ZYANNA WALKER to LOUISVILLE WBB -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 COMBO GUARD OUT OF WICHITA SAYS "YES" TO CARDS

The wait is over for seeing where 5'8" rising senior combo guard Zyanna Walker will continue her student-athlete career in 2022. She announced yesterday that she was UofL Cardinals bound -- stating that she was "110% committed" to UofL and the Cardinals coaching staff. 

"They've been recruiting me for a few years now and I've been able to get to know the coaches. I took a visit there and loved it. The coaches were very honest with me in what they saw in me and I really trusted them at the end of the day. It took a lot of time talking to all of the coaches recruiting me, so it feel good to be done."  

Another Kansas standout joins the Cards. Payton Verhulst, a standout at Kansas City's Bishop Miege High School, will suit it up for the 2021-22 season for the Red and Black. 

It hasn't been an easy road for Walker. She tore her ACL shortly before her junior season and then discovered she had also torn her meniscus. The injury took away the chance for her to play her junior season at Wichita Heights High School. A year of rehabilitation followed. She's confident that she'll be able to play for her club team (Kansas United), though, when they visit Atlanta and Alabama for tournaments. 

"I'm excited to get back out there and see how my knee feels. It's been really tough and there's been people doubting me, but I know what I bring with my game and how hard I work. I know I'm going to come back even better. I just love basketball, and it comes from the heart. That's why I have a natural work ethic." 

Those words will, no doubt, hearten Cardinals associate strength and conditioning coach Beth Burns and the rest of the staff at UofL. 

Schools first started following Walker as an eight grader in middle school.

The word on Walker is that she's got the skills to do a lot. She handles the ball exceptionally well and her shooting is spot on. Her footwork is solid and she moves well side-to-side. She can be tricky on the court, and that has impressed her high school head coach Ken Palmer.

"When she first started coming for workouts as a freshman, I'm trying to teach her new ways to score the ball and everything I was showing her, she just did so easy. It was like...is anything hard for you?" 

Zyanna is, of course, headed to a school where guard play has thrilled Cardinal fans for the entire Jeff Walz proclivity at UofL. Beginning with Angel McCoughtry, Becky Burke, Dez Byrd and progressing with such standouts as Shoni and Jude Schimmel, Tia Gibbs, Bria Smith,  Asia Durr, Arica Carter, Jazmine Jones, Dana Evans, Kianna Smith, Kasa Robinson and Hailey Van Lith -- Cardinals guards have been a constant worry for foes in, first, the Big East, and in the ACC -- plus on the national stage. 

Before she arrives at UofL, though, a senior season of high school. Zyanna is direct and focused on what she wants to accomplish -- a state championship. 

She wears #23 in high school. That's a number that, no doubt, remains in a lot of Cardinals faithful memories -- being the collegiate number of Jazmine Jones. 

Zyanna, Kianna and Ahlana...I know -- it sounds like a 60's pop group. It also sounds like the best and the brightest of the collegiate nation's guard contingent are buying in to what is being taught and practiced at Louisville. That hard work and dedication will reap rewards. The Cards are the best in the ACC over the last several years and that shows no signs of changing. 

We'll be watching, here at CARDINAL COUPLE, and hoping for the best for her. 

Have a wonderful Wednesday! 

paulie

(parts of today's article were researched from an article in kansas.com) 

Softball Transfer -- WBB Season Tickets -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Hannah File Joins Softball Roster

Louisville softball added a graduate transfer to the team in Hannah File. File comes to Louisville after having spent three seasons with James Madison University from 2018-2020. During her time with the Dukes, File helped the team advance to an NCAA Super Regional and carried a .325 career batting average.

"Hannah has such positive energy about her, and she truly loves the game," said Coach Holly Aprile. "Those are two genuine qualities that we value very highly. She carries herself with a confidence and attitude that we are excited to coach and we cannot wait to get started."

Besides being a strong hitter, File was a two-year starter in the infield. In her career with JMU, she recorded 88 hits with 32 of them being extra base hits. File recorded 62 RBIs and 53 walks. She also limited her double whammies by grounding into just one double play in her career.

Defensively, File had a .912 field percentage. After a season where infield errors were the Achilles Heel of the Cards and the graduation of Maddy Newman, Louisville is looking for an infielder with a clean glove.

File will work on her MBA at UofL's high-ranking business school while playing out her last year (or two if she wishes) of eligibility.

Women's Basketball Season Tickets on Sale

The KFC Yum! Center will be at 100% capacity and season tickets for women's basketball have gone on sale. Plenty of people took a hiatus last season with the COVID-19 pandemic but UofL has said that you will not be punished if you renew this season. It's also never too late to register for season tickets for the first time if you have never had them before.

Who wouldn't want to go see one of the best women's basketball programs out there? It's a stacked roster of returners with some new extremely talented faces joining the them. Jeff Walz is 15 wins shy of 400 wins at Louisville.

Maybe you can sweet talk Paulie into buying you season tickets? He's a big baller with that Cardinal Couple budget. For you newer readers, Cardinal Couple is a non-profit website so we can't actually afford to buy you season tickets.

However, Worldwide usually has season tickets with his mom and they are a hoot to sit by!

                                            

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

Congrats Baseball!

On a side note, I want to take a moment to congratulate all the UofL baseball players taken in the MLB Draft. The Cards also had their first ever #1 overall pick in Henry Davis, Alex Binelas, who is no stranger on UofL volleyball matches to see his girlfriend Claire Chausee play, was taken in the third round. As of last night, six Cards had been drafted.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Nina Moorer verbals to Louisville Volleyball -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 2022 PROSPECT SAYS "YES" TO LOUISVILLE VOLLEYBALL

When you think of Louisville Volleyball, the cadre of opposite and outside hitters that have channeled through the Cardinals program are an impressive lot, to say the least. A scan of the Cards 2020 roster reveals the names Anna DeBeer, Aiko Jones, Claire Chaussee and Nena Mbonu all putting up impressive numbers for the VolleyCards.  

Add another to that impressive list. 

Nina Moorer, a 6'0" opposite/right  side hitter out of Houston, TX has given her verbal to the 2022 Louisville Volleyball squad. This, of course creates the delightful dilemma of "Nina" compared to "Nena" on the roster.  One of you two leapers is going to need to have a nickname bestowed upon you -- to keep our Cardinal Couple Volleyball expert Jeff McAdams from falling into the net of confusion. 

Moorer knocks the ball over the net for Ridge Point High School in Missouri City, TX. and also toils for Houston Skyline 18 Royal Volleyball on the club circuit. 

She broke the exciting news Saturday on Twitter: 

So blessed to say I've verbally committed to continue my academic and athletic career at the University of Louisville! GO Cards ! 

Be sure to drop her a congratulatory message on Twitter, her handle is @NinaMoorer

She'll be the second Texan on the 2022 roster, joining (you guessed it) Nena Mbonu, who played for Klein High School in Spring, TX. In case you wondered, Missouri City and Spring Texas are a mere 45 minutes apart -- Spring being north of Houston and Missouri City south of the home of the Astros. 

Moorer was previously in Lutz, FL -- playing for Steinbrenner High School -- before the family moved to Missouri City. 

Pat Moorer at Louisville

Athletics run in the family, it would appear. Her dad (Pat Moorer) is a strength and conditioning coach for the Houston Texans of the NFL.

If the name Pat Moorer sounds familiar to any Cardinal Football fans, Pat spent four years right here in Louisville (2010-13) on Charlie Strong's football staff -- so Nina definitely knows the Louisville area from her childhood days. 

Pat followed Strong to Texas when the former Cardinal head football coach took the job for the Longhorns and also went with Strong to South Florida. As is the life of an assistant football coach, Pat and family have seen quite a few cities -- he was also at Florida, South Carolina and Illinois. He was a walk-on for the Florida Gators football team in the late 1980's but proved his mettle with 177 tackles in two seasons. (That's A LOT of tackles, friends..) 

Good ol' Charlie at Louisville

Whatever happened to Charlie Strong, while were digging up old bones? After Strong was terminated from the Bulls in 2019, he went to work for his old buddy Nick Saban at Alabama for a year and was part of that National Championship team, . When Urban Meyer decided to leave the college ranks to take over the Jacksonville Jaguars as a head coach, he contacted Charlie (who had coached with him at UF) and Strong is now a part of Meyer's staff at the Jags. 

Now that I've gone completely off the rails from the original intent of today's article, I'll stop the train and end with: 

We'll be watching Nina's senior season with interest before she gets to the 'Ville and welcome her to the Cardinal family! 

Have a marvelous Monday!

paulie 

Volleyball Preview - Sunday Cardinal Couple

 Volleyball Schedule Preview

We saw the release of fall sports schedules this week, including volleyball, so you know I have to take a deeper look at it.

My initial thought was to look at the most recent RPI rankings from the end of last season to give some guide, but the RPI from the end of last season is...well, it's weird.  I have to think that the odd ball seasons that teams had, with significantly varying numbers of games, is generating some results that really just don't make sense.  You don't have to look past the top 3 in the RPI ranking from April 3 to see the absurdities.  West Point is top ranked in the RPI with a 6-2 record, Towson is behind them in 2nd with a 6-0 record and Texas is in 3rd with a 23-1 record.  So, yeah, I'm just going to close that tab and we'll work with coaches polls and some subjective opinions, here.

The opening weekend is a round-robin tournament in Tempe, Arizona.  The threat of the weekend is hosting Arizona State.  They come in off of a 6-14 season last year, but don't let that fool you, they only played conferences matches last year, which in the PAC-12 means they had a brutal schedule.  They picked off a few wins against some very good teams.  Overall, though, they tend to hang around in the lower ranks of the conference.  Cal Poly didn't play at all last year, apparently, and Texas A&M Corpus Christi don't particularly impress with mid-major heavy schedule last year.

The next weekend is the home opener for the Cards.  UofL vs Missouri is the big matchup in this tournament, and it's right at the beginning, on Friday night.  Missouri clung onto ranked status at the end of last year, finishing at in the 25th spot.  16-8 last year with only SEC conference matches in the regular season is good, but not great.  They should have a rematch of their opening round NCAA match against defending Summit League champs South Dakota, but I would expect Missouri to come out victorious on this one.  The Norse of Northern Kentucky might not get much more than a participation trophy out of the weekend.

The Cards will close out the non-conference slate with an absolute barn-burner eight days.  Starting with an always good Purdue team.  Dave Shondell's squad always seems to put up a good fight against the Cards.  They went 16-7 last year, but only one loss of those was to an unranked team, and the Boilermakers finished the season ranked 7th, finally succumbing in the NCAA tournament against eventual champions Kentucky.

The next day is the weakest squad of this eight day stretch, Xavier finished last season 7-7 with no post-season play.  Both the Xavier and Purdue matches are on Xavier's floor in Cincinnati, which is potential road-trip material for sure.

Wednesday of the week, defending national champs Kentucky comes calling to L&N Federal Credit Union Arena.  If you want to see this one in person, get your tickets early as I definitely expect it to be a sell-out crowd.  And with likely more than 1,000 people in L&N Arena in mid-September, my advice would be to dress to keep cool as I suspect it will be a bit toasty warm in there.

The eight day stretch doesn't really get any easier, though.  Finish it off Saturday on the road in Lincoln, Nebraska, to play Nebraska.  John Cook's Nebraska squads are always good and playing on their home floor is particularly challenging.  There should be plenty of Busbooms and Kellys there, though as Lincoln is home to the Busbooms, and Omaha, just down the road, is home to Coach Busboom Kelly's husband, Lane Kelly.  16-3 last season, the Nebraska losses came to at-the-time 5th ranked Minnesota, 11th ranked Ohio State, and 5th ranked Texas.  Those teams finished the season ranked in 9th, 10th, and 2nd, with Nebraska rounding out the year in 6th.  Their regular season was all in the Big 10 Conference last year, but playing in the B1G does match you up against some of the top teams nationally.

Next starts conference play.  We know the lay of the land here, pretty well.  We'll have home and home matchups against Georgia Tech, Pitt, Duke, and Notre Dame, with only single matchups against all of the rest of the teams.  Now compare who we play twice against who finished the season ranked, Pitt at 8, (we finished 11), Georgia Tech at 22, and Notre Dame at 24.  The bright side is it gives us more opportunities to play good teams and get better.

We host the Florida contingent, Miami and FSU, swing through Clemson and Atlanta, come back to host Syracuse and Boston College, travel to Blacksburg and Winston-Salem, then host Virginia and Pitt.  That gives us a decent chance at being 9-0 in conference, with a cautious look at Georgia Tech in there, before we meet up with Pitt.

A road trip to RTP is up next, to visit the trio of Duke, NC State, and UNC, then finish out the season with mostly rematches; against GT at home, Notre Dame in South Bend, Duke at home, Pitt at Pitt, and then Notre Dame again back home.

Pitt is, as typical, the biggest threat in conference, but we definitely shouldn't look past Michelle Collier's Yellowjackets who have been doing great things of the past few years.  Mike Johnson has Notre Dame back as a solid contender, with Charlie Niego, and Sydney Bent, back for their senior campaigns, and Caroline Meuth is still just a junior!

My subjective analysis is that Dani Busboom Kelly, with a bit of an assist from the conference office, has set this team up with a tough schedule with an eye towards preparing them for post season play.  The last two seasons have seen a near-miracle run to the Elite Eight, and a not-so-much-a-miracle Sweet 16 appearance.  Dani Busboom-Kelly has already talked about the goals continue to rise, and now including a Final Four appearance, and this team is capable of it.  It won't be easy, it will take hard work, and maybe a little bit of luck, but the talent level is there.

We only graduated one starter, Libero Alexis Hamilton, with several good DSes waiting in the wings.  We do have another DS coming in with the freshman class, a Louisvillian in Elena Scott (Mercy Academy/PNK).  If I had to take a guess on who will be wearing the Libero jersey in late August, I'd put my money on Ayden Bartlett, but it wouldn't surprise me to see it on Alexa Hendricks either.

We've got a very good 6'0" setter coming in as a freshman out of the city of Pittsburgh in Paige Morningstar, but she will have to really shine to take the starting position away from Tori Dilfer.

For those of you that wanted height on the squad, we have a pair of 6'5" hitters coming to Louisville.  Cara Cresse, out of Fort Wayne is a middle, but will have a tough time cracking the starting lineup with Amaya Tillman and Anna Stevenson returning.  Sydni Schetnan will be on campus, but is not expected to play with volleyball this year.  You'll have to head down to the KFC Yum! Center to check her out with Jeff Walz's WBB squad.

All in all, this could be a great year for UofL Volleyball with so much talent and a great schedule that should feature a lot of fun wins and quite a few tough games against top national talent.

The season kicks off with the Cal Poly match in Tempe, Friday morning at 10am, August 27th.  The home opener is the next week against Missouri at 7pm on September 3rd.

WNBA Scheduling Note

A quick note on our WNBA players.  Dana Evans played about five minutes in the Chicago Sky's game against the Washington Mystics.  Myisha Hines-Allen is still sidelined with the Mystics, of course.  Evans got an assist and a steal and took no shots.  The Mystics won 89-85.

Kylee Shook and Jazmine Jones, with the New York Liberty play today at 2pm hosting the Connecticut Sun.  This one is available on ESPN3 streaming.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

A fun, and long, show yesterday for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast.  A full house, queens over jokers, for this one, well, one queen at least.

The topic was mostly a breakdown of the Women's Soccer schedule for the fall.  We're expecting to do similar breakdowns of Field Hockey and Volleyball in the coming weeks as we get ready for fall sports to begin.

A lengthy but fun, and pretty close scoring, quiz.  It takes a long time for us to get through the quiz when all five of us are on the call.  Fun times below.

Case bested the field in the quiz and, in a rarity for the show, chose NOT to take the bonus question and still hung on to win by a mere 10 points. The engineer had the blueprint for a win, I suppose...

JMcA 

A Brief Women's Soccer Preview -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

How Will WSOC Fare This Season?

As Daryl wrote yesterday, the fall sports have posted their schedules in full as we prepare for the summer slump to end. Women's soccer will be first on the list, as their season opener will be on August 14th against Ball State. The schedule doesn't currently list any exhibition games, so it will be interesting to see if those are added later on or if there is some other reason they are being excluded. Assuming they play a couple of those, the (Fall) 2021 UofL Women's Soccer season should start inside of a month. As such, it seems like a good time to take a look at the schedule and see what Louisville might be able to do.

Unlike years past, there is no spring exhibition season to lean on. There were, however, three spring games in which Louisville had all of their 2021 roster available except for the freshmen. The only player that participated in the spring that did not return for the fall, I believe, is Nadege, L'Esperance. The Cards were scheduled to play five games in the spring but COVID cancellations ended the spring season short. The Cards went 1-2 in the spring, defeating Dayton 1-0 before losing to both WKU and Auburn by the same score. Obviously, Louisville is dealing with two huge losses moving into the next era. Emina Ekic was the offense most of the time for the Cards, which is why she's still playing in the city at the top level in the US. The other loss is L'Esperance. Nadege played more of a holding midfield role but her link between the defense and offense was critical in much of Louisville's defensive and offensive setup play. It will be interesting to see whether the formation changes with both of these players gone.

That brings us to the newly scheduled games. They'll be tough to predict without much information about the new iteration of this team, but I'll give it a go anyway. The Cards will play seven non-conference games, with six of them at home. This has become pretty typical for Louisville, given the amazing facility that they have in Lynn Stadium. I'm going to give the Cards 5-2 here. They've been very good in the non-conference over the last few seasons, but I think the road game against St. Louis and the home game against Michigan will come as losses. I'm more confident in the record number than the actual predicted games, though, so if they manage to drop a game to Ball State or Western Kentucky instead, I'll take my correct numbers and run.

The ACC schedule is much harder to predict. Louisville has been sorely in the upper-middle class of the conference for the last few years, and I definitely don't see that changing this season. I'd be pleasantly surprised if I'm proven wrong. The Cards do have a bit of a generous schedule this season, though. They avoid North Carolina and don't play anyone twice. That said, they do still get FSU and Virginia, so it won't be a cakewalk. Their home and away split does fall pretty nicely, though, so lets take a look. Note that I won't be predicting any ties because ties in college soccer are largely random. 

The first two games are on the road against Miami and Syracuse. Assuming the Cards are riding a high from a decent non-conference schedule, this should be a good start to the conference season. Both of these teams are ones that Louisville has not had any trouble with recently, and I feel good about that not changing. 2-0 with two road games out of the way. The conference home opener is against Florida State and I don't feel good about that one at all: 2-1. Next is an interesting game against Wake Forest. The Cards won that one 2-1 at home in 2019, and the two teams didn't play last year. This is one of the tougher games to pick, but I don't think the Cards will lose back to back games at home: 3-1. 

The next stretch will be tough, and I've got Louisville losing three of the next four. The Cards go on the road to play Notre Dame before returning home for NC State and Boston College. I think BC is the only win in that group, and then comes a road game against Virginia... Yeah, right. That puts Louisville at 4-4 with two games remaining. Clemson has been a challenge at times, but I think they find a way to win that one before losing to Duke on Senior Day. 

All in all, that would give Louisville a 10-7 (5-5) record on the season. For what feels like it is likely to be a bridge year, I wouldn't hate it. The real question is whether 15 points would be enough to make the ACC tournament. At that record, I think the Cards would need a good showing in the ACC tournament to make it into the NCAA tournament. Of course, ties can screw all of that and a poorly placed equalizer can result in a drop in points to knock the Cards out of the ACC or give them a bad draw. With just 35 days until the season opener, I'm beginning to get excited about the year ahead.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

I'm back in the booth today, joining everyone else who had a challenging Coaches quiz without me. As it's the summer, we'll stumble along through our topics as usual, but we'll do our best to bring you the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics. Tune in to the Cardinal Couple YouTube Channel at 11AM for the live show or check out the replay or podcast after the show ends.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

2021 Fall Sports Schedules released -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Good Friday morning to all, 

The baseball gods are funny sometimes, sending hurricane storms our way last night causing the Thirsty Thursday Bats baseball to get postponed... allowing me to get home in time for today's write up.  Back to reporting the news, as several fall sports released their schedules for the upcoming seasons.  Jared's already blocking off his calendar for multiple game-day photo coverage. 

The gang will definitely have thoughts on some stand-out games from the releases on Saturday's podcast recording. The rivalry games/matches are always fan favorites.  Postseason rematch and revenge is always sweet, too! Volleyball and Field Hockey look to build off of record setting seasons and Women's Soccer looks to improve on a tough overall split season from last year. 

Check out the fall slates! 

2021 Louisville Volleyball Schedule

(photo from UofL Volleyball Instagram)

UofL opens the season in Tempe where they will battle Cal Poly, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Arizona on Aug. 27-28. The Cardinals will host the Cardinal Classic, which will feature Missouri, South Dakota and Northern Kentucky Sept. 3-5 in L&N Federal Credit Union Arena.  The annual rivalry game with reigning NCAA champs (blehhhhhh) the 'blue team' is September 15th at L&N.  There are 13 home matches for the Cards.  In the spring, UofL finished the 2020 season 15-3 and ACC Champs.

2021 Louisville Field Hockey Schedule

(photo from gocards.com)

The Cards 2021 schedule includes nine regular season home contests. The slate also features four NCAA tournament teams including national champion North Carolina and runner-up Michigan as well as 10 opponents ranked among the top 20 in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) final 2020-21 poll.  The Cardinals will  kick off a tough five-game road swing in mid-October at #2 Michigan in a rematch of the 2020-21 NCAA semifinal game where UofL fell 2-1 to the Wolverines in a shootout. 

 

2021 Louisville WSoccer Schedule 

(photo from UofL WSoccer Instagram)

The Cards open the season with four consecutive home games hosting Ball State on Saturday, Aug. 14.  They then host Western Michigan on Aug. 19, James Madison on Aug. 26 and Northern Kentucky on Aug. 29.  The Cardinals will play 11 home games at Dr. Mark & Cindy Lynn Stadium. Ten ACC matchups and no Kentucky (currently) on the 2021 slate

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

Random thought: Two weeks from the Olympics!!! 

Go Cards and Go USA! 

~Daryl 

Bryce Neal Joins Softball Staff -- ACC Network Takeover Day -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Bryce Neal Joins Softball Staff

Louisville Softball announced yesterday that Bryce Neal joined the coaching staff as an assistant coach. Neal is on the younger side, having graduated from the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith in 2015, where he played baseball.

Since his time as a student-athlete, Neal has traveled all across the country. He was a director and coach for Midwest Nationals Baseball in Springfield, Missouri from 2013-2015 before then heading back to the state of Arkansas to become a private instructor for many years.

In the shortened COVID-19 season in 2020, Neal served as a volunteer assistant at Arizona State for their softball team. The Sun Devils were nationally ranked and finished with a 22-7 record. They ranked in the top five nationally in scoring, home runs, and walks.

In 2021, Neal was an assistant coach at Bucknell. The Bison made a drastic improvement to their field percentage, which ranked second in the Patriot League and their highest fielding percentage in nearly a decade. He oversaw player development while at Bucknell.

The Cards have had some difficulty with their fielding percentage in recent years and proved to be a thorn in their side last season. Neal can be a big help with cleaning that up for the upcoming season.

ACC Network Takeover Day

Happy ACC Network Takeover Day! Don't forget to tune into your TV to check out some great games involving different sports in recent years.

As a reminder, here is the schedule of events:

July 8

6:00 AM - Baseball vs Florida State (year not listed)

9:00 AM - Lacrosse vs Colorado (2021 season)

11:00 AM - Women's Basketball vs Florida State (year not listed, assuming the 2020-2021 season)

1:00 PM - Field Hockey vs Virginia (2020 season, ACC semifinal)

2:30 PM - Volleyball vs Pittsburgh (2020 season)

4:30 PM - Men's Basketball vs Kent State (NCAA Basketball Classic)

6:30 PM - Women's Soccer vs Syracuse (2020 season)

8:30 PM - Lacrosse vs Colorado (2021 season)

10:30 PM - Football vs Wake Forest (NCAA Football Classics)

July 9

1:30 AM - Field Hockey vs Virginia (2020 season, ACC semifinal)

3:00 AM - Baseball vs Florida State (year not listed)

Not-so-Spoiler Alert- Louisville wins in every game aired. What's cool is I can say that I have been present at or seen on TV/online nearly every single game on this list.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

WNBA Update -- Alexia Mobley In Town -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDINALS COMPETING WELL IN WNBA EASTERN DIVISION

Depending on the squad, the WNBA teams are 16-20 game into their 2021 schedule.  For our interests here at Cardinal Couple, we're keeping an eye on those former Cards great that are active currently in the league. Right now, that's currently Dana Evans, Myisha Hines-Allen, Jazmine Jones and Kylee Shook. 

Dana Evans is shining along with the Chicago Sky and the Sky have the fourth best record in the league at 10-9, along with the New York Liberty. Her playing time isn't significant so far, but, she is averaging 2.3 points a game (in 18 games) 0.8 assists a contest and is shooting 94% from the free throw line.  She saw three minutes in the Sky's last outing -- a 100-91 loss to her old team, the Dallas Wings. Dana had no points, assists or rebounds. 

Myisha Hines-Hines is currently out resting a patella tendon for the Washington Mystics and did not play in their last game -- a 82-79 loss to the Liberty on Saturday.. She's logged eight games for the Mystics this 2020-21 season, and had averaged 14.0 points-per-game, 2.3 assists and 7.1 rebounds for D.C. The Mystics are 7-10 in the league, which is fourth in the Eastern Division and would not make the WNBA Playoffs as of now.  They have been banged-up pretty badly with injuries, in their defense, using only six players in a few of their most recent games. They play against Saturday, at Chicago 

Kylee Shook has been a regular starter for the New York Liberty and is averaging 6.1 pts. in 19 games. She's averaging 5.3 rebounds a game, second best on the Liberty. Kylee sees about 22 minutes a contest for the 10-9 Liberty.  In a 99-96 win over Dallas on Monday she had eight rebounds, five points and one assist. 

Jazmine Jones also plays for the Libs and averages 7.1 ppg and 2.8 rpg. She sees about 18 minutes an affair and had 16 points and two rebounds against Dallas. It was a good weekend for Jaz, she also had 17 points Saturday in a win over the Mystics and had some pretty dramatic actions and antics in that game, as Jeff highlighted in his Sunday article. 

We hope to see our Cardinals continue the good work and, in Myisha's case, get back on the court soon. It would be great to see all three teams mentioned here with Cardinals on them make the WNBA Playoffs!  We also hope that a fifth Cardinal (in Angel McCoughtry) is recovering nicely from her knee injury earlier this season -- and is able to return next season. Her Aces are 14-4 in the league, which is tied with the Seattle Storm for the best record in the WNBA. 

ALEXIA MOBLEY IN TOWN FOR TFN RUN FOR THE ROSES

I get a lot of inquires about 2022 Cardinals commit Alexia Mobley and can tell you that she is in Louisville for the July 5-8 Run for the Roses Classic with her Cincinnati Angels squad. 

I was able to find a Twitter clip of her in action at the event (being held at the KEC in Louisville) and the word is she's looking good and the Angels are a very impressive and talented squad. 

Alexia's Clip:  

Mobley at Run For Roses

The event obviously draws a ton of college coaches and i did notice that there were media passes, so I thought I'd see if I could get one for Thursday. We'll see how that goes. 

Still no definitive work on whether she'll be on campus for any portion of the 2021-22 season, as far as I know. Try as I might, I was unable to find any stats on how and the Cincinnati Angels were doing here during their stays. I'll see if the media request brings about any type of numbers. Truth be told, I didn't realize the Tournament was taking place until yesterday. 

Here's hoping she plays well while here. She's fun to follow on Twitter, You might check her out at @AlexiaMobley23  

have a wonderful wednesday

paulie

WBB Season Recap -- ACC Network Takeover July 8 -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Rolling into July

Sadly, the joy from a long weekend has come to a close and it's back to work. I'm bad at taking days off from work as I am now roughly five and a half months into the new job and have not taken a vacation day nor have I scheduled any for the near future. But these holidays remind me how nice it is to have that extra day or two off here and there so perhaps it's time to look at some vacation days.

To answer Paulie's question from yesterday, it was a rather good Fourth of July. It started off running the tech equipment at church. Now, I'm not at tech expert like Worldwide and Case, but I know enough to keep the screens at church, the Zoom feed, the video recording, and the sound board running. Katy and I went out to EP Tom Sawyer State Park for a walk with friends. She was too scared to go check out the abandoned Sauerkraut Cave (if you locals know what that is), and then we dug out some old fireworks stashed in the closet from a few years back and set those off on a concrete surface at Joe Creason Park. Of course we were smart by staying far back, dousing everything with water, and then cleaning up our mess. So it was a rather relaxing day for me.

Women's Basketball Season Recap

We'll transition on into the reason you clicked on today's article. With plenty of other news in recent weeks our sports recaps got put on a brief hold, but we return with our final recap- women's basketball.

Louisville finished the season 26-4 with a 14-2 mark in conference play. The .875 win percentage in the ACC was enough to claim the regular season title, barely beating out NC State. This was Louisville's fourth-straight regular season title.

Some of the overall highlights for the year included another Elite Eight appearance, the program's first ever #1 ranking in any poll, and Dana Evans being named ACC Player of the Year for the second straight year. UofL has had a player hold the ACC POTY title for four straight seasons.

COVID-19 made the season quite challenging as the Cards played in what felt like a near-empty arena instead of the normal boisterous crowd of 10,000. Fortunately, Paulie and I both found ourselves inside the temporarily-reformed KFC Yum! Center. I'm sure he agrees with me that the overall experience was not as enjoyable as years past with an empty press room, no meal, and no in-person postgame.

The season was still young when the program went on a pause before Christmas with contact tracing. The Cards held a 5-0 record at that point and had garnered national attention following a 116-75 destruction of a ranked DePaul team. Besides the expected breakout performance by Dana Evans, both Hailey Van Lith and Olivia Cochran had risen to the spotlight as freshmen.

Jeff Walz worked his magic and pulled teams out of his sleeves left and right as the Cards made a last minute schedule on New Year's Day. January proved to be a busy month with 11 games played. February and March each had seven games.

Louisville found themselves facing some in-state opponents in Eastern Kentucky, Northern Kentucky, and Bellarmine, but Kentucky and Western Kentucky were nowhere to be seen due to various reasons.

Midway through the month of January, we saw the Cards cruise by Florida State in an uncharacteristic fashion, which then helped propel Louisville into their first ever #1 ranking. The Cards held that spot for a couple weeks, pushing their record to 16-0 before welcoming #2 NC State to the KFC Yum! Center. The Wolfpack welcomed back Elisa Cunane for that game, who had been out for an extended period.

The NC State game was primarily defensive in the first half and was a close game headed into the final quarter before the Wolfpack began pulling away almost immediately at the start of the fourth quarter.

The Cards answered by winning four straight including thumping Boston College and Pitt. It wasn't until a trip to Tallahassee in late February that the second blemish appeared on the record. The Cards and Noles were tied with 6:29 left in the game before FSU went on a 21-12 run to close the game.

However, a win in South Bend to close the regular season sealed the deal for the ACC title and a #1-seed in the ACC Tournament. Louisville had some difficulty against Wake Forest before handling Syracuse with a little more ease. Then, came the rematch against NC State. Louisville held a one-point lead with 1:59 remaining before Cunane hit a free throw to tie the score and Raina Perez knocked in a prayer with two seconds left to take the win.

A 23-3 mark earned the Cards a #2-seed in the NCAA Tournament. NC State joined the ranked of Stanford, UConn, and South Carolina for the other #1-seeds. The Wolfpack fell to Indiana in the Sweet Sixteen and were the only #1-seed to not make the Final Four.

Louisville found themselves matched up with Marist in the opening round. Fans were stunned when the Red Foxes held a 15-12 lead after the first quarter. It's safe to say Coach Walz lit a fire under his team's belt as they won the next two quarters 17-9 and 26-9 on the way to a 31-point win.

The second round was a match-up with #7-seed Northwestern. This one was even more terrifying as the Wildcats raced out to a 25-10 first quarter lead and a 32-20 halftime lead. Where was Louisville's offense and defense? It showed up in the second half as the Cards won those quarters 20-8 and 22-13 for a nine-point win.

#6-seed Oregon was next up for the Cards. The Ducks were considered a potential dark horse for the tournament and underrated by many due to the size and talent of Sedona Prince. Prince was one of the first players to break the horrible conditions the women's players dealt with as opposed to the luxuries the men's players had for the NCAA Tournament. For that, we do thank Prince. But the brilliance of the UofL coaching staff paid off as they would go onto 29-14 halftime lead and win by 18. Oregon's offense was tough and UofL held them to three single-digit scoring quarters.

Then we get to the Elite Eight match-up against Stanford. The Cardinal (no "S") were the favorite to win the title with a near-unstoppable offense and defense. Louisville opened the game strong with a 21-13 lead in the first quarter and a 12-point halftime lead. Stanford fired back in the third quarter but a late quarter jumper gave Louisville a two-point lead. We then come to the dreaded fourth quarter. Stanford was known for having one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country and they came alive in the fourth quarter. The Cardinal knocked down five three's en route to a 30-13 quarter and sent Louisville home.

Stanford went on to beat South Carolina by one the next round amidst controversy over the officiating. They then defeated #3-seed Arizona by one in the final with more officiating controversy.

Still, it's hard to argue that it wasn't a good season. The fact that a season happened at all makes the year successful. But winning another conference title against some tough teams in the ACC, earning a #1 ranking, and advancing to another Elite Eight is pretty darn good.

Unfortunately, we did see the last of Dana Evans in a Louisville uniform, the only player to graduate. She did go on and get drafted in the second round of the WNBA Draft. The other players to depart were Elizabeth Balogun, Nyah Green, and Malea Williams, all who transferred out.

From a scoring standpoint, this was Evans' team, as her 602 points flirted with doubling up the next closest scorer in HVL (335). Kianna Smith also broke the 300-point mark on the season with 319. Louisville averaged 76.8 points per game on the year with an average margin of victory of 16. The Cards also shot .788 from the charity stripe, which is high enough for a capital "F" in the F-R-E-D Report.

The Cards outrebounded opponents by an average of 3.5 rebounds per game with much thanks to Cochran, Elizabeth Dixon, HVL, and Mykasa Robinson for getting scrappy. Louisville also destroyed opponents in blocks 144-77. Four Cards were in the double-digits with blocks this year.

A lot of credit was given to Robinson, who many have considered the "blue-collar" on the team. Although Kasa wasn't the big scorer she was the do-it-all player and wasn't afraid to get down on the floor for a loose ball. 

HVL showcased her talent by being able to score from anywhere on the floor. Her Kobe imitation was rather on-point with a .388 three-point percentage. She also dished out 63 assists.

Kianna Smith also proved to be reliable on offense once she was healthy from injury. Her 11.4 points per game ranked second on the team and showed no nerves when being able to score in a tight situation.

Dixon (7.6 ppg, 5.4 rpg) and Cochran (9.9 ppg, 6.9 rpg) were quite the dynamic duo down low. They went up against plenty of larger opponents and held their own. They combined for 58 blocks and 24 steals will limiting their turnovers to a combined 77.

Louisville had some trouble with being able to build a lead and run with it as many games came down to the fourth quarter before relying on Evans to help pull away down the stretch or be the buzzer-beater scorer for the win. But the stingy defense is what helped Louisville steal a few wins.

There is plenty to look forward to next season with a talented roster returning. Louisville has a couple young star freshmen joining the squad in Payton Verhulst and Sydni Schetnan. A pair of solid transfers also join the Cards this year in Emily Engstler (senior, Syracuse) and Chelsie Hall (grad student, Vanderbilt). The two experienced players are expected to play just one year with the Cards, but will have an extra year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 year.

Louisville Takes Over ACC Network July 8

If I waited until Thursday to tell you about the Cards taking over the ACC Network you'd have already missed a few events so here's your early notice to get your DVR ready for Thursday, July 8. It's ALL LOUISVILLE ALL DAY.

I looked into the TV schedule for the ACC Network that day and here is what they currently have listed:

July 8

6:00 AM- Baseball vs Florida State (year not listed)

9:00 AM- Lacrosse vs Colorado (2021 season)

11:00 AM- Women's Basketball vs Florida State (year not listed- I think the 2020-2021 season)

1:00 PM- Field Hockey vs Virginia (2020 season, ACC semifinal)

2:30 PM- Volleyball vs Pittsburgh (2020 season)

4:30 PM- Men's Basketball vs Kent State (NCAA Basketball Classic)

6:30 PM- Women's Soccer vs Syracuse (2020 season)

8:30 PM- Lacrosse vs Colorado (2021 season)

10:30 PM- Wake Forest vs Louisville (NCAA Football Classics- I think the 2019 season)

July 9

1:30 AM- Field Hockey vs Virginia (2020 season, ACC semifinal)

3:00 AM- Baseball vs Florida State (year not listed)

This schedule is subject to change. I wouldn't be surprised to see one of the duplicates switch over to men's soccer or softball.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

2021-22 Louisville women's fall sports expectations -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

SO...WAS IT A GOOD FOURTH? 

Just a brief diversion from today's topic to ask you...did you have a good fourth of July? Many of you may have been involved in social activities over the Fourth of July weekend, and wasn't it good to be able to do that again without the masking, distancing and less than full capacities, if you were? 

I was fortunate to go to an outing over the weekend with my wife where we saw people we hadn't seen in a very long time and to catch up on their lives, their highs and lows, share our experiences and enjoy an old-fashion cookout with fireworks in the evening.  Getting back to it works for now. Let's hope that we continue to slowly break away from the restrictions and limitations that the pandemic wrought upon us.  We are social creatures. It's good to interact. 

I hope you had a good fourth and many of you are most likely enjoying a "holiday Monday" today, getting an extra day away from the daily grind and hub-hub that can regulate our lives.

THE FALL APPROACHES -- WOMENS' SOCCER

It is getting closer, that time when our UofL fall women's sports squads will take to their various venues of competition and test their skills against competition.

Last year was weird with split schedules, limited competition and lack of fan attendance. Let's look at what might happen with Cardinal women's sports squads this fall. Maybe a "way-too-early" prognostication, but let's have some fun with it.

We'll look at women's soccer today. 

Louisville women's soccer has traditionally been the first Cardinal women's sports squad to get underway in the fall, and it'll be a squad that has undergone a few changes -- roster wise and coaching cadre. No worries about the top skipper, Karen Ferguson Dayes is still at the helm and will prowl the sidellnes at Lynn, watching her crew move the ball. She's got one assistant back from last season in Hunter Norton and one new assistant in Nick Stirrett. Stirrett is a "rising young gun" in the women's soccer world, and brings in an impressive resume of previous stops at Oregon State, Illinois and Penn State to the Cardinal camp. 

As far as the roster looks, it's good to have "Gabby the Goalie" (Gabby Kouzelos) back between the poles as goalkeeper and her experience and leadership will be more essential that ever this upcoming season. The line in front of the goalkeeper, the defensive backs, gets Sarah Hernandez back and a host of experienced mid-fielders in Taylor Kerwin, Maisie Whitsett, Jolene Ballard and Morgan Bentley.

When looking at potential lineups,  also consider that the Cards WSOC squad has 10 freshmen coming in and it'll be fun to see which of these rise up to gain playing time

The Kickin' Cards did lose Emina Ekic on attack to graduation and the NWSL, but .do get back Delaney Snyder, Coriene Dente, Ravin Alexander and Cassie Amshoff on the front line. Scoring is where I'd like to see the Cards increase their efficiency in the upcoming season, they tallied 12 goals in 12 games last season while allowing 13.

It'll be interesting to see if the trio of Cardinal coaches can "up" the scoring output. Stirrett did it at Oregon State when he was there, as the Beavers went from six goals to 31 goals from 2018-to 2019. 

I expect the Cards to improve upon last year's 5-7 record. There will be more games, I'm fully expecting, (the schedule hasn't been released yet) and Louisville should hopefully get numerous non-conference chances to work in before taking on an always tough ACC slate. 

We usually let Jared stick his neck out on the chopping block here for his eye-popping season predictions on various sports here at Cardinal Couple and I'm guessing he'll get to that as the season draws closer. With Gabby in place and experience in the other slots, it won't be too much of a trial and error scenario for Louisville Women's Soccer...I fully expect the Cards to rise above.500 in 2021-22 and get some great crowds into Lynn Stadium. 

paulie