Championship Sunday and More -- Sunday Cardinal Couple

Saturday Rundown

The calendar is bursting at the seams with events this weekend, so let's work our way through the day in order of how it happened.

First off, the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast kicked off an hour early.  This was a late decision in the week.  We felt very strongly that we did want to have the show with it being ACC Women's Basketball week, but challenges with the sports scheduling were arising.  With Lacrosse starting at 11am, and some of the Cardinal Couple crew needing to be exiting by 11am in order to make it to their respective stations for various sports events, we decided to start an hour earlier.

Lacrosse

As mentioned, Lacrosse did get underway at 11am, an early start to be sure.  The opponent was Virginia, and yes, since it's an ACC opponent, they are a ranked squad, coming in around 8th or 9th in the rankings, depending on which poll you're looking at.  The Cards took this one down to the wire, but did come out on the short side of the 12-13 score in the end.

The Cards made a great game of this, mostly trading goals with UVA, though the Hokies were able to extend a little bit of a lead, out to 8-4 at halftime.  The 2nd half opened with a bit more back and forth, the score reach a similar four point lead, 11-7, after 10 minutes of 2nd half play.

The Cards would go on to outscore UVA 5-2 the rest of the way, tying the score at 12-12 with 12:30 left in the game.  The defenses on both side stepped up their intensity at that point, but UVA would break through with the final goal of the game with 5:46 on the clock.

Hannah Morris came off the bench for four goals, with Caroline Blalock, Allega Catelano, and Alex McNicholas each contributing a pair.  Ally Hall and Kokoro Nakazawa found the back of the net once each as well.  Rachel Florek continued her great play in the net with 10 saves.

Lax will be back on Friday at Central Michigan with a 1pm game.

Women's Tennis

Louisville women's Tennis was also in Virginia, and dropped their match 6-1 in the noon start.

The Cards did lose the doubles point, which has been a rarity for the team this year.

Rhea Verma got the only point for the Cards in a 6-2, 6-2 win over Vivian Glozman.

Tennis will be back in the Bass-Rudd Center for noon matches against NC State and Wake Forest Friday and Sunday.

Softball

Also starting at noon, Softball vs DePaul.  UofL won this one 3-0 behind the good pitching combo of Taylor Roby and Jennifer Leonhardt.  Roby pitched the first five innings, with Leonhardt finished out the last two.

Jordyn Wolfe would be the first to cross the plate for the Cards, using a trio of singles from herself, Carmyn Greenwood, and Taylor Roby to do it in the 3rd inning.

Rebecca Chung said, "Goodbye Mr. Spalding" in the 4th inning to get herself across the plate.  Then in the 6th inning Chung would use a fielder's choice to reach, got lifted for the speedier Sydney Bickel who would then cross the plate on a Leonhardt double.

Softball will be in action at Ulmer again today at 2pm, against Miami (OH).

Women's Basketball

Also also at noon, Basketball tipped it off vs Syracuse in the ACC Tournament Semifinals.  The Cards
would win this one 72-59 with a spread offense.

Q's Cuse were a bit injury depleted in this one, with their star point guard Tiana MangaKahia down with a "lower body injury", though she is expected to return for the NCAA tournament.  Priscilla Williams was also out for the game recovery from her terrifying fall in the game on Friday.  Williams stayed at the team hotel watching the game "in a dark room", but was reported to be doing well considering the fall that she took.

Despite the Orange's overall length, the Cards won this one mostly on close-in shots.  The Cards did get six shots from three point range, with a pair each from Hailey van Lith and Norika Konno, but would get 32 points in the paint.  The Cards also outrebounded Syracuse, 39-37 with the two rebound edge coming in offensive rebounds.

Ultimately, credit the Cards defense in this one, holding the Cuse to only 30% shooting.  For the Cards the offense came by committee, Dana Evans bounced back a little to get 13 points, Kianna Smith got her offense unlimbered a bit with 11.  Olivia Cochran and Norika Konno joined them in double digits with 10 apiece.  Hailey van Lith and Liz Dixon counted for eight with Mykasa Robinson close behind with seven.

The play was generally steady, the Cards won all four quarters, but the 2nd and 4th only by a single point.

FRED REPORT

Two ACC Tournament Wins, one to go! 

F- Good Free Throw shooting for both teams in this one.  Syracuse shot 84% from the line, but the Cards kicked it up to 94%, definitely good enough for the capital "F".

R- UofL won the battle of the boards, but not by a big margin, 39-37.  The margin was on of the offensive boards, which is nice, and almost earns the uppercase, but I'd like to see the boards get crashed a bit more aggressively, so I'm only awarding the lower case "r" here.

E- Assists were even between the teams at 10 apiece.  The Cards did come out positive on the assist to turnover ratio, but again only just barely.  The nine turnovers are at the high end of what I'm comfortable with for the effort and execution category, particularly when looking ahead to NC State's stiff defense.  I'll grudgingly give the upper case "E" here, mostly because of the 19 points off turnovers for the Cards show we were taking advantage of the Syracuse mistakes.

D- All four blocks of the game went to Syracuse, which isn't terribly surprising given their length.  The Cards did get Syracuse to commit 15 turnovers though, six of which were steals.  Not bad, not bad at all. I'll give the capital "D" here.

Fred recap: 

F-r-E-D, may be a bit generous, but with little time to prepare in the grueling tournament schedule, it's time to keep our chins up and keep winning.

In the other semifinal yesterday, NC State's defense just smothered Georgia Tech in the 4th quarter after a big 2nd quarter for the Yellowjackets earned them the lead at halftime.  The Ramblin Wreck would hold the lead through the 3rd quarter before the ol' 1930 Model A final broke down under the withering NC State defense in the 4th quarter.

That sets up today's noon tip before NC State and UofL for the ACC Championship.  Elissa Cunane is back in top form, with Kayla Jones, Kai Crutchfield, and Jakia Brown-Turner all playing good supporting roles.

Volleyball

Volleyball is back, and I'm a happy camper.  Particularly after the Cards cruised to an easy 3-0 sweep of Wake Forest in the L&N Federal Credit Union Arena yesterday.

This was a late add of a match after Virginia Tech got postponed due to Covid issues within the VT program.  Because it's a late add, it will not be considered for conference standings, but did serve as a good opener for both squads to unlimber from the over-winter break.

Claire Chaussee, well she's a Wisconsinite, so it's no surprise that she apparently made the best of the winter and came out and hit a torrid .714 hitting percentage to lead the Cards with 16 kills on only a single error.  Her calling card had been "high risk, high reward", but she cut down the risk factor quite a bit yesterday, let's hope she keeps it up.

Most of the A-Team showed up and played well, Anna Stevenson and Aiko Jones both chalked up 10 kills, with Amaya Tillman putting another six down.  Anna hit .467, which is good, even for a middle, and Aiko hit .421, which is quite good for a pin hitter.  Alexis Hamilton lead the team with 10 digs, a nice sum.

Getting away from the A's, Tori Dilfer tallied 32 assists, a very nice number indeed for the 3-set match.

Volleyball will play Wake Forest again today at 2pm, but this one does count for conference standings.

Soccer

Last, but certainly not least.  Soccer came out on top in a defensive battle against Dayton 1-0  up in Ohio.

Looking for the next leader on the squad after Emina Ekic took her game farther downtown to Racing Louisville FC, Massie Whitsett got the only score of the game.  We have, of course, heard the Whitsett name alongside Ekic for some time, so it'll be no real surprise if she steps forward to take the reigns of this squad going forward.

Soccer gets a bit of a break, and will be back in action on the 20th back in the Dr. Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium when Auburn comes to visit.  First kick at 5pm.

Field Hockey

Not in action yesterday, but with a game today.  Field Hockey heads up to Muncie, Indiana to play one of those other Cardinals squads in Ball State.

1pm for the first pass back for that one.

Cardinal Couple ACC Tournament Pick'Em 

As we go into the final game of our Pick 'Em, it looks like Jeff McAdams entry is the leader with a 10-1 record. He can win the Pick 'Em with a UofL win today.

Right behind him at 9-2 are David Watson, LouavulFan35, KStarks, Case and Jared. If NC State wins today, then David Watson gets the title. Second place is a bit more complicated, Paulie will straighten that out in Monday's column per bracket Czar Jared's ruling. 

At 8-3 -- Arthur, Daryl, Clemson Cuz and Vivian

At 7-4 -- Nick O, Paulie, Blue Lou, Kenny S, Sonya and Doug

At 6-5 Phil

At 5-6 Curtis , Eric and Nole Knowledge

At 4-7 -- Cardinal Couple Chimps, Joe Hill 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Finally, as mentioned earlier, the whole crew did get together for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast, though with an early start time of 10am.

Good discussion of the progress of the ACC basketball tournament, coverage of softball, field hockey, lacrosse, volleyball, and a brief shout out for Dairy Del and Daryl's delightful banana milkshake.   You can check it out below.

JMcA

A Very Busy Friday -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Fourth Quarter Surge Lifts Cards Over Deacs

While the final plays weren't quite as unnerving as in the previous meeting in January between Louisville and Wake Forest, the ACC Quarterfinal matchup between the two teams had plenty of tense moments. Though the final score might imply a comfortable win, the game was tied at the end of the third quarter, after Wake refused to go away. Plenty of words will be written elsewhere about the officiating of this game, and had the result turned out differently, I might devote more words to it myself. As it was, Louisville turned a seven point first quarter lead into a fourth quarter tie and then turned that into a double-digit win. The bottom line is that the Cards advanced to today's semifinal round, so let's take a look at the game.

The first quarter saw Louisville jump out to a hot start. The Cards scored on their first possession and quickly turned that into a 7-2 lead. By three and a half minutes into the game, the lead had stretched to 11-4 and Louisville looked like they'd run away with the game. The teams traded blows throughout the remainder of the first quarter with the Cards holding the aforementioned seven point lead at 17-10. It was an inauspicious start for Louisville, with Dana Evans hitting her first three and a reasonable 5-2 foul difference. After that, though, things got weird. 

The second quarter opened with Olivia Cochran picking up her second foul. Mykasa Robinson scored the first points of the quarter to stretch Louisville's lead to nine, but Wake kept clawing back. When Hailey Van Lith hit a three pointer to make it 22-16, the Cards went cold. They went on to miss their next six shots before finally scoring again on a Norika Konno fast break layup with 2:41 remaining. They then made the remainder of their shots in the quarter, including two more three-pointers, to lead by four at the break. Over the course of the cold slump, Kianna Smith and Elizabeth Dixon also picked up their second fouls.

In the first half, the Cards shot just 36.8% from the floor, just ahead of the Demon Deacons' 34.8. Louisville committed just three turnovers compared to ten from Wake and the foul discrepancy was 10-4. Looking at the overall foul called numbers, things don't look so bad. However, Wake Forest shot 15 free throws in the first half. Louisville shot zero. For Wake to commit no shooting fouls over a 20-minute first half is, um, unlikely. Either way, Louisville still held a four point lead into halftime. It wasn't the comfortable seven point cushion they had after the first quarter, but with a six-plus minute shooting slump, you'll take it.

The only problem with that was that the third quarter didn't get better. Though another three by HVL gave the Cards another seven point lead and Dana's second three of the game pushed it to six a bit later, Wake would ultimately come back to take the lead in this one with 45 seconds remaining in the quarter. It was eerily reminiscent to the end of game sequence earlier this season when the teams traded baskets over a one point lead. After Kianna Smith gave the Cards a one point lead with 24 seconds left, an Ahlana Smith foul led to a 1-2 effort at the line for Wake to tie it at 44 going into the fourth quarter. We had a barnburner ahead of us it seemed.

Jeff Walz put something in the team's Gatorade before the fourth quarter. After a clunky start to the quarter, HVL scored the first points on a fast break layup with 8:29 remaining. The subsequent possession saw Wake tie the game again on, you guessed it, free throws. Louisville then went off. The Cards scored the next 13 points of the game over a four minute stretch to put the Demon Deacons in quite a hole with 4:15 remaining. There was no slump to follow the big run, and even though Wake Forest finally scored again, Louisville refused to cede their double digit lead. The closest it got for the remainder of the game was ten. 

I said I wasn't going to spend a lot of time on the refs, so I won't. I mentioned the 15-0 free throw discrepancy in the first half, and it didn't get better. The final spread was 23-2. Louisville saw Dixon to the line one time and she missed them both. Wake was 18-23 from the charity stripe. This game was only close because of that difference, I can say that quite confidently. Well, that difference and the fact that Dana Evans struggled to even get out of the gate. The ACC Player of the Year shot just 3-15 from the floor, 2-7 from three. She did chip in seven assists, though, leading the team. 

The Cards were carried by HVL, a statement that is very likely to be repeated over the next three years. Hailey finished with 24 points on 9-15 (6-10) shooting and added five rebounds, three assists, and four steals with no turnovers. Drool. For the freshman to come up clutch when Louisville needed her to is very encouraging going forward where every game matters. And it isn't just that she put up a gaudy stat line. Every time Louisville needed a big boost, Jeff Walz dialed Van Lith's number. No one else scored more than Dana's eight points. It was a performance from HVL that everyone has been expecting this season, and we can all only hope it becomes the new normal. 

The CASE Report

C - Care: Despite the frustrating nature of this game, Louisville actually took decent care of the ball, with just the three turnovers mentioned in the first half. The third quarter saw a pretty big jump, and the Cards finished with 11. It was still a pretty decent showing. Louisville was only able to force Wake into 14, but 11<14 so that's half a point. That said, Wake's defense ranks 315th in the country, forcing just 12.6 turnovers per game. Louisville's 11 is far more than 60% of that, so the Cards finish with a lowercase 'c'.

A - Assists: Louisville's assist game was on point yesterday, and they very nearly picked up the capital A in this category. The final tally was 20 assists on 28 made baskets. A 71% assist rate is nothing to slouch at. If they had gotten it to 75, I made have made an exception for just missing the 2.0 ATO (1.8). However, since they were well on their way to the capital A in the first half (71% assist rate and 3.3 ATO) but committed so many second half turnovers, I can't do it. Lowercase 'a'.

S - Steals: Nine steals isn't terribly many, but it's more than the bar (7.5) and more than Wake (3). Louisville was able to come up with big steals in big places to keep Wake from taking too much advantage of the Cards' shooting woes and HVL led the team with four. Capital 'S'.

E - Efficiency: Louisville's second half shooting performance was a strong effort at 54%, dragging the first half's 37% out of the mud. However, it wasn't enough. The final shooting percentage was 43.8, just under the benchmark of 45%. That said, a 42.9% from beyond the arc gave the Cards a huge boost. 0-2 is basically unscorable. The Cards can't control not getting to the line but given the game flow, it's critical to score when you get the chance. I'll still award a lowercase 'e' for the second half performance and the outside shooting.

That gives Louisville a c-a-S-e for the game, a decent effort from the Cards. They'll need to perform a bit better overall going forward this year, but to get through the grit of the first three quarters and boom in the fourth like they did is very encouraging. Louisville will get Syracuse in today's semifinals at Noon on the ACC Network. 

As for the bracket challenge, the results are just about set, with almost all remaining brackets in play having the same results in these last three games. Worldwide Jeff leads the pack at 8-1 and has Louisville defeating NC State in the final. A host of players sit at 7-2 with the same result in the final. Dave-O Watson leads the opposition, sitting at 7-2 with NC State coming out victorious over the Cards in the final. While there aren't many players still up for the chance to win, the final result looks like it will come down to the last game.

Softball Dominates Bradley 18-1 Over Two Games

Basketball took up the majority of the column today, rightfully so, but there's still plenty more going on. Softball began hosting the Cardinal Classic to open Ulmer Stadium for the season yesterday with a pair of evening games against Bradley. They bullied the Braves for a couple of hours. Neither game made it to the top of the sixth, and neither had the Cards concerned for any reasonable amount of time. We'll see if they can carry that momentum into today's games, but, in any case, Louisville was rolling yesterday.

Taylor Roby got the start in the first game, and Bradley threatened right off the bat. A single and a walk gave Roby runners on first and second with no outs to deal with. She rose to the challenge, though, getting a pop-up, fielder's choice, and strikeout to end the inning. Louisville's offense then ended the game in the bottom of the first. Carmyn Greenwood started with an infield single and then advanced to second on a sac fly from Celene Funke (I've never seen that for someone not named Billy Hamilton in recent memory). A Roby walk was followed by a Chung single to score Carmyn and Cassady Greenwood singled to score Roby. Louisville led 2-0 with two on and one out. A steal and a walk loaded the bases, and everyone advanced 60 feet on a wild pitch. Another walk loaded the bases again and a sac fly scored another runner and turned the order over. Another wild pitch brought home one more before Carmyn Greenwood struck out. Louisville led 6-0.

In the second, Bradley was able to claw one run back, getting runners to second and third with two outs before single through the infield scored a runner. Roby got another groundout to end the side. In the bottom of the second, Funke was walked the hard way (hit by pitch on a 3-0 count, oof). She was caught steeling, though, and Jenna Servi came on to pitch hit for Roby. She promptly doubled to center and after a Chung foulout, Cassady Greenwood singled in Servi and was brought home herself by a Hurst double. Louisville led 8-1 after two. 

A total of two runners reached over the next three innings before Louisville took to the bat for the bottom of the fifth. The Cards promptly loaded the bases on three straight hits and walked off the game with a full count walk to Maddy Newman. 9-1 in the fifth triggered the mercy rule and the teams went their separate ways to get ready for the second game. The first game lasted just under two hours and started at 4, giving the two teams about half an hour to collect themselves for the 6:30 first pitch of game two.

Gabby Holloway got the start for the Cards in the second game and got things off to much less eventful start. She picked up outs in all three ways, getting a strikeout, groundout, and flyout in order to put down the side. Louisville's bottom half wasn't nearly as eventful either, though a Celene Funke triple (drink) was followed up by an RBI double from Rebecca Chung. Makayla Hurst reached on an error, but Chung got caught in a pickle between third and home to end the inning.

Holloway put in another 3-up, 3-down inning in the second and Louisville got to work in the bottom half. Taryn Weddle was hit by the first pitch she saw and when Charley Butler tried to sacrifice bunt her over, the catcher threw the ball into the outfield. Runners stood on first and second but couldn't advance when Holloway lined out to first. Maddy Newman walked to load the bases and Carmyn Greenwood picked up a painful RBI with an HBP. Funke grounded out to first, but it was enough to avoid the double-play and score a runner before Taylor Roby hit a 3-run bomb to clear the bases. Chung lined out but Louisville led 6-0.

Holloway allowed her first runner in the third inning when she gave up a two-out double. The runner advanced to third on a passed ball but a lineout ended the threat. The Cards went right back to in the bottom half again. A groundout was followed by two walks when Holloway stepped in and sent the ball to center. The center fielder struggled getting the ball in, as did the pitcher, and Holloway reached third on the errors while Butler and Weddle both scored. Leonhardt stepped to third to pinch run and was brought in on Maddy Newman's groundout. Louisville loaded the bases on three walks to the top of the order, but Chung grounded out to the pitcher for the force out at the plate and the scoring ended. Louisville led 9-0 after three. 

Leonhardt took over in the circle and although she walked the first batter she saw, she struck out four of the next six she faced in the final two innings. Louisville got a runner on base in the bottom of the fourth on a walk, but didn't take the batter's box in the bottom of the fifth. 

The two wins put Louisville at 5-6 overall and gives them the chance to get to .500 today when they take on Depaul at noon. The Blue Demons are 5-4 overall and won their last game over St. Louis 8-5. They haven't played the schedule Louisville has, but they do have a bit of confidence coming in. Louisville should have confidence in droves after yesterday's performances. This one should be available on ACCNX so be sure to split screen it with the basketball game.

Field Hockey Drops Spring Opener

After a very strong fall performance, Louisville field hockey got back underway yesterday as they prepare to play a spring NCAA tournament. Their first match was against tough conference foe UNC, and it didn't quite go as Coach Sowry might have hoped. The Tarheels scored early and late in the first half and those two goals were all they would need to ice the game. With a penalty corner in the first two minutes of the game, UNC put Louisville on the back foot early. The Cards had their chance to tie with a corner of their own just a minute later, but Mercedes Pastor's shot was blocked. 

The Tarheels put on a pressure campaign over a six minute stretch in the final ten minutes of the second period that saw multiple shots wide or blocked. With two minutes to go in the half, they earned another penalty corner and Erin Matson was able to capitalize for the second time on the day. The goals in this game were her 14th and 15th of the season. 

Louisville was unable to make anything happen offensively for the remainder of the game and the 2-0 score at halftime held until the final whistle blew. The Cards actually led UNC in shots at 16-14 and shots on goal at 9-5, but the goalkeeping for the Heels was just too much for the Cards to overcome. Disappointingly, Louisville also led in penalty corner attempts at 10-5. They went 0-10 while UNC went 2-5. That's how you lose games, and it's surely a sore point for Coach Sowry this morning. 

Louisville was not shutout in the fall season or in all of 2019, so this ends a run of 34 straight games with a goal scored. Their last goalless game came against Albany in a 1-0 loss on October 21, 2018. The Cards are still in a good position to fight for high NCAA tournament seeding as this loss puts them at 8-3 on the season. Two of their three losses have come against UNC and the Tar Heels lead the season series 2-1. Louisville may get as many as two more chances against them, as the ACC will host an ACC Championship game on April 24th, prior to the NCAA tournament. The Cards get back on the horse tomorrow when they head to Muncie, Indiana to take on the Cardinals of Ball State. That game is at 1PM.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

We're live again this week at an extra special time of 10AM. We've forgotten when Daylight Savings Time starts so we figured we'd just go ahead and bump up the show. In actuality, though, it's a busy Saturday, so we wanted to get the show out prior to all of the fun and excitement getting underway at 12. Tune in to the Cardinal Couple YouTube Channel at 10 today for the live show or check out the replay after it ends. As always (well, mostly always), you can subscribe to the podcast to get episodes pushed directly to your device after they're posted. Be sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel as well, as the crew posts interviews there often.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

WBB opens ACC tournament with Wake Forest, another VB cancellation & more; FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Good Friday morning, Louisville fans!  It's another gorgeous spring-like day in the 'Ville but let me get the bad news out of the way... We've got another cancellation in the spring volleyball schedule.  It's the third weekend in a row for the squad fall victim to the COVID protocol.  Yet again, the opponent producing the positive test, Virginia Tech announced Thursday afternoon.. just 48 hours after the men's basketball programs cancelled their midweek matchup. 

The weekend volleyball series with Wake Forest is still on schedule for now. The Cards and Deacs will meet Saturday 2 p.m. and also on Sunday. 

And on that note, let's call it what it is and I dub thee:

#WakeForestHateWeekend

ACC Women's Basketball tournament update 

The ACC WBB Tournament began Wednesday, as you all probably know. Just one game on Wednesday:

3/3 Boston College 67 vs Pitt 56

Thursday game results...

Wake Forest 82 vs UNC 71  -- The Deacs' starters put together a solid 40 minutes of play, accounting for all but three of the team's total 82 points.  WF freshman guard Jewel Spear went 10-15 on the day, 7-10 from 3-pt land and had four of the team's five triples in the first quarter.  Ivana Raca went 6-12 for 21 pts, 12 rebounds and went 8-8 at the FT line.  Gina Conte was 4-5 for 13 pts, 12 assists and 3 steals.  The Tarheels were able to come back from down 15 to get a 2 point lead with 5 min left in the 3Q but their lead lasted all of 3:15 minutes before Wake took the lead back and didn't let go. 

Syracuse 67 vs Boston College 61 -- BC was 6-27 on 3-pt attempts making 5 of them in the fourth quarter.  Syracuse outrebounded the Eagles 43-36 on the day, Emily Engstler with 15 for the Orange. As a team 'Cuse shot 42.8% from the field and went 9-13 from the FT line. "Q" bunch gets FSU today. 

Virginia Tech 72 vs Miami 64 -- The Hokies lead 24-12 after one quarter shooting better than 55% from the field and 44% from 3-pt land.  VT had four players scoring in double digits with D'asia Gregg coming off the bench for 13 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman and sophomore duo Georgia Amoore and Elizabeth Kitley had 16 pts each in 40 minutes on the floor. The Hokies lost senior guard and the teams leading scorer, Aisha Sheppard 12 minutes into the game to an ankle injury.  She did not return to the game and her availability for Friday's game against NC State looks very doubtful.. which is very unfortunate for the talented Hokies.

Clemson 68 vs Notre Dame 63 -- The Irish out-shot the Tigers 49% to 34.9% from the field but ND made only four 3-pointers, committed 21 turnovers and attempted just 9-11 FTs.  The Tigers won the offensive rebounding battle 18-6 and outscored ND 18-9 in the fourth quarter to upset the Irish. The most exciting game of the ACC Tournament so far.  Clemson goes on to face Georgia Tech today

On tap for today, four games...the first includes the Cards  

Louisville vs Wake Forest - 12PM

PREVIEW 

Louisville (21-2, 14-2) is the 1-seed in the ACC Tournament for the second consecutive season and for the third time in four years. The Cardinals won the 2018 ACC Tournament title as the 1-seed in 2018. They are 10-5 all-time in the ACC Tournament and 6-0 in the ACC Quarterfinals. Wake Forest (12-11, 8-10) entered the ACC Tournament on a three-game losing streak, but ended that skid with yesterday's victory.  The Deacons have several scoring attacks the Cards will have to stifle to secure the victory because this Wake Forest team will want revenge from the regular season matchup.  Ivana Raca leads the team averaging 17 pts and 9 rebounds per game. 

    UofL vs WF  

    (season averages)

    80.5          67.3  PPG 

      35.4          32.9  3-pt%

    39.9          35.2  RPG

    12.2          13.3 TO/G

The last time the two teams met...

UofL 65-63 WF

Cards won the first and fourth quarter to beat the Deacs in the final eight seconds of the game.  Both teams shot 39% from the field, WF was 1-11 from 3-pt land in Winston-Salem.  Dana Evans hit the go ahead shot on a drive to the basket and a Gina Conte foul put Dana at the line and into the Player of the Year conversation.

The Cards were grossly outrebounded 43-32 with WF senior forward Ivana Raca leading the battle of the boards with 13,  Olivia Cochran led Louisville with 11. Evans scored 25 points for Louisville who trailed by nine midway through the fourth quarter before going on a 14-2 run to push back in front for good.

For today, your viewing and listening options: 

TV: RSN (Fox Sports South) (Jenn Hildreth, play-by-play; LaChina Robinson, analyst)

Radio: 790-AM WKRD (Nick Curran, play-by-play; Adrienne Johnson, analyst)

Other games today:  

2:30 pm -- Florida State vs Syracuse 

6 pm --  NC State vs Virginia Tech 

8:30 pm -- Georgia Tech vs Clemson

 

OTHER SPRING SPORTS SCHEDULING

The University of Louisville field hockey team will open the 2021 spring season this weekend with a pair of road contests. The Cardinals, who compiled an 8-2 record in the fall, will face ACC foe North Carolina on Friday at 1 p.m. followed by a non-conference matchup at Ball State on Sunday at 1 p.m.

No. 25 University of Louisville women's lacrosse (2-1) opens its Atlantic Coast Conference schedule on the road against No. 8 Virginia (3-0) on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. ET.

University of Louisville women's soccer begins their spring season on the road against Dayton on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. The match will not be broadcast, but live stats will be available.

The University of Louisville softball team will play host to Bradley, DePaul and Miami (Ohio) in the Cardinal Classic this weekend. The Cards will open play at Ulmer Stadium after playing their first nine games on the road in a three week span facing Bradley in a double header Friday afternoon beginning at 4 p.m.

CARDINAL COUPLE PICK 'EM Bracket update via text from Bracket Czar Jared:

After two days of the contest, here's how the 22 participants stack up: 

One at 5-0
Five at 4-1
Seven at 3-2
Seven at 2-3
Two at 1-4
Zero at 0-5

Six brackets already have an incorrect game going into Friday games. One bracket already has an incorrect game for Saturday. All chosen champions (UofL, NC State, Georgia Tech, FSU, Clemson) remain alive

Clemson Cuz is 5-0, and does have the Clemson Tigers falling to UofL in the final. Arthur is one of the participants with a  4-1 record but has Clemson beating the Cards in the final. Louavulfan is 4-1 but had Notre Dame beating GT. Our own Jeff McAdams is one of the 4-1 teams. The rest of the Cardinal Couple crew is as follows: 

Case, Sonya & Jared 3-2
Daryl & Paulie 2-3

The full standings: 

5-0 -- Clemson Cuz

4-1 -- David Watson, Blue Lou, Arthur, LouavulFan35

3-2 -- KStarks, Vivian, Kenny S., Sonya, Jared, Doug Anderson, Case

2-3 -- Paulie, Ramblin Eric, CC Chimps, Phil, Daryl, Nole Knowledge, Curtis 

1-4 -- Nick O, Joe Hill. 

Questions?  Disputes?  Shoot the Bracket Czar Jared an e-mail at: eupherjared@gmail.com or just go camp out on his condo front porch and confront him directly.  

SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR PODCAST:  

Time change alert: 

We've backed the show up an hour to 10 a.m. to accommodate the spring scheduling.  I will be heading into the ACC Network building, I think Paulie, Jeff and Jared all plan on going out to campus to catch some matches/games!! Looks like we've got some sporadic cloudy/clear skies out there so wear your sunscreen! 

Go Cards!! Let's get some W's today!

~Daryl  

WBB Awards -- T&F News -- ACC Pick Em -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Women's Basketball Awards

Dana Evans continues to rake in awards. Her most recent is being named the Kay Yow Scholar Athlete of the Year.

The award is in memory of Hall of Fame coach Kay Yow, who led NC State to four ACC Tournament championships as well as directing the 1988 USA Olympic Team to a gold medal. It honors an ACC player each year. Evans is the second Cardinal to earn the award, behind Asia Durr, who won the award in 2018.

Evans is also one of five Cards named to the ACC All-Academic Team. The senior will graduate this spring with a degree in Sport Administration. She is joined on the list by Kianna Smith (Marketing), Hailey Van Lith (Business), Elizabeth Dixon (Management), and Mykasa Robinson (Exercise Science).

Dana speaks of the award and other aspects of UofL WBB basketbll in the link below, from her media teleconference yesterday:

 DANA EVANS TELECONFERENCE 3/3/21

UofL and NC State led the ACC with five student-athletes on the list. The 13 ACC schools that played through the end of the season had at least one student-athlete make the list.

Continuing on with the awards, Coach Walz was named a semifinalist for the Werner Ladder Naismith Coach of the Year. He is one of 10 finalists and one of two ACC coaches on the list (Wes Moore, NC State).

Track and Field Prepares for NCAA Indoor Championships

Four Cardinals (three women) have qualified for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. The events will be held in Fayetteville, Ark., March 11-13.

Makenli Forrest is no stranger to the Indoor Championships as she makes her fourth appearance. She will be competing in the weight throw, where she finished runner-up in 2019.

Halee Hudson will also be competing in the weight throw. She has finished top three on three different occasions this year. Her best finish ranks 16th nationally.

Aliyah Welter will be competing in the pole vault. She tied a school record with a 4.32m mark and placed second in the ACC Indoor Championships.

Cardinal Couple's ACC Pick Em

We had 22 entries for this year's Cardinal Couple ACC Pick Em. Let's do a quick breakdown.

-- 15 brackets picked Louisville to win the tournament. Three brackets picked NC State. There were two picks for Georgia Tech and one each for Clemson and Florida State.

-- A UofL vs NC State championship game was most popular with 12 brackets have the top two seeded teams squaring off on Sunday.

-- No team was a unanimous pick for any game in the tournament.

-- After yesterday's first round contest, where 13-seed Boston College topped 12-Pitt 67-56,  we still have 15 remaining perfect brackets. So roughly 1/3 of all entries had Pitt getting the win. Boston College got a career high 33 points from guard Cameron Swartz in the win. 

Today will get more complex with four games happening. The first tips off at noon.

In second round action: 

8-seed North Carolina and 9-seed Wake Forest will start the day off.

 6-seed Syracuse and 13-seed Boston College will follow immediately after.

There will be a brief break before 7-seed Virginia Tech and 10-seed Miami square off. 

Then, 6-seed Notre Dame and 11-seed Clemson will close out the night.

Since Daryl has tomorrow's article I will give her an update to share with us. I will then give another update during our normal Cardinal Couple Podcast on Saturday morning before photographing softball at noon.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Cards WBB receive honors -- ACC WBB Tournament Starts Today -- Pick 'EM -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

CARDS WBB STUDENT-ATHLETES HONORED

AWARDS AND HONORS

A busy 24 hours, in terms of honors and recognition bestowed on members of the University of Louisville women's basketball team student-athletes. 

Dana Evans got two national award honors yesterday, being named as one of the five finalists for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award. This award goes to the nation's top hooting guard in college WBB, and it is the second straight year Dana has been named to the final five. Other honorees are Chelsa Dungee (Arkansas),Ashley Owusu (Maryland), Arella Guirantes ( Rutgers) and Zia Cooke (South Carolina) 

The winner will be annoinced on ESPN, but no firm date for the announcement has been established yet. 

Evans also was named to the Naismith Trophy Semifinalist list yesterday. This award is given each year to the player of the year in college WBB and Evans is one of 11 on this list. It's her second straight year appearing on this list. Others named are: Aliyah Boston (South Carolina), Paige Bueckers (UConn), Caitlin Clark (Iowa), Charli Collier (Texas), Elisa Cunane (NC State), Naz Hillmon (Michigan), Rhyne Howard (Kentucky), Aari McDonald (Arizona), Michaela Onyewere (UCLA) and NaLyssa Smith (Baylor) 

This list will be pared down to four finalists on March 15th. and the winner will be announced the week of March 29th. 

The ACC announced WBB awards as well yesterday and there are two groups that award these separately. There is the Blue Ribbon Panel and the Coaches.

Dana Evans was named Player of the Year by the Blue Ribbon panel. They also put her on the All-ACC First Team.

Dana Evans was also named Player of the Year by the coaches. The coaches put Hailey Van Lith and Olivia Cochran on the ALL-ACC Freshman Team. Kasa Robinson was selected for the All ACC Defensive Team. 

Great honors for these Cards WBB student-athletes ! Our sincere congratulations to all of them and to the team. 

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

UofL has a presser scheduled today with Jeff Walz and Dana Evans at noon. I'll try to hop back in here with a link to hear how it went when UofL provides it. 

ACC WBB TOURNAMENT BEGINS TODAY 

The first round of the 2021 ACC WBB Tournament begins today in Greensboro and it'll feature a contest between #12 seed Pittsburgh and #13 seed Boston College. These two will play at 2 p.m. and play for the right to advance to second round action and face Syracuse on Thursday at 2;30 p.m.

A bit of a different first day than we normally see for this event, with Virginia and Duke opting-out of playing. We saw three first round games last year, with the #10-#15 seeds doing battle to advance to the second round.  

The second round remains pretty much the same, with four games, but the #10 and #11 seed automatically advance to thee second day this year (Miami and Clemson) 

Louisville doesn't play until Friday, as the #1 seed. They'lll open ACC WBB Tournament action in the quarterfinals at noon against either Wake Forest or UNC. 

We'll give you full coverage of the five-day tournament here at Cardinal Couple. I won't be in attendance this year, the first one I've missed since 2014. That streak goes even further back, with attendance to the ACC and Big East WBB tournaments.  It's simply a matter of COVID this year and not wanting to take the risk of coming up positive during my six-day stay away from home. I wait patiently for the vaccine. 

RSN has the cover for the first three days before they turn it over to the ACC Network for the semifinals and final games on Saturday. Locally, that's FSNHD -- on Spectrum it's channel 70 or 929. In this day of 10,000 ways to watch stuff, check with your provider to see what channel FSNHD is on. 

CARDINAL COUPLE ACC WBB PICK 'EM

You have until 2 p.m. EST today to get your picks in for the ACC WBB Tournament Pick 'Em contest. As of 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, we had 18 participants for the event, and expect a few more today. 

$25 gift card Cracker Barrel is first prize and a $15 card second prize. If there isn't a Cracker Barrel in your area, and you come in first or second, let us know and we'll try to make a different arrangement for you.  They DO offer carry-out, if you don't want to dine in public yet. 

Sonya and I ordered for carryout the Sunrise Sampler the other morning and it was delicious.  A SPECIAL "SHOUT-OUT" to the Fern Creek location for donating the gift cards again this year. 

You can leave your picks in the comments section today, or email Jared or Paulie with your picks. Send them to

eupherjared@gmail.com

or cardinalcouple@twc.com

One interesting fact from the 18 entries we have received so far is that Louisville is picked to win in 12 of them. NC State is picked to win in three entries. Georgia Tech in two and Clemson in one. 

Have a great Wednesday! 

paulie

 

Lax Cruises Past Cincinnati -- ACC Pick Em -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Lacrosse Cruises Past Cincinnati

It was an easy day for the Louisville lacrosse team as they had no trouble dismantling Cincinnati 13-5.

Louisville, who is ranked #25 in the latest poll, improves to 2-1 on the year. They also improve their record against the Bearcats to 14-0 all-time dating back to when UofL formed a team in 2008.

"I'm really happy with the win. I thought our defense played lights out, but on offense we have some things we need to improve on," said Coach Scott Teeter. "Rachel Florek was a rock in net for us again, which gave us the opportunity to get the win."

Florek recorded 15 saves on the day, just two shy of her career-high and program record which she set against Michigan and Virginia Tech last year. The senior keeper is up to 38 saves on the year.

The record number of saves in a season is 194, set by Brittany Read in 2017. Florek's average of 9.33 saves per game would put her at 140 on the year, assuming the Cards play every game scheduled. 140 would put her fourth in a season.

Her 246 career saves are already fourth in program history. The record is held by Read, who recorded a whopping 323 goals in her career. She is currently on pace to top that.

Hannah Morris recorded a hat trick to power the offense. She is tied for second on the team with six this season  Louisville was quick to put a number on the scoreboard. Bella Karstein found the back of the net just 40 seconds in for her first of two goals on the day. It was part of a 5-0 run over the first 12:10 of the match.

The Bearcats scored their first goal on an unassisted shot with 4:17 remaining in the first half, but the Cards held the 5-1 advantage when the clock went to 00:00.

The second half broight more of a see-saw scoring as the first six goals were traded off between the Cards and Bearcats with Louisville starting the scoring 89 seconds into the half. Cincinnati cut the Louisville lead to just three with 14:27 remaining in the match. Scott Teeter got a time out, a play was set, it worked and the Cards answered by closing out the match the same way they started it- a 5-0 run.

In all, eight Cards recorded a goal. Freshman Bella Karstien added two, early in the match, Caroline Blalock has two, Ally Hall was good for two. Freshman Kokoro Nakazawa got her first collegiate score, Allegra Catalano, Paige Richbourg and Kylea Dobson all had a goal each as well. 

Louisville won the draw control battle 10-9, but got beat on the ground balls 25-20. 

Paulie continues to have interference problems with his laptop, so he conducted the post-game interview with Teeter and Hannah Morris via cell phone. We'll see if it gets posted. 

The Cards head to #9 Virginia on Saturday to start a three-game road trip. They return home for a Thursday night game under the lights on March 18.

ACC Tournament Pick Em

Don't forget to submit your bracket if you have not already done so. The ACC Tournament begins Wednesday at 2:00 p.m., so if your bracket hasn't been submitted by then it will not count.

Options of entry include posting in the comments section or emailing us at either eupherjared@gmail.com or cardinalcouple@twc.com.

As of  8:45 p.m. yesterday I have 10 entries: Curtis, Louavulfan35, Kenneth Stark Sr, Paulie, David Watson, Joe Hill, Nick O, Vivian McAdams, Ramblin' Eric, and Kenny Schneider, in that order.

Kenny's Picks are listed below:

Wednesday: Boston College

Thursday: North Carolina, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame

Friday: Louisville, Florida State, North Carolina State, Notre Dame

Saturday: Louisville, North Carolina State

Sunday: Louisville

If you submitted an entry already and I did not mention it above please let me know. I don't want to miss anybody's entry, especially if you end up being the winner!

I haven't finished my studying and research but will add mine to today's comments section later on. The rest of the Cardinal Couple Crew in Worldwide, Case, Daryl, and Sonya will also have their picks ready by Wednesday.

As a reminder with the scoring, it is one point for every correct pick, Wins in later rounds do not count for extra points. The maximum number of possible points is 12.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Cards WBB Down Irish -- ACC Tournament Bracket Set -- Softball at Florida -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 LOUISVILLE WBB 78- NOTRE DAME 61

The Cardinal womens' basketball squad jumped on Notre Dame early in yesterday's contest and never looked back, rolling to a 17-point win in South Bend and taking their fourth straight ACC regular season title. 

Dana Evans led all scorers with 26 points and was the key to Louisville's early 28-18 first quarter lead with 14 of those points in the first 10 minutes. Four pother Cards finished in double figures as well, Liz Dixon with 12, and Hailey Van Lith, Kianna Smith and Kasa Robinson totaled 10 each, as the Cards end the regular season 21-2 and 14-2 in ACC play.

The second quarter was all Louisville as well, the Cards outscoring the Irish 16-10 to take a commanding 44-28 lead into the locker room. Louisville had actually doubled the score on UND with two minutes left in the second quarter at 44-22, but the Irish scored the last six points of the half. 

The Notre Dame squad would get no closer than 10 points the rest of the way, that coming near the end of the third quarter at 55-45. Robinson and Evans responded with baskets, though, in the final 30 seconds and the Cards were safe at 59-45 after three.  

Any worries of a UofL fourth quarter meltdown disappeared quickly when the Cards scored the first two baskets of the fourth quarter.  Louisville would lead by 20 with 4:01 left in the game, 71-51,  after Olivia Cochran connected inside and the Cards won the fourth quarter 19-16 and the half 34-33 to clinch the game and the conference title.  All of Van Lith's 10 points came in the final 20 minutes, and Robinson added six of her points in the second half as well. 

Still work to be done was the message from Jeff Walz an Dana Evans in post-game comments. Walz was also asked about the eye-brow raising NCAA Tournament "reveal" released after the game -- where the Cards were ranked at #9 in the nation and dropped to a #3 seed in NCAA Tournament play.

Walz seemed unconcerned, noting that with the tournament being staged in one location this year, home court advantages because of high seedings were not a factor this year and that regardless of your seed, you still have to win games to advance. 

And, win Louisville did. 

A bit of query on his starting lineup against the Irish turned into an interesting reveal of it's own. The Cards started Evans, Van Lith, Ahlana Smith, Elizabeth Balogun and Olivia Cochran on Sunday. All five have started before...but Walz was asked how he came up with that combo. He matter-of-factly stated that he wrote each player's name on a slip of paper, dropped those in a shopping bag and drew out five to determine who would start. Dana Evans was not drawn, but, Merissah Russell, who was -- told Walz that she didn't feel she had earned the start and wanted Dana to have it in place of her. 

You just never know what you're going to get out of Walz. Yesterday, though, it got the Cards a win -- and we'll see if the "shopping bag starters" ploy gets carried over to Friday in the ACC Quarterfinals. Maybe he'll develop a "starters dartboard" or flip a coin...

THE FRED REPORT

We bring out the Freddy Mercury...
We are the Champions. my friends ! 

FREE THROWS -- Louisville went 8-9 in a game that, thankfully, didn't feature constant Dee Kantner whistles. That 88% is good for a CAPITAL "F".   

REBOUNDS -- Notre Dame won the battle of the boards 35-28 but there were no players who grabbed more than seven on either team. Maybe that was because neither team shot worse than 45% for the game. But, you lose the boards battle and that won't get you a letter in the FRED stats. 

EFFORT/EXECUTION -- The 51.6% shooting was impressive and the 16 assists on 32 made baskets noteworthy as well. Turnovers were moderate, not bad, at 12 Louisville actually won the points-in the-paint battle 38-32 and dominated the fast break points 13-2. A very good effort from the Cards, but not totally spectacular, so I'll offer a lowercase "e" here...a win by 25 or more would have made it a capital letter. 

DEFENSE -- This is where the Cards won the game. Notre Dame had 25 turnovers, Louisville had 10 steals, the Cards got 25 points off those turnovers and none of Notre Dame's starters reached double figures in scoring (reserves Brunelle and Miles led the way with 13 and 11 points). No problem handing out a CAPITAL "D" for defensive Cardinal efforts on Sunday

FINAL FRED TALLY:  F-_-e-D

All in all, a nice bounce back from the FSU loss and it's always good to go into post-season play on a win streak.  Good to see Hailey Van Lith shake things up  a bit and Dana was spectacular as always...but my MVP of the game Sunday has to go to Kasa Robinson, who gave Louisville 27 minutes of 5-5 shooting, five charges drawn, four assists and three steals.  Having Kasa as a facilitator is good...but when she becomes a scoring threat as well, that is great. Maybe it was because she came off the bench in the topsy, turvy world of Walz "bag-o-nomics" , whatever inspited her Sunday needs to be bottled and distributed before the rest of the games this year. 

ACC TOURNAMENT BRACKET SET

After the action in the final day of ACC WBB regular season play, we had a bracket formulated. Not many changes from what was set before Sunday action, UNC and Wake Forest flopped sports, going from #9 and #8 to #8 and #9 and they still have to play each other on Thursday. FSU got the #4 after Syracuse lost Sunday and dropped to the #5 seed and Virginia Tech's loss made then a #7 seed. 

It all starts Wednesday at 2 p.m. with Pitt and Boston College. 

SOFTBALL FALLS 2-0 TO FLORIDA

Gabby Holloway and Jen Leonhardt combined to allow just three Florida hits in six innings, but the gators made the most of them...scoring two runs in the bottom of the third to win against the visiting Cards. 

The Cards registered three hits as well, but those didn't translate out into any runs. Taylor Roby, serving as the designated hitter yesterday, had two of the Cards hit and she and Taryn Weddle were both on base with singles in the fourth inning but FSU got out of danger with a strike out and a ground out. Louisville would get runners on the corners in the sixth but fail to get them home as well. 

The Cards return home for weekend action at Ulmer Stadium, starting out with a Friday twilight double header against Bradley.  Which Bradley?  No, not Bradley Paisley and/or Bradley Cooper -- it's the gals from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Cards and Braves start it out around 4:00 p.m. (for now). 

THE CARDINAL COUPLE ACC TOURNAMENT PICK'EM 

Go ahead and get those picks in, the bracket has been determined and the contest has begun. $25 Cracker Barrel card to the winner, $15 card to the second place finisher. Free eats! 

Here are Paulie's Picks

FIRST ROUND:  BOSTON COLLEGE

SECOND ROUND: UNC, SYRACUSE, MIAMI, NORTE DAME

QUARTERS:  LOUISVILLE, SYRACUSE, NC STATE, GEORGIA TECH

SEMIS:  LOUISVILLE, NC STATE

WINNER:  LOUISVILLE

You can enter in the comments section or send your selections to Bracket Czar Jared at  eupherjared@gmail.com   or to me at cardinalcouple@twc.com 

Good luck and may the best bracket win! 

paulie