By Brandon Davis

As sophomore short-stop Colby Wherry stood in the stands of the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, cheering on the women’s basketball team’s first ever Final Four appearance, she couldn’t help but feel motivated by the Lady Cards tremendous run.
“Feeling that emotion in the stands of how big it is to compete for a national championship, I now understand what that’s like and I wasn’t even playing,” Wherry said. “It makes me want to have that feeling. As a player, seeing that they’ve set the standard so high, we do have to live up to that because that’s where we want to be.”
Approaching the final stretch of what could be the team’s best regular season ever, the team is now making its case for being the school’s next team to make noise nationally.
Led by head coach Sandy Pearsall, the team has amassed a record of 39-5 and are on top of the Big East at 14-2. With 10 games remaining on the regular season schedule, the Cards are within grasp of compiling the most regular season wins in school history. That record is currently held by the 2006 team, who finished 45-11.
“I think this team set the tone for itself early in that first weekend out,” Pearsall said. “They really came out, playing well from the get go and that set the base for our season.”
Winners of 10 straight games, the No. 17 Cards have earned three victories over teams ranked among the top 25 this season, including a 3-2 win over No. 5 Michigan at home on March 7. 
Melissa Roth has been on fire from the batter’s box as of late. The junior catcher from Long Beach, Calif., was named Big East Player of the Week for the second consecutive week after the performance she put on at Pittsburgh.
In her team’s two wins over the Panthers, Roth was perfect in her five at bats. She also smacked three homeruns, including her first ever grand slam, to go along with the six RBI’s and five runs she collected.
“I think my teammates expect a certain level of play from me and I don’t think what I’ve done lately is something I wasn’t capable of doing,” Roth said. “I expect these things, and now I’ve just got to maintain what I’m doing now.”
“[Roth] is like a machine; she’s not human,” Wherry said of her teammate’s play. “She puts in the extra work and to be as great as she is that’s what you have to do. I expect Mel to get on [base] every time she’s up to bat and she does, almost.”
Roth isn’t their only player tearing it up on the diamond. Pitcher Kristen Wadwell has been outstanding from the mound.
The 5-foot-11 junior from Sydney, Australia has set a new school record of 33 wins while compiling a 1.16 ERA and 207 strikeouts. Last week, Wadwell threw back-to-back shutouts while leading U of L to a sweep at home against Connecticut. 
With the stability Wadwell has provided from the mound, combined with an offensive attack that consists of as many as eight batters hitting over .300 on the season, these Cards are not at all reticent about the goals they’ve set to attain.
“We came into this season with one goal on our minds and that’s getting to Oklahoma,” Brittany York, junior outfielder, said. “I think this is the first time in the years I’ve been here that our expectations are this high, but that’s our goal and we’re trying to reach it.”
And that type of mentality is one that is being adopted by all of U of L’s athletic teams recently. 
Whether it’s the women’s basketball team reaching the Final Four for the first time, or the baseball team making their first trip to the College World Series in 2007, the University of Louisville’s athletic administration’s commitment to national excellence has been felt by every athletic team across the board.
“It’s an exciting time to be here at this university,” Pearsall said. “I think all of the success we are having here at the University of Louisville helps all teams; it feeds that want and desire to be there because they see that it’s achievable. Now they just have to go out and prove it.”