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SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Volleyball triumphs over Belmont -- awaits NCAA pairing and assignment.

-Women's Basketball 6-0 and facing a tough week ahead.

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As expected, the UofL volleyball team will play their first and second rounds games in the KFC YUM! Center on Thursday and Friday. First round opponent is Belmont University...who the Cards defeated last Friday. The other two teams that will play in the YUM! are Tennessee and Michigan. The winners will face off Friday night.

Louisville is in the Berkeley (CA) region, which means they'd travel there if they are successful in winning two on their home court. We'll have more on this tomorrow....including times, hopefully.

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The University of Louisville Volleyball team disposed of OVC Tournament Champion Belmont Friday afternoon in Cardinal Arena and now awaits their fate in the NCAA Tournament. The Cards took the straight set sweep 26-24, 25-21, 25-14 to improve to 29-3 on the season and Gwen Rucker slammed home another impressive game with 15 kills. Lola Arslanbekova added 14. Seniors Tanya Lukyanenko and Kaitlynn James contributed to the victory as well...with eight and seven kills respectively.

It's now a matter of "wait and see" as the team awaits the NCAA Volleyball Selection Show, which will be aired on ESPNU Sunday @ 4:00 p.m. Anne Kordes and the squad will be throwing a selection watch party at Bearno's By The Bridge (near the KFC YUM! Center) at 3:30 p.m.

Lasagna with Lola. Rigatoni with Rucker. Meatballs with Mattingly. Sounds like a great time. We're huge Bearno's fans here at Cardinal Couple and recommend the Mama Bearno's pizza if you go...

It's no secret that the Cards have bid to host 1st. and 2nd. round matches at the KFC YUM! Center, beginning Thursday, November 29th. and ending Friday, November 30th. They're going to get that request, in our opinion...so here's the skinny on tickets.

All-session for adults are $20. Seniors and youth get in for $10. Bring a chimp and get in free.(Not really, but wouldn't that be fun!). Single-session are $12 for adults, $7 for seniors and youth and $5 for college students. Get a group of 10 more for the single session and it's $5 each as well.

All-session tickets go on sale 10 a.m. Monday and can be purchased at the Louisville Athletic Ticket Office at (502) 852-5151, online at GoCards.com or in person at the Student Activities Center ticket office between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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Jeff Walz's WBB squad is 6-0 and preparing for a road trip to UT-Martin after winning three games in three days in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in the Hardwood For Hope Tournament. Three games for the Cards in a seven day stretch...they host EKU on Wednesday and arch-rival UK on Sunday.

We'll have more on UT-Martin in the Monday edition of CARDINAL COUPLE, but they're not an opponent to be taken lightly. Three starters back from a squad that went 23-9 last season and made the NCAA Tournament. This year, the Skyhawks are 1-4...but the losses have come against quality opponents like the defending national champs Baylor (82-67), Stanford --who beat Baylor last week -- (92-68), Big 10 Northwestern (79-69) and Hawaii (73-69).

You can guarantee that Skyhawk fans will pack SkyHawk Arena, on the UT-Martin campus for this one. A great early season test for Walz's squad in a hostile on-the-road environment awaits.

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FROM THE "TELL YOUR STATISTICS TO SHUT-UP" DEPARTMENT


Here's how the numbers stack up so far for the Lady Cards this season.

Points per game - Shoni Schimmel 13.0
Rebounds per game - Sara Hammond 8.7
Steals - Bria Smith 11
Assists - Shoni Schimmel 20
Three-Point Shooting % - Nita Slaughter .421 (8-19)
Overall Shooting % - Sherrone Vails .650 (13-20)
Free Throws % - Nita Slaughter 1.000 (2-2)
Minutes played - Shoni 171 (28.5 per game)
High point total (game) - Sara Hammond 20 (vs. Texas A&M)

The Cards have out-scored their opponnents 442 (73.7 per game) to 303 (50.5 per game). They're also out-rebounding foes 245-193. They've forced a total of 132 turnovers. In two home games, Louisville is averaging 8660 per game. On the road and in neutral sites...uh, well....hmmm, we seem to have lost those figures.  

TV will be available for the Monday night matchup against UT-Martin on the OVC Network. We recommend you turn down the sound and listen to Matt Andrews and Adrienne Johnson's call on WKRD 790 AM, if possible. Depending on where the two are set up...you can hear Jeff Walz join the broadcast (he doesn't even need a microphone!) with his instructions, teaching points and observations from the sidelines...along with his award-winning post game show with Matt.

OVC Network link below:

Louisville vs. UTM

Tipoff is 8:00 p.m. E.S.T.

Have a great Sunday, everybody and GO CARDS!
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