LADY CARDS host GEORGTOWN tonight

TUESDAY at CARDINAL COUPLE:



-Cards face Hoyas in YUM.

-Last year's game..

-Exeter added to Canadian squad..

-Baseball gets national attention..

-Football signing party
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The University of Louisville womens basketball team rolls back into action Tuesday night against a tough Georgetown Hoya squad in the KFC YUM Center. Game time is 7 p.m. The game
has been designated "Ladies Night" and Breast Cancer Survivor Night. Fans are encouraged to
wear pink and breast cancer survivors are offered free admission to the contest.


Georgetown (17-5, 5-3) is led by sophomore sensation Sugar Rodgers. The quick as lightning guard averages 18.3 points a game and recently netted 30 points, including the game winner against WVU. Monica McNutt controls the paint action for the Hoyas and is good for 11.3 points a game. The Hoyas prefer the up-tempo, create out of the press and defensive pressure transition style of basketball...as do the Lady Cards...so there is a distinct possibility the scoreboard operator could be kept pretty busy tonight.

Louisville (14-8, 5-3) enters the contest after an 11 point win over Rutgers in the YUM on Saturday night. Monique Reid leads the Cards with 16.3 points a game and Shoni Schimmel...who was named BIG EAST FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK for her efforts against Marquette and Rutgers...is at a 16 point per game scoring clip.

Louisville will need a defensive effort that mirrors the one produced against Rutgers if they hope to gain their 6th BIG EAST win. They'll also need a better outing from 3 point range than they assembled against Rutgers. Given the probable breakneck, up and down the court game on tap for the Cards...we figure Louisville head coach may need to dip into the bench a little heavier than normal and productive efforts from freshmen Antonita Slaughter, Charmaine Tay and Sherrone Vails...plus quality minutes out of Asia Taylor...could be the difference in this one.

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Last year, Louisville travelled to D.C. and lost to the Hoyas 60-56. It wasn't the game that made the news wires and sports shows, though. About an hour before tipoff, the Cards entered the arena, ran a customary lap around the court and encountered jeering from the Georgetown team. Then, Keisha Hines was tripped by a Georgetown player and a melee ensued. Since the referees had not taken the court yet, no technicals or game suspensions were declared at that point. The teams were eventually separated with no further incidents. A camera crew on hand to televise the game caught the scuffle, though...and the tape was sent to the conference commissioner at BIG EAST headquarters. Two Louisville players and three Hoyas received one game suspensions for the fight. Georgetown head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy described the incident:

"It's a BIG EAST game. Emotions are high. It got to a situation it shouldn't have gotten to. I don't know exactly what happened. I was doing a TV interview. I turned my head and saw it happening...both teams going at each other."

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As for the game, Louisville and Georgetown both played pretty badly. The Cards had 33 turnovers and three players foul out. Still, they had a chance to tie it with four seconds remaining and an out of bounds possession under their basket. The inbounds pass skipped out of bounds, though...Georgetown regained possession and was fouled on their inbounds play. They sank two free throws for the final 60-56 margin. Let's hope tonight's game is a better effort and no fights break out...

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Louisville women's soccer star Christine Exeter has been playing with the Canadian National Team in the Yongchuan Cup events in China. The BIG EAST rookie of the year was part of a team that finished second in the four nation tournament. The United States won the event, China finished third and Sweden fourth. .

Exeter led the Cards with seven goals last year and is a native of Pickering, Ontario.

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Dan McDonnell's Cardinal baseball squad has been ranked 22nd in a preseason poll by the Collegiate Baseball Writers. They also were placed 20th. by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and #21 by USA Today/ESPN's preseason poll. Louisville will open their 2011 schedule at the BIG EAST/BIG TEN challenge in St.Petersburg, Florida on Feb. 18th. The Cards home opener is scheduled for Feb. 25th. with a three game series against Toledo at Jim Patterson Stadium.

CARDINAL COUPLE will have an exclusive Q&A interview with Louisville head womens softball coach Sandy Pearsall in our Thursday edition. For all the details on the Softball Cards 2011 campaign...be sure to check back in Thursday. Sandy's squad has been voted to finish 3rd in the BIG EAST by the BIG EAST coaches. WE think they'll do better than that.

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Finally, football activities for those missing the discussions about cornerbacks and offensive attacks. Not a game, mind you...but a Football Signing Day Party Wednesday, Feb. 2nd. at the Parrish House. Louisville Sports Report is throwing the bash and doors open at 5:30 p.m. Admission is $1 and beverages will be available for purchase. Join Howie Lindsey, Jack Coffee and a bunch of football fanatics for all the signing news and the fun. If you're lucky, you'll also get to meet CARDINAL COUPLE'S Paul, too...who will be tending bar at the event.

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Field Hockey downs Providence 2-1

SUNDAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Field Hockey prospers over Providence

-Volleyball today in the Arena

-Football cages the Huskies

-About next week...

Erin Conrad, pictured here...had seven saves and allowed only one goal in the Louisville 2-1 win over the Friars.

The first half of this one was a defensive battle. Providence actually outshot the visiting TEAM CARDINAL 9-4 in the first half but neither team could find the back of the net. It was the Friars who ended the deadlock early in the second half off of a penalty corner play.

Louisville wasn't ready to head back to the Holiday Inn Express just yet, though. The Cards capitalized on a penalty corner a few minutes later...Nicole Youman getting the goal on nice setups from Hayley Turner and Tuli Lim. The score remained deadlocked until Lim stuck home the game winner on a pass from Kelsey Rossenmeier with less than nine minutes to go in the game.

With the win, the #10 ranked Cards (12-5, 5-1) end their BIG EAST conference play. They'll take on New Hampshire Sunday and then back to the 'Ville.

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Louisville Volleyball takes center stage Sunday with a match in Cardinal Arena against South Florida. This one will be televised on WHAS TV locally if you can't get to the 1 p.m. first serve.

Volleyball is on a roll lately. Seven wins in a row and Lola Arslanbeckova spiking everything in site expect for the sideline Gatorade.

Also, women's soccer remains on the road with a Sunday showdown at Rutgers.

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How about those football Cards? A 26-0 caging of the UConn Huskies yesterday. Charlie Strong has got it going on for the guys in helmets. Louisville (4-3, 1-1) got four field goals from Chris Philpott and an electrifying 74 yd. punt return from Doug Beaumont.

And, Sonja and I decided to climb Mt. Everest at halftime. We left our "crunch zone" seats at the end of the first half and our objective was to walk to the very top of the east side seating area. Accompanied by a couple of friends, we started the journey by going up the steps behind the "crunch zone" to the UPS Observation Deck. Then, it was weeding our way through the packed deck to the ramp that leads up to the new east side addition. We negotiated the ramp and then the never ending steps that lead to the top of PJCS east side.

The view is incredible from up there. Churchill Downs in the distance. The players look so tiny from up there. It took us the entire halftime intermission to get there. We stayed long enough to watch Doug Beaumont run a punt back for a score...then it was back down. We avoided the still crowded deck this time and did the ramp all the way to the bottom of the Pizza Bowl. We were back in our seats with eight minutes to go in the third quarter.

It's a taxing hike to get up there, for sure...but well worth it when you get to the top. Not ready to give up my fifth row seats in the southwest corner of the "crunch zone", though.

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Have we got a treat for you! Cardinal Dominance managing editor Shannon Ruffra and UofL Card Game owner Charlie Springer will be supplying the daily topics here at C.C. over the next several days while the staff at CARDINAL COUPLE takes a few days off. You're gonna love both these guys and we encourage you to check their sites daily as well as reading their submissions here this week.

Catching up on the mail and other menusa...

SUNDAY EDITION OF CARDINAL COUPLE:


-WE read your mail.


-Angel and the Dream play today!


-Sonja's take on Saturday on Floyd Street


Cardinal Couple I.T. specialist and mail room supervisor Billy D. Goat (pictured left) smiles after seeing Doug Beaumont score his first touchdown in 4 years at UofL. Bill thinks that if he had been quarterbacking the Cards, Beaumont would be in double digits with TD receptions

Here's what Billy brought us from the mail room and e-mails:

Cardinal Couple:

I enjoy your updates on the women sports at UofL. I am a transplanted Louisvillian that now lives in Worchester, MA. What do you think about the UofL women's basketball chances this year?

-Thomas the Train

Thanks for the e-mail T.T.! We see a vastly improved Lady Cards hoops team this year. Depth and skill at every position, height and improved rebounding ability and a whale of a battle for the guard positions. We've got plans to do a feature with head coach Walz down the road and we'll report on his speaking appearance next month at the Sportsmen's Supper Club.




Hi, CARDINAL COUPLE!

Can you provide any information on a rumor going around about Shoni Schimmel's eligibility?

Thank you,
Jill

We can tell you that both Coach Walz and assistant coach Michelle Clark-Heard have told us personally that there is NO problem there and she is "good to go."

Cardinal Couple,

Does field hockey play the Cats this year? If so, when and where?

-Stan

Nope. They do travel to IU, though on October 5th. Might make for a nice Tuesday up and back road trip...

You can send your questions to cardinalcouple@insightbb.com or mail them to:

Cardinal Couple
P.O. Box 91521
Louisville, KY 40291

Billy D Goat promises to deliver them to the editorial staff promptly and is completely over that messy "eat the evidence" issue he had a few weeks back.

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Angel and the Atlanta Dream in Seattle this afternoon for game one of the WNBA finals. The Dream will have their hands full with Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird..but if they can get that fast break rolling and Angel is "on" like she was in Game 2 against New York...they could spring the upset. National TV on this one...ABC at 3 p.m.

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It was the second tailgate of the football season yesterday and we started the day by arriving at the Parrish House 5 1/2 hours before kickoff. We are always busy helping Al set up and taking care of last minute details and the usual preparation. Paul watches the member's parking lot across the street just about every home game to make sure that no one sneaks in and parks there without a pass. If you've walked down Boxley Avenue on the way to or returning from the stadium, you've probably seen the "big guy" and his mob out there...defending the turf and joking around with the pedestrians.

I walked over to the Green Lot yesterday. We used to park there in the early days of PJCS football. My friend Nancy went with me and we went to visit our friends Tom and Karen who still tailgate there. They have a fun and rowdy bunch with them and Karen makes reaaalllyyy good margaritas! We stayed quite a while before returning to the Parrish House and it was in full swing by the time we got back. The Robbie Bartlett Band plays there outside for each home game and they are unbelievable! Robbie sings every song straight from the heart and she is one fantastic stylist. I just love seeing her up there and we always greet each other with a big hug!


She also lets "the Big Guy" get up there and sing with her and the band and they are hysterical to watch! Paul always sings "Gimme Three Steps" by Lynyrd Skynyrd and they call him Paul "Van Zant" because he prowls the statge and sings exactly like the late, great Ronnie did. He wasn't happy about his performance this last time because "John-John" the guitarist kept messing up the chord sequence...

(These singers are such prima-donnas !)

We also spend time inside the Parrish House, eating delicious food and talking with the other members. We help run the 50/50 raffle with our friends Charlie and Carol and it's always a big payout to one lucky ticket holder. We tear a lot of tickets and Paul and Charlie always make the winning ticket announcement 45 minutes before kickoff. Last week they paid out almost $600 dollars and yesterday was a good payout too...over $300. A Parrish House member won, but the raffle is open to anyone (of legal age). Half the money goes to Al's favorite charity..Cerebral Palsy.

Paul walks the lot quite a bit during tailgaiting and he ran into assistant women's basketball coach Michelle Clark-Heard, Valerie Owens-Combs, Jack Conway and his dad and quite a few other dignitaries that tailgate around the Parrish House. It was also great to see former UofL marketing director Teresa Lowry...the "brocoli lady"!

Finally, it was time to go to the game and we enjoy our group that sits around and with us. We love our seats in the corner of the "Crunch Zone". We're very close to the field and it's fun when a UofL player scores a touchdown right in front of us! Paul and Shane did an absolutely fabulous job of singing the National Anthem and My Old Kentucky Home before the game. They usually get a lot of cheers from our section and today was no exception. The 9/11 tribute pregame was beautiful.


The Cards won. It wasn't by as much as people thought they might, but a win is always good. We ended the evening sitting around outside the Parrish House waiting for traffic die down and watching the kids throw the football. It's a good wind down period and a nice way to end a busy day.

All in all, a beautiful day...no rain at all and lots of fun. (Thanks to Tillie, cardinalsports.com and the Drunken Amish Farm photo
archives for today's pictures)

Saturday in Cardinal Park

Saturday night at Cardinal Park featured both the women's field hockey and soccer teams in exhibition action. Haley Jurich (pictured to the right) had 3 goals in the 8-1 win for Pam Bustin's squad against the alumnae. Caitlin Rehder (pictured to the left) scored the UofL women's soccer teams' only goal in a 2-1 loss to Tennessee.

The field hockey Cards scored 4 goals in each half in a highly competitive game against the alumnae. Nicole Youman added 2 scores for Louisville. Over 40 alumnae turned out for the event. Field hockey continues the preseason schedule next Saturday...with a 1 p.m. scrimmage at Trager Field against Kent State.

On the soccer field, Louisville rallied back from a 2-0 deficit to get within 1 against the Vols and had several late scoring chances but couldn't find the net.

Louisville head coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes take on the exhibition:

"Obviously, you never like to lose and this game exposed some weaknesses where we must get better, but we're certainly an improved team. I liked out heart as the game moved forward and we're absolutely moving in the right direction."

The Louisville women's soccer season gets its official start Friday, August 20th at 7 p.m. when the Cards host Eastern Kentucky.

(Thanks to UofL Sports.com for the photos and recap)

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The Atlanta Dream ended a four game losing streak and clinched a WNBA playoff berth with a dominating 98-74 win over the Chicago Sky yesterday in the Windy City. This one was over at the half...as Atlanta outscored the Sky 31-11 in the second quarter and took a 57-32 lead into the locker room.

Five Dream players hit for double figures in the contest. Erika DeSouza led the way with 17 points. Iziane Castro Maquez added 15, Angel Mccoughtry 13 and Alison Bales and Armintie Price with 10 each. The Dream hosts Chicago and Washington to end the regular season next week.

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Big fun at the CARDINAL DOMINANCE pre-season tailgate party yesterday. Over 40 people showed up to engage in conversation, delicious food and games. Despite the heavy rainfall that roared thru the Louisville area around 5 p.m., the attendees were still able to enjoy a deluxe cookout...with Cardinal Dominance founder Shannon Ruffra and your own Paul Sykes manning the grill and several hours of fun bean bag (cornhole) tossing.

Paul and Eddie won the championship division of the cornhole event, upsetting the highly favored Shannon and party host Terry Jackson. Terry's posted some great photos and video of the gala affair over at:

www.cardinaldominance.ning.com

Yeah, I'm the guy in the Jim Beam t-shirt and the lovely and talented Sonja thrilled the crowd by ripping her shorts wide open early in the afternoon when attempting to climb a fence. (don't ask...). It was a great time and we got to meet a bunch of knowledgeable and fun Cardinal Football fans. A special thanks to "Ter" who hosted the event and all those who braved the weather and showed up.

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Manual High School won the Gold Division of the Chase Marketing/Shively Sporting Goods Jefferson County Public Schools Volleyball Championships with over Eastern 25-18, 27-29, 25-14. Mechael Guess led the Crimsons with 14 kills.

In the Silver Division, Fern Creek swept Seneca in the the match 25-16, 25-21. Moore took the honors in the Bronze Division...besting Central 25-22, 25-21.

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Nice work from BIG TALL PAUL in the 8th race at Ellis Park yesterday...wiring the field to win at odds of 11-1. He covered the one mile turf in 1:38.19 and set up a sweet exacta for $624.60 on the $2 payout.