Monday CARDINAL COUPLE -- Volleyball... the Big East Champs...Again...This Season

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MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( The VolleyCards have captured the BIG EAST Tournament title in convincing fashion...not giving up a single game against three opponents during their march through the brackets. CARDINAL COUPLE columnist Jeff McAdams breaks it down for us. )




UofL Volleyball got the job done in a solid fashion.  In Milwaukee WI for the Big East Championship Tournament, Louisville swept through the competition, though Marquette mounted a challenge.

Big East Dominance

Louisville has been dominant in the Big East since joining the conference, winning either the regular season title or a conference tournament just about every year, though this is the first time the Cards have managed to bring home both trophies in the same year.

Much of the run through the conference, and all of the tournament run was sweeps of their opponents.  The Cards haven't dropped a set in 8 matches now, going back to the first matchup against Marquette when they took a set off of us in Milwaukee, through Marquette visiting Louisville, and through all three tournament matches.

Championship Match

The coverage on ESPNU focused heavily on Lola Arslanbeckova and Gwen Rucker...which is certainly understandable in their effort to make it good for TV...but the Cards weapons just don't stop there, and that's a big part of the UofL success.  Marquette tried to shut down Lola by putting double blocks on her as many teams have, but all that does is leave Gwen and Brooke Mattingly open in the middle, along with Emily Juhl and Tanya Lukyanenko on the opposite side.  You could see this in action during the match a number of times, when Lola struggled to get through the double blocks, you started to see sets going to some of the other offensive weapons.

Gwen had another absolutely fantastic match.  She hit "only" .400 vs Marquette...compared to her hitting percentage for the whole tournament where she was hitting in the .800 range, that is a pretty big drop, but still ridiculously strong.  Add to that, 5 blocks, and you have a player that gets awarded the tournament MVP honors.

I made the oversight of not mentioning Caitlin Welch in yesterday's article.  I won't make that mistake twice. Welch tallied 21 digs...an impressive total in a 3 set match...keeping the team in the action and with great passing allowing Katie George and Hannah Kvitle to have all of the offensive options available to them on the sets.  The primary goal of digging and passing is to get the ball up in the air to let the play progress, but ideally you want the pass to go just to the right side of the center of the net where the setter should be waiting.  The more the setter has to run to get the pass, the fewer options they have to set up the hitters, and particularly middle hitters like Gwen and Brooke.  The good passing from Caitlin and others let Katie and Hannah distribute the sets out to multiple offensive options, keeping the Marquette team guessing.

Credit to Marquette, they played well, especially in the 3rd set, forcing the extra point for the win.  The ESPNU crew described them as a scrappy team, and I can't think of a better term.  Great defense and digging kept many volleys alive that most everyone thought was a Cards point, and several ended up being points for Marquette.  Playing scrappy, though, is a far cry from running a strong offense to reliably score points.  About the best you can hope for is to be able to keep the ball in play and wait for the other team to make a mistake.  Honestly, that probably works pretty well when playing most of the Big East, but as the competition gets stronger in the post-season, that style of play just doesn't hold up as well.

Next up

Belmont won the OVC tournament, upsetting Morehead State in the finals, so they will be our opponents on Friday November 23 at Cardinal Arena.  The NCAA tournament selection show is Sunday, November 25th at 4pm and will be televised on ESPNU.  As has been covered already, expect Louisville to be a first and second round host.  Looking at the schedule for the KFC Yum! Center, those matches would almost certainly be in the November 29th and 30th slots as there are basketball games scheduled for December 1st and 2nd.  Presumably tickets will be able to be purchased through the UofL Ticket Office.

Late Breaking News...around the league

#1 Stanford lost to #8 Southern California

but that's unlikely to affect our ranking, though it does mean that Penn State should take over the #1 ranking again.

#4 Oregan lost to #6 Washington in an epic battle that I mentioned the other day, but again, probably won't affect our ranking.

However, #9 Nebraska, one spot in front of us, lost to #14 Minnesota.  Minnesota dropped two matches last week to allow us to move up into the top 10, and now we'll probably reap the benefits of Minnesota's victory over Nebraska.

I would expect a #9 ranking for the Cards when the new poll is released later today.

In the RPI last week, we got a 2 spot bump from #7 to #5, largely on the strength of our win over Marquette at the KFC Yum! Center.  Will another win over them on their home floor help bump us another spot?  It's possible, but much harder to predict in my experience.

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RUCKER, ARSLANBEKOVA KEY IN STRAIGHT SET SWEEP OF MARQUETTE

Tournament MVP Gwen Rucker recorded 10 kills, six digs and five blocks on Sunday and Lola Arslanbekova, named to the All-Tournament team, led the way with 13 kills and 11 digs for her 20th double-double of the season.

The Cards used a 10-1 run to break open a close first game...benefitted by three Rucker kills. They also held Marquette to .050 hitting in the contest. Leading 17-10, they withstood a brief Golden Eagles rally which cut the lead to 20-17. Louisville won five of the final seven points, though, to take a 25-19 first game.

The Golden Eagles started strong in Game 2 and jumped out to a 6-2 lead. Down 9-5, the Cards relied on Arslanbekova and Tanya Lukyanenko to rally them and went on a 11-3 spree to hold a 16-12 advantage. Marquette answered with a 4-0 run to tie the contest. After that, it was Louisville's turn with a 4-0 run. After the Golden Eagles pulled within one at 24-23, Brooke Mattingly produced her sixth kill of the contest and the VolleyCards held a 2-0 advantage going to the half-time break.

It looked like Louisville had demoralized the M.U. squad and roared out to an early 8-4 lead in the third game. The Golden Eagles rallied, however, and went on a 5-1 run to tie the contest at 9-9. Back and forth it went from there...neither team gaining a clear advantage. Marquette held a 18-16 lead...but Emily Juhl's three kills and a Mattingly block helped the Cards knot it at 20-20. The Cards were at match-point at 24-21...but Marquette held off the final match point temporarily and tied it back up at 24-24. Lola put the Cards at match point again with a kill to make it 25-24 Cards.

At 25-24, Marquette's Holly Mertens hit a kill attempt out of bounds and Louisville was the BIG EAST TOURNAMENT champs. 

Caitlin Welch sparked the Cards with 21 digs and was also selected to the tournament team. 

One more chance to see the Lady Cards before NCAA Tournament play begins. They'll play OVC champ Belmont in Cardinal Arena at 5 p.m. Friday. Louisville seniors Rucker, Arslanbekova, Lukyanenko and Kaitlynn James will be honored before the contest.

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Big East Volleyball Tournament

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SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Big East Volleyball Tournament Live Streaming

-WBB: Cards sign 3 for Class of 2013


-Down goes Griner...Baylor loses to Stanford 71-69

The Big East Volleyball Tournament is being live streamed by the Big East.  The stream is available via the Big East website at multiple links, but I found it at:

http://www.bigeast.org/Sports/WomensVolleyball/2012VolleyballChampionshipCentral.aspx

Click on the green "Live Stream" bar.

UPDATE #1....THE CARDS DID WIN IN THREE SETS AND FACE CINCINNATI TOMORROW AT 2 p.m.

UPDATE #2....WBB UPSET!!!!! STANFORD HAS KNOCKED OFF #1 BAYLOR IN HAWAII 71-69.


RUCKER KEY IN CARDS VICTORY OVER RED STORM

The #10 VolleyCards easily handled St. John's in BIG EAST VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT quarterfinal play yesterday in Milwaukee, WI...zipping to a 3-set 25-15, 25-23, 25-17 win over the Red Storm.

Senior middle blocker and All-BIG EAST First Team selection Gwen Rucker had 13 kills in 15 attempts for a .867 hitting percentage. This sets a new record in the BIG EAST.

BIG EAST Player of the Year Lola Arslanbekova added 13 kills for the VolleyCards, who have won their last 10 matches in a row.

Who's next for Anne Kordes' machine? The UC Bearcats, who escaped with a five-set battle with Connecticut earlier in the day. The Cards defeated Cincinnati twice in regular-season conference play.

Game time is 2 p.m.

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CANNON, HENDERSON and BREEDLOVE SIGN LOI'S

As expected, Jeff Walz received letters of intent from the three to comprise the 2013 recruiting class for the Lady Cards.

The Cards get a strong paint prescence and two talented point guards to complement the already deep and strong Cardinal roster for next year.

Louisville leaves Sunday for three games in Mexico.

First foe is future BIG EAST member Central Florida. They play Tuesday at 7 p.m. (E.S.T.)

We lament the fact that there will be no TV for the Cards conquest but you can follow the action through the radio broadcast on 790 AM WKRD...or Gametracker...on the GoCards.com Super Scoreboard.

We'd love to be with the team covering the action live but will still try to provide you with updates on how the Lady Cards "south of the border" soiree goes. The Cards, at #8 in the polls, are 3-0 on the season...with wins over Texas A&M, Portland and Austin Peay.

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STANFORD KNOCKS OFF #1 BAYLOR IN HAWAII

Early season speculation about the women's college basketball season involved quite a bit of discussion on whether Baylor could go two seasons in a row unefeated.

Nope.


Griner and the Baylor Bears take a upset loss at the hands of Stanford 71-69. 

"The failure to communicate this important event is illogical,
Captain Kirk."

It's a shame this one wasn't on national television because it was quite the exciting game. The Stanford feed was choppy at best, I couldn't get any audio and there were no screen graphics. The camera guy would show the overhead scoreboard during timeouts...but keeping track of who was in the lead was a chore most of the game.

ESPN will show Friday night football featuring two mid-majors but can't pick up this important women's college basketball contest? 

C'mon, man...

It's just another example of how the four-letter network serves their own agenda and does whatever the he!! they want, when they want to and everybody else can either watch it or not.  

The days of kings, dictators and monopolies are no longer in fashion. J.P. Morgan, Carnegie, Idi Amin and Hitler are dead.  ESPN still believes they are the only dog barking on the block, that's why we welcome the advent of other broadcasters (CBS, NBC, Fox) expanding on their college sports broadcast networks.

Football may be the revenue magnet but it doesn't mean that it's the only game in town. Last night's Stanford vs. Baylor WBB game should have been shown nationwide.

At least the ESPN guys delivered a pretty good post mortem.

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Sunday Cardinal Couple -- Volleyball today!

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SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Volleyballl hosts Georgetown in KFC YUM!

- Breeders Cup Classic goes to Fort Larned

As busy as the UofL womens' sports schedule has been lately, it's hard to believe that all the teams and squads were actually off on Saturday. So, we have no scores or results to share with you. Charlie Springer has a good write up on football's win over Temple. Link below:

UofL Card Game

All we'll say about yesterday is that we're tired of tailgaiting in the rain and glad the Cards won. They flew past the Owls 45-17. Louisville now 9-0. Very impressive!

Sunday brings us to Volleyball and the 22-3 VolleyCards return to the KFC YUM! Center to face Georgetown.

Hardly a powerhouse, the Hoya spikers are 7-18 on the season and 1-11 in the BIG EAST. They fell in three sets to Cincinnati last time out. Cards should have a rollicking good time today. The Hoyas do have one Kentucky player on their roster...outside hitter Annalee Abell, from Lexington Henry Clay.

Lola Arslanbekova leads the Cards with 455 kills on the season. Gwen Rucker is the leading blocker with 101. We expect both will be busy today.

Game time is 2 p.m. It's also being shown locally on WHAS-TV.


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We're huge fans of jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr. You can imagine how excited we were last night when he guided Fort Larned to the win in the $5 Million Breeders Cup Classic. The duel with Mucho Macho Man down the stretch was quite exciting and the expected battle between Flat Out and Game On Dude never materialized. Watch the exciting race below.

Nice work, Brian!

Have a great Sunday!
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Volleyball returning home

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FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Volleyball with homestand

- Field Hockey in BIG EAST TOURNAMENT tonite

- Reynolds to announce Friday

(In response to the e-mails we've had about our wildly popular Breeders Cup picks...we hope to have Friday's selections at the bottom of today's column by 10 a.m. EDT. The chimps are typing as fast as they can.)


( CARDINAL COUPLE Correspondent Jeff McAdams gets us caught up on CARDINAL Volleyball today. Watch the net, practice your set and get ready for the kill! )


Past, Present and Future

Its been a while since Louisville volleyball has played in the friendly confines of either of either of their home floors, but they're about to return for a match this Friday at Cardinal Arena against Villanova, followed by Sunday back downtown against Georgetown.

I figured now was a good time to look back on the past 3 weekends of play, check out current national standings, and look ahead at the rapidly dwindling set of matches still to be played.

St. Johns, Connecticut, Syracuse, Marquette, Cincinnati

The last three weekends have seen the VolleyCards on the road.  My normal dog sitters were on an extended vacation, and I had already been warned that it wasn't wise to let Coco and Timmy dog sit, so I didn't get to make it to any of the matches in the first two weekends.  The last weekend was just a quick jaunt up I-71 which can be done in just a day trip...and my dog sitters were back in any case.

The first trip was a swing through the northeast with visits to St. Johns and Connecticut.  This trip really should've been an easy victory tour, but both St. Johns and UConn gave the Cards some challenges to overcome.  They did prevail, however, and came back with the Ws.

The next weekend brought another of the crazy Big East road trips, with visits to Syracuse and Marquette.  After getting stuck in Detroit overnight on their way back from Pitt when they flew commercial, the Cards decided to charter this one.  This trip included one of the bigger challenges for playing volleyball in the Big East this year, Marquette.

After handling Syracuse without any real discomfort, the Cards really made their presence felt in Milwaukee taking the match 3-1 and playing quite well.  Marquette did stream the match on the Internet, so I did get a bit of a chance to see how this one went.

Finally, the Kordes Krew made their way back into the Ohio Valley with a single match this past weekend at Cincinnati.  Usually Cincinnati is a serious threat in the Big East.  This year...not so much.  They have some good talent on the team, but with a new coach, they just haven't seemed to put it all together.  The Cards got through the sweep pretty quickly and without much drama.  Its good to get the win, but I would've liked to have seen it be a bit more interesting for the ESPNU coverage...though not too interesting, of course.  The outcome was never in much doubt, despite Louisville giving as many points to Cincinnati as they could via service errors.

The Volleyball world, as it currently stands

The top 10 in both the coach's poll and the RPI is graced by the likes of Stanford, Penn State, Nebraska, Texas, and UCLA...no real surprises in any of those.  Some of the others making appearances in one or both are Oregon, Minnesota, Washington, and Hawaii...again, nothing that causes any real jaw drops.

Louisville continues to creep back up the coach's poll, making it up to the number 12 spot in the just released poll.  Some thanks is due to the previous number 11 Florida who dropped their match against previous numer 12 Florida State.  Florida dropped two spots to 13, and FSU joins us in getting bumped up a spot.

In the RPI, we continue to hang on to the number 7 position.  We've been winning consistently, but for the most part, not against any real powerhouse teams, so we haven't been getting much of a bump from the wins.  The win over Marquette probably helped us stay where we are, as well as continued good performance by the likes of Kentucky at 15, Miami(FL) at 16, Purdue at 21, as well as...go Hilltoppers...WKU at 33, and then Illinois at 35.  Marquette checks in at 36.

The RPI, of course, takes into account not only a team's own win-loss record, but the win-loss record of their opponents and even of their opponent's opponents, so our earlier wins over these teams that are all representing well in the RPI, helps out our own ranking.  On the other side of the equation, our only losses are to Penn State, checking in at 2, Texas following closely behind at 4, and lastly Notre Dame, who's coming in at 34, which means that our loses aren't hurting us that much at all.

Let's play "Good news, Bad news, Good news"

For home vs away:

Good news:  The rest of our regular season matches are all at home.

Bad news:  Only one of the matches is at the arena downtown.

Good news:  Cardinal Arena is pretty darn cool, too.

For RPI consideration:

Good news:  There's a pretty good chance we could win out the rest of the regular season.

Bad news:  We won't be playing much of anybody that can help us out much in the RPI.

Good news:  Except Marquette, again.

On TV coverage:

Good news:  We'll be on TV twice.

Bad news:  Versus Georgetown and Cincinnati, neither of which should be terribly competitive.

Good news:  The Cincinnati match is nationally televised (ESPNU) again.

Tournaments

There's a berth already waiting for the Cards in the Big East tournament which will be held at The Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee November 16th through 18th, with Marquette hosting.  Marquette, Notre Dame, and Louisville have already clenched spots in the tournament based on their league records at 10-1.  Louisville currently has the number 1 seed in the tournament based on our overall win-loss percentage due to the Big East tie breaker rules.  Each of those losses in those 10-1 records is against one of the others.  We lost to ND, ND lost to MU, and MU lost to us.  This tie-breaker scenario will change, however, as we play Marquette again, and Marquette also has another match against Notre Dame.  It also would change if any of the three teams lost another conference match.

While its not a tournament, a quirk of volleyball scheduling is that the Cards play another "regular season" match after the Big East tournament, versus whichever team is the champion of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.  A quick look at OVC standings suggests that we could have a rematch with Morehead State as they are 12-0 in conference play.  Of course, anything can happen tournament time.

And then the big one.  The NCAA tournament selection show will be Sunday November 25th at 4pm ET with the tournament beginning Nov. 29th.  In volleyball, only 16 teams in the tournament of 64 are seeded, with the rest being placed geographically.  The first and second round matches are at non-predetermined sites, almost always at the locations of the 16 seeded teams.  This is why we've played so many of our tournament matches at Purdue in past years.  The 16 seeds typically follow the RPI rankings very closely, so if UofL keeps winning, we'll likely be a host for the first and second rounds of the tournament.  I understand that the athletic department is already making (tentative) plans for the event at The KFC Yum! Center based on the likelihood of UofL being seeded and hosting. 

Third and fourth rounds are at predetermined sites.  This year, the Regionals are at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, CA;  CenturyLink Center in Omaha, NE;  Gregory Gymnasium in Austin, TX;  and...wait for it...Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, IN.  Geographic principles still apply, so if the Cards advance to Regionals it looks like another road trip to Purdue...I think my Jeep can make the drive on its own, now.

And, of course, we get the honor of hosting the Semifinal matches and the National Championship at the KFC Yum! Center December 13th and 15th...you do have your tickets ordered already, right?

Jeff (white shirt) is also an avid WBB fan!

Incidentally, Kentucky is hosting a Regional in 2013 at Memorial Coliseum, and a 2014 Regional will be back here in the 'ville at The KFC Yum! Center.

This weekend

Villanova and Georgetown come into town to play this weekend.  Villanova is 11-15 (5-6), and Georgetown is 7-17 (1-10).  The GU match is slated to be shown by WHAS.  Realistically, as long as this UofL team doesn't take these matches for granted, neither Villanova nor Georgetown should really pose that much of a threat.  I'll be in my usual seats, come say hi.

( A great article by Jeff today! Go VolleyCards!)


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The BIG EAST Field Hockey Championships are at Trager Stadium on campus this weekend also. #25 Louisville faces off against #5 UConn at 7:30 p.m. The action begins at 5 p.m. with Providence and Syracuse taking the field.

GO CARDS!

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Jordan Reynolds, another target of Jeff Walz on the 2013 recruiting trail, is scheduled to announce Friday where she'll be attending college.

We want her at Louisville, make no mistake about it. She's a hard-slashing combo guard that played with Alexis Montgomery and Mercedes Russell in Oregon AAU Team Concept ball and made a huge name for herself at Central Catholic...as well as on the West Coast. 

Make it the 'Ville, Jordan! Now that we have Coach Walz firmly entrenched as a coach/referee, you'll get the best calls and plenty of free throw opportunities at Louisville.

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FRIDAY BREEDERS CUP SELECTIONS

( Please remember these are for entertainment purposes only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CARDINAL COUPLE staff. Bill the Goat thought they were tasty, though...and ate them the minute we got them posted on here. GOOD LUCK! )

JUVENILE SPRINT

PAUL                                                      SONJA
Merit Man                                               Merit Man
South Floyd                                             Super Ninety Nine
Super Ninety Nine                                   Sweet Shirley Mae

MARATHON

PAUL                                                       SONJA
Atigun                                                      Eldaafer
Not Abroad                                              Atigun
Jaycito.                                                     Grassy

JUVENILE FILLIES TURF

PAUL                                                        SONJA
Flashy Ways                                             Watsdachances
Spring Venture                                          Spring Venture
Tara from the Cape                                   Sustained

JUVENILE FILLIES

PAUL                                                         SONJA
Executive Privledge                                   Beholder
Kauai Katie                                                Executve Privledge
Beholder                                                     Dreaming of Julia

FILLY & MARE TURF

PAUL                                                          SONJA
The Fugue                                                   Marketing Mix
Marketing Mix                                            Zagura
In Lingerie                                                  The Fugue

LADIES CLASSIC

PAUL                                                           SONJA
Questing                                                       Awesome Feather
Royal Delta                                                  Royal Delta
Grace Hall                                                    My Miss Aurelia

Our buddy J.J. Hysell has done extensive research on today's card and you can see her well-thought out selections over at IN THE MONEY.  Click the box NOV 1 to see them when you get there.  Link below:

IN THE MONEY


GOOD LUCK AND WAGER RESPONSIBLY!

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Sunday Cardinal Couple -- Let's call this upset weekend in volleyball

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SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( We're pleased to give you a "twin spin" on articles today...first up, you'll find JEFF McADAMS very good review and commentary on the weekend Volleyball triumphs . Following this, Paulie's piece on volleyball, field hockey and football. Two for the price of one today...and we don't even charge you for the one! )

What a weekend for volleyball

A quick look around the NCAA

#14 Minnesota beats #4 Texas

Unranked Western Kentucky beats #10 Dayton

Unranked Oregon State beats #2 Penn State

Unranked Marquette beats #23 Michigan

Unranked Miami (Fla.) beats #6 Florida State

And of course, why we're here:

#24 Louisville beats #11 Purdue

#24 Louisville beats #20 Illinois

Big East, meet one of the powerhouse conferences

Of the 12 Big 10 teams in volleyball, half of them are ranked, with Michigan State also receiving votes. That makes them the conference with the most ranked teams (6, compared to also-perennial-powerhouse the PAC-10...er PAC-12...with 5).  The Big East only has one...we managed to make it in at 24 (sorry, Paulie, it was a nice turn of phrase, but we're not unranked).

You can imagine, then, that in the Big East/Big Ten challenge, the Big Ten tends to be rather heavily favored.  This year was no different with Louisville and Cincinnati representing the Big East, and #11 Purdue and #20 Illinois representing the Big Ten.  Also remember that UofL was a combined 3-18 against these teams all time with all of those wins coming against Illinois (0-10 vs Purdue, although Purdue's media guide calls it 0-11, apparently they beat us in 1977, the first season of UofL play which is only listed as "no records kept" in the media guide, regardless of who's records you believe, Louisville has never prevailed over the Boilermakers before this weekend).

Friday evening

With spirits high, the Cards take the floor and decide that they aren't going to take "no" for an answer and not only beat Purdue, they did so in solid fashion with a 3-0 sweep. I don't think I can do justice to the feeling of the UofL fans in attendance.  Most were family and good friends of players on the team, with a leavening of us "unaffiliated" fans (I had several family members ask who I was related to on the team over the course of the evening), but the small number didn't dampen the spirits and enough decibels were produced to fill Fifth Third Arena with C-A-R-D-S when Purdue took a timeout.

This was a true team effort, with no one player completely dominating.  Lola put up her typical, quite impressive, stats (20 kills, 11 digs). Tanya Lukyanenko hit a quite impressive .500 with 5 kills on 10 attempts and no errors.  Gwen Rucker and Brooke Mattingly continued to play solidly in the middle. Alas Brooke apparently didn't get credited with the assist off of her head that Lola killed to seal the match.

Emily Juhl is probably the most noteworthy of players in this match as she is working her way back into playing form after off-season surgery.  With 7 of 12 hitting with no mistakes (for a very good .583), I'd say she's well on her way back to being a great weapon.

In the first two sets, Louisville pulled out solid leads and then held on as Purdue started to claw their way back into the games, but ran out of time in both sets.  The third set was a back and forth affair, but the Cards were able finish out the match for a huge win.

This wasn't a huge win just because it was an upset over a higher ranked team.  It was a huge win because there seemed to be such a mental block in playing against Purdue...an 0-10 (or 0-11) record will do that to you.  There were smiles all around after the match (and via Twitter) as players, family, friends, (and alumnae) almost unanimously exclaimed, "Finally!"

Saturday evening

Let down?  Not this time.  Facing #20 Illinois, the VolleyCards came out strong and needed that strength and determination to take the win in 5 sets.

In winning the first, third, and fifth sets, the Cards looked the better team. In losing the second and fourth sets, Illinois showed they could match, just barely, the Louisville play.

Illinois is a good blocking team, but their digging and passing is a bit suspect. That sounds a lot like a traditional Louisville team.

Again, a roll call of individual efforts; Lola, Tanya, Gwen, Brooke, Emily with good hitting and blocking numbers, Katie and Hannah evenly splitting setting duties, and a committee of players, (led by Lola in this case) hoovering up many shots otherwise headed to the hardwood.

Conclusions

I said after the Penn State match that this was a team that at the end of the season might be able to beat the Nittany Lions.  If you had told me, though, that we'd be 3-1 against Top 20 teams just two weeks later, I would've said, "You're crazy." and yet, here we are.  This team has come together to play as a unit much faster than I ever would have expected.  Credit to the determination and cohesive spirit of the team, as well as to the coaching staff, for getting this group of women settled in to playing together so quickly.

The team that played this weekend against Purdue and Illinois could play competitively with any team in the country.  Now the challenge will be to maintain this level of play for the rest of the season.  And, of course, there's always room for improvement.

Coming up next is the Louisville Invitational, another 3-matches-in-2-days affair at the KFC Yum! Center this weekend.  Middle Tennessee, UNLV, and Miami (Fla.) come to visit.  Miami is getting votes for rankings, but not enough to make it into the Top 25 yet.  Though with that win over #6 Florida State, might they crack their way into the rankings tomorrow?  We'll see.  After that, the Cards launch the conference slate.

With so many fall sports doing so well at UofL, its hard to support them all, spread the love around, if you like.  I'm going to try to make it out to the women's soccer game against Toledo this afternoon, but you can count on me being in my seat in row K come Friday and Saturday.

(Update: I'm not sure why I kept thinking Purdue was 10th ranked...they are 11th...until tomorrow)

Thursday Cardinal Couple -- The Paulie sees all. Predictions on volleyball.

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THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- "The Paulie" looks at UofL Voleyball.

I was asked recently how I thought the UofL Volleyball team would do this season. Taken back a bit...usually I get these questions about women's hoops and softball...I managed to piece together an answer that noted they were the BIG EAST favorites, that they had a few tough early season contests and that I expected them to win the BIG EAST again and advance a few rounds in the NCAA Tournament, since it was home court advantage for them. 

My quizzer, though, was not placated with the general answer. She continued by asking if they'd win 20 matches or not. The jig was up. I had to confess that I wasn't actually sure how many matches they had in the regular season. 

The encounter led me to doing some research on the season for Anne Kordes' players and opponents.  

In what may be the first ever prediction of its kind on the internet, I now bring you The Swami's...no, let's call it The Paulie's predictions for Volleyball this fall. Remember, these are coming from the same guy who gave you DULLAHAN as the Kentucky Derby winner and the Chicago Cubs as the World Series champs...so results may vary. 

LOUISVILLE VOLLEYBALL

The VolleyCards will participate in 28 matches before BIG EAST tournament play...and then a game against the OVC Champion after that (which I've never really figured out why)...so let's call it 29 games. Here's how The Paulie sees it. 

After wins against WKU and Morehead State, Louisville gets perennial power Penn State in the KFC YUM! This will be the Cards first loss of the season. 

Kentucky had Louisville's number last year...but this one this year is in the YUM! and Louisville gets by the Kitties this year. After that, Duke, Marshall and Samford should be wins at the YUM...then Louisville travels to Cincy for the BIG EAST/BIG TEN CHALLENGE. Big 10 Volleyball is always pretty decent, and Purdue and Illinois beat Louisville last year. Time for wide net revenge...and I'm calling for Cardinal wins in both matches. The Cards end the pre-conference slate with a weekend YUM! fest with MTSU, UNLV and Miami...which they should sweep. 

We'll predict that they're 11-1 going into BIG EAST play. 

Games against DePaul and Notre Dame in the YUM! will be battles...especially the Irish...but the crystal ball  deflated volleyball shows me two wins. The first conference road trip takes Louisville to USF and Pitt...they lose in Tampa but triumph in Steel City....ending September at 14-2.

October sees them with eight matches...the first three at home. I predict wins over Seton Hall and Rutgers...but a narrow loss to #2 preseason ranked Texas...the third match in three days for the VolleyCards. 

Five matches on the road close out October...and the Cards should prevail in New York, Storrs, Syracuse and Milwaukee. The Oct. 27th. match in Cincy against the Bearcats should be a doozy...Louisville narrowly escaping with the "W". The end of October sees Louisville with a 21-3 record. 

Four home matches greet the Cards in November before the BIG EAST Championships. Villanova, Georgetown and Marquette leave with losses. The Cincinnati Bearcats visit the YUM! on 11/11/12 and head back up I-71 with a "L" also. The Paulie sees Louisville at 25-3 going into BIG EAST Tournament play. 

Not sure, obviously, who the OVC Champ will be but Louisville should polish them off pretty easily before starting NCAA Tournament action.

So, there you have it.  

And, just in case anyone was wondering...72 days till women's basketball starts. (People always ask...)

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