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

SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE -- WBB faces St. John's in BIG EAST Tournament

SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( GAME UPDATE -- Louisville wins over St. John's 62-55. Sara Hammond with 22 career-high points in the win. Louisville led big early, trailed at the half but came on strong at the end for the victory.

Bria Smith and Monique Reid finishing well and Louisville awaits the winner of Notre Dame vs. USF. WE'LL have much more on this in the Monday Cardinal Couple edition. Readers, weigh in with your immpresions on the win in the comments section or by e-mail...)

- Louisville starts BIG EAST against the Red Storm

- Softball downs Miami (OH) and Austin Peay

- Lacrosse romps Presbyterian on road

-BIG EAST Tournament Second Round results


Louisville now knows who their opponent will be in the quarterfinals of the BIG EAST Tournament. St. John's held off a pesky Seton Hall squad yesterday in second round action 51-45 to advance to the chance to play Louisville at noon today in Hartford's XL Center.

The Cards (23-7, 11-6) would likely face top-seeded and #2 in the nation Notre Dame on Monday if they win today.

Jeff Walz isn't worried about playing basketball but he is uncertain about what this team can do...and certain that the Cards have to play perfect basketball for three straight days if they have any chance to take the 2013 title.

One-on-one defense and creating turnovers and transition opportunities are keys to the Cards successes from now until Tuesday night.

One could speculate that the Cards, who defeated St John's 57-54 earlier in the regular season in the KFC YUM Center might have an eye-ahead on who they'll face in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, that will be played in the KFC YUM! Center next week. Tickets still are on sale for two possible chances to see Louisville play.

A win over a good St John's squad, though would likely help Louisville's seed in the big dance. Louisville scored eight straight unanswered points to beat the Red Storm at the end of the game to win when the two faced up earlier this year.

Win today. Worry about tomorrow then, Cards.

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Louisville softball can hit. Oh, yeah...they got bats. UofL pounded Miami (OH) 9-1 and then took out Austin Peay 12-0 to sweep both games in the Red and Black Classic yesterday at Ulmer Stadium.

CARDS 9 - MIAMI 1

Louisville wasted no time getting on the board in their first game. Alicja Wolny's two run blast woke up the right field berm dwellers and Kayla Soles sent one onto Cardinal Blvd. behind the left field fence to give the Cards a 3-0 lead after one inning.

It was 5-0 after three innings. Maggie Ruckenbrod hit the Cards third "touch 'em all" off the scoreboard in left after Jordan Trimble doubled.

Make it 8-1 after five innings. Katie Keller doubled and after Wolny got walked...both scored when Soles singled. Soles got to the plate when Hannah Kiyohara singled.

Louisville aded a run in the sixth when Taner Fowler scored on a Brittany Sims single.

Rachel Le Coq (8-1) in the circle for Louisville allowing just four hits for the RedHawks and a run.

CARDS 12 - AP 0

Keller was the bomb in game two, going 4-4 with 5 rbi's and a homer.

The Cards struck early in this one, too. Keller crashing a homer off the scoreboard in the first and Trimble doubling and scoring on a Soles single to make it 2-0 UofL after one inning.

Keller's double scored Katelyn Mann and Jennifer Esteban in the second to make it 4-0 Cards. She drove in Mann in the third inning with a double to increase the UofL lead to 5-0.

Louisville capped the scoring in the fourth with seven runs. Eight hits...keyed by a two-run triple by Mann, doubles from Ruckenbrod, Keller and Wolny and singles from Soles and Esteban.

Caralisa Connell (11-2) and LeCoq combined in the circle
...allowing just one Govs hit in five innings.

Louisville's start time today against Illinois State has been moved up to 2 p.m. because of forecasted rain in the Derby City.

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Louisville Lacrosse travelled to Georgia and blasted Presbyterian 23-1 yesterday. The stick-and-net Cards had a 5-0 lead after three minutes...freshman Erica Eipp getting three assists and two goals in the rapid-fire start.

Louisville was up 10-0 with eighteen minutes left in the first half...Nikki Boltja getting three straight scores...and led at the half 14-0...Emily Kolsevich and Jamie Redding getting on the board with scores.

The Cards continued the onslaught to begin the final half. Boltja, Cortnee Daly and Faye Brust with two scores each.

The Blue Hose didn't score until there was 1:11 remaining in the game the Cards had the backups on the field.

"It was excellent. Again, we had all of our subs in for the last 21 minutes of the contest. To have them do it, who haven't been on the field in these big games we've been playing, shows that they are paying attention in practice, they are working hard and they have put their time in. They represented us today. It's really a proud moment for me as a coach."  --Kellie Young, Louisville head lacrosse coach.

Louisville heads to Detroit next for a 2 p.m. contest on Wednesday.

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No major surprises in Day Two of the BIG EAST WBB Tournament yesterday. St John's, as mentioned above, advances to face Louisville. USF, the #8 seed, defeated Rutgers 42-39 in a defensive struggle that was painful to watch. DePaul got a big effort from Anna Martin in taking Marquette out of the dance with a 77-69 win, Villanova bombed Sugar Rodgers and Georgetown 89-58.

So, Day 3 features the top eight seeds.

The Cards and Red Storm start it off at noon. USF and Notre Dame follow at 2 p.m. DePaul tries Connecticut at 6 and Villanova and Syracuse finish the game at 8.

Multiple entries in the Cardinal Couple Pick 'Em Contest are 7-0. Standings after seven games:

7-0  Quentin V, Jenny O'Bryan, Perry S, K. Starks, PDX Phil, Mike D, Sonja Sykes, Curtis F, Allen H, Nick B, Carol W, Andrea S, Sally K, Micha L, Ben S, Andy L.

6-1  Kenny S, Paulie, Andy L, Matthew Mitchell for Governor, Jimmy S, Carlos A, Gene S, Timmy the Intern

5-2  Jeff McA, Joe T, Doug A, Matt D, Bill the Goat, Blue Lou, Connie E, The Source, Janet M.

4-3  Sandy W, Mike F, David W, Joe H, Mark M, Mark T, Aaron F.

3-4  Milton K, Green and Gold

2-5  Ellen G.

1-6  Coco

0-7  Staff Chimps


Tie-breaker is to the earliest entry we received.

Good luck, we're halfway through...



Paulie

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Thursday Cardinal Couple

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Thursday Cardinal Couple - The "Spring Sports? Its Snowing!" Edition

Another Lacrosse Win

Coming off their first loss of the season in Denver, Kellie Young's young Lacrosse team came out Wednesday afternoon ready to make a statement.  While not ideal weather for a field sport, the cold, with a bit of snow on the ground, didn't chill the first half attack of the Cardinals.

Louisville Lacrosse team got out to a strong lead in the first half of the game against Vanderbilt with scoring by committee.  Seven different sources of scoring for Louisville led to the 9-4 halftime lead. Nikki Boltja found the back of the net twice, as did Katie Oliverio.  Also scoring for Louisville in the first half were Colleen O'Malley, Erika Eipp, Kaylin Morissette, Jamie Redding, and...uhm...Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt made a statement in the second half, but it wasn't enough to completely close the gap.  Carly Linthicum scored 4 of her 5 goals in the second half, including 3 in under 8 minutes, helping to narrow the 5 point halftime margin to 3, but Cardinals Nikki Boltja and Kaylin Morissette both scored twice to hold on to the win for a final score of 13-10.

Another win, over another quality opponent.  If you didn't get a chance to get out to the Lacrosse Stadium, you're going to have to wait a while.  The Cardinals don't return to play a game on Floyd St. until early April, though hopefully that means the weather will be nicer.  In the meantime, they have road games against Presbyterian (in Georgia), Detroit, and Drexel.  The road trip continues with the beginning of conference play against Loyola Maryland...yes, that is a Big East team in Lacrosse...and Georgetown, before finally returning home for a April 5th game against Notre Dame with a 5pm first draw.

National Honors

Several National honors were bestowed on Cardinal Womens Athletes this week, both athletic and academic.

Softball

Katie Keller (2B) picked up the Louisville Slugger/NFCA (National Fast-pitch Coaches Association) Player of the Week spot.  The Cards have had two players pick up this award previously Tori Collins (4/17/2012) and Chelsea Bemis (4/27/2010).

Katie breaks new ground by being named the USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Week, an honor never before bestowed on a Cardinal.

The softball team will be back in action on Floyd street in beautiful Ulmer Stadium this weekend.  First pitch for UofL will be against a frequent opponent, Michigan, on Friday at 4pm.  Miami (Ohio) and Austin Peay will be the Saturday matchups with 2:30pm and 5pm starts, with a 3pm Sunday start against Illinois State.  The weather looks to be fantastic, particularly as the weekend progresses, for a trip out to Ulmer to cheer on the 13th ranked Softball team.

Congratulations to Katie, and good luck to the whole team this weekend.

Field Hockey

UofL Field Hockey was named to the 2012 Gladiator by SGI/National Field Hockey Coaches Association Nation Academic Team Award list...boy that's a mouthful.  This list is for teams that achieve a team GPA of 3.0 or above.

Contributing to that, were the seven players named to the NFHCA National Academic squad.  This squad is players that have earned a 3.30 or higher GPA through the first semester of the 2012-13 school year.  The seven are: Elisa Garcia, Natasha Leickly, Becca Maddock, Mallory Mason, Paige Monsen, Kelsey Rosenmeier, and Kendall Weedling.

Congratulations to the Field Hockey team for representing the University and community so well, even in the off season.

The Signing News Continues

This is a marathon, not a sprint; but I'm going to throw you a bit of a curve-ball by starting with...

Volleyball

Alex Wilharm has joined the Volleyball coaching staff as an assistant coach to Anne Kordes.  If you've been to a volleyball match in the past couple of years, you've seen Alex; he's the (very) red-headed guy who looks like he's about 17, but in reality is in his mid-20's.  Alex has been serving as the volunteer assistant coach for the past two years, but now joins the coaching staff officially.  He joins Lee Maes and replaces Melissa Stark Bean.  Melissa has been up front about only filling the assistant coaches position temporarily (due to the late departure of Dani Busboom to become an assistant coach at her alma mater Nebraska) until Kordes could find a longer term replacement.

Kordes has, in the past, spoken about wanting to hire an older more established coach to help bring a bit of a different perspective to the staff, but apparently decided that it was worth hiring Alex, and lowering the age of an already youthful staff, in order to retain his immense talent and drive.

I've had the opportunity to speak with Alex several times and he is a genuinely nice guy and very enjoyable to talk to.  He knows the game of volleyball very well...far better than his youth would suggest...and is clearly an immensely hard worker.  This is another great hire for the UofL Athletic Department and UofL Volleyball.

Field Hockey

Justine Sowry has clearly been spending a lot of time in the Camden, NJ area in the past couple of years.  Field Hockey has announced their 5th (of 6) signing of the year in Elina Pereira from Shawnee High School in Medford, NJ.  Previous announcements included 2 from Eastern Regional High School in Vorhees, NJ about 10 miles down the road.

Elina is a goalkeeper and is expected to compete for the starting position this fall.  Welcome, Elina.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Jeff pleads his point on the CARDINAL
COUPLE Radio Hour

I had a lot of fun with Paulie and Jenny on Crescent Hill Radio on Saturday, and am really looking forward to doing it again this week.  No doubt we'll give some time to the Big East Women's Basketball tournament...we'll have the results of the first round in to talk about and analyze.  We'll also have the Michigan Softball game to talk about.  Be sure to tune in to http://www.crescenthillradio.com Saturday at 11am ET.  Paulie's flights of fancy are worth the price of admission alone.

Paulie insists Rutgers is in
New Jersey on the show...

Editor's Note: And it was a great show...Jeff and Jenny providing the perfect Moe and Larry compliment to my Curly/Three Stooges ramblings. Despite a nagging back pain that has me less than my usual chipper self, I'm hoping to creep down to the Belknap Campus early this afternoon to also get some audio for the show from Coach Jeff Walz and a few players about the upcoming BIG EAST Tournament, random thoughts on the season, the aspect of nuclear war with North Korea and dental hygiene in the 21st. century.

I'd also like to remind you of the CARDINAL COUPLE BIG EAST WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT PICK 'EM going on currently. It's free to enter, a $25 Chili's Gift Card to the winner and great fun and fellowship as you try to pick the 14 games that await us beginning Friday. You can leave your picks in the comments section of this column, e-mail them to cardinalcouple@insightbb.com or call our customer service number and one of our talented chimps will write them down and post them on the "big board" for study, pie-throwing and ridicule.

Sonja smiles, knowing she will win the 'Pick Em'

WE promised staff picks to be presented and although the majority of the staff HAS NOT submitted their picks yet (notorious slackers and underachievers that they are...) Sonja has charged out of the defensive secondary, stole a wicket and charged toward the net with hers.

WE have had a very good response so far for the contest, with 32 entries as of 7:00 a.m. Thursday morning. Even the staff chimps at CARDINAL COUPLE have gotten together an entry and Timmy the Intern is trying to get his smuggled out of a Mexican jail to us. Bill the Goat also came up with an entry, but promptly ate it. Join us, won't you?

--Paulie "Where's the Aleve?" Sykes

SONJA'S SELECTIONS?
HERE THEY ARE!

ROUND 1 : Seton Hall, Marquette, Georgetown
ROUND 2 : St. John's, South Florida, DePaul, Villanova
ROUND 3 : Louisville, Notre Dame, Connecticut, Syracuse
ROUND 4 : Notre Dame, Connecticut
ROUND 5:  Notre Dame

 

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Saturday Cardinal Couple -- Softball Cards sweep in Jacksonville, Lacrosse plays OSU today

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SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Softball downs Stony Brook, Bethune-Cookman

-Lacrosse hosts Ohio State

The University of Louisville softball team swept two Friday in the Jacksonville University Tournament...knocking off Stony Brook 8-0 and beating Bethune-Cookman 8-1. A good day for Cardinal pitching...both Rachel Le Coq and Caralisa Connell picking up complete-game wins. The Cardinal bats had 14 hits in the first game and 11 in the second game, continuing their hot-hitting ways. Louisville had 21 hits last week against Minnesota.

CARDS 8 - Stony Brook 0


An early start (9:45 a.m.) in 55 degree weather for the opening game and it took the Cards an inning to get untracked. In the top of the second, Kayla Soles punched a double  to right and rode home on Hannah Kiyohara's home run blast to left field...her first round-tripper of the year. 2-0. C-A-R-D-S!

Louisville tacked on two more runs in the third. Katie Keller singled up the middle, Alicja Wolny advanced her to second after getting hit by a Allison Cukrov pitch and Taner Fowler doubled to right to score Keller. Soles got her second hit of the game, an infield single, to score Wolny...the Cards were up 4-0.

In the fifth, Fowler drew a walk and advanced to third on a Jordy Trimble double to center. Soles hit a sacrifice fly to score Fowler and Maggie Ruckenbrod drove home Trimble on her double to right. Le Coq had allowed just two hits from the circle and UofL led 6-0 after five at-bats.

Keller added another single in the sixth and scored on a Fowler single to increase the lead to 7-0 Cards.

The Cards pushed another across in the top of seventh when
Kiyohara singled and scored on pinch-hitter Chrisanna Roberts single to right. 8-0 Pearsall's squad for the final.

LeCoq allowed a scant three hits, retiring 13 batters in a row, to go to 3-0 on the season.

Cards 8 - Bethune Cookman 1

Katie Keller carried the big bat with a 4 for 5 plate bonanza in game two for Louisville, including her fifth homer of the year.

After a scoreless first, Louisville drew first blood when Trimble doubled to left and scored on a Ruckenbrod sacrifice fly to right. 1-0 Cards after two innings.

Two Cardinal singles helped get the score to 2-0 in the third. Keller and Wolny hit safely and Keller got home on a Soles fielder's choice.

B.C. cut  UofL lead in half with three singles off Caralisa Connell in the top of the fourth. Louisville had scoring opportunities in the 4th but failed to capitalize on a bases-loaded opportunity with one out.

The bottom of the sixth saw UofL bust it wide open. Keller started off the inning with a blast to left and touched them all. After Wolny was hit by a pitch (for the fourth time of the day.....seriously...why you gotta be hatin' on her, pitchers?)  Brittany Sims came in to pinch run...advanced when Fowler and Trimble both got on base with errors and scored on a Soles single. Ruckenbrod also reached first on a Bethune miscue and Fowler ran to the plate to make it 5-1 Cards. Soles scored on a BC fielding error and a Kiyohara ground out got Trimble home, and Roberts produced a single to left...scoring Ruckenbrod to make it a six-run inning and 8-1 UofL lead.

CARDINAL COUPLE'S  2012 most popular Lady Card Student-Athlete  (as voted by our readers) Caralisa "Carl" Connell (3-1) gave up four hits in the win and fanned nine batters.

The 6-1 Cards play two again tomorrow...Ohio State at 11:45 and Jacksonville at 6:30.

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The #13 Ohio State Buckeyes come to the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium to open their season against Kellie Young's squad at 2 p.m. today.

OSU went 11-6 in 2012 and returns eight starters from a squad that defeated UofL 21-7 last year in Columbus.

Tayler Kuzma and Heather Gravinese star on the defense, Tori DeScenza is solid between the pipes for OSU and leading attacker Jackie Cifarelli returns to lead the offense.

For Louisville, a winner 13-3 over Canisius last Sunday, freshman Kay Morissette led the Cardinal offense with four goals. Last year's leading scorer Nikki Boltja had three in the Cardinal triumph. Morissette was later named LAX freshman-of-the-week.

Bundle up if you go...but show up if you can. This is an exciting squad to watch and they attack the goal....Louisville had 32 shots against Canisius while holding the Golden Griffins to just 18. And, it's "Black Out" Day...so dress accordingly. The first 100 through the gate get a lacrosse t-shirt.

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Lacrosse clobbers Canisius 13-3, Softball outslugs Minnesota

SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Early offense, dominating defense corrals Canisius 13-3 

-Softball with 21 hits in 16-8 trouncing of the Gophers

It was a "Golden" day for two Louisville women's sports teams. Lacrosse handled the Golden Griffins by ten and softball blasted the Golden Gophers by eight. Maybe they all went to Golden Corral after the wins...

Al Greener and the pep band were on hand.

A spectacular start for Louiville Lacrosse Sunday afternoon at the Lacrosse Stadium, jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the first 12 1/2 minutes of the first half and shutting down the Golden Griffins to just three goals in a 13-3 opening-day win in front of 300 fans who braved the 40 degree temperature.

After a nicely done rendition of the National Anthem by UofL red-shirt sophomore midfielder Amy Poteet, the teams got busy and the Cards were doing the majority of the work.

Kay Morissette with an impressive start to her career, the freshman scoring four unassisted goals. Louisville goalie Ashley Herbst collecting seven saves and the Cardinal defense limiting Canisius to just 10 shots on goal.

Freshman Erika Eipp scored first for the Cards with only two minutes gone from the clock and another freshman Cortnee Daly followed with the second UofL score with 23:48 left in the first half. Junior Nikki Boltja made it 3-0 Cards just 24 seconds later on a free position shot and the Cards leading scorer from last season took advantage of another penalty shot at 20:42 to put Kellie Young's squad ahead 4-0.

The Cards got a Morissette unassisted goal three minutes later and it wasn't until the 14:47 mark that Canisius hit the scoreboard for the first time. The UofL defense was styming the Golden Griffins attack and the offense was maintainin long stretches of possession.

Faye Brust collected another Cardinal goal near the net and Morissette tallied her second score of the first half as the clock ticked down to 13:02.

The Cards tenacious defense continued to turn the Griffins away and Katie Oliverio registered her first goal of the season with 7:29. When Boltja got her second net-finder of the game...Louisville led 9-1 with 5:33 remaining in the half. Morissette completed the first half hat trick with her third score 15 seconds before half and Louisville took a 10-1 lead into the YUM! Center locker room.

Six Cardinals had scored for Coach Young and Louisville had forced Canisuis into 12 turnovers, while just committing seven themselves. Louisville held a 17-10 shot advantage and Herbst and the defense allowed only five shots on goal.

Canisius switched goalies to start the second half but it didn't appear to be a wise move at first...because
Louisville got off to a speedy start when Oliverio scored on a fast break just 23 seconds into action. Two Canisius goals followed over the next seven minutes, but the Cards defense tightened up and did not allow another Golden Griffith score over the final 22:28.

Morissette notched her fourth score on an unassisted drive at the 15:59 mark to make it 12-3 and Colleen O'Malley closed out the game's scoring on a free position shot three minutes later for the final 13-3 score.

Louisville attempted 32 shots in scoring their 13 goals and held Canisius to 3 for 18 shooting. Morissette led Louisville with four goals on seven attempts, Boltja was three for nine and Oliverio two for three. Eipp, O'Malley, Brust and Daly all had one score each for the Cards.

Six of the 13 Cardinal goals came from the freshman class.

CARDINAL COUPLE (Paulie and Jeff McAdams) caught up with Coach Young after the contest and got these exclusive observations:

On the play of the freshmen:

"They really are a big impact and change for our program, coming in with their talent and what we call LAX IQ. They're fast, they've got great sticks and they're elevating the players around them.

On the defensive effort:

"It was multi-faceted. We stopped them 7-on-7, we stopped them when we were a player down (from penalties). We stopped them in three different sets that we run. They were very consistent in what they did. From top to bottom, I was very happy with our defensive play."

On Nikki Boltja:

"As I just said to her team-mates, we don't want to call out any one player but we go to Nikki a lot because she is literally out here every day. The reason she takes over a game is because she has done the work. She gets her bag of balls, she takes her shots and with as many saves that the Canisius goalies had today (14) you can bet Nikki will be back out here tomorrow taking twice as many shots. She's a fighter. She just wants to put the ball in the back of the net for her team-mates and they follow her lead."

And a battle well-fought today by Boltja and her teammates. Louisville Lacrosse returns to action Saturday with Ohio State visiting the stadium.

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Louisville softball finished their Vegas stay in booming fashion Sunday afternoon, out-slugging Minnesota 16-8.
The Cards had 21 hits and four home runs. Katie Keller went 3-4 with seven RBI's and two round-trippers and Taner Fowler 3-5 with four RBI's and a fence-clearer.

The Cards scored once in the top of the first when Whitney Arion singled home Alicja Wolny. The Cards narrowly missed a second run when Fowler was thrown out at the plate attempting to score.

Minnesota touched Cardinal starting pitcher Rachel LeCoq for four first-inning runs, the big blow a 2 run homer with two outs.

Louisville came back with the bats in the top of the second. A Katelyn Mann single, Maggie Ruckenbrod double and Jasmine Smisthson-Willett walk loaded the bases with no outs. A walk and fly out scored two runs and the Cards were within one. Taner Fowler followed with her first home run of the season... a three run blast to make it 6-4 Cards 

A Minnesota two-run homer with one out sent LeCoq to the dugout and Caralisa Connell took the circle. Carl got the Cards out of the jam and it was 6-6 after three innings.

Louisville took a 7-6 lead on a solo blast by Keller in the fourth and Connell held the Golden Gophers at bay in the bottom half of the inning.

UofL added four more runs in the top of the fifth on six hits...Keller highlighting the inning with a 2 RBI double. Louisville now led 11-6. Carl got the job done again on the mound, holding UM scoreless.

The Cards exploded for five runs in the top of the sixth...Katelyn Mann with a two-run shot and Katie Keller's three run "touch 'em all" had the Cards ahead 16-6. Carl gave up two runs in the bottom of the inning but held on to retire the side and get the win.

Le Coq pitched 1.2 innings and allowed four runs on four hits. Connell's relief effort was 4.1 innings of four run, five hit pitching.

So, the Cards leave Vegas with a 4-1 record. Pitching not quite where it needs to be yet, but the UofL bats have covered it in four out of the five games. Much as Pearsall intimated it might be. Once thing for certain, Louisville appears to be never out of any contest so far, if the hitters are "on". 21 hits is a new Cardinal game record.

Softball returns to action Friday with another three day, five game marathon in the Jacksonville (FL) Tournament. They'll face Stony Brook and Bethune-Cookman on the 15th., Ohio State and Jacksonville on Saturday and Stony Brook again on Sunday.
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Monday Cardinal Couple - The Sandy Pearsall Interview

MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Interview with Softball's Sandy Pearsall

(CARDINAL COUPLE'S exclusive interview with head UofL softball coach Sandy Pearsall. We hope you like it!)

CARDINAL COUPLE: Looking at this veteran team you have returning...do you have one team leader?

Coach Pearsall: We actually have multiple leaders on this team. We do develop a group of players to lead this team and we start them off in their sophomore year...so we've built this leadership group over a period of time. We have Jordy Trimble involved in that, Chrisanna Roberts..our senior leaders. Also some one who has come on the field and has been involved with leadership is senior Alicia Wolny. We'll miss leadership that we had from Kristin Austin, Chelsea Leonard, Tesha Paysen. Those three were instrumental is leadership, but I think these three are definitely headed in that direction.

CARDINAL COUPLE: Any chance at all of Leonard coming back to pitch at all?

Coach Pearsall: No. The knee won't allow it. She'll graduate this year. She'd have eligibility left, if she wanted to go somewhere else and play...she could...but to get this to work out we had to career end her here. Basically, we couldn't have gone on this year without a replacement pitcher. We wish she could have had four years playing for us.

CARDINAL COUPLE: So, that leaves Caralisa Connell as your main pitcher. Some Cardinal fans are wondering...if there is a weakness on this team this year, it is pitching?

Coach Pearsall: It is our unknown, that is for sure. This is the year we'll expect Caralisa to step up, just like Tori Collins stepped up a few years ago when we weren't getting what we expected out of Kristen Wadwell. Seeing what "Carl", our nickname for Caralisa, did at the end of last year for us...she's done the work for us. I think she's going to have a great year for us. She's our strength on the pitching staff.

We did add Rachel Le Coq, who transferred from Colgate. She's embraced her role here and we've seen a lot of good things from her. Can she carry us? No, not now. Maybe a year from now...but she will give us a lot of innings of support...hopefully

CARDINAL COUPLE: Any truth to the rumor that you've reached a deal to bring Katie Petrino back to pitch...and promised to lend Connell to Coach Trimble on the golf team?

Coach Pearsall: (laughing) I don't know! I'll have to ask Carl how her golf game is! (Laughing). We'd take Katie back any day she wanted to come back because she is just the greatest competitor. I'm not sure that Carl's golf game is going to be strong enough to help the golf team but I'll check with Carl on that...(laughing).

CARDINAL COUPLE: Remember you drive for show and putt for dough.  You've been ranked third in the BIG EAST. How do feel about that? I mean, you only lose five games all year and you win the BIG EAST and third?

Coach Pearsall: Actually, it's probably because of the way the voters are looking at our returning pitching. South Florida had a great NCAA Tournament run, they return a powerhouse team and a great pitcher, so I can see where they deserve the top spot. Same for Notre Dame, they get back a lot of power, speed and good pitching also...so were comfortable with third. And, it's just pre-season stuff. The important thing is where you are at the end of the season .
 

DePaul returns a great team. Syracuse loses Jenna Caira, a great pitcher, but has a good pitcher to replace her that is a senior. You also have to watch out for Rutgers and Pitt, they're very capable teams. It's not a simple conference, it not an easy conference...and it's a case of where we still don't play everybody. We don't play South Florida in the regular season. Good and bad maybe? I'd rather play them in the regular season just to know what we might be facing come tournament time. We don't play DePaul in conference play, but we will go up against them in Vegas. Verdun, their big hitter and pitcher is back for them.

CARDINAL COUPLE: Talk a little about the season opener. You're headed to Las Vegas for three games.

Coach Pearsall: It's a great opportunity for us to see what we've got early on....obviously. Some great teams out there and we're looking forward to the tests. Just to get the season started.

CARDINAL COUPLE: Looking at the non-conference schedule, it looks to be the strongest I've ever seen for UofL softball...

Coach Pearsall: It's definitely going to be a big challenge for us. We schedule over a year out, so you're anticipating what you might have. If I'd known I was going to lose Leonard, I might have had some different thoughts in my scheduling but with that said...we do have a veteran team back and we need to be challenged. Carl needs to be challenged and we need to show we can step up to that next level, that next spot in our toughness. You have schools on there...LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan, North Carolina...these are always extremely good programs. Oklahoma being the cream of the crop. They come back very intact and have actually added even more power. It's a great challenge for us. You're not going to get better playing the teams you can easily beat. If you can go out there and beat teams like this, that's a real accomplishment.

CARDINAL COUPLE: Basketball coaches talk about their players either having or lacking a "basketball IQ". Does that apply to softball as well?

COACH PEARSALL: Definitely. Like all coaches, we have kids who have played the game but not learned the game. They're directed, like in youth ball and club or high school, so they're told what to do but they are not learning the game. We work with them on situational things, like what to expect when they are batting and there is a certain count...like 2-1 or 0-2. They have to be able to learn the game to be able to play it at the highest level. Basketball coaches talk about wanting their kids to be "gym rats" and that apply to our players as well. They have to want to go do things on their own like going to the batting cages and working on hitting because the amount of time we are allowed to work with them is very limited.

CARDINAL COUPLE: Who is the hardest worker on your team?

Coach Pearsall: Wow. That's a tough one. There are kids who have really matured from their freshman year, like Hannah Kiyohara. Alicja Wolny. Taner Fowler and Maggie Ruckenbrod. Katie Keller. They go and they do a lot extra on their own. Our pitchers do a lot of work on their own. I have some kids that don't put in as much work on their own like I would like to see, but I'd say 80% of them do the extra work.

CARDINAL COUPLE: There has been talk about some additions and improvements over at Ulmer Stadium. Please go over those.

Coach Pearsall: Expansion is scheduled to take place at the end of this season. Some dugout improvements, like getting some bathrooms in there. In the stadium, there will be about another 100 seats added and a terrace on the top, so fans can walk from one side to the other. An expanded press box, too. And a covering over part of our stands, too that will provide some protection during bad weather or sunny days when people want to get out of the sun. We're also going to be building a new locker room and club house. This is really needed, this is greatly needed. The current one is a tight fit. We actually don't have enough lockers for our players. It'll be where the concession area and restrooms are now, right across from Ulmer.

CARDINAL COUPLE: Any final words for our readers?

Coach Pearsall: Just to thank them for their support and continued support. I hope we can continue to have that great fan support by putting a great product and program out there for them to cheer for and support.
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