Thursday Cardinal Couple

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

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

On deck today

***Lacrosse

***Shoni

***Softball

***Field Hockey

Lacrosse

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

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

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

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

Shoni

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

Softball

Whitney "Arion Nation"
put two outta there Weds.

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

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

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

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

Field Hockey

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

Jeff McAdams

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

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

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

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

Paulie

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Cardinal Couple Thursday

Thursday Cardinal Couple

( Jeff McAdams...with the Thursday edition of CARDINAL COUPLE ...continues his fascination with sports that sticks are used in by catching us up on Field Hockey signings and Lacrosse's dominating win over Detroit. BE sure to catch his sparkling commentary and witty quips on the weekly broadcasts of CARDINAL COUPLE...when he joins Jenny O'Bryan and myself Saturday 11 a.m. for our pre-St. Patrick's Day hour-long celebration of Cardinal athletic events that have taken place in Ireland. It could be a short segement. We've got a backup plan, though...Jeff's busily rehearsing the lyrics to "Danny Boy" and will sing the song on the air with Bill the Goat and THE WALKING DEAD actors Merl and Daryl. You won't want to miss it!)

Field Hockey Signing Day Update

We've reached the finish line of the Field Hockey signing updates with the sixth and final announcement of signed recruits.  This weeks recruit comes to us from Putnam Valley, NY.  I don't think it would be fair to call Putnam Valley a suburb of New York City, but at only about an hour's car drive north of midtown Manhattan, I suspect it still falls under the sphere of influence of the Big Apple quite a bit.

Erin McCrudden will be joining us in the fall with a string of accolades and honors, including four years worth of experience in the USA Field Hockey program on the Futures and Futures Elite teams.

 Erin was a three sport athlete at Putnam Valley High School, playing Field Hockey in the fall, Basketball over the winter, and Lacrosse in the spring.  Clearly we're getting a great all-around athlete in Erin.  Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to find out whether that "u" in her last name is a long "u" sound, or a short one.

To wrap up, the 6 member signing class for Field Hockey consists of;
 

from Eastern Regional High School in Voorheers, NJ - Gianna Perrone, and Stephanie Byrne

from Assumption High School here in Louisville - Hailey Netherton

from Penn Manor High School in Pequea, PA - Shannon Sloss

from Shawnee High School in Medford, NJ - Elina Pereira

from Putnam Valley High School in Putnam Valley, NY - Erin McCrudden

Lacrosse Beats Up On Another Team, and Mother Nature

28 degrees and snow didn't slow down the UofL Lacrosse attack against Detroit yesterday.  Only allowing 9 shots by Detroit, Louisville won by a resounding 17 point margin, 19-2.

The Cards shut out Detroit in the first half while scoring nine.  Here's a name you're probably getting used to hearing...Nikki Boltja scored three, with two contributions each from Erika Eipp and Courtnee Daley.  The nine in the first half were rounded out by Jamie Redding and Colleen O'Malley.

Three of these goals were scored within a two and a half minute span.

Katie Oliverio and Kaylin Morrisette got into the action in the second half with two shots finding the back of the net, while Nikki Boltja picked up another pair.  Colleen O'Malley struck again in the second half.

A little extra recognition for Carissa Corbett who got on the board for the first two scores of her sophomore campaign, and Kelli Gerding, who claims her first mark in collegiate play.

Kellie Young's team continues their epic road trip with a visit to Philadelphia to play Drexel with the start set for Sunday at 1pm.

YOUR ATTENTION. PLEASE!

Jeff Walz and the University of Louisville Women's basketball team cordially invite you to join them Monday night at the KFC YUM! Center beginning at 6 p.m. for a selection show watch for the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament drawings. Fun for all ages and we're trying to get permission to allow the S.E.P. Lady Chimps basketball team to scrimmage the Lady Cards after the show ends. Funny, but Jurich and Walz won't return our calls on this matter. Must be busy...

Have you purchased your 1st and 2nd Round NCAA Tickets yet? The event is being held at the KFC YUM! Center, you know...and Louisville will play on Sunday March 24th and probably Tuesday March 26th as well if they win their opening game.

The Cards are being projected as a 4th or 5th seed, depending which prognsticator you check out. Come enjoy the thrill and excitement of women's college basketball with your Lady Cards!

Tickets are available at www.ncaa.com , the KFC YUM! Center ticket office and more information is available at www.gocards.com . Be sure to catch our exclusive interview with Coach Walz Saturday morning on our radio show on Crescent Hill Radio!

www.crescenthillradio.com

Having a large, Cardinal-friendly crowd to see our seniors in their final apperances in the KFC YUM! Center is important in many ways and the type of turnout that Louisville can get for this huge event could have a HUGE impact of what other NCAA Women's basketball events Louisville is awarded down the road. The tickets cost a little extra, sure...but are your Lady Cards worth it? WE definitely think so and urge you to "tell a buddy and take a friend" to see UofL quest for the national championship.

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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Cardinal Couple Friday Edition

FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

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

 

Spring has sprung...well, sort of.

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

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

Field Hockey signing announcement, round 4

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

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

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

Lacrosse reaches new heights

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

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

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

Softball

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

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

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

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

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

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





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

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Friday Cardinal Couple

Softball, Soccer Stadium, Signing, Sticks and Soundchecks

Softball Schedule and Honors

Anyone have a synonym for "honors" that begins with "s"?
 

Softball is off to a good start to their season, with ten games under their belts already, and only two losses.  Today is the home opener for softball, against Kent State, with a first pitch scheduled for 2:30pm.  Kent State plays an earlier game, starting at noon, against Buffalo.  While we were worried about sleet, ice, and other wintery weather last night, game time is expected to be mostly sunny at 53 degrees, which for the end of February, isn't too shabby of a forecast to go watch a Softball game.  I may play hooky for the afternoon and head out to Ulmer Stadium to catch at least a few innings. 

Softball continues play in the Cardinal Classic at 12:30pm on Saturday in a game with Buffalo.  Buffalo starts off the play Saturday at 10am against Eastern Illinois, and there will be a late game at 3pm between Kent State and Eastern Illinois.  The Cardinal Classic finishes off on Sunday with a 10am first pitch between Eastern Illinois and Buffalo.  UofL will play the last two games at 12:30pm versus Kent State, and 3pm against Eastern Illinois.

Sandy Pearsall's squad is sitting at number 18 in both softball polls and has already shown that they're going to be putting a lot of shots over the fences this season.  If you sit out on the berm, keep alert when the Cards are at bat.

In addition to the team ranking, Hannah Kiyohara picked up a Big East Player of the Week award, and Rachel Lecoq was named to the league honor roll.

I saw several games last year and was mightily impressed by the intelligence of the play of this team.  I saw very few mental errors in their play...occasional bobbles and mishandled balls, which just comes from being human...but almost never mental mistakes.  This is the type of play that I really love to see as a spectator.  Many people get excited about athletic prowess, like who can run the fastest and jump the highest...and that can certainly be exciting...but I find there's a sublime pleasure in watching a well executed play, regardless of the sport, and even if it doesn't require amazing jumping ability or speed.

( How about salutations, Jeff?  --Paulie)

Soccer Stadium Announced

Hard to miss the coverage yesterday of the new soccer stadium that Tom Jurich is building for Louisville Soccer.  Both the men's and women's squads will play in the new home for Louisville Soccer which will be basically across the street from the Yum! Center on Floyd street on campus.

The soccer teams have been playing in the infield of the track and field stadium...not bad digs, to be sure...but will have their own dedicated facility with all the features that you would expect of a world class facility, as well as all the features that you would expect of a UofL athletics facility...but I repeat myself.

The plan to build a soccer stadium has been anything but secret around the UofL Athletic Department, but the official announcement of the plan was being held until the initial funding was in place.  A more than generous gift from Dr. Mark and Cindy Lynn has gotten the effort to that point.  The Dr. Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium is expected to be ready for the 2014 season to start off UofL's tenure in the ACC.

Signing News Continue

Justine Sowry continues to ration the National Letter of Intent signing news for Field Hockey.  This week, announcing the signing of Stephanie Byrne.  Also out of Eastern Regional High School in New Jersey, she'll be joining her teammate from that school, Gianna Peronne, who's signing was announced on signing day two weeks ago.

There are three more Field Hockey signings to be announced, so I expect I'll have another three weeks to run the singing vs signing joke well and truly into the ground.  Will there be more Eastern Regional teammates joining Gianna and Stephanie?  Stay tuned and we'll be sure to let you know.

Lacrosse Sticks in Action Saturday

Lacrosse is in action against Saturday against Old Dominion at 1pm in the Lacrosse Stadium. Lacrosse is off to a perfect start in early season play at 2-0.  The Lacrosse team is coming off of a huge upset win over Ohio State last weekend.  It may be a bit chilly, but Lacrosse appears to be a team on the rise, so let's support them in what looks like it might be a break-out season.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

TESTING, TESTING...

Look what we've done now, Ma.

CARDINAL COUPLE is taking to the radio. Beginning Saturday, March 2nd., CARDINAL COUPLE will have an hour-long show on Crescent Hill Radio from 11 a.m. to noon.

http://www.crescenthillradio.com

Just when you thought it was safe to return to the Internet and this happens...

Crescent Hill Radio (for now) is an internet-only station. That, in itself, though is pretty cool. Tibetian Monks, huddled around a laptop...listening intently to Paulie discuss the Villanova game. Day-traders in Hong Kong grimacing as Jenny describes the horrid refereeing in the USF contest. Ranchers in Montana on their smartphones reacting to the BIG EAST Standings report. The possibilities are endless!

This site is about the joy and excitement of UofL women's sports. That's what the radio show will be about also.

We will look at Louisville women's sports for an hour each week. You just might never be the same.



Join us, won't you?

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Thursday Coupnal Cardpile -- Jeff looks ahead

THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( After spending the last several days tracking down errant Shoni threes, wide-right net shots by Nikki Boltja and practice balls hit by UofL women's golf team members, staff columnist Jeff McAdams has parked the jeep, taken off the hard-hat and yellow vest and returned to the CARDINAL COUPLE Corporate Headquarters deep below the Parrish House to compose the Thursday edition of CARDINAL COUPLE. Losing a bet to Sandy on how many free-throws Bill The Goat could consecutively hit...Billy drilled 14 straight...Jeff has taken over the role of laundry attendant and catches us up on the Cardinal women's sports schedule and recruiting news. He's also training the staff chimps on proper procedures to follow in the event of a zombie Apocalypse...but all they want to do is run with their hands over their heads and scream. Now on the tee...the southpaw from the scenic Highlands...Jeff McAdams.)    

I'm Looking at You, Weekend

As is frequently the case, not a lot going on mid-week, but there are some other news items to pick up on from over the course of the week that haven't gotten mentioned.

First, though, a little bit of a look ahead to this weekend's activities.

Softball in Florida

After last weekend in Las Vegas and starting off with a 4-1 record, UofL Softball heads to sunny Florida this weekend.  They're really suffering for their sport, you know.  In all seriousness, I can only imagine the toll the travel schedule of an NCAA sport would take on a person over the course of a season or four.

In Jacksonville, the Louisville squad has an early start with a 9:30am first pitch on Friday versus Stony Brook, followed by a noonish...listed at 11:45am, but after the first game of events like this, scheduling always seems to be approximate...start with Bethune Cookman.  

Saturday is apparently UofL vs Ohio State day as Softball starts the second day of the Jacksonville Tournament with OSU at 11:45 or so.  OSU will make another appearance here in a few paragraphs, so hang onto the thought of beating the Buckeyes for a minute.  The evening game for our Cards is 6:30'ish with the home team Jacksonville.  

No staying out late and celebrating though, as Sunday brings another early start, this one at 9am, against Stony Brook again.

Katie Keller was selected BIG EAST Player of the Week for her hot hitting streak in Vegas. Congrats to Kate 'em Up...she ate them up!

Lacrosse Here at Home

Paulie and I enjoyed watching the home opener of UofL Lacrosse beating Canisius...though we do both remain a bit mystified at some of the rules, we're learning a bit at a time.

The second game is Saturday at 2pm, again here at home with Ohio State showing up in the picture again.  With a high temperature barely above freezing forecast for Saturday, you'll want to bundle up for this one.  I've been fighting off a bit of a head cold for the past day, so I doubt I'll make it out for this one, but I will be present at other match-ups later in the season, for sure.

Do I Even Need to Mention Basketball?

1:30pm tip Sunday for the next installment of Walz Ball at the KFC Yum! Center, with DePaul coming in for the return engagement.  The Blue Demons got the W up in the windy city.  McGrath Arena only seats around 3,000...I made the road-trip up there a couple of years ago...let's show them what another 10,000 people cheering can do in a top-notch arena.

This game is the annual Pink Game honoring breast cancer survivors.  Shelby Harper always loves this one...she gets to wear even more pink than usual, and sure enough, she's on the season tickets for this one...wearing pink, of course.

More Commitments

After last week's singing...I mean signing...day, we only had one confirmed commitment to talk about.  We've got a few more that have been announced since then.

Field Hockey

Hailey got game....oh, yeah!

Justine Sowry is taking the slow and steady approach to announcing her commitments, this week announcing the signing of a local, Hailey Netherton, from Assumption High School here in Louisville.

Assumption is, of course, quite well known for Volleyball prowess...you knew I had to get a Volleyball mention in here somewhere...but they also have a stand-out Field Hockey team.  This year's team picked up the runner-up spot in state this year, and Hailey got the team MVP award.  She also has two years worth of All-State selections, as well as a couple of placements on Kentucky Select first teams the past couple of years, and a second team nod the year before.


Basketball

Sydney Brackemyer gave a verbal commitment to Louisville earlier in the week, as most of you reading this probably know. She and her mom will be in attendance at the Sunday game against DePaul. They plan on attending South East Christian for services before the contest and are looking forward to the visit. Sydney is ahead of schedule on her knee rehab and excited about several things...more strength and conditioning, getting her driver's license, getting her (teeth) braces off and cheering on UofL Sunday. If you see her and her mom at the game, give them a big CARDINAL COUPLE howdy!


 

Soccer

Karen Ferguson-Dayes isn't teasing us.  She announced her full recruiting class of six players this week.



Taylor Smith should provide lots
of...hey, wait a second...that's
Taylor Swift. Timmy! To Sonja's
office immediately. Darn chimps.

One local, Taylor Smith out of Christian Academy and the Javanon club.  Out of Aurora, IL, basically Chicago area, is Rachele Armand.  Paige Brown hails from Jackson, MO down around where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers join up.  Caroline Kimble comes to us from Ashton, MD, which about splits the difference between Baltimore and Washington D.C.  Christy Monroy is from what is basically a suburb of NYC in Scotch Plains, NJ.  Lastly, welcome Kari Weinland out of New Albany...no, not that New Albany, this one is in Ohio...a suburb of Columbus.

Welcome, to the newest Cardinals.  You all are gonna love it here !


Outstanding work today by Jeff. As mentioned earlier in here, the Sunday game is the wear your pink for Breast Cancer Survivors. The Cards are facing a dangerous DePaul team that recently defeated Rutgers without star Anna Martin. Whether Martin's knee will allow her to go against UofL or not...we're not sure yet. One thing we're very sure of, though...is that the team needs you to show up in big-time numbers for this one on Sunday. Jeff Walz would like to see the top deck curtains pulled back and fans in the seats in the 300 level. He has personally promised to go up there before, after and during the game to sit with each one of you, bring popcorn, Reese's Cups and a wide selection of beverages. ((OK, that last part isn't true...he's going to be busy coaching...) but please turnout in force for this one, Cardinal fans. There are only three home games left before the BIG EAST Tournament. Show up Sunday! Maybe we can talk Candyce Bingham into bringing the beverages, candy and popcorn up to the 300 level seats... 

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Thursday Cardinal Couple - Letters, We've Got Letters

THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( CARDINAL COUPLE columnist Jeff McAdams puts the pen to paper and sings signs today's column before faxing it to Co-Co...who promptly delivers it to Bill The Goat for a tasty mid-morning snack. Here at CARDINAL COUPLE, we do a lot of singing, not so much signing anymore since Timmy The Intern fed most of our writing utensils to Billy. )

Apparently yesterday was National Singing Day...though why so many people were so gung ho about their favorite choirs, I'm not so sure.  Signing?  Not singing?  Oh, well that's different.  (With apologies to Emily Litella).

Yes, yesterday was the beginning of the spring signing period, where athletes sign and submit their National Letters of Intent to the school of their choice.  This process was enacted to give prospective student athletes a way to turn off the deluge of communication from college coaches in their recruiting efforts.  Although, it appears to have also given the student athletes the forum to make grand pronouncements and garner massive amount of sports media attention...at least for a few sports.  By signing a National Letter of Intent, the student athlete is put off-limits for further recruiting efforts.  The other significance to the NLI is to allow the schools to publicly speak about the recruits.

In addition to Football, however, yesterday started the signing period for a number of other sports, notably for us here at The Cardinal Couple:  Field Hockey, Soccer, Track and Field, and Cross Country.

Field Hockey

Gianna Perrone is the only prospective student athlete, outside of Football, that has been confirmed as submitting an NLI to Louisville.

Gianna is out of Eastern Regional High School in Vorhees, New Jersey in the Camden, NJ/Philadelphia, PA metro area.  Eastern has quite the reputation as a Field Hockey powerhouse, most recently by being ranked as the number one team in the country for the past two seasons.  Eastern also holds the national record for consecutive wins at 153 and has won 14 consecutive state championships in New Jersey.

Louisville Field Hockey coach Justine Sowry has apparently signed another 5 players, who will be announced in the coming weeks.

-- This has been the first Signing Day in several years that your affable Co-Owner Paulie hasn't been involved in a Signing Day Party at the Parrish House with Louisville Sports Report for Cardinal Football. That's probably because the Parrish House has been vacated and the new tenant hasn't been determined yet. It still didn't prevent a few of us from going down there, though...and signing (and singing a bit as well) each other's shirts, newspapers and court-ordered summons documents out in the middle of Boxley Avenue. We haven't determined how well Gianna Perrone can sing yet...maybe she'll stop in for Timmy The Intern's weekly karaoke at the Fischer's caboose. Yup, slow Wednesday night. --

Merry Christmas Cardinal Couple readers!

XMAS EDITION : CARDINAL COUPLE



MERRY CHRISTMAS READERS!

On the bus for another away game!

It's been an incredible year here at Cardinal Couple and we want to thank all of you for your readership. e-mails, comments and support. It's hard to believe that CARDINAL COUPLE is almost four years old. A site we didn't think would last very long has turned into a site that now gets over 2700 hits a day. A site that now has weekly writers and carried by several news conglomerates and has posted close to 1200 articles. Yes, we are amazed, humbled and very thankful. Never saw it coming.

2012 has been an amazing year for UofL women's sports. Beginning in January, we watched at the UofL women's basketball team held their own against tough BIG EAST competition, made it into the NCAA Tournament and nearly advanced to the Sweet Sixteen...losing a tough battle to Maryland on their home court in College Park, MD.

Arthur Albiero's swimming and diving team took another BIG EAST title and spring brought us the promise of softball, track and field and lacrosse. Who can forget the 55-win season by Sandy Pearsall's club and hosting the NCAA Regionals? Track and field notched another BIG EAST title.

Voleyball's future looks bright!

After the students returned to fall classes, the field hockey and soccer teams had BIG EAST success and volleyball came out and blistered the BIG EAST with the regular season and tournament titles. The NCAA Championships took place at the KFC YUM! Center and Louisville narrowly missed being a Final Four participant.

Cardinal women's athletes battled hard all year in 13 sports and we salute each and every participant for their service to UofL.

Basketball is 1/3 of the way through as we write this and the Cards are rolling on all eight cylinders with a #14 ranking and sparkling 11-2 record.

Columnists Jenny O'Bryan and Jeff McAdams

We're thankful for all the great opportunities we've had to provide Cardinal coverage. We're also grateful for having the best writing staff around over the last three years in Jenny, Sandy, Jeff, Quentin, Mark, David and Donny.

May you have the best of the holiday season and thank you for making this site a joy and pleasure to present and produce each day! We look forward to 2013 and hope you make that journey with us...

Paul & Sonja
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Friday Cardinal Couple --Field Hockey faces challenges in ACC

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FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Cards Field Hockey goes to premier conference.

- Hoopin it up!

With Louisville's entry into the ACC down the road, we've been giving reports over the past few days on what the Cardinal Women's athletic team will face there.

Louisville's field hockey team faces...without a doubt...the biggest challenges and upgrade of any of the Cardinal sports squads. Men or women. Consider these facts:

-- Since 2000, the ACC has had a representative in the championship game every year.

-- Since 2000, the ACC has won 10 national championships in field hockey. Maryland (who is leaving) has five, Wake Forest three and UNC two.

-- Since 2000, two ACC teams have played against each other for the national championship eight times in the final game.

Impressive (and quite scary) huh? In 2012, Princeton broke the ACC's 10 year hold on the national title by defeating UNC.

There are only six ACC schools that play field hockey. UNC, Wake Forest, Duke, Virginia, Boston College and Maryland. The conference adds Syracuse ( a perrenial powerhouse in BIG EAST Field Hockey) next year and then Louisville...to increase it to a seven team league. Pittsburgh does not field a team (surprising, when you consider what rabid regular hockey fans the Pittsburghian natives are). Neither does Notre Dame.

Louisville's Trager Stadium is familiar ground to ACC field hockey teams. The Final Four has been held here in 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2011. Each year an ACC school won and the last three title games in Louisville were an all-ACC final.

Louisville beat Wake Forest last year in field hockey. In Winston-Salem. The Demon Deacons finished fifth out of sixth in the league (1-4) and 9-11 overall.

Justine Sowry has her work cut out for her to increase the Cardinals talent and players to meet the level of competition. And, for added fuel on a already bright flame...former UofL field hockey coach Pam Bustin is the skipper at Duke.

Going to the elite conference should definitely help Sowry in recruiting. Hopefully, the Cards will hit the ground running in 2014 and have a great opening year. With Syracuse gone in 2013, the main competition left for Louisville grabbing a championship titile in the BIG EAST is UConn and Providence. ODU (Old Dominion) joins BIG EAST Field Hockey in 2013.  

Welcome to the big time, Cardinal Field Hockey!

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Whoa! Don't look now but the women's basketball regular season is close to being 1/3rds. over. At 8-1, the Cards are flying high....but just who is doing what?

Put your books and notes under your desk...it's time for a CARDINAL WBB Pop Quiz!

All answers come from the Louisville Cardinal WBB Official Stat Sheets, found at GoCards.com (except for the ones that Timmy the Intern tried to submit and were eventually shredded. He claims he got all ten questions correct...but had every answer circled on each question...)

1) Who leads the Cards in scoring average so far?

a) Monique Reid
b) Shoni Schimmel
c) Sara Hammond
d) Morgan Fairchild

2) Who has the most rebounds for UofL so far?

a) Patrice Gates
b) Shawnta Dyer
c) Monique Reid
d) Sara Hammond

3) Which of the following opponents has not played UofL yet?

a) Austin Peay
b) UT-Martin
c) Washington State
d) Oregon State

4) Which Lady Card has the highest shooting % so far?

a) Sherrone Vails
b) Monique Reid
c) Shelby Harper
d) Lola Arslanbekova

5) What is Louisville's record in the KFC YUM! Center so far.

a) 3-0
b) 3-1
c) 4-1
d) 0-9

6) Who led Louisville in scoring against Texas A&M?

a) Jude Schimmel
b) Sara Hammond
c) Sara Silverman
d) Monique Reid

7)  What is Louisville's home attendance average?

a) 759
b) 11178
c) 10178
d) 8998

8) Which Cardinal has the highest 3-point shooting %

a) Shoni Schimmel
b) Nita Slaughter
c) Starr Breedlove
d) Shelby Harper

9) Monique Reid has led the team in game scoring...

a) Once
b) Twice
c)  All nine games
d) Zero

10) Which combo has been the primary starting lineup?

a) Taylor, Deinies, Harper, Shoni and Rucker
b) Dyer, Hammond, Vails, Reid and Shoni
c) Smith, Deines, Shoni, Hammond and Dyer
d) Slaughter, Smith, Shoni, Sherrone and Shelby


Let's see how you did!

1) b. "Shake 'Em is at 13.2 ppg.a game
2) d. "The Hammer" has 70... good for 7.8 rebs.a game
3) c. Cards play Washington State on Dec. 18th.
4) a. Sherrone Vails is 14-21 which is 66.7%
5) b. Cards are 3-1 in The Bucket.
6) b. Sara Hammond had 20 pts. against A&M
7) c. 10178. We need to bump that up, fans!
8) a. Shoni at .355
9) a. Mo had a team high 14 against Austin Peay.
10) c. Smith, Denies, Shoni, Dyer and Hammond


Legend

All 10 -- Go grab your seat next to Coach Sam and Cam! You're up on things!
8-9 -- Very good! You know your Louisville WBB! WE salute you!
6-7 -- Not bad. Keep reading Cardinal Couple and you'll get that score up next quiz.
4-5 -- Could be better. Cardinal Couple's coverage of UofL Women's basketball will help you do better!
2-3 -- Welcome to Cardinal Couple. Keep coming back and watch that score zoom next time.
0-1 -- Obviously a UK or UT fan. Thanks for playing!

Just a reminder, the Lady Cards are back in action Saturday night against Valpariso at 7:30 p.m. in the KFC YUM! Center. Be there!

WE'LL have a preview of the contest in the Saturday edition of CARDINAL COUPLE and a full recap of the action after the game.
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Saturday Cardinal Couple

- Volleyball beats Villanova in a sweep.

- Field Hockey loses a heartbraker.

- Breeders Cup Friday a wagering profit.

Lola and middle blockers shine in Cardinal Arena

The venue may have been smaller but the romp was huge as Louisville Volleyball downs Villanova 25-11, 28-26, 25-13 in on-campus Cardinal Arena Friday night.

Lola Arslanbekova had 11 kills and 11 digs in the win. Anne Kordes was excited about the middle blocking:

"The middle blockers did a phenomenal job and played really tough. That can't happen without the excellent passing of Caitlin Welch, who has just been so solid for us. We really need to iron out our serving game and when we do we will be in a great position. We need to pay attention to our serving, regardless of the score."

The first game provided a bit of over-average serving, as freshman Katie George served for nine straight points...helping Louisville get a 12-1 lead in the first game. Gwen Rucker produced four kills in the 25-11 win.

The Cards led 16-10 in the second game and Kordes emptied the bench to give the second-stringers a bit of court-time experience. Villanova rallied against them and forced Louisville to set point at 27-26 before the Cards capitalized on a 'Nova error to take the game by one.

Service proved to be strong in the final game...with Hannah Kvitle serving seven straight points to give Louisville a 9-2 lead. The Wildcats did rally to get within three at 13-10 but Louisville went on a 12-3 run to take game and match.

Cards get Georgetown next in the KFC YUM! Center on Sunday at 2 p.m. It's on WHAS locally if you can't get there...but we strongly suggest you attend!

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Heartbreaker for Louisville Field Hockey

Cards lose in the semifinals of the BIG EAST Tournament 2-1 to UConn in overtime at Trager last night. A scoreless first half and still knotted at 0-0 late into the second half until UConn gets a score from Vicky Arthur with less tha 10 minutes remaining.

The Cards respond, Amber Thomas corralling a rebound off a penalty corner to tie it with four minutes left.

A goal by UConn's Louisa Boddy gets the Cards a loss in O.T. though.

The Huskies get Syracuse in Trager for the title Sunday. A fair-to-middling season for UofL Field Hockey...they finished third out of six teams in the Big East, they try hard every time out and we hold out hope that they'll get over the hump and become a BIG EAST title contender in the near future.

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Won't go into much detail about Breeder's Cup Friday and our picks...except for the fact that we didn't pick too many winners. Could have turned out to be a horrible day...but we had great success wagering on the live Churchill card and it covered the tricky Santa Anita upsets. 

I hit one exacta in the six Breeders Cup races...a small one in the Juvenile Fillies race. Sonja hit three exactas, scoring in the Juvenile Fillies, Filly and Mare Turf and Ladies Classic. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I spend considerable time handicapping and she briefly glances at a race...but she usually does better than I do. She wagered $36 total on the six races and got back $76.40. My same $36 wagered returned $13.30. Who's the handicapping machine?

Go figure.

Given that, and the conflict with UofL football tomorrow, we've decided to skip our handicapping of the Saturday Breeders Cup races and concentrate on cheering the Charlie Strong Cards onto a 9-0 record against Temple tomorrow.

The real heartbreaker here is that we successfully came up with a winning middle Pick 4 ticket at Churchill and couldn't get the bet placed in time. The payoff was almost $6,000 on a $2 ticket. ARRRRGHHH! Only myself to blame, I should have gone to it wager it earlier.  

So...we're not going to publish or predict any handicapping and selections for Saturday...it's the right thing to do, a lot less labor intensive and way much more fun. After reviewing our woeful performance with the Friday Breeders Cup races at Santa Anita...a wise decision, without a doubt... 

You're on your own today. If you followed our picks for Friday, you're probably OK with that.

I'll give you three horses I like. Do what you will with them. Joha, in the Juvenile Turf. Shackleford, in the Dirt Mile and Flat Out, in the Classic.

Have fun and wager responsibly. Someone has to...
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