SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Cards split double header with Syracuse in softball

-CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO Today!

I guess it's only fitting that we'd see a "good Carl" on Good Friday at Ulmer Stadium...Connell dominated the Syracuse softball team in the first game 8-1 The junior had 11 strikeouts in the win and allowed just two hits. Louisville lambasted the Orange with two homers and eight hits.

The second game didn't turn out so well for the Cards...losing 4-2 to the 'Cuse.

LOUISVILLE 8 - SYRACUSE 1

Katie Keller went 3 for 4 in the UofL win and homer as the Cards struggled early against Syracuse hurler Lindsay Taylor. It was 1-0 Syracuse going into the bottom of the fifth before the Cards bats finally started popping.

Kayla Soles reached on a two-base error and scored on Taner Fowler's two-run blast to put the Cards ahead. They weren't finished with the inning...Jasmine Smithson-Willett and Katie Keller singled, advanced on a Jordan Trimble bunt and scored on a singles from Alicja Wolny and Hannah Kiyohara. A double from Whitney Arion plated Wolny and Louisville led 5-1 after five. 

Three more Cardinals got greeted at home plate in the sixth. Fowler singled, Smithson-Willett drew a walk and Keller blasted her team-leading eighth homer of the year.

Louisville wins 8-1. Connell goes to 17-2 on the season.

SYRACUSE 4 - LOUISVILLE 2

The Orange drew first blood in the second game. Four first inning hits had the visitors up 2-0 early. Syracuse added two more in the fourth, which sent Rachel LeCoq to the bench, when Danielle Chitkowski reached and Mary Dombrowski sent a blast over the right-center fence to make it 4-0.

The Cards tried to rally in the sixth. Katelyn Mann bunt singled and Maggie Ruckenbrod received a base on balls. Alicja Wolny followed with a double that scored both but the Cards could offer no further offense after that.

LeCoq takes the loss with 4.1 innings pitched, allowing all four runs and seven hits to go to 10-4. Connell pitched well in relief...striking out seven of the eight batters she reached in 2.2 innings.

The teams play again today with a noon start.

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CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO is back on the air this morning at 11 a.m. with our weekly show. We'll look at UofL womens' hoops, softball and we invite you to stay tuned immediately after the show for two hours of live coverage of the Crescent Hill Easter Parade on Frankfort Avenue.

www.crescenthillradio.com

Jeff will be driving the CARDINAL COUPLE chimps up and down the parade route in his jeep as they toss bananas and soft boiled eggs at the crowd...so come hungry. Jenny and I will be in the back of Sonja's battered 1991 Toyota Pickup, dressed as 18th century fedual lords...singing our favorite Beatles and Metallica songs to stunned parade-watchers.

-Paulie

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Thursday Cardinal Couple

Thursday Cardinal Couple - The Its-Supposed-to-be-Spring-Now Edition

( Jeff McAdams has the Thursday CARDINAL COUPLE report on UofL women's sports. He likes to "get in the mood" for each segment...so he started by typing with a lacrosse stick, went outside Shoni's dorm and added the second part...then ran over to Ulmer Stadium for his softball recap and finally ended up sitting in the dark, cold Trager Field Hockey Stadium with his laptop...juggling field hockey balls. That's dedication! Campus security finally stopped following him when he hopped into the Jeep and drove to the Holy Grale. )

On deck today

***Lacrosse

***Shoni

***Softball

***Field Hockey

Lacrosse

After solid wins...let's call them what they really were...beatdowns...of Presbyterian College and Detroit, and an eeked-out, come-back win against a good Drexel team, Louisville Lacrosse has made an appearance in the national rankings again.  Sneaking in the last position on both polls, this ties the highest Louisville has ever appeared in the rankings with their appearance at 20th a few weeks ago.

After appearing in the rankings previously, the Louisville Lacrosse squad headed out west and lost a tight game against Denver, who is receiving votes, but not ranked, in both polls.  Drexel is also receiving votes in the deBeer Women's Media Poll.

The road ahead is a lot harder for the Lacrosse crew as the only opponents on the rest of the schedule that aren't at least receiving votes in the polls are Cincinnati, Villanova, and Marquette.  That leaves, on the Cards schedule either ranked or getting votes...#16 Loyola (MD), #8 Georgetown, #7 Notre Dame, #5 Syracuse, with Connecticut and Rutgers getting votes.  I'm looking at the ILWCA poll here, the deBeers numbers are a little different...Rutgers is #19 in that one, for example.  Regardless, the takeaway here, is that Big East play is tough in Lacrosse.  Looking forward, it gets no easier in the ACC as Notre Dame and Syracuse will be waiting there for us, and we'll also have to contend with Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia who are all ranked...and well ranked, at that.

Back to the present though, Lacrosse is over the hump on their road trip with three games gone and all chalked up in the victory column.  Loyola (Md.) is up next in Baltimore, MD on Friday at 6pm.

Shoni

Shoni Schimmel collected another honor today, in the form of an All-Region 1 nominee to the WBCA Coaches All-America team.  The WBCA Coaches All-America Team is a ten member selection, picked from the 52 candidates picked from the eight regions.  The announcement of the final team will be made during the Final Four celebration, April 6th in New Orleans.

Softball

Whitney "Arion Nation"
put two outta there Weds.

Kudos to Sandy Pearsall's Softball squad for tangling with the IU Hoosiers...and the cold...and coming out victorious against both.

You can credit much of this one to Whitney Arion, who accounted for all 4 RBIs in the 4-1 victory...and, oh yeah, two of those Runs that she Batted In were herself.  Arion started it off for the Cards with a lead-off shot over the right field fence in the 3rd to bring the Cards back to all-square with the Hoosiers who put one over the left field fence in the first frame for their only score of the game.  She followed it up in the 4th, by following Kayla "de la" Soles and Taner "her mother thinks I look like Zach Galifianakis" Fowler who each had one-out singles to get on base.  Arion put this one over the right field fence to bring everyone home.

Hot and cold Caralisa "Carl" Connell was hot in the cold tonight as she went the distance with 9 Ks and only allowing three hits.

The Softball Cards hit the road again this weekend with a three game series at Oklahoma.  Those festivities start Saturday with two games, and the third on Sunday.  If you're going to be at the KFC Yum! Center cheering on the Women's Basketball Team...and really, what possible excuse could you possibly have for not being there...we'll have to make due on our own for getting softball news.  Sean Moth with be announcing the games Sunday, but as its an NCAA event, he has to be neutral, which presumably means there won't be announcements about other UofL team scores.

Field Hockey

For the first time in weeks, I've got nothing about Field Hockey to talk about.  I may be going through withdrawal symptoms later, but I'll stay strong.  You can check us out again Saturday at 11am on the Crescent Hill Radio - Cardinal Couple Radio Hour and see how I'm doing kicking this Field Hockey signing announcement habit.

Jeff McAdams

(Nice work today, Jeff! We'll do all we can to help you go "cold turkey" on field hockey on Saturday's show by having you recap ALL the current and upcoming games in Saturday NCAA women's basketball action. In Cantonese...)

WE'D ALSO LIKE TO REMIND YOU THAT THE CARDINAL COUPLE WOMEN'S NCAA TOURNAMENT ENTRIES NEED TO BE IN BY SATURDAY 11 AM. TURN THEM IN AT 10:55 and then listen to the CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR on CRESCENT HILL RADIO.

ENTRIES CAN BE SENT TO cardinalcouple@insightbb.com  or entered in the comments section of today's article. You can hear us babble live or in the archives of www.crescenthillradio.com

BE THE ENVY OF ALL THE KIDS ON THE BLOCK. Enter today!

Paulie

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Sunday Cardinal Couple -- Softball, Lacrosse in action today

SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Softball (hopefully) against Wisconsin this morning

-Lacrosse travels to Drexel for Sunday match

-Way to go, guys!

-Cardinal Couple Radio recap

*****************************EDITOR NOTE*******************

SOFTBALL TODAY AT ULMER STADIUM HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER IN LOUISVILLE

NO SOFTBALL TODAY!


Weather permitting, the University of Louisville softball team will kick off Day 3 of the Louisville Softball Classic against Wisconsin at 10 a.m. this morning. Rain is forecasted for the Louisville area Sunday and, indeed, it was raining early this morning when Paulie padded out to get the morning paper.

Louisville (23-3) took the day off Saturday after two wins on Friday. The Cards extended their win streak at Ulmer Stadium to 11-0 with a exciting 4-2 win over UNC and then blasted EMU 6-1 in the second game.

Louisville will close out the Classic on Monday against Iowa at 1:30 and also will face Indiana Wednesday at Ulmer with a 6 p.m. game.

Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin...didn't Sandy get the memo that Louisville is headed to the ACC instead of the Big 10? Oh well, domination of one conference at a time...

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Louisville Lacrosse is 6-1 on the season and faces another 6-1 squad today at 1 p.m in Philly against the Drexel Dragons.

Drexel is 1-1 in their last two, falling to Maryland-Baltimore County and then downing Colgate 12-7. Our guess is that if Rachel LeCoq "Le Gran Le Coq" was still at Colgate...the teeth-cleaners would have won.

The Cards have won their last two...both on the road...romping Presbyterian in Georgia and demolishing Detroit Wednesday 19-2.

Louisville is ranked #5 nationally in scoring offense and scoring margin. The Dragons are #14 in the nation in scoring defense.

Drexel was a pre-season pick to finish third in the Colonial Athletic Conference. Kelli Joran leads the Dragons with 19 goals on the season. Goalie Teresha Bradley is allowing just 7.36 goals allowed in seven games.

Our thoughts are with the team, staff and students of Seton Hill University...who lost their lacrosse coach, unborn son and bus driver in a crash yesterday while on the road.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/16/us/pennsylvania-bus-crash/index.html



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We'd be remiss if we didn't extend our hearty congratulations to the Louisville men's basketball team who won the BIG EAST Tournament last night in New York's Madison Square Garden with 78-61 win of Syracuse.

Back-to-back titles for Pitino's players and back-to-back MVP Tournament awards to Peyton Siva.

After a rough start that had Louisville down 35-23 at the half, the Cards dominated the final 15 minutes of the second half, going on a 24-3 run that was incredible to watch and led 56-48 with 8:51 to play. Louisville would continue to increase that margin and was up 73-55 with two minutes left.

How about freshman Montrezl Harrell with 20 points? The Cards have won their last 10 in a row and if they're not a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, maybe the top seed of ALL the teams playing...somebody has some explaining to do.

Great job...Peyton, Russ, Montrezl, Gorgui, Luke and crew!

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We found parking on Frankfort Avenue and stumbled in for another Cardinal Couple Radio show yesterday and had a lively time discussing Louisville women's basketball, softball, lacrosse, swimming, the Selection Show Party and first and second NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament at the KFC YUM! Center.

Down one co-host...(Jenny was in Indianapolis trying out for the WNBA Indiana Fever squad)...we still managed to make it through the broadcast in one piece. Thanks to the brilliant Jeff McAdams and also to Coach Walz for the segment. And, Monkberry Moon Delight...in the control booth keeping us on the air and inserting the taped clips.

Did ya miss the live feed? Not to worry, it's available on the Crescent Hill Radio Soundcloud.

www.crescenthillradio.com

Paulie

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Q reviews WBB -- Softball takes two -- Gadd not bad

SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Quentin Voigt recaps WBB regular season

-Louisville Softball downs UNC, EMU

-Gadd takes sixth in 1-meter board

-More FCC sanctions coming...CARDINAL COUPLE on radio today.


(Quentin Voigt returns to the fray after being on the injured reserve list here at CARDINAL COUPLE for a couple of weeks. We're glad to see him back in the lineup and hope you enjoy his report on Louisville WBB!)

MEETING EXPECTATIONS

Muffet McGraw was invited to sing Danny Boy on
the CARDINAL COUPLE Radio show today but
declined the offer.

The University of Louisville Womens' Basketball team is, at best, "meeting expectations" with their performance this year -- to date. While it's true that UofL was picked to finish third in the BIG EAST but actually finished fourth -- the difference is minuscule. The Cards also received a preseason ranking of #9 but have hovered around outside the top 10 for most of the year.

Good things appeared on the horizon for Louisville when, on November 9th., they beat a good Texas A&M team -- who eventually beat Kentucky on the way to a SEC Conference Tournament Championship. A solid win over Gonzaga on November 22nd. got UofL a #7 ranking, their highest of the year.

After leading Kentucky by 11 points with less than 10 minutes remaining, the Cards lost by a point when freshman guard Janee Thompson (who averages 4.2 points a game) hit a three pointer for her 13th point of the contest. UofL had the game won and had a commanding lead that most teams are able to maintain from the free throw line down the stretch -- but the Cards couldn't.

Maybe the residuals from the Kentucky loss led to the less than stellar performance Dec.14th. at Colorado or maybe not. Colorado recently slipped to #19 in the national rankings. They still remain a talented, well-coached team with height and speed.

Following closely on the Colorado loss was the news regarding Shawnta Dyer's injury of her ACL and end of season for her. A major hit to Louisville's prospects for the season, she joined Tia Gibbs, Asia Taylor, Monique Reid and Monny Niamke on the bench as spectators. Dyer started 10 games for Jeff Walz and was the second leading rebounder for the Cards at the time of her departure with 5.5 grabs a game. She was also averaging 7.5 points.

On Jan., 5th., the most perplexing loss of the season occurred -- at DePaul by six points. Lack of focus, no defensive intensity and a late game fold led to a 86-80 defeat.

Bad losses to the two BIG EAST bullies -- Notre Dame and UConn, that -- if nothing else -- showed that not much ground had been gained on the two from the previous year. The inexplicable loss to USF by 11 in the YUM and season-ended surrender to Syracuse finishes up the "low-lights" of the regular season. An encouraging BIG EAST Tournament win over St. John's but a nasty loss to Notre Dame again brings us to a 24-8, 11-5 record for the pride of Derby City.

A #16 ranking and a shot at being a #4 seed in one of the regions for the NCAA WBB Tournament. I call it a record that fans can be proud of -- but one that just barely meets expectations.

A few breaks here and there and the team is 28-4 and a bonafide top ten in the nation. For Walz and players, "meeting expectations" probably wasn't the mission statement they started the season with...but it is where the Cards are as they head into NCAA Tournament play.

-- Quentin Voigt.

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Louisville softball took two in the opening day of the Louisville Classic yesterday in Ulmer Stadium. The Cards are now 23-3 on the season.

LOUISVILLE 4 - NORTH CAROLINA 2

Caralisa Connell drew the start for the Cards in the first game but it was the "bad Carl" version and she found herself in hot water after facing six batters in the first inning. 1-0 Heels...and runners on all three bags when Sandy Pearsall went to the circle and summoned "the Le Gran Coq" to the strip. Rachel got the next two outs and Cards got out of the inning with no further damage.

As Tony Soprano might say..."This girl, what stugots she got!"

The Cards evened it up in the bottom of the first when Katie "Killer" Keller walk and advanced to home eventually due to some general nonsense by the UNC infield.

Louisville took a 2-1 lead in the third when Killer got plunked by the UNC pitcher and dashed home after a single by Cards first basewoman Alicja Wolny. UNC tied it up in the sixth but the Cards, knowing I was frustrated because GAMETRACKER froze up at the end of the sixth inning, got the win in the bottom of the seventh when Wolny singled and danced home when "the Ruck" Maggie Ruckenbrod sent a shot out onto Brandeis Street to end the game with a walk-off homer. 4-2 C-A-R-D-S!

LOUISVILLE 6 - EASTERN MICHIGAN 1

"Good Carl" showed up for the Cards second game...Connell holding the the EMU Eagles hitless for six innings in Louisville's five run margin of victory. The Cards started off in fine fashion...Jordan Trimble sending one onto the outfield berm in the first to make it 1-0 UofL.

Whitney "Arion Nation" singled in the fourth inning and made it to the plate when freshman Jasmine Smithson-Willett singled. Good to see JSM back out there in the lineup! GO JSM! (Paul's new favorite player, sorry Jordan...)

The Cards increased the lead to 3-0 in the fifth when Trimble doubled and travelled home on a Ruckenbrod double. UofL added three runs in sixth...Killer, Arion and JSM all getting hits and receiving greetings at home plate.

Connell (who was voted Favorite Cardinal Womens' Athlete of 2012 by our CARDINAL COUPLE readers) was magnificent...no-hitting the Eagles until the top of the seventh. She finished with ten strikeouts, just one walk and allowed two hits to go to 14-2 on the year.

The Cards take Saturday off and then return Sunday to face Wisconsin at 10 a.m. Pajamas optional.

**************************************************************************

Hannah Gadd prepares to dive from...no
wait...that's Hannah Kiyohara. Never mind.

Congratulations to Louisville Womens' Swimming diver Hannah Gadd, who finished sixth in the NCAA Zone C Meet up in West Lafayette, IN on the Purdue campus. She advances to the championship rounds....where participants will try to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

A chance for more for the senior. Once a competitor qualifies for the NCAA Championships in any of the three diving events, she is permitted to compete on all three boards at the NCAAs. However, divers must continue to compete in every event at the Zone meet...even if they qualify for the NCAAs on the first day of the Zones.

Eat your Wheaties, Hannah...

***************************************************************************

CARDINAL COUPLE radio rears its' ugly head again this morning at 11 a.m. on Crescent Hill Radio.  We're down a host since Jenny is in Indianapolis on a 10-day contract with the Pacers. Or something like that. Jeff and I will need to step our game up...and since we have no game whatsoever...this could be challenging. When the brains of the bunch is gone....chimps rule!

We'll discuss womens' hoops, softball, lacrosse, swimming and we have an exclusive interview with Cardinal WBB head coach Jeff Walz. Our Jeff McAdams is busily rehearsing the Irish classic Danny Boy with the Dixon brothers and Bill the Goat for a St. Patrick's Day salute of the blarney stone.

Somehow, we'll muddle through. If push comes to shove, the option of taking a microphone out on Frankfort Ave. and doing a few "man on the street" interviews is always a possibility. Maybe the ladies from the hair salon will participate. We could try sumo wrestling on the studio floor. Coward Goatsmell might stop by. Where did I put those pliers? It's gonna be fun, don't miss it.

www.crescenthillradio.com


-Paulie

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Friday Cardinal Couple -- The return of Watson and Louisville softball

FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-He's back...David Watson on Cardinal WBB

-Softball prepares for Louisville Softball Classic

( CARDINAL COUPLE Columnist emeritus David Watson returns today with his views on the Louisville WBB season...so far. One thing about David we've always loved...there is no grey area in his columns...you either agree whole-heartedly or I get e-mails complaining about him. You're on the tee, Dave-O...fire away!)


I am pleased to be front and center once again here at CC in today's edition of CARDINAL COUPLE. I haven't missed submitting bi-weekly articles here; life has been fast and furious for me for the last few months and I did go through successful hip-replacement surgery, so there has been a brief convalescent period as well. Nevertheless, typing on these pages again bring back some very fond memories and some bitter-sweet ones as well.

If you are relatively new to Paulie's whirling dervish here, my name is David Watson and I used to be a semi-regular columnist on these pages. Back in the early days. When Sonja still wrote here and before the days of Cardinal Couple Radio (A show I really like). There was no columnists "Q" or Jeff. I like their work, by the way, and Jenny and Sandy's as well. I may not contribute but sporadically anymore, but I do read almost every day. I'm happy to see the site have the successes it has. I'd like to think I'm responsible for it in a very small portion. Paulie tells me differently. But, he also told me the world was flat and that he can communicate with squirrels.

When he asked me to contribute this week, he gave me a few topic ideas. There was only one way I was going, though, and that was to write about the University of Louisville women's basketball team. What's left of it.

I looked forward to the start of this season with great anticipation. Jeff Walz had a stable of runners that looked like they could seriously be the fly in the ointment for UConn and Notre Dame's domination of BIG EAST supremacy. I was ready to see the all-court hustle of Tia Gibbs. Knew that Asia Taylor would continue her board mastery and when she faltered that Shawnta Dyer would be there to help Monique Reid score inside and rebound.

As we know, none of this either happened or lasted very long. There were plenty of things to still excite me, though. Shoni's aerial attacks on rims across the nation. The strong-willed, determined approach of Sara Hammond in the paint. I expected Nita Slaughter would finally become a consistent and steady contributor to Walz's wards and that Sherrone Vails would regain the touch that made her a freshman on the rise. Bria Smith's driving ability excited me and I knew she could become a point guard in time. I looked forward to the contributions of the freshmen Walton and Deines and hoped that Jude Schimmel and Shelby Harper could become valuable contributors off the bench.

And, for the most part -- I got what I wanted in this area of Cardinal women's basketball.

I also wanted the Cards to finally prove to me that they were a steady, unshakable team when it came to road games against good opponents. This is where they let me down.

I attended the debacle at South Bend. Barely able to hobble into the Joyce Center and having to stand for long stretches because of hip pain, the bombardment the Irish laid down hurt almost as much as my throbbing hip. One Irish fan even commented to me that I must really be a dedicated fan, standing in support of my battered Cardinals for the long stretches. I didn't correct him.

The loss at UConn was definitely expected but disappointing to me after the Cards had won a tough one at Providence. Falling at DePaul was a big surprise. Equally perplexing was the unexpected (by me) victory at Tampa over USF and then losing to them in the Roman Coliseum/KFC YUM! Center. I was also surprised by Louisville's final regular season folding of the tent at Syracuse. All in all, though -- a 11-5 record in the BIG EAST isn't anything to gnash my teeth about in angst. I thought 13-3 was achievable, but I do tend to wish for the moon and settle for moonshadows.

One thing I've noticed, however, is the lack of a definite team leader. The great teams have one. Diggins at Notre Dame. Griner at Baylor. Mathies at Kentucky (your hate mail can be sent to cardinalcouple@insightbb.com). Dolson at UConn. Alexander at Syracuse.

Angel.

Who will step up for Louisville NEXT year and be the girl? I'm relenting that it's too late this year for a candidate to emerge to assume the position. Louisville will skate through their two home NCAA games, probably end up in Baylor's bracket and eventually be sent home by 'Grinder' Griner and Sims. Or Stanford. Or UConn or Notre Dame.

You see it in the great teams. Siva on the men's team. Taurasi on the championship UConn squads. Parker at Tennessee. Adams at A&M a few years ago. Mercedes Russell will be a leader. Why she ended up in the backwoods of Tennessee playing for the third best team in the SEC is beyond me. Maybe she didn't get the memo that Pat retired and her son abdicated the throne and went to Milwaukee.

Who will lead? It's got to be a player who sees significant court time and can motivate others. A player who understands the game, isn't prone to emotional outbursts and can converse with the volatile Walz on the sidelines without breaking into tears or sulking when he does his sideline lecturing. Who is that player who can lead by example, hard work, dedication and rallying her teammates into spending the extra hours in the gym?

Who do I recommend? She may have zeroes on her back, but she's a 10 when it comes to hard work and leading by example. Take over, Sara and take this team to the final four in 2013-14.

So, dear readers, I wish you the best and we'll see you down the road again here. Make someone smile today. It'll do you both good.

Paulie, you owe me a "cold one" and if you find any good 8-tracks at yard sales, give me a call and I'll see if I have it or not.

--David Watson

( Editor's note. David Watson has over 5500 8-track cassettes and hopes someday to set a Guinness World Record for owning the most. I've seen the collection. He likes nothing better than to sit in his garage and pop one in his 8-track player for you that you've probably never heard of the artist before. )

WANT ANOTHER TAKE ON CARDINAL WBB? GO TO THE LINK BELOW:

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/6086

Thanks to Sandy Walker for the find and share!



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Louisville softball begins the four-day Louisville Softball Classic today and the Cards will get in four games over the duration. They play two today (North Carolina at 3 p.m. and Eastern Michigan at 5 p.m.) at Ulmer. They also engage Wisconsin on Sunday and Iowa on Monday. They get Saturday off...given the power of the Cardinal bats lately, one can only hope they're flying to the Cubs spring training camp and offering some pointers to my beleaguered Cubbies.

#11 Louisville is 21-3 on the season and is 9-0 at Ulmer this season. The Cards are batting .345 as a team. Katie Keller is fourth in the nation at .500 and has defeated two top 25 teams this season...LSU and Michigan. The Classic schedule below:

FRIDAY

10 a.m.   Wisconsin vs North Carolina
12:30 p.m   Wisconsin vs Eastern Michigan
3 p.m. LOUISVILLE vs North Carolina
5 p.m. LOUISVILLE vs Eastern Michigan

SATURDAY

10 a.m.   Ball State vs Wisconsin
12:30 p.m.  Eastern Michigan vs Wisconsin
3 p.m.  North Carolina vs Ball State
5:30 p.m.   North Carolina vs Eastern Michigan

SUNDAY

10 a.m.  LOUISVILLE vs Wisconsin
12:30 p.m.  Iowa vs North Carolina
3 p.m. Iowa vs Ball State

MONDAY

11 a.m.  Ball State vs Iowa
1:30 p.m. LOUISVILLE vs Iowa


Plenty of chances to get out and see your hard-hitting, nationally ranked Softball Cards in action. We'll recap the Cards' results here at the Couple and discuss the Friday play on our radio show Saturday on Crescent Hill Radio.

www.crescenthillradio.com

Word gets to me that co-host Jenny O'Bryan will be unavailable to us for the Saturday show...so it looks Jeff and I will be donning the headphones and carrying on...unless Boy George takes me up on my invitation to join us in the studio. Or Sandy Walker replies to my invite.

We have a great show planned, though...with an exclusive interview with WBB head Coach Jeff Walz and recaps of the BIG EAST Tournament and Louisville's impending foray into the NCAA Tournament. Plenty of exciting softball and lacrosse action to discuss as well and Jeff will be ready to deliver his version of Danny Boy with Merl, Daryl and Bill the Goat in celebration of St. Patrick's Day...just in case it all falls apart and we're desperate for filler time.  

Paulie

Softball hangs on against Michigan 5-4

SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- LeCoq bails Cards out in win over #14 Michigan.

- Lacrosse travels to play Presbyterian


- BIG EAST: 1st round WBB Tournament Action

- Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Sat. 11 a.m.

Paulie delievers a stirring rendition of "Innagadadavida" at
MArkie MArk's Celebration Day festivities...

A couple of truisms about Cardinal Softball pitcher Caralisa Connell. When she's good, she's very good. When she's off, she's very off. Limiting Michigan to one run in six innings yesterday, she needed bailout relief from Obama Rachel LeCoq in the seventh inning to preserve the one run lead and win for #13 ranked UofL.

The squads battled through four scoreless innings yesterday at Ulmer Stadium in the Red and Black Classic before the Wolverines punched in a run during the top of the fifth inning. Connell allowed four hits in the inning and got out of a potentially disastrous situation by getting Michigan to ground-out with the bases loaded and two outs.

The scare must have put some life into the UofL bats...they countered with two runs in the bottom of the fifth. Jordan Trimble and Katie Keller both reached safely on singles to start the inning and after an intentional walk to Alicja Wolny to fill the bases with Cards with one out, Maggie Ruckenbrod smacked a two out, two RBI double to deep left that made it 2-1 Louisville.

The Cards got going again in the sixth. Whitney Arion singled, Jennifer Esteban drew a walk and Katie Keller singled home Arion to make it 3-1 Cards. Alicja Wolny got a chance to actually swing the bat for once and made UM pay with a two run RBI single. 5-1 Cards after six innings.

Caralisa was the
most popular
Cardinal Women's
Athlete of 2012
according to CARDINAL
COUPLE readers.

Connell gave up a Wolverine single in the top of the seventh and Ashley Lane's home run blast made it 5-3. A Michigan single and double produced another run with the tying run on second.

Exit Connell, enter LeCoq.

The Colgate transfer got a strikeout for the first out of the inning, a fielder's choice moved the runner to third for the second out and a groundout ended the game. 5-4 UofL.

Connell (10-2) got credited for the win, LeCoq the save...her first of the year.

Louisville returns to the field today with 2:30 game vs. Miami (OH) and 5 p.m. tilt against Austin Peay. If you plan on making a day of it...first game starts at 9:30 a.m. when Michigan plays Illinois State in their pajamas.

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Nikki Boltja is UofL's leading scorer

Louisville Lacrosse (4-1) heads to Georgia to take on Presbyterian College in Cummings, GA. The Cards are coming off a close victory over Vandy Wednesday and face a 1-5 Blue Hose (no...it's not a mis-spell) squad who earned their first win of the season against Stetson 17-7 on Tuesday.

Louisville defeated the "Prez's" last year 20-3. This UofL squad is light-years better...maybe they make it 40-6 this year.

Nikki Boltja, Louisville's leading scorer on the season, had six goals last year against the...Blue Hose. If only she'd worn her little, black cocktail dress.

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Anne Donovan, Seton Hall's coach,
is asking the ref if she can
play 10 players against UConn

The Big East WBB Tournament is off and running and in first round action...Seton Hall had a tougher time than I expected against UC, winning 60-55. Marquette lives to fight another day...thumping pitiful Pitt 66-43 and Georgetown handled Providence 81-61 in the night cap....despite 35 points by the Friars' Tori Rule.  

Seton Hall gets St. John's today at noon, Rutgers and USF go to war at 2 p.m., Marquette plays DePaul and Villanova and Georgetown close Day 2 action.

A lot of CARDINAL COUPLE Pick 'Em contestants went 3-0 on the day...good luck today with your selections. 42 brave souls are battling for the $25 Chili's Gift Card.

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CARDINAL COUPLE HOUR returns for our second broadcast today at 11 a.m. on Crescent Hill Radio.

www.crescenthillradio.com

We'll discuss Louisville women's basketball, softball, lacrosse, BIG EAST WBB Tournament and try to squeeze in a few more sports as well. I've also (hopefully) got a few sound-bytes from the Thursday Media session with the Lady Cards and Coach Walz. I think I've got Nita Slaughter and Sara Hammond interviews. Me and mechanical devices...never a good mix.

-Paulie

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Saturday Cardinal Couple -- Softball goes 1-1 in Orlando

SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE


- Softball falls 2-0 to Texas, defeats Temple 8-0

- Lacrosse with a Rocky Mountain "High" in Denver

-Women's swimming/diving #1 after Day 3 of Big East Tournament

-CARDINAL COUPLE on the air.


The softball Cards got the bats rolling against Temple but ran into a strong pitching performance from Texas' Blaire Luna in Day 1 of the 2013 Citrus Classic in Orlando, FL. Friday.

TEXAS 2 - CARDS 0

Scoreless after two innings, the Longhorns strung together three singles in the third to go up 1-0 on Louisville. They added a run in the fifth on a two-out walk and Louisville fielding error.

Luna held the Cards bat at bay...keeping them hitless until seventh inning. Katie Keller smashed a two-out double and Alicja Wolny reached first on a hit-by-pitch to give the Cards a shot in the inning but Luna got her 13th strike out of the day to end the rally and the game.

Caralisa Connell took the loss (8-2) two runs, one earned and seven hits allowed.

CARDS 8 - Temple 0

Louisville struck early in the second game of the day for them with two runs in the first inning. Keller singled and scored on Alicja Wolny's double (she didn't get hit by a pitch!). Wolny made it home on a Hannah Kiyohara single.

The Cards added three more runs in the fourth. Singles by Jennifer Esteban, Keller and Katelyn Mann scored Esteban and a error got Keller to the plate. Taner Fowler's base hit sent Mann home to make it 5-0 UofL.

UofL added three runs in the fifth to end the game. Kiyohara led off with a single, Whitney Arion walked and Chrisanna Roberts got hit by a pitch to load the bases full of Cards. Kiyohara scored when Keller got hit by a pitch (stop the violence!) Mann singled home Arion and a based-loaded walk to Wolny forced home Roberts (although she probably went willingly) to make it 8-0 and end the game.

Rachel LeCoq with the win (5-1) allowing four hits.

Cards get Ga. Tech tomorrow on ESPN3 at 12:15 p.m. Tune it in after listening to CARDINAL COUPLE from 11-noon on CRESCENT HILL RADIO 

It'll be their second game of the day...they start Saturday versus Longwood University.

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Lacrosse is on their first road trip of the season, the LAX crew in Denver to play the Nuggets...oops, scratch that...the Pioneers of the University of Denver. First meeting between the two schools, Denver is 2-1 on the season, Louisville 3-0 and in the top 20 at 20 in the WLA rankings.

Louisville has outscored their opponents by an average of +9.67 a game in their three wins and Nikki Boltja leads the team with 11 goals.

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Louisville women's swimming and diving in first place after Day 3 of the BIG EAST Tournament...a narrow lead over Notre Dame. Cards the defending BIG EAST Tournament champs.

More info at www.gocards.com

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Finally, tomorrow morning is the first broadcast of the Cardinal Couple Radio show...11 a.m. to noon E.S.T. on Crescent Hill Radio.

You can listen on line at www.crescenthillradio.com . Click the link to listen on the left hand side of the site.

We'll cover ladies hoops, softball, lacrosse and have a live human sacrifice at 11:37...just kidding about the sacrifice!

Staff communists columnists Jenny O'Bryan and Jeff McAdams are slated to appear with Paulie and we expect it to be a great time!

Join us, won't you?

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Cardinal Couple Friday Edition

FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( Staff columnist Jeff McAdams accidently found his lap-top and decided to do the Friday Edition of CARDINAL COUPLE. This was after he sent the words below to several reputable and well-known sports web-sites and had the offerings returned. Nevertheless, he's one of ours and chips in when it's time for the weekly washing of the staff animals....so read at your own risk...)

 

Spring has sprung...well, sort of.

The winter sports season is nearing an end.  There is still plenty of excitement to be had, but the regular seasons of basketball and...the other basketball team...is drawing to a close.  That means that we here at the Cardinal Couple are starting to turn our attention to spring sports.  We've talked quite a bit about Lacrosse, and we'll touch base on the latest in the Lacrosse world here in a moment.

Softball is also a popular spring sport here at the Cardinal Couple as Paulie is a big fan...and we'll go there in a moment as well.  First, though, let's catch up with our recurring item from the past few weeks...news from a fall sport...Field Hockey.

Field Hockey signing announcement, round 4

We're in week four of an expected six signing announcements for UofL Field Hockey.  This week we hear about Shannon Sloss from Pequea, PA.  You may have noticed that I like to give a description of where the towns are that newly signed student-athletes list as their hometown.  This one may be the biggest challenge yet.  Pequea is roughly the midpoint between Harrisburg, PA; Philadelphia, PA, and Baltimore, MD, and that doesn't really help, does it?  Pequea is on the Susquehanna river, a bit south of Lancaster, PA.

Shannon picked up three All Pennsylvania Region team selections in her time at Penn Manor High School, two of which were first team picks.  She also collected a third team All-America honor in 2011.

Again, we expect two more signing announcements for Field Hockey in the coming two weeks.  Stay tuned.

Lacrosse reaches new heights

UofL Lacrosse heads out, and a mile up, for a Saturday meetup with Denver University, in the mile high city on Saturday the 2nd, with a first...draw, I believe is the term...at 1pm ET.  UofL Lacrosse is riding high after a 21-3 beatdown of Old Dominion this past weekend which, of course, comes on top of a major upset of the then #13 Ohio State University the previous weekend.

The big news, however, is that, for the first time in UofL Lacrosse's 6 years of play, the team is nationally ranked.  In the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) poll, Louisville Lacrosse is ranked 20th.  Unlike many other sports, which rank the top 25 teams, Lacrosse only seems to rank the top 20, so we've only just snuck into the poll, but this is a historic high for Louisville Lacrosse and reflects on the upward trajectory of so many of UofL's Athletics programs.

Lacrosse returns to the UofL Lacrosse Stadium for a game against Vanderbilt on Wednesday the 6th with a 1pm first draw.

Softball

To round out the discussion of ranked UofL Athletic teams, Softball, with a 12-2 record, is showing up in the rankings at either 15th or 16th, depending on which poll you look at.

The Cards swept the weekend with victories over Kent State on Friday, Buffalo on Saturday, and a double-header on Sunday against Kent State again, and Eastern Illinois.  I had the opportunity to make it out to Ulmer Stadium on Sunday to catch most of the Kent State game and all of the Eastern Illinois game.  While it got a bit chilly towards the end of the second game as the sun dropped behind the back of the seating, leaving most of the fans in shade in the cool weather, it was a wonderful day to be out at the ballpark cheering on Sandy Pearsall's squad and visiting with random other UofL fans in the stands.

Softball is always a great opportunity to visit with your fellow Cards fans, though this weekend, they are in Orlando, FL with match-ups with 5th/8th ranked Texas, Temple, Longwood, future conference-mate Georgia Tech, and 11th/11th ranked LSU out of the softball powerhouse SEC conference.  They will return to the friendly...and hopefully warmer as spring makes its presence felt...confines of Ulmer Stadium the weekend of the 8th through 10th with games against Michigan, Miami (Ohio), Austin Peay, and Illinois State.

I Still Can't Believe We're Doing This...

A reminder that Crescent Hill Radio has been crazy enough to let Paulie have an hour of time on their Internet radio station  http://www.crescenthillradio.com starting at 11 o'clock this Saturday.  At this point, Jenny O'Bryan and myself are slated to join him...at least until someone gives us a better offer...anyone?  Please?  Let's hope that Bill the Goat doesn't eat the mic shields, at least.

Tune in, I expect we'll have a lot of fun, and hopefully not too much embarrassment.





( Editor's Note: It should be noted that we invited Jeff solely because Timmy the Intern is being
held in a Mexican jail...probably for illegally listening to Mexican radio...we can't raise the bail and we need someone to help CoCo make mudpies out in front of the studio. We showed CoCo a picture of Jeff and then a picture of Shoni Schimmel and CoCo picked Jeff to help make the mudpies. Probably just as well, Shoni would most likely make round mudpies and tossed them successfully into the trash can....one by one...25 feet away. No profit in that. We realize that Co-Co will have to train Jeff in the art of mud-pie making, but feel confident his parents will be glad to finally see a degree in SOMETHING hanging from the den wall. Bill the Goat will NOT be allowed in the studio. Period. We're still paying off the damage he did to Lt. Governor Abramson's office...)

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