Friday Cardinal Couple -- Busy weekend for UofL women's sports

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FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Volleyball hosts the Cardinal Classic

-Soccer heads to Lexington for UK Invitational

-Field Hockey faces Davidson & Ball State @ Trager

-Did someone say Football?

And you thought this weekend was just about the Louisville vs. Kentucky football game, Labor Day picnics and getting Monday off work. Although the annual clash on the gridiron is grabbing the majority of sports coverage...the Belknap Campus and KFC YUM! Center will be sites for women's sports from Friday to Monday. Pack your ponchos and grab your umbrellas...we're singing in the rain the next three days with Louie the Cardinal Bird. 

VOLLEYBALL HOSTS CARDINAL CLASSIC

Anne's Kordes' VolleyCards get ready for three games over the next two days at the KFC YUM! Center when Duke, Samford and Marshall invade the downtown arena for the Cardinal Classic.

Louisville starts the weekend blitz against the Blue Devils Friday night at 7:30 p.m. The Dookies are 3-0 on the season...winning their own invitational tournament recently with wins over UW-Milwaukee, William & Mary and Fairfield. 

Will there be a slight letdown after the thrilling win over Kentucky on Wednesday?  We can't see that happening. Lola and company know that a strong showing could boost the Cards into a top 25 ranking and a win over an ACC opponent is always good for the RPI. 

Emilky Sklar one to watch for the Cameron Crazies...the 6'3" outside hitter is just a freshman but recorded 33 kills and hit for .333 last weekend in the Blue Devils' wins. 

Next for Louisville, on Saturday at 11 a.m. will be equally impressive Marshall, also 3-0 after winning the Thunder Invitational. They dispatched Wright State, IUPUI and Miami (OH). 

Picked to contend for the Conference USA title, the Thundering Herd has a top-notch setter in Sammie Bane and a tall front line capable of blocks and spikes.

Finally, the Cards will face Samford, who is 0-3 but faced tough competition in the Hurricane Classic in Miami (FL). Losses to Miami (FL), Rutgers and Ole Miss non-withstanding, the Bulldogs are still the pre-season favorite to win the Southern Conference. They return three starters in Elizabeth Neisler, Lauren Hutchinson and Katie Murphy who were All-Conference last season. 

SOCCER WELCOMES BACK EXETER, MELHADO & TRAVELS TO LEXINGTON

Back from their participation in the 2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup for Canada in Japan, Christine Exeter and Rachel Melhado will need to shake off the jet lag pretty quickly for the two games in Lexington this weekend. 

Louisville faces Southeast Missouri Friday at 5 p.m. on the UK campus. SEMO (1-2-1) split last weekend at home...downing Drake but losing to UMKC. It will be the first time the two have met in soccer.

The Cards take the field again Sunday @ noon against UNC-Greensboro (2-1-0). No lightweight here, the Spartans traveled to Wake Forest last weekend and won 1-0 before returning home and downing UNC-Asheville 7-0. Due to the format of the UK Tropical Smoothie Tournament, the hosting UK Wildcats and Louisville won't meet over the weekend. 

Louisville (2-0-0) comes off an exciting double-overtime 4-3 win over Purdue at Cardinal Park last Friday night. The Cards moved up four spots in the Soccer America Top 25 poll and are now #14. 

Junior Angelika Uremovich was named to the BIG EAST Honor roll on Monday for her two goal scoring performance against the Boilermakers. She leads Louisville with three on the season.

FIELD HOCKEY TAKES ON DAVIDSON & BALL STATE

Trager Stadium will be the place to be Saturday afternoon as the Louisville Field Hockey squad hosts Davidson (1-1) at 2 p.m. The #23 Cards (1-1) come off a 3-1 win against Miami (OH) after losing to #21 Northwestern.

Louisville is 1-7 lifetime against Wildcats, getting their lone win last year 5-3 on the Davidson campus.

Louisville will face Ball State (1-1) on Monday at 2 p.m. It's a Cardinal vs. Cardinal matchup...the Indiana  birds defeated Lehigh last time out after dropping their season opener to Lafayette. Ball State holds a 15-10 lifetime advantage over Louisville, UofL winning the last meeting in 2007 1-0. 

Haley Jurich leads the Louisville squad with two goals on the season and goalie Erin Conrad has produced six saves in the Cards' first two contests. 

Plenty of UofL women's sports to take in the next four days and CARDINAL COUPLE will have the highlights, results and coverage for you. 

BATTLE OF THE BLUEGRASS

We'll also break from the Louisville women's sports scene briefly Saturday and offer our columnist picks on the Sunday UofL vs. UK football game.

Feel free to join in the fun and leave your prediction in our comments section over the next couple of days. No prize or reward for closest to the final (Bread Boy has been sitting pretty tightly on PANERA Gift Cards these days) just the satisfaction of competition and the pride in your prognostication. 

These predictions should be Pulitzer Prize commentary. We thought of initializing the first annual Cardinal Couple Challenge and invited a UK website to travel to Louisville (more specifically...the Drunken Amish farm in Goshen) and play our staff in a game of touch football or volleyball...but they balked at the idea of our using the staff chimps and Bill the Goat. 

Whatever...we woulda (banana) creamed them in either...according to Jenny and Timmy the Intern.  
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