Soccer, Volleyball post Friday Wins

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SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Soccer nips Cincy in double overtime

- Volleyball sweeps in Syracuse

Whitfield's goal leads Cards to 2-1 win

It took 106 minutes, but Louisville avoided a tie with the Cincinnati Bearcats and clinched the #3 seed in the upcoming BIG EAST Tournament with a hard-fought win last night in Cardinal Park. 

"Rivalry games always bring out the best in teams and tonight was no different. You have to credit Cincy for the way they competed tonight. Our team continued to fight and persevere throughout the game and it paid off in the end."  - Louisville head soccer coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes.

The Bearcats opened the scoring in the 16th minute of the first half, Liz Miller getting her first goal of the season, off a header which floated past Louisville goalie Chloe Kiefer. That lead held as the teams went to intermission and deep into the second half. 

In the 70th minute of play, Charlyn Corral sent a free kick following a UC penalty over the Cincinnati defenders and safely into the net to record her eighth score of the season. 

Neither team could produce in the first O.T., but with just four minutes remaining in the final overtime, Casey Whitfield followed up on a missed shot attempt by Corral and scored her fourth goal of the year...tapping it in to end the contest. 

Chloe Kiefer had seven saves for Louisville (10-4-3, 5-3-3) and the Cards attempted a record 37 shots in the contest.

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Lola and Gwen spark Volleyball win

We've typed the name Lola Arslanbekova, it seems a thousand times here at CARDINAL COUPLE and she gets the kudos again today for her 18 kill effort against the Orange yesterday in Syracuse. Gwen Rucker also stepped up big for UofL with six kills and five blocks in the 25-23, 25-12, 25-18 three-set win for the Cards.

Ex-Cards coach now head man
at Syracuse

Louisville (19-3, 8-1) jumped out to an early 12-6 advantage in game one but a strong rally by the Leonid Yelin coached Syracuse team tied the game at 21-21. The Cards rolled off the next three points, though...getting a service ace from Katie George in the process...to get to set point and held on to get the two-point win.

The Cards roared out to another early lead in the second game and were never seriously challenged by Syracuse...up 17-8 and finishing the game on a 8-4 run.

Syracuse tried to rally after the break and did managed to take the Cards to a 15-15 tie. After a Anne Kordes timeout, the Cards regrouped and grabbed 10 of the final 13 points to produce the victory.

The Cards continue the road trip Sunday with a crucial match against the Marquette Golden Eagles. MU is 17-3 on the year and sits atop the BIG EAST standings with a perfect 7-0 record...heading into this weekend's action.

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Sean and Sam with Charlie

Finally, congratulations to Sean Thompson and his lovely bride Samantha Schaefer for tying the knot last night at St. Joseph Catholic Church!

I've watched the (then) little guy grow up and become a great young man who is now married to a sweet and caring girl in Samantha. The reception was at the Mellwood Arts Center and a total blast...which is why the ol' CARDINAL COUPLE is a little late this morning...celebrate good times, c'mon! Woo-hoo!
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The final word on WBB Big East 2012 Tourney...Yelin to Buffs...Scholarships...

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WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE PRESENTS:

Julie Hermann attends
 a lot of women's sports
events at UofL each year.

-We hear from Julie Hermann

-Leonid Yelin to Colorado

-Would Pitino's 'walk-on' move been duplicated by Walz?

Julie Hermann is the Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director at the University of Louisville. She's also a pretty friendly and interesting person to talk to if you run into to her at a UofL women's athletic event. Chances are you will, she attends 100's of them every year. Her recognition by Cardinal fans is nearly
100%...we asked 12 random Cardinal fans a few months ago..."Have you heard of Julie Hermann" and 11 of them were correctly able to identify her. The
lone 'unable to identify' guessed she was a UofL women's basketball recruit. Yep, we're all ate up with this UofL women's basketball team...for sure.

We posed a question to Julie last night about the confusion over the 2012 BIG EAST Women's Basketball Tournament...via e-mail...and had our answer within two hours. Pretty impressive stuff, Ms.Hermann...It takes Paul longer than that to spell check and re-write a three paragraph article.

Here is the final and definitive response to the question. We'll let nature take its course from here and see what the BIG EAST decides on. Julie writes:

"Paul...the associate commissioner misrepresented the process that started the confusion. She has since corrected it on the original blog. Believe me, if Tom (Jurich) could host it or was given that opportunity, we would ABSOLUTELY be "ready" thanks to our fans and the KFC YUM!"

So, there you go. We're still going to prognosticate that it'll be held in Hartford...but we're hoping to be pleasantly surprised by different news on the subject. We'll update your here at CARDINAL COUPLE on further developments and we thank Julie for her timely, informative and clear response.

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Looks like retirement didn't set too well with former UofL Volleyball head coach Leonid Yelin. Word comes out of Boulder, Colorado  that Yelin has been named an assistant coach for the Colorado Buffaloes volleyball program. Liz Kritza, head volleyball coach at Colorado, comments:

Gwen Rucker is a stand-out
volleyball player at UofL and
will be coached by Anne Kordes
this year.

"Adding a coach of Leonid's caliber and experience is a significant step for this program. The success he has had at every stop and the wealth of experience he has in building programs into national contenders will be integral to the future success here at CU."

Yelin, who was the head coach at Louisville for 15 years, recorded a 366-112 record at Louisville. The Cards made 14 NCAA Tournament appearances during his stay here. He had this to say about his new job:

"I am very happy to be a part of the University of Colorado athletics family. Coming to a great school with a strong academic reputation as well as a very respectable athletic tradition is something I am very excited about. With the move to the Pac-12, the best conference in the nation, I feel a new era is dawning for all the athletic programs here, especially for women's volleyball."

We wish Yelin all the success in his new job with the Buffs and thank him for his years of hard work and contributions to the Cardinal volleyball program. Although we're not quite sure that the Pac-10 is "the best conference" in Volleyball..especially considering the successes that Penn State has had in the Big 10...we're certain that Yelin will attempt to help the Buffs improve upon the 13-42 record they've complied in the past two years.

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Rick Pitino announced yesterday that three Cardinal men's basketball players would give up their scholarships and take the role of "walk-on" players to help the men's basketball team meet the requirements of only 13 scholarship players on a squad. Kyle Kuric, Chris Smith and Elijah Justice...all key contributors for the Cards last year...assume the new classifications.

It led us to start thinking about the situation with the women's basketball program at UofL. Jeff Walz has assembled a large and quality group of Lady Cards for the 2011-12 season. 15 players and 15 schollys available. We have to think, though...what if there hadn't been transfers out of the program this spring?



Would Shelby Harper been a candidate for walk-on status or a red shirt?



WE see it as Walz having several options. He could have followed Pitino's suit and ask a couple of the ladies to be walk-ons. He could have a couple of them take a red-shirt year.  We don't envision any more transfers out of the program this year....three of those have occurred already (Rachel Story, Polly Harrington and Nikki Burton).

An interesting situation ahead for the Lady Cards and a far cry from just a couple of seasons ago when Walz's team was vastly depleted in the ranks of healthy players and had to accept former player Brandie Radde's offer to come back onto the roster and delay Gwen Rucker's full-time status as a volleyball player for a year.

15 for 40. We like the ratio.  

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YELIN RETIRES...KORDES NEW VOLLEYBALL COACH

LEONID YELIN RETIRES AS UofL VOLLEYBALL
COACH...ANNE KORDES HIRED.


We had heard the news a couple of weeks back that changes could be in store for University of Louisville Volleyball. Today, it was announced that long time coach Leonid Yelin has retired as the head coach of the CARDS and St. Louis head coach Anne Kordes has accepted the job as Louisville's new skipper.
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If you're familiar with local volleyball in the Louisville area...the name Kordes is familiar to you. Anne's father, Ron, has coached on the high school and club level for several decades and is the coach at Assumption High School in Louisville. (Photo from slu.com)
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Anne played for her dad at the club and high school level before accepting a scholarship to Cincinnati. She was the Great Midwest Conference Newcomer of the Year in 1994 and was named second team All-Conference USA as a sophomore. She transferred to the University of Louisville after two years as a Bearcat.
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At Louisville, she led the Cards to the C-USA Tournament championship and NCAA Sweet Sixteen her senior year. She was also a three time C-USA All-Conference selection. After graduation, Anne began her coaching career in 1999 as an assistant at Indiana. A better opportunity quickly came along, though...and she accepted the top assistant job at Illinois. In six years at Illinois...they qualified for the NCAA Tournament three times and Sweet Sixteen twice.
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Anne accepted the head coaching job at St. Louis in 2004. In seven years there, her Billikens made three NCAA Tournament appearances, won four A-10 championships and she was selected A-10 Coach of the Year three times. Her teams has a combined league record of 59-1 over the last five years. Her lifetime record as a head coach is 146-75 (.661).
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The Louisville high school volleyball circuit is considered one of the most talented and competitive in the nation. Anne's experience with this area, the Kordes name recognition and her success and skill at developing young players will continue to create growth in the Cardinal Volleyball program for many years. Her work with youth national, select and high performance teams over the last ten years makes her an easily recognizable figure among the elite national high school programs also.
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Louisville has become a recognized power in Big East volleyball and has won the Big East Conference tournament three years in a row. They've come in second to Cincinnati in regular season play twice in a row. The 2010 Cards were a young team that improved greatly as the season progressed. Kordes will have stars Lola Arsanbeckova, Anastasia Artemeva, Emily Juhl, Taylor Brauneis, Gwen Rucker and Caitlin Welch among those in the returning class for 2011. Cardinal Arena is a great home advantage venue for Cardinal Volleyball and the 2012 NCAA Final Four Volleyball Championships will be held at the KFC YUM Center.
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Once again, Tom Jurich and Julie Hermann come through with a grand slam in a coaching hire. Or, in this case, should we say a game winning service ace...