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Saturday Cardinal Couple

- Volleyball beats Villanova in a sweep.

- Field Hockey loses a heartbraker.

- Breeders Cup Friday a wagering profit.

Lola and middle blockers shine in Cardinal Arena

The venue may have been smaller but the romp was huge as Louisville Volleyball downs Villanova 25-11, 28-26, 25-13 in on-campus Cardinal Arena Friday night.

Lola Arslanbekova had 11 kills and 11 digs in the win. Anne Kordes was excited about the middle blocking:

"The middle blockers did a phenomenal job and played really tough. That can't happen without the excellent passing of Caitlin Welch, who has just been so solid for us. We really need to iron out our serving game and when we do we will be in a great position. We need to pay attention to our serving, regardless of the score."

The first game provided a bit of over-average serving, as freshman Katie George served for nine straight points...helping Louisville get a 12-1 lead in the first game. Gwen Rucker produced four kills in the 25-11 win.

The Cards led 16-10 in the second game and Kordes emptied the bench to give the second-stringers a bit of court-time experience. Villanova rallied against them and forced Louisville to set point at 27-26 before the Cards capitalized on a 'Nova error to take the game by one.

Service proved to be strong in the final game...with Hannah Kvitle serving seven straight points to give Louisville a 9-2 lead. The Wildcats did rally to get within three at 13-10 but Louisville went on a 12-3 run to take game and match.

Cards get Georgetown next in the KFC YUM! Center on Sunday at 2 p.m. It's on WHAS locally if you can't get there...but we strongly suggest you attend!

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Heartbreaker for Louisville Field Hockey

Cards lose in the semifinals of the BIG EAST Tournament 2-1 to UConn in overtime at Trager last night. A scoreless first half and still knotted at 0-0 late into the second half until UConn gets a score from Vicky Arthur with less tha 10 minutes remaining.

The Cards respond, Amber Thomas corralling a rebound off a penalty corner to tie it with four minutes left.

A goal by UConn's Louisa Boddy gets the Cards a loss in O.T. though.

The Huskies get Syracuse in Trager for the title Sunday. A fair-to-middling season for UofL Field Hockey...they finished third out of six teams in the Big East, they try hard every time out and we hold out hope that they'll get over the hump and become a BIG EAST title contender in the near future.

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Won't go into much detail about Breeder's Cup Friday and our picks...except for the fact that we didn't pick too many winners. Could have turned out to be a horrible day...but we had great success wagering on the live Churchill card and it covered the tricky Santa Anita upsets. 

I hit one exacta in the six Breeders Cup races...a small one in the Juvenile Fillies race. Sonja hit three exactas, scoring in the Juvenile Fillies, Filly and Mare Turf and Ladies Classic. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I spend considerable time handicapping and she briefly glances at a race...but she usually does better than I do. She wagered $36 total on the six races and got back $76.40. My same $36 wagered returned $13.30. Who's the handicapping machine?

Go figure.

Given that, and the conflict with UofL football tomorrow, we've decided to skip our handicapping of the Saturday Breeders Cup races and concentrate on cheering the Charlie Strong Cards onto a 9-0 record against Temple tomorrow.

The real heartbreaker here is that we successfully came up with a winning middle Pick 4 ticket at Churchill and couldn't get the bet placed in time. The payoff was almost $6,000 on a $2 ticket. ARRRRGHHH! Only myself to blame, I should have gone to it wager it earlier.  

So...we're not going to publish or predict any handicapping and selections for Saturday...it's the right thing to do, a lot less labor intensive and way much more fun. After reviewing our woeful performance with the Friday Breeders Cup races at Santa Anita...a wise decision, without a doubt... 

You're on your own today. If you followed our picks for Friday, you're probably OK with that.

I'll give you three horses I like. Do what you will with them. Joha, in the Juvenile Turf. Shackleford, in the Dirt Mile and Flat Out, in the Classic.

Have fun and wager responsibly. Someone has to...
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