 6 blocks contributed. Stevenson also finished with 9 kills and only one error, leading to an overall very nice day for the junior.

In double digit kills for the Cards were Melanie McHenry, Aiko Jones, and Amber Stivrins. Jones led the team with 13 kills on 30 attempts and 5 errors and she was followed closely by McHenry who was 12/31 with 5 errors. Stivrins had the second highest hitting percentage behind Stevenson, as she finished 10/22 with no errors.

On the whole, the Cards hit .210 for the match. It's not great, but it's also not bad, and it will do well against the .086 combined hitting set forth by the Sun Devils. Louisville also committed only six service errors in this match, a major difference from Friday, when a single Cardinal had that many in a match. 

Shannon Shields led the way in the setter battle, as she finished with 31 assists for the Cards, compared to Tori Dilfer's 13. Obviously, that battle is ongoing and Coach Dani Busboom-Kelly may not be anywhere near making a decision, but having a position battle where both players are making it hard to choose based on their successes rather than their failures is a positive. 

As mentioned previously, the Cards will take their 5-1 record to Lipscomb this weekend for a pair of matches against the Bisons and the Boilermakers of Purdue. 

Kent State has Some 'Splainin' to Do

Yesterday afternoon, I was cruising through twitter, when a tweet from the University of Maine field hockey account caught my eye. They announced that prior to the second overtime of their match, Kent State administration deemed the match a "no contest" so that the Kent State football game could start on time at Noon. Right off the bat, this seems fishy, but don't worry - it gets worse. The field hockey match did not even include the Golden Flashes; it was a neutral site match between Maine and Temple.

The match also wasn't interfering with football, it was on the field of an adjacent stadium.

The field was cleared so that fireworks could be discharged safely during the football game. These fireworks were akin to the cannon shots you often see at a sporting event during the National Anthem when the phrase "the bombs bursting in air" is sang/played. And that "no contest" designation? It didn't end the match in a tie. Instead, it throws the match out completely. Maine has removed the match from appearing on their schedule and Temple has retroactively marked it as a scrimmage.

LINK TO ARTICLE:  YOU BLEW IT, KENT STATE

Who knows, maybe the Kent State administration was still smarting from the 4-2 loss to Louisville Field Hockey back on Sept 4th. and decided to spread the pain to other schools?  

Whatever the circumstances, this was a disrespectful and shameful act by the Kent State administration. Many have called for a Title IX investigation, though I'm not sure if that applies. At the very least, the teams deserve a sincere apology and potentially some other form of compensation. Maine will have their chance to show how they feel when they take on Kent State this morning at 11. I hope they beat the brakes off of the Flashes.


CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR

Paulie, Worldwide Jeff, Daryl (Foust -- not the disco ball) and I gathered in the magnificent media mansion on Mellwood yesterday for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour and the usual non-sense, coupled with the joy and excitement of UofL women's sports ensued. Hear it below: 

CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR 9-7-19

We said a sad goodbye to Daryl the Disco Duck Ball during the broadcast. After serving us well, the orb simply refused to dazzle anymore. It will be put in the WCHQ Museum, and a cocktail reception is in the works for "Daryl's Demise". See Jared at the bank for tickets. 

Our station mascot, Floyd, will read some Donna Summer and Bee Gee's lyrics and Jared will perform "Disco Duck" on his euphonium . wear your platform heels and any polyester you can dig up. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Volleyball Double-header Saturday

Volleyball Plays Two

Dani Busboom Kelly's volleyball squad had a double-header yesterday with an early afternoon match against Tennessee Tech, and an evening match against in-state Western Kentucky.

Tennessee Tech

The wide-netters came away with two wins, with one of them being a 3-0 sweep of Tennessee Tech, 25-14, 25-17, 25-15.  None of the sets was particularly close, and Tennessee Tech was clearly an overmatched team against the Cards.

Claire Chaussee getting ready to bring the power.

Give the Golden Eagles credit, they were a scrappy team, equaling UofL's 41 digs in the match, but were clearly outmatched at the net, only chalking up 6 blocks compared to 10 by the Cards.  Beyond those 10, the UofL blockers were up and at the net, forcing alternate shots like tips and rolls, rather than hard hit balls.  The Golden Eagles hit a cumulative -.051, with the only positive hitting percentage in a set in the first set at .136, still not great.  The 2nd set saw that stat plummet to -.200.

To be fair, the Cardinal hitting percentage wasn't exactly stellar, either, a whopping .196 for the match with the high being .290 in the 2nd set, dropping to .056 in the 3rd and final set.

For particular bright spots, look to true freshman Amaya Tillman who, while originally being listed as a middle hitter and blocker has been playing on the right side.  While this is a relatively easy transition to make, the timing of swings is a bit different and she has been struggling some with this.  She did connect with both setters in the Golden Eagle match, with a percentage of .364, with 7 kills on 11 attempts.

Aiko Jones doing it Jamaica style

Piper Roe and Emily Scott got the start in the middle merry go round and hit .250 and .214 respectively.  Respectable numbers in the middle.  Scott was definitely the more unfettered middle with 5 kills on 14 attempts with 2 miscues, while Roe only swung on 8 attempts, getting 2 of them to the floor.  Aiko Jones also chalked up a .250 percentage on 7 kills out of 16 attempts, a nice set of stats for a right side hitter.

The 6-2 offense remains in effect with Shannon Shields technically getting the start, and pretty evenly splitting the assists with Tori Dilfer, with 12 and 11 respectively.  The core of the defense was provided by Melanie McHenry, Alexis Hamilton, and Shannon Shields, with 9, 10, and 7 digs.

The crowd was sparse for a mid-day match, with your correspondent "taking a long lunch" to attend and then returning to paying endeavors after the match in the SAC lobby.

Western Kentucky

The more interesting match for UofL was in the evening with Western Kentucky as the opponent.  The Cards would win this as well, as they have every match they've played against the Hilltoppers in the history of the matchup, but WKU did show they are a team to be reckoned with.  The Cards get the win in 4 sets, 25-18, 22-25, 25-22, 25-15.

The first stat that stood out to me in this match was the blocking, with WKU outblocking the Cards 12-9.  Let's be clear, this year's UofL squad is one of the best blocking teams we've had in a number of years, WKU is overall a shorter team, and they had a stronger blocking presence at the net than UofL did.  The joint blocks were even at 12, but WKU put up 6 solo blocks in the 4 set match vs UofL's 3, a very impressive number, to be sure.  Again, though, credit UofL's blocking for altering the opponent's attack to cause hitting errors, although here again, the Cards came out worse on the stat sheet with 27 hitting errors, to WKU's 24.

Amaya Tillman celebrating her successes

The difference in this match isn't much reflected in the stat sheet.  WKU's 48 digs, compared to UofL's 57 isn't that much of a disparity, but the difference here was that UofL's defense and transition to offense felt more "in system" than WKU's.  The Hilltoppers scrambled a lot to return shots, and to be sure they scrambled well, but that's not a recipe for winning points, merely keeping the ball alive to continue to play.

For individual contributors we look to Melanie McHenry, with a very good .367 coming out of the left side, again ultimately a tribute to the defense to offense transition being in system.  On the other end of the net, Aiko Jones swung for a very impressive .370.  Emily Scott out of the middle brought a .286 and Amaya Tillman continued to swing well on the right side for .250.  Assists again were relatively evenly split in the 6-2 with Shannon Shields tallying 25, and Tori Dilfer picking up 20.

The usual suspects chimed in on defense, Alexis Hamilton digging 16, Shannon Shields picked up 13, and McHenry with 10.  I do want to shout out Emily Scott for digging stats, with 4, which is an inordinately high number for a middle.

This was a fun and exciting match to watch, with a good crowd of just over 1,000 on hand for it.  Remember that, before the renovation 3 years ago, that arena could only officially seat 840.  I continue to be impressed with WKU, as every time I see them play, they're always just a little bit better than the last I saw them.  Credit to Head Coach Travis Hudson along with his assistants Kristi Griffin and Craig Bere.  One history note, Bere was an assistant to Leonid Yelin in 2007 and 2008, and as such is certainly familiar with L&N Arena.

Melanie McHenry doing Melanie McHenry things

The Cards will be back in action today at 3:30 (ish, depending on the previous match between Tennessee Tech and WKU finishing on time) against Arizona State.  You can count on former Card Maya McClendon being in attendance (as she was yesterday) because, after playing 2 years at UofL, she transferred to ASU to finish her career.  Speaking with her briefly yesterday, she asserted that she,  despite graduating from ASU, and being born and raised in Louisville and a lifelong Cardinals fan, "will wear neutral colors."  Fair enough.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Then there's this bozo.

It's studio day for the Cardinal Couple Crew, represented today by yours truly, along with Paulie, Case, and Daryl, returning to the WCHQ studio for the first time in some time.  We'll have plenty to talk about with a great start to the soccer season, volleyball and field hockey.  Check it out on WCHQFM at their website https://www.wchqfm.com or on Facebook Live at https://facebook.com/wchqfm, through the WCHQ app, or even on 100.9FM if you're in the vicinity.

-- 

JMcA

Ekic's Goal Lifts Cards -- Weekend Scheduling -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Ekic's Goal Lifts Cards

Emina Ekic is a star, no doubt about it.  She once again proved why her name is on the All-American list as her penalty kick goal in the second half was the difference in a defensive battle against Indiana.  The Cards won the Battle of the Border 1-0.

Indiana came out attacking early on in hopes to put Louisville into a defensive game plan and keep the Cards from pressing.  It worked for a good 15 minutes before Louisville was able to break through and take control of the half, owning possession the rest of the match. The Cards had a 61% to 39% possession edge in the first half and that number held true for the second half also.

The first half saw little offensive action as the teams ping-ponged for a while.  Once Louisville seemed to have control of the ball they struggled in the final quadrant of the field as the Hoosiers played a lock down defense.  The Cards finished with three shots with none on goal in the first half.

Louisville put the pressure on early in the second half but the IU goalkeeper stood strong.  The officials called a pretty tight game with the minor fouls getting whistles.  It eventually led to the Cards being awarded a PK in the 77th minute.  Ekic made quick work of it and buried it in the right side of the net for the game winner.

Louisville finished with nine shots on the night with Ekic recording seven of them.  She also finished with all three shots on goal.  When asked about her goal she just responded the she had 29 players relying on her but did not feel any pressure.

On the defensive side, Louisville limited IU's shots.  They had one in the first half and two in the second.  Both shots on target were saved by Gabby Kouzelos, who earned her fourth straight clean sheet.  Louisville has not surrendered a goal at Lynn Stadium this season.

They said it: 

Emina Ekic Postgame

Coach KFD Postgame


Weekend Scheduling

Friday

Volleyball has a pair of home games.  They'll take on Tennessee Tech at 12:30 pm and in-state rival Western Kentucky at 7:30 pm.  Classes are in session during the day so plan for possible parking troubles.  WKU always puts up a good fight and this has the potential for a sold out crowd.

Saturday

Softball begins their fall schedule with a double header against EKU at 12:30 p.m..  Admission is free and there are no marketing promos like free peanuts, but this will be a good chance to see the new team for the first time. Start your tailgating early with a trip to Ulmer to cheer on Holly Aprille's squad.

Right across the street from Softball's Ulmer Stadium, Volleyball has a regular season game at 3:30 p.m..  They'll face Arizona State as they wrap up the Fleur de Lis tournament. Plenty of time to catch the #24 Cards in what looks to be a very tough task against a strong Pac 12 squad.

Heading south on Floyd Street, Louisville has their second football game of the season.  Scott Satterfield has a good chance to earn his first victory as head coach at 7:00 against EKU. Let's hope that entering Cardinal Stadium will be easier this week for the fans and that "Security Theatre" takes it down a notch. .

Sunday

It's a quiet day on campus- no home games for any teams for the first time in 11 days.  Field hockey will still be in action, though, as they travel up north for a game against Michigan State at 11:00 am.  Make note of the early start time.

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

Jared

Field Hockey wins, Nelson honored, WBB #8, Happy Birthday Sean and WSOC Tonight! -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

RUSS'S TWO GOALS LEAD CARDS TO 4-2 WIN OVER KENT STATE

Louisville Field Hockey went to 3-0 on the season and handled Kent State with relative ease for 59 minutes of the 4-2 win at Trager Stadium yesterday. It was the one minute in the fourth quarter that got Cardinal fans a little antsy in the fourth quarter...when the Golden Flashes connected on two scores in a mere 15 seconds. 

Louisville started off with a brisk and unrelenting attack on Kent State and it paid off six minutes into the match when UofL got loose on a breakaway and Margot Lawn sent a long pass to Bethany Russ over to the top of the left circle. Russ performed her magic with a nice reserve shot that found the net to put the Cards up 1-0.

Louisville's defense continued to deny the Golden Flashes offensive opportunities and, just a minute later, Russ sent a nice feed to Madison Walsh from the top of the circle to the right side and Walsh knocked in her second score of the season to put UofL up 2-0. 



The Stick Girls continued to fire away on Kent State goalkeeper Azure Fernsler  in the second period and it finally paid off late in the half when Lawn worked her way through the defense to get off a well-placed, unassisted shot for Louisville's third goal. The teams went to the half at 3-0. It was maybe the best performance of the year for a half by Louisville and six different Cardinals got off shots. 

Sowry also substituted liberally during the 30 minutes. 20 of the 24 players on the Louisville roster saw action. Hollyn Barr turned in a solid, if uneventful performance at goal -- with just one shot on goal attempted against her and the shut-down Cardinal defense. 

It was red-shirt freshman Sam Minrath's turn in front of the next in the second half and it started well for her. Louisville picked up a fourth score just three minutes into the third quarter when Russ tallied her second goal of the game during a penalty corner where Alli Bitting, Emilia Kaczmarczyk and Lawn all tried their luck at scoring but failed before Russ tapped a loose ball into the net to make it 4-0.

Fourth quarter action took a crazy and danger twist and turn. First, Lawn took a ball to the face off a deflected shot by the Kent State goalkeeper, stayed on the turf a very long time and left the game with assistance...her face covered with a towel.  

Then, with 11 minutes left in the game, Kent State got on the board when Clara Seto Rodriguez chased down a Minrath deflection and pushed it past her. Seconds later, Luisa Knapp stole a UofL pass and sent a forward stroke to Laila Ricther in front of the cage. Her shot got by Minrath and suddenly it was 4-2. 

Coach Justine Sowry stayed with the Louisville Christian Academy red-shirt freshman Minrath in between the pipes, though, and the final 11 minutes played out with neither team getting a successful shot off. 

Hoping Lawn is OK. Coach Sowry discusses that in the interview below. The freshman is a dynamic force on the pitch for the Cards and is needed in Louisville's attack formation. 


Louisville dominated the stat sheet, with a 14-7 shot advantage and a 9-4 edge in shots on goal. There were only three penalty corners in the entire game and the Cards had a 2-1 advantage on those. 

With the sparsity of scoring in the game of Field Hockey (compared to other sports), goals are huge and when an opponent can cut a lead in half in several seconds, it gives the UofL coaching staff plenty of teaching material before the Cards leave on a month long, six game road trip that won't have them back in Trager to play until October 4th.  

Every moment matters. Every play is important. 


THEY SAID IT:  

COACH JUSTINE SOWRY POST-GAME

MADISON WALSH POST GAME REMARKS

Here is better quality audio of each: 

JUSTINE SOWRY

MADISON WALSH


NELSON HONORED

Louisville women's soccer defender Niamh Nelson, a senior from San Diego, received a nice honor yesterday when Top Drawer Soccer named her to the "Team of the Week". 

Nelson played every minute in last week's wins over Eastern Michigan and St. Louis. Both were shutouts and she set up the winning goal in the Cards victory over the Billikens. 

Nelson is team captain for the 2019 squad and her honor leads us to: 




WSOC VS IU TONIGHT

7:30 is the time. Lynn Stadium the location and the event is the border battle between Louisville women's soccer and the IU Hoosiers. 

The Cards put their 4-0 record on the line against an Indiana squad that is 1-2 on the season. The Hoosier fell last time out, rather surprisingly, to Murray State 2-1 in the final minutes of the contest played on the Racers turf. An 81st minute Murray goal did IU in, who is under the direction of first year head coach Erwin von Bennekom. 

Louisville is the second ACC team IU has faced this season. The Hoosiers fell 3-0 to #2 ranked North Carolina to start the 2019 campaign. 

Overall, IU holds a 4-1 all-time series lead over the Cards, but Louisville did win the last meeting...a 2-0 triumph, back in 201 at Bloomington. 

Join Jared, Case and me for the action tonight. Who knows, maybe even Worldwide Jeff will emerge from the Digital Ocean and bring Sammy the Shark on land with him for the match...


#8 ??

ESPN has this thing they call the "Way Too Early Preseason Poll" they do for certain sports. The four-letter network released a version of this for women's basketball recently and picked the WBB Cards at #8 for the season that is still more than two months away. 

So...you might ask...how did Jeff Walz's bunch down on Floyd Street fare? 

The top ten: 




1) Oregon
2) Baylor
3) UConn
4) Stanford
5) Maryland
6) Oregon State
7) South Carolina
8) LOUISVILLE
9) Mississippi St.
10) Texas A&M 

It's preseason. And way, way too early.


Occasional CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR visitor Daryl Foust has a bit more on this over at The Crunch Zone. 

LINK: DARYL'S ARTICLE

(The top photo is her, Lindsey Duvall, Mykasa Robinson and Dana Evans. Pretty sure they're NOT at Walmart or in the Korber... )




HAPPY BIRTHDAY !

To Sean Moth. 

Nobody does it better. Keep doing it.

In our daily coverage of the joy and excitement of Uofl women's sports, there are many things to be grateful for and extol. 

One of those is Sean Moth. The do-it-all Cardinal P.A. is also a wonderful ply-by-play announcer. 

My favorite Sean story goes back a couple of years. To 2011. He was calling a UofL Baseball game in mid-May and it was the same day as the Preakness. The Cards had rallied to take the lead and Sean proudly proclaimed that "Uncle Mo was in the Cardinal dugout !!" 

The race horse Uncle Mo was supposed to be resting on WinStar Farm, recuperating from an illness that had kept him from running in the Kentucky Derby (as the probable favorite) and kept him out of the Preakness. 

(Coach Dan is full of surprises, but getting Uncle Mo on the Cardinal roster may just be his biggest feat). I was hoping they'd let Mo enter the game as a pinch runner. Would you get in his way if he tried to steal second?)   



In conclusion...dear readers...



Have a Thursday. 

I'm on my final two days of Jury Pool Duty and hoping with every ounce of my depleted energy, attention-span, motivation and soul that they don't call my number. Just not feeling it today.

Mama said there would be days like this. 

Carry on, knuckleheads. 

paulie
xxxxx

Field Hockey Hosts Kent State -- UofL SAAC -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Field Hockey Hosts Kent State

UofL will wrap up their three-game home stand today against Kent State.  The game is slated for 3:30.  A midweek afternoon game doesn't exactly fit the schedule for the normal working person, but it is easy to catch on the ACC Network Extra (online).

The #12 Cards have started the season undefeated by defeating Indiana and UMass.  So far, UofL has posted a clean sheet on defense as the battle for the starting goalkeeper position remains heated.

Bethany Russ leads all Cardinals in scoring after posting a hat trick against IU.  Madison Walsh, Carter Ayers, and Mercedes Pastor each have a goal.  Whena Munn has recorded a pair of assists and Walsh has one.

Kent State leads the all-time head-to-head 23-13 but UofL has won eight straight games including a 3-1 regular season finale last year. Russ had two goals against Kent State last year.

The Golden Flashes sole loss came to Michigan State, who the Cards will face in East Lansing on Sunday.

If I had a guess I'd say Paulie will be in attendance in the press box live tweeting the game and giving us some post game, if jury duty doesn't take precedent.  Check out his recap here tomorrow.



UofL SAAC

The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) has many functions but one of them is to help arrange for student-athletes supporting other teams so all sports can have a support section at games.

It's great fun, naturally, for them to support their fellow student-athletes and gives the fans to interact with them in a social setting.

Paulie tells a story of  little girl who was a huge softball fan and got to meet her idol (a former pitcher for the Cards) and have her picture taken with her.




There was a large representation last night as men's soccer defeated rival Kentucky.  I came out of retirement to join them in cheering and got to spend some time with Jaz Jones, women's soccer, softball, field hockey, swimming & diving, cheer, and more.  Women's soccer even painted up to spell out "GO CARDINALS!".  There was also a large crowd of them at volleyball this past weekend.  We should start seeing a lot more of that this year.

Happy Wednesday and Go CARDS!
Jared




Jared's Selfie Selection

Is Jared a rock star? It's come to the attention of your benevolent skipper here at Cardinal Couple (Paulie) that a lot of UofL women's student athletes are familiar with our photographer and writer Jared Anderson. (Be careful, young lasses...you don't know what you are in for...)

I always tease him that I don't want a lot of "selfie" pictures when he sends me his work from various events. Since it is his day to write, though, I'll cut him a little slack and grant the approval of some selfies here. After all, we are all about the joy and excitement of UofL women's sports here at the Couple, and Jared certainly seems to have a lot of those two things whenever he's out at an event. 

Witness Monday, for an example. While prowling the sidelines at the UofL vs. Notre Dame football clash, I saw him at various times stopping to take a crowd shot or walk over to the fans and shake hands or wave.

How do we market this?

(No, I did not get a haircut and that's not me with Jared)

We don't, mind you, have any exclusive claims on the dashing Mr. Anderson.

He's also an integral part of the all-sports site RIVER CITY CARDS. He does photo shoots for very reasonable prices as a sideline.

He's kind enough to join us on the radio when his work schedule permits and, if it's summertime, you'll usually find him down on Main Street shooting the Louisville Bats. 

All of this, plus keeping tabs on his girlfriend Katie, playing the euphonium at various events and banging the drum at soccer games. 

Ah, the energy of youth...

Paulie
xxxxx

Come September, comes women's basketball recruiting trips and visits -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

GONY, OTHERS LINED UP TO VISIT WBB THIS SEPTEMBER

One of the many things that September ushers in, besides college football, is the visits to and from potential talent for college women's basketball programs across the land. 

Here at Louisville, the WBB Cards were set to receive an official visit from 6'3" Lincoln, Nebraska star Nyayongah Gony. Louisville has had her on their radar for quite some time and the Cards were the first to offer her a scholarship. Dozens of other schools have followed suit. 

I sent our intrepid photographer Jared Anderson out on a seek-and-find mission to see if he could find her last night at the UofL Football game against Notre Dame. As of 8 a.m. this morning, Mr. Anderson has not sent me anything. This of course, could mean several things. Maybe he forgot to look for her. Maybe he's still prowling the campus in search of her. And, he does need his sleep so he can roll those pennies and nickles with a clear head and mind this morning. 

Maybe he was so impressed with the alleged picture he took of me, Sonya and a bowling buddy at the football game, he just stopped there. (I haven't received that photo yet, either -- but, in fairness, it was a late, late night for the attendees in Floyd St. and we didn't get home until after 1 a.m.) 

On a side note, I renew my plea for UofL to study how Indianapolis handles huge crowds, gets them into events and how smoothly they handle the traffic before and after such events.

Red faced, screaming guys in yellow are no way to run an airlines, much less a tailgating crowd of over 50,000 trying to gain entrance to Cardinal STADIUM. Due to gate congestion, people cutting line (I saw one fight break out), and, in my humble opinion, way too extensive frisking and search procedures before you even get a chance to show your ticket for scanning -- the delays were excruciating  Sonya and I left the tailgate facility for the gates at 7:10 p.m.

We didn't get into our seats until 8:10. 

But, back to Gony. 

She didn't take up the game until the sixth grade. Bionca Dunham comes to mind when I re-read that previous sentence. 

She has a sister (Nyagoa) who played at Purdue last year. As a freshman she appeared in 31 games, had a start and was named the team's most improved player at the end of the season. 

(Photo courtesy of Daryl Foust)

Nyayongah will be one of many that will either receive a visit from Cardinal coaches this month or come to campus for a look/see. Already, I like the idea of having a Nyah and a Nyayongah on the same roster for three years. Maybe Nyagoa would think about transferring here...toss in current freshman  Nyah Green  and we could get up a student chant of "Nyah, Nyay, Nyag" when the Cards are blowing someone out of the KFC YUM Center. 

(Speaking of WBB, the squad gets in a little dancing at Card March during the tailgate for Lou v ND. Daryl Foust was there to capture on camera.

Louisville most likely will add a couple more to the 2020-21 roster that already has commits from Merrissah Russell and Olivia Cochran. Most serious Louisville  women's college basketball fans I know are hoping that Washington senior sensation Hailey Van Lith is one of those. 

So get ready, USA and points beyond. Cardinal WBB coaches are headed to a gym near you. Be prepared, student-athletes currently on campus. Visitors are coming and we want to put out the best china and fancy napkins

A 2020 WBB class of Gony, Van Lith, Russell and Cochran sounds pretty good to this guy. What say you? . 


paulie
xxxxx

LOUISVILLE women's sports team go 3 for 3 on Sunday -- HAPPY LABOR DAY -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

BUSY DAY ON FLOYD STREET RESULTS IN THREE WINS

If today is the men's football program's day to shine on Floyd Street, Sunday belonged to the UofL women's sports squads. 

Three events, three different locales and three wins ! (Wait, did I just here Sean Moth yell "Threeee!" in the background?). Anyway, to the recaps... 

We'll start the recap and analysis over at Trager Stadium, where the Cards Field Hockey flock avoids the water cannons and began the day's action against UMass at noon. 

LOUISVILLE FH 1 - UMASS 0


Senior Carter Ayars delivered her first goal of the season and her career with 11 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter on a penalty stroke in the fourth quarter to give the Stick Girls the lead and the lead held against a resilient UMASS squad. 

She talks about that score and the team below: 

Carter AYARS on the 1-0 win

A defensive battle, yes...but Louisville had a 11-4 advantage on shots and 6-0 edge on penalty corners. In all probability, the should have been a 3-0 or 4-0 win, but credit UMass goalkeeper Megan Davies for excellent net work. She had five saves. 

In an attempt to even the score, the Minutewomen pulled their goalkeeper with about five minutes to play to add another attack player. Sometimes, this can backfire and allow a goal. In this case, though, Louisville simply played "keep-away" with the ball from the UMASS attack and neither team mounted a serious attack or managed a shot in the final five. 

We caught up with Coach Sowry after the contest and she shared her thoughts on the win: 

COACH SOWRY DISCUSSES WIN OVER UMASS

Hollyn Barr saw all 60 in goalkeep for the Cards and a rather interesting occurrence happened in the second half when UMass head coach Barb Weinberg left the sidelines and walked to the other side of the field to view the action from the east side bleachers. The change in viewing tactics failed, though, as the Cards go to 2-0 and next face Kent State in Trager on Wednesday.  


LET'S ALL GO TO THE CREDIT UNION BUILDING! 

Next stop on the Sunday tour of Floyd Street took fans northward to the L&N Federal Credit Union Arena for Louisville Volleyball. The Serve and Kill Cards were facing Dayton in a 1 p.m. contest and things went quite well for Coach Dani Busboom Kelly's leapers. 

Louisville won the match in straight sets 25-17, 25-14, 25-19...led by by eight kills each from Melanie McHenry, Claire Chaussee and Aiko Jones. 

The Cards were never seriously challenged in the first set, jumping out to an early 8-1 lead, seeing Dayton cut that back to 17-11 but pulling away to hold a commanding 23-12 edge late in the set.

Impressive that the Cards had four aces in the first. Chaussee led the attack with four kills. 

Red-shirt freshman phenom Aiko Jones

In the second game, Dayton never led but stayed close before the Cards went on a 6-0 run to take a 16-9 lead. It only got worse for the Flyers. Melanie McHenry had four of Louisville's last six points and the Cards took the second set 25-14. 

Game three looked like it might lead to a fourth game, with Dayton in control late at 18-14. Louisville regrouped after a timeout, though, and went on an impressive 11-1 run to seal the deal and end the match. 

UofL had an impressive 10 blocks against the Flyers and redshirt freshman Aiko Jones was named to the All-Tournament team. 

Coach Busboom Kelly rarely does post-game interviews, so we have no post-game remarks for you.

Louisville (2-1) hosts the Fleur de Lis tournament next week and will start it off on Friday, Sept. 6th against Tenn. Tech at 12:30 p.m. 


THE DAY ENDS AT LYNN (HOMETOWN GALS DO GOOD)!

A southward saunter to the home of Louisville Soccer, majestic Lynn Stadium for the final of the three events. The Kickin' Cards hosted Eastern Michigan for a 7:30 p.m. tussle on the turf...and it turned out quite well for Coach Karen Ferguson Dayes' squad with a 5-0 whitewash of the Eagles. 

Emina Ekic (from Louisville Manual High School) got things off to a good start by delivering the Cards first two goals. A line drive from the front of the box from her in the 17th. minute and a tally on a penalty kick in the 37th minutes had the Cards well-in-command as the fist half ended. Louisville had a 13-1 edge in shot. 

Here's post-game epic Ekic with her thoughts. Note that Cardinal Couple's Case Hoskins (from Butler High School) was conducting the interview, as Paulie was at a Labor Day function (that wasn't at Manual or Butler). Good interview here, and he managed not to antagonize her. (That would come later in the interview process) 



LINK:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgHQKzyPzyM&feature=youtu.be

JARED'S LINK ( a BIT BETTER quality): Jared's LINK

UofL continued to pile on the pain in the final 45 minutes. Redshirt freshman, Louisville Sacred Heart grad Cassie Amshoff scored her first collegiate goal 19 minutes into the action on a nice feed from Taylor Kerwin

The Louisville High School players = GOAL equation continued 11 minutes later when Jolene Ballard (Louisville Manual) found net success to increase the Cardinal advantage to 4-0. Jessica De Filippo (Quebec, Canada) also got her first career goal with seven minutes left in the contest to set the final at 5-0. 

In the contest, the Cards took an obscenely high 27 shots and limited the Eagles to just two shots on goal on UofL goalie Gabby Kouzelos. 

In the post game chat/video between Case and Coach KFD, we had no trains, planes, sirens or noisy golf carts..but we got the complimentary S.I.D . on-camera walk-thru and some noisy boys in Cards shirt. "Queso" also managed to ask a question that had Coach in full disagreement with her response. You just gotta love it...

Cards are now 4-0 and bring in the Hoosiers Sept 5th for a Thursday 7:30 p.m. tilt.

LINK: KAREN FERGUSON DAYES POSTGAME

JARED'S LINK  JARED'S LINK


HAVE A GREAT LABOR DAY!

Enjoy Labor Day! Even if it's just another work day for you, make the best of it and try to have a little fun. 

Labor Day evolved as a public holiday of festivities and picnics held in honor (or "honour" if you're in Canada) of working people in the USA and the "Great White North".

And all these years, I thought it was a step in the process of childbirth....

Traditionally held on the first Monday of September, the Canadians refer to it as "Labour Day". 

Enjoy and if you're headed to UofL Football tonight, in the words of the late, great John Belushi: 

"My advice to you is to start drinking heavily."  (Not bourbon, though...WATER). 

STAY HYDRATED IN THE HEAT. HEATSTROKE IS NO JOKE. DEHYDRATION IS NO FUN.  

If you're contemplating "the other" form of drinking:

Just make sure you have a sober driver to get you home and you are of legal age...and that alcohol dehydrates, not re-hydrates...  


paulie
xxxxx

Volleyball Gets In the Win Column - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Epic Volleyball Session Recap

It was an epic afternoon and evening of volleyball, with the 2nd session of The Cardinal Classic getting underway at 4:30 yesterday, and not wrapping up the final point until approximately 10:30 to finish two matches.

The first match saw a barn-burner between upstart, and unranked, Dayton, against the #7 team in the country, Florida.  Yours truly arrived about halfway through the second set and doing a double-take at the scoreboard, seeing Dayton having taken the first set 25-21, and leading in the second 15-13.  The Flyers went on to win that second set 25-17.  Florida would finally get their game in gear, though (and truth be told, I suspect a little bit of Dayton's adrenaline probably faded) and came back to win their way through the rest of the match, 14-25, 23-25, 14-16.  With the exception of that third set, Dayton was either beating, or at least playing extremely closely with a top ten team.  This was after they played Texas A&M to 5 sets on Friday, and beat Pitt in scrimmage play last week in 5 sets.

The Cards got their own epic match underway against the aforementioned Aggies a little late due to the extended Dayton/Florida match.

The first two sets were...I'm trying to find adequate words to describe it..."a train wreck" comes to mind.  The squad was just not executing on even basic volleyball skills out of the gate.  Despite the Keystone Cops routing, the Cards were able to keep the sets reasonably close, losing them 25-19, 25-20.  A scary moment early in the 2nd set contributed to the overall despair as Tori Dilfer took a hard driven shot from Texas A&M to the head and immediately dropped to the floor.  It was quickly apparent that she was not passed out, but clearly had taken a series hit.  The Louisville Athletic Trainers were immediately on the scene and attended to her.  Upon getting to her feet a wave of nausea clearly came over her and she was hustled to the sideline for further attention.  Concussions obviously do happen in volleyball, and they can be very serious.  Dilfer will presumably be in the concussion protocol and will not see play again until she clears it, of course.  Fortunately Louisville has another very capable setter in true freshman Shannon Shields, as we have been discussing UofL's use of the 6-2 offense over the past week or so.  With Dilfer's unfortunate departure, the Cards dropped back into a much more typical 5-1 offensive pattern.  Shields almost immediately took advantage of the change by slamming a shot over on the 2nd hit with big power after she rotated into the front row.

Near the end of the 2nd set, indeed I would pinpoint it as starting on the Aggie's set point, things started clicking for the Cards.  The Aggies had about 6 or 7 set points available to them, but it was like a light switch had flipped for the Cards.  They were executing well, and forced an Aggies timeout.  The Texans would go on to win the set, but the momentum had clearly shifted.

The teams would battle back and forth in the third set, culminating in a pair of kills starting at 25-22.  Finally, the UofL squad got settled in well and cruised to solid, though certainly not easy, wins in the last two sets to take the 5 set match 19-25, 20-25, 25-22, 25-18, 15-9.  One couple of amusing, and perhaps a little frustrating, plays in the match, both involving Claire Chaussee.  Late in the match, a poor pass by the Cardinals ended up with the ball over near the UofL bench.  It was chased down and bettered back towards the court.  Claire Chaussee had also chased the ball towards the bench, and yet found herself probably best positioned to get back onto the court and get at least a marginal swing on it.  Alas, despite his best efforts to get out of the way, the line judge ended up being right in Chaussee's path.  You can picture the slim (but, of course, very fit) Chaussee running into, and even trying to shove out of the way, the line judge to try to get to the ball.  No hard feelings from anyone, of course, and the officials did rule that the interference justified a replay of the point.  The other incident was earlier in the match, as a Chaussee was lining up for a big left side swing, she ran out of her shoe.  Quite literally, her shoe was left at the 10 meter line.  Unfortunately, that really screwed up her swing and prevented her from making the play.  Adding on to that, on Friday, Claire took a hit from the ball on her thumb that apparently bent back her thumbnail.  They taped her thumb up to protect it a little bit during the match Friday and it was taped again last night.  The tape, however, prevented Chaussee from being able to untie and retie her shoe laces!  Team Mom Melanie McHenry to the rescue, though, and all was made right with a few grins and chuckles.

Takeaways

Those first two sets...oof.  I'm not sure what came over this Cardinal team.  On the plus side, however, the Cards were able to pull it back together and get settled down and return to the level of play that this highly talented team is capable of.  Ultimately the night goes into the win column, and certainly the squad can take some comfort in demonstrating that sort of resilience to be able to take that sort of battering, dig themselves a two set hole, and still be able to not get completely flustered, re-center their minds and find a way to get it done in the 3rd set, and improve on it more in the 4th and 5th.

This is a team that is still figuring out their identity, still learning how to communicate effectively within the squad, and generally still needing to gel as a team.  9 of the 16 players on the roster did not set play on the court as a Cardinal last year (5 true freshman, one of which is expected to red-shirt this year; 2 transfers; 1 that took a red-shirt last year; and 1 that was the team manager last year)

We lost in 3 sets to Florida on Friday in the season opener.  That was disappointing, but I haven't lost any sleep over it.  I saw a lot of promise in the play, and the three sets were reasonably competitive against the #7 team in the country.  Last night, the first two sets were, well garbage, the team got battered, both literally and figuratively, early in the match, but they were able to take support and encouragement (and shoe tying abilities) from each other, and maybe most importantly, trust each other to do the right thing and play through the adversity to figure out how to make it work.  I see great promise in this team, and though it may look a little rough right now, it is the first weekend of the season for a team that has had major renovations and has only really been playing together in earnest for a few weeks.  I am hopeful that they will find the rhythm together and have a great year.  The talent is surely there.

Up Next

All 3 major fall women's sports are in action again today on Floyd Street.  Field Hockey gets things underway with a noon pass-back at Trager Stadium against UMass.  UMass was, of course, Coach Justine Sowry's previous coaching gig before returning to UofL where she had previously served as assistant coach under Pam Bustin, now at Duke.

Volleyball will finish out the Cardinal Classic with a noon first serve against the aforementioned Dayton Flyers.  Expect Dayton to come out with a monstrous chip on their shoulders.  They're now sitting at 0-2 on the season with their play here in Louisville.  Both matches have been 5 set barn-burners that could have easily gone Dayton's way with only one or two calls falling differently.  Add that to Louisville being the team that eliminated the Flyers from the NCAA tournament last year in the first round in Illinois.  Dayton did win their scrimmage match, also in 5 sets, against Pitt last week.  So this is a team that has shown that they are capable of performing at a much higher level than I think most give them credit for, and they have ample reasons to come out this afternoon raring to knock of the Cardinals.  Do not underestimate this team, they are dangerous.

The Floyd Street nightcap is down the street at Lynn Stadium where Women's Soccer will get underway against Eastern Michigan at 7:30.  Starting out the season 3-0 is a great start for the Cards kickers.  We have discussed, on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour, that the Cards could be 6-1 or maybe even 7-0 before jumping into conference play against the very good UNC Tarheels.  

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Speaking of the CCRH, we were back at it again at the WCHQ studios on Mellwood.  Paulie, Case, Jared and myself were all there on the mics, and we were graced with the (a bit camera and mic averse) presence of Jared's girlfriend Katy.

We had some great recaps and analysis of the Field Hockey, Women's Soccer, and Volleyball seasons to this point, and we invite you to check it out on Facebook Live:

https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/405566496665156/

-- 

JMcA