Monday, May 9, 2011

Women's track wins BIG EAST Outdoor Championships, Softball falls, Kisha and Jen win Amazing race

MONDAY at the COUPLE

-McCarty leads UofL to track title

-Softball swept by Syracuse
McCarty wins three events at
BIG EAST Championships.

-Kisha and Jen Hoffman win Amazing Race.

-Bria Smith to announce May 12th. now?


 The University of Louisville women's track and field squad won the BIG EAST Outdoor Championships Sunday for the fourth year in a row yesterday at Villanova. D'Ana McCarty became only the fourth athlete in the BIG EAST to win three events...taking the discus yesterday...as well as the shot put and hammer throws on Saturday. No BIG EAST squad has ever won
four consecutive championships before until Louisville accomplished the feat this year. McCarty was responsible for 30 of the team's 117 points in the events.

The Louisville throwers did quite well in the discus...Khadija Abdullah took third, Chinwe Okoro fourth and Hannah Baker seventh. Rachel Gehert had a big day for the Cards as well, winning the high jump and scoring second in the triple jump. She was also part of the 4x100m relay team that finished third.

Ron Mann, UofL track and field coach, commented on McCarty...an Indianapolis native:

"I think it's fitting she has a billboard on the way from Indianapolis to Columbus with her picture on it. It's well deserved, and she deserves all the credit in the world. She has led this team for four years and she's done a great job.

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Cards go into the BIG EAST softball tournament as
the 5th seed after dropping three in a row to Syracuse.
Louisville softball can't seem to find the way to defeat superstar Syracuse pitcher Jenna Caira...losing to her and the Syracuse Orange for the third time in two days. Sunday's game went to the 'Cuse 5-2...a three run homer by Hallie Gibbs off Louisville pitcher Tori Collins in the bottom of the first inning being the most crippling blow. The Cards did manage to get within one run in the top of the third when Katie Keller singled and scored on a Chelsea Bemis single...but Louisville could not offer anymore offense after that and Syracuse (41-11, 15-5) added two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth for the final.

The Cards (34-17, 12-7) head home to host the BIG EAST Tournament May 12-14. The Cards go into tournament play as the #5 seed and will face #4 USF Thursday at 6:30 p.m. The two schools did not meet in softball during the regular season. First day action looks like this:

Game 1. #3 Syracuse vs. #6 Pittsburgh. 10 a.m.
Game 2. #2 DePaul vs, #7 Rutgers. 12:30 p.m.
Game 3. #1 Notre Dame vs. #8 Providence. 4 p.m.
Game 4. #4 USF vs. #5 Louisville. 6:30 p.m.
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The champs!
Congratulations to former UofL Women's Sports athletes Kisha and Jen Hoffman for winning The Amazing Race and the $1 million dollar prize that goes along with it.

Kisha, age 30, was on the 2001-02 Louisville women's basketball team. She led the Cards in rebounds with 6.9 a game and had 13 games where she was the leading rebounder. She also averaged 11.4 points a game, second best for Louisville that season and had 17 games where she scored double figures. She transferred to Louisville from Western Illinois University. She is currently a basketball coach in the Bronx, NY.

Younger sister Jen, 26, is an assistant volleyball coach at UofL. Jen was an All-American volleyball player for UofL and played as a middle blocker in the 2003-06 seasons. She came to Louisville actually as a volleyball player that was better at basketball...but coach Leonid Yelin turned her leaping abiliy into success in the wide net sport. Both sisters are 6'2".

Kisha is the first lesbian, African-American women to compete on the show...it was the second appearance on The Amazing Race for the sisters...they finished 4th in 2009.

They were to receive their $1 million check on CBS's Early Morning Show on Monday Morning....the same network that televised the series.

Congratulations to the sisters!
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In a "tweet" on May 6th., Cardinal target Bria Smith stated that her college choice announcement might come on Thursday, May 12th. during a press conference. WE had originally reported that she would make the announcement May 10th., at a sports award banquet at B.B. King's Bar and Restaurant in New York, NY. Just goes to show how things can change...David Watson, special correspondent to CARDINAL COUPLE, weighs in on the Smith situation...

I'm not one to hold my breath when it comes to college recruiting and announcements. Can't tell you how many times over the years that I've been disappointed or surprised about the decision of a teenager. That brings us to the Bria Smith scenario. In case you're a novice to women's college basketball, let's catch you up. Bria Smith is a high school senior, a talented basketball player who has not decided where she wants to go to college. She did originally decide that the University of Virginia was where she wanted to attend. The women's basketball coach there, Debbie Ryan, decided to retire, though, and Bria withdrew her decision to attend the ACC school. There had been quite a few other schools interested in her prior to the Virginia decision and two of these, Louisville and Tennessee became front runners in the "bring Bria to campus" campaign. She did visit both schools. Oklahoma women's basketball head coach Sherri Cole went to see her. One of New York's newspapers proudly announced that Smith would announce her decision at their sports banquet on Tuesday, May 10th.

Not so fast...daily tabloid. Smith has recently tweeted that the impending decision will now come most likely on Thursday, May 12th. during a press conference. Someone check Jeff Walz, Pat Summit and Cole's schedule for that day. See if an airline trip has been booked. Camp out in the bushes and watch for the packing of a suitcase. Or, better yet...just wait for the eventual announcement. Enough is enough.

I tire, these days, of the mystery and mortification of the 'who's going where and why, when and for what reason' game. Like many pedestrian fans...I just want to hear about the baby and need no details of the labor pains. I can only encourage Ms. Smith to go where her heart tells her to this second time around in the recruiting sweepstakes. I hope it is Louisville. If it were me, I'd be headed to Hawaii. Four years of college in "the islands"? I'd be there in a heartbeat.

(David Watson is a special correspondent for CARDINAL COUPLE. We should point out that Ms. Smith has made no mention of Hawaii in her recruiting process and that David has probably watched too many episodes of HAWAII 5-0. Both the new and old television shows.)
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