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Volleyball wins 2
Louisville volleyball finished up their regular season over the weekend taking down Ohio and Marshall at Cardinal Arena in the Cardinal Thanksgiving Challenge. Friday’s match-up against Marshall ended in a 30-19, 30-21, 30-15 sweep of the Thundering Herd.
Senior Yartseva Stewart had nine kills and six blocks while freshman Tatyana Kolesnikova added eight kills and an ace for head coach Leonid Yelin and the Cards. Louisville out-blocked their opponent 13.5 to one en route to holding a .434 to .020 advantage in the hitting category. Saturday’s contest against No. 18 Ohio ended with the Cards taking down the Bobcats 3-1, 30-26, 30-25, 17-30, 30-17 to finish out the regular season. Stewart and Kolesnikova led the way again for Louisville, both posting double digit kills with Stewart notching a double-double as she snagged 12 kills.
“This win was good on more than one level. It showed us once again how to withstand a serious comeback attack and hopefully beating a ranked team will make the NCAA Championship committee take notice and help our seed,” said Yelin.
This weekend’s sweep leaves the Cards at 25-6, finishing the year on a 17-match winning streak. With Louisville already earning an automatic berth for their win in the Big East tournament, they will play Middle Tennesse State in the NCAA tournament at the Louisville Convention Center Friday evening.
Basketball stumbles in Cincinnati
Despite solid efforts from both David Padgett and Juan Palacios, Rick Pitino and the Cardinal basketball team fell 68-64 to the University of Dayton Friday at U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati. Padgett and Palacios both chipped in with 14 and 13 points but it was not enough for Louisville who got off to a slow start shooting 33 percent from the field in the first half.
Trailing by as many as 12 points in the first half, the Cards rallied to make it a six point ball game at halftime 29-23. With a more consistent shooting effort in the second period, Louisville managed a 55-50 lead with around four minutes to play. But behind UD’s Brian Roberts’ game-high 20 points, the Flyers retook the lead at the 1:45 mark 61-60. Louisville’s Edgar Sosa and Andre McGee also had solid games adding 11 and 13 points respectively while Palacios grabbed 11 rebounds to notch his first double-double of the season.
With the team now looking to rebound as they prepare for their game against Sacramento State on Saturday, a bright spot did come out of the loss through the play of center David Padgett. The junior, who was thought to be struggling to recover from knee troubles for the first half of the season, shot a flawless 4-4 from the field and 6-6 from the free throw line in 24 minutes of play, giving Pitino a much needed presence in the post.
The Cards’ next game against the Hornets will be at 2 p.m. at Freedom Hall.
Two Cards honored among nation’s elite
Several Louisville athletes were honored this past week being selected as potential award winners for two of the nation’s top awards. Senior second baseman and designated hitter Logan Johnson has been named to the 2007 Brooks Wallace Award Watch list. The College Baseball Foundation unveiled the list last Monday for the award given to the country’s top college baseball player.
Johnson was a second team Big East selection last year after batting .319, a team high 18 doubles along with 10 home runs, 49 RBI and a .554 slugging percentage.
Junior place kicker Art Carmody was also chosen as one of three finalists for the Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award, an honor given out to the nation’s top place-kicker. The Shreveport, La. native has connected on over 90 percent of his field goals this year including a career long 51 yarder earlier in the year.
