Volleyball, Softball get Sunday wins

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MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Volleyball sweeps Panthers in Pittsburgh

-Softball outhits Racers 7-1

-Soccer battles to tie with USF

-Field Hockey falls to Albany

-Atlanta headed to third game in WNBA playoffs

Quite the active day for Cardinal Sports Sunday! Here's a recap of the action...

VolleyCards earn a sweep over Pittsburgh

Pitt focused their concentration on trying to stop Lola Arsanbekova yesterday and they found out that there are plenty of weapons on this Louisville Volleyball squad that can and will defeat you. Emily Juhl provided nine kills and Brooke Mattingly and Gwen Rucker chipped in seven each and combined for seven blocks in the Cardinals' 25-18, 25-12, 25-22 win.

Lola did get 12 kills in the contest, far below her season average, but it was teamwork and a bit of revenge for the Cards...who lost to Pitt last year in the KFC YUM! Center.

UofL and Pitt battled early in the first game, neither squad getting a clear advantage until a 5-0 Cardinal run put some distance between the two teams, thanks to Juhl's six kills.

The Cards jumped out to a 7-1 early lead in the second game, extending that to 13-3 and taking a 13-point victory...thanks to 15 kills between Juhl and Arslanbekova.

After halftime, Pitt refused to cave in...never gaining a lead but never letting UofL pull away. Forcing a 14-14 tie, the Panthers stayed close until kills by Gwen Rucker and Juhl gave the Cards the game and the sweep of the match.

Louisville (14-2, 3-1) returns home for three in a row...facing Seton Hall Saturday at noon in Cardinal Arena, Rutgers Sunday at noon in the KFC YUM! Center and #9 Texas Monday night at 7 p.m. in the YUM!

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Softball mauls Murray State in Fall Scrimmage

Led by sophomore shortstop Whitney Arion's 2 for 2 batting...that produced a home run and four RBI's...Louisville easily downed Murray State yesterday at Ulmer Stadium.

A five-run fourth inning was the deciding blow to the Racers. Leading 2-0 coming into the inning, the Cards posted the runs when Arion's three-run blast scored her, Brittany Sims and Katelyn Mann. Singles from Jennifer Esteban, Jordan Trimble, Katie Keller and Alicja Wolny added two more for the Cards to provide a comfortable lead for Sandy Pearsall's squad.

Junior Rachel LeCoq started in the circle for UofL and got the win with four innings of pitching. Caralisa Connell struck out four in the final three innings for the save.

With Tori Collins graduated, it's time for Sonja to pick a new favorite on Sandy Pearsall's softballers. Arion may be that player...as for me, I'm torn between Taner Fowler and Jordan Trimble. All good picks.

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Women's Soccer forces a 1-1 tie against the Bulls

Louisville capitalized on a late penalty kick from Angelika Uremovich to tie USF with six minutes left in the game. The Cards then battled South Florida for two scoreless overtime periods to create the tie and go to 7-3-2 overall.

"I'm happy with our performance in the second half and both overtimes. Our kids battled to the end and we had our chances. I'm proud of how we responded in the second half. We are a mentally tougher team because of this game" -- Louisville women's soccer head coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes.

The Cards return home to host two BIG EAST contests...Villanova on Friday (7 p.m.) and Georgetown on Sunday (1 p.m.)

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Filed Hocked foiled by Albany 3-1

Despite Amber Thomas's sixth goal of the season, UofL Field Hockey takes their second weekend loss...falling to Albany 3-1. The Cards battled the Great Danes to a scoreless first half tie, but three straight Albany second half goals left Louisville in a hole too deep to climb out of.

Albany out-shot the Cards 22-7. Erin Conrad registered 11 stops for Louisville, who goes to 7-5 and 1-1 on the season.

The schedule doesn't get any easier for Justine Sowry's squad, facing two more top ten opponents next weekend in Trager Stadium. #5 UConn comes in for a noon Saturday tilt and # 10 Iowa visits Sunday at 1 p.m.

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McCoughtry's 22 not enough as Dream fall 103-88

With home court advantage and a 1-0 lead in the playoff series against Indiana, one would have figured the Atlanta Dream would be the prohibitive favorite to pull off the sweep and advance to the WNBA Eastern Division finals.

Indiana disagreed. Breaking open a close first half, the Fever out-pointed Angel and company 31-20 in the third quarter and pushed that lead to 20 in the fourth en route to a 15-point thumping of Atlanta in Philips Arena.

Tamika Catchings produced 18 of her game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter to secure the victory and the two teams will face again Tuesday to see who advances to the division finals against the Connecticut Sun.

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Finally, a reminder that the Choose Your Favorite UofL Womens' Athlete contest has started here at Cardinal Couple. Over on the left side of the site, you'll find first round action in this sweet sixteen. The current match-up pits Volleyball's Gwen Rucker vs. Lacrosse's Nikki Boltja.

Boltja grabbed an early advantage in the duel, but Rucker supporters have pushed her to the lead. Only two more days to vote on this one...who ya got?
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