Sandy Is Back To Her Laundry

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TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE


( Staff Columnist Sandy Walker brings us her weekly Laundry list of UofL women's sports today. Voted 'most likely to spin and rinse' by her high school classmates...Sandy is a fixture at Cardinal Womens' athletic events and likes to sit in the visiting team's section...where she hands out detergent samples, discount coupons and maps to the UofL coaches' houses. Folded up and in the hamper, we bring you Sandy.)


Thanks to a back up repair call for Sandy's washing machine she is again showing off various team issues but it seems that she is getting off to a slow start.

ALL THINGS SOFTBALL



Hannah Kiyohara

Louisville junior Hannah Kiyohara was named as BIG EAST Softball Player of the Week.  She is hitting .462 with a .588 on-base percentage and went 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI to give Louisville an 8-0 win against Stony Brook. 



Also recognized was junior Rachel LeCoq who was named to the Big East honor roll. 

She had two wins and did not allow an earned run in 22.0 innings. In 3 complete games she pitched two shutouts, struck out five and only giving up one walk.

Rachel LeCoq

This years complete team roster can be found at http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-softbl/mtt/lou-w-softbl-mtt.html

PROMOTIONS

The team has released their 2013 promotional schedule which includes fan friendly giveaways, special events and season long promotions.   The first fans specials are set for March 12 v Western KY and March 20 against IU where fans can enjoy dollar hot dogs and beer.  Bring your blankets and lawn chairs for the outfield or take advantage of comfortable chair seats in the stadium.

With most home games at Ulmer Stadium have no admission the school is still offering a “2013 season ticket” which includes additional promotions, team schedule and the right to enter ticket stubs for special season long give-aways.  The list of current season promotions can be found at http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/021813aaa.html.

SCHEDULE

The next game is at home for the 8-2 Cards against Kent State in the Cardinal Classic this Friday at 2:30.  The complete season schedule is shown at http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-softbl/sched/lou-w-softbl-sched.html.

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BASKETBALL

Congratulations to the basketball women as they completed their return defeat of DePaul.  In case you want more on this match or the game recap, stats and notes can be found at http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-baskbl/recaps/021713aad.html.

Be sure and mark your calendar for tomorrow night’s 7:00 KFC YUM! CENTER game against the University of South Florida who is displaying a deceptive season record of 17-7 and BIG EAST 6-5.  This will be the Lady Cards next-to-last regular season home game and has not been announced as televised by any national stations. Come downtown and put your bucket in the seats so your support for the team can be shown.  We were fortunate to defeat them earlier in the season while in Florida and it is a definite that they would love to return the favor.  The 21-5 Louisville Women have struggled all season with major injuries which have required new people to step up to each task as needed.  Although it is reported that Mo is healthy and can play this Wednesday  the injury report as a whole is no different and they need the fans to act as their 6^th player.
 

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LACROSSE
 

It is not the time to let the ladies of Louisville Lacrosse down now.   They have risen to their own expectations and plan to continue to cause others to take notice.  The 2-0 Cardinals next meet Old Dominion at the UL Lacrosse Stadium this Saturday at 1:00.   Dress warm and bring the hot chocolate.  It appears that this season will be worth the effort as their upset win over number 13 Ohio State shows.

DOUBLE AWARDS FOR BOLTJA!

Nikki Boltja

Nikki Boltja was named the BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week and also WomensLax.com Player of the Week.  She totaled 4 goals, an assist, a ground ball and a caused turnover in the 12-11 upset victory over the Buckeys.  Her complete bio can be found at http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-lacros/mtt/nikki_boltja_733695.html.

LACROSSE RULE OF THE WEEK
 

“When a whistle blows, all players must stop in place. When a ball is ruled out of play, the player closest to the ball gets possession when play is resumed. Loss of possession may occur if a player deliberately runs or throws the ball out of play. “  Complete rules can be found at http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-lacros/spec-rel/081506aab.html

Kellie Young’s complete team roster can be found at http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-lacros/mtt/lou-w-lacros-mtt.html.  This is an extremely young team with four starting freshmen so come out and show them what Cardinal Support is all about.

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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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It is Tuesday, Sooooooooo It must be Laundry Day

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TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

(Gather around the laptop and join us for another edition of the Sandy Walker 40-yard dash through Cardinal women's athletics. A guaranteed good time for all...except for UK fans.)  

Sandy’s Laundry is again backing up with so many ongoing and upcoming events.  The Calendar of events for everyone can be downloaded from

 http://www.gocards.com/scoreboard/

2013 BASKETBALL RECRUITS

The Cardnation Women’s basketball team is celebrating the notice by Teacup, NJ point guard Starr Breedlove of NJCAA champion Trinity Valley Community College of her intent to sign tomorrow to be a Louisville Cardinal as a part of the 2013 class.  

Her school choice is very fitting and she won’t even need to change school clothing as her 2011-2012 college team is known as the Cardinals.  Starr attributed her decision in part to “the fan support during U of L’s season-opening wins over Texas A&M and Portland was a key factor in her decision”.  She is spending this year at home while conducting individual workouts so the play-making guard will have 3 years of eligibility remaining beginning next year. 

Check back tomorrow in Jenny’s column for more Starr Breedlove details.   She joins high school senior forward Emmonnie Henderson and junior college guard Janelle Cannon.

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VOLLEYBALL

Our BIG EAST Champion Volleycards have now moved into the number 5 slot in the RPI rankings as they begin Big East Tournament Play on Friday.   Their tournament play begins in the West Lafayette, IN. region at 1:30 EDT this Friday against St. John’s.  The match will be played at the Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee and a win would guarantee them a place in the NCAA 64 team tournament rather than an at large position.   It is reported that the match will be shown on ESPNU.  Check out http://www.ncaa.com/championships/volleyball-women/d1#!tickets for tournament locations and details.  With 2 of the 3 Louisville losses to # 2 Penn State and # 3 Texas, we are hopeful for an upcoming tournament championship.  The Championship match will be broadcast live on ESPNU on Nov. 18 at 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT. U of L’s BIG EAST Tournament webpage and player facts can be found at http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/111212aaa.html .

Championship Schedule:

Quarterfinals, Friday, Nov. 16

Match 1: No. 4 Connecticut vs. No. 5 Cincinnati, 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. CT

Match 2: No. 1 Louisville vs. No. 8 St. John's, 1:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. CT

Match 3: No. 3 Notre Dame vs. No. 6 USF, 4:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. CT

Match 4: No. 2 Marquette vs. No. 7 Pittsburgh, 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT

Semifinals, Saturday, Nov. 17

Match 5: Match 1 Winner vs. Match 2 Winner, 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT

Match 6: Match 3 Winner vs. Match 4 Winner, 4:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. CT

Championship, Sunday, Nov. 18

Match 7: Match 5 Winner vs. Match 6 Winner, 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT (LIVE - ESPNU)

Paul projects that Louisville will be awarded not only the December 13 and 15 2012 NCAA Championship Semi-final and Finals but also opening rounds of the NCAA tournament with our home team included in the regional games.   Tickets are now on sale for the NCAA tournament championship and we will give you notice for tournament ticket details once the location of the 1^st rounds of the tournament are announced.  The 64 team NCAA tournament team selections are to be announced on the ESPNU selection show which is being held Sunday November 25 at 4:00.  Television Broadcast schedules can be found on http://www.avca.org/divisions/television-schedule/ .  The webpage address for an aggregate to find all conference matches schedules is available at http://www.avca.org/divisions/webcast-matches/ .

3 time Olympic Volleyball Gold Medal winner Kerri Walsh Jennings was in Louisville hosting an event at Papa John’s last night as a part of the promotion and celebration of Louisville as the NCAA Volleyball Championship location.

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BASKETBALL

AUSTIN PEAY GAME THIS THURSDAY AVAILABLE ON THE WEB

!!! With the wins against

Texas A & M and Portland,

the

AP Poll now ranks our Louisville Women as # 8.  !!!

If you can’t make the drive to Clarksville, TN for this Thursday’s basketball game against Austin Peay you can still watch the game as the OVC will be streaming the game at no charge.   “Andrew”...in response to my question to the help page of the OVC site has indicated that once you open a free account with the OVC site that you can watch this game for no charge.  A more direct method may be available but until someone sends in the information this is what I have for now. 

First you must open a free account with the OVC site by going to the OVC digital network at   http://www.ovcdigitalnetwork.com/showcase/#back

This site has an area on the top right which allows you to click “connect your accounts”.

 It will connect you to a sign in or register page.     Register for your free account.

 Then go back to  http://www.ovcdigitalnetwork.com/showcase/#back and scroll for the UL game.  

Hopefully this works and we can watch the game streamed for free.

The game starts at 7:00 p.m.C.S.T., which is 8:00 here in the 'Ville.  

(EDITOR NOTE...I tried it last night and had no trouble signing up for it. Watched the second half of the WBB game between Murray St. and Indiana. That annoying seven second delay between picture and sound is present, but the screen picture clarity
is great. WE'll give it a try again Thursday...and try to listen to Matt Andrews' call
on the radio at the same time. No one calls 'em like Matty...)

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FIELD HOCKEY

Natasha Leickly was named Student Athlete of the week.

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SWIMMING AND DIVING

The Swimming and Diving teams will be participating in the Purdue Invite at West Lafayette, IN. this Friday through Sunday beginning at 8:00 A.M. EDT on Friday and Saturday with the start time on Sunday to be announced.

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BASKETBALL RANKINGS AND RECORDS

Weekly rankings of the Associated Press and Coaches Polls can be found at http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/rankings

Sandy
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Tuesday Cardinal Couple -- Featuring Sandy's weekly escape from Cardinal Couple Headquarters

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

  Sandy Walker with tidbits on The 

Olympics, soccer, Ms. Solo. boxing and rowing. Have some ! 

Photo by Mott the Hoople

OLYMPICS

The Olympics are now past history but with plenty of new history also now in the books.

ü  For the first time, every country that brought a team included at least one woman on that team – 5000 women representing over 200 countries – including Saudia Arabia participated in the games.

The United States women (earlier coined as “Team Title IX”) while good in the past, have experienced a break-through year in 2012.

 Courtesy of AP. Photo
by Elaine Thompson

 Women’s basketball now has a record 5 consecutive Gold Medals – observers are calling Candace Parker (Tenn.) shown here passing to a teammate

as the player who lead the team to Gold.

                                    

ü  Gymnastics now has the team gold medal

ü  Women’s doubles beach volleyball duo of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings now possess a record 3 consecutive Gold medals.

Picture by Richard Mackson USA Today Sports

Add Women’s Soccer, swimming track, boxing, judo… 29 of the US total 49 gold medals and with the exception of China and Great Britain, the women have won more gold than the totals for any of the remaining countries.

As a break-through year for women in general and the attention they have received -- younger girls around the world are seeing them as examples of what is possible but there will always be challenges ahead.  Next, in addition to adding an even greater % of female participants in Rio – we also need to conquer the International Olympic Committee itself whose membership should look like the population it represents.  The current 22 women spread among the 109 Olympic Committee members does not reflect the population of participants but this change should be a piece of cake compared to what has already occurred.

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ROWING HIRES NEW ASSISTANT COACH

Sarah Zelenka pretty much left her Olympic rowing position in the women’s pair event which was held just last week and jumped into a new position as assistant coach of the Cardinals.  She rowed during college at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich where she was named MVP in 2008 and 2009.  She has been a member of the US Rowing senior national team during the last two years and was a member of the U-23 team in 2009.

Picture by US Rowing.org
Courtesy of Garett Wall, UofL

After the announcement of her hiring, Sarah was quoted as saying “The reputation of the Cardinal athletic department is second to none and it is a great privilege to be joining their family. Derek has shared his passion for the sport of rowing with me and I am looking forward to assisting on his coaching staff. I hope to be a positive influence on these student-athletes and help push them to new levels.”

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SOLO ON SOLO

Hope Solo’s new book, “Solo: A Memoir of Hope” is set for release today.  Love her or hate her, it seems that no one says Hope Who? and that everyone has an opinion. 

Bing.com\images

 The social media sites appear to attract some pretty severe extremes of thought.  That’s OK , at least they are talking and it always includes her involvement in women’s sports so we all win.

Like Ginger Rogers, she does everything the men do except she does it going backwards and in heels!

Adam Taylor ABC

( Editor note: Solo is a soccer goalkeeper who has been on the
USA women's soccer team since 2000.  Whether or not she plays soccer in heels or not is probably subject to debate, but her news/media coverage has spiked again since the Olympics have surfaced. USA's exciting win over Japan to win the Gold in London shows how the Americans have maintained a strong, exciting and successful program in a sport that has had European domination in past years. The American women won the vast majority of Team USA's medals in the 2012 Olympics. WE approve of this. What we'd like to see is increased coverage of all women's sports on a regular basis. We're doing our part.)

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WOMEN’S OLYMPIC BOXING

Tickets to the women’s boxing matches were reported to be almost as difficult as those for women’s beach volleyball.   The unveiling of the women’s tournament received enthusiastic reviews from fans, boxers and Olympic officials who loved the sold-out crowds and the emergence of new heroines.  US teenager and Gold Medal winner, Claressa Shields

Patrick Semansky AP Photo

drew attention by answering an interview question by answering,  “I just like to hit people”.

(Sandy Walker is a featured columnist for CARDINAL COUPLE and you can watch her sort out the laundry each Tuesday here at the site, in addition to other small loads she'll be handling throughout the upcoming UofL sports seasons. She's a favorite of Timmy the Intern...that is scary.)
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