Fields to UCLA...Field Hockey doesn't make NCAA Tournament...Getting to know...

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WEDNESDAY WITH THE COUPLE

-Nirra Fields chooses UCLA

-Trager Stadium will be the site of NCAA Field Hockey Final Four

-Getting to know : Sara Hammond

-Ten things we like about this year's Lady Cards

We ran an article about talented 2012 recruit Nirra Fields a couple of days ago. She announced yesterday that she has verballed to UCLA...choosing the

Fields will hoop it up at UCLA

Bruins over Louisville and a couple of other schools. When you look at it, the signs were there. She left Ohio to enroll in Mater Dei, a huge school in terms of women's basketball, instead of staying to play in Ohio. Her guardian, Mike Brown, is the coach for the LA Lakers.

Can't win them all. She's a good one and will tear up PAC-12 hoops.

Also, Maravena "Bubbles" Anderson, the 6'11" wunderkind out of Rutgers Prep in New Jersey has verballed to Pittsburgh. Surprising, with Rutgers in her back yard? Not really. Patty Coyle is an associate coach for the Panthers and Patty's twin sister Mary Coyle Klinger is Bubbles head coach at Rutgers Prep. With Pitt scheduled to move to the ACC in 2013 (or earlier) the Lady Cards may never get to face Bubbles (who, supposedly is still growing). It would have been fun to see Cierra, Shawnta, Asia, Sara and Sherrone attack her, though.

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Trager Stadium will be the site for the 2011 NCAA Women's Field Hockey Final Four. The event will take place from Nov. 18-20. Unfortunately, the Louisville field hockey team did not get selected as one of the sixteen participants to take part in the NCAA Tournament. In fact, the BIG EAST only placed two teams in the "Sweet Sixteen" for field hockey...Connecticut and Syracuse.

The Field:

ACC:  Duke, Maryland, North Carolina
BIG EAST:  Syracuse, Connecticut
BIG TEN:  Penn State, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio State
PAC 12:  Stanford
Others: Northeastern, Ohio U, New Hampshire, Princeton, Richmond, Old Dominion.

We liked Pam...

Congratulations to Pam Bustin, who led her Duke squad to the round of 16, in her first year as coach of the ACC Blue Devils. Bustin, long time head coach of the Cardinals, took over a Blue Devils program that had been waning over the past several years in the tough ACC. Looks like they're back on track. WE had some great interviews and talks with Pam here at CARDINAL COUPLE over the years. Best of luck in the Big Dance, P.B.

The die is cast, now, for Justine Sowry to pick up the pace and get some quality talent on the roster to go with returning stars Haley and Lacey Jurich, Elizabeth Vance, Dominique Pasqualichio, Erin Conrad, Amber Thomas and Erin Schneidtmiller. Get 'er done, Justine!

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Sara's team won the 2011
Kentucky Girls High School
Championship

As a part of our "meet the newcomers" feature on UofL women's basketball...today we take a look at freshman forward Sara Hammond. Hammond had a great debut for the Lady Cards in the exhibition game against Lindsey Wilson and showed strength in the paint and ran the floor well. She'll be an integral part of Jeff Walz's front line paint players and she can also step outside the paint and make you pay with her mid-range jumper. 

Louisville won the recruiting battle over UConn to gain Sara's services as a Cardinal. Here are a few of the many accomplishments Sara had in her illustrious high school days:

- Leading career scorer at Rockcastle County (KY) High School with 2121 pts.

- 2011 Kentucky Miss Basketball

- McDonald's All-American

- #12 player in the nation 2010-11 by Hoopgurlz

- Three regional team titles and state champs in 2011

- Parade All-American

- 16.2 points and 12 rebounds her senior year.

Here's a few things you may not know about Ms. Hammond:

- Was a competitive swimmer on the Rockcastle County swim team


How would have Sara gotten along with
Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper of
the movie "Hoosiers"?



- Favorite movie is Hoosiers

- Toughest player she has faced is Elizabeth Williams (Duke)

- She grew up a fan of the Duke Blue Devils

- Favorite hobbies are shopping and hanging out with friends

- Modeled her game after Dirk Nowitzki

We think that Sara has a bright and promising career ahead of her as a Lady Card. Her hard work ethic and hustle have turned heads already and she should prove to be a force for the Lady Cards in the paint and on defense during her time at UofL.

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We were discussing Louisville women's basketball with a friend recently who lives in Seattle, Washington and is a huge Lady Cards fan. She asked us what were the ten best things about this year's team. Although that would be a very hard list to come up with and would probably change from week to week, here are ten things we like about the 2011-12 version of the Lady Cards:

1)  Height. With Warren, Vails, Dyer, Taylor and Hammond...Walz has "bigs" .
2)  Guard depth. Remember the 2009-10 season? Not a problem this year.
3)  The Schimmel's Unfamiliar with them? Where you been living, in a cave?
4)  The fan base. Are UofL WBB fans the rowdiest and loudest? We think so.
5)  The coaches. Jeff Walz has a stellar staff. And, he isn't too bad himself.
6)  Local connection. Reid, Gibbs, Slaughter, Hammond, Harper all from KY.
7)  Mo. She just keeps getting better and better. Tough, confident and cool.
8)  The Court. We are amazed every time we walk into the KFC YUM! Center.
9)  The Knowledge. Nationwide, the Cards are building a large fan base.
10) The Goal. Each and every one of the girls believe they can get to Denver.

Gotta a few you like that we didn't mention? Feel free to add them to the comments sections or e-mail us at cardinalcouple@insightbb.com
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didyouknowthatpervisellisonplayedfouryearsattheuniversityoflouisvilleandwonanationalchampionshipwiththecardshisfreshmanyear?

Fields a possible 2012 recruit...Volleyball sweeps Marquette...Soccer falls to WVU

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MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Jenny reports on Nirra Fields

-Volleyball sweeps Golden Eagles

-Women's soccer drops 2-0 decision to WVU

(Cardinal Couple's Jenny O' Bryan fills us in on Nirra Fields)

As a fan who follows recruiting news, sure...I have heard of her. Hoopgurlz ranked her 11th in the country in the class of 2012 and third at guard. She is a 5-star guard, who hails from Quebec. She has international experience playing for the Canadian U16, U17 and U19 teams.

Most recently, she was noted as the "hottest recruit out of Ohio", when she was playing at South Euclid Regina High School in the Cleveland suburbs. The school recently shut down and Nirra found herself moving across the country with her guardian and LA Lakers coach Mike Brown to California and Mater Dei High School. Mater Dei is in Santa Ana, California...where 2011 top recruit and UConn Husky Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis attended school and 2012 #6 recruit Jordan Adams (committed-USC) is a senior. Mater Dei has won the girl's national championship title the past two years. Some big time ballers come out of Mater Dei.

Definitely heard of Nirra Fields. 

I have not, though, heard her name mentioned in the same sentence as UofL women's basketball until this past week. That's right! Louisville is one of her top five schools. She, at some point this fall, might make an official visit to Louisville. An official visit is paid for by the school and can only be taken in the fall of an athlete's senior year. An athlete can take as many as five official visits. An official visit obviously means there is interest by both the school and the athlete.

Fields a Bria Smith clone?

I am very pleasantly surprised by the recent revelation that Louisville is in the running for this superb athlete. Surprised...not because Coach Walz is attracting the attention of top caliber athletes...but surprised because I thought 2012 recruiting was over for Louisville.

Google Nirra Fields. You'll find a wealth of information.

Nirra is defined by Hoopgurlz as an explosive, first step player. Great on-the-ball defender. Penetrates and attacks the basket. Sound familiar? (A Bria Smith likeness is what I am thinking.) Her quickness allows her to get by any defender and she has the bounce to elevate over long defenders. It is noted her areas to work on are staying on defense when who she's guarding doesn't have the ball and increasing the range of her shot. She is a dribble drive, penetrating type of shooter. Think (again) Bria Smith. Charmaine Tay. Sounds exactly like the kind of kid that fits into a Jeff Walz system.

Nirra is deciding between Louisville, Oklahoma, Kentucky, UCLA and Miami (FLA). With the early signing period starting on Nov. 9th. and ending on Nov. 16th....and Nirra stating she will sign in the early period, looks like it won't be long until we know about her future plans.


(Great report by Jenny! Get this one on campus and in the jersey, Coach Walz! )


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Cardinal Volleyball got 18 kills from Lola Arslanbekova yesterday in the KFC YUM! Center...leading Louisville to a 25-22, 25-19, 25-18 of previously conference unbeaten Marquette. Also credit the hard work of Taylor Brauneis with 33 assists and 13 digs for the Cards.

"I know it doesn't show up on the stats so much but Taylor Brauneis' defense helped us tremendously. We worked so hard this week and it was great to see her execute. She had at least two momentum changers when they were closing in on us." -Anne Kordes, UofL head volleyball coach.

Brauneis steps up big for Cards!

The Cards jumped out early in game one and led 5-1. That became 11-7 and eventually 21-15 before Marquette rallied to make it 22-19. The Cards got big kills from Brooke Mattingly and Lola to finish off the Golden Eagles and win the first by three.

Louisville once again jumped out to the early lead in game two but Marquette rallied to lead 8-7. Louisville re-focused and ran off the next eight points to put it out of reach, though. The Cards led 20-13 before taking the second game by six points.

After the break, Louisville roared out to a 10-4 early advantage and the Golden Eagles never seriously challenged after that...the Cards winning by seven.

With the win, Louisville goes to the top of the BIG EAST standings at 11-1 and 19-7 overall. Marquette is now 10-2. The Cards take to the road for the final two games of the regular season...needing one to clinch the regular season title. They face Villanova Friday and Georgetown Sunday.

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WVU holds Exeter scoreless

Tough match on the pitch for Louisville women's soccer yesterday, losing to the WVU Mountaineers in the final game of the BIG EAST Tournament 2-0. Cards had several chances to net points, especially late in the second half, but couldn't penetrate the strong goal play of WVU's defense. Blake Miller and Frances Silva scored for the Eers...who get the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. It's the third year in a row WVU has taken the title.

Key to the WVU win was shutting down BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year...Louisville's Christine Exeter.  

The field of 64 for the NCAA Tournament will be announced Monday at 4:30 p.m. Most figure Louisville should make the tournament easily...with a strong showing in the BIG EAST regular season and by advancing to the finals of the conference tournament.

Congratulations to Christine Exeter, Katie McDonald, Jennifer Jones and Chelsea Hunter....named to the BIG EAST All-Tournament team. Exeter and Hunter are sophomores...McDonald and Jones seniors. Looks like Karen Ferguson-Dayes has plenty coming back for next year and don't count the Cards out in the NCAA Tournament.
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waxingnebulouswhiledancingmadlybackwardonaseaofair.