Cardinal Couple Thursday Edition

THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( Jeff McAdams jumps behind the wheel of the CARDINAL COUPLE 1975 Ford Pinto and takes us for a spin through BIG EAST Women's Basketball Conference..with side stops at the ACC lounge and volleyball courts. We've always said Jeff is out standing in his field. What he's doing out there, we have no idea...but we just let him roll with it...)

 

Standings, We've Got Standings

Starting at home in The Big East

Things are starting to look a bit more normal in the Big East standings.  With four unbeatens, UConn is still lurking around further down the list than any of us are used to seeing, but the overall complexion is starting to take on a more familiar tone.

Notre Dame still holds onto the top spot with an unblemished 4-0 record in conference matchups so far dispatching Rutgers and Georgetown since we last checked in, and with relative ease. Also unbeaten with 3-0 starts are Syracuse, Villanova, and St. Johns.  The Cuse also beat up on Georgetown but they barely escaped DePaul...both at home...while Villanova got a solid win on the road over Pitt.  'Nova played a cross-town non-conference matchup against Penn last night and barely escaped with a win, though it wouldn't have had any impact on conference standings in any case, of course.

UConn is the only one loss team, coming in at the fifth spot.  In addition to hanging the loss on our dear Cardinals, they handed one to Marquette as well...with an even more overwhelming margin of victory.

We're currently at 2-2, along with Seton Hall and DePaul.  Seton Hall continues the backwards slide with the loss to St. Johns mentioned above, and they lost a squeaker to Marquette.  DePaul picked up the loss to Syracuse, and beat USF pretty handily.

USF and Marquette show up at 1-2.  USF got an easy win over Cincinnati, but suffered about the same sort of loss at the hands of DePaul.  Marquette's games were both mentioned already, being fodder for UConn, and sneaking the win out against Seton Hall in New Jersey.

Georgetown and Rutgers are both 1-3.  Georgetown taking a beating from both Syracuse and Notre Dame...though that Notre Dame wasn't as bad of a blow out as win-loss records would suggest it would've been.  Rutgers was run over...like just about everyone is...by Notre Dame, but got their first conference win against Providence...not exactly a win to hang tournament hopes on, there.

In the basement are the oh-fors, Pitt, Cincinnati, and Providence...all still looking for their first conference win after dropping three.

How's the New Construction Coming Along?

 

The ACC is starting to fall into a pretty normal looking pattern as well.

I'll skip the commentary on these and just list them off in their women's basketball records.

Duke and North Carolina are both 5-0.  Maryland at 4-1.  Florida State, Miami, and Virginia have 3-2 marks.  Wake Forest and Boston College with .500 records at 2-2.  The Techs, Georgia and Virginia, side by side at 1-4.  And the basement has NC State and Clemson still unfeated (is that a word?) in conference at 0-5.

I gotta have some Volleyball in here

Congratulations to Lola Arslanbeckova on picking up another post-season accolade.  This one comes from Volleyball Magazine, which named our favorite number 9 to the All-American second team.

Lola is suffering for her sport, clearly enjoying the warmth and sun in Puerto Rico.  Gwen Rucker, meanwhile, at least has warmer weather than we do...for the moment anyway...in Azerbaijan.  Kaitlynn James lost the weather lottery, pursuing pro volleyball in snowy Sweden.

Best wishes to the three of them as they set off on their careers.

( Great info today from Jeff McAdams, who will probably make road trips to see all three before April. One sure way to get Jeff to cover an event is to set up a volleyball net or basketball goal and have Al Greener's pep band show up...)
 

Monday Cardinal Couple -- Volleyball rolls over Georgetown

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MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Lola's 21 kills spark Cards

The University of Louisville, led by Lola Arslanbekova's 21 kills, handled Georgetown easily in the KFC YUM! Center Sunday in straight set triumphs 25-10, 25-18, 25-12. With the win, the VolleyCards go to 23-3 on the season and 12-1 in the BIG EAST.

Louisville discovered that Georgetown isn't exactly the best team in the league at returning service and used that to their advantage in front of the home crowd, stretching their lead to 18-5 and winning the first game going away by 15. Lola picked up 10 kills in the set and the Cards were off to a flying start.

The Hoyas did make a game of it in the second set, actually grabbing a 12-11 lead midway through the contest before a 8-1 Cardinal surge put Louisville in the driver's seat at 19-13. The Cards kept the momentum rolling and jumped to a 2-0 game advantage with a seven-point victory.

Anne Kordes' Cards kept that momentum alive in the final game. Up 12-3, UofL gave the bench some valuable minutes and they produced very well, especially Davionna Holmes, as the Cards went up 20-8 and coasted in with the match-ending 13-point win.

Great play by Brooke Mattingly, Gwen Rucker, Kaitlynn James, Caitlin Welch and Emily Juhl added to the Cardinal domination in front of a crowd announced at almost 2500. James had eight kills and Juhl seven for Louisville.

Louisville gets two at home this weekend. A return match Friday at 4:30 p.m. against Marquette and a Sunday noon contest against Cincy. Both will be played at Cardinal Arena...on the UofL campus.

Watching the matches on television, we were pleased with the play-by-play and color commentary coverage by Sean Moth and Jennifer Hoffman. Besides providing accurate and descriptive account of the play-by-play, they went into detail with explanations of offensive set strategy and different formations.

The Cards back in the cozy Cardinal Arena will keep the crowd attendance down a bit this weekend but it is an intimidating place for an opponent to come in and play. Basketball occupies the YUM! Friday and Sunday.

We wonder if a possible WBB/Volleyball double-header in the YUM! could ever be a possibility...maybe for next season? The logistics of floor removal and re-installation of the proper court the probable drawback here, we suppose...but how long would Cards' fans of both sports hang around while this would be swapped? Imagine 12,000 for a hoops game and then...say 90 minutes later...Volleyball? Or maybe temporary lines could be put in place and a net set up? The Cards are 10th in the nation in Volleyball attendance this year. Introducing the game to 10,000 potentially new fans
might be a way to boost that fan attendance further up the top ten ladder.
Yep, always thinking here at the Couple..
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Sunday Cardinal Couple -- Volleyball & Softball gain victories

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SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Volleyball sinks the Pirates in straight sets

-Softball takes two Saturday

-Field Hockey narrowly defeated by #3 UConn

Cards sweep Pirates to go to 15-2

Lola Arslanbekova had 17 kills and Kaitlynn James added 10 as Louisville downed Seton Hall 25-21, 25-23, 25-20 in volleyball action Saturday afternoon in Cardinal Arena.

"We were led by Kaitlynn and Caitlin (Welch) in this match. Welch passed lights out and James hit .417, which is crazy. It was good to see Gwen Rucker gain strength and energy after being off." -- Anne Kordes, head volleyball coach.

The Cards jumped out to an early lead in the first game but a 7-1 Seton Hall run gave the Pirates a 10-8 advantage. They increased that margin to 14-10 before UofL got busy and rolled off seven straight points to go up 17-14. Seton Hall would rally to get close in the contest at 23-21, but two straight James kills tipped the game to Louisville.

UofL traded points with the Pirates in the second game, eventually putting together a 5-1 run to gain a 18-13 advantage. SHU rallied back to get within two, but consecutive kills by Arslanbekova and a game-winning tip pushed the Cards to the close win.

Louisville dominated early in the final game, enjoying leads of 9-2 and 16-7. A late Pirate rally closed the gap to three at 23-20, but kills from Carly Sahagian and Rucker closed out the contest and the sweep.

Louisville heads downtown to the KFC YUM! Center tomorrow for a 1 p.m. match against Rutgers.

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Softball shuts out Bellarmine and Tennessee State to end fall season.

The Cards finished fall training, if you will, with two wins yesterday in Ulmer Stadium.

They blanked the Bellarmine Knights 2-0 in the first contest...a two-run homer from Alicja Wolny in the fourth inning giving pitcher Rachel Le Coq all the runs she needed in the six-strikeout performance. Taner Fowler went 2 for 2 for Louisville.

Tennessee Tech faced the Cards' Caralisa Connell in the nightcap and failed to score on her...Fowler continuing the hot bat with a 2 for 3 performance and Jordan Trimble driving in two runs for the victorious Cards. Cards win 4-0.

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UConn goes to 13-0 with 2-1 win over Louisville Field Hockey.

Louisville spotted UConn two first half goals before rallying for one of their own in the second half in Trager Stadium yesterday.

Becca Maddock found the back of the net off a pass from Alyssa Voelmle's pass for the lone Cardinal goal early in the second half.

"One thing that we have to continue to really focus on is believing that we are capable and that with hard work and persistence we can beat teams like Connecticut. It's back to the drawing board so we can focus on tomorrow's game against Iowa." -- Justine Sowry, UofL head Field Hockey coach.

The Sunday contest against the Hawkeyes is scheduled for 1 p.m.

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A potential first-round upset brewing in the Sweet Sixteen Choose Your Favorite Cardinal Women's Athlete contest on the left sie of the side. Women's tennis star Becca Shine has jumped out to an early lead over softball slugger Katie Keller.

One day left to vote in this contest...can Shine down the popular Keller? You have the power, cast your vote!
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Volleyball vs MTSU, UNLV, and Miami (Fla.)

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SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE PRESENTS:

(Columnist JEFF McADAMS takes us through the Fri-Sat UofL Volleyball matches with his 

always excellent observations, analysis and comments!) 

Chalk up 3 W's for the Kordes Krew

It wasn't always pretty, and there was some epic come-from-behind play going on...and I'm not talking about football.

MTSU

Middle Tennessee State University is a school that has frequently given the Volleyball Cards challenges.  Eliminating UofL in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2007, and giving them a bit of a scare in the first round of 2010.  They're a pesky team, that can be counted on to give solid play.

In the first set, MTSU again gave the Cards a bit of scare, with MTSU leading most of the way.  After coming off two big wins last weekend, I suspect there may have been of big game let down, again.  Much like the let down after the Kentucky match, however, it lasted less than a set...if that's how this team is going to react to post-big-game-let-downs, that's not bad.

The second set was never much of a contest, and the third looked to be much the same.  The Blue Raiders made a run at a comeback, but then a bunch of errors derailed their efforts.

The setting pair of Hannah Kvitle and Katie George...still splitting the second hit duties...spread the offense around quite a bit, but the most success and momentum building happened up the middle with Brooke Mattingly, and Tanya Lukyanenko.  Tanya was back in the middle position to fill in for Gwen Rucker, who was on the bench all weekend, but not dressed out, due to illness.  With Tanya playing in the middle the fans had more opportunity to appreciate the play of Carly Sahagian, a transfer from the University of Tennessee.  Carly hit a mistake free 6 of 14, for .429 which put her third in percentage behind the .462 numbers of Brooke and Tanya...that's ignoring Katie George's single successful attempt that gives her a statistical 1.000, but isn't really fair to compare with hitters taking upwards of 10 swings a match.

UNLV

Keep your eyes on this team.  While I don't expect them to be back at the KFC Yum! Center for the national championship December 13th and 15th, I think a lot of people are underrating their play, as I think the VolleyCards did coming into this match.

I would say that the Cardinals weren't really fully awake for this 11am start-time, but the Rebels were effectively functioning on an 8am start time, so that excuse doesn't really stand up to scrutiny.

With only .109 hitting in the first set, and no blocks...Gwen's presence was really missed there...the first set looked really rough for UofL.  It ended up being a tight game with the Rebs taking it 23-25.

The second set was only marginally better.  Kaitlynn James started to come alive with several successful attacks that blunted the UNLV momentum and helped UofL scratch out a win in the second set...taking an extra point to get there...at 26-24.

Anne Kordes was clearly unhappy with her team's play heading into the break...I wonder if they had to repaint the locker room walls as I imagine she blasted her players for their poor play in the first two sets.  Whatever she said, and however she said it, the team responded.  With .560 hitting in the set and 4 blocks, this looked more like the team that played Purdue and Illinois last weekend.  Winning the set 25-6, I imagine UNLV wishes they could forget this one.

Credit UNLV with digging deep and making the 4th set a contest.  They responded to the withering attack of the third set and stepped up their play.  Both teams had big runs, first the Rebels, then the Cardinals, but after being chastised during the set break, UofL continued playing well and was able to put the match away.

Miami

The marquee matchup of the Louisville Invitational was Louisville vs Miami.  Miami, technically unranked, is getting votes in the coaches poll for an effective 26th.  This isn't a team to be trifled with.  Kaitlynn James continued to play well after the afternoon match...really a great day for her overall.  The most efficient play, though, came from Brooke Mattingly...who I'm going to start calling "Stomp" because after she makes a great play, she stomps on the floor and cheers...really a honest, heartfelt expression of excitement that her teammates, and the fans, really feed on.  "Stomp" hit an phenomenal .714 and helped out in a couple of blocks.

In the first set, Miami got out to a solid lead.  At 22-15 the crowd largely thought the set was over and were thinking about how to respond in the second set.  Kaitlynn, Lola, and Tanya thought otherwise as, starting with Kaitlynn's serving, Lola and Tanya killed and blocked their way to a 7 point run.

Good solid play in the second set got Louisville to a solid match lead.  It looked like the Cards were going to have another good sweep of a good team.

The third set, however, went to the Hurricanes powered by a 9-0 run.  Louisville dug down deep and started to make a comeback, but ran out of time.

Solid play across the board in the 4th set netted UofL the match and tournament win.

Takeaways

I think there are a couple of UofL teams that I'm glad I'm not going to be in their practice sessions this week.  While both UofL Football and Volleyball came away with wins, there's plenty to praise and critique in the play of both teams this weekend.  Both teams also came away with unblemished records for the weekend, but I suspect practices will be grueling dissections of what went wrong at times.

I'll leave the analysis of Football to those who know more about it, but for Volleyball, we've got good and bad.

The good is that we saw what this team can do when they meet adversity.  They dug down and gritted out some wins even when things weren't going their way and they weren't executing well.  To be able to dig down and turn their play around within a match like they did several times this weekend speaks well of the team's ability to tap into reserves of discipline and pull themselves together.  We saw that happen this weekend during set breaks, timeouts, and even just between plays.

The bad, of course, is that they played in such a way to begin with that they found themselves in situations where they had to tap those discipline reserves.  It would be great if all of their matches just went well enough that they wouldn't need to turn their play around.  Of course, eventually a team will be tested, so its good to know that they have it in them to make the comebacks in tough situations.

Up Next

The Cards start their conference slate, starting Friday at 7pm with DePaul, followed by Notre Dame on Sunday at 2pm, both at the KFC Yum! Center.  Come check them out.

Sunday Cardinal Couple -- Volleyball wins two

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Sunday Cardinal Couple

-Volleyball takes two

The #12 University of Louisville volleyball team continued its hot streak by defeating UNLV and Miami (FL) yesterday to win the Louisville Invitational. The Cards triumphed over UNLV in the morning session 23-25, 26-24, 25-6, 25-21 and downed Miami 26-24, 25-19, 19-25, 25-17 in the nightcap. 

UNLV falls in four sets to Louisville

Kaitlynn James took charge of the net in the match against the Runnin' Rebels with 16 kills. 

Louisville started slowly by losing the first game after trailing most of the way before taking a brief lead at 21-20 late. UNLV ran off four straight points, though, to get a 24-21 lead and hold on for the win. 

Louisville responded in the second game slowly again, falling behind 14-6 at one point before James went to work. Her three straight kills got Louisville to within three at 15-12. Managing to tie the contest at 20-20, James gave the Cards a one-point lead with a kill and UofL pulled out a close one by two.

After the break, the Cards roared out to an early lead they never looked back from. Runs of 3-0 and 9-0 had  Anne Kordes' team sitting comfortably at 16-3. Emily Juhl put the Runnin' Rebs out of their misery with a slam to give Louisville the 19-point romp and a 2-1 lead in the match. 

UNLV was not ready to quit, though, and jumped to a 8-5 advantage in the final game. They increased that to 12-5 before UofL pieced together a 9-1 run and a 14-13 edge. The Cardinal hot streak continued behind Lola Arslanbekova and it was 23-18 after a service ace by her. James finished the match with a kill and the 25-21 win.

Cards fend off Miami in four sets

Lola stepped up big in the evening session with 21 kills and UofL improved to 11-1 on the season with a four game win against the Canes. 

The Cards started slowly in game one and trailed deep into the contest at 22-15 before four Lola kills and a block and two Tanya Lukyanenko kills and a block late rallied the Cards to the narrow two point win. Lola had 10 kills in the first game. 

Louisville jumped out to an early lead in the second contest 16-11 but Miami rallied to get back to just a four-point deficit at 21-17. After a timeout, the Cards regrouped and won four of the final six points to take a 25-19 win and go 2-0 in the match. 

The teams played fairly evenly in the third game until a 9-0 Canes run boosted them to a seven point advantage that the Cards could not overcome. At 24-16, UofL managed to get three straight points but Caitlin Welch's serving error gave Miami a six point win.

Louisville and Miami played the final game evenly at the start until a 6-2 Cardinal run took a 7-7 score to a 13-9 UofL lead. Miami would get no closer and the Cards coasted in with a 25-17 victory. 

Middle blocker Gwen Rucker sat out both contests with an illness.

Lola earned MVP honors for the Cards and James and Brooke Mattingly joined her on the All-Tournament team. 

( BE SURE TO CHECK BACK LATER TODAY FOR JEFF MCADAMS ANALYSIS AND REPORT ON THE WEEKEND VOLLEYBALL ACTION)

2500 for the evening game. On a football Saturday. Best college sports town in America.  Right here in River City.

We don't do a lot with football here, of course...we're a women's sports site...but wanted to share with you this series of texts between me and a buddy who was unable to attend and watching on TV...

Buddy:  ACC? No wonder ND wants to leave. EZ pickings.
Paul: ACC! ACC! ACC! I just busted one of my thundersticks.
Buddy: U staying for 2nd half?
Paul: For at least 3 quarters. Need to get over to 80 u 80.
Buddy: U at 80 u 80?
Paul: Leaving in a few. It's on TV there. Ladies behind me driving me nuts. 
Buddy: What in the world?
Paul: Need D. C'mon cards!
Buddy: Ugh. Fumbled kickoff? 
Paul: We're fine. Good deflect. Run clock out now.
Buddy: L1C4.
Paul: Wow. I've still got my sunglasses on. 
Buddy: Go change your drawers.
Paul: LOL. A W a W no matter how u get it.   
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Sunday Cardinal Couple -- Volleyball, Field Hockey win

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SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Volleyball dispatches of Samford in evening session

-Field Hockey waits out rain delay, wins 3-2 over Davidson

-Annual gridiron clash may have to dodge a few puddles

Louisville Volleyball followed their morning win over Marshall win a Saturday evening triumph over Samford in the KFC YUM! Center in four games...winning 25-22, 25-16, 22-25, 25-15. 

A sluggish start for the Cards to open the match, falling behind 5-1 early and trailing by scores of 7-3, 12-7 and 14-10 in the first game before mounting a rally that tied it at 15-15 on a block from Tanya Lukyanenko. The Cards were still deadlocked with Samford at 20-20 and proceeded to lose two of the next three volleys before scoring the final four points of the game on a kill from Kaitlynn James and blocks from Gwen Rucker and Lukyanenko. 

Louisville came out much more aggressively in the second game and jumped out to a 4-1 lead after a kill from Lola Arslanbekova. A brief Samford rally pulled them to within one at 8-7, but after that...the Cards steadily pulled away and led 15-12 after a Samford service error. Louisville went on a 9-2 run after that to lead 24-14 following a kill from Carly Sahagian and ended the match with another kill from Sahagian to win 25-16.

After the halftime break, Samford showed they had some fight left in them by playing the Cards close throughout all of game three...neither team able to gain an advantage of more than three points and Louisville found itself holding a 22-21 late in the action. Samford got four straight points, though on two kills from Katie Murphy and then two from Elizabeth Neisler to win game three 25-22.  

The Cards got the wake-up call and jumped out early in the final game. Lukyanenko's kill made it 5-1 Louisville. Kaitlynn James made it 10-5 with a kill. Lola got in the action with a kill to make it 15-8 Cards. It was 20-13 after a Sahagian kill and another from Lukyanenko had Louisville ahead 24-14. Lola put the Bulldogs out of their misery with a kill that ended the game at 25-15. 

Lola led the Cards with 22 kills. She was also named MVP of the tournament and made the all-tournament team along with Gwen Rucker and Brooke Mattingly for the Cards. 


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Field Hockey beat Davidson 3-2 and also outlasted the weather that caused nearly a two-hour delay in the Saturday afternoon game at Trager Stadium. Lightning and heavy downpours stopped the match with the Cards up 3-2 with about 17 minutes left in the game. 

The Wildcats scored first but the Cards responded quickly with goals from Mallory Mason and Erin Schneidtmiller in a four-minute stretch to regain the lead at 2-1. That's the way the first half ended...the Cards holding an 8-4 shot advantage. 

Becca Maddock pushed the Cards ahead 3-1 when she scored about eight minutes into the second half. A couple of minutes after the Wildcats cut the lead to 3-2, the skies opened and the flash of lightning sent both team to the sidelines.

After play resumed, Davidson and the Cards battled scoreless the rest of the way. 

"It wasn't a pretty one, that's for sure. The delay in the game made for a very long day under difficult conditions. We got a win and that's a great thing, but a lot of lessons need to be taken away from this game. Davidson didn't allow us to play the game we wanted to. Some positives to take away were definitely our attack play - that was an area we really wanted to work on. We generated some pretty good scoring opportunities but overall we do need to take a lot of lessons from today and continue to grow and move forward." -- Louisville field hockey head coach Justine Sowry. 

The Cards (2-1) return to action Monday when they play Ball State at 2 p.m.

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Finally, the Battle for the Bluegrass takes place in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium this afternoon at 3:30 p.m. when Louisville and Kentucky put on the helmets and duke it out in front of 57,000+ rabid fans in football. 

You've seen the staff picks. Our informal poll revealed that 70% of you think UofL will win by 10 points or more. Louisville picked preseason to win the BIG EAST, UK picked to secure the basement in the SEC East Division. The chance of stormy weather and soggy conditions for these young men as Red and Blue clash in front of a sold out stadium and national television audience. Ponchos as important as tailgate food today, it appears. 

CARDINAL COUPLE will be there, but not in reporting or game coverage mode. May the best team win. If you go, remember to be "good" Cardinal (or Cat) fans and act responsibly. Be gracious in victory and complimentary in defeat. The eyes of the nation are watching, don't act like idiots. Cheer heartily for your team but don't be an obnoxious loudmouth. Enjoy the game and allow others around you to do the same.  

And, GO CARDS!      
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