Sunday Cardinal Couple -- Lady Cards 74- 60 over Hoyas

SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Cards sour Sugar... Improve to 7-2 in BIG EAST

-Volleyball Banquet at PNC Plaza

30 minutes can be a very long time sometimes. In basketball minutes, it can be an eternity. The University of Louisville women's basketball team held BIG EAST leading scorer Sugar Rodgers scoreless for 30 minutes yesterday afternoon in a 74-60 win over the Georgetown Hoyas in the KFC YUM! Center in front of 10549 fans.

No Sugar tonight in my coffee, no Sugar tonight in my tea...to borrow a phrase from The Guess Who. 

Going 0-7 in the first half and 0-4 in the second half before she connected on a jumper with 10:51 left in the game and Louisville leading 55-40...Rodgers was held to six points on 2-17 shooting by the guard trio of Bria Smith, Jude Schimmel and Shelby Harper.

Pass the Splenda, there wasn't any Sugar in the KFC YUM! Center Saturday afternoon.

Coach Walz's pregame instructions and practices sessions had a very simple theme leading up to this game. Don't allow her to get the ball and guard her more closely than the Army guards the gold in Fort Knox if she does.

It worked. Georgetown shot 33.8% for the game. Sugar 12%.

This one was won for the Cards in the first four minutes of the second half. Leading 33-29 at the break, the Cards sprinted off to a 13-3 run to start second half play and led 46-32 when Sara Hammond scored in the paint with 16:02 left. A Shoni three 30 seconds later made it 49-34 Cards and Georgetown would get no closer than nine the rest of the way.

Keying the run was Shoni, who drilled two threes and had nine points in a two minute stretch.   

Nita Slaughter with a huge effort tonight, 22 points on 6-13 shooting (five of those threes) and a perfect 5-5 from the free throw line. The Cards shot 77.3% from the charity stripe...toss out Cortnee Walton's 3-6 performance and Louisville goes an amazing 14 for 16.

That's the kind of stat that takes you deep into success in tournaments.

Shoni Schimmel with a slow start hitting just one of ten attempts from the field in the first half...but shooters are going to shoot and the junior ended up with 15 points and a team high seven assists. She was nonchalant about it in the post game:  

"My shots weren't falling early so I just started finding people open whose shots were falling. It was a team effort."

With Sugar salted away, sophomore forward Brittany Horne picked up the scoring yoke for the Hoyas in the first half with nine points. When Sugar still wasn't melting in the final half, freshman guard Katie McCormick grabbed the orb and produced 18 second half points for Keith Brown's 13-9 squad. McCormick, returning from a knee injury that had her on the bench for the first 11 games this year, led the Hoyas with 21 for the game. She had scored just 18 points all season. 

 6'6" center Sydney Wilson was the other Georgetown player to hit double digits with 11. She must have missed at least 10 shots from two feet or closer in, though. Does anyone use the box behind the rim on the backboard anymore?

Sara Hammond was the third double digit performer with a double-double...10 points and 11 grabs. Megan Deines added nine, Jude Schimmel seven, Bria Smith four, Cortnee Walton three and Sherrone Vails and Shelby Harper two each.

Louisville outrebounded the Hoyas 48-43. The Cards forced 16 G.U. turnovers while committing 16 of their own. Louisville won the points in the paint battle 28-24.

It wasn't pretty in the early going...Lousville and Georgetown both missing easy shots and only 26 total points had been scored in the first ten minutes. Georgetown actually led the Cards 16-10 with 9:11 left in the first stanza before UofL went on a 9-2 run to take the lead at 19-18 when Slaughter hit her second three of the half with 7:17 showing on the clock.

The Cards never trailed again.

On a afternoon where the roads had been salted several hours earlier because of an overnight snow...the Sugar remained in the cupboard and Louisville gets a sweet win....thanks to some sticky defense and Slaughter and Shoni shooting.

With Howie Lindsey and Jody Demling in attendance, the "Ho and Jo Show" was back and they asked 90% of the post game media questions for Coach Walz. Would hate to get in front of those two boys at a buffet...LINK BELOW.

POST GAME WALZ

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A crowd of over 250 packed the PNC Plaza Saturday night for the 2013 Louisville Volleyball banquet. Sean Moth served as emcee for the event that gave a few a scare when the fire alarms went off shortly after dinner was served.

Fortunately, it was a false alarm and the crowd was later entertained by the affable Anne Kordes' season in review speech and a hilarious video that featured Kordes playing freshman Katie George and George portraying Kordes.

The G.P.A. Award went to Emily Juhl and Cardinal Award was presented to UofL FCA chaplain Chris Morgan. Alumnae of the year went to Kelly Gillooly.

Kordes' keynote address covered her appreciation and association with all the players, staff and backers that have made Cardinal Volleyball the unqualified smash hit it's turned into since she arrived three years ago. She's also quite the comedian...sending the crowd into gales of laughter when she shared personal stories with players, friends and staff.

We want to meet "the Betty's"...

She has a heartfelt and deep relationship with those who make Cardinal Volleyball what it is today and it's easy to see why Julie Herrmann went after her and brought her here from the head coaching job at St. Louis.

Good times. Player Courtney Robison from Sheperdsville, KY. sat at our table with us and the D.S. who transferred her from West Virgina after one season was a friendly and charming host. Later we found out about her lifelong friendship with Katie George. Robison is the team driver and pushing catalyst. She also has two personalities, according to Kordes...so I guess we actually had two players at the table with us.

Our thanks to Louisville Volleyball for allowing us to cover the event and it was a class evening and a lot of fun!

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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.

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THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE EXTRA EDITION

( Our newest columnist Jeff McAdams files this commentary on last night's Cardinal Volleyball win over Kentucky. We pleased to have Jeff on board and reading today's article is like getting college course credit because of the information shared and learned. We may jut have to start calling him Professor Jeff....) 


There was a clinic put on last night the KFC Yum! Center on the topic of defense in volleyball.  The clinic was put on by the Kentucky Wildcats, and yet UofL picked up the win, which means there may be more to learn from the play of the VolleyCards than from the Wildcats.

Stephanie Klefot is a fantastic libero and kept plays alive that had the mostly red crowd cheering thinking the play was over.  Overall, this Kentucky team was digging balls that would've found the floor against most other teams.  If you want to learn how to dig and pass, you could do a lot worse than study UK game film.

So, how did Louisville get the W?  They did several things right in the last 3 sets to counter the frustrating UK defense.

First was good passing.  UK is not a particularly strong offensive team, so Caitlin Welch, and a committee of others, were able to get good, clean passes to our setters, Hannah Kvitle and Katie George.  Occasionally, or maybe not so occasionally, Hannah or Katie had to dig the ball (8 and 11 digs respectively), in which case, a role reversal occurs and Welch takes the set.  When a setter gets an accurate pass, it gives them lots of options of who to set.  When you have lots of options on who to set, the defense of the other team has a much tougher job to anticipate where the shot is going to be coming from and how to set up to receive it.  Traditionally, UofL has not had a strong digging and passing team, but Coach Kordes put a lot of emphasis on defense in practices and recruited several very good defenders for the team.  Also, Welch has taken her play to another level this season, chalking up 21 digs last night.

Secondly, with good passing, the setters can play a quicker game.  When setting a hitter, you can set the ball in a high arc that gives your hitters plenty of time to adjust to the path of the ball, but of course that also lets the other team's blocking and defense to adjust to the path of the ball.  Alternatively, you can set the ball in a flatter arc which gets the ball out to your hitters faster, giving the other team less time to anticipate and get set up.  Again...though, that cuts both ways, as your hitters have to be prepared to get the ball that quickly and be in the right position to be able to hit it with less ability to adjust in flight.  To play the offense more quickly, you have to have a team that's in sync and communicating well.  The Cards communicate well, but as we talked about after the Penn State match, this is a team that is still really putting all the pieces together and jelling.  You couldn't tell that last night, however, as Kvitle and George ran a smooth offense and were able to pick up the pace a bit, particularly in the second and third sets which rocked the UK defense back on their heels.  The ultimate expression of a quick offense would be a quick set to a middle hitter.  Gwen Rucker and Brooke Mattingly are our primary middle hitters and they both executed on the middle game quite well last night with 15 and 13 kills respectively.

Last, you can play better against a good defense by avoiding the need to play against it altogether.  Louisville has a long tradition of good blocking (who can forget Lecia Brown's blocking efforts, being among the best in the nation, and spending some time topping the charts as the best blocker in the country).  Gwen Rucker continues that tradition, Brooke Mattingly has shown that she is going to hold up her end of the bargain as well.  While we haven't seen her on the court, yet, I suspect freshmen Davionna Holmes will be part of the next round.  The stats from last night don't directly reflect a strong blocking effort, but the front line, anchored by Rucker and Mattingly, nearly always had a good block up.  UK, rather than trying to hit through a block (which, to their credit, is usually a bad idea) made an effort to hit over and around it.  Hitting around a block, of course, risks hitting the shot out.  Going over the block similarly risks hitting the shot long, or you have to take enough off of the shot that you give Caitlin Welch another good opportunity to add to her dig stats leading back to the first point of good passing and we come full circle.

Want to improve your digging?  Watch UK  Want to improve how you play against a good digging team?  Watch UofL.  Either way, there's a lot that volleyball players could learn from that match.

Another couple of quick points.  I don't think I have ever seen anyone on the court show more enthusiasm and energy than Katie George.  The joke has been that the challenge for Cardinal Volleyball fans this year is to keep track of which blonde ponytail belongs to which player.  Apparently the blurred one is Katie's, which reminds me of another blonde blur that has gotten attention here on Cardinal Couple in the past - Shelby Harper.

A crowd size of over 5,000 for a volleyball match?  That compares favorably with Nebraska's average attendance for 2011 (4,522, 2nd in the nation).  The women's basketball team showed that moving to a large facility (in their case Freedom hall at the time) can help lead to larger crowds to justify the larger facility.  Could we see the same sort of attendance growth for volleyball that we saw for women's basketball?  Let's hope so.  Way to go, CardNation.

Volleyball next hosts the Cardinal Classic, again in the KFC Yum! Center, with Duke, Marshall, and Samford coming to town Friday, and two matches Saturday.  And, of course, UofL gets the next opportunity to hand UK another loss with Football on Sunday.

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You decide? Save or not? See the pic below. From the action last night. Refs called it a UK point, not a UofL pancake save. Sure looked like Haley Pouliezos got all ball...

(Great report from out newest columnist Jeff McAdams! Be sure to also check today's earlier article about the game...directly below this post.) 

Thursday Cardinal Couple -- Volleyball downs UK 3-1

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THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Cards overcome slow start, defeat Cats 3-1

-New CARDINAL COUPLE banner header

Behind the spiking trio of Lola Arslanbekova, Brooke Mattingly and Gwen Rucker...and getting key play from freshman Katie George, junior Caitlin Welch and senior Kaitlynn James...Louisville defeated UK 3-1 in front of a record crowd for Louisville Volleyball with 5,007 fans in attendance Wednesday night in the KFC YUM! Center.

The Cards started slowly, losing the first set to the Cats 25-21 but swept the final three 25-23, 25-15 and 30-28. 

Louisville managed to hang close to the Cats in game one, leading 6-5 after two straight Lola spikes...but the Cats responded with a 12-6 run, causing UofL head coach Anne Kordes to call a time out with UK leading 17-12. The Cards rallied to climb within three after a Emily Juhl spike made it 21-18 and following a Gwen Rucker spike and Kaitlynn James block...Louisville trailed by only two at 23-21. UK got the final two points of the game, though...a game ending serve by UK sophomore Lauren O'Conner that skimmed the net and caught the Cards out of position. 

Louisville erased any doubt that they were intimidated by #10 UK, though by roaring out to a 9-4 lead in game two after a Lola block. She delivered a massive spike to increase the Cardinal advantage to 11-6, but the Cats dug in and took a 15-14 lead, which led to another Cardinal timeout. The game stayed close for the rest of the way...Louisville regaining the lead for good after two straight points from Lola gave Louisville a 23-21 margin. She contributed the next point as well and Brooke Mattingly's block gave the Cards the second game 25-23. 

After the halftime break, the Cards came out for game three ready for action. Katie George's tip created a 4-1 Cardinal lead. A Mattingly spike increased it to 10-6. After a Lola spike the Cards were up 13-8 and UK needed a timeout. Despite the strategy session, it was the closest UK would get in game three...the Cards leading 16-10, 19-11, 22-11 and coasting in with a 25-15 third game romp. 

The final game turned out to be a nail biter. 

Louisville jumped out to an early 4-0 advantage following a James spike, but the Cats came back and closed it to 4-3. Back and forth the two rivals went, UK actually gaining a 10-9 lead. Spikes by James and Rucker gave the Cards a 16-15 breather, but UK retaliated with two straight to take the lead. 

It was nip and tuck the rest of the way, the crowd (mixed with significant blue jerseys) standing on each possession. A Lola service ace put the Cards up 21-20. The Cats tied it. Rucker scores. So does UK. Lola spiking her heart out...the Cats managing to tie it after each one. 

Gwen Rucker came through with the final two Cardinal points for the win. At 28-28, her tip after a ferocious exchange between the two squads made it 29-28. A smack to deep left court during the next volley gave Louisville the two point victory and the Cards bench rushed the court to celebrate with the jubilant players on the floor. Cards win, CARDS WIN !!

Gwen, we're glad you decided to play volleyball at Louisville. Lexington may not be...

Lola led the Cards with 20 kills, Gwen Rucker had 15, Brooke Mattingly recorded 13 and Kaitlynn James finished with 10. Caitlin Welch provided 21 digs.  

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POST GAME: Anne Kordes

"This is huge. Huge. You know I forgot the simple fact they they (UK) were ranked tenth in the country. It just hadn't been an issue because it was UofL vs. UK. And, it's such a huge RPI boost for us. We talked in the beginning of the year, we've got five teams ranked in the top 25. We've got to get two out of those five. We got this one. That was a gusty game. It was all about guts at the end. You saw how tight it was. I'll go back to our strength coaches and how hard they worked them this summer. This came down to who was going to push harder in the end. Gwen Rucker was unbelievable. And I'll tell you what Caitlin Welch might go for another 1,000 digs before she graduates. 
Katie George, what a spark she gave us. She's a hometown hero and you can see why. She's got a lot of guts. Tonight...this was one of the most fun coaching environments and wins that I've ever been in." 

POST GAME: Lola Arslanbekova

"I've seen crowds like this for basketball, but not for our games. We fed off the energy. We had a great crowd. We were enjoying it! Gwen was so excited to beat them. She was like 'I'm so ready for this, it's been one year and I am ready for tonight'. Katie George...she's a great player and she brings a lot of energy. Our players are feeding from that." 

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You may have noticed the new CARDINAL COUPLE banner header at the top of the site. A special thanks to Adam Lucas of Adam Lucas Design who created it. Check out his outstanding work at the link below:

Adam Lucas Design
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